Musings

September 26, 2012

Wednesdays, Take It Or Leave It?

Tagged with awesome, Batman, Brian, conundrum, D90, dork, eye, fedora, hat, lens, me, Nikon, Pentax, portraits, reflection, self portrait, Wednesday

Wednesday has always held a special place in my heart as the one day out of the week that I can never decide if I like or hate. Monday is easy. Monday blows. Tuesday is just kinda there (same with Thursday where your energy starts to wane in direct correlation with your growing excitement about the impending weekend). Friday goes without saying.

So Wednesday is where it really comes down to the whole glass-half-full vs glass-half-empty debate. And that really depends a lot on how my week is going, what’s in the cards for the weekend, what I had for breakfast, etc., etc.Read More

September 25, 2012

More Ring Flash Goodness

Posted in DIY, Musings

Tagged with D90, David Tejada, diy, experimentation, flash, fun, JR, lighting, Magic Arm, Manfrotto, Max, Max McDonald, McDonald, mondayshift, Nikon, portrait, portraits, project, ring, ringflash, studio, tripod, tutorial

By popular demand (read: one or two requests), here are a few more shots using our DIY ring flash set up from last weekend. A lot more tweaking remains to be done to the rig itself, as well as to how we’re using it, but it’s a pretty cool toy to play around with.Read More

September 24, 2012

DIY Ringflash Project

Posted in DIY, Musings

Tagged with bracket, D90, David Tejada, diy, experimentation, flash, flash bracket, fun, JR, lighting, Magic Arm, Manfrotto, Max, Max McDonald, McDonald, mondayshift, Nikon, portrait, portraits, project, ring, ringflash, Stroboframe, studio, tripod, tutorial

This weekend I dove into a DIY project with the help of my partner in crime, Max McDonald from mondayshift. After reading David Tejada’s excellent (not to mention affordable) ring flash tutorial, I decided it would be the perfect project for someone like me (i.e., someone completely inept at anything remotely resembling handyman-dedness).

After raiding Home Depot for supplies, Max and I set to work. It was an arduous task requiring literally minutes of physical and mental labor. Following Tejada’s tutorial to the T (give or take skipping the last eight steps), we were able to create a crude flash adapter referred to in certain photographic circles as a “ring flash.” Or just a ring flash without the quotes.Read More

September 21, 2012

Happy Friday From the Cave

Posted in Musings

Tagged with blue, bounce, Brian, concert, D90, flash, gelled, guitar, keylight, Nikon, orange, portraits, SB-800, SB600, self portrait, snoot, spotlight, suit, wall, white

Here’s to a happy Friday for everybody! Took this shot yesterday while I was messing around in the garage trying to simulate a concert spotlight look.

Basically I just gelled the keylight with some blue and bounced it off the white wall to my right, then gelled the hair light with some orange and snooted it up in my face.Read More

September 19, 2012

Grace & Beauty

Posted in Musings

Tagged with b&w, beautiful, beauty, black and white, D90, face, grace, mugshot, Nikon, portrait, white

This shot was an outtake while I was still setting up my lights (I didn’t even wait to get a full smile from my beautiful model!), but I love the way it turned out. Aside from it being shot head-on, mugshot style, her hint of a smile is very reminiscent of the Mona Lisa, in my opinion.Read More

September 18, 2012

Goofing Off (As Usual)

Posted in Musings

Tagged with black, D90, flash, garage, goofing off, light, lighting test, Nikon, portraits, self portrait, serious, studio

To continue indulging my habit of posting ridiculous pictures of myself, here’s one from a recent lighting test in my garage. Using the on-camera flash to remotely trigger the key light seems to work pretty well, though it does tend to leave a very small catchlight directly in the center of the eyes. I’ll have to rig up a gobo to prevent that in the future.Read More

September 14, 2012

Raiders of the Lost… Munitions Box?

Posted in Musings

Tagged with box, D90, experiementation, flash, fun, hat, Indiana Jones, leather, Lightroom, munitions, Nikon, portrait, Raiders, reflector, SB600, SB800, self portrait, tethered, USB

So I’ve got this box. I love this box. Bought it at an antique store in… I don’t remember, but it turns out that it’s an old munitions box from who-knows-when.

For as long as I’ve owned it, sadly I’ve had no idea what to do with it. It’s not really functional in regards to its original use (I don’t have many munitions), and it’s too heavy to use as a wallet. What to do???Read More

September 5, 2012

I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed…

Posted in Musings

Tagged with AF, aperture, auto focus, background, blur, car, cars, D90, Dave's, Dave's Need 4 Speed, experimentation, manual focus, motion blur, need, Nikon, racecar, racetrack, servo, shutter speed, speed, track

Tracking a moving object to create motion blur of the background is really something I’d never really tried out before, so it was great to finally have the chance to do some experimentation at Dave’s Need 4 Speed in Lubbock. It was tricky nailing down the best aperture and shutter speed settings while following these little blurs around the racetrack, but I finally got a few that looked decent.Read More

August 29, 2012

Ah, the Smell of Irrigation in the Morning…

Posted in Musings

Tagged with clouds, cloudy, crops, D90, gold, green, hdr, highway, irrigation, Nikon, Odessa, panoramic, road, roadtrip, sprinkler, sunlight, sunrise, tonemapped, water

The road to Odessa was an interesting one. Though the forecast called for a mildly overcast day, I encountered a lot of strange weather–rain, horror movie levels of fog, ominous storm clouds, then oddly striated sections of clouds that let the light pour through in slices.Read More

August 27, 2012

Sunset over Tyler Tech

Posted in Musings

Tagged with blue, building, clouds, contrast, D90, hdr, lubbock, Nikon, panoramic, preparedness, storm, sunset, tonemapped, tripod, Tyler Technologies

I witnessed an amazing sunset the other night behind the Tyler Technologies building while I was out for a walk. There was a storm brewing which made for some amazing contrasts of color.

Unfortunately, by the time I ran inside to grab my tripod and camera, I had missed most of the really cool stuff…Read More

August 20, 2012

Carnival of Madness

Posted in Musings

Tagged with band, bands, camera, carnival, carnival of madness, Cavo, Chevelle, clouds, concert, crowd, Evanescence, Halestorm, hill, iPhone, lubbock, Lubbock Events Center, madness, New Medicine, outdoors, outside, rock, sun, sunset, venue

This past Friday the Carnival of Madness tour rolled through town with a stop at the Lubbock Events Center. Though Evanescence was the headliner, I was really anticipating seeing Chevelle and a group I’d only just started listening to, Halestorm. I missed the first two openers, Cavo and New Medicine, though I heard good things about them.

Chevelle didn’t disappoint! Despite hitting some technical issues with the guitar setup midway through (in which I was really hoping for a kick-ass bass/drum combo jam), they managed to put on one of the more impressive rock performances I’ve seen out of a trio. In my opinion, their performance was more powerful than Evanescence (Amy Lee’s vocals seemed drowned out for the most part by the four-piece and various synth orchestrations backing her up).Read More

August 16, 2012

Flowers For My Mom

Posted in Musings

Tagged with chocalate, clapp park, D90, flower, flowers, hdr, mom, Nikon, pink, purple, sundae, technique

It’s been a few days since my last post (gasp, three whole days!!!), which I can only assume is from laziness (though, I have been pretty busy lately).

But today is a new day and I’m back in business. Been working on a lot of non-HDR photos recently. I feel like I’ve been pigeonholing myself with the HDR stuff, but what can I say? I love HDR and have been struggling with my technique ever since I started. It’s great fun and never ceases to give me new and surprising results each time.Read More

August 13, 2012

Waiting for a Meatier Meteor Shower

Posted in Musings

Tagged with D90, laser, light painting, meatier, meteor, meteor shower, meteors, milky way, night, Nikon, sky, star, stars, tripod

“Eventually you plan to have dinosaurs in your, uh, dinosaur tour. Right? Hello? Hello? Yes?”

I felt a lot like Ian Malcolm last Saturday night, craning my neck up to the sky for three hours waiting for meteors. While we saw a handful over the time we were there, nothing was too impressive (especially nothing I actually managed to capture).Read More

August 10, 2012

Chaves County War Memorial, Roswell, NM

Posted in Musings

Tagged with blue, Chaves County, courthouse, D90, dusk, gray, hdr, memorial, Nikon, NM, orange, processing, Roswell, sun, sunset, war, yellow

Here’s another shot from Roswell, NM. Directly in front of the courthouse is the Chaves County War Memorial, which was unveiled late last year.

It’s taken me forever to process these HDR shots. For whatever reason, the contrast of the blue-gray clouds and the setting sun created such a strange mix of colors. Every time I processed them and started editing, I would waste so much time trying over and over again to get it to look right.Read More

August 9, 2012

’20s Something Portrait

Posted in Musings

Tagged with '20s, D90, dusk, evening, flash, gel, gelled, light, model, Nikon, portrait, purple, reflector, setting, sun, vibe

This shot came about from another one of my lighting test setups. Always willing to help out, my favorite model brought the whole ’20s vibe with her (which I tried to hone in on in post). Her wistful expression conveys a sense of longing and made it my favorite of the day.Read More

August 8, 2012

Sunset Boulevard, San Diego

Posted in Musings

Tagged with blue, boulevard, buildings, California, D90, hdr, Nikon, orange, reflection, San Diego, sky, sun, sunset, tonemapped, windows, yellow

This was a throwaway shot I took near the bay in San Diego right across the street from the Star of India. It was another of those moments when I’m shooting away at the setting sun, then I turn around to notice, “hey, there’s stuff going on behind me.”

I loved the way the sun was reflecting off the buildings, bathing them in yellow and orange. It was a nice contrast to the darkening blue sky. I probably could’ve waited a few minutes for a more dramatic sky, but might have lost some of the color reflected off the windows. Oh well, I was late for dinner, anyway.Read More

August 7, 2012

Roswell Courthouse by Lamp Light

Posted in Musings

Tagged with aliens, blue, clouds, cloudy, courthouse, D90, dusk, gray, lamp, lamp light, lamps, Nikon, NM, orange, rain, Roswell, storm, sunset, UFO

The courthouse in Roswell, NM was (sadly) one of the most interesting things about the city. I, of course, was imagining a place where little green men run loose on the streets instead of being locked up in underground facilities. Oh well. Aside from a few kitschy alien-inspired gift shops and the random UFO floating around (not literally), there isn’t much to see. Even the restaurant we picked didn’t have a UFO theme to it (and, we later discovered, wasn’t even exclusive to Roswell).Read More

August 6, 2012

Goofing Off – Lightpainting Portraits

Posted in Musings

Tagged with Canon, D90, dark, dork, experiment, experimentation, flash, goofing off, light, light painting, lightpainting, Max, night, Nikon, portrait, self portrait

The importance of goofing off is something that never really gets expounded upon, which is just sad. A lot of the time, it’s even frowned upon. But I think goofing off, like most things in life, is good when used in moderation (and downright valuable at times). This is especially important when it comes to doing what you love for a living. The saying goes, “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s awesome for the 2% of people this applies to, but I (like the majority of people, I’d wager) get tired/bored/frustrated sometimes even doing the things I love. It just happens.Read More

August 3, 2012

Pink Lily

Posted in Musings

Tagged with D90, flower, flowers, green, lily, Nikon, Oklahoma, pink, pond, pretty, water

Happy Friday!Read More

August 2, 2012

Reflections of Reality Outtakes

Posted in Musings

Tagged with building, D90, hdr, lubbock, mirror, Nikon, reflection, sunset, Texas, tonemapped, Tyler Technologies, water

Here are a couple more outtakes from my reflections of reality walk the other day. I flipped them to make the effect a bit trippier.

If I had realized this was the approach I would take, I probably could’ve set them up better while shooting, but either way, they look cool.Read More

Category

Musings

Wednesdays, Take It Or Leave It?

More Ring Flash Goodness

DIY Ringflash Project

Happy Friday From the Cave

Grace & Beauty

Goofing Off (As Usual)

Raiders of the Lost… Munitions Box?

I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed…

Ah, the Smell of Irrigation in the Morning…

Sunset over Tyler Tech

Carnival of Madness

Flowers For My Mom

Waiting for a Meatier Meteor Shower

Chaves County War Memorial, Roswell, NM

’20s Something Portrait

Sunset Boulevard, San Diego

Roswell Courthouse by Lamp Light

Goofing Off – Lightpainting Portraits

Pink Lily

Reflections of Reality Outtakes

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