For todays shot, I wanted to have more dramatic lighting.  I used my umbrella adapter and got some gaffers tape and used it to keep the umbrella half open, and I fired  a Canon 580 EX II flash into the half open umbrella.  I also used my handy 100mm 2.8 macro lens, and another 580 EX II to trigger the one that was off camera. 

Anyways, here is the shot, I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Blessings,

Mark

0 people like this post.

Like 

This week I am actually on the ball and I shot my image a night early, because tomorrow my time is already spoken for:) 

Last week though, I thought I had set my image to post during the day while I was at work, but something happenend and it didn’t work!  Of course that made the post late (as I didn’t realize it), so this time I am just going to post it tonight, to make up for lost time!

For this week I decided to give you a little snapshot into what my life is like.  Vanessa is one of my housemates, along with her kitty.  Both of them are quite the characters, and we have a lot of laughs. 

For this shot, I once again used my favorite combo of the Canon 5D and my 100mm 2.8 Macro lens.  For lighting I used a 580 EX II on my camera, which triggered another 580 EX II that was on a lightstand about 2 feet in front of Vanessa and a bit to her right, just off camera.  To soften the light, I picked up a Honl Speed Strap this week, and I used that to attach a Honl 8 inch Speed Snoot.  The snoot can be either opened up to act as a modifier, or closed to act as a snoot.  It’s a pretty neat product, and you can add other items to it like grids and filters.  If you want more information, check them out online at http://www.honlphoto.com/servlet/StoreFront

Anyways, here is the image!  Have a great night everyone!

0 people like this post.

Like 

For the first few weeks I wanted to keep it simple and focus on headshots, but I am now trying to spice it up a little bit and do a few more different types of things.  For this week I went really simple, and only took 2 pieces of gear along – my 5D and a 100mm 2.8 macro lens.  I LOVE this lens, as it is so versatile, as long as there is lots of light for focusing, and uber sharp!  The bokeh isn’t quite as nice as some other lenses, but hey, you can’t have everything, right?

The geek speak for this shot is that I shot at 1600 ISO at 1/100th at an aperature of 2.8, handheld.  The location (the University of Calgary’s Macewan Hall) was pretty dark, but at least they were smart enough to not mix lighting!  Yay!

Here it is, if you have been following this project and have a comment or two (good or bad), I would love to hear them!

Thanks Jaclyn for taking time out of your busy day to pose for me!

0 people like this post.

Like 

Since I knew that I would be away at the Olympics, I actually planned ahead and took this shot last week.  My friend Shyla, who is gracing the computer screen before you, is moving away and I have always wanted to do some shots with her.  So there was also a major incentive – this could be my last chance for a long time!

For this shot I wanted to do more of a posed shot, that required a little more setup. 

However, having the right gear at the right time has been the problem lately.  Working at The Camera Store, I see a lot of the options that are out there for various lights, cameras, lenses, etc…but I can’t afford to buy all the toys that I want.  I can borrow some stuff, but it has to be timed right, so that helps.  For this shot I wish I had had 2 more speedlites set up behind Shyla to wash out the backdrop.

Technically, I used my 5D for this shot with my 24-70 2.8 lens.  We were in tight quarters, so I had my main light set at about a 30 degree angle to my right, and the fill was at about a 90 degree angle to her (on my left).  I know, wierd setup, but it was a small space!

Anyways, here is the shot, I hope you like it!

Blessings, Mark

0 people like this post.

Like 

Last week I posted an image that was straight out of the camera, with no post processing involved (except resizing for the web).  Now that I have my computer fully up and running again, I took the time to do some basic edits to the shot to enhance it.  My goal is always to get an image as perfect in camera as possible, as it should be for everyone, and then to use Adobe Photoshop to enhance the image, not to fix my mistakes. 

For this shot I did most of the editing in Adobe Camera Raw.  I adjusted the white balance, played around with the colors, and tweaked the exposure a bit.  I then imported the image into Photoshop, did a few more minor color corrections, added a vignette, resized, added the logo, and voila!  A final image!

Here is is!  Enjoy!  I will hopefully be making a post soon containing some sweet images of my Olympic adventure!  Go Canada!

Mark

0 people like this post.

Like 

My computer is now running, but not very well!  So I have decided to do something a little different this week.  Some photographers may hate this, some may want me to take this down, but to them I say “Too bad!” 

I am going to post one of my images……………………………………………………………………………………naked!

That’s right, I said it.  No retouching, no post-processing, and no Photoshop massaging.  All I did was resize the image to make it fit here, and so that it wouldn’t cause your modem to explode.  Below you will find a  shot that I took last week of Stacey, a friend of mine from work.  I must admit it wasn’t the very first shot, this was #2, but the first shot was kind of really bad.  Stacey looked great, but I didn’t do things right.  So I had to snap another, and learn from my mistakes!

What I am going to do next week, or something in the near future, is show you the power of Photoshop.  I teach classes, and my students are always impressed when they see the before and after, so I figure you guys would too!

Anyways, here it is!

0 people like this post.

Like 

Then Sunday afternoon, I turned on my main computer, only to discover that it too had perished!  I’m not even sure what happenend, it would just keep restarting once it started loading Windows.  Yes, that’s right, a photographer that uses Windows. But I am ambidextrous, I am equally capable of using a Mac.  Eventually I will make the switch, once my pocketbook catches up to with my big dreams! Don’t worry though past clients, I have all images backed up, safe and sound:)

My iPhone also gave me a real scare on Sunday night, trying the white screen of death trick.  She came back to life though, once the battery died.

So needless to say I am still recovering from the loss, and trying to get things back to normal.  As soon as I do, I will get back on track and post a picture as soon as possible!

Mark

0 people like this post.

Like 

I wanted to get more fog in the shot, but it wasn’t that foggy when we finally got around to shooting so I had to switch things up a bit.  I also wanted to experiment a bit with off camera flash to highlight my subject, and it worked pretty well, except it wasn’t quite as bright as I wanted.  But for a single shot, I was pleased!

I realized I forgot to add the technical goodies to the last post, so I’ll go back and edit that.  For this shot I used my Canon 5D on a tripod, set at ISO 1600 for 1/10th of a second at F2.8.  I then used a 580 EX II on camera to trigger another 580 EX II that a friend standing to my right was holding.  His 580 had a CTO filter on it, as well as a grid and some gaffers tape to lessen the spread.

But without further ado, here it is!

0 people like this post.

Like 

I met my friend Selena about two years ago, when her bridal shower was held at my house (I was living with her mutual friend).  I was minding my own business, trying to stay out of the way of the numerous wedding crazed girls downstairs when I hear someone shout up “Mark…do you have a camera?????” 

So of course I came trundling down the stairs with my very large and impressive SLR, and we had a good laugh.  Then I took a picture of Selena in a toilet paper wedding dress.  I could post it here, but I think that might be a little bit cruel.

I must admit though…this isn’t actually the first picture.  I made a teeny tiny mistake, and forgot to put the actual trigger on my camera to trigger the lights, so my first shot came out completely black!  Argh!  It’s actually ok though, because from the wee little bit of information that was there, I can tell she blinked – majorly! 

After meeting her that day, I have always wanted to take her portrait as I think her freckles are pretty sweet.  She says she is shy in front of the camera, but I don’t think so – in fact, we had a really great conversation while I was waiting to get the perfect shot.  It only took about 20 minutes!

Then of course my addiction reared it’s ugly head, and I couldn’t just stop at one picture.  So Nathan, her husband, came over, and we had another great conversation!  He’s a gamer like myself, and while I was prepping he was playing xbox, so of course we had to play a little bit before I took off.  It was good fun!

Thanks guys for helping me out, it was great to see you again and I look forward to our Avatar date!

0 people like this post.

Like