This was one of several shots I took experimenting with an umbrella, backdrops, reflectors, the base, and even a gel over a flash for the background, and compared it to the results from the standard way to shoot this with a light tent. There is plenty of info about how I set things up and changed them in the descriptions on the pictures on Flickr and in the setup shots: #1, #2, #3, and #4.

Product shots like this are a fantastic technical exercise and I want to learn a lot more about using strobe lighting. I have avoided it in the past and told myself it was because flash makes things look fake and I wanted authentic natural light. But the truth is that I just didn’t know how to do it and didn’t have all the right equipment. David Hobby (the Strobist) has opened the curtain on the high-priests and shown that studio-style lighting is not out of the reach of most people.

Shooting and processing notes
Shot with a Canon 550EX shooting into a silver umbrella set up to camera right. Bounced a Vivitar 285HV off a piece of white foamcore pointed at the background (to get an even light distribution, though I should have bumped up the power on the flash). The candy-dropping moose (he says, "Uhh, uhh. Oops. Oh dear," as he drops a piece of candy from under his tail) is sitting on a piece of black granite tile I bought at Home Depot. The background is white fleece fabric that I got on sale at Joann’s Fabrics.

Didn’t do much in Lightroom or Photoshop besides setting the white balance and some minor levels adjustment.

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Dawn was still in Calgary. I was still sick. But I was feeling a little better and I was playing around with some of my flashes, inspired by the Strobist blog and group on Flickr. Maya was patient with me as I played around and took a lot of experimental pictures of her.

I liked the graphic simplicity of the desk and wall on the right part of the frame contrasted with Maya’s organic shapes. I should have gotten rid of the clutter under the stairs although the old printer and box did serve to separate Maya’s shape from the background.

Shooting and processing notes
I think I was using a snoot at this point, or maybe I was just blocking some of the light with cardboard since the coverage seems awfully broad for a snoot–though maybe I was just balancing with the ambient light since the exposure was 1/10 sec at f4 and ISO 800. This was, again, with the 17-40 F4.0 L.

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I was sick with food poisoning this day and didn’t do much. Even Maya was thwarted by the rain.

I remember shooting several pictures like this and noticing that, depending on how she turned her head or where I moved, her ears either lined up with the railing supports or were between them. I liked the ones with her ears lined up the best.

Shooting and processing notes
Not a lot of thought here. Again shot with the nearly-always-on-my-camera 17-40 F4.0 L. This time at the long end (40mm) and f4. I don’t think I did anything to this except set the white balance in Lightroom.

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Maya watches from The Grooming Spa. With Dawn in Calgary, The Grooming Spa provided day care for Maya while I was at work.

This one had potential but I didn’t spend enough time framing it (and Maya probably wouldn’t have held that pose much longer anyway).

Shooting and processing notes
Another shot with the 17-40 F4.0 L. Again at 17mm and f4. It was dark that morning so this is ISO 800. I didn’t get down low enough or make myself parallel to the plane of the windows so the verticals and horizontals that are so important to this picture were out of whack. I used Photoshop’s lens distortion filter to straighten things out but I didn’t do a great job. Not only does Maya end up looking short and squat, the door on the right is still out of whack. I like the transform tools much better for this kind of thing.

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Dawn gets ready to go to Calgary to help Rae move into her new condominium. Dawn isn’t the only one who is sad.

She doesn’t like this picture of her but the obvious sadness in her face makes this picture for me.

Shooting and processing notes
I messed around with the saturation, vibrance, and tone controls in Lightroom to get a washed-out look and cropped to a square aspect. I shot this with my 17-40 F4.0 L at 17mm and f4. It’s tempting to say that this would have been better with a lens with a wider aperture (and narrower depth of field) but I like including some of the detail of the village there to anchor this picture to the time of year.

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I was playing around with a homemade light diffuser I made out of tracing paper and a frame I cut out of one side of a cardboard box. There was a shaft of light coming in through the window onto Maya’s bed and I showed Dawn what the diffuser would do. Then I thought this would be a great chance to get a picture of her. So I got her onto the bed, Dawn got some treats and held a reflector, and we got this picture. I think it turned out pretty well.

Crossroads Park, Bellevue, WA. Thursday, 27-Dec-2007.

Maya loves to go to Crossroads Park. It doesn’t matter to her that it’s cold, rainy, or windy–her coat keeps her warm and dry and there is so much to smell that she doesn’t pay attention to anything else anyway. This is my favorite picture of the day. I stylized it a bit in Lightroom by turning down the saturation and bumping up the vibrance. I put the photos from the park in a set. I took a few others today. I particularly like one of Maya waiting on us to finish getting ready to go.

We woke up to about an inch of snow this morning. That didn’t stop us from running errands, though, especially since the streets were merely wet. Our outdoor lights are a few years old now and the bulbs have started to burn out so we made a trip to the hardware store to get some replacements. We stopped at the grocery store on the way back and by the time we were home, the snow was gone. Midway through the first half of the SEC Championship game, it started snowing again and didn’t stop until the game was nearly over.

Maya did get out in the snow eventually and, as always, she enjoyed it, rolling around and getting good and wet. Too bad it was dark and I couldn’t take any pictures of her.

Maya lying in the hallway

Maya sleeps on the couch while Dawn watches hockey

The Oilers lost 2-1 to Vancouver but Dawn still enjoyed watching, especially since it came from an Edmonton station and she saw all the local commercials, including a few of Frank and Gordon.

There had been a bit of snow and freezing temperatures overnight — very rare for the Pacific Northwest. Coming out of my neighborhood, all the streets were just wet with no ice. But I hit a slick patch that was in the shade of trees coming around a turn. My helmet did its job. No headache, but those abrasions (there’s one on my knee as well) will be sore pretty soon. And based on past experience, I’ll be stiff tomorrow.

Tags: bicycle, accident, abrasions, photo
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