Sometimes things just work out.

We have been wanting for a while to do some late afternoon/night shooting down at Volunteer Landing in Knoxville. For those who might not be familiar with the Knoxville area, Volunteer Landing is a waterfront park on the Tennessee River, less than a half a mile from Neyland Stadium. There’s a great restaurant, Calhoun’s on the River, plus a dock for the Star of Knoxville Riverboat and the starting point for the Three Rivers Rambler Railroad. We’ve shot at Volunteer Landing several times in the past, but never at night, and the lights in the park and on the Gay Street Bridge are just gorgeous against the night sky.

As chance would have it, Wayne, who we have told you before helps us on most of our shoots, had his Senior Prom last Friday night. He had his tux until Monday and his girlfriend, Katie, had her dress, and they agreed to model for our night shoot.

The weather was near perfect, as there was very little in the way of clouds and a slight cool breeze was blowing in off the water. Shooting at night can be tricky, because as difficult as it can be to balance exposure with shutter speed and flash during the daytime, everything gets compounded at night. Plus, when the light is low, any little change can throw color balance off. All of these were shot with my Nikon D700 and a SB900 flash off-camera in a 2 ft. x 2 ft. softbox. It’s really the only way to shoot in light this low and get acceptable portraits. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO all varied according to the particular shot.

If there is interest, this may be something that we offer in the future. Sometimes prom pictures are great and sometimes they aren’t. A shoot like this could be a way to preserve the memories of that special night.

Enjoy.