Dean's Light Box

Hunting for Dinner

A couple of red-tailed hawks have been gliding over and around our home since the wind has been rather persistent.  They arrived again this evening, evidently hunting for whatever small animals they might find in the wild grass.  Despite attempts in the past, I've found them tough to capture with my camera for two main reasons: My longest lens is 200mm, which is ok, if I could capture a shot of the hawk withing about 50 feet and my camera is not the most nimble focuser out there.  Nevertheless, we managed this shot right after our dinner:

 

 200mm, 1/800th of a second, f/5.6, ISO 200.

Can you tell me what is *less than optimal* about this shot from a technical point of view?  Two main things come to mind and I'd like to see whether it's just me or others can see the limitations.

Hourglass

Hourglasses somehow capture the attention of most people.  EV has had this little piece out for several weeks.  It belongs with one of our games and proclaims this fact overtly with its many nicks and scratches.  Even so, it is somehow captivating to watch the sand fall.

 

55mm, 1/500th of a second, f/11, ISO 200, manual flashes right and left diffused by my DIY light box.  I'm going to find a way to photography a larger, less scratched hourglass, mark my words.

Finding His Passion

A couple of weeks ago we had some family friends over after a nice swim at the pool and indoor water park.  Their two year old appears to have taken to the drums, possibly to the dismay of our friends.

 

 55mm, 1/125th of a second, f/4, ISO 800, manual flash camera left.

Photo Lighting for the Snare

I've felt a little stuck lately, as far as photo ideas.  Then a couple of days ago I had an idea to photograph my snare drum with it lit from underneath--the head making a rather effective diffusion panel.  But I didn't want it to look fake, just illuminated as if sitting at the rock concert venue before the show, with fairly stark, dramatic stage lighting.

 

55mm, 1/60th of a second, f/16, ISO 200.

And here's the setup shot for those with a "behind-the-scenes" sense of curiosity:

That's a speedlight under the drum, remote triggered from the camera with my handy $37 wireless flash trigger kit (which I have found to be a fantastic investment--reliable as can be, a little whimpy as far as construction, but it gets the job done and has not misfired once).  The light stand for this speedlight was a 27 cent you-fold-it banker's box that happened to be in the room.

Then in the background we have a studio flash that uses an optical flash trigger to sync with the speedlight.  And yes, that is a massive three-foot-long homemade cardboard snoot on that light.  I used that to direct the light at the snare while preventing spill into the lens or the floor within the frame.  It's providing a little more of the overall light and gives a bit of a stage-spot look.

More GoBo Goodness

I had about 15 minutes for shooting today and took the time to experiment with GoBos (short and messed up for Go-between), the little light blockers that can make an enormous difference in your shots.  All I did was cut a black poster board into 10"x4" pieces, applied a 1"x1" piece of velcro to each piece of poster board, and attached one to my flash to keep the light off of the things I don't want to illuminate.  This really seems to help isolate the subject in an effort to add impact to an image, when that's the goal.  Obvisouly you don't always want to isolate your image from its context but when you do, this is a pretty effective way to do it.  Here's what we got:

EV's Ikea Desk Lamp without, and with a gobo to prevent light spill on the background, exact same exposure and flash power on both:

 

 

And before washing the dishes in earnest, I took a little time to photograph the water, one of my favorite subjects.  Again, I positioned the gobo to block the light from illuminating the background, held it off-camera to the left of the faucet, and fired away.  Both of these shots used the same exposure settings and same flash power, the first without and the second with the gobo:

 

 

EV and Dean Drum

EV asked if we might record drums for a bit today and since it was terribly windy outside.  So we headed to the basement where we keep the drums for a little session.  EV went first and made, "...quite a racket..." in her words.  She decided on the sound for the final mix:

Download EVDrums

Then I had a quick go at it.  We mixed it up a bit more to soften some of the lingering tempo issues after DD gently noted that I would probably benefit from the use of a metronome.

Download CJDrums090322

EV as a Photograper Debut

It seems we managed to pick up the new bug going around but EV and I were feeling better this morning so we decided to spend a little time outside.  EV has been honing her photographic skills and took this shot of me during our windy, little excursion:

 

28mm, 1/400th of a second, f/14, ISO 200, mini softbox camera left.

Ok, I helped her a little, but she managed the camera after I set the shutter speed, aperture, positioned the flash, set the flash power, and told her where to stand.  ;-)

Moon Over Ski Town

This is another photograph of the moon over our nearby ski town.

 

55mm, 1/25th of a second, f/11, ISO 200, polarizing filter.

Wedding Photo Workshop

Our camera club hosted a workshop this afternoon led by local wedding photographer Melissa Brown.   Melissa had some really interesting ideas and a simple approach:  No flash, no reflectors, just natural light and focus on capturing genuine moments in time rather than formal posed shots.  She also noted that she spends 90 percent of her time doing business things, 10 percent actually shooting and post-processing.

The first question in my mind was, why no flash, reflectors, or diffusers, especially since weddings often demand that you take the shots during the less-than-optimal times of day (not everyone can book the church, temple, or venue in the early morning...)  Alas, this morning's St. Patrick's day festivities took a little longer than expected so I was late arriving and missed that part of the workshop.  I suspect it is a matter of personal style and simplicity:  She doesn't have to have an assistant hold lights or reflectors.

This simple approach presents benefits and limits the possibilities.  The obvious benefit includes no need for the fuss or expense of extra equipment.  This also keeps overhead low from both a practical and business point of view.  On the other hand, I have to think that it limits the potential range of shots.  There are a lot of places you can't take natural light shots or get some of the more dramatic effects that are possible by using flash or light modifiers.

For the second half of the workshop, we headed outdoors around the community center to take some shots of a model couple.  Melissa addressed questions along the lines of, "How do you control the light, especially in harsh conditions like mid-day sunlight?"  Her answer was that she uses the sun as a backlight or puts the couple in open shade.

The most valuable advice she offered up was her techniques for "posing" couples which is to give them general directions: e.g., stand over here, put your arms around each other, and whisper in her ear or tickle him, or flirt with her...  Then she fires away.  This is pretty similar to what Sijbrich does.  Great minds think alike.

These are a couple of the shots I came away with:

 

 

Microphones

Yes, here we have another quick diversion from photography to work out more of the kinks on my audio recording, this time comparing a couple of dynamic microphones.