This past weekend, my friend Steve invited me down to Alexandria, VA to work on some lighting and practice headshots. I am always up for more practice and chomping at the bit for chances to shoot, so I loaded up the truck and made the drive down.
Of course, I never leave the house with just one camera and I had a new toy to test out: Polaroid Automatic 100, which I converted to use 3xAAA batteries, along with the Portrait Filter Kit that a freind had donated to the cause.
The photo to the left was my first shot with this camera setup, using Fuji FP-3000b pack film. Great film for low light situations, and I love the tones it can capture.
More on the Polaroids, conversions, and instant film geekery coming soon in future posts.
Steve, who I refer to as the McGuyver of photography, had set up a large DIY diffusion panel with a 500 watt worklight behind it. It offered some interesting light and shadows. The following shot was taken using only the worklight and diffusion panel.
This shoot also offered me more time to practice with the Alien Bee strobes, as were used in the following headshot.
And once the rain passed, we wandered outside (battling the heat and humidity) for a few outdoor shots. Once again, this one was taking using one Alien Bee AB800 strobe at full power with a 24×36 softbox.
Thanks to Steve and Lacey for having me down for another fun day of shooting.
This coming weekend: big Model Mayhem meet and greet. I am looking forward to a full day of shooting and socializing there.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the chance to work with a few models from Model Mayhem. Since I am in the middle of remodeling my studio, all of these have been location shoots around Maryland. This has also called for using something other than my normal studio strobes, so my trusty Nikon SB600 (mounted to a light stand with assorted umbrellas) has been getting a workout.
My first shoot was with Lacey, who I have worked with before at the Model Mayhem Meet and Greet at Fell’s Point. We ventured over to the old abandoned building at Savage Mill on a very overcast Sunday afternoon. After some jumping, climbing, and navigating mud pits, we walked away with some fun shots and had a great time. Here are a couple from that day.
This past Sunday, I met with Nina and Eric, who are not only both models from Model Mayhem, but also quite the cute couple. Nina had been passing the old buildings known as The Beehive one day and thought they would be a fun place to shoot. We met on yet another overcast Sunday afternoon for a couple hours of shooting. They could not have been more fun to shoot with. Here are a few of the photos, again all lit with a single SB600 with assorted umbrellas.
One of the cameras that a friend gave me recently. I will be cleaning it up, converting it to use AAA batteries, and loading the film in soon to give it a test run.
…. or Princess as the case may be. Don’t believe me? Just ask her, she will be happy to inform you that she is a princess. With lots of princess dress up clothes.
This week was ‘Roid Week on Flickr, dedicated to good old Polaroid camera shots. Seeing as how I own (and love) several vintage Polaroid cameras, this was a great excuse to dust them off, load them with some film, and get out shooting with cameras that offer instant gratification.
As you can see on the left, there was a small collection of cameras used between me and friends, including a Polaroid Reporter, a Minute Maker, OneStep Express, SX-70, and even a Holga thrown in for good measure (not mine though).
To me, Polaroids are nostalgia and bring back memories of when I was growing up. The feel of the photos in my hand and the fresh vintage colors and look of them straight out of the camera. The imperfections of a Polaroid are what often make them perfect.
We had the chance to take the kids to the Maryland Zoo (formerly the Baltimore Zoo) recently. It was a heavily overcast day with rain off and on the entire time we were there. On the upside, the rain kept a lot of people away and made things much easier to navigate. Downside was poor lighting resulting in higher ISO than I like to shoot, and much slower shutter speed than I am comfortable shooting handheld. There was a lot of bracing the lens or camera against rails, walls, fences, etc.
The important thing was that we had fun with the kids, and they had a blast. Here are a few shots of the animals who were nice enough to pose in the rain for us.
This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to shoot a portrait session with Rachel in the Havre de Grace and Perryville area. I had scoped out a couple of spots and they really paid off. Much fun was had, and she was great to work with. We may be collaborating on some more sessions in the near future.
When the light is doing what it is supposed to do (and I am doing what I am supposed to do), sometimes it all just comes together for an image that kind of makes me happy. Taken at Max’s in Fell’s Point in Baltimore:
This past Sunday, I was invited down to Baltimore to participate in a Model Mayhem meet and greet by some photographer friends of mine. Since most of my models, so far, have been newborns, infants, or children, I thought that this might be a nice change of pace.
After some initial technical difficulties with the lighting (as in it’s been a while since I used my flash off camera, so I overlooked one important detail), things went fantastic.
Thanks to Sean and Sarah Baker for having me down, and to all of the members over at Model Mayhem who attended that made me feel so welcome. (and of course thanks to the awesome models that took time to work with me)
This past weekend, my friend Steve invited me down to Alexandria, VA to work on some lighting and practice headshots. I am always up for more practice and chomping at the bit for chances to shoot, so I loaded up the truck and made the drive down.
