Day 96 – By the light of a lamp

I snapped these this morning before work. They are illuminated by a table lamp on the end table next to the sofa in our family room (with a little bit of ambient light in the background coming from the dining area).

Nina

Jezebel

Mama Hawk

I’ve been watching this nest for a while. Today I saw Mama perched in her nest. I pulled over and grabbed my camera. She stayed in the nest for a bit and then jumped out and gave me a show.

Day 82 – Jake

I’m in Washington, DC and spending the night at an old friend’s house. The thing is my friend isn’t actually here as he was scheduled to be in New York tonight. Long story short, I’ve got the place to myself. Well, almost. Brian’s beloved Jake is keeping me quiet company. He keeps hoping Brian will come through the door.

Day 77 – Blur!

More blur photography with flash; this time in the backyard. I will likely use the first one as one of two photos required for our next assignment which is to photograph a moving subject with and without blur.

This shoot was fun. The dogs were going crazy and running around the backyard. I just sat there and tried to keep focused on them. (Click on photos for larger versions.)

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 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.

Day 64 – At the pond

I had a breakfast meeting and then needed to go shoot my friend for my lighting class assignment, but I had a few moments to myself between both appointments so I stopped by the pond near Nevada Power. The weather was gorgeous. If we’re not going to get winter, then I’ll settle for this!