In the backyard

Nina on the prowl.

Buddy on alert.

The two of them

Another from my natural light session with the pups. I just love how the light wraps around them. Our white ceiling helps to spread the light even more.

Nina and Buddy

ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/80s, 40mm. Light source: large bay window to camera left.

Buddy by window light

I don’t often get Buddy looking this happy. This is the only piece of furniture he is allowed on, and usually only when the protective blanket is on it. I made an exception for our photo session.

400 ISO. f/2.8, 1/80s, 40mm. Light source: large bay window to camera left.

My Boy

Buddy in the backyard.

Sweetie and the Pups

We did yesterday’s shoot in the backyard, so of course, the dogs had to stick their noses in every once in a while.

They love getting skritched.

This is about as close to a kiss as one will get from Buddy. Somehow he never learned lickey-face, so the most one gets is a wave of his nose in front of your face. (Which is fine with both of us)

Nosey Nina.

White Balance Salvation?

I often struggle with white balance. Too cool, too warm, a bit green . . . The automatic settings on my Canon work sometimes, and other times not so much. Auto White Balance (AWB) often gets it wrong. I have a gray card, but more often than not, it stayed in my backpack. I’d read about the ExpoDisc 2.0 (link) a couple of times and decided to give it a try. Amazon has a money-back guarantee, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

I took it out for a brief spin yesterday and I am very happy with the results. It is super easy to use. You just hold it in front of your lens, snap a picture and use that image have the camera manually set the correct white balance. I thought this would be complicated, but it wasn’t. It takes all of fifteen seconds to do it. It’s small enough to fit in any bag I’m carrying my camera in, and so it will go with me anywhere my camera does. It will get a good test today, as I am going to be indoors under what I assume will be fluorescent lights.

Buddy in the backyard. It was cloudy yesterday (rain today!).

Buddy and tennis ball at his feet.

Jezebel in my office lit by window light.

Buddy by window light.

Needless to say, I won’t be returning the ExpoDisc. I love it.

This roll went to Buddy

Kodak Portra 400. It loved Buddy. From what I’ve read Portra makes for great skin tones, and obviously, when one’s subjects are all furry, that’s hard to see. I’ve got another roll of this in my camera right now.

These are the “regular” 72 dpi scans I received from The Darkroom which are fine for the web, but not for printing. When I receive the negatives, I will scan some of my favorites.

Click on any image to see a larger version.