3 From yesterday Morning

I took these at Bombay Hook or nearby. I messed with the first 2 in Picasa. I should go back and do them in Photoshop too.

Setting up the Studio, and some lessons

Me painting the luan bi-fold doors to use as cutters to block the light from hitting the subject from the side.


In the foyer I set up the lights on the stands before taking them to the garage. This took about an hour to open them up, set them on the stands, check the connections, yadda yadda yadda.


Here's the set up my Big camera is on the tripodbarely visible on the bottom right. The umbrella flash is set up for the subject. The flashes are behind the white doors painted earlier. The paper stand was a bit of a pain to set up. You can see the clamp on the paper to keep it from unrolling. Arias' tutorial covered a lot! Biggest issues are managing all the other crap in the garage, and watching all the plugs for the strobes.

Setting Up a Garage Studio

I set up a studio in my garage following a tutorial posted by Zack Arias on his blog here: http://www.zarias.com/?p=71. I used 3 Genesis 200 lights from Calumet. I picked them based on a review here: http://prophotolife.com/calumet-genesis-light-kit/. It took a few hours to get everything unpacked and set up for the first time. I'll post those photos in the next entry. I set up the lights on 30 for the two side lights shot into the white backdrop. I used 10 on the the flash used to shoot the subject, in this case me, and the pup. I set the camera on manual at F5.6, shutter speed 1/60th of a second and ISO 100. I ended up setting the subject flash at 30 too and it looked great! There is still more for me to figure out, but, I'm pretty psyched by the results so far!


One of the first shots. Note the crap in front.



I set the lights, Mary took the shot.


A shot with no lights on for the background. This is one of the things to figure out. I want to be able to do a black background with the same set up.

Megan and Mike Headshots

Shoot with the lens wide open and sun behind your subject, and it looks great!

More Proofs!

Proofs for Megan and Mikes Engagement Photos

Megan works with Mary. She and Mike wanted to get some photos for their save the date cards. We met at Silver Lake and did some fun photos together!

Halloween Bouquet, Adams family style

Some people think I have a strange sense of humor. I guess they might be right!

Image taken with a $50k plus camera today

Here's a photo I took today with a mega expensive camera. Care to guess what it is?
Dave

Notes for a shoot

I'm working on a shoot that's coming up in the next few weeks. I'm planning on shooting along the C&D canal with some cool lighting and a model. I stopped there today with my point and shoot to check out the area. The point and shoot is a great way to get a quick shot to serve as a reminder or just check angles and stuff. The biggest advantage is that it weighs about 4 ounces compared to ~15 lbs for my backpack bag full of gear with my DSLR. For this kind of advance work, it's perfect. Hopefully I'll be posting some cool shots in a few weeks! In the mean time, the first two shots are kind of cool on their own!

Talk about a multi-cultural melting pot!

Mom asked me what I wanted to have for dinner a few weeks ago when her firend came for a visit and I said Sukiyaki. She was like "do you know how much trouble that is?" and I was like "yeah, so?" It worked out well, if you ask me! I like the blur of the addition of the Kikkoman sauce to the Sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is apparently a social event in Japan, the end of the meal has the best flavors since things are added and removed as they are cooked.

That's a Japanese dinner being prepared here in the US by a Catholic Priest who is a very good friend of the family. He worked in Japan for a quarter century and has been back in the states for 10 or 15 years now. The beef in the pot he's cooking is halal beef, for my Bangladesh born Muslim niece and her husband, my nephew. She is at the bottom left of the photo, his head is at the bottom right, in front of the mushrooms. The second pot to the left of the photo is the pot for the vegetarians at the table. You can also see a few senior citizens at the table, and a teen ager.

On the Road in Virginia

I needed to get some gas and wash my windshield in Virginia after the meet up and I saw this behind the gas station while I was filling up. I just liked the shapes and colors so I popped off a shot with my ever present P&S camera.

A little editing

This is an edited version of the photo I posted earlier. A little light editing did some great stuff!

Mel in the Park II

I knew this would rock when I chimped it Wednesday!

Mel at SIlver Lake Park

Mel is an aspiring model that I got together with at Silver Lake Park yesterday. These photos are pretty much straight out of the camera. We got some beautiful photos!

More Favorites From my Meetup

I posted a bunch more on Flickr. Check them all out over there!

Favorites from my meet up