Dean's Light Box

Water Study 4

iStock photo informed me today, based on the three images I submitted as an application to become a contributing photographer to their stock collection, that I'm not quite ready for the job.  At first this stung, as you might imagine, but I think I'll use that as motivation to improve and to re-evaluate whether I want to be beholden to a subjective panel of judges to determine whether I can sell images.  Part of me says that customers--those that are in the market to buy images--should make that decision.  On the other hand, these judges have been playing this game for a while and maybe the three images I submitted were not likely to sell.  In any case, I have three days to resubmit my application and I'm taking a little time to consider.  I may ask to reapply in six months instead.

And to take my mind off of all that for a while, I did another water study.  Good thing we have a big sink where all this water can land:

50 mm, 1/400th of a second, f/11, ISO 200, 2 snooted speedlights 90 degrees to the camera left and right.

Thankless, but with Style

Magpies are an interesting lot.  If you have them near where you live, you probably feel as I often do--they are several rungs from the top of the carrion-eating ladder.  And while that is not entirely inaccurate, they perform the thankless task of cleaning the earth of deceased wild animals and road kill.  And you have to admit, they do so with a little bit of style, even if they do wait for the eagles and vultures to have first shot at the carrion:

 

200mm, 1/400th of a second, f/5.6, ISO 200.

I typically think of Magpies as starkly colored in black-and-white.  But if you see them in the right light, you find that their plumage is a bit more colorful, almost like an azure blue and green cummerbund.  When do you suppose cummerbunds will hit the scene again?  When they do, the Magpies just might get the respect they deserve.

PS--DD suggests that most of the feathers of a magpie are iridescent and so this is more like a cloak than a cummerbund.  But I wanted to use the word cummerbund because it makes me laugh.

Springtime Kite Weather

Springtime is officially here, of course, but the wind still has a rather cool edge to it.  In fact, we had an inch or two of snow this morning.  But this afternoon, EV asked if she could fly her lady-bug kite which is something I hadn't considered.  We didn't stay out long but were glad for the few minutes of fresh, cool air--a very good idea on EV's part.

 

18mm, 1/125th of a second, f/11, ISO 200, on-axis fill flash @ full power manual (built-in flash).

I can't remember the last time I used the built-in flash on my camera.  All that reading at the strobist.com got me into the mindset that off-camera flash is the only way to go--always.  But thinking back, even David Hobby talked about using on-axis fill from time to time.

So this is how this revelation came to me.  I saw this image but couldn't seem to get EV exposed right because the bright sky tricked the camera's meter into underexposing her.  My first thought was, "I should run in and grab a flash..."  Then I realized that probably wouldn't fly--the light would change, EV might get too cold to stay out once I finally got the flash, and like most, I have my lazy moments.  So I decided to try the built-in flash.  At first I had it set to TTL mode and that did essentially nothing.  Then I tried manual 1/4 power.  Still nothing.  Manual full power, and this is what we got.  I guess that little flash can be handy after all and does not ALWAYS make that I-made-this-shot-with-my-point-and-shoot-in-full-automatic-mode look.  You just have to know when to use it and juice it way up.