A few weeks ago I was hired to shoot a marketing piece for a new solar power generation installation in the location that receives the most sunlight in the USA out in the California desert.  By the time the interviewees arrived the afternoon desert wind had picked up significantly.  Like, close your eyes to avoid stinging sand significantly.  The sound man told me the only hope of recording the interviews outside was within an arm’s length of the solar trough. Way in the shadow of the sun. What to do…?

There was a four stop lighting difference between the full sunlight and the place where the interviewees needed to stand.  We tried using some diffusion and grip equipment but in 30 mph gusts there was no way to make that happen. We needed some help from HMI’s but we were at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest power source.  Or were we?

We powered the HMI lighting from the inverter in the PAV whose batteries had been charged through solar panels on the roof.  So, solar panels to batteries to sine wave inverter to HMI lighting to relight the interviewees standing in the shadow created by the solar trough used to make power.  How’s that!