365 Project – Day 71
Another self portrait while experimenting with my flashes. This was a 3 light setup. Once you get over the initial fear of flashes, experimenting becomes fun.
365 Project – Day 70
A little fun with Tupper and some lights. Well…….fun for me. He wasn’t really interested tonight, so we kept it short.
365 Project – Day 64
A little fun today with Liam and a mirror.
Nathan’s First Photo Session
As promised, here are a few more photo’s from Nathan’s first photo session this past weekend. I kept it short, but he wasn’t bothered by the flashes at all. I probably could have gone a little longer, as he was still in good humor.
365 Project – Day 58
I had a chance to take some photos with Nathan today. Pulling a smile out of him isn’t too hard. Check back for more from this short session later this week.
365 Project – Day 57
The boys enjoying a little rest on the grass.
365 Project – Day 45
A little fun in the sun with a flash. Not the nicest background, but when you have to fit in a photo, dinner and baths, all before the sun sets, you take what you can get. I’ll experiment more with this setup in a different setting when I have more time on a weekend.
Kids at play
This past weekend I tried a quick photo shoot with my son Liam and his younger cousin. To keep things fun for them, I pulled out the ball popper and balls and let them loose.
365 Project – Day 29
My little nephew came over for a visit today. He decided to skip his nap, so I took the opportunity to take some photos. He wasn’t being very cooperative, or full of smiles, due to the skipped nap. I decided to pull out the ball popper and photograph him at play.
365 Project – Day 27
In this previous post, I took some headshots of my dog Tupper. I tried some more today, this time using a second light to add some rim light to his head, and to help high light his fur a little more.
365 Project – Day 25
The original plan was to get a picture of my son Liam on the park bench. He was more interested in playing in the sand, so that’s when I grabbed Tupper.
365 Project – Day 10
I captured this fun image of my son Liam at the park this evening with a cheap point and shoot digital camera that I bought this weekend. And it is definitely just that, a point and shoot. I have no control over ISO, shutter speed or aperture. It is completely automatic. I can’t even choose the focus, other than flipping the macro/normal switch. There are no scenic, portrait or sports modes to allow me the push the camera in a certain direction. It is point and shoot. Nothing more. This is exactly what I was looking for. I can keep it in my pocket at all times. The only way to take a good picture with it is to use my eye, thus it forces me to work on my composition, and will hopefully lead to better pictures when I haul out my expensive dslr.
365 Project – Day 7
To add visual interest and depth to an image, the subject can be framed in the photo by an object. Typical framing devices would be foliage or an archway. I decided to use a picture frame.
365 Project – Day 5
I have always been intrigued by light painting. I decided to give it a try for the first time today. This is definitely something I’d like to explore more.
365 Project – Day 4
For some reason, this spoon caught my eye while I was making dinner this evening. So I decided to use it for a self portrait.
Doggy headshots
I’ve been working a little more with my one light setup and my dog Tupper. This session was fairly easy for him. All he had to do was lie on the bed and listen to me whistle at him once in a while to get his attention back.
Meet Tupper
I’ve been working more with my off camera lighting lately. After a certain point, taking stills of my son’s toys gets old. For a real challenge, I thought I would try working with my 9 year old collie, Tupper. While you may think he is cooperating, a lot of the time isn’t. He’s good at staying in the general vacinity of the camera, but he won’t always keep the position you put him in, or look where you want him too. At least I can afford his modeling fee. A handful of treats is all he asks for.
Sometimes you might not even get 10 minutes…
Every year we include a picture of our son in the Christmas cards we send out. The picture above is the one that went out this year. It was taken one weekend in December when we were outside playing in the snow. That wasn’t the plan. I wanted one using an off-white backdrop, a tree, and maybe the dog. I wanted to do something with my off camera flashes now that I knew how to use them. My son had other ideas…
Another Lighting Workshop
A couple of weekends ago, I was off to another lighting workshop. This one was courtesy of Don Giannatti. Somehow I stumbled across his Lighting Essentials blog about a year ago, and have been following along ever since. It was 2 full days of all out lighting, 8am to 5pm. Funny how the time flies by when you’re having fun. It was an intense weekend of learning. Don covered everything from studio lights and small flash, to umbrellas, bounce tools, light meters, beauty dishes, and working with models. I’m sure I’ve left something out. Don has been doing this stuff for a long time and has a vast amount of knowledge. He even ended the weekend with a session on ‘going pro’ if you were able to stick around. So Sunday didn’t end at 5pm, it was more like 8pm. Did I mention it was a long weekend? I learned a lot and am ready to start putting it to practice.
I have posted a few photos from that weekend. I will probably post some more once I have had a chance to sift through them all.
