Day 76 – Where does the carpet end?

And the kitteh begin?

Day 75 – Go Wolf Pack!

Taken outside Mackay Stadium at the University of Nevada, Reno. It was just beginning to drizzle as I left class, but I managed to get a few good shots in.

I processed this one in black and white. Shot with ambient light only.

And this one in color. It’s almost hard to tell the difference with the gloomy sky! Ambient light with a bit of fill flash.

Day 74 – Tussling Dogs

More fun with flash and second curtain sync to create motion blur.

Day 73 – Fun with flash and motion

Tonight in class we learned how to use our flashes with ambient light, second curtain sync to create motion blur, and experimented with using more than one strobe exposure in a shot. Lots of fun!

Second (rear) curtain sync with ambient light. © Carissa Snedeker

Second (rear) curtain sync with ambient light © Carissa Snedeker

Double flash exposure with ambient light. © Carissa Snedeker

Day 72 – The Circle of Squares

I had to go to Renown Medical Center today for a routine echocardiogram. Aside from having Dr. Phil inflicted on me in the waiting room, the visit was uneventful. Afterward I walked to Fianna’s Healing Garden with camera in hand to see what might strike my fancy. The garden is dry and brown for the most part. Spring has not yet come. The garden has a small pond and waterfall (not running right now), and a variety of plants, trees and herbs, as well as a small meditation labyrinth. It also has three sculptures in the garden. The most intriguing one (to me) is the Circle of Squares by Cork Marcheschi. It looks like a sphere, but as you walk around it its shape changes and internal spaces shift.

One angle . . .

And another . . .

One more . . .

And finally . . .

Day 71 – Playing with fill flash

I’ve been playing a lot with my flash. Adding one more tool to my photographic toolbox is exciting. Up until a couple of weeks ago I avoided flash photography like the plague. I’d rather have noise than deal with harsh lighting, unflattering shadows, and on and on.

I am learning that I don’t have to put up with any of those things as long as I know how to use my flash effectively.

Over the past week or so, I’ve been playing with fill flash to make as much as I can of existing light and using the flash to fill in the gaps. I’ve also been experimenting with second curtain sync.

First experiment: Shooting inside next to a sunny window. Now, this is really a photographer’s nightmare! Talk about a huge difference in exposures in one photograph.

Here are two shots of my bedroom window and adjacent wall. I shot one using no flash and set the exposure for the lighted window. The second is the same shot, same exposure with an on-shoe flash used for fill. The trick to doing this is to stop-down your flash; that is, you can adjust the Speedlite so that the output is less that full power. In this case, I believe I dropped the flash output by 2 full stops. I also had my flash set to fire at the end of the exposure (second curtain sync), instead of at the very beginning, giving my camera the opportunity to use the ambient lighting to light the photo first. Notice that the shadows cast from the blinds aren’t completely blown out. My thought that if a person were sitting there, they’d be nicely exposed, and yet, the photograph would look as though the individual was lit merely from the light of the window.

Without fill flash

With fill flash

So, I had to try this with a living subject. Sweetie doesn’t have the patience for this sort of thing, and the dogs can get a bit antsy, but the cats were in the living room, so I was in business.

First up, Jezebel. The sun comes through our south-facing window (at camera left). I bounced the flash from the ceiling and filled her in nicely, but in you can still see the glow of the window light on her and the specular reflection of the window in her eye.

Next up, Maya. I shot her sitting in front of the storm door with fill flash and without. In both photos Maya has nice rim light from the light coming through the door, but in the one with flash-fill, you can see all of her coloring. Of course, deciding to use fill or not is all up to you. Depending on what you want to do in the photograph will dictate your choices. In these next photographs, the flash was pointing right at the cats (no bouncing), but I had it stopped down to limit its intensity.

Without fill flash. © Carissa Snedeker

These last two were shot using fill flash.

Yes indeed.

On talent.

(Edited to add, since a few readers are confused by the fact there is no photograph with this post. Please click on the words above. You’ll see why I linked to it.)

Day 70 – Scars

I’ve been wanting to shoot my heart-related scars for a while but knew that it would take effective lighting to pull it off. Our next assignment for class is to shoot and print two photos (black and white) using a hot shoe flash both on and off camera. You are getting a sneak peek at what I ‘m pretty sure I’m going to use.

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