Category Archives: sunset

Playing with my food

cherries

I needed a shot of some cherries for an upcoming episode of our vidcast, Travel by the Pint, today so we made a quick run down to the local grocery store and picked up a bag. Back in the “studio” (more of a spare bedroom, really), I set up a small light table left over from slide sorting days and leaned a large piece of light blue paper up about three feet behind it to give a nice color contrast to the red and yellow fruit.

I placed three cherries on the lightbox and turned it on. A window to the left added a highlight to the upper left side of the cherries but didn’t light the background paper enough to balance the brightness of the lightbox. I popped up the on-board flash on the D700 and used it in commander mode to control my SB600 which I held over the cherries, pointing toward the backdrop. I had a diffusion dome on the flash to help soften and even out the background light and it also added another little highlight to the top of the cherries.

Shooting with a Nikkor 60mm macro lens, I set the aperture to f/8 to ensure the cherries would be in focus but the background would be softly blurred. I also wanted the black edge of the lightbox to be out of focus so that it would become an abstract stripe rather than a recognizable piece of metal edging.

I shot several other versions — and this is actually not the one we’ll use — but I thought I’d share it here as an example of how a few items from around the office can come together for make a quick graphic image. All in all, the whole shoot took maybe 15 minutes. And I end up with some nice stock images and a snack for later.

Bicyclists

bicyclists

I’m working on a project with JNA Advertising and the great guys over at Gizmo for the next couple of weeks that involves a bunch of quick-turn environmental portraits. Last night Tavio and his biking buddies made great subjects and I decided to try the Nikkor 10.5 fisheye with a little off-camera flash. I used the Nikon D300’s pop-up flash in commander mode and dialed it down 3 stops so that it wouldn’t influence the shot. It remotely triggered the SB-600 in my left hand that was cranked up 2 stops. I dialed the camera down 1 stop.

I wanted to overpower the ambient light with the flash to highlight Tavio in the foreground. It all took about as much time as it did to just explain it. The result here has had just a bit of vignetting added but is not too far from being straight out of the camera.

Kentucky elk herd

Kentucky elk herd

I’m finding that I actually have more time to post when I’m on the road these days. Now that I’m back from Kentucky, I’m divided between work, painting the new house and office, packing, and preparing the old house for sale. It will all be worth it in the end, though. I look forward to having home and office under one roof again.

So, as I prepare to spend the day painting ceilings at the new place, I’ll leave you with one more shot from the elk herd that has been reintroduced on reclaimed mining land in Kentucky. This was a little later in the morning than the last shot I posted and the light was warming up a little (aided a bit here by Photoshop). Still, the fog just wouldn’t burn off. While others complained about the “bad light” I was having a blast finding ways to make the muted colors and subdued contrast work to my favor. Hopefully I succeeded a little but I know I came away with more shots than the folks who thought it was too bad to even take their lens caps off.

Maligne Canyon ice hike

Maligne Canyon ice hikeI had a great experience last night on the Maligne Canyon ice hike in Canada’s Jasper National Park. This is a trip you must make with a guide. Boots and ice spikes are provided — a necessity for the second half of the hike when you are literally walking on the frozen and sometimes slushy river. It’s a pretty good trek from the parking area to the ice falls and fairly disorienting in the dark with only an LED headlamp to show you the way. There are a few overlooks at the top of the falls that are accessible during the day on your own but the fun of the night trip begins when the guide leads you off of the path and down into the canyon. It’s similar to exploring a cave except you can see the stars between the high canyon walls and many of the formations are ice instead of stone. This is not a trip that can be made in the summer as the river prevents all access.

To say that this was a challenge to shoot would be an understatement. It’s a three-hour trip and you’re not encouraged to linger too long in any one place. In my case, I was with a group which added the challenge of getting time exposures without other’s flashes going off. Still some nice images were made. Here the guide shines his hand-held light behind a frozen ice flow.

It’s a great trip and I would highly recommend it. Just be aware that it is exceedingly slippery in places and it pays to follow the advice of a good guide to get the best footing and avoid a wet and chilly surprise.