Like a lot of people I’ve been drawn into the world of off-camera lighting. Like a lot of people I don’t have the money for a big lighting set-up so I opted to use small, standard battery driven flash units. I already had one 580 EX gathering dust so I decided it was probably easier and cheaper to use that and add to it as I learn. My choice of teacher; David Hobby at Strobist. I read Lighting 101, thought I understood, but ultimately didn’t, so I am now reading Lighting 102 which I find to be easier to grasp. This image is a result of reading Lighting 102: 4.1 (Biblical, no?) on restricting light. This is really just me taking shots with one light, fitted with an HonlPhoto 1/4 Speed Grid and taking test shots. I liked this one, even with the shadow on his face and the wrinkle in the background paper. I’ll keep practicing and posting for your amusement!

Strobist Info:
Canon 580EX II at 1/8th power, zoom at 35mm, on stand, camera right through HonlPhoto 1/4 Speed Grid. Triggered by PW Plus II.

Technorati Tags: Lighting, Portrait, Strobist, Studio, Toddler

Here’s the image I talked about yesterday, I gave up on the patch tool as it really did nothing except cause orange pixelation (it wasn’t on pattern mode). I stuck with the clone tool and then the healing tool.

Technorati Tags: California, Long Exposure, Los Angeles

I went shooting in downtown LA last night with John. I have a few shots to post from that wee trip, my favourite has a giant dust spot that is proving difficult to clone out and the patch tool in Photoshop CS4 is not working very well at all. I watched a video showing how it has changed from the old versions of Photoshop but it still doesn’t seem to work for me. Maybe the title of this image fits the other shot better!

Technorati Tags: Abstract, Los Angeles, Yellow

I’ve been working through old shots and adding them to my sales page, this is one of those shots. I took this one cold afternoon in December 2006, stood on the wee cobbled pavement (about 1ft wide) in the middle of Princes Street rush hour traffic. Worth it though!

This is my most popular shot on flickr.

Technorati Tags: Edinburgh, Scotland

This was a very cold & early start, like I said in my previous post it was -7c. Not the coldest I have been out shooting in but it’s close. My battery died after an hour or so, it’s 4 years old now so it’s done pretty well. Time for a 5D MKII or to wait for the rumoured 1DsMK IV!

Technorati Tags: California, lake tahoe, Landscape, Winter

We just got back from a one day trip to Lake Tahoe. I got up early this morning and took a few shots before my fingers started to hurt too much and I went back to the hotel. It was -7c this morning, that never used to seem too cold to me but the California climate has turned me into a wimp!
The Wordpress image re-sizer seems to mute the colours in photographs quite a lot, I’ll work on that…or take suggestions!

Technorati Tags: California, lake tahoe, Landscape

Cam at his pouty best!
Strobist Info:

Canon 580EX at 1/16th +0.3 power, zoom at 35mm, on stand, camera left through shoot-thru umbrella. Triggered by PW Plus II.
Original Strobist Article

Technorati Tags: Kids, Strobist, Studio, Toddler

This was taken on the same morning as yesterdays shot. There is a giant glacier behind all that fog in the distance. One day I will process more of my shots from this trip and post them to my flickr page.

Technorati Tags: Banff National Park, Canada, Lake Louise, Landscape

On our first day at Lake Louise I got up at 5am to catch the sunrise, I was greeted with lots of very low lying clouds! I didn’t want to have gotten out of bed that early and come back with no photo’s so I climbed over a fence to get to the other side of the boathouse to capture this one.

Technorati Tags: Abstract, Canada, Lake Louise

This is from our trip to Canada a few weeks ago. I don’t know the name of the mountain or the lake, they are on the road (Icefields Parkway) between Lake Louise and the Columbia Icefield. Every lake in the area has the same blue/green colour, caused by minerals in the Glacier run-off.

Technorati Tags: Banff National Park, Canada, Landscape