Thank you for the compliment.

As for lights? Not really. That photo was done with table lamps and sunlight. Occasionally if I need a hotspot on the fly, I get creative with a flashlight or taking the shades off table lamps and being much more direct with them. heh. I have lights at home that I have used, but when travelling, I rarely pack them. I really, really, really want to get into playing with flashes because Strobist makes it look so easy and the effects are amazing....but I just haven't gone there yet because I find purchasing them slightly intimidating. So many variables I don't understand yet. I like the idea of being able to do things like Jalen is doing with blowing out the background, or like the guy I read recently that takes photos of balloons popping in a pitch black room with his flashes triggered for sound:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardhors ... otostream/

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a self portrait from this morning. (this time I used my light stands, both as prop and light source. heh.)

and I need a haircut.

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Nice lighting. I need to get some lights. I'm about halfway to convincing my wife to give the leash some slack

All this got me into a photography mood this afternoon and I noticed some new flower blooming in my background while making the 4th BBQ. Too a few pics:







I used a spray bottle for the water drops - the weather was just too damned nice today

I really like the portrait Rugen posted on the 1st. Background is a great contrast to the face, really nice. As for the reflection in the glasses, polarization filter might work, or putting a big diffusor (bedsheet) close to the face, just outside of the picture. Then again, I dont think it really matters, its great as it is.

The picture you linked of the exploding balloon is awesome, I wonder if this can be done lowtech. Like in complete darkness, with long exposure time and then manually trigger the flash the moment the balloon bursts. I will try that

I really got stuck on flash, its so addicting. Always want more. Better be ready for that. And its easier to sneak a 350$ flash past the woman in charge of our budget than a 1000$ lens. And a softbox, and a reflector... Its just sad alien bees are so expensive in europe.

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I think you will have a hard time triggering the flash manually to get the same effect, honestly. We're fast, but we're not that fast. But heck give it a try and post the results! I'd be curious to see what you can rig up.

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Gay pride month!

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

My gf, I owed her this after the balloon experiment More on that later hehe

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I actually really like the monochromatic aspects of that.

Well done.

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On the balloon experiment:

I bought 5 bags of 10 balloons, all different kinds just to make sure. I put the camera on a tripod, set it so it would underexpose the picture to be all black at a 3s shutter speed and well lit with the flash I set to 1/64. Then I put a tripod into the bathtube, filled the balloons with water, put one of those on top of the tripod and started.

I pressed the shutter, and needle in one, flash in the other hand, tried to pierce the balloom at the same time my other hand pressed the flashbutton. Fail, the tripod wasnt quite stable enough so I replaced it with my gf. Unfortunatly I, thinking I would put the balloons on the tripod, had filled them with really cold water.

Long story short, 50 balloons later I had reached the end of my gf's patience, had about 20 pics of spashed water all over her, about 10 pics of the needle sticking in the balloon just spraying water and 20 without anything at all because I was that much too late on the flash. No sign of a bursting balloon.

Learning experience

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haha those types of photos are hard to get! But once you get the shot its amazing!

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

This is why I think the sound triggered flash the guy is using is probably the most reliable way to get the shot. A flash reacting to the sound of the pop is going to be much quicker than the time it takes your brain to process that you heard it and trigger it manually.

What kind of flash gear are you using, out of curiosity?

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Well I thought by holding both the needle and the flash I wouldnt have to rely on reacting to the sound but just do both at the same time. "at the same time" is surprisingly hard when it comes to 1/1000s

I am using 2 SB900s, 1 SB600, a rayflash, a 60x60cm ezybox, some lastolite reflectors and 2 Manfrotto lightstands. Next I want to get 2 shootthroughs and a background holder. I am a bit scared of studiostrobes to be honest so I am not going there yet.

Right now I am saving for a new camera. My gf is a professional ballet dancer and I am not allowed to flash at the theatre. FX is sooo tempting for the high iso capabilities. Noise at 6400 looks like 1600 on the D300. That and the moment I had looked through the viewfinder of the D700 (huge, bright) I wasnt happy with the small one of the D300 (small, dark) anymore. Curses!

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Its funny how at some point everyone takes different directions, some go all available light, some strobist, some HDR, some portraits, some nature...

I think I am well past the HDR hole but I doubt the gearfaggotry will ever end. Getting past the high peak of "how good you think you are" was fairly easy. I just need to look at Brettastic's, Peddecord Photo's or James Tate's photos every now and then. They do what I want to do and I am still far far far from there. Far far far. The Wooden Heart series of Brettastic is just so perfect, really something I look up to.

But I think I also made it past the "I suck" hole on the blue graph. Instead of thinking "I suck" I just accepted that there are people who are much better at what they do and try to learn from them. I read lots of blogs (the usual suspects: strobist, Dave Black, Chase Jarvis, Scott Kelby, Joe McNally, Lighting Essentials, Kirk Tuck, Terry White...), look at lighting diagrams, read books and try to assist people I can learn from. So I try to suck a little less each day.

What a great hobby

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a more traditional format for a portrait, but it had a specific use, so I didn't want to deviate too much. Mostly I wanted to take the opportunity to get a strong grasp of the shallow focus technique (which I had no idea how to do previous to this shoot). Definitely will be playing with it more.

And just for fun, something I did for a project this week

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Rugen, whats your name on flickr? I like your project picture, thats really well done. On the portrait, the blown out left corner draws me away from the face. Might be just me though.

What I have done lately:



I plastered my flat with cut out pictures to try make some pin up shots. When I removed the posters I had so many holes in the paint I had to repaint the whole wall. Would not do it again.




I tried to work some more on high key and face retouching. Oh, and I bought a huge fan for portraits (which displaced half the stuff in my appartment and destroyed more stuff than its own worth). This is Alessa the gnome rogue by the way, if anyone remembers her




Some more gnome. I tried to do more fashion/editorial style stuff, which is really what I enjoy most lately. And my sister likes it too because she gets lots of photos.




Trying to work with diffusors and mixing in fill flash at noon with full sun out.




And the last series I did with my gf, more fashion stuff. First time with radio triggers (love them), back on the D70 again (hate it).

Lots more here.

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I really, really dig "the cross" picture. The pose, the lighting, all of it is top notch in my book.

You can also see visible growth in the structure and style of your photos. Good stuff.

I'll friend you and send a note on flickr. Just be warned, you gotta deal with all my snapshot type photos as well as I use it as a repository for all things image related.

BTW: can you clarify what is the grey/white wall behind the cross shot and the shot of your gf in the shirt? Are you using a backdrop at all, or just the wall and manipulating with flash/light?

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Like you said, lots of digging required to get past the snaps The picture of Mario and the self portrait you posted here are my favorites. Why not make a 2nd account for snaps?

My background is just a (freshly painted) white wall. I usually begin with setting up the backlight, then add the rest. In case of the cross and the shirt pictures I had a single flash dialed all the way down put up on a lightstand right behind them. In this case I put it as close to the wall as possible so the amount of light would decrease fast going out from the center. The background reflection usually makes for a decent rimlight as well. Then I added the main light in form of a softbox and used a reflector or 3rd weak flash for fill.

Flash is fun

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Because I'm too cheap to go pro on two accounts. So I use it as a repository for everything and then separate out the content in other ways.

And thanks for the info. I really need to get off my ass and play with flashes. Strobist (I think that was them) just had an article about a relatively cost effective flash with remote capabilities I may check out as a starting point.

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Couple of new pics from my trips to New York this month. I took a Circle Line tour at sunset... I am hoping to get on top of the empire st bldg on the next trip in 2 weeks for some night shots. Need to get a monopod.

I really love the second one. Composition, limited focus, color palette....it's just goodness in my book.

That being said, all of those shots are nice.

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oh, and on the monopod front....I did this trick.

http://www.instructables.com/id/String-Tripod/

Although I used chain link rather than string.

makes it very easy to carry around in your pocket for when you need it.

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I went to Monterey for a work trip and snuck down to Big Sur. The CA coast is sooo different from the east coast. Took a few pics after a short hike (after which I wiped out on the way back and almost couldn't walk back to my car).

Those pictures look very much like right where I used to live!

Those look fantastic. I've always loved the aquarium in Monterey.

For sure. Monterey was the best thing about language school in the military.

Monterey was awesome. It was in the 50s and back in ATL it was still in the 90s last week. I had a blast. Wish I could move out there.

some random photos from the 180+ I shot yesterday in SF. By the time I get home next week, I'm probably going to have over 1,000 images to go through. Oy. heh.

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The wife bought me a t1i and a couple of lenses as an early Christmas present.

These were all shot with it, along with the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens :









That last one is the only ferret we have that will both hold still *and* ham for the camera, it seems. The rest I had to leave caged to take the shots.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Oh god there so CUTE!

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

pic are nice, but I hate ferrets - skunk cousin.

A couple of shots from our trip out to White Sands today:

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and a few from carlsbad caverns





Really mad at a mixup that led to me NOT having a tripod at the caverns, but at least I got a couple of shots out of it that I liked.

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Guys having fun in New Mexico? Albuquerque is a fun place sometimes

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

While these were not taken with a my DSRL, I figured I would share them anyways. These are probably my three favorite pics that I took on a recent vacation to Mexico. The second pic probably being my most favorite.

Cool, I love that second one. I went to the ruins at Tulum on my honeymoon many years ago and took a similar pic, though the temple there is much smaller.

I just got a Nikon d7000 and took some pics at the ATL Auto Show yesterday. LOVE that camera.

I just put up a FB-page for my photo stuff. The problem with flickr is that there are really only photo-people looking. On FB it is so much easier to connect with MUAs, models and designers. I am pretty happy with how it is developing.

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May also want to check out smugmug.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Just got back from Hong Kong.. my new favorite city.

Great pics.

Jesus, Jox. Where's that panorama taken from?

Victoria Peak... just a short tram ride up this mountain. There's a mall on top. We ate at this cool restaurant up there but there was a bubba gump with the best view. I refused to eat there, heh.

The only negative about HK was the pollution... there's so much. Visibility was pretty bad most of the week.

Jox,

Can I get a fullsize of the second pic? That would make a killer wallpaper.

Also, are you shooting Nikon or Canon these days?

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Sure, here you go:

large size

I just upgraded to a Nikon D7000 from a D50 which was getting a little long in the tooth. Awesome, totally amazing, best camera you can buy for $1200. I got it a little early due to this trip. I was there a week, and looks like I will be going back for a launch in late summer for another 3.5 weeks. My colleague and I are trying to fit in a trip to the mainland and possibly Thailand while we're there. Work trips can be fickle sometimes, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

That spot (in photo 2) is particularly popular with HDR fans. I first saw it in Trey Ratcliff's photostream (stuckincustoms.com). http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincus ... 3505606537


It led me to realizing something I read later...that people tend to take pictures from the exact same spot:

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blo ... ist-photos



I personally love the boat pic. Although it really does highlight the smog/pollution problem as well with that haze hovering over the city.

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Yeah.. frankly, of major landmarks, there are fewer and fewer original takes on a scene. Part of it is the availability of high quality digital cameras, part of it is access to areas. Most areas funnel visitors into a specific area, and getting off the beaten path is sometimes very difficult when you travel primarily for business, or have a family and can't leave them for days while you study a location and wait for the best lightning.

I apologize. Reading the comment now I think it can be seen as something of a dig. it wasn't meant that way. I just truly find it fascinating that at a place like Notre Dame, for example, where there's a large courtyard with multiple angles, people tend to pick the same one over and over. Is it because that's the "Notre Dame they've always seen in pictures so it looks right"? Or is it more to do with that specific angle being more pleasing to the eye/brain parsing it. I think you're right about being herded into a specific spot, but I also think there is something to be said for a shared appreciation of line/design by those that look through a camera.

Anyway, just to clarify. I wasn't taking a dig. :p Sorry if it seemed that way. I was more musing out loud when I saw a familiar angle on a city I hope to visit (we have an office there, so I've been trying to swing a work trip that way that I can extend into a vacation as well).

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no no, i didn't take it as such. I think of the same thing often, as a matter of fact. It's why I like hiking so much, there are many more opportunities for finding a unique angle. and it really is a compromise... i'd love to take a trip devoted to photography, but it's just too hard to do with the young kids. maybe when i retire.

I've been thinking about getting a camera w/ macro lens to take some close-up pictures of my fish tank, as nerdy as that sounds. My crappy point & shoot just isn't cutting the mustard. I'm hoping to get a D60 at a good price. If so, expect some extreme close-ups of fish balls very soon!

For about the same price the Nikon D5100 is a far superior camera.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Ended up picking up a D40 off of Craigslist. Now to order a macro lens...

make sure it's AF-S compatible or you'll be stuck in manual focus mode forever

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I'll probably get this one to try out:

http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-70-300mm-Ni ... 808&sr=1-2

I think someone else posted something about it earlier. Again, this is just to photograph fish, so I'm not going to go balls to the wall.

I have that lens, it's good for that purpose.

My first attempt with the lens that came with the camera (this is Frogspawn):

Have you guys checked out 500px? It is sort of like the new flickr, looks better and overall quality of pics is way higher. I stumbled across it a few days ago and really like it so far. Can only upload 20 pics per week but since that is what I upload in a year I don't really mind.

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Still need to get a new lens and a tripod, but here are a few pics I took today:

I just got back from a solo hiking trip in Zion and Bryce Canyons... Still processing a lot but I am happy with a few of them.

What the F, jox. All of your pictures make my jaw drop. Kudos.

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Just to try to jumpstart this thread a little.. I was going through my Hong Kong pictures and decided to process a theme I tried out while I was there. The city is so compressed and vertical that when you're on the streets, you can't really look up and appreciate the scale. Everything's right on top of you. But I noticed that you could see plenty via reflections, so I tried my first "series" of pics based on a theme.

Cheung Kong Center via Bank of China Tower:


Hong Kong Park via Bank of China Tower:


Bank of China Tower, Cheung Kong Center via Citibank Plaza:


Monolith...


Central skyscraper via pedestrian walkway:


Anyone else been shooting lately? I am about to go on a 2 week vacation to Yellowstone/Grand Teton/Bryce/Grand Canyon and Zion with the family. Should be a fun photography trip.