Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, artistic, camera, canon, columbus, contest, dslr, grass roots video, kevin randolph, ohio, photo challenge, photography, strobist
It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon and I’m not feeling inspired today. On the advice of a friend I thought I would try to take an interesting pic of the front of a car that was parked outside of my work, but I’m not sure if I succeeded. This was the best of the bunch and it’s okay, but I think that it’s missing a certain oomph.
When I previsualized this picture before I snapped it, I saw the bumper being bigger and closer in perspective to the lens. I think I didn’t have the right lens to take the shot I wanted. I think if I would have had an extreme wide angle lens it would looked more like what I pictured.
On the positive side of things, I did get to try out a new technique for camera protection that I had seen used for television production. As it was still raining while I was shooting, and I’m not using weather sealed pro grade gear, I took a small trash bag and put it over the camera and flash. I cut a small hole for the lens to go through and taped the ends to the lens hood. I did not cut a hole for the flash and just used the translucent bag for diffusion. The technique worked well and I promptly put some more of the same style of bags in my camera bag.
So photographic failure? Maybe, but I still think that there are some interesting shapes amd the exposure is good as well as the detail in the water droplets. But as an experiment in makeshift water resistant bag for the camera and flash it was a total success.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, artistic, bichon, bichon frise, bolognese, camera, canon, columbus, contest, dslr, grass roots video, kevin randolph, ohio, photo challenge, photography, strobist
My nephews came to visit with us for a couple of weeks and it’s been puppy love ever since. Here’s a quick snapshot of Max with our youngest pup Mitzi. Between the boys and the our dogs it’s been a non-stop adventure in the backyard. This shot was taken amist a came of soccer when an impromptu time out occured for some lovin’. You can see Miti was mid kiss when this shot was taken.
I know that this shot, much like the one of Jennifer and Drew in front of thier new house, is more of a snapshot than a "photogrpahic keeper," but the more I think about it – isn’t that what life is? A series of snapshots? Life isn’t full of handcrafted moments where everything is set up perfectly and we get ot redo things until we get it right. Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are those moments in life where things are pre-planned and setup well in advance, we should cherrish those memories too. But I’m finding as I continue through this project that as much as I love to test myself with new photographic techniques and tricks, I am beginning to remember more and more why I got into photography in the first place – as a tool to help me remember the good things in life.
So I submit this snapshot as my keeper for July 10th – not based on it’s photographic merit but because it will remind me of the boys, Max and Mitch, and running in the backyard like I was 8 years again.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/09/09, 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, 7/9/9, artistic, boot camp, boot camp 2, camera, canon, columbus, contest, david hobby, dslr, food photography, grass roots video, July 09, kevin randolph, key lime, melting, ohio, photo challenge, photography, pie, SBC2ASSIGN2, still life, strobist
Today’s photo is for my entry into a contest hosted on another blog – www.strobist.blogspot.com. Or simply, “Strobist.” This is the second in a contest series that David Hobby calles “Boot Camp 2.” Each assignment is given with specific guidelines as to what is to be shot and as always there’s a deadline. The deadline for this assignment is Saturday. And I must say that I’m pretty proud of myself for getting the assignment done before the day it is due.
As you can see this assignment was to photograph some food. And apparently there are more obstacles than I had originally thought when it comes to shooting food. I really did think, “It’s just like a table top still life… but I can eat it when I’m done.” Oh, how I was wrong. Let me ’splain, Lucie.
I read several different articles on-line about food photography and a couple of blogs by food photographers, let alone the updates on Strobist. It seemed pretty straight forward, but really – a food STYLIST!?! Who has even heard of such a job title. I mean, anybody can put a piece of pie on a plate… right?
As it turns out, there’s a bit more to it. Who knew? Apparently you have to be able to cut the piece of pie perfectly. Don’t chop the crust or drag the knife through the filling, because if you do… you’ll be cutting another piece. Then lift it out of the pan without putting your finger in the center and leaving a big div-it – not that I would know anything about that. And once you place the pie on the plate at in the right position, you have to balance the lime pieces perfectly on the quickly melting whipped cream.
Once all of that is done – perfectly – you swap out your real piece of pie for the paper towel stand in that you used to set up your lights. But wait… the actual pie is taller than the “stunt pie.” Let’s reposition a couple of lights and raise the camera accordingly before the whole thing loses it’s appeal. Snap a couple more frames and then realize that everything else in the frame needs adjusting now, too.
QUICK!! The whipped topping is MELTING!!!
Lime down! I repeat… Lime Down!
Reposition the lime wedge and try to mask the crevasse created by it’s slow and glacial decent. Snap a few more frames.
Then my wife, Jessica, /#1 photo assistant/ stylist says casually, “Hey, did you notice there’s whipped topping on the side of the piece of pie?”
WHAT?!?
Let’s clean that off right away and snap one more picture. Then the whipped topping starts to drip.
Shoot’s over.
Yup, just like a table top still life… only with a lot more stress and working against rising tempuratures. And no… I didn’t buy the dry ice like the two articles I read suggested. Why would I need dry ice?
Any comments or critiques are welcome.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/08/09, 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, 7/8/9, artistic, camera, canon, columbus, contest, Dell, dslr, grass roots video, internet, July 8th, kevin randolph, laptop, ohio, photo challenge, photography, strobist, tech, technology, www
I was wondering what to photograph today… and looking online for inspiration. Then I realized I should take a picture of the tool I was using! So here is a picture of our laptop keyboard. We’ve had this Dell for a little over a year. It started out as Jessica’s computer for work, but as my computer is at our office, I began to “borrow” it more and more here at home.
The photo setup is actually pretty simple. You just have to have to tools to do it. I set the laptop on the coffee table and put a flash on either side on the little stands that come with them. I then gelled one with red and the other with blue. I worked out the angles and a bit of the power issues – the blue gel absorbs more light than the red does – and there you have it. The things to remember when setting up a shot like this are that the low angle of the flashes to the keyboard is very important and you should use colors that are complementary.
Please feel free to comment and as always – constructive criticism is welcome.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/07/09, 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, 7/7/9, artistic, bichon, bichon frise, bolognese, camera, canon, columbus, contest, dog, dslr, grass roots video, July 7th, kevin randolph, mitzi, ohio, pet, photo challenge, photography, sleep, sleepy, snuggle, strobist
July 7th – What ever am I going to take a picture of? I really thought that I’d be quite a bit further through this before I started not having an idea. So it was after 11pm and I still didn’t know what I was going to shoot, but I was already in pajammas so I knew I wouldn’t be going out into the world. So it has to be something in the house.
Well… the dogs are always in the house. And I never really get tired of taking pictiures of them or our cat, Nelson. And as I walked into the bedroom, Mitzi was lying there on the new comforter trying to convince the rest of us that it was bed time.
I’ve not yet done a high key portrait of a person, but why not our littlest girl? So she heard me make a little noise and she opened her eyes and CLICK! that was the picture. I used one flash on camera pointed straight up at the ceiling to illuminate the room. My only wish for this pic is that I had angled the flash head slightly so that there would be catchlights in her eyes. I know I could photoshop them in, but I really don’t like to do that unless I have too.
I know there is little color in the shot and that some of her fur detail is hard to see, but here nose and some of her eye detail goes to true black. And as long as I have taken advantage of the full dymamic range of the camera, who cares if all of the rest of the histogram is push towards the right (light) side.
Hope you enjoy this shot. And no, she’s nearly never this calm and relaxed – unless she’s snuggling or trying to sleep.
Please feel free to comment or critique the photo, but please try to be constructive.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1950, 1960, 365 project, 40d, 50, 550ex, 580ex, artistic, brady bunch, camera, canon, catalog, columbus, contest, dslr, grammy, grandmother, grass roots video, hassler, hawaii, infinity, kevin randolph, limbo, ohio, photo challenge, photography, product shot, seamless, strobist, tiki
I again wanted to take a picture using flash, but I also wanted to only use one flash to accomplish something that usually requires at least 2 flashes if not more. I decided on a faux catalog shoot of a tiki statue that had belonged to my wife’s grandmother. She acquired it on a vacation to Hawaii in the 1950’s or 1960’s. And it appears to be a hand carved out of real wood – as opposed to cast from plastic as are his buddies down in our Tiki Bar.
So I took out the scrap paper from a large background roll that I had cut down. It’s about 2 feet wide and several yards long. I draped it over the kitchen table and taped it to the wall. No background stand needed. then I placed the camera on the tripod, made sure my vertical on the camera was the same as Mr. Tiki’s (lest he appear intoxicated), and fired away with one flash on camera.
It worked pretty well except for there was a dicernable shadow falling behind and to camera left of Mr. Tiki. I’m sure for most purposes this would be fine, but I wanted that floating in limbo look. So back to the camera bag.
I got my TTL cord so that the flash could be moved off camera and still be controlled by the camera. I then held the flash in position right behind the lens and bounced the flash off the ceiling. Perfect!!… except now the recesses in the carving went too dark and were filled with shadow. So back to the camera bag.
This time I got one of my Honl bounce cards and placed it on the flash to throw some light straight forward while the majority of the light still shot up to the ceiling. BINGO! I now had the shot I was looking for, constructed in about 10 minutes with only one flash.
Now I do have to admit that I did edit the pic at the top of this post with Photoshop. But it was literally a 1-click edit. To even out the slight tonal variations in the white background caused by not completely clearing off the kitchen table before shooting, I filled in the background with one solid color of white. Here’s the original for comparison.
As always please feel free to comment on the pictures and to offer your sugestions for tomorrows pic. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/05/09, 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, 7/5/9, artistic, backyard games, bean bag, camera, canon, columbus, contest, corn, Cornhole, cornhole boards, dslr, flash, grass roots video, july, july 5th, kevin randolph, ohio, photo challenge, photography, strobist, toss
I haven’t used my flash(es) in a couple of days and thought I should get back in the habit. But what to take a picture of? Well, after I mowed the yard today I spent the better part of the afternoon staining and sealing a pair of Cornhole boards. For the uninitiated Cornhole- sometimes called Soft Horseshoes – is basically a game of beanbag toss that’s played a lot like Horseshoes. There are two boards place 20 feet apart and there’s a six in hole cut out of each board. The goal is to throw a 1 pound bag of corn kernels from one set of boards to the other and make it through the hole.
Back to the photography… After playing a bit of Cornhole today I thought it might be nice to capture some the the “action” during a game, but everyone else was done playing well before I got my camera out. So after some thought and waiting for the sun to go down, I convinced my wife to throw a few bags in the backyard. There is a setting on my flash that I haven’t found a good use for until now called “Multi.” It causes the flash to go off multiple times during an exposure at a frequency that you can set. I set up the camera, tested the flash setting, had Jessica toss four bags while I tweaked things, and then on the second toss of the second set of four it all came together in the picture you see above.
I found this image to be a bit different and a good use of this specialized flash setting. I’m not sure if this type of picture is what was intended for this setting, but it worked exceptionally well. My next thought for this setting is to take a picture of one of our dogs running across the yard. I just hope I can make that one happen some time this month.
Please feel free to comment back with suggestions and ideas for future photographs, or to critique what I’ve posted thus far. There’s nothing better than good, thoughtful, constructive feedback.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/04/09, 365 project, 40d, 7/4/9, artistic, bar-b-que, camera, canon, caveman, columbus, contest, dslr, fire, fireworks, grass roots video, independance day, indirect heat, july 4th, kevin randolph, kingsford, meat, ohio, photo challenge, photography, slow cooked, steak, weber grill
We slow cooked some steaks tonight with a little indirect heat and I’ve always liked the look of a charcol fire – let alone how wonderful it makes what you’re cooking taste. So I fired off a few shots at the briquettes in my trusty Weber. After looking at this one for a bit I think maybe I could have used some flash for fill light – maybe raking from top camera right towards bottom camera left – but I was worried about loosing the dark, caveman, poke the coals with a stick feel that I think most people feel when looking at a fire. Mmmm… fire… mmmm… meat…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/03/09, 365 project, 40d, 7/3/9, artistic, camera, canon, columbus, contest, dslr, fireworks, grass roots video, greenlawn cemetary, july 3rd, kevin randolph, ohio, photo challenge, photography, red white and boom, scioto river
Every year here in Columbus there is a rather large 4th of July celebration that happens (not on the 4th by the way) called ”Red, White, & Boom.” Now with a bit more planning, I could have done your standard firework picture, but that seemed a little over done. Besides, I had to work until 8pm so I would have had trouble getting a good spot anyway.
After a little brainstorming and thinking about what Independance Day is really about, I thought that if I could capture some fireworks with something meaningful in the foreground… Well that would be so much better than just a building or some people. So I settled on a war memorial that I had never been to before and wasn’t even sure where it was. Needless to say, I had a bit of trouble finding it – and I still haven’t – but, I found this magnificent structure stuck in the middle of an industrial area. I have no idea what the building is or what it was originally constructed for, but it I found it fascinating. Not only does it make a good picture by itself, but it would make for a brilliant backdrop for the right model/client.
One word of caution when photographing something near the river at dusk… beware of bats. While taking this picture I was dive bombed a couple of times by some bats that were none too happy about all of the noise and commotion from the fireworks.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 07/03/09, 365 project, 40d, 550ex, 580ex, 7/3/9, artistic, camera, canon, columbus, contest, dslr, grass roots video, honl, howard rosenzweig, july 3rd, kevin randolph, off camera flash, ohio, photo challenge, photography, strobist
A gentleman that I work with shot this subject matter a couple of days ago and while I thought that his photo was of a unique capture of an everyday item, I thought it lacked a bit of something… a bit of sculpting with some light would dramatically improve the shot in my opinion. And with an art shot, it’s really all about your personal opinion. So I used his framing and my lighting to come up with the “safety” shot you see here. Hope you like it.
