Day 70 – Scars

I’ve been wanting to shoot my heart-related scars for a while but knew that it would take effective lighting to pull it off. Our next assignment for class is to shoot and print two photos (black and white) using a hot shoe flash both on and off camera. You are getting a sneak peek at what I ‘m pretty sure I’m going to use.

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Day 61 – Cooperative Kitteh

Busy day! No chance to shoot anything worthy of posting here. Luckily I have critters!

We had a guest speaker tonight in our lighting class. He gave a rapid fire presentation on Speedlite flash photography and my brain is reeling. It will take me some time to absorb what he told us, but I did latch on to a couple of concepts and had to try to apply them when I got home.

I learned the difference between TTL mode and manual mode and how to lessen the intensity of the flash so I experimented with stopping down the flash so that it wasn’t as intense.

This is Maya. She was resting on the back of the sofa about an arm’s length from me. Shot at 100 ISO, f 9.0, 1/160s. Manual flash at 1/4 which I learned tonight (a) how to do and (b) is not one-fourth of intensity but rather 2 stops down. Thank goodness she puts up with me!

Inspiration: Max S. Gerber

I was introduced to Max Gerber at the Adult Congenital Heart Association conference last year. ACHA is an organization specifically established to serve as advocates for those of us who were born with heart defects (and the variety of them is staggering), and to make sure that we all realize that surgery isn’t the end of our journey, but just a part of it. We all need life-long care, but that doesn’t mean life-long disability. Far from it. The ACHA conference was one of the most inspiring events I’ve ever attended. Heart patients, their families, physicians, nurses, etc, all rubbing shoulders and united in common cause. For me, however, it was being surrounded by my CHD peeps that made the event memorable. Never in my life had I met another congenital heart patient and now here I was, surrounded by a ballroom full of them proudly showing off their scars and sharing their stories. I still get choked up thinking about it.

Max is a professional portrait photographer and author. I love his work.

He is also a congenital heart patient.

Max was given an area at the ACHA conference where he would shoot, for free, anyone who wished to be photographed. Here are a few of them. I recognize many of them and in particular, Gwen, with whom I shared a lively lunch, and Shirley, who was in the ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) breakout session I attended. The photos Max took of me didn’t make his website, but I did receive them.

carissa, heart patient (asd, sick sinus syndrome, pacemaker) © Max S. Gerber

Be sure to check out his portfolio and projects. Close to my heart are his photographs of evolutionists, and I was particularly delighted to see Eugenie Scott in the mix. She is a very special hero of mine.

Day 53 – Hanging Light or Abstract Art?

I shot this tonight at our Reno Freethinkers meeting. It was the light hanging from the ceiling illuminating the stairs to the second-floor room we were in. I shot it looking straight up from the stairwell.

Day 51 – Silhouette

More light play.

I shot these in my dark office. Holding my Speedlite 430EXII towards the wall I used manual mode to have the flash go off at a single point during the ten second exposure. I only set the exposure time so long so I could get in place. ISO 100, f/10, 10s.

I would have liked to have been a tad more to my left. I feel like I’m squished a little to close to the right of the frame, though I do like the light around my left arm.

Day 46 – A bit of snow!

Well, more than a bit, but not a dumping. The morning commute was a bit of a bear, but we need the snow (and lots more, frankly). It was a busy, busy morning and I didn’t get to go outside until the sun was high in the sky and the melt had begun in earnest, but I managed to get a few good shots. I’m torn between the two of these. I love the pine, but I also really like the second with its textures and delicate buds peeking out of the snow. I’m also very happy with the sharpness of both. Click on photos for larger resolution and you’ll see what I mean. The second one’s flowers have exquisite texture. Exposing for snow can be tricky, and I’m not quite satisfied with that aspect of my shots. #2 seems a little warm, but neither do I want the snow to be too blue.

I’m posting early because after work I’m headed over to the UNR lighting studio to work on our third project with a couple of my classmates.

Theme change

I’ve redecorated the place. The other theme felt a little too bright and I wasn’t crazy about the font. We’ll see if I stick with this one. See you all later.

Day 44 – Stick a fork in me

I hit the ground running today and never had a chance to come up for air, let alone break away to snap any photos. Tonight I improvised with my mini-light studio and a dinner fork.