DIY Beauty Dish
It’s been a while since I tackled a DIY project, so I figured I was coming due. For a while now I’ve had my eye on a beauty dish, with just the $100 price tag holding me back. In all honesty, that’s pretty good, as photography gear goes. But each time I went to add [...]
Saturday model shoot – Theory
I’ve got a friend lined up to model for me Saturday evening, once I return from a photo-related meeting upstate (more on that later, hopefully!). I’m hoping to catch the last hour or so of evening light and then work into twilight. I’ve spent the last couple of evenings studying several photog’s Flickr streams, and [...]
Evergreen Grove
On a small penninsula at Lackawanna there’s a grove of evergreen trees, planted in straight lines, a remnant of the days when the area was still farmland, I suppose. It’s a small grove; a brisk walk will take you through it in about two minutes. But since the first time I hiked through, I’ve always [...]
Sweet 16 – or, the Dreaded Party Venue
Sunday was my girlfriend’s cousin’s Sweet Sixteen party. Long about time for the group photo I stepped in to help out, in the process putting myself square in that always-painful situation; shooting in the Dreaded Party Venue. You know the one I mean. The church hall, the school gym, the community center. The name changes [...]
Canon Wireless Flash System
With the introduction of the EOS 7D, Canon finally took the initiative to play catch-up to Nikon in an area where they had been woefully lacking: wireless flash control. For years Canon has been not only in the backseat, but in the far back of the bus, when compared to Nikon’s Creative Lighting System. The [...]
Ambient Light
Last time I covered some Strobist-style shots, both studio & mixed-ambient based. Working with strobes is a lot of fun and the level of control that it grants is clearly higher than you get when you leave it to nature. Natural light, on the other hand is unpredictable; clouds come and go, the sun rises [...]
Rocking the Light
If you read the previous thread about the Strobist workshop, then you’ll recognize some of what follows. This all came out of the last hour or two of the workshop, when a group of us decided that by staying inside, we were missing out on the best stuff. In the end, we have to thank [...]
Strobist Workshop: a HUGE success
Saturday was the culmination of a long process: the first Northeastern DPC Strobists workshop. This was an event that I’d had in mind for several years, finally brought to fruition, and man was it ever a blast! Ten photographers descended on the Pocono Inn’s conference room for a full day of studio shooting. We had [...]
Small studio? No problem!
Some days you just want to kick yourself for being dense. There was an active thread on FredMiranda.com the other day, asking about using a 20×20 foot room as a studio space. Now as studios go, 20×20 is rather small (think bedroom sized), and the challenges of making photos in there become more pronounced. Nevertheless, [...]
Large Family Portrait – Theory
Got a gig booked for two weekends from now, photographing a large family portrait. We’re planning on about 25 people, all meeting at the home of the parents, where we’re going to squeeze them all into a room and make them smile like they want to be there. The goal is to get in, setup, [...]
