Day 148 – Birthday Present!

Yes, I’m spoiled rotten. I know it.

Sweetie gave me a Canon EOS 7D EF-28-135 IS USM kit for my birthday. I’ve had my eye on one for a while and I’m really, really happy with it. It’s much heftier that my Rebel T1i, and has a wider range of capabilities. ISO starts at 100 and increases at 1/3 stop intervals up to 6400. Very, very little noise at the highest ISO (one of the comments I read over and over and over again about this model). Also, 100% field of view means the photo I compose in my viewfinder will be the photo the camera will produce. No unknown stuff around the edges. I took it out for a whirl today. Here are just a few of my shots. Very little processing done to these, just a bit of sharpening of the RAW files.

Close-up of a buckle on my leather jacket.

Rose in the backyard.

Nina on a walk-about in the backyard.

Jezebel by the light of the living room window.

This was my only flash photo…Maya by the front door. Exposed for outdoors with flash used to equalize the indoor lighting.

Day 137 – Neighbors

Super busy day. I woke up, grabbed some coffee, finished uploading the Fun Fly photos, was chained to my desk all day, came home to finish up Cindy’s photos so I could get them to her, then ran a quick vacuum around the house, and THEN I could pick up my camera. I headed outside with my tripod and tried to capture the dusky horizon, and then turned east to see illuminated homes. It’s quite unusual to see all of them lit at the same time, so I gave it a go. A bit noisy, due to the long exposure, but I kind of like it.

Day 127 – I got a new toy, so of course, I went a little crazy.

After finally getting all the photos from the Medical Outreach Event processed and posted to Flickr for review by the organizers of the event, and after doing the grocery shopping (a chore I hate), I rewarded myself with a Mocha Frappuccino (no whip) from Starbucks and headed home.

Finally, play time had come!

This didn’t cost me much, but it sure is nice. It arrived on Friday, but I didn’t get the chance to take it out of the box until today. It’s a nice little soft box for a Speedlite flash. Unlike other similar soft boxes, this one doesn’t attach with Velcro strips stuck to the flash, but rather uses an elastic strap with a Velcro closure to keep it on the flash. I struggled a bit at first getting it on the flash, but once it was on, it was fine and did not slip.

First I shot in the house to see the quality of light it created.

All shots were with off-camera flash (TTL cable).

First, the critters.

Pretty nice. Flash held above and to left of camera, pointed down on Nina. I like the soft shadow instead of the usual harsh lines one usually sees.

Next up, Maya. I like the catch light in her eyes, and again, the soft shadow.

So then I started playing with the flash and ambient light. The light glowing to Maya’s right is a table lamp. Daylight is peeking out from behind the curtain. Neither were blown out by the flash, the wall color is true, and Maya is filled in nicely.

Maya again. No harsh shadows and the wall color is true, not washed out.

So I shot Sweetie chilling with his scotch after a day full of chores. Again, he is decently lit, lamp isn’t blown out, and the flash just provided fill. (Yes, the wall behind him is a different color than the one with the window.)

Of course, then I had to take it outdoors and work on shooting in shade with bright background. You may remember I covered this on Day 108. The idea is to expose for the bright light, then stop down two stops or so and adjust the flash to match. The idea is for the flash to be the main light with ambient light providing the fill; basically the opposite of what I was attempting to do in the house.

Here’s Buddy in the shade of the garage with the bright backyard behind him (no flash).

And here he is properly lit. If I’d tried to expose for the shade, the backyard would have been completely blown out.

Such a handsome boy. I had to shoot some more. At first he didn’t want to cooperate, but eventually I got him to look at me.

This shot cracked me up. He looks like he’s thinking, “It’s a good thing I love her.”

Buddy is really a calm boy.

Nina quit moving long enough for me to get this shot.

Buddy once again. Smile? Or gas?

I love this so much.

Day 125 – Quickie

I didn’t realize my Friday was going to turn out so full but I had no opportunity to shoot “for myself” until late this evening. I actually did quite a bit of photography today, but it was for work. I was asked to shoot our site, inside and out. Here’s just one “non-identifying” shot.

The shoot went late and I left work about 6pm, the time I was supposed to be meeting Sweetie and our friends for dinner in Fernley (40 minutes away!). Dinner, enjoyable as it was, ran long and I just didn’t get much of a chance to shoot. By the time I got my camera out again, it was very late.