Fun With Chemistry

I ordered a bunch of frozen meat (mice to be specific, for my reptiles) and it came packed in dry ice. A huge block of it. So after I did the usual fun experiments, it was time to break out the camera and lights for some shots.

Here is one, just before the bubble burst. Shot with my Nikon D2x, the 50mm Macro, tripod, and a set of studio lights, one giving a 50% flash to light it up evenly. There is no post processing on these shots, they are all straight out of the camera.

Beauty

One of my favourite images from tonight's practice. It's a combination of flash photography and natural fill light from a nearby window.

When shooting with a Macro lens, your depth of field narows to nothing, and it's difficult to get everything in focus, but in this instance, the important parts are, with the rest elegantly sliding into a blur.

Flash

One of the last bits of photo equipment I needed was a flashgun (honest! last bit) and it arrived just in time for my trip. Sadly my results with it were less than stellar. Of course I've never really used a proper flashgun before so perhaps I had it set wrong.

This is from a crystal caverns way up high in the mountains of Colorado. This shot turned out properly exposed, hopefully you can see the details

Flash

I was invited to a club to shoot some models there. I'd never worked with on-camera flash (preferring remote strobes) and I was unsure of what I'd get.

Naturally, my flash unit failed within the first flash, and I had to rely on the built in one on my Fuji. So for running live, with no experience, I was pretty darned nervous, fortunately the club was nearly pitch black and much of the flash was lost in that, so the models turned out well, as you can see here.

I'd dearly love a bette flash unit, but the prices!

Flash

I once read a comment by a photographer that, in his opinion, it was impossible to take a good picture using a flash. Not to be confused with taking a photograph using light mind you, but flash adds a harsh localized glare. Hardly the thing for good photography, and as such I agree with him.

On the other hand, it's always good to challenge conventions, and in this case, I used my built-in flash on my Samsung dSLR. The results? Well, you tell me.