Day Twenty-Four: A morning ride

I managed to make it out for about an hour this morning while breakfast was being made and the baby was sleeping.  I still had the big lens on the camera from my rugby shoot yeseterday and went off to see about photographing some nearby horses.  But the horses had blankets on and were all on the far side of field and I just couldn't get anything interested.  Giving up on that plan, I was just about to pull off when a bicyclist came up the road.  I liked the strong graphic element of her hat and knew it would make a nice black and white photograph.  The light was gray and flat, though bright enough to give nice crisp lighting to the cyclist. 

Molly and I also set up a quick studio shoot (actually in the hallway in our basement) with a background and lights and I shot both Molly and Isaac for a bit this afternoon.  Some nice stuff.  You can see it on my main blog.  Thought about using one of Isaac for today's official photo, but I am trying to limit the number of times I photograph the kids for the blog, and with something I liked already in the can, decided that shoot would be just for fun.  http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/

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

Day Twenty: Pandering to Interestingness

This photo is a somewhat canned attempt to mimic the type of works that get on Explore in Flickr.  Flickr calls it interestingness.  While the mysterious algorithm that determines interstingness can be frustrating for those of us aspiring to be included, I have to admit it is one of the (very few) things I like about Flickr.  The images that make it, while a seemingly random assortment, all have something special about them.  Sometimes it jumps out at you...somtimes it's far more subtle.

Two of my images have made it to date.  One of Molly:

And one abstract::

And I did once before make a deliberate photo with the express thought of it being Explore-like:

Anyway, aside from being a bit of a cliche, I do like today's image.  I like the motion, the colors and that her boot is the only part of her that is sharp.  I also like the baskets inside the door which gives another plane to the image and the way the doors frame her and reinforce the sense of motion.

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

Day Seventeen: Donna

It rained off and on today. During one of the breaks between showers the family went down to the side driveway to take a picture of my wife, Donna, for today's post. Molly assisted, holding a flash and small softbox on a painter's extension pole and keeping the light on Donna while staying out of the shot. She's become a valuable assistant, and knows her stuff. And she was thrilled to help with a photo of mommy for the blog.  And of the three candidates I had for today's post, Molly chose this one.  I would have chosen the first of the two below, a candid moment when Molly coached Donna to "move around" while posing.

Strobist: Shot with D300 in manual mode with the background underexposed by about 1.5 stops. Light on Donna is from an SB900 in a small (12x18) softbox, held on a Shurline extension pole and fired CLS set on 1/8th power, camera left.

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

Day Sixteen: Wendy

My friend Wendy came by the studio today to pick up a softbox I had for her and to get a look at processing in Adobe Lightroom. We spent about 5 minutes in the studio shooting two quick setups. I'd calibrated my lights with Molly earlier in the afternoon and when Wendy got there, I sat her down in the first setup (the one this picture comes from) and shot 10 or so shots, then moved to a second setup to shoot some 3/4 lengths portraits on black. I will post the others from the session to my main blog (http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/) tomorrow.

Getting settled in to watch the Ravens-Colts game, so that's it for today.

Strobist: AB800 in AB beauty dish with blocker in place and diffusion sock on. The BD is high and about 18 in from Wendy's face. Fill from a silver 48in reflector held just out of shot low. Kicker light, from the back at camera left is an AB800 with 20 degree grid and barndoors (keeping it from hitting the background and from creating lens flare.

Added Sunday: Here is my other favorite of Wendy yesterday. I had a hard time deciding between the two. Also, wanted to let the readers know that I need people to shoot for this project. Wendy told me she looked terrible in pictures...but I think our collaboration yesterday, which took all of 10 minutes, produced images she can proudly use on her Facebook page, in other social media, and on her website. If anyone wants to get 3-5 free digital portraits they can use for any electronic use they want, for FREE, just email me at bmcportraits@gmail.com and we can set something up...on location or at my studio. All I ask in exchange is the right to use an image of you on this and my other blog and Flicrk stream. So..if you need a new profile picture for work, Facebook, etc. get in touch.

Day Six: Mesa

This evening my friend Mesa came by to get some help with processing some images she took last week. She's far more accomplished in Photoshop than I am and I have the edge when it comes to Lightroom. We worked on the images together...me showing her ways to process in Lightroom...her showing me some Photoshop tricks I didn't know. Give and take. The community of photographers locally, nationally and even internationally is great at sharing techniques, advice and inspiration. There's always more to learn...no matter what level you're at. Me...I have plenty to learn and then some...but this project will certainly move me along the path.

Mesa and I found a combination of Photoshop actions for a grainy warm black and white look that we both really liked. We used it on two of her images, and I've used it on the image above I took of Mesa before she left this evening. I'd set the lights and background up this afternoon so I'd be ready when she was here and we shot for less than 5 minutes. I planned on black and white and finding a combination of actions that produced a warm black and white I really like was serendipity.

Strobist: 2 AB800 at 1/16th power on background. Key is AB1600 at 1/8th power in 24x36 softbox with a grid, high camera left. There is a 4x8 reflector camera right to add a bit of fill to the shadow side. It's also flagging the AB800 camera right to keep it from spilling on to the shadow side of Mesa's face. The AB800 camera left is spilling a little on the camera left shoulder.