Photo of the Day

Once again, Fumiko is a real sport and lets me use her as a guinea pig. 70cm shoot-through brolly directly above camera lit by Canon 580 EXII, reflector held in lap, gold reflector behind the shoji screen lit by Canon 580 EX (v1). Canon 20D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm. 1/125 @ f 8, ISO100. Flash at 1/4 power. Shot at the end of a long day of work, so the poor model is not "prepped" or anything.

This was a total experiment. I wanted to see what would happen using this translucent shoji screen as a backdrop and lighting it from behind. For attempt number two, there are a number of changes I need to make.

1. Turn up the power of the back light.
2. Move the model further from the backdrop so that...


1. ...the backdrop goes father out of focus (DOF is a problem for portraiture with these super wide angle lenses)
2. ...less light from the key falls on the front of the screen. I was hopping for it to look more back lit than it does. In fact, you can only barely tell I've done anything at all by the slight warming of color just over the model's shoulder.
3. I'm using a small reflector in the model's lap. Would like to see how a much larger one impacts the image.
   

Perhaps if the Shoji were back lit better, it wouldn't be so important for it to go out of focus.

Differing Points of View

There's a tourist point near here where young couples attach padlocks to chains as an expression of their dedication to each other.



Nevertheless, some couples may have differing points of view on the trip.  Take this padlock for example.

Side A (Mom's message)

"Second time with kids, fifth time as a couple.  Keeping in good health so we can come every year.  -Shyoko, Mom"

Side B (presumably dad's message)

"Sick of coming every year.  Will bring a different woman next year.  About time for a divorce.  5th time - probably never again."

Quality of Light

I just got my first shoot-though translucent umbrella, light stand, and multi-clamp combo. Over at Strobist.blogspot.com, a site I've been frequenting of late, they make the case that a photographer is only as good as the quality of their light. Thus, I'm in a mission to improve that very thing. Here are some very quick and dirty test shots from yesterday using the umbrella.





I'm sure you'll agree that just having this single new light source makes a dramatic improvement. I'm torn on the catchlights though. On one hand, they're better than they've ever been in my photography. On the other hand, if you look at the cat, you can clearly make out the shape and spines of the umbrella. A soft box would be a far better solution, but at nearly 10x the price of an umbrella it will have to wait a bit.

Canon's 5D Mark II

If you have any interest in cameras, imaging technology, or content creation, you need to stop what you're doing, turn up your speakers, and watch this video "Reverie" by Vincent Laforet. From the very beginning I've been drooling over this new camera, but I've drooled strictly as a still photographer. This, however, just took the game to a whole new level. Canon put icing on the cake that's a whole new cake in and of itself.

Make no mistake. What you are about to see was shot on a still photo camera, using Canon's still photo lenses. Further, the entire thing was shot at ISO1600 - ISO2000. Prepare to have your mind blown.

I'm linking to a mid-def version of the video, but if your machine has the power be sure to flip to the high-def version.

Photo of the Day

For some reason, I just love photographing insects. This spider is very common in Japan, and can be seen practically everywhere as long as the temperature isn't too low.

On this day I was practicing using off-camera flash. The sun provides the back/edge lighting, while my flash provided the fill.

Canon 20D, Speedlight 580 EXII (hand-held off camera), Canon EF-S 10-22mm @22mm
1/250 at f8.0, ISO 100,

Photo of the Day

I thought I'd give you all a break from cheezy pet pictures, so here's a cheezy fireworks picture instead. This is from the August fireworks competition in Hitoyoshi. （人吉の8月の花火大会）

Moo-lah!

[Note: While most of my blog lives under Creative Commons, the three images in this post are NOT Creative Commons. I retain full rights of ownership, and you are NOT free to do with them as you please.]

So I'm sure this isn't so exciting for you folks out there in internets-land, but I just had to share that I made my first income ever from photographs I took.

I must admit that on occasion I feel a little silly having such awesome photo gear and never using it to make any money with. Today that's no longer the case. I've put up a little sign at the reception area of the hospital downstairs with (ridiculously low) pricing, and our two employees (bless their little hearts) managed to sell me not once, but twice today. The cost is about $10 for the photo sitting, and $5 per A4 (that's damn-near letter size to you Westerners) print. Two dogs came in for grooming today, and both owners left with one photo each. Here are the two images I sold.



In place of the first image I personally prefer this following one, but I guess it's just not as marketable:


(I know it's probably not a great idea to put images I sell up on my blog, but just today I'm going to let it slide since I'm drunk and celebrating.)

Ok ok. As an art-graduate, I must admit that if any of my classmates and friends from college see these, I'm going to be rather embarrassed. Seriously. Pet photos?? But you know what? The excitement of getting paid for some silly pictures I took is doing a pretty good job of trumping my art-school pride.

I did a lot of reading on the internet in order to get the setting built that you see (or rather don't see) in these photos. This is called an "infinite-white background" and they are a royal bitch to set up. Well, that's not entirely true. If you're a photographer with bags of money and a big studio, they're not so hard. If you're just starting out, the cost-of-entry can be considerable. While there are many severe flaws in the images above, I'm downright tickled that it looks as good as it does considering I'm only using a single Canon 580 EX strobe mounted directly on my camera.

I keep toying with the thought of doing a separate post on how I set up my little studio space, but so far I haven't gotten around to it. Is anyone out there interested? Perhaps if I hear back from you, I'll get around to writing it up.

East vs West, Graphically

(link in title)
These are fun to ponder. "East vs West" is a bit too large a grouping for these to be considered accurate, but they are accurate in certain specific examples. Thanks for the link, Tong.