Day 266 – Not a great day

It started out pretty good. I’d been working on my Air Races photos a good part of the morning, but when I caught sight of the overcast skies I thought, “Great light for shooting outside and trying out my new 85mm lens!” So I headed out to the backyard, camera in hand, and stepped into a hold in the lawn (a hole dug long ago by our beloved, Daisy, which comes back to bite us on occasion). I twisted my ankle pretty badly and heard a crunch as I fell. While still on the ground I shot a couple of photos of Nina.

Yes, I realize what she’s doing, but Look At The Light! She looks spectacular!

Then I tried to walk it off and shot a couple of more.

Then I moved in on Buddy who was laying out on the deck, and for all his sweetness, couldn’t have cared less that Mom was in pain.

The only excitement I got out of him was when he heard Sweetie’s car pull into the driveway.

Then I tried icing my foot, but that wasn’t helping. In fact, the pain got worse, so off we headed to (the inappropriately named) Urgent Care. We had to go to Sparks as the x-ray tech in Fernley had called in sick. Lots and lots of waiting. Hours worth, in fact. No broken bones, just badly sprained.

They gave me an Air Cast, but it hurt more than it helped, so I took matters into my own hands.

A softer me

More practice with portrait lighting. Key light (soft box) was to camera left and above my head, with a bit of fill light (soft box) on my right side (as you look at me). I held a white poster-board on my lap to bounce light up to soften shadows under my jaw. Post process I softened the clarity of the portrait in Adobe Bridge.

Day 265 – Ready for the weekend!

Oh my goodness! I get to sleep in tomorrow!

Natural Light

I shot this in my office a couple of days ago. I like this one a whole lot better than the ones I shot today.

Day 253 – Clamshell Lighting

I’ve been putzing around with these all day in between doing chores and running around. Anyway, I need to start working on using clamshell lighting. I’ve used it before when we shot models in our lighting class, but in that case, our instructor set everything up. Today I took a stab at it. Here is a very simple explanation of clamshell lighting, for those of you not familiar with the concept.

Obviously I’m going to need to practice this quite a bit (and with someone other than myself!).

For this next one I put an accent light behind me.

Day 249 – Portrait Lighting Practice

Maybe I should hire a model? The shoot I thought I was going to do may not come to fruition, so you are stuck with me again. I’m working on getting the lighting right: no weird shadows, getting highlights in hair, and creating shape.

Okay…set up: Soft box at 45 degree angle to subject (me) at camera right. Light was about 6-feet high and angled down (that’s the light that you see on the top of my head). Light over my shoulder was my Speedlite at about 1/8 intensity bounced from umbrella. Pop-up flash at lowest intensity (1/124) used to fire Speedlite, but at that intensity did little add illumination.

In the shot below the Speedlite did not fire, but I still like the lighting in this one.

Day 245 – 56

Just messing around in my make-shift light studio today. My friend gave me some seamless paper, so I tacked it to the wall and set up my lights. I needed the practice because it looks like I’ve got another portrait gig coming up and I wanted to be sure I was comfortable with my lights and backdrop. Besides, I just need to keep practicing and trying new things.