The day got away from me, but I wanted to play with my lights anyway. I got this little vise from our HR director. I thought it would be a useful tool to hold reflector cards (and it is). But today I gave lighting it a go. I lit it from camera right with my Speedlite using an umbrella and a diffuser panel. To the left, a white poster-board bounced some of the light back onto the vise.
For fun I also shot our Maneki-neko.
Hey, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?
You’re sick?
Working from home? What’s that?
Nevermind…
Can I pleeeeze get in your lap?
I was playing with lighting again doing some self portraits using diffused flash. This is a cropped version of one of the shots. In the background is the family portrait taken at our wedding.
In the backyard this evening . . . playing with the dogs and off-camera flash.
Buddy can be such a silly boy.
And somehow I lucked out and caught both of them, at the same time, standing still.
I’ve been wanting to do more work in black and white. I took these of myself today and the goal was creating more dramatic lighting than I usually do.
Funny, in going through the many shots it took me to come up with these three, it’s like I no longer see the photographs as pictures of me. I find myself staring at them with an analytic eye. Are the eyes in focus? Any odd shadows? Nice highlight along the jaw-line. No, that one is off. I like how the chin looks in this one. Nice definition there. Oops, jaw and neck blend together on this one. And so on and so on.
Perhaps that is why I don’t feel odd showing these to you. Me. No make-up. Wrinkles. But to me, it’s just another face I lit and shot.
I got my five-year service award bonus check in the mail today, and while perusing the reviews for the Speedlite 580EX II, I discovered that the EOS 7D pop-up flash can act as the master to my current 430 EX Speedlite. Actually, I know that many DSLRs have this capability, but I did not have it with my EOS T1i and so it slipped my mind that I should have it with the 7D.
So I played grabbed my flash manual and the 7D manual and did me some learnin’ tonight. I set the pop up flash to the lowest intensity so that if it were the only flash firing it did not expose anything. All I wanted was enough light to fire my off-camera 430 EX. It worked! And then I had to practice.
Once again, the cats were cooperative.
Jezebel lit with flash to camera right and bouncing off the ceiling.
Maya framed by dog paraphernalia. Flash to camera left and bouncing off ceiling.
Jezebel again. Diffused flash to camera right (on floor).
So, for now, the 580EX II can wait. I’ll spend my bonus check on sorely needed clothes.
Nothing I shot today was worth posting and I missed working with my lights, so when I got home tonight I set up one soft box and had some fun. There wasn’t a lot to choose from, but I found an onion and a partial head of garlic.
With the soft box alone – just to camera right.
I used my reflector to get rid of some of the back shadow. This next shot is the same set up but I used a gold reflector to put some fill light behind and along the top of the onion and garlic. I especially like the warmth it gives the onion.
This next one is with a white reflector to provide back-fill. Not as warm as the photo above.
Then I brought in a plate . . . light in same spot (camera right) with fill provided by white reflector.
I finally got tired of produce and shot this fan my wonderful mother-in-law got for me on one of her many trips abroad.
Lilac bush catching the last bit of sun before it fell below the western horizon. Shot hand-held using Speedlite with soft box attachment to provide a little fill.
Grape leaves and baby grapes.
Carissa Snedeker Photography 