Day - 70 Eye of Pico

ISO 400 f/9 @300mm 1 SB-800 @ 50mm 1/32nd power very high camera right 6 feet from Pico.



Running behind and had a very busy day today. This photo is cropped within inches of its life, and I wish the cat had let me get this photo when I had my friend’s macro lens. The macro mode on this old Sigma 70-300 gives me a maximum reproduction of 1:2 at 300 mm at its minimum focus distance of .95 meters. I guess trying to do this with a 90mm macro lens at 12 inches freaked Pico out. Oh well! I still had fun taking this shot and I am rediscovering my 70-300 lens, which I always found soft in the center. I now think this lens is pretty sharp, and my real problem was hand holding this lens in available light at 300mm. The great thing about using this lens with off camera flash and killing the ambient with my shutter speed, is that my effective exposure is on the order of 1/20,000th of a second at this flash power, and camera shake becomes irrelevant.

Until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day - 69 Mechanical Fish

Lighting Info:
ISO 100 f/22 1/200s @ 300mm 1 SB-26 very high left 18 inches from subject @ 50mm 1/6th power triggered with Pocket Wizard Plus IIs.


I wanted to revisit this mechanical fish located in downtown Huntsville, AL; this piece of artwork is one of several pieces currently being leased by the city. I have actually photographed this fish 3 times now, but I never thought to use anything less than the entire sculpture as my subject. I also find it odd that both of my other photos were taken on film, and this is the first time I have taken a digital photo of this piece.

Here is a shot taken with a Yashica TLR from an estate sale that cost me less than the price of a roll of 120 film


And another on my first roll of 35mm since I started shooting digital


Both of these photos are plagued with a distracting background, even the photo shot on 35mm film that I shot with a 50mm lens at f/2. The medium format version is fun to explore at its original resolution, which scanned to 23 Megapixels. I honestly don't know why I never thought to get any closer to this subject until today. Perhaps it is the fact I have had ultra wide-angle photography on the brain. This shot was complicated by wind immediately after arriving at the location. My flash stand almost blew over as I was extending and aiming the flash down at the subject; I used my camera bag and spare lens to weigh down on of the legs. I had initially planned to include a set up shot to better show the sculpture and flash position; but I only managed to get 3 shots in before the wind blew over my stand knocking my flash out of the cold shoe, spilling my batteries and contents of my camera bag onto the ground. This photo was the first one I took, and after gathering everything off the ground it was time to call it a day.

until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day - 68 Coffee & Cream

View Large

Lighting Info:
ISO 400 f/5.6 1/200s @ 105mm
1 SB-26 @ 70mm 1/32nd power behind high camera left aimed at background.
1 SB-800 @ 50mm 1/64th power shoot through umbrella camera left with white foam board camera right for fill.

After the fun I had yesterday taking a picture of the candle, I wanted to step it up a bit after seeing my ugly countertop in the photo. For this shot, I used a baby blanket for the background and rummaged through Leela's sewing cabinet for a nice piece of fabric to cover the table. Having no background or reflector stands I resorted to using my dinning room chairs instead. The reflector camera right is clamped to a chair, and the blanket used as background is suspended between two chairs using clothes pins. This adorable cat creamer was found at my local coffee roster The Kaffeeklatsch.

Setup shot from the front


Setup shot from behind


I didn't have my tablet with me to handwrite the notes into the photos but, I added all of the flash setting notes into the photos. Post Processing included only saturation adjustment and I desaturated the pink reflection on the cat. With the weather getting warmer I should really go shoot outside, but I really wanted to take a second shot at a still life photo and I am happy with the results I got this time.

Until tomorrow,
Enjoy

Day - 67 The Switch House

Lighting Info:

ISO 400 1/200s f/22 1 SB-800 1/128th Power @ 24mm 8 inches high left triggered by on-camera flash at 1/128th PowerThis is my 1st upload in 3 Days! I have really slacked off the past few day and I really need to get back on track. This photo is of a candle from The Switch House, a local Gift Shop here in Huntsville. The Switch House offers a great variety of hand made gifts by talented artists located in a beautifully renovated lumber yard near the Huntsville Depot. If you live in the North Alabama area please visit this beautiful shop; if not, check out The Switch House on Etsy.

Until tomorrow,
Enjoy

Day - 64 Eye on Spring

Lighting Info:
1 SB-26 1 meter camera Right @35mm 1/8th power bare triggered with Pocket Wizard Plus IIs

View On Black

ISO 400 f/14 1/200s @ 300mm.

Can't decide if I over did it with Photoshop on this photo. The first shot is simple profile shot of Ginger looking into the flash, and the second is a zoom drag shot of my jessamine. I had the ideal to use the jessamine as a background a few mornings ago. Which inspired the shot from The Thursday Night Ride. I actually got the zoom drag idea from a Bryan Petterson tutorial. I really like how Bryan Petterson can take the simplest ideas and turn them into great photographs. I would love some feedback on the use of the background for this shot. Is it to much?

Until tomorrow,
Enjoy

Day − 62 Thursday Night Ride

Lighting Info:
1 SB-26 @35mm 1/4 power In front of subject 7feet and 1 SB-26 @35mm 1/8th power 7 feet behind Subject



This by far, was the most challenging off-camera flash setup I have done.

View the set here

Please give me any comments, criticisms, suggestions or ideas on how to improve the shots in this set. I look forward to trying this again when the days get longer and I can mix ambient light into these shots.

For the past 6 months I have been trying to figure out how to take off camera flash shots from a moving bicycle; I wanted to take photos of our weekly thursday night ride. Each week a group of friends ride single speed bikes on a fun fast pace ride around town that finishes up the night with mexican food and margaritas.

Basic setup shot here.


I only have 2 radio triggers so the front flash had the trigger and the back flash set to slave, which did not fire every time. The other major short coming of this shoot was the lack of time I had to prep my assistants Justin and Tommy about keeping a consistent distance from the subject. I tried to explain how the flash exposure would be a function of distance but, I was rushed and most likely didn't explain it clearly. Hopefully these shots will get my friends excited enough about off-camera flash that I can take the time to teach them a few things and we can better coordinate our shots.

I attempted to get some flash drags in my shoots by setting the shutter to bulb but, the light streaks were washed out by the flash. I decided to take a few long exposure at the stop lights and them blend them into the background to fill the void space. Autofocus was also nearly impossible especially in the sequence of shoots on this road where there were no street lights. I set my focus while riding through well light areas and switched my camera to manual focus and depended on zone focusing to maintain sharp images.

until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day - 61 March is Here

Lighting Info:
ISO 200 35mm f/22 1/125s. SB-800 handheld camera left 1/8th power triggered with Nikon CLS.


View On Black

I find the light a little hard on this shot and wish I had used an umbrella to diffuse the flash. I did not plan this shot however, I was out in the yard with Ginger looking for something to photograph when I saw the sun rising over the houses in the neighborhood above mine. I normally don’t like lens flare and avoid shooting with sun in the frame backlighting the subject but I really liked the look of this shot when I looked through the viewfinder.

Until tomorrow,
Enjoy