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.
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