The Light

I haven't updated this blog in a looooong time! So, I updated it with my 3 most recent posts from my wordpress blog.

We found this girl sitting next to Uno's pizzeria in Sundance Square, Fort Worth. She, along with 10,000 other college kids were in town for the Passion conference, a Christian based conference. We put her in front of this old red door that we thought would be the perfect back drop for her. Lighting was pretty simple. Nikon SB-28 flash stuck inside a saberstrip. fired with powersync16 triggers and receivers. The saberstrip is not very well built, it kept falling apart and smashing the powersync receivers. We had to use several pieces of gaffers tape to hold it together.

She wanted a copy of this photo, but I lost her info. If you know her, please let me know so I can send her a copy.

Camera: Nikon D90
Shutter: 1/250
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 200
Lens: Nikon 50mm 1.8
Flash: SB-28 inside a saberstrip
Trigger/Receiver: Impact Powersync16

Oh, and I added a new temporary logo. Let me know what you think.

New Toys!

My wife allowed me to pick up a couple of new toys for my birthday.

A Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 DX lens (My first Nikon Pro lens) and a Westcott Apollo softbox for speedlights. I have some Yongnuo RF-602 triggers on order and should arrive shortly. I am excited to get to use them!

Love 'em!

Thanks, Muh-lady!

Shot!

Here's the deal: I am trying to work on using speedlights. I was finding myself very frustrated. After taking a few months off from shooting anything, I decided to get back to it and get some practice - with a little motivation, of course.

This is Mikey from lightenupandshoot.com.

He was in DFW for a lighting workshop and to celebrate his 40th birthday. I signed up immediately. We were able to get a couple of hours in Xposedvision studios. I was able to get this shot that I liked. I know it is under-exposed. But, I still think it works. If you like it, let me know.

Nikon D90
1/250 Sync Speed
f/8
50mm 1.8 lens
Impact Powersync16 trigger and receivers
2 sb-28's
Black Background

lightenupandshoot.com
xposedvision.com

Happy 4th of July

For the first time since I moved to this area, I went to see the local fireworks display at the Southlake Town Square. It was an amazing show! The weather was perfect, and once it started, the city put on a show that seemed more like a constant "grande finale." After about 30 minutes I shot nearly 220 pictures. These are a few that I liked.

I used my D90 and the kit lens (18-105) on a tripod to capture the shots. I put the camera in, "bulb" mode, and I used the remote to trigger the shutter. ISO was at 200. Aperture was set at F8 and F11 for most of the shots. As with most fireworks shots that you see, I blended a few images together to create the scene. However, the last shot is a single photo. Let me know what you think.

Milk Dud

Sorry about having a ton of pics in this post. These are pictures of my puppy from 7-14 weeks old. He is a Chocolate English Lab named, Dudley (short for Milk Dud). I can't believe how fast he is growing. He has been taking up a lot of our time. Now that he is getting a little older (14 weeks), I am hoping I can get back to shooting more frequently.

I hear Oompa Loompas

This little guy was just hanging out on a limb in my backyard. I didn't clean up the acorns this year, so I have at least two trash cans worth sitting underneath our red oak tree. To this little guy I might as well be Willy Wonka and he just received a golden ticket to my factory. Enjoy, Augustus Gloop.

I can't believe how close he allowed me to get to him before he took off. I used the D90 kit lens(18-105) @ 105mm - 105mm isn't that long of a zoom. Thankfully, he wasn't too scared of me.

I underexposed the shot so I had to try and correct it in Photoshop. I used 4 or 5 corrective layers to get it close to where I wanted. I need to be more careful to watch my exposure when I shoot next time. Remember to check your histogram! The shot looked great on the LCD screen, however, didn't look as vibrant at full size.

Padre y Madre of the In-Law Variety

So, I was able to sucker my Mother-in-law, Father-in-law, and their dog into being my first strobist subjects. Well, the dog was much easier to convince. . . only because the in-laws weren't too amused by me holding treats telling them to stay.

I set up 2 SB600's with shoot through umbrellas on either side of the camera. We shot this in their backyard around 2 pm on a 95 degree day. It was hot and we had to deal with the sun. I metered for the background first. Once I had the background the way I liked it, I used the Nikon CLS system to remotely fire the flashes. Even though the flash on camera right was getting hit with direct sunlight, the CLS system worked flawlessly. The sun started to poke through an opening in the tree canopy above and caused the over exposure on their heads. But, since I only took 6 shots I had to choose the one I liked best. This was it.