Bay Area Strobist Group Meetup

Yesterday I had an awesome time at the Bay Area Strobist group meetup.  Dave, the organizer, was energetic, full ideas and knowledge.  I hooked up with interesting people and hope to stay in touch with them.  Here is a picture of me in a cross light.  While processing it, Dave used gradient filter to darken the ground which caught too much of the light - neat trick!

Scott Kelby’s 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk

Today I led a 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in Campbell.  I had a great time and met wonderful people!  Here are the pictures taken during the photowalk in Campbell and world-wide.
I certainly felt outside my comfort zone when forced to shoot in the middle of the park surrounded by weekenders and people with cameras.  I am pretty happy with the result on the left.  Deborah also taught me of the importance of narrative for the photos.

Real Estate Photography

A friend is selling her house!  I studied the subject and decided to play with 3 flashes I have.  My goal was to balance interior and outside light.  Overall I think it worked - no issues with CLS triggered from a distance of about 30 feet.  Flickr Real Estate group feedback was very much to the point.

Lighting for a Standard Portrait

Here is my preparatory session for a standard headshot.

What worked well:

• Shot-through umbrella as a key light.
• Camera in full manual. Start with ambient only underexposed by 2 stops. Add one light at a time.
• Amazing retouching capabilities in Lightroom.
• When used with umbrellas,  speedlight should be zoomed manually to 24mm.  11mm diffuser is even better but results in light loss.

What did not work:

• Mixing light from a reflective silver umbrella and the one from satin shoot-through one.  Need to get another shoot through umbrella.