Event: Hanukkah Celebration

Hanukkah concert photos are published here.  If downloading photos is too much hassle for you - ask around - I passed along a couple of CDs.

Study in Dishes. New Flash Mount.

A new mount cost me $2.37 in parts from a big box store.  All the thumb screws were reused from the original mount.  New mount designs allows for shallow and deep insertion of the flash into the dish.  Shallow is still deeper than the original mount allowed for.  This does not help the quality of the light much though.  On the other hand deep insertion position (flash just about 1".5" from the internal reflector) creates a nice focused light pattern which I love.  Installation of the grid results in a smaller light spot yet.  Diffusing sock softens the light as expected.

Study in Dishes

Nowadays it is all about light control for me. My first modifiers - umbrellas off course - were spilling light all over the place.  I still resort to umbrellas for location shoots if the spill does not affect the picture.  My current studio favorite though is a cross of umbrella and a softbox.
Therefore when I started looking for a beauty dish, a grid was a must-have.  After all how else can you control the spill, right?  I did some research and settled on this eBay package: 16" Beauty Dish With Grid for Speedlite. Today I received it and learned that this is a Cowboy Studio product.  Indeed they have similar thing on their web site.

The first thing I did was to examine the light pattern under different flash zooms, with no fabric diffuser or grid installed.  I used both normal and recessed position for the front diffuser.

Street Photography with Brian Tramontana

Brian Tramontana and William Henderson of Hold the Eye Images led a street photography workshop which was both challenging and fun.  It all started well and went to great.  What worked:

• D600 is easy to handle.  Dynamic range is amazing.  Which makes it tolerant to my exposure mistakes.
• 35-70 f2.8 zoom lens is nice.  Right focus range for street candids, sharp enough when focus is in the right place.  Need a hood though, flair is a problem in direct sun.
• Aperture-priority mode for a change.  Just set the -1 compensation to avoid blow outs.
• Shooting from the hip.  With the camera on my neck I can talk on the phone and use thumb to shoot "from the hip".
• Sit (or stand) and they will come.  I picked a location with good light (dark background and a spot of sun in front of it) and just stood there.  Worked well.

Fishtank Ensemble in Sunnyvale

I ran into this band at de Young in June 2008 and immediately became a fan. This time only core members were present.  I was happy to see how little they changed.  Fabrice Martinezis is still a tough subject to photograph.  I tried hard to capture a single instance of emotion on his face.  All to no avail.  Djordje on the other hand has enough drive and energy for the entire band.  I would love to hear him playing rockabilly as he allegedly does.  Unfortunately Ursula was sick and did not sing much.  She is pretty amazing.  Can't wait to see their next CD!
This was also a first time I made a major mistake in my shooting process.  Image quality settings were accidentally changed from RAW to JPG.  So please do not judge the camera by the quality of the images - it is all operators mistake.  D600 with 80-200mm 2.8 is a wonderful combination and I could not be happier about it.

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk in Campbell

This year I got back to leading a photo walk in Campbell.  We got lucky and the date of the photowalk, October 13, fell right on Octoberfest, which is a big deal in our neck of the woods.  It was nice to see familiar faces and welcome new ones.

While taking pictures of junk cars in the middle of Campbell (I was always wondering how come they are there in the first place!) I was confronted by the property owner Paul Del Grande.  The situation was quickly defused after I asked Paul for permission to take pictures of his sign, his cars and himself.    I am glad I did!  Paul proved to be a fascinating guy!  Now in his 80s, Paul spent the last 20 years of his life in a constant litigation with the city of Campbell.  The city tries to force Paul to remove junk cars from his lot which became a prime piece of real estate.  Paul usually looses in court but then finds the way to back out of the deal. 

Event: Концерт Детского Клуба "Светлячок"

Праздник 8го Марта детский клуб "Светлячок" отметил концертом.  Посмотреть и загрузить фотографии можно здесь.  Напомню как загрузить фотографию.
Если загружать фотки ломает - обращайтесь в клуб, если повезет вам может достаться DVD со всеми фотографиями.

Eddie Palmieri & Brian Lynch Jazz Quartet

What a great performance!
Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, Boris Kozlov and Dafnis Prieto were a joy to listen and watch. Maestro Palmieri impressed me with his showmanship.  He was also a great subject to photograph. 
Boris Kozlov reminded me of a great musician I listened to more than 20 years ago in a far off country.  Could not remember his name though.  Afterwards I dug it out - Anatoly Sobolev!  And he appeared to be Boris's teacher and mentor!  How may world-class bassists could 80-s Moscow have?
Dafnis Prieto is an amazing young drummer - keep your eye on him.