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Melissa

Melissa
Melissa was another willing victim subject at our Sunday studio session (alliteration win!). I came back from a lunch-meeting just in time to sneak into the shoot-in-progress and capture some portraits of this lovely young lady (7 weeks pregnant too!).

If this shots looks really fuzzy it’s because I had a chance to use the much lauded Canon 85mm f/1.2. This lens is pretty crazy because of that razor thin depth of field. If Melissa (or I) moved half an inch front or back I’d have lost focus on her eyes… and believe me, I have a lot of out-takes where I did. Dave, the owner of this beast of a lens, had brought his huge wattage power packs, that were actually incapable of firing at a low enough power level for us to properly expose our subjects at f/1.2.

The solution to this was less power (of course) by using strobes, diffused. This was shot with a 580exII through a Lastolite ezybox softbox at 1/128th power (I think) with a sto-fen diffuser on. Rim light is also provided by a 580exII at the same power level using the 1/8 honl grid. Fill to camera left was compliments of a Lastolite trigrip reflector.

Mar 16, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: , , | 3 Comments »

Red Lights

Red Lights
Some more Rockalily love. Featured legs compliments of Audrey Hipturn.

I’m going to be getting through these images VERY slowly – first – I had a few commercial clients come to the studio this day so their photos come first. Second, I’m busy as hell with some events coming up that I cannot ignore, an increasingly dependent “brood” base. BUT, despite all this, I am available for your portrait and wedding… or both… whatever I just love taking photos.

Mar 16, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

drrty spot

drrty spot
Sorry about the overall softness of the image, my AF was obviously tracking due to that dirty mess on camera right.

Me and a few like minded photographers rented a local studio on Sunday (Steak & BJ Day) to teach ourselves a bit about lighting an inside space, portraiture, and just sharing ideas and gear.

Though what’s a poor group of awkward, hide-behind-the-lens, types supposed to do for subject matter? Thankfully Rockilily Burlesque answered! (Ms. Audrey Hipturn and Ms. Koston Kreme pictured).

I’ll also say I was able to walk-away without any serious gear envy – one guy had a 5DMKII and an 85mm f/1.2 lens… and yes, I would very much like to HAVE both. But I wasn’t “gotta have it” about them.

Of course, I’m not sure I can say the same for the other boys. We’ll likely have a flickr pool setup for our collective works of the day, but for now you can check out David’s stuff here.

If you want some technical info on this shot it’s a bit of a strobist cocktail. I think, here, we had a single Ranger Quadra, unmodified, pointing at the background at camera left and Ren’s ebay special strobe optically slaved camera right. For the subject we threw in two 580exII’s, PW’d (triggering the optical slaves on the bigger strobes), on the left a 60″ shoot-through umbrella, and on the right a 24″ Ezybox… not exactly the cleanest setup but it was really a day of work with what you got.

Update: There’s a time-lapse of our day here.

Mar 15, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments »

Regard

Regard
Quinn regarding the outdoors, eager to explore and share. Owen, fiddling and introverted.

I think this family if finally rounding the bend. No major illnesses afflicting us, irritability and fighting are at an all time (this year) low – Owen’s having some trouble at school but he’s a pre-teen and if he wasn’t I’d be worried.

I picked up my SLR for the first time in, what seems like, a month. Took a few shots – this not being one of them – that I don’t really care if they turned out or not. The point was that I picked it up, felt that shutter-release and pointed it at something. That something was Alex and it made me realize how FEW photos I have of him right now. Especially if you compare how many I had of Quinn by the same time.

Of course things are different, Quinn was in hospital much longer (captive subject), and Alex was much sicker.

So you might as well expect a lot of family photos on here in the next few weeks; I’ve got lost time to make up.

Mar 09, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »

Cameo

Cameo
It’s not often that I make an unintentional cameo in my photos, indeed, I can only think of one previously.

It’s difficult to go out and take photos of “just anything” when you’re uninspired and, even more so, topped up on stress and bottomed out on sleep. But today I took it upon myself to do a few things to help me out professionally and creatively.

  • I didn’t go into the office for more than an hour
  • I did more work in the hours leading up to lunch than I often accomplish in a day – by focusing on a single task
  • I took inspiration with me, not from the “pro’s” but from someone starting out.

    Why take the time to look at a total NOOB’s photos? Because they’re worthwhile and inspired – far more than many of my own images lately (read: you won’t see them here).

    Do you remember when you first got your camera? Holding it up to your eye? depressing the shutter release at whatever random thing you saw nearby?

    Did you take it for a walk and point it at the ground, at the sky, at trees and squirrels without any real regard to aperture, shutter, ISO, or exposure of any sort? Was that new camera giving you new eyes? do you remember when EVERYTHING was a good photo, instead of nothing? I do – but I certainly don’t practice it anymore.

    Today’s assignment was to walk around, and take the photos I’ve so quickly forgotten how to take. The things that anyone new to photography would shoot, but anyone having shot for a while might ignore or make excuses as to why they can’t shoot it.

    “There’s too much contrast in the scene,” “I don’t do abstracts,” “It’s been done before,” or just plain NOT SEEING it.

    I’ve been spending a lot of time on Flickr and Twitter doing my best to offer honest feedback and critique to those who want it (and some who don’t), it helps them improve some technical aspects of their craft while I get a chance to see what those “new eyes” see, it reminds me, and then I’m inspired again to go out and see things for myself – new.

    • Mar 08, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »