Day Forty One: Shape and Color

As many of you may have noticed, I had a bit of a dip in motivation yesterday.  It was a long day and really the first time since the project began that I had to make myself go take a picture.  If my motivation dips only once every 40 days I'll be happy.

Today I wanted to atone for yesterday.  So I went out looking for abstracts that blended line and color.  Here, the weathered top of a red fire hydrant is set against a an out of focus background.  The distinctive circles you see in the background are known as "bokeh" and gets it shape from the diaphram in the lens.  Different lenses have different diaphrams (comprised of 5 to 9 blades) which give differnt bokehs.  Some lenses are prized for their bokeh,  The lens I used for thsi shot is not one them.  But it's not bad either.

Tomorrow I am giving a tutorial on portrait photography for my local photo group.  So I am set for tomorrow's shoot already.  It's nice to have a day off from trying to figure out what to shoot.  Til tomorrow...


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

Day Thirty-Eight: Super Bowl Sunday!!!

I am a huge football (NYG) fan and I am ready for some football. 

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

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 Twenty-Two: Lady Bug Umbrella

It was cold and gray today so I decided to head into the studio to shoot.  This was just a quickie, with fluoresent strip lights from the left front and right rear.  Simple.  Need to help make dinner and then it's family movie night.  Til tomorrow...

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

Day Fifteen: Warm and Sunny

Today was a beautiful day, with afternoon temps in the low 60s and a clear blue sky. My only time to shoot today was mid afternoon which left me out in the kind of harsh light photographers are taught to avoid. And it's true that it's not a good time to photograph people (unless you can find some open shade or create some of your own). But a day with a clear blue sky is a day I go looking for vivid colors. I don't mind the deep shadows caused by the strong front lighting on a sunny day. As long as the colors pop, the contrast in the shadows just gives them even a bit more life.

This is part of the facade at Sitar, an Indian restaurant (and a good one at that) in Durham. I love the Indian architechture they added when they took over the building from the Lone Star. And the bright red trim, against the bright blue sky, makes this image my favorite from the day.

But it was tough to choose, as I went to a few different locations and got images I liked at all of them. Here are the rejects and also-rans that I considered for today's post. Guess they all won in a way.

Day Fourteen: Things are looking up.

Finally today it was warm enough to actually enjoy some time shooting outside. I went off this afternoon with my 10-20mm zoom lens, a flash and a plan. And I executed...got some perfectly pleasant self portraits of me lit against a darkened background and dramatic sky. Nice. But kind of boring, and kind of in my niche. And I need to save the things I know I can do quickly and easily for the days when I am up against it. I have a few favorite places and favorite approaches that I am saving for days when I need to pull something out...days when my motivation may be low or I'm pressed for time.

So instead today, I am using this image. I took it under an archway at St. Barnabas Greek Orthodox Church on Fayetteville Road. It's an architechtually beautiful new church and I've been shooting there since it was just an unshelled steel structure. For this image, I put my camera with the zoom set to 10mm on the ground pointing up at the arch and then leaned over into the frame. I took about 10 of these from sligtly differenn angles. This is the one I liked the best.

Strobist: Natural light (again).

Day Thirteen: Getting (a little) warmer

Had some time to get to downtown (Durham) this afternoon and went up to the top floor of a parking deck to get an aerial perspective on the new bus station. Unfortunately, didn't have the right lens with me and wasn't able to get what I went there for. But I walked around the permieter of the parking deck taking pictures of people on the sidewalks and courtyards below. In the end though, I liked this shot of the warm sun on the bricks of one of the facades of the American Tobacco development. The 200mm lens compresses the distance between the brick spires and makes for a strong pattern which stands out against the gray wall of windows that sits in shadow across the street.

Day Eleven: Alien Landscape Abstract

I went for a walk at lunchtime around my building and the adjoining one...now empty due to the struggling economy. I had my "real" camera in the car and just took the Canon point-n-shoot (which is technically Molly's) and took shots in the full harsh light of the afternoon. Looking for contrast and color. Walking along the backside of the vacant building, I came across this arrangement on the wall and took the picture because I liked the minimalist composition. The one drawback of shooting with the point-n-shoot for a high contrast shot is that the JPG it creates is not as workable as a raw file would be. So I had to go a little beyond my usual post processing.

To me (and to my wife, who first mentioned it) it lloks like an alien landscape. The conduit, spigot, and rust stain on the lower wall looks like a person (to me, a shepherd with staff; to my wife, something from Star Wars). Wish I could say that I saw the potential when I took the image...but it took a lot of post processing to get to this point. I did like the simplicity and strength of the composition and it's component parts...and in the end, was rewarded with a happy accident.

Strobist: Natural light. LR, CS4, OnOne Phototools 2

Day Ten: The Intrepids

I was driving home late morning along the golf course near my house and saw this group of golfers hit their balls off the tee. The thermometer in my car said it was 33 degrees. I parked and waited for them at the top of the hill and struck up a conversation with them while I was photographing. They, like many of us here, were just plain tired of being holed up inside through 2 plus weeks of temperatures 20 degrees below our winter norm. So they dressed warm and went out to play a round.

The weather forecast is looking much more pleasant for the days ahead with temps back in the 50s by midweek. It's about time. Maybe I'll play some golf myself.

Day Nine: The patio is closed for dining.

Day nine was another cold one but I managed to get out (and even get out of the car) for a little while this afternoon. I was looking to take some street photos of people looking cold (to emphasize the point) but it was cold enough by Durham standards for very few people to be out at all this afternoon. So, I thought this photo of the closed up patio umbrellas and empty tables at a local eatery managed to tell the story in more subtle way.

Strobist: Natural light.

Inside the house, later in the afternoon, Molly took some pictures of me playing with my son, Isaac. We call this game superbaby. Molly (age 7 1/2) got the better photo of the day.



Actually, Molly has taken a good number of excellent photos in the last year. I am working on a post of Molly's stuff on my BMC Portraits blog:


I'll post a link here when I do.

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 Five: Plan C (meet Flash)

This morning I really planned on going out to a park this afternoon to shoot a self portrait I've been thinking about doing for awhile. But it was cold and by 4:30 the light I was hoping for had slipped below a row of trees. So...Plan B. Plan B was shooting my son, Isaac, who's about 14 weeks old. But he's not feeling quite himself these last two days and while we did shoot for about 15 minutes, with the whole family pitching in, I really didn't get anything I liked.

Plan C. This is Flash. He's lived with me for over 20 years...sitting on this shelf or that in my various offices, dens, shops and now studio. So Flash and I put our heads together and this is what we came up with.

Strobist: Key is SB900 with ~10 degree grid, fired CLS at 0EV. Background is gridded and snooted SB800 with a blue gel, fired CLS at -.7EV. On camera (D300) flash is firing as well at -1.7EV to just keep any of the shadows on the front from getting too deep. Shot with 35mm F2.

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.