Just wanted to post another shot to let you know that this challenge is still in progress!

This is one of my best friends, Jason.

Enjoy,

Mark

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Taken with my 5D and 50mm 1.8 lens – all natural light.

Enjoy!

Mark

This past week I went on vacation to Chicago to meet my new neice, and I had lots of time to shoot.  I brought along the simplest of setups  – just my trusty Canon 5D and a 50mm 1.8 lens.  It was nice and light to carry, and a lot of fun! 

When I pulled up this shot though, I knew that I was going to be changing some gear in the near future - I love prime lenses! 

This is my first neice, Clare!  We had a good time playing on her swing, going to the park, and also to the zoo!  I think I need to go and visit more often!

Blessings,

Mark

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Actually I think I am going to go away from just doing 1 shot, not that I am backing down from the challenge, but I am finding that I am not learning as much as I could be if I can play around with different setups and try different things.

Anyways, technical setup was my 5D with 100mm macro lens, a 580EX II on a 42 inch shoot through umbrella to my right as my main light, and a 50 inch white reflector on my left to act as a fill.  I also had another 580 EX II to act as a rim light behind my model.

Blessings,

Mark

This week I got some new flash triggers for my camera, and so on Good Friday I decided to play around and shoot myself.  Not gonna lie, I definetly could not do this one in a single shot (self potraits are very hard!), so after about 200 shots I ended up with this one. If you ever decide to shoot self portraits, here is a hint: teach yourself to smile first:)

My technical setup was a Canon 1D Mark IV camera with an 85mm 1.2L lens (amazing lens btw – kudos Canon!).  For lighting I was going for a butterfly lighting setup (with a single umbrella directly above the camera), but I modified it a bit and for this shot I had a reflector in front of me, and I have 2 Canon 580 EX II speedlites firing into the white side of the reflector.  If you have any comments on how I could have improved the lighting, please let me know!

I hope you like it, please don’t be too harsh and hurt my feelings!

Blessings,

Mark

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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

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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!

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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!

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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

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