I {heart} you...

Yeah its another early Valentine's theme from me. Sue me! I don't really even care about Valentine's Day but they have lots of cute stuff to play with. I'm actually a tad bit late (or early) posting this latest picture.


Nikon D90
Lens My Fifty Nifty, of course!
Aperture F/4.5
Shutter 1/60 of a sec.
ISO-400
SB-900 Nikon Speedlight Flash (for its fast recharge time, needed for puppy pics)
SOOC

I am trying to get a collection of good, cute puppy pics for this thing I'm doing so I have been practicing as often as I can taking decent puppy shots. In this shot I love the somewhat playful look the pup has. That is what a bouncy ball is to me, something to play with and both play objects are blue.

I'm sure Jay'me will be up later today as well to give you a Wordless Wednesday of fun!

Sere

Friday Faces - How Did Tigger Drown in the Toilet?

He was looking for Pooh!!!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L
Shutter Speed 1/200
Aperture f/7.1
ISO 100
Manual Mode
External Speed Light

I must start with a confession. When I made the suggestion to start shooting faces at least one day a week I was thinking of exactly what Brandi did here - taking shots of people we don't yet know. So far, all I've done is take a self-portrait and get a shot of my oldest son Ethan (pictured here laughing at my all-star joke). That's not exactly all that adventurous but the fact is today just wasn't built for me finding a stranger. Just couldn't do it, at this juncture (what the heck happened to SNL anyway? It used to be so good!).

Which leads me to this shot. As I was cleaning up dinner, Ethan says "Daddy! What a beautiful sunset!" After checking it out myself and totally agreeing, a light bulb went off and I thought about how I've always wanted to expose a sunset correctly and still get a well-exposed portrait. Eureka! Here was my chance!

If you're scratching your head, here's a bit more of an explanation. Cameras have light meters built into them. The purpose of the meter is to tell either the camera or the photographer how much light you have and what your exposure settings need to be. It is because of the light meter that your camera knows to keep the shutter open longer when there isn't much light and to snap it shut quickly when it's midday without a cloud in the sky. The camera might use aperture and ISO for the same purpose. Most of the time the camera does a bang up job (regardless of the make). However, there are situations that will just mess up your meter and need to be handled with a bit more effort. For example, a snowy field has got WAY to much white for your meter to expose correctly and will result in your camera thinking there is more light than there actually is. I imagine a black sand beach would have the opposite effect.

With this shot, it was difficult because Ethan was back-lit. Furthermore, I wanted the colors of the sunset to come through. Here's the issue - if I set up to meter Ethan's face, my camera would have kept the shutter open for quite some time in order to expose correctly. The result would have been a completely blown out sky and most likely a blurry face owing to the long shutter speed. If I set up to meter the sky, I would have ended up with beautiful colors but a face completely engulfed in shadow.

Here's the solution. You must meter for the sky and use a flash to illuminate Ethan's face. Bingo bango bongo, you have a portrait that most people can't figure out how to do! The only thing I wish I had is a gel to warm up the flash. Maybe next time.

So there you have it folks. I promise next time I will try to get a stranger. In the meantime, Ethan was a fantastic model and I got to try another new technique. TGIF!

A Rose By Any Other Name...

Canon 30d
Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8
Shutter Speed 1/250
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 100mm
ISO 100
2 external Alien Bees flash heads and a softbox/tent

I really enjoyed Jay'me and Sere's last posts. I was tempted to go out and get some macro shots of flowers around me. I've done it in the past and I really enjoy looking at flowers through the lens. It's one of my favorite styles of photography. I decided however that the spirit of 3chicks1dude is to push our knowledge and comfort zone and try new things for the sake of learning. With that in mind, I decided it was time to try my hand at capturing water droplets. It's nothing new - it's practically cliche. But I've never tried it!

The story starts with me trying to capture water droplets using hot lights. For those learning, hot lights are essentially really bright lamps that are on continuously. They are called hot lights because they get freaking hot! The advantage of hot lights is that you see exactly what the light looks like before you start shooting. It can make things a lot easier. Additionally, they are relatively cheap, another big plus when you are trying to learn and not go broke.

I set-up my hot lights and threw a bunch of stuff into plates and glasses and had limited success. I couldn't get the motion to freeze. What I needed were my strobes. So I fired off a text to Brandi (she was borrowing my gear for a bit) and next thing I knew, I'm in my kitchen setting up one heck of an obstacle course. My wife was a sweetheart, knowing I can get a little laser focused when camera gear abounds! Off she went to read while I literally fired off over 300 shots! What a blast!!! You can't believe how much fun this is.

The reason you need strobes (or speedlights) is to stop the motion. The duration of a flash is so short the exposure only gets the merest fraction of a second to capture the scene. For those crying about a lack of strobes or speedlights, use your pop-up flash. It is somewhat limiting but I was able to capture several good shots with just the pop-up. Just remember to keep the ambient light as low as possible to eliminate spillover.

As for the set-up, it is a glass vase filled with water. Then I dropped a few drops of green water into the vase (I took pictures of that). I wasn't satisfied with the intensity of the green so I decided to start dropping pure food coloring into the vase. And that's when it hit me! I had just added green. If I drop some red next, I might get a "rose" with the green water being the stem and the red dye being the bloom! Imagine my excitement when it actually worked! I was going to use the water droplets from Sere's flower as my inspiration. But now I was able to use the water and the flower! I told you it was fun.

When I decided this is what I wanted to try, I warned Brandi I might go neurotic and post as late as 11:30. Alas, I may just beat that time...barely. Thanks to all reading this. I hope you're enjoying this as much as we are. Stay tuned for some fun news coming down the pipeline. We (all 4 of us) can't stop thinking of ways to play and improve this blog. Keep the comments coming and be sure to tell your friends about us! Tag Brandi, you're it!

Scott