Macro and Light Work

So, getting a headstart on staying on top of my goal of shooting daily, I pulled out a set of cheap wine glasses and I used only one light, trying to give them depth and direction. The first shot was converted to Black and White (which made almost no difference, but I'm throwing that out there) and the second one was shot with a blue filter over the single light, which was set at 45 degrees to the subject matter. I set my Aperture to 11, ISO 100, Shutter speed for the Black and White was  3 seconds, and on the blue one, 1/250th of a second (I tripped the flash.)

With a single light, you can create dynamic lighting, and while the subject here is rather simplistic, I want to explore this option more with a person, I think that could create some great images.

Ramming Speed

Even with the cyclical lighting the lighting was only so-so. And of course some of the most dynamic poses came when the lights were at their worst.

Case in point, great pose, terrible lighting, so off to LightRoom for conversion...

Messy

And here is where things got to be really messy. Between the fading light and full on night, the venue had powerful klieg lights running but they did little other than fight with the dusk. Those pics I took I will not post here.

Once full night fell the kliegs took over and gave me enough light to work with. Of course I had to go and run the improper settings, not using a fast enough shutter speed. I was using 1/200 figuring that would be enough and in the LCD screen of the camera it looked sharp enough, it was only when I got home and viewed them on the big screen of my PC did I realize I should have pushed it one or two more stops. Oh well, live and learn.

Background Noise

Even with the f/2.8 there was only so much I could do to isolate the busy background. I feel the shot could be better with more light to make the bucking bronco stand out more, but I worked with what I had.

Midair

Naturally, the light fell behind the venue, giving me enough to shoot by to capture action, but not enough to really make the images stand out.

Here is a prime example, cowboy in air, horse going wild. The histogram is as flat as a board even though there was enough light for 1/800sec shutter speed at 400ISO.

Back for more

So I managed to get an invite to shoot a rodeo for a large venue. I was anxious to try out my 80-200mm f/2.8 on something other than concerts, and this seemed to be the perfect place. As I was to discover later, this was the only lens I would use that night. So much for hauling around all my gear.

But that's okay, as you can see from this shot to the left, the bokeh was superbly rendered and the cowboy really stands out from the busy background.

Unfortunately the rodeo didn't start until 7pm so the fading twilight allowed me only a handful of really good shots before I had to crank up the ISO.

So Nice

One thing I did encounter there, which I wasn't expecting, was cigarette smoke. I thought all bars here in this area had gone smoke free, but I guess I was wrong. With all the heavy smoke in the air, lightbeams started to show, which added to the pics. Downside was it took a week to air out my jacket, but it was worth.

Sing!

Local dive bar. Well okay not really, it was a trendy coffeehouse. No light to speak of, and I didn't want to use flash and upset the musicians. I've got closets larger than the "stage" area that they managed to cram 6 musicians into. Not much room for me to work with, and the pics are noisy from lack of light (can you say ISO 1600? I knew you could!) but the 50mm shines as usual.

A Return to Form

I haven't been shooting much in the way of landscapes lately, I've been doing my people practice. But this weekend I went horseback riding and the area was too good to pass up.

It helped, of course that the "golden light" was nearly upon me, so I waited a few, and here is the end result.

It reminded me why I liked shooting landscapes so much, it's very peaceful to look at.

Shiny

Just a bit of pretty. Opals, and other stones reflect the light nicely here. I was rapidly losing the daylight, so in addition to the flash, I added about a plus 1 to the exposure compensation.

I do love shooting with the Macro lens but I've really got to get it cleaned, you can see all the dust spots on the picture.

Warm Weather

The city is currently in the grip of 80 degree weeks, so it is only natural to photograph people indoors, right?

Single light, head-on, and shooting around the light stand (a lot harder than it sounds) for a local artist.

A larger view

A wider (or better, depending on your point of view) look at the Blackwater Falls in West Virginia.

The sun was playing nice on a generally overcast day when I took this, so the land was deep green, with the waterfall still being white.

Would have liked the lake at the bottom some other colour other than brown, but you can't have everything.

Rhapsody in Blue

Right next to the Red Jellyfish tank, but the Blue one. Moon Jellyfish if I recall right. Slower moving creatures but the lighting contrast was less so I was still shooting with ISO3200. Some Noise Ninja software adjustment on it and it's looking pretty good.

There's a fungus among us

Fallen tree totally covered in fungus. The fog in the background helps to contrast the colours.

Underground

Just in time for my trip to Colorado I snagged a flashgun for my D1x. No clue how to properly use it and when I visited some Caverns that allowed the use of flash photography (the ones in my state don't) I thought I'd be all set.

Turns out the flash didn't work well in the caverns, probably (heck, most certainly) user error, so I ended up handholding most of the shots, with predictable results.

But I did manage a few good ones, such as this one here.

Have gun, will travel

Same effect, same settings, same happy accident. I like how there's just enough glint in her eye to keep her in detail, while the gun (a CZ-52) is the main subject in focus.

And yes, for those curious, that's a real gun and it was empty (checked by me and her) while in use as a prop.

...And now for something completely different!

So I have a set of studio lights I used extensively with my Fuji S2 Pro and I knew all the settings to get proper exposure. But recently I sold my Fuji and hadn't yet worked with the lights on my Nikon D1x.

A friend approachd me and asked if I would take some pictures of his girlfriend for him. So I dug out the lights, set things up as per the Fuji, and started shooting.

However, the results, straight from the camera here, were unexpected. Not sure how I managed such High Key looks, but I like the effect.

Torchlight

Was at a smoky jazz lounge the other day. Okay not really, but they had a band playing jazz. Here is the sax player at rest. It's funny how good our eyes can be, in the dim of the lounge, I could see perfectly, but the camera had difficulty. Shooting 400 speed film, with a wide open aperture (1.8) I couldn't get anything less than 1/6 second, which makes handholding neigh impossible.

I'm not happy with the sharpness of the image, but in such a dimly lit place, this was the best I could do.

Return

A friend I worked with some in the past was kind enough to let me try again, to compare how my skills have improved (we'll set aside any discussion of IF they have improved, and merely assume they have)

This is my favourite shot so far, really captures her natural beauty.

Shot with my Pentax and ne(ish) 50-200mm lens and studio light rig.

Lightstream

I have always been fond of lightstreams, beautiful (and easy) to see with the naked eye, somewhat more difficult to capture on film. Got lucky here I think, on a gravel path.