We got hit again.

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prank

They've been there for a while. Finally took the time to snap a good one.

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Break week

Big project to do at work. I'm taking the week off. I'll be back soon enough. I'l try to slip in a picture or two during that time.

cold

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fedora

Until I can figure out a better setup (and model?) to use my new SB-28 (comboed with the also newly acquired Vivitar 285HV) on, I'll post a few experiments done with the stroboscopic setting on the SB-28.
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spike redux

For those who liked our mascot Spike, here's another one, in a broader light.
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sp[i]ke

The guard dog of the house, Spike a 30 cm bearded lizard.

Info[18-55@55mm|ISO200|1/500th@f5.6|Vivitar 285HV @full through window and into a small opening at the back of Spike's "cave"]

magic

Digging through older pictures. It's the week end, after all.

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smoke

Sorry for leaving you hanging for a day. I had a rough night, and was unable to recover in time to post. So to appease you, here's a special edition SMOKE series.








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idea

He had an idea. It was bad.
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[no] diffusion.

Gotta love double hard lights.

I'm not sure how I got around to leaving my camera on ISO800, though. It didn't cause too much of a grain or saturation problem, I guess.

Info[18-55@52mm|ISO800|1/500th@f11|Sunpak on camera left @full, Vivitar 285HV on camera right @1/2, both at 90ish angle.]

Lou's tattoo pictures session

The tattoo is not visible in the picture, but I liked the color scheme.
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Twin lights

First ever 2 lights setup. Thank you MPEX for the prompt shipping and wonderful products. Following picture shows setup. (shot at 18mm, f16.)Now I just wish I had a third light to shoot at normal color through the umbrella... Soon enough!


Info[18-55@55mm|ISO200|1/500th@f13|Sunpak 170@full with full blue gel on my right, Vivitar 285HV @1/4 with Storaro Red Gel on my left, white umbrella for a bit of fill]

Kandae

A shot I took during a pregnancy photoshoot, before xmas. Kandae is now a proud mommy!
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Gala Assomption

A friend talking business with a coworker at the Assomption 2008 Kick-off.

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Thanks Devin for the lens and strobe for the night. Very appreciated. I'll miss both tomorrow.

I think I should be silent and post pictures, for I do not feel like writing an article about low light photography tonight. First lesson learned: never promise anything on a blog. ;-)



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Night 5/6

Today's pictures. Low-light photography jibby-jabba post-poned due to lack of sleep.

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4/6 and a primer on night photography.

I can't wait every night until midnight to post on the right date, so expect the new posts at night the day before. Well, not really the day before anymore. It's more like me putting two on the same day, then staying on schedule. Anyways. This way I can sleep at night. Which I tend to like.

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Photography is basically capturing light, in it's basic form, reflected on objects, or lack thereof. It's instinctive to go shoot during the day, when the light is readily available. But weird things happen at night, and it has nothing to do with M. Jackson's Thriller video.

First of all, the only available light at night comes from different sources. Flash, street lights, cars passing by, etc. Any common light source becomes significant, compared to it's irrelevance when overpowered by the sun. (Think of a flashlight at midday.) This leaves allot of room for experimentation.

On the other side, the light is not plentiful. In fact, in terms of photography, it's practically non existent. Even at wide apertures, cameras cannot capture anything at decent shutter speeds to allow for handheld photography. Enters the tripod.

The problem with handholding in low light is that we are not robots. We shake, we sway, we breathe. More so when the only thing keeping us up is high levels of caffeine. Tripods fix that.

Locking down a camera for a long exposure and aiming it as a dimly lit stationary object will let enough light in to make it as bright as you wish.

It is to be noted that the long exposure will saturate the colors allot more than an ordinary 1/60th of a second exposure. I took advantage of that to produce yesterday's picture. On point and shoot cameras, though, be prepared to have "hot pixels". When solicited for long times, some pixels in the sensor oversaturate to the point of becoming solid colors. Red, green and blue dots can appear in your final pictures. but let's not let that ruin the experience. Nothing a little Photoshop/Gimp/[insert your photo app] can't fix!

All the pictures in this set were taken using a sturdy tripod and long exposures.

Enough for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll discuss variations and experimentation with the technique, such as including movement and strobing while the shutter is open.

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PS Sorry for posting a very similar picture to that of Tuesday. I treated them differently in post, with a different white balance. But bare with me, the two next ones are quite different.

Night 3/6

Once again, an early and dry post. Stay tuned for more! I'll probably get some sleep (and my tongue back) soon enough!

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Night 2/6

Early post tonight, for I need to sleep. No witty humour either.


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***EDIT*** I did use flash for this picture. The bottom wall was coming in too dark, so I walked around during the 30 seconds, popping the bare flash from different directions at the wall, creating a wrap around light that wasn't harsh. I had time to pop 4-5 shots at full from the Vivitar 170 auto.

6 days of night

The main reason I decided to embark on this blog endeavor was to motivate me, to get me to go out and shoot more. The urge to finesse the ass groove on my computer chair being intrinsic, I had to fight it with a ludicrous promise to myself and the world. (The World being the few souls who stumble upon this blog) Well, I must say, it worked wonderfully tonight.

I decided to go on a little hike around town, at about 1900 hour to scout out a few places, and with the ultimate goal of taking a long exposure of Main St here in Moncton, from atop the railway overpass. With snow up to my knees, I made my way to what I thought would be my shot. It wasn't. I shot, and shot and shot, and although they were nice, they did not strike me as inspiring material. Then I turned around, facing towards the Crowne Plaza. It seemed promising, but I needed to be right on the train tracks.

It was a hit and run, really. A few nimble steps, setup, composing, snap, wait for an excruciating 30 seconds of exposure... I realized that if a train were to come in either directions, I had nowhere to go, really, but to dive in the snow on the other side of the track. I'm being dramatic here, of course; catharsis on a silver platter. I was in no danger, for I am a ninja.

Moving on.

"Show us the bloody picture already!" say you? Since I plan on treating you, ladies and gents, to 6 days of night, you will have to wait a little.. I picked the 6 best shots from this whole evening of shooting and will eye drop them to you at the usual rate of one per day. Of course, the Main street one will be the dessert, served on Saturday morning. Fear not, for I will whet you appetite with the other pictures. So without further ado, welcome to the first of 6 days of night!


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Oh sweetened Dairy

Well, that was a great fondue. We really went all out, and it ended very well with this layered desert made from cookies, chocolate mousse and whipped cream.
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Garbage photography.

Cleaning up has its advantages. Not only does it prevent vermin from settling in, it also helps you find stuff you've lost a long time ago. But this post has nothing to do with those two, sorry. I had you there, for a moment...

One side effect of cleaning up is that you need to decide if things must be thrown away, recycled, given away, kept, or taken out in the backyard and burnt with a ritual. I was faced with such a decision about the box my eau de toilette came in. It was pretty, but didn't exactly serve a purpose. Or could it?

It presented a large transparent window and an immaculately white interior. Being an avid reader of both Strobist and DIY Photography, something clicked. All those tutorials on making home made softboxes and ring flashes came to mind. Plus, being lazy, it just made sense to save myself some trouble by using something pre-made. And there it was, the Adidas Moves softbox.



All I had to do was make a hole big enough to fit the head of the strobe in, and voilà. The light distribution is remarkably even, despite a slight falloff at the opposite end of the contraption. I plan to use the ultra shiny liner that came out of the box to fix some of that by reflecting the light that hits the end of the box (where it is pointless) towards the back, where it can be reflected back out the opening. (wow, a drawing might have done a better job)

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So all this to present my picture of the day for Sat, January 5th, which was taken with the previously over explained gadget.

Enjoy!


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Macro Cards for Marco

Now that's as close to a pair of aces as most of you will ever get.

By simply hand holding a 50mm prime lens backwards in front of my zoomed in 18-55mm, I was able to get up close and personal with the rockets.

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I received my order confirmation for an SW1 Strobist kit from MPEX today. It should leave soon, and hopefully get here before the 12th, so I can use it for the Assomption Vie Gala.

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Hazardous Rolling TV

Day two of this experiment and already a casualty.

Isn't this magical. TV rolled on my PowerBook's LCD.

At 350$ a pop for a replacement, I think the PB has been demoted to a weirdly shaped desktop Mac, with a 17inch CRT plugged to it, like a dialysis machine.

At least, it's pretty.

2 in 2. Go me.

Let it snow in 2008

Well, Happy New Year, ladies an gentlemen.

/cheesyness start/

I don't believe in resolutions. They usually last a week, then are forgotten. But I guess the idea is nice, so let's try one.

One picture a day. Hopefully, it will make me go out and shoot more.

/cheesyness end/

See you tomorrow!

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