Day 210 – This and That

On the good side, the Olympics are fun to watch. On the bad side, Dad is back in the hospital and what’s going on is pretty scary. I don’t know if I’ll be hopping a plane soon or not.

Anyway, I played with my new toy in the backyard this morning using the silver reflector and diffuser panel to provide fill light against some pretty bright backgrounds. I used my flash to fill in what otherwise would have been dark shadows cast by the morning sun.

Sweetie left his work gloves in the wheelbarrow and a windstorm blew them out into the yard. We think Nina did this.

Grape leaves against the sky. I love that I didn’t blow out the sky and that the grape leaves in the shade were perfectly exposed.

Buddy is a bit camera-shy sometimes. He’ll sit still, but he doesn’t like to look at me when I’m holding the camera to my face.

Day 209 – A new toy

There was a photographer (Bruce Press) at TAM using this interesting bounce device and I was so fascinated, I had to ask him about it. Bruce told me how it throws 80% of the flash straight up and only directs 20% onto the subject. Very nice for indoor event photography. I just had to get myself one and it arrived today.

And of course, I had to test it out. But not too much. After all, the Opening Ceremonies are on, and I love, love, love the Summer Olympics.

No harsh shadows, pretty nice. I can’t wait to work with this some more. Like, maybe shooting some people for a change! But tonight, it’s the critters again. Not bad for on-camera flash.

Gotta go. They’re about to light the torch.

Day 208 – Don’t text and bike

I took a walk this afternoon and caught this bicyclist either texting or making a call while zipping down a busy city street in Reno.

Day 207 – Working on depth of field

New portraits of Jezebel. I increased the depth of field and these seem to work.

Day 206 – Reflected Silhouette

Our neighbor’s trees at sunset reflected in my car’s windows.

Day 205 – Puppy Portraits

Today was an incredibly busy day. I didn’t stop from 6am until I got home at about 10pm, so I turned to my critters for inspiration tonight. I set up the Speedlite, grabbed a reflector card and got Nina to “sit” on her blanket. She did good.

All were shot at 400 ISO, f/5.6, 1/15 sec. Speedlite behind me to camera left, reflector card (white poster board in the vise) very close to Nina on the right and just out of frame.

Day 204 – She’s just so willing!

I love working with very shallow depth of field and when a shot comes out exactly as I planned, well, I just have to share it. I really had hoped to post a non-critter post, but today I set up my soft box light, Maya was on the printer, and I couldn’t resist. She is looking up at the soft box which I had just to camera left and about six feet up and angled down toward Maya. I metered the shot, snapped my fingers so she’d look up, and bingo! Got it! Also, I used the pop-up on my camera at its lowest output (1/128) to provide just a teeny bit of fill.

And, of course, I couldn’t resist a black and white shot.

Day 203 – f/2.5

I’ve been busy all day working on the photos that I took at The Amaz!ng Meeting, and tending to chores around the house, so I haven’t had as much time to get creative as I would have liked. However, I’d popped my 50mm lens on my camera yesterday, so I though I’d keep it on while shooting today. Maya proved a semi-willing subject. I shot this with very shallow depth of field.