Bounce Flash

DSC_0360, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Another experiment, but this time with a bounce flash. I wanted to see if I could take a single flash photo of our bathroom without getting the spectral (sparkly) elements overexposed and distracting. Our bathroom is nothing but shiny surfaces (glass tile, stainless steel, lacquered cabinets, granite, etc.), so it was going to be a challenge.

And the flash had to be on camera because there wasn't room in the corner for me, the camera, and a flash stand. So I turned the flash 180 degrees and bounced it off the wall(s) and ceiling.

I love how smooth the light is on the granite and on the cabinet (the one reflected in the mirror). And while some of the tiles reflected the light, it's fairly smooth and even.

Lights were off with no ambient light, one SB600 on full power. Added about 2/3rds EV converting from RAW.

Finally playing with light

Light Mod Diffused, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Today was a day for super-gluing fingers and experimenting with flash techniques. I've been reading a fantastic blog by David Hobby, aka Strobist and it's really inspired me. Lighting has always seemed like calculus to me...I'm sure it's useful, but it's too painful to learn. Well I'm almost past that (with lighting, not calculus).

So today I ran around town with Elizabeth picking up some supplies to give me more control over light. After spending some time working on my craft skills and getting super glue on most of my fingers I went outside to try out some new tricks.

First, I wanted to see if I could overpower the ambient light. All of the pics you see here were taken about 90 minutes before sunset, but they look like they were taken at night with a flash. Not necessarily the best technique for this photo, but I wanted to see if I could master it.

Second, I wanted to see how the new flash modifiers worked, so I set up this experiment. All of the pictures are using the same camera and flash settings. I'm using the on camera flash for a little fill, and the main flash is camera right pointed directly at the blue reflecting ball.

This first picture is with the flash diffuser in front of the flash.


This second picture is with the diffuser removed and the flash zoomed to 80mm.


The third picture is with a snoot attached to the flash (Elizabeth had to listen to me say snoot all day long. Snooty snoot snoot.)


And the last picture is with a grid attached to the flash (imagine looking down a box of straws).


You can really see how the light spills onto the back wall (right side of the picture) using the bare flash. As the beam tightens up from diffused to zoom to snoot to grid you can see less light making its way back there and more light hitting the focal point. I really like the visual impact from the snoot and the grid, and I can see how they will help make a picture pop. Next to experiment some more with balance.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Brick, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I finally got a chance to take out the new camera, lens, and flash for some fun. But most importantly I got a couple of pictures of my wonderful wife.

Normally I don't enjoy photographing people. They move too fast. They blink. And worst of all, they have an opinion about how they look.

Now my wife has all three of these traits, but she's also beautiful and photogenic and a lot of fun to be with, which counts for a lot more.

We had a lot of fun and got a lot of stares while we taking pictures along the parkway near our house. The new lens is sharp as a tack, and the flash was providing the perfect amount of fill light.

And I was pretty pleased with my efforts. Even though I took over 100 photos and only found two worth printing, all but two of those were technically correct. The rest were workable, just not as charming as this picture.

Providence Street

Providence Street, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

E and I spent the weekend in Providence, RI. We went to see Waterfire, but only one of us actually made it. E got the stomach virus that I had earlier in the week and had to head back to the hotel. I finished dinner with our friends and snuck in a few shots of the festivities before I went back to the hotel to comfort E.

Providence is a lovely town and we really enjoyed ourselves, and Waterfire is a very cool happening. Hard to describe, but the atmosphere and mood really make it an event.

Here are a couple pictures that give a sense:

Brothers sleeping

Brothers sleeping, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

This is not a fine art pic by any stretch, but I had to post to share some great news.

When AOL finally got around to handing out bonuses, E and I decided that each of us should get a little bit to spend on our hobbies. I took this opportunity to jump to the next level of photography equipment. It took some wheeling and dealing and plenty of help (more on that later), but I finally pulled together enough pieces to start taking pictures.

So now I have a NIkon D80, an entry level 70-300mm telezoom, and a dedicated TTL flash (never had one of these before and the difference is amazing). And I just ordered my first "professional grade" lens.

And there's no way that I could have done it without some amazing support. I've mentioned in previous posts how thankful I am to Judith for jumpstarting me back into photography, and I couldn't have made this next step without the help she gave me getting started.

And then this week my wife completely surprised me with a gift. She gave me the money to buy that first "professional grade" lens. It was so unexpected and generous that we both broke down and wept for a bit. But since then she's been rolling her eyes and giggling at me because I'm running around like a kid at Christmas time.

So here's a picture taken with all the new toys (so far). I don't get the new lens for a few days, so you can expect some more test pictures then.

Thanks again to everyone!

Chapstick is important

Chapstick is important, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Chapstick is very, very important to Alison. I probably have a dozen pictures of Alison is various stages of applying chapstick to herself and others, but this one is my favorite.

Alluveal Fan Falls

Alluveal Fan Falls, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Even though I got here about an hour later than I had planned (I got slightly turned around in the park and missed first light on the falls) I'm still very pleased with how this picture turned out. When I got there it was actually pretty bright out, but the falls were in full shade and a neutral density filter later we were in business.

Originally I had composed this to show some treeline and sky, but the falls kept misting up the lens and it was really evident up in the top part of the photo. So I cropped it down to to focus on the falls.

Well worth the 4:45am wake up call.

Sunset Hilltop

Sunset Hilltop, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

This was taken from the back deck of the house that E's folks rented for the family reunion/vacation. I started out focusing on a few silhouetted trees, but I wound up liking the panorama a bit better.

Sleeping Kitties

Sleeping Kitties, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I couldn't decide between the color version and the b/w version, so I've posted them both.

What you see is probably the sixth or seventh incredibly, painfully sweet napping positions the boys found this afternoon. At some point you just have to pick up the camera and take a picture.

Wally peers out

Wally peers out, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Poor Eddie and Chloe. They just aren't as photogenic as their brother Wally. I shot this picture while E and I were working on our patio last weekend. It was beautiful outside for the first time this year, and we had the windows all open and were happy to be outside getting the patio into shape.

But the kitties were forlorn. They didn't understand why we were outside when we could be inside with them. Or better still, they could be outside. So I snapped this picture of Wally peering out from his new favorite ledge.

Reworked Easter Pictures

Nested Bird, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

So I spent some more time working on the pictures I took over Easter. Some of these are repeats and some are all new:

The bird in the picture above was hiding behind a mooring post at the ferry. Of the dozen or so shots, this was the one where he peeked out the most.



And this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Alison and Jen were at the front of the ferry looking out across the water as we were underway. Alison's little fistfull of shirt really shows the mother-daughter bond.



And there here is the father-daughter bonding picture. I recomposed this picture from the previous post and I think it's a lot stronger.



In case there's any doubt that Alison is going to break hearts one day.

Happy Alison

Happy Alison, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Seriously, how could I not post this picture right away?

E and I spent the day with Ben, Jen, and Alison. We crossed the James river on the ferry and spent the day at the Jamestown settlement. While that was nice, it was really just something interesting to do while we spent a relaxing day together as a family.

I'll probably spend some more time on these pictures when I get back home, but here's a sneak preview...







*** Edited because I'm a dork and I deleted the old versions of the pictures from my flickr account. If these pics look the same as the "new" pics, you're not imagining things. ***

Curtains are for Kitties

IMGP0525, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Wally plopped down on this curtain that we had taken down while we were doing some cleaning. E took some pictures at the same time and I think hers will turn out better. Still, it's hard to pass up an opportunity to take and share some pictures of Walter.

Vegas Rooftop

IMGP0488, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Since my room had an unglamorous view of Vegas, I thought I'd focus on that in the picture. So there's a lot of rooftop plumbing and parking garage in this picture. This was shot through the narrow slit of open window. I think that I may have had the dirtiest window in town. It looked like window washers had started to clean it and them stopped--letting all the dirty water just drip down the glass.

Vegas Hotel Room

IMGP0484, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I really liked the light coming through the window and the way that the shears formed ripples on the ceiling. My room didn't have an exception view, but with this photo I can almost pretend that it did.

Frankfurt Bike 2

Frankfurt Bike 2, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I knew that I could do a better job processing this photo given a bit more time. I thought about posting all the things I did differently with this picture from the one I posted a few days ago, but I think I'll not. Consider it one of those "spot the differences" games.

Main River

IMGP0448, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I almost didn't post this picture to the blog, but I really like the composition. The execution is a little lacking, but I feel pretty good about the shot overall.

This was my first shot of the day, and it was pretty darn dark. Since I didn't have a tripod with me, I was shooting wide open, which means a small depth of field. The majority of the full size picture is the river, and the auto focus picked that as it's focal distance. If I had moved the focus out to infinity, I probably would have had a much better shot.

So I abused Unsharp Mask (I think I heard the pixels screaming) to at least produce a lovely thumbnail.

Paulskirche and the Commerzbank Tower

IMGP0466, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

One of the nice things about the rain, it keeps people off the street. I doubt there are many times of the day that this whole platz is clear like it was this morning.

I have another shot of this that is a little better in focus, but I like how the clouds have cleared around the cross at the top.

I also like the contrast of old and new in this photo. I wish the street to the right (out of frame) had been more attractive because I would have liked to have the Commerzbank building more toward the center of the frame.

Woolworth and Frankfurt

IMGP0475, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I'll use this picture to get all my gripes, complaints and excuses out. Ok...I doubt this is the last excuse you'll hear for this batch of photos, but at least you won't hear the whole story again and again.

So I spent two days each in London and Frankfurt last week, and the weather was awful the entire time. That's not too far out of the ordinary for late winter in either location, but it still felt like bad luck.

Mostly it felt that way because there would be spectacular glimpses of sunlight in the middle of the day when I was busy with work. Also, work went past sundown about half the time anyway, so it would have been tough finding the time to take pictures even if the weather had been perfect. In fact, I'd probably be even more grumpy if the weather had been good because then it would have been work getting in the way.

The one day I was really able to get out and just think about taking pictures was the morning before my flight home. I got up and dressed at 5:30am so I could get into the city and then back to my hotel before 8:30 when I had to leave for the airport. I figured I'd have about an hour of daylight for shooting before I had to head home. My first step out the door of the hotel I noticed that it was darker than normal. Probably because it was raining steadily. Still I ventured out. This was the last shot of the morning, and you'll notice the other shots are noticeably darker (and blurrier).

This building was right next door to my hotel. I could see it from my room, but only from the side. From the front you can really start to see the International/Bauhaus style...and of course the big Woolworth sign. It tickled me so I stopped traffic two or three times to get this picture (I was in a rather wide median at a cross walk, but German drivers were so cautious they would stop on the off chance that I might suddenly dart into the street).

Frankfurt Bike

Frankfurt Bike, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

A quick little picture for my lovey. For two reasons. One, she likes pink. And two, to show her that I got back to my hotel in plenty of time to make my flight so she won't worry.

Frankfurt skyline

Frankfurt skyline, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Not a very compelling picture, but the best I could do under the circumstances. It was hazy and overcast almost the entire time I was in Frankfurt. Luckily the cloud layer was high enough this night to get a peak at the skyline over the buildings. The streak is probably a plane and not a shooting star (the clouds were too low and the airport was too near for it to be anything else).

Elizabeth Still and Sparkling

Elizabeth Still and Sparkling, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I drank this water the entire time I was in Frankfurt and it always reminded me of my wife.

Wally

IMGP0417, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I had to do a little computer maintenance, which distracted me from posting, so here's a kitty picture to tide you over until I can get back to serious posting (expect something interesting when I return from London and Frankfurt).

Also, I entered the black and white picture of the government square building in the Boston Globe's monthly amateur photo contest. We'll see if I make the final cut (which honestly is a bit like making the line-up in tee-ball...pretty much everyone plays regardless of skill).

Still Photography...you're doing it wrong.

You know what the difference is between good photographers an great photographers? Great photographers don't show you their mistakes.

So keeping with my theme of constant improvement, there will be no photos published from my last attempt at still photography. It's not that they were so awful, but they were very uninspiring and boring and (most of all) incorrectly lit.

So the idea was to take some pictures of the irises and lilies that E got for Valentine's and for her Birthday. I thought I would try using multiple lighting sources to bring out the details (tricky since they were white flowers). So I gathered up all the lights and carefully positioned and pointed them loosely based on things I had read. So here's the list of things I did wrong:

Used lighting with different color temps
Subject too close to the background
Backlight too close to subject

Try as I might I wasn't able to tweak all of these things to produce an interesting picture. Luckily all of these are easily fixable, so I'll try again soon.

New uses for a backdrop

So yesterday E and I went looking for an inexpensive white sheet that I could use as a backdrop for shooting some flowers. After we got it home I washed it to get out all of the wrinkles and creases and spread it over a chair so it wouldn't get new creases before I used it today.

Well, Eddie and Wally thought it was a perfect backdrop for kittens to sleep on. Much cuteness followed:

Playing with B&W

This month's amateur contest is about black and white photography, so I've been playing around a bit with that. I thought this picture wound up being pretty dramatic and moody (especially when compared to the original).

Government Center at Night

Passing through Government Center this evening at just the right time. I thought the staircase was a very interesting detail that I had never seen before and you really only get to see at night. Took a handful of pictures and this is the one that worked the best.

Fading Flowers

I'm not a big fan of still life. If I have the opportunity to tinker with a picture I'll do just that until I get fed up and start thinking "take the picture already". Then later I'll wish that I had done even more tinkering.

Anyway, I took these pictures of some Tulips I got E for her Birthday (Happy Birthday E!). I liked the color contrast inside the red blooms and as E said, you don't often see pictures of tulips that are opened.

I don't completely understand studio lighting, but I wish I had a fill flash behind the flowers. It would have taken the shadows off the background and given a little glow to edges. Still I'm very please with this picture. Here's the color version which is solid, but not nearly as striking as the b/w.

Lots of snow

IMGP0340, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

It was supposed to be 2-4 inches. More like 12-14 by the time it was all done. Here are a couple of pictures of our "snow day".

Cold possibilities

IMGP0326, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

So the theme for this months Boston Globe amateur competition is "Cold" and this is the first, best picture I have taken on the subject. This was just outside on our patio after a snowstorm. It was supposed to be 3-5 inches, but was closer to 8. This is what was left of a small bush peeking through the blanket of snow.

Swaddled Wally

IMGP0334, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

While Wally is our wild child, unafraid of most things. He is, however, deathly afraid of being under blankets. So this is a most unusual photo of him swaddled up in E's jacket. Click through to the Flickr account to see some more pictures of the same.

Boston Harbor morning

IMGP0273, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

And if you don't naturally wake up to catch the sun, you can be forced to be awake because of your travel schedule.

The sun was rising over the harbor while I sat at the airport waiting for my flight out to Seattle. The sky was a dull, flat grey and not very exciting. That's why we have a crop tool.

Not show here are dozens of pictures of planes taking off silhouetted by a rising sun. The same optical mind-game that sometimes makes the moon to look really huge, also makes it look like the plane is filling the viewfinder. The planes were little tiny plane-like outlines against a very blah sky.

Seattle Skyline

IMGP0298, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

These are from my hotel room in Seattle, early Friday morning. Physically being on the West Coast while your body is on East Coast time really helps you capture the morning sun.

I had a lot of trouble getting the picture in sharp focus. I tried a lot of variations of bracing the camera against the metal railing and what not, but in the end I wound up laying prone on the concrete balcony with the camera sitting on the very edge (lens hanging over the lip).

These two photos also capture one of the few moments of sunlight I saw on my visit. In a few minutes it went right back to being cloudy, grey and rainy.

IMGP0258_d_l-hs

IMGP0258_d_l-hs, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I had very low expectations for this picture, and it's honestly not one of my best. The composition is weak.

But it was a great exercise in exposure. Very bright mid-day sun and shadow on two very different colors of stone. Certainly not a pic for the ages, but lessons were learned.

Sleeping Chloe

IMGP0255, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

Or, Chloe at her best...

It isn't fair that the boys get all the pictures. It's just that they are a little more active than Chloe. This photo doesn't capture her like the other pictures really capture the boys, but it's a good start. And frankly if she wants a better picture she'll have to give me more. Work it girl....work it!