Day - 90 Soft Light

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ISO 250 300mm f/22 1/200s. 1 SB-800 above at 1/8th power triggered with on camera flash. Some what boring shot, this was mostly an exercise to find a way to create a boom using my 2 flash stands and my camera bag for a counter weight.


Don't forget to vote for my photos in the North Alabama Photographers Guild (NAPG) March Photo Contest

#10

and
#13


setup

Day - 89 Born Free…..

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ISO 100 f/4.0 1/200s with a 2 Stop ND filter.
SB-800 camera left through umbrella @ 35mm 1/8th power triggered with Nikon CLS.

This is Pico. For years we tried to keep this cat confined to the boundaries of our home, with the occasional venture to the screened porch. After several ripped screens and a destroyed cat hutch; we finally gave up the fight and let this cat be free. When my daughter was born he went on hiatis for two weeks. He now acts like a moody teenager with a driver's license, staying out all night and coming home to raid the fridge and sleep all day. I can't blame him, I was young once too!

until tommorow,
enjoy

Day - 88 Good Morning

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ISO 200 f/5.6 1/100s with 2 stop ND filter. 1 SB-800 @ 24 mm 1/8th power camera right at 90 degrees 4 feet from bush with a tough green gel triggered with on-camera pop-up set to 1/128th.

I managed to get a few shots in this morning right as the sun was rising over the neighborhood above mine. For this shot, I used a tough green gel to balance my flash for cool fluorescent lighting and adjusted the white balance in my camera accordingly. I am not sure what this bush is in my yard, but it puts out orange berries in the fall that the dogs love to eat.

until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day 86 - Kryptonite

ISO 100 f/2 1/200s 1 SB-800 @ 24mm 1/32 power.

This simple shot took more work setting up than I expected. It was diffictult to frame since I could not look through the viewfinder to frame this shot, and focusing was also a concern when shooting at a large aperture. I managed to take this shot by strapping my Kryptonite bike lock to a spare flash stand, which I used to frame my shot and focus. I then moved the stand out of the shot, and clicked my shutter with my left had which was on tripod. Many shots resulted the lock being partially framed, or I had move my lock forward or backward; causing and out of focus shot. Sorry, no set up shot tonight.

Until tomorrow,
enjoy

Day 85 - TTL vs. Manual Flash

ISO 400 f/20 1/200s 1 SB-800 Handheld camera left @ 24mm 1/64th power and TTL triggered with NIkon CLS.

I wanted to test TTL flash to drive home the point to any one who has ever taken a bad photo while in TTL flash mode. I metered f/20 on this shot; when comparing the two my instinct is to say my shot is over exposed, but I know better. This dogwood has white flowers. What about texture, this also led my eyes to believe that my photo might be overexposed; agiain it's not, the flash was at a 45 degree angle from the camera and there really isn't much texture to those leaves. I would say the TTL shot is 1 stop underexposed. Notice how the white goes grey. All camera meters are calibrated to middle grey, this has been a problem since reflective meters first appeared in cameras, and even though nikon and cannon claim to have made improvements on TTL they call i-TTL and E-TTL. A white subject will trick your camera anyday of the week, no matter how smart you think it is.

until tommorow,
enjoy

Day - 84 Bad Luck

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ISO 100 f/1.4 1/200s 1 SB-26 @ 24mm 1/32nd power shot through an umbrella on the ground 18 inches from subject triggered with pocket wizard plus IIs.

While racking my brain for a shot today; I saw this horseshoe on my mantle that we found several years ago. I instantly knew what I wanted my shot to be; and I only needed to figure out how to take it, without cutting and pasting the horseshoe into a blank background of bokeh using photoshop. I gathered my only two flash stands and a piece of aluminum pipe from the garage and suspended the horseshoe using picture hanging wire.

Here is the set up here


I had fun setting the shot up, and cloning out the picture wire in photoshop was much easier than I expected. The biggest challenge was focusing and framing my shot. I literally had to lean my left arm onto the umbrella itself to compose and shot my photo. I also really enjoy doing the setup shots, and I am glad to see that many of you appreciate them. I hope to include more setup shots with all of my off camera flash shots.

until tomorrow,
enjoy

DAY 83 - Hollywood

Nothing Like a Schwinn Hollywood on a friday night.

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Lighting info:
ISO 100 f/1.4 1/200s. 1 SB-800 Camera left @ 35mm 1/64th power shoot through umbrella triggered with pocket wizard plus IIs, and 1 SB-26 very far camera left as rim @ 85mm 1/16th power.

Setup here shot here


I initially was going to shoot the dogwood tree in my yard, but I decided I needed to leave the house for a photo tonight. This bike pictured, is my late 50s early 60s Chicago Schwinn Hollywood; complete with a ridiculously large basket that fit all of my equipment I needed for tonights shot. I can't believe this bike has sat so long without being ridden. When I came up with this shot in my head I thought I might have to get down on the ground to get the point-of-view that I needed, but I discovered a ditch next to the side walk that I could set my umbrella up in and take my shot. The traffic was rather light tonight, so I didn't get the amount of bokeh I hoped for from the breaks lights; and I keep going back and forth about wether I like this shot better with the rim light, or not. I chose to post the shot with the rim, because I really wanted to do a 2 light setup for tonight.

Here is another setup shot from the street to see what the passing cars saw


On both setup shots, I adjusted the ISO to 640 to compensate for the shift in aperture from f/1.4 to f/3.5; meaning the exposures should be equal in both the setup shot and the actual shot. This shot didn't come out quite the way I planned, and I can't decide what it is that I don't like. As usual, any comments, criticisms, or advice is always welcome.

until tomorrow,
enjoy