Day Thirty-Seven: Lunch (a Movie)

While technically this project is about taking photos, today Molly and I made the first of a series of movies we have planned.  As you can see, our film making is pretty rudimentary, however we figured out how to use the software that comes with the Flip camcorder and know how to do things better the next go round.  The still at the top here is a frame taken from the movie, so the photo-a-day requirement is sastisfied.  While the photo is somewhat boring, our short film is, we hope, entertaining.  Please check it out on our brand new Flip Channel:  Molly & Me Productions



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Day Thirty-Five: The Amazing Molly

Molly performed a magic act in her school's talent show this morning.  I took pictures at the event, but also wanted to get a picture of her as "The Amazing Molly" for the project.

I shot this photo with a new (to me) lens.  The Nikon 24-70mm 2.8.  It is one of the finest lenses made today, and of all time.  It's been my tradition since I started taking pictures seriously again about 2 years ago that I christen every new lens (and camera) I get with a picture of Molly.  And today was no exception. 

Short and sweet today.  Til tomorrow...

Strobist:  Alien Bees 800 with a 20 degree grid camera left at abount 30 degrees.  Set to 1/4 power.  Fill is from Alien Bees 800 in 22 in AB beauty dish, on axis and just above the lens set to 1/16th power.  Here the fill is only 2/3 of a stop under exposed and the gridded key serves more like a broad kicker, bringing up the exposures on the face, hat and wand.

Please check out my main blog: http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/

Day Thirty-One: Best Snow Day EVER!!!

I know yesterday's post was also sledding...but yesterday was cold and sleeting when Molly and I (and very few others) took to the hill.  Today is 35 degrees and sunny and we've had a whole bunch of neighbors out sledding the hill at the top of our street.  In this photo are Sunny and Nick.  They are across the street neighbors and were out with us for most of the early afternoon.  My self imposed rule is that I pick one photo to be the photo of the day, and this one is it.  But we had lots of folks and lots of fun today, so I'll post a bunch more on the main blog (link below),

Please check out my main blog: http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/

Day Thirty: All down hill from here.

We got a good six inches of snow and Molly's been sledding since shortly after she woke me up (too early) to go out for the first time.  It's very cold (23 degrees) so we do four or five runs then come back inside to get warm for a bit. Dryer has been running pretty much non stop all day.  

Molly is having a BLAST!!  Have to admit, I am too.  We'll be going back out soon, and taking more pictures, but I like this one because you can see snow getting sprayed up at the front of the toboggan.  And...with my post out of the way for the day...it's all down hill from here.
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Day Twenty Nine: Let it Snow, Let it Snow, PLEASE Let it Snow

Molly and I are ready for some SNOW!!!  Looks like we're getting 6-8 inches starting soon.  We are both very excited...though Molly chose this picture instead of one where she's holding her sled and looking excited.  When she models, she gets to choose.  She also gets to shoot.  Here are a few she took of me:

That's it til tomorrow.  When, with any luck, we'll be taking pics out in the snow.

Please check out my main blog: http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/

Day Twelve: A Warm Portrait on a Chilly Day

It was another raw day outside today and once again I decided to shoot in the warm studio. This time, a warm feeling and warm toned portrait of Molly. It's been a busy day and I still have a meeting tonight, so this is going to be short today.

Strobist: AB1600 in Westcott Apollo 28in softbox, camera left and above with its lower half flagged by black foamcore to increase fall-oof. 48in gold reflector camera right and slightly behind just out of frame. SB800 with 10 degree grid camera left as "hair" light set at 1/16th to just keep separation and not highlight the camera left side of the hood.

Day Seven: This is Isaac

After an aborted attempt the other night (Day 5) Molly and I went to Buy Buy Baby after school today and bought a Bumbo. At 14 weeks, he can't sit up by himself for more than about 10 seconds before losing his balance and falling over on his side. But the Bumbo sits him up and finally let's me photograph him from angles I understand. I am terrible at newborn portraits...I see people put peacefully sleeping newborns in things that look like the macrame plant holders I made at summer camp as a kid. I tried to put Isaac in a basket to photograph him once. Once.

The Bumbo let's him sit up and move his arms, kick his feet and play while safe and secure. Shot this in a quick 10 minute session this evvening. I set up the Bumbo on the couch in the nursery, bounced my on camera flash around til I found nice directional light on the Bumbo, then put Isaac in and shot. Got a handful I like, and let Molly choose the one for today's post.

You can see the also-rans on my primary blog: http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000147498632
or in my Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bmcphoto/

Strobist: On camera SB800 bounced into the corner camera left and behind Isaac. I used a black foam flag on the flash to keep any direct light from falling on Isaac. This gave soft diretional light with no more than a stop difference on the shadow side (which seems about right to me for babies and young children). There was an overhead light above and behind camera position but at f5.6 and 1/200th of a second it barely registered, though it can be seen in the catchlights in his eyse. FEV +0.3 shot with a D300 in manual mode.

Day Two: Blue Sky in the Studio

Molly and I worked hard on getting the studio organized today. Once we got the studio in order, we set up a new blue muslin that arrived via UPS while we were away for the Christmas holiday and I broke out the big lens (Nikkor 70-200/2.8 VR) and she put on her colorful scarf and hat and we had some fun. The goal was sharp, poppy colors...I think we got what we set out to get.

Two done, a lot lot lot more to go...

Strobist info: SB800 at 1/2 power camera left into a 40 in Photoflex silver bounce umbrella. Fill from camera right with a Westcott 40in square silver reflector. Fired with Buff CSTs.