Since I haven’t actually posted any pictures in a while, I figured I’d post a few of my favorite subject, my 10 month old son!  He is finally changing his expression when he sees my D90 looming over him, as the first 9 months he would just stare at it in amazement, probably because with the battery grip it was about the same size as him.  Check it out inside, I posted a few of my recent favorites along with the lighting setups. No matter what your investment portfolio looks like currently, there is always new potential with each new season that comes your way, you can learn more here.

 

This first one I took a few days ago.  It was taken in our sun room, but unfortunately it wasn’t a great day out, pretty dark in the room actually.  The background is the view outside our sliders, into our woods slash long weeds.  He is “standing” in his play station thingie.  As you can see in the caption, I’m quite a ways from him, I wanted to catch a somewhat candid shot of him.  Although I like the standard smiling shots, I have come to really love these non-posing type shots more.  Even with a very cheap 70-300 lens, the bokeh is good enough to add some separation.  I have a 32 inch shoot through umbrella camera right, about 2 feet from him, using my SB-700 and 622N.  Camera and flash both on manual. SB-700 was set to 1/64 power I believe.  I love using the umbrella for shots like this.  I don’t care about spillage since it’s such a tight shot, as any spillage is going to go camera left, out of view, and not towards the background.   And it’s quicker to set up than a softbox.  There are many times that I’m scrambling to get good light on him before I miss a great shot!  I have 3 identical shoot through, all for around 8 bucks each on Ebay.  I almost never bounce light into an umbrella, I like the light better on the shoot through.  I slightly sharpened his eyes in Lightroom, contrast, clarity, the usual.  I normally shoot at my max sync speed on long shots if I’m hand holding, using flash.  Once in a while if the ambient is really dark, I’ll shoot slower and let my flash freeze movement.

 

The one on the right was taken this past weekend.  It was beautiful outside, even a little cold.  That’s New England for you. 90 one day, 70 the next….We just set up a quilt, and let the little man roll around.  I got this shot as he was coming out of a roll, just got it at the right time. This was shot using my new Lumiquest Sofbox III, which is pretty kick ass so far.  It is small, only about 8×9 inches, but the portability is the real reason I got it, and as long as you have it close, it produces pretty good light.  The SBIII was maybe a foot away from him, on a mini tripod.  There are so many times where I want to throw a little fill, especially outside, and now I’ll toss on the SBIII, either just hold out my flash with my left hand, or possibly put it on a monopod if I want an extreme or high angle.  This shot was also shot in manual, both the camera and flash.  It was shot at 1/400th, so the SB-700’s High Speed Sync kicked in.  The flash was so close to Jonathan though, it wasn’t a problem.  It’s a pretty bright image, I wanted to convey how happy he was to be playing outside!  It’s been so hot and humid, we haven’t been out all that much.

 

 

 

I was planning on putting up a few more, but it’s pretty late.  Those are only a few of the thousands I have a Jon.  I’m finally starting to REALLY keyword all of my photos in Lightroom.  At this point, I only have one or two keywords per image, which just doesn’t cut it.  It’s a lot of work, but I hope to get it done within the next few weeks.  I have a bunch of posts in progress, if only I can find more time to post!  As it is, I’m writing this well past midnight.  Here are some of my posts in progress:

• Lumiquest Softbox III review
• Follow up to my YN-622N review
• Organizing Gear and where/how to store it all?
• My DIY light modifiers
• Trip to Enders Falls (Don’t laugh, these are big falls for Connecticut)

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!