Day 13, 365 day project

Today I did thought I would do some self-portraits with a little more dramatic lighting. Half way through my shooting, Luke came down stairs to the studio and wanted to sit in my lap. The above shot, today's entry to the project, was one of the results and my favorite of the two of us.

The technical on this image is one Balcar with an extra small Chimera soft box to the right and slightly behind. Another Balcar with a small Chimera strip soft box is to the back feathered across to light the background and give some separation. In order to do the self-portrait I am using the OnOne Remote DSLR app on my iPod touch and tethered in to my laptop running the OnOne server program. Used the live view function to position myself, but discovered it would not trigger the strobes in live view so had to switch it off. Once again with the Canon 40D, 24 - 70 f2.8 @ f14, 1/125 sec, 100 ISO at 65mm.

Below are two more images from the session. Another with Luke and then a profile of myself that I really liked. I did some minor retouching as I discovered I am getting some strands of grey and they looked really out of place and were distracting against the darker hair.

Day 12, 365 day project

Today's image was taken during my Basic Lighting class at SAIT. I've been teaching this particular course for 9 years now and I never tire of it. The student's are always good and I get to work with a variety of subject's. This shot of Amber was one I like and so is today's entry for my 365 day project. I normally only shot a few images in the class (a couple at the begining and a few at the end if there is time) as I want the student's to have as much shooting time as I can give them. High key was tonight's theme and the above image was shot at 1/125 sec, f9.0 at 100 iso. The ratio between the main and the fill was 3:1 and the background lights were set two stops higher at 16 1/2.

This image of Cool was also shot tonight as he and his brother came with me. I can bring them on shooting nights as they can play on their computers or iPods and then will sit in as subjects if needed. In this set up Cool is close to the background and two lights into umbrellas creating a wall of light at f5.0 across the entire area. Shot at 1/125 sec at 100 iso. Both images with the Canon 40D and the 24 - 70 f2.8 lens.

Day 11, 365 day project

With the miserable cold weather here in Calgary I have pretty well been at home since Sunday morning. Tonight was Cool's choir practice night and we made the trek across town to the Haddon Road School. I have made the commitment to keep my camera with me every where I go to be ready for possibilities in image making. I think a few of the parents where wondering why I was taking pictures of the fire hose. However I was attracted by the reflection of the fluorescent lights in the chrome and the texture of the hose. Shot with the 40D and 24-70 f2.8 @ f4, 1/60th sec at 1600 ISO.

Day 10, 365 day project.

Well I'm sure this will be the first of a number of images of my family that will show up here. Cool just returned home from school and was cuddling with Lysa on the couch. I like the light from the window and grabed my iPod touch and snapped a close up image. Cool is always smiling and I just love the face he was making. Processed using Instagram and the "earlybird" filter.

Day 9, 365 day project.

Working with naked models is always interesting but these three kept their labels on. I guess I am a little punchy today being cooped up in the house due to the miserable weather outdoors. Makes this project a challenge. So while searching for things to photograph I came across these three items in a drawer in my office. They have been around since my ACAD days so that bottle of beer in the centre is some 20 years old. Decided to try my hand at some table top work so pulled them out as well as a piece of black plexi that I had lying around. Shot with the Canon 40D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f11, 1/125th sec. Lighting is a Chimera small strip soft box on my Balcar lights about 10 inches from the bottles and a white reflector on the opposite side.

Day 8, 365 day project

So far there seems to be a theme of flowers runing through this project. It might be that being at home, indoors during these cold days of winter make me look for something accesible around the house. Now my wife has a lot of plants and a few of them seem to have flowers year round. Lysa is a minamalist when it comes to her plants, that means she waters them but leaves them to their own cycle of life. So as I was looking for something that interested me this dead flower that was amongst the new ones growing caught my eye. So I plucked it out and took it downstairs to my studio to shoot it. I decided for some side light to help bring out the texture and this time decided to use the 70 - 200 mm f2.8 lens as I wanted some drop off in the depth of field and knew that it was capable of focusing fairly close. Shot again with the Canon 40D @ f5.0 for 1/125 sec. @ 200 mm.

Day 7, 365 day project

Today was my turn to help in Luke's playschool classroom. My boys (Cool also attended the same playschool) always love when I help in class because that meant they are the "Special Helper". One of the duties of the special helper is to feed the fish. So after Luke did this little chore I went and created today's image. One of the things I am trying to do with this project is to be experimental and so this gave me an opportunity to work with the camera in my iPod Touch. Was surprised by how close I was able to get to the fish tank and fill the frame and keep a relatively good focus. After taking the photo I brought the image into the "Instagram" app and cropped it and then applied a filter named "Lord Kelvin". THis is the result. I like the effect and look forward to playing with the iPod Camera and both the "Instagram" and "Hipstamatic" apps I have loaded.