Ray Ring Flash

As part of my never ending quest for perfect light, I decided that a ring flash would be a neat toy to play with. It provides an even blast of on-axis light directly into your subjects face, and if the subject is standing close to a wall will generate a "halo" type effect. This was just a test shot that I played around with in CS4, I added some high key effects after the fact and did a B&W conversion. I'm eager to try this outside by underexposing the clouds and sun.

the opposite of not blinking.

the opposite of not blinking.
Originally uploaded by I_Take_Pitchers

This photo instantly became one of my all-time favorites. I love it love it love it. I don't think she was really even acting surprised here, just trying not to blink as my on-camera wireless iTTL commander sent out pre-flashes. This usually causes people to blink before the slave flash is finished firing. It's a good reason to buy an SU-800.

Varun & Rishi

I seem to be a paid photographer now. That part seems a bit odd, but I'm doing something that I truly love. Capturing moments that will (hopefully) be loved and preserved by a family for years, decades, a lifetime is a pretty heavy weight when you think about it. But it's worth it and I hope I can continue to do it.

This shoot was for Rishi and Varun, ages 2 & 8 and two brothers who are polar opposites in personality. Rishi was a bit shy at first but he eventually came around - I think climbing on the swing set was the key. Or maybe it was swinging around in a circle and kicking me in the arm?? Varun on the other hand was ready for his moment in the sun, he was posing like he was ready for his ESPN magazine cover.

If this is where photography is going then count me in

Apparently Sony announced a new mirrorless SLR at PMA 2010.  Some screenshots of the user interface have just been released.
The one that set my heart all a-flutter was this one:

For bokeh geeks, this is pure manna. This means you're no longer solely dependent on getting those f/1.4 & f/1.2 lenses in order to blur the background.  Of course, this kind of effect has always been available on photoshop (by applying a duplicate layer with lens blur then painting through to the parts you want in-focus) but that process is slow and not available to all photographers.  Another cool feature is that the mode dial now appears to be physically removed from the camera and placed on the LCD touchscreen as a virtual dial:

Read full post below:
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/sony-ultra-compact-dslr-camera-concept-menu-and-lcd-screenshots-11-03-2010/

DIY Beauty Dish

Via David Tejades' blog, I decided to spend a chunk of my weekend time building a beauty dish on the cheap.  Not necessarily because I had previous experience with a dish and wanted one of my own (I didn't), but mostly because it was cheap and I wanted another tool in my burgeoning arsenal of lighting tools.  Surprisingly (because most of the time you read about DIY and they're pretty involved and painful) this turned out to be pretty simple to gather the materials and create.  Everything was off the shelf at Home Depot and I don't think any single piece cost more than $5.  And the light - oh the glorious light.  What an enormous difference diffused and soft off-camera light makes!

And here are the final results (using an SB800 with CLS triggering):

You've Got The Look

This shot is a great example of how luck sometimes interacts with actual photographic intent.  Usually this is when magic happens.  Not to say that this shot is magic, but it does have a certain charm (to me at least).  I was trying to capture just the top half of my wife's head (eyes and glasses) in the lower right corner of the frame (using the rule of thirds).  The first few shots I took placed her in the corner, but her eyes were either looking away or were shut.  At that point she heard a noise or Gabriella said something that caused her to move more to the middle of the frame and her eyes to veer off.  For once I was on the ball and snapped off a few frames.

Motorola End Of Year Party 2010

It was a good time, exhausting (3 hours straight of shooting), but enormously helpful in terms of giving me an idea what's in store for a photographer charging money and shooting an actual event.  When it was all said and done, I ended up with some pretty good shots.  Especially the concert shots - I had never tried anything like that before.