Meetup Fun

Yesterday we met up with 10 other photographers and 3 models for an off camera lighting meetup.

My wife Lorrie and I had a great time. The day started off with a short lecture and I snapped a few shots of the setup which Christine, our leader, was showing us.

After a short lecture we moved quickly into shooting. We split groups into Nikon, Canon, and Canon. How does Nikon stay in business with all these Canon shooters out there? ;-)

[On to the models...]

In the 90's there was a fear that the advent of the internet would turn our society in to a bunch of geeks, never wanting to interact with each other. Nothing could be farther from the truth... Take our first model for the day Lindsay. Besides being cute as a button, she plays World of Warcraft, and is a self proclaimed geek. This spawned the idea of creating something edgy and tough. Not the common portrait of the dainty female but a warlock which would just as soon smash your head in as get roses on the first date!


Unfortunately, we really did not have the time to take this idea through to completion. First the wardrobe was not too tough. Lindsay did have a change of clothes but by the time we were getting the light where we wanted it we ran out of time with her. I took the liberty of editing these in post a bit to get more of the look I was looking for. They are not totally there but I think you get the idea.



Our next model was Laura. We moved outside and found the Muni station shelter made a good prop to pose against. I thought it would be nice to have some Light coming from up top to simulate a light fixture which had long since been broken and painted over... The portable softbox I had and a boom provided a nice "voice activated light stand". (I wonder if I have to pay some royalties to Strobist for that term?) I think these shots are nice but Chris had the right idea by using his telephoto to control the background better. I thought about doing that but I did not really see the potential until seeing his post here. Next time... :-D

My favorite shot of Laura was:



However, I absolutely hate the stop sign in the background. If I was inclined to spend more time on it I would fix it with Photoshop but I left it here to show what makes photography hard. It is all the little details which make the difference between a good photo and a great photo... I make a lot of good photos and the ocasonal great photo. Some day I will make all great photos! :-D

Anyway, I liked some of the others as well. Like this one.


One other "Monday morning quarterback" moment... We should have put a 1/4 or 1/2 CTO on the flash to get it to balance warmer than the cool, cloudy, stormy day we were using as a backdrop. That is another one of those, good vs great photo opportunities.

Finally we moved back inside for our last model Michael. Michael is an avid bike racer. When he first mentioned posing in his "skin suit" thoughts of a boudiour shot came to mind... But then he explained it was his biking outfit. I for one was a bit relieved. :-D

By this time Lorrie, Chris, and I were really starting to mesh. We quickly arrived at a pose and the lighting was coming easier. We had a bit of trouble in lighting the background to get the separation we wanted. At first we also wanted to do a rim light which would give us some highlights on the bike. We all really liked this idea but we were getting some harsh highlights on his side. Here is an example with the side/back light.



I really like how the bare flash in this shot gives hard contrasty light to the bike. Unfortunatly Michael's head was blending into the background too much for us. We wanted to light the background but not too much. A spot grid came to the rescue on the background which really provided separation for his head from the background. I am not sure how I feel about the halo effect but I think it works. I think Michael said it best when he mentioned this pose felt like he was a "king sitting on his throne". I like that. It works... This is my final shot.



This is the only set up which I took the time to shoot the set up... Just in case you are wondering...



Pretty simple 2 light stuff... I wish I had thought to go back with our side/rim light. I would have liked to seen what the bike being just "touched" with a hard bare flash would have done to give the bike some light. It may have been too much and distracted but I would have like to have tried it. Instead we thought it would be nice to try something different. Michael was looking for something tough and domernering. Something which said, "I'm a mean green cycling machine..." We all thought shooting up at him bearing down on the camera would be a good idea. Unfortunately the background was a bit short to really shoot straight up. We still made a decent attempt and I think this shot has that feeling to it.



About this time Christine came back in and was telling us to stop shooting as it was 4:30. I think the hall closed at 5 and so we had to get things cleaned up. About 5 minutes later I thought that it would have been cool to get Michael on the bike out on street... Oh well, next time... :-D

Over all Lorrie and I had a great time. Chris was an excellent partner in our group and all three models were wonderful to work with. I am really glad we went.

Thanks, Christine, Lindsay, Laura, Michael, Chris, and of course to my lovely Wife, Lorrie...

All the photos are here...

And the official meetup photos here...

Till next time,
Light Cipher

Project 52, 2010

This post is coming a bit late in the game but I have the photos to back me up... So I don't feel guilty...

Anyway, upon the new year, like many people, I made a resolution. I don't feel this is to much of a cliche. This is because this is the perfect time to start a project like this one. I plan to take a photo of a very similar scene each week throughout the year. I chose a local landscape which hopefully will give me some feeling of what it is like during all different times of day and times of year. The first 2 weeks the photos are...



And...

We will see as the year goes on how this works out. Basically I want to get a shot every week...

Light Cipher

It's begining to look a lot like xmas!!!

The decorations are coming out at our house.


Merry Christmas!


Light Cipher

FIREWORKS!!!

July 4th in the United States means fireworks! Like many others we went to our local show.

Some of the shots gave me light on the crowd below. I really wanted that effect. I feel it gives the display some "grounding". I still had to do some editing to really bring them up. But I think they worked for many of the shots. Here are a few of my favorites. To see more, just click on the images.Of course I had to include some closer shots. This one was pretty cool.

Details on the settings are included on my web site. But the basics are a sturdy tripod, "mirror up", cable release, a small aperture (large "f" number), a longer shutter speed (~2 seconds for most of these), focus set at infinity, and timing. I think I got the timing pretty good on these since I could see the "shells" going up and started the shutter when I saw the burst.

Enjoy,
Light Cipher

Correction regarding the 1966 Corvair

I got some of the facts wrong in the previous post. My father had this to say after reading it...

"I'm not up on this "bloging" but what I see, I like. As to the car, it is a drivers side remote mirror. It also has: automatic trans, bucket seats, wooden steering wheel, air conditioning, 140 engine. (Stock with 4 carbs, two primary and two secondary. It has lots of zip."

It is a very nice car. Thanks to my parents for helping me get this shot.

Light Cipher

Happy 4th of July USA!!!

So I went home for my 20th high school reunion... Man do I feel old... So my parents have some classic Corvair cars. One of which is a 1966 4 door Corsa which was used on the Chevy proving ground. Among other unique features it has a passenger side remote control mirror; something rare in 1966. As it turns out my parent actually purchased their house in July 1966. So I thought this following picture was pretty appropriate...

July 4th 1966...


Happy July 4th to the United States!

Light Cipher

ED4 Safety Clinic

I belong to a lot of clubs. I have a hectic life and I am always on the move. I just bought a netbook and verizon wireless card be able to keep up with my online life while on the move in my "real" life... But I digress...

This past weekend I shot an event which I have been a part of for many years. Esprit De Four, a Silicon Valley OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) club puts on a biannual Safety Clinic.

This one day class presents students with a morning of classroom instruction followed by an afternoon of hands on driving experience. Since I love photography so much I have been dubbed the club photographer. To get to the photography for at least a bit in the post... I tried something new this year which I would have never tried before reading Strobist and Joe Mc Nally's 2 books. This year I threw on my SB-900 to really make the shots pop in the morning and afternoon sun... This turned out quite well. I know I could have done better but I did not want to take too many chances. Even though this was not a paying gig, I wanted to treat it as such so the students and club members could have some good shots to share. So far I have not heard any complaints!!!

Anyway, if you are into getting out into the back country and you want to take a lot of camera gear OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) driving, and Esprit De Four's class, might be just the thing for you. The day starts off with registration and vehicle inspection. Here students learn a little about their vehicles, what equipment is really necessary for a basic day run, and prepare a bit for the day by airing down their tires. Airing down is very important off-road to really grip the various types of terrain you encounter.
















After inspections the students enter the class room for some lecture. Esprit De Four is very lucky to have Kelly Swanson as one of our instructors. Kelly was a contender for the US Camel Trophy team.

He is the best spotter I have ever met and is definitely the guy you want to have on trail with you. In addition to the classroom lecture, the classroom instructors demonstrate popular off-highway equipment such as Hi-Lift jacks, winches, straps, and lockers. The locker demo in particular is very informative.


After the morning classroom session the students get a quick lunch and drivers meeting. Here they meet the Esprit De Four members who will be guiding them on the practical trail exercises. Once again we have excellent guidance on trail. Here we see Ellen get "baby" air while demonstrating the "ravine".

So that brings me to one of the obstacles we have set up for the students; the "ravine". The ravine is... a... well... ravine. We have the students drive up it. This is really more intimidating to look at then to drive.
This is the place where we can get some really good photo ops. So since I am the club photographer. I get stationed here. Some times I feel bad I am not helping much with spotting vehicles but the students are in good hands with Kelly.

This year we had a special treat. The Palo Alto fire department sent some of their driving instructors to our class. They were very cool and took their F450 through everything. Here are some of the better shots.


With the changing conditions the SB-900 really helped to balance the dark trucks shady side. The spot I am in for this shot is the best for getting the vehicles if they get a tire in the air. Unfortunatly the setting sun is backlighting the trucks. So the SB-900 did a good job of just filling in the side of the trucks.

I still would have liked the background darker.


In the following shots especially the truck needs to be a stop or 2 lighter. However, I was working fast and had the flash set to fill, and when a 14,000 pound truck starts to put a tire in the air you go into the dark shade and start shooting. Next time I will think to crank the flash a bit as this angle further up the ravine had a much brighter background... ;-) I still think the shots work though.



















At the end of the day the firefighters had a lot of water they had been hualing around all day... That just had to be emptied. The kids got a real thrill out of that...


Until next time,
Light Cipher