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

Day 94 – 50mm

I got a 50mm lens! Unlike my zoom lenses which will only allow me to go to f/3.5 at 18mm, this lens allows me to take my f/stop all the way to 1.8. I took it for a test drive today. Here are just a few of the photos I shot.

Day 92 – Tender shoots

Wow. Three full months down! I can hardly believe it. Day One of Month Four on deck.

The backyard is starting to spring to life . . .

My peony, a gift for my wedding shower in 2002, has never failed to provide spectacular blooms. I’m always happy to see these quick-growing shoots make their appearance.

My favorite flowers, though, are roses. We’ve got about five bushes in our backyard. I can’t wait for their sweet-smelling blooms!

The lilac bushes are all springing to life as well.

Day 79 – Stop-Motion Dogs

The other half of my lighting class assignment: photograph a moving subject without blur.

We tried shooting in the house. No go. So after work tonight we gave it another go in the yard. I don’t know if I will use either of these for my class, but I wanted to share my learning curve with you. I’d like to try shooting this in better sunlight, but I likely won’t get the chance as I’m off to Washington D.C. on Thursday and won’t be back until Tuesday (therefore no daytime dog photography before the project is due in class). I may have opportunities in D.C. to try to shoot other photos though.

The first photo below is a “without blur” version of Nina racing around with her toy (see Day 77). It’s quite interesting how different this one looks. While she was moving just as fast, look how still she looks. The only visual cues to her motion are her flapping ears, her feet off the ground, and her flying dog tag.

Here is Buddy leaping to catch his “Toy.” And by his “Toy” I mean that it is his only toy. It’s not for lack of trying to introduce other toys to him. He loves this toy and only this toy. It is several years old now and it’s been through the washer a number of times. The squeaker has long since died, but Buddy has never chewed a hole in it. It stays in the house and every time Buddy comes in he has to find it and loll it about in his mouth. If he can’t he gets really, really nervous and runs around until he does find it. Anyway, he’s gotten quite good at catching it in mid-air. Like Nina, he is frozen in time, but his off-the-ground feet and his upside-down dog tag indicate his leap.

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

With fill flash © Carissa Snedeker

Without fill flash © Carissa Snedeker

With fill flash © Carissa Snedeker

These last two were shot using fill flash.

Maya alert to Jezebel's imminent arrival. © Carissa Snedeker

Day 56 – Lighting Wine Bottles

Last Thursday’s lighting class was held in our instructor’s studio and we were to shoot bottles of wine; one shot using diffused and the other using reflected light. We were put in groups of about six, and in my group, I was the first to attempt the assignment. As these sorts of things are a process of seeing what works and what doesn’t, I wasn’t able to get too many shots off (two to be exact) before I had to step away and let another have a go at it.

My shot was just barely okay, and I didn’t get the lighting quite the way I wanted, nor was I able to highlight all the parts of the bottle that I wanted so I knew that I’d have to do the assignment on my own. That’s what I worked on today. Here are the two that made the cut.

Day 41 – Tiffany Lamp?

Not really. Stained glass.

My husband has had this hand-made lamp for well over thirty years; far longer than we’ve been together. It was hand-crafted by a friend of his who died tragically at a very young age. You can imagine why this lamp is so precious and why it has such deep sentimental value to him. It has had its home in our living room for all the years we’ve been together.

Day 36 – Living room light

I worked at getting comfortable with my new light meter today in the funky light of our living room. It is a south-facing room with a large picture window and storm door, so at this time of year the room is well-lit, but poses challenges for correct exposure.

This is the ancient German-made radio my husband inherited from his grandfather. Yes, it still works, though we never actually turn it on any more. I love the lines, texture, and craftsmanship.