Chicago for Turkey Day

So,  Welcome from the windy city and Happy Thanksgiving to all.  This one is different for me since I'm having to work...haven't had to do that in quite sometime.  We do only have to work till 2:00 today and then it's off to Daley Square for T-day festivities and dinner later in the evening with the team.  There hasn't been much time to take many pictures but the view from my room is nice.  Anyway,  hope everyone has a great day.

700 +bhp....and that's no joke!

So today my Dad and I took the ol' girl out for a spin and found a great place to grab some pics. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  Hope you enjoy them too.  Thanks for letting me drive Dad!  :-)

 '56 Ford Victoria

Easter Weekend Pictures

Just a quick post with some pictures from over the weekend.  I bought a new lighting boom and was giving it a test with the beauty dish I made a while back.  I'm very happy with the light that this money saver creates.  Thanks go to the Strobist and David Tejada for the how-to.

I've also included some family pictures (ambient light only) that we took as well.  Hope you like what you see.

Dad and I with our best mean pose!

 

NOLA

Just a quick post of some shots from around the "Big Easy"...probably more to come later.

Who knew Gene Wilder would be in New Orleans!

Bourbon Street

Viki with Gene!

La Fittes Black Smith Shop

St. Louis Church

TFB...No no no, not that...The Flash Bus man!

The Flash bus rolled into town today carrying two very good photographers, David Hobby (Strobist Blog) and Joe McNally (National Geographic Photographer).  Both specialize in small off camera strobe photography.  The day was very informative with each taking each half of the day to discuss their processes and problem solving.
 

 

David "Strobist" Hobby

Mr. McNally

Joe working the light set up for the bus models

Just an idea of how dark is was in the hall...and this is overexposed

Got lucky and caught all the flashes going off...let there be light!

The Final Image

At the end of the event Joe decided he'd like to try and light up the tour bus using just speed lights...8 in total on and 1 in the drivers seat of the bus and 1 each on the models for 11 total speed lights...It was pretty interesting to watch the process which only took about 20 mins to do.

Baby Shriver is here!

Baby pics are not easy!  

All you photographers out there that do baby pics on a regular basis have a special gift.  I did my first baby shoot last night for my best friend and learned that baby's don't take direction very well....who knew?!  :-)   

Anyway,  here is one that we recreated from a shot that my friends saw elsewhere.  I think it turned out alright.  More to come later.

PCU - Day 3 - Tony Corbell - Lighting and Shadows

What a great weekend!  PCU is all wrapped up and everyone is back home.  

Today we had Tony Corbell who showed us how to use studio and strobe lighting.  The lovely Briana was again our model to which I don't think many us of were too sad about :-) ...she is actually a very sweet person and easy to talk to. She ended up doing three wardrobe changes through out the day.  Sarah also joined us for a short while as well as a Mom of 4!!! who was just naturally beautiful (She's the one in red with the long blond hair)....unfortunately I can't recall her name.  Then several of us pulled in Amber who worked for PCU, who is not a model but should be, to grab a few shots of her.  She has some really amazing eyes.

In addition to shooting with strobes, we also did some shooting outdoors with Tony.  Tony demonstrated how slight changes in one's position can make dramatic changes in how the light falls.   To do this, he had Briana move around under the patio cover showing the differences placement and how moving ever so slightly can create dramatic changes in light detail.  I found this to be most informative.

I learned a tremendous amount this weekend that will come in very handy and can't wait until I have another opportunity to take additional classes...which just so happens to be next Friday when the Flash Bus Tour rolls into town with my 'mentor' David Hobby.  I have learned most of what I know about off camera flash from him and can't wait for the opportunity to meet him and Joe McNally (world famous National Geographic photographer).

I guess it's back to the real world tomorrow.

Here are some shots from today's session.