Leather(men)

My husband and I bought Leatherman's recently.  His is ridiculously big and heavy, and mine is a more petite size.  We thought it would be fun to illustrate the difference between them.  They are sitting on a canvas panel, about 6" away from a background of the same material.  These panels come in really handy for photography because they are lightweight, sturdy, inexpensive and come in all kinds of sizes.  The flash is held slightly above the tools at camera left.  I spilled a ton of it onto the background to blow out the seam in the two panels, giving the impression that they are sitting in a huge white room.

You can see how much light reflected off of the bottom panel by the drastic color difference between each side of the grip on my knife.  The whole knife is actually the same dark blue.







Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f4
60mm - ISO 500
1/40s- f/4

Canon 580EXII
1/64 power
17mm zoom
1' to camera left and 6" above subject
Triggered by Pocket Wizard Plus II's

Are you a Gerber baby?

It was a long day, so I just took a picture of some Gerber Daisies that Cory bought me as a surprise on Friday.  The colors really are that strong!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
50mm - ISO 200
1/40s- f/1.8

The most important cup you will ever drink

My photo of the communion bread and cup served at church tonight was somewhat over-stylized by the lighting array on the stage -  which turned everything blue and purple.  We had a wonderful night of worshiping Christ, culminating in the celebration of communion.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
50mm - ISO 320
1/20s- f/1.8

Silliness

So much of wedding photography is formal and staged, but my favorite parts are when people stop being serious and just have fun - as the little ring bearer was doing.  The groom is quite the hunting aficionado, so the aisle was lined with plastic geese.  I thought it would be fun to shoot the ceremony from their perspective.  The ring bearer with his fingers in his ears was just a bonus.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f4
24mm - ISO 200
1/125s- f/14

Canon 580EXII
TTL
24mm zoom
Flash on camera

Friday night BBQ

My husband surprised me with a Friday night BBQ, which was wonderful!  I have a full day of shooting tomorrow, so I just took three pictures today - all of my dinner.  The onions on the onion bun were black, but they weren't burnt - in case you were wondering.  Tasty!

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f4
105mm - ISO 400
1/60s- f/4

Canon 580EXII
TTL
17mm zoom
Flash on camera bounced off the ceiling

Time is tickin' away...

If you are an impatient person, like I sometimes am, time never seems to run at the right pace.  Some things take way too long, and other times, the seconds just fly by.  I was running out of time and ideas for today's post, and I just snapped a picture of me looking at my watch in front of my blank blog entry.  The web page where I compose my blog is mostly white, and when my flash bounced off of it, it bounced back at my hand, creating a nice highlight on the monitor and producing some separation between my hand and the background.  That is why photographers always point a light behind you when you are sitting for your portrait.  It helps prevent shadows too! 

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
105mm - ISO 400
1/20s- f/13

Nikon SB900
Bounced aboug 60 degrees above the subject
1/2 power
zoomed to 17mm

Context

Today's photo is all about context.  The photo below shows a beautiful rose and foliage.  But, unless this is a boutonniere on a groomsman, which - as you can tell by the background it is not - this picture would immediately rub a certain percentage of viewers the wrong way.  The foliage curving so sweetly around the blossom is that of a weed, not of the rosebush.   Most gardeners would be horrified, rather than inspired, by this photo.  So, we always have to keep the bigger picture in mind when we compose our shots and show our work.  Generations of marketing people have been making these kinds of mistakes; missing the tiny details that change an image from pleasing to offensive.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f4
105mm - ISO 250
1/125s- f/4