Happy New Year Everyone.
My Mom and Dad stumbled upon a guy that painted figures on corks one day and picked up a pair. They asked me if I wanted to try to use them in an image for New Year's Eve and I jumped all over it. Add a little champagne and some bokeh and you got yourself a party.
Owen
D300, 50mm 1.4, 1/250, ISO 200
Strobist: SB800 1/128 at 9 o'clock in Lastolite Ezybox - white foam board at 3 o'clock for fill.
I was going to title this "The Beauty of Construction" but for some reason destruction came out. Don't worry, I'm not going to go off on a rant but as cool as this looks, it makes you wonder what we're doing to our planet.
The cool thing about this image is that it isn't a HDR and I didn't add the starburst, this is what you get when you shoot at f22.
While we are all thinking of what our New Year resolutions might be, perhaps we all should have at least one to do with the environment. Our family has been making a conscious effort all year to reduce, recycle, and re-use but I am sure there is more that we could be doing.
Owen
I think this has to be my Wife's favorite thing to do. It must be seeing as though she does it every night. She loves her TV and so does her dog, Oscar.
I tried to recreate the light that would come from our TV using just one strobe. I put a CTB filter on it to give the light a slight blue tint so that it would be closer to the real thing. I snooted the light low so that it would run the length of her body, however it didn't agree too much with a white dog, a little blown out for my liking. Looking at it now I wish that I could have used a grid instead to spread the light a little more. I would have liked the couch to show up instead of just her head floating in black space. It didn't look this dark while processing but the all powerful flickr Gods made it darker when uploading. So why didn't I use a grid, well I don't have any yet. That's next on what my wife calls my never ending wish list.
Owen
D300 - 70-200 2.8 @ 70mm, 1/250, f22 (to get the dog as much in focus as I could), ISO 500
Strobist: 1 SB600 snooted 1/64 @ 6 o'clock
Well boys, you can all just eat your hearts out. This lovely girl is married - TO ME!!
This shot was inspired by Nathan Elson who took a similar portrait of his wife back when his career was just taking off. I have yet to shoot with Nathan or have even met him yet but we are kind of acquaintances through some photographer friends we both have in common. He is an awesome photographer and I look forward to shooting with him one day. If you have a chance you should check out his stream. www.flickr.com/photos/nathanelson/
One of the things I enjoy the most about my project 365 is that it is forcing me to try shots that I probably would not have done. This shot was taken with just one strobe fired into my new Lasolite Ezybox that I got for Christmas. I would have just bounced it off of the ceiling but we have a crazy bulkhead in our bathroom and it was giving me some very funky shadows. Awe, let's just face it, anything to play with my new toy.
Owen
D300 - 17-55 2.8 - ISO 200, 1/100, f5.6
Strobist:
1 SB800 shot through a 24x24 Ezybox, at 9 o'clock - sorry I can't remember the power setting, I was experimenting. I think this one was shot at 1/16
For Christmas this year I was lucky enough to get some gift certificates to a local camera store, so what else was I to do on Boxing Day but to use them as quickly as I could?!? I have been wanting a softbox for quite a while and was planning on getting a Wescott Apollo 28x28 softbox but unfortunately, no one in the city carries them so I decided to get a Lastolite Ezybox 24x24 softbox instead. I guess I could have ordered one online but then I would have had to have waited and I wouldn't have been able to use my gift certificates. Like a kid with a new toy, I had to play with it as soon as I could. After turkey leftovers, I dragged my youngest daughter away from the home theater and voila! I had a beautiful instant subject - the advantages of having kids.
D300 - 50mm 1.4, 1/100, 1.4, ISO 200
Strobist: SB800 in, you guessed it, a 24x24 Lastolite Ezybox at 5 o'clock, 1/128
My Dad won this big gingerbread house in a draw and brought it over for the kids to enjoy. Before they get to dig in to it tomorrow I wanted do grab a shot. I put it in my DIY lightbox and started to shoot, I started with the typical strait on shots but the house was so big I wanted to get right inside the thing. I could not get close enough with my D300 on a tripod so I pulled out my LX3 and gorillapod and was able to get much closer. Who says P&S cameras are only for snapshots. The macro on the LX3 is surprisingly good and I use it often when I can't get into a tough place with my big daddy.
Merry Christmas Eve everyone, I hope Santa is good to you all and you get at least one thing photography related for Christmas.
Owen,
Strobist:
DIY Light tent/box
4 static work lights with daylight balanced CFL bulbs in them.
Tonight I had the pleasure of sharing a moment in time that is so special in a couples relationship. As they were walking down this path, Genevieve thought something was up bit didn't know for sure. Brad had made all the arrangements including having a photographer, that being me, to capture him asking his love to be his wife. It was a chilly night but that was all forgotten when Brad got down on one knee and popped the question . . . awe, how romantic. This is just a little sneak peek, I will be posting the entire evening, including the question, later in the week. Congratulations Brad and Genevieve, you are an amazing couple and this is just the start to a long and happy life together as Mr. and Mrs.
Owen
Another shot from yesterday's early morning snowfall. It sure reminds me that Christmas is just around the corner - only 5 more sleeps :)
I know, a boring snowman - center cropped none the less but check out the crazy bokeh! For some reason lately I have become somewhat obsessed with bokeh - thanks to Dustin Diaz - www.flickr.com/photos/polvero/ and a new friend recommended to me by the a fore mentioned Mr. Diaz, Roger Lim - www.flickr.com/photos/rogvon. Both of these gentlemen have mastered the art of capturing bokeh and I aspire to one day come close to their level. You can't beat this time of year for finding some bokeh with all the Christmas lights up for the taking. If you are wondering why I keep using the word "Bokehistan", I got it form these two gentlemen. I'm not sure if it has a hidden meaning but I like the way it sounds and it has kinda stuck. Hopefully if I am using it incorrectly, one of them will enlighten me as to where it came from.
D300 - 70-200mm 2.8 at 120mm, 1/8sec, f2.8
Storbist:
SB600 - directly behind and below, bare bulb, 1/64
SB800 - 4'oclockish shoot through umbrella 1/64
I decided to try my hand at some painting with light. After seeing it on some other photostreams I thought it was high time I gave it a go, how hard could it be? First off I had the perfect item I was going to paint, a tree for Christmas. Do you think I could find green LED lights anywhere? I finally had to get 2 white ones and then cover them with green cellophane. A little bit of a hassle but I was determined. Then came the drawing part, let's just say when it comes to drawing I couldn't draw my way out of a wet paper bag to save my life. Lucky for me my wife was wiling to give up some of her TV time to help me out. We had a plan - I would draw the tree and she would draw the star, then at the last second she would jump out of the frame and I would fire the flash.
Take 1:
My tree looked like 3 diamonds stacked on top of each other - her star was perfect.
Take 2:
Owen, you draw the star and I'll (my wife) draw the tree - my star looked like a, well I don't think words could describe what it looked like and of course her tree was perfect.
Take 3 - 35:
This whet on back and forth, me tree her star, me star her tree - you can imagine how something that was supposed to be fun wore out very quickly.
Take 36:
The end result - Whoo Hoo!! Don't you just love the expression on my face - can you say CREEPER?
All in all, I'm glad I tried it but I don't think I'll attempt it again for quite a while. I do still want to make one of the light balls by spinning a light on the end of a string but that will have to wait until I can do it outside.
If you read all this, thanks for sharing with me a very frustrating night, the only bright side of it was that my lovely wife was there right next to me laughing and being very patient with my "just one more try" line.
Owen
D300 - 17-55mm 2.8
13sec, f9.0
Strobist:
SB600 - 5 o'clock DIY Beauty Dish 1/8
fired at the end of the exposure.
How can you tell I'm a big Star Wars fan? I found this guy and had to pick him up. I didn't even get out of the store before he was torn out of his packaging and set for a shot. He is standing on a lamp shade and I fired a SB800 up from underneath him. The bokeh is crazy, I just wish I shot it full open to have round circles instead of the octagons, now that I think of it though the shapes do kinda lend themselves to the feel of a deathstar. The big bursts of light reminded me of either stars or explosions of some sort.
D300 - 50 mm 1/160 f2.0
Strobist - SB800 fired from underneath diffused through a lamp shade at 1/128 or 1/64, i can't remember.
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