Hand Lamp

Does anyone want a job as V.A.L. (voice-activated lightstand) in my studio?

More Glass

And my Lemon Drop shot revisited. I used the same setup as in the previous post, and tilted the camera to give more movement to the image. I don't like the splash as much as the last one, but I have several ideas how to make it even better next time...

Glass

A little more experimenting with dark field lighting of glass. Greatly inspired by Light, Science and Magic - one of my favourite technical photography books.

I will post a setup shot for this image on my Flickr page.

Power Organization

There's a little bit of spring cleaning going on in the studio. One of the most annoying aspects of my Strobist activities is that there's always batteries needing to be charged for cameras, flash units, and everything else. I counted seven power adaptors on my desk, for computer, phone, hard drives, plus a load of battery chargers. This was taking up way too much valuable real estate in my already cramped quarters.

My solution to this problem was to commandeer one shelf of my equipment store and make it into a "charging station". I fixed a power strip, the Maha charger's adaptor, and all unnecessary lengths of wiring under the shelf, leaving the top free for the charging units and batteries. This is what the underside of the shelf looks like:

The power strip is mounted onto a board (to keep wires from projecting too far down into the lower shelf space), the excess lengths of wiring are tucked in the plastic conduit, and the Maha power adaptor is secured with a Velcro strap. The output leads are fed through holes drilled in the shelf.
And the top looks like this:

So it is all neat and tidy. This arrangement also has the advantage that if I go on a road trip, or off on a long day's shoot, I can bring the entire shelf - everything is strapped or Velcro-ed in place.
The plastic battery boxes keep the same sets together, and contain flags of card, green on one side and red on the other, which indicate whether the batteries are charged or not. The flags also go into the Nikon battery covers, and my CF card cases to let me know whether a card is blank or not.

Now, as to the rest of the spring cleaning... I'll leave that to another day :)

IKONIX Workshops - Part 2

I brought my Leica along to the workshop, and a couple of rolls of Tri-X. I developed and scanned them yesterday, and here are the results:

These images are of our wonderful and talented model, Kari Shannon, who did a really marvellous job.

And here are all the workshop participants having a great time!

Meet The Family

Here are my Nikon lenses:

• AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8
• AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8
• AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8
• AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 D
• Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 D
• AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 DX

MJ's Pinup Shoot

Undoubtedly my favourite shoot (so far) was MJ's pinup session, which we had on 14th November at IKONIX Studio in Des Moines. We had a really amazing team including Maggie Howe, (Wardrobe coordinator and logistics manager), Michelle White of Beautiful People Organic Salon (hair and makeup), Aisling Gibney (the best photo assistant on the planet - and she's my daughter too!), and Kristine Jorgensen (props master).

This is my design for the image CD cover.

I had a fabulous time, and learned a great deal about posing, lighting, and pinup photography in general. I'm really looking forward to doing more of this!
There are some more images from this shoot on my Flickr page

Catuccino

I had an impromptu photoshoot last night for a campaign that Panora P.E.T.S. plan to run in the near future. The "models" were absolutely gorgeous, and we had good fun.

There are some more images from this set on my Flickr page.

Soap Shoot

Doing some product shots for Prairieland Herbs. Here is this month's Soap of the Month (a little late, but better than never!) - Refreshing Rosemary from Biscuit's Boutique. This has a bright, fresh scent that's just the thing to get you up and going now that the mornings are getting darker.

This shot was lit with a single LED flashlight clamped in a retort stand camera right...

...and this was a more conventional lighting setup, using three Nikon SB Strobes.

Day 61

Just unloaded some of the gear that we used for the Super Duper Hooper Shoot. This isn't even all of it. No wonder we were tired! There is an annotated version of this picture on my Flickr page.

Day 14

I had a photoshoot this afternoon, with Melody Rose. We had a really great time. I'll post some pictures from the session in a while, but in the meantime, here's the "studio" - again in the Prairieland Herbs classroom.

Classroom Studio

I set up today for tomorrow's two studio family portrait sessions, in the Prairieland Herbs classroom. This is a converted barn extension that is used as a storeroom, chandlery, classroom (among others), and tomorrow it will be a photo studio. It's not really an ideal setup, being a bit (OK, a lot) on the small side, and the ceiling slopes down to just over five feet, so it will be an interesting challenge.

Here's my basic setup - a grey backdrop and my two White Lightning X1600 lights. I will also have my Nikon SB strobes at hand, and a selection of modifiers and reflectors.

First light test. In the absence of a better subject, muggins sat in. I hope tomorrow's pics look better :)

Spicy Spray

Another product shot for the Prairieland Herbs website, this time a seasonal special, Spicy Spray. I had lots of fun making this shot, and did loads of experiments with lighting. There is a setup shot on my Flickr page.

Soap Portrait

My latest job is to photograph a bar of soap for the Prairieland Herbs website. Without the box and label, it's a bit more challenging to make a bar of soap look interesting. Here's what I did:

And here's how I did it:

There are detailed notes on this picture on my Flickr page.

Garage Studio

I have recently been using the garage as a studio for some of my projects. This is mainly because my new Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8VR lens has a minimum focus distance of 1.5m (5ft.), and I need the extra space. It's nice to have a bit of room to move about without having to climb over stuff.

This is the setup I used for the latest series of scarf shots I took for Maggie's Etsy store:

And this is the setup for my "portrait" of one of Maggie's spinning wheels:


Both of these (and lots of other setup shots) are on my Flickr page, with detailed descriptions and technical notes. I'm always surprised by the number of views these setup shots get, usually more than the "final result" photos.

POP!!

I had a lot of fun yesterday playing with my new HiViz sound trigger, making pictures of balloons popping. I have quite a few ideas for other high-speed photography projects. This is one of my favourite shots from the set - you can see more on my Flickr page.

Falling Down

I had been thinking of this shot for a while. Thanks to Beaker for the feather.

Still Life

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, one of a whole series of shots in which I was experimenting with off-camera lighting. There's another version of this on my Flickr page, but I like this one better - I tidied it up a bit in Corel Paint Shop Pro. Still lifes are good for this type of excercise, they don't get fed up with your messing about with lights, and they hold the same pose throughout the sitting, AND you can make drinks with them afterwards!

Needle

Another attempt at a macro shot, with my Nikkor 18-200VR handheld in reverse position.
Lighting info here.

Maggie's Matchless...

...and here is her spinning wheel:


A beautifully crafted Schacht Matchless