Day 152 – The Huntress

Nina was bound and determined to get whatever lizard or small desert creature had escaped into this roll of chicken wire.

She tried dragging it around and digging under it.

But . . . no luck.

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 146 – Morning coffee with a new friend

My sister-in-law and nephew arrived yesterday afternoon. Everyone except me trooped over to the hospital to visit Dad and then run some errands. I stayed at the house with Ta-Shi and brother’s family pup, Lo, who is as cute as a bug, but much more inquisitive and puppyish than Ta-Shi. She greeted me this morning and joined me on the side patio for my morning coffee.

Day 128 – Nosy!

I was shooting the dogs again today after reprinting my final project, and Nina got a little too close to the camera. But I like it, so it’s my photo of the day. Time for bed!

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 112 – f/1.8

Playing with my 50mm lens again today. I really love the flexibility it provides as far as depth of field, but with opportunity comes challenge. Today I experimented with very shallow depth of field. It is quite the challenge to find that sweet spot, but oh how I love the effect of falling off focus! f/1.8 was a bit too tight, so I stopped down a bit to 2.2. The best results of both are below.

ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/200s, 50mm

f/2.2, ISO 100, 1/30s, 50mm

Day 106 – Serendipity

Sometimes you just get a lucky shot.

A friend of mine posted a link to this Virtual Lighting Studio (be patient…it takes a while to load). Of course, I had to play with it. What’s really cool about it is that once you find a look you like, you can save it as a jpeg. When you open said jpeg, you see not only your image, but a diagram on where to place the lights to get the same effect. Pretty nifty, huh?

And so you know, I felt the call to try it out. I clamped a dark blanket to our living room windows to block out the bits of sunlight that leaked through the wooden blinds. I shoved the hutch away from the tall wall and pushed the sofa and love seat to each side of the room. I grabbed my studio lights and set them up, along with my camera.

“NO!” I told myself. “Get your taxes done. THEN you can play. And while you’re at it, start some laundry.”

Sigh. Okay…

I quickly worked through our taxes (and lo and behold, we’re getting a bit back – taking a couple of photography classes at the university does have other benefits!)

I finally was able to get going, and just had some fun for a bit. But the best moment was when Maya jumped up onto the chair I’d been posing in. She’s a bit shorter than I am.

As for what I was trying to accomplish in session today…highlights in my hair and a defined jawline. It’s all about seeing the light.

Main light (soft box) was in front of me to camera left and high, angled down. Second light (soft box as well) was behind me and to camera right. Slightly lower than the main light. This light got moved quite a bit during the session to try to give me what I was going for. I moved it closer, raised it, brightened and dimmed it.

I know I'm not smiling, but look at the highlight on my cheek, and my jaw looks great!

I really like the highlight along the right side of my face. Nicely lit hair too.

I'm liking the hair and the cheekbones.

Day 99 – Gray Card

I’ve been struggling with my color shots, especially those shot indoors. I’ve had a gray card for a few weeks now but haven’t put it to work until today. It makes a world of difference.

Though I set my camera’s white balance I’ve been noticing that my photos still seem to have a bluer hue to them than the actual scene. Below is a (blurry) photo of Maya sitting on the coffee table. I set the camera’s white balance to “shade.” You can see the gray card in the lower left corner.

I then opened the RAW file in Adobe Bridge and set the white balance tool using White Balance Tool (click on tool then click on gray card with eye dropper tool).