Shadow

I have been wanting to take some photos of my dad's motorcycle for some time and finally got a chance to this past Saturday.  Total shoot time ~15mins. 

It is, I believe, a 2009 Honda Shadow Spirit.  The tins on the bike are metallic pearl white. 

The shoot took place at St Mary's University in one of there empty parking lots.  Very sunny conditions.  This and the combination of the white tins made setting the exposure a little difficult. 

Equipment:

• D3100, no tripod all handheld
• 18 to 55mm VR lens
• Manual setting

Overall, I am happy with the results.

AP

 

Love is patient...

First let me start by saying that the photo I am posting today is my version of a classic photo, so I cannot take creative credit for it. 

I saw this image a few times floating the web on photo sites, but I never saw a version with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  That's not to say there isn't a version like that, but I never saw it before.  The filter heart shadow and 1 Corinthians just fit together in my mind. 

Anyway...here is my version. 

Simple Setup: Bible, Light with light stand, tripod, camera, and polarized lens filter.   Oh.. and a piece of a cardboard box to block the light at the top of the Bible, given it the photo a closeness feel to it.  The Bibles glossy pages gave me a little hard time, but overall I am very happy with the photo. 

Setting:
ISO 100
Focal length 44mm
Shutter Speed 1/5sec (low light)
Aperture f/13 (to keep the text clear)

AP

Self Portrait

This one has some personal significance too me. 

In general, I tend to be the shooter (the photographer) and rarely in many photos, especially with my family and friends.  I don't mind really (maybe I do a little), but every once in a while I like to make a rare appearance. 

Mainly because one day, when my kids are grown up, I would like to pull the old photo book out.... okay okay... old iPad out and say.... look that's me.. I was not always old. 

In that effort, I took a self portrait, a little vain... yes... but it was for science (experience) sake.

I decided to go with B&W, I just like B&W photos better.  Maybe next time I will smile more. 

Here is the result.
Lighting in my garage was challenging, even with a external flash. 

Settings
ISO = 100
Local Length = 55
F-Stop = f/11
Shutter Speed 1/30sec
External Speedlight to left (Photographer propestive)
Black sheet as background

Ode to water...Part 1

Hello all,

This one took much longer and was harder than I thought it would be.  I wanted to freeze a water drop. 
I messed around with trying to learn how to capture these shots over a course of a week.  My initial results were horrible...blur...out of focus... under exposed... just a mess. 

I quickly learned that to capture these shots was more about lighting than anything else.  I attempted several methods these included:

1. Light from several light stands only.  No flash.  It turned out to be very difficult to get enough light from even several light stands.  Most of the images I captured with this method were very under exposed. 
2. Light from a speedlight (external flash) triggered remotely by my camera.  This method limited my shutter speed to the flash sync speed of 1/200sec. 
3. Light from a speedlight (external flash) triggered by hand using a longer exposure time in a low light room.  In this methond the flash duration freezes the action.

The best photos I captured thus far are from using Method 2.  I found that although my flash sync speed was 1/200sec, the flash duration was key.  The lower the flash power/intensity, the quicker/faster the flash burst, the better the image and frozen action.   

Method 3 showed lots of promise, and I will try using that method again in the future.  It seems to have a lot of potential. 

I am not completely satisfied with these photos, I feel I could do better.  The light source can be clearly seen in most of these photos which distracts from the splash event in my opinion.  They are still pretty cool.  Oh, I did use some flash gels (color transparencies) to give the image some color.  I also used blue food coloring to water to make it stand out more. 

I will definitely attempt to capture this event again in the future. 

The 1st image looks almost alive. 

General setup:
Len used: 55 to 200mm
f/8
1/160 to 1/200 second
ISO 200
Speedlight used with remote trigger.

AP

Inner Demons....

Hello my friends

I finally cleared my garage some and setup a little work area for taking photos.  Very happy about this. 

Got to work on two very cool photography projects this weekend.  Let me dive right in...

1.  A buddy of mine at work saw the photos I took of fire and asked if I would take one of a glass skull (empty Crystal Skull Vodka bottle) he had.  Below are the results.  The flame made the skull look blue (no photo editing). 

I used the same basic setup as my 1st fire photo shoot.

• Tripod
• Mirror plate (for cool reflections)
• Lighter fluid
• Fire extinguisher (so I don't burn the house down)
• Lighter
• Camera

Basic camera setting Manual mode:

• ISO 100
• Focal Length: 35mm (my prime lens)
• Aperture: f/1.8 (to let in a lot of light)
• Shutter speed: 1/320 sec (would of like to have gone a little faster, but did not want to miss with  my ISO to keep a good exposure)

2.  I call this one "Inner Demon".  We all have one.  I was inspired by a photo I saw taken by Evan Sharboneau. I had a lot of fun making this one.  I used Photoshop Elements to create the results.  I used the layer overlay and multiple tool to overlap the images.  I am very happy with the results.  At first I was just going to use a regular pseudo-serious look, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do this version.

 
 

Buzzing around...

Hello my friends,

Here's some that I captured at my folk's house.  They have some nice flowers on their front porch.  We were sitting talking when I saw these bees working away.  I hadn't seen bees in a while, so it brought a smile to my face.    Does any know the name of these flowers?

Shots info:

• Taken by hand (no tripod)
• Lens: 35mm
• Manual mode
• ISO 100
• Shutter speed range 1/640 to 1/3200sec.  I used the higher shutter speeds to freeze the bees in time. 
• f-Stop (appeature) rang f/2.8 to 7.1.  Played with the f-stop to change the depth of field. 

I really like ones with the bees in flight. 

Equipment report:  I ordered a new speedlight (external flash) and some light stands.  I should get them this weekend.  You know its a hobby when you start spending money. 

I got some projects that I am excited about that I will be working on over the weekend if time allows, so check back in soon. 

AP

 

Waste Land, Fairies, and a Festival

Hello all,

Hope everyone is doing well.  I have a few for this weekend. 

• Well I finally got a camera into Pick-n-Pull (one of my favorite spots).  It was my canon powershot and not my dslr.  The only plus is I added a hack to my canon to allow me to save the images in RAW format (aka  digital negatives).  Shooting RAW allows me to adjust the images a bit more than I could with JPEG.  I could not control the camera settings that much, but here are two that I liked. 

• I was inspired by a friend of my on levitation photos this pass week.  He had a donut floating on a table that look pretty neat, so I thought I give it a try.  I got my kiddos involved in this one.  They had a blast, and so did I.  I am happy with the results.  Also attached are photos of my two fairies. 
• Here is the general process for those who are interested.  Take a photo of the background with out your subjects.  Take a photo with your subject in the frame.  In this case my girls were laying on some outdoor footrests.  Merge photos using layer in a program like photoshop elements and use the masking tool to remove the footrests.  Insint backyard fairies.

• The last one for today is a portrait style shot of my girls at the Little Flower festival.  That's the festival in the background.  I wanted a blurred background so I set the f-stop to 2.8.  I also bumped up the shutter speed as high as I could without effecting exposure (1/640sec).  I have learned from shooting my girls that they move fast so I need to capture the shoot at a high shutter speed to avoid blur motion. 

Thanks for looking...AP