Cheeky Monkey

Day 109

This is the response I have been getting lately. To everything.

Canon 350D, Asahi Pentax Takumar MRC 55mm f/1.8 at f/1.8 iso 800, 1/80.

Yep. I did it again

This time with a Phottix umbrella box. I LOVE the light this gives, but it really kills off a stop more light than the STU does. It's pretty much on par with the reflective brolly measurements from yesterday. The big advantage of this is the whole thing takes up less floorspace than and umbrella, AND yo can get it in closer to the subject without feeling like you are crowding them. Brollys just "look" imposing! Well, IMHO.

In this pic you can see how close the stand is to the face of the box. The whole thing is so centralised over the stand and so compact. I think I will try to use this outdoors more.. although I will likely need to also use one of these DIY Brackets so I get 1 stop more light...

Shoot Through Umbrella versus Reflective

Day 107

Yeppo

Sorry, it's a gear post.

I was under the (horribly mistaken) impression that my flash would work better through an umbrella used in reflective mode, but the shoot through mode was much softer.

You can see how wrong I was. From this, I would be much better of using the brolly in shoot thru mode, about 2m from the subject. The 2m is take from the stand to the subject.

Gotta love the huge hot-spot in front of the STU.

Getting down to Business

Day 106

They finally arrived. I made an order for my business cards online, and got a nice little wad of silly looking cards to hand to people in the hope they will stop laughing and hire me.

Let's see.

On the Road again

Day 105

So I was back behind the wheel of my super Trusty Starlet again. I was taking it a little easy on the way back, sitting on just over 100kph. On the way down the little gal was pushing up to 120kph at times - she seems to get into a funny harmonic at  the legal speed of 105-110kph, and it is hard to keep her there. She really loves 115-120kph, but I fear it's just too much for her little motor to bear.

Well, even 120kph in this car is legal.. she reads about 10% over the real speed :)

The Sun Sets on Black Friday

Day 103

Friday the 13th.

I was driving to see my Bro in Victoria so we could do another wedding shoot together. He's been real good to show me the ropes. Anyways, the drive was made difficult by the fact for about 1 hour I was driving into the direct sun. Finally, as the sun almost plopped over the horizon, and I could see again, I stopped (not) and took this pic with my iPhone. I just love the colours in this.

Long Distance ETTL

Day 102

Today I was just playing with my YN ST-E2 - the cheap copy of Canons own infra-red flash trigger. I took this pic with a 200mm lens with a 420EX on the left, and a 580EXII on the right, at about 25m. Seems to work ok. As I stepped back further there were some issues with misfires.. 25m seems to be max range for these. :(

Inside they seem to go further - obviously the roof and walls help out a bit...

Bokeh Cut-Outs

Day 101

This is just another playing with bokeh Photo

I cut out some (fugly) stars in a bit of junk mail we received, then stuck that over the front of a prime lens (55mm f/1.8, I think) and took a few shots at a car going down the road toward some street lights. The red stars are brake lights, the white are street lights. Just one star in the cut out. Potential? Maybe.

LightPainting again

Day 100

So I decided to try to light this shiny toy elephant, yet minimise specular reflections... easier said than done.

This was shot using a YN460II at low power, multiple flashes and a 20s exposure.

Roasted Marshmellows...

Day 99

So there I woz, sitting there minding my own business, and WHAMMO, some silly looking beagle shoves a stick up my back-side and roasts me over hot coals, saying "tee he he" to some balding looking kid called Charlie Brown...

My little TOYota

Day 98

Yes, this is another FreeLensing pic. I am still toying with it. This is yet another BAD example, but I like the way i makes my car look even smaller and toy like...

Easter Eggs?

Day 97

I often wonder why we claim that the Easter Bunny lays eggs.

Anyone who has ever owned a Rabbit will know what the only egg-like things from a  bunny are...

Lost in Train Station

Day 96

This is Roger Dodger, my accountant. He's on holidays. He has a bit of an identity crisis. Part rapper, part polo shirt wearing college boy. He's always got that doof-doof music pounding outta his head, and he hardly listens (or hears) a word you say.

6 months ago I told him I wanted to get "stuck into Forex or gold". That's the last I heard from him. Then he went on a break, so last week I emailed him telling him he'd better show me some evidence that he is getting stuck into Forex or Gold for me. He says, evidence, like a photo? I say, whatever, just do something.

So he sent me this photo by email. Here he is, sucking fourex gold.

Lost in Train Station.

YN460II at 10 and 4 in gridded box, 580EXII in silver brolly 6:00 high. I haven't gotten the flashes out for a long while, and as this was the real reason I started the P365, I thought I had better get back into swing. But this is my "safe" lighting set up... one I can set up after.. well a few XXXX Golds. No metering, all by "guesstimation".  It's also easy to do rough edits and masks as the edges are blown. Obviously this image is a composite. The background is a photo I took in Bintan, on my GoPro Hero2. The foreground was shot in my loungeroom just now.


Today's post is a joke at myself as much as anything else. This is how I hear a lot of stuff. Sounds that run together and need deciphering to make sense... Oh, and I only wish I was telling my accountant this!

Little things...

Day 95

I remember showing my dad one day the words to "The Man from Snowy River" on the $10 note. He was blown away I could read it without a magnifying glass. I can still read it, but it hurts my eyes now :)

Today's pic is another "freelensing" attempt, but this time using one of the most ubiquitous cameras around, my iPhone. I put the same Asahi Pentax 55mm f/1.8 in from of the iPhone camera and took this snap. I cropped the image but otherwise it is basically straight from iPhone. Amazing what a little lens can do :)

The writing on the $10 note makes me think that there is a lot of detail in life that a lot of us (obviously me included) are totally oblivious to.

Life is full of little wonders, innit?

Free lensing

Day 93

No, not freelancing. Freelensing.

This is my first go at this, at 10pm at night. This is mostly rewarding with cooperative models and nice vistas, however beggars cannot be choosers.

Freelensing is somewhat a cult subsect of photography. People spend stupid money on crappy old lenses, and then hold them precariously close to their brand new shiny state of the art DSLR. Being a little luckier, I had an old (?!) DSLR and a cheap M42 mount lens laying around that I could happily risk any dust bunnies and damage to one or the other.

The technique is basically this..

1) Turn on your expensive DSLR with no lens attached (void warranty in process)
2) Hold old crap lens in front of camera, with focus set to infinity
3) Move it back and forth until you are satisfied you like what you see, press shutter button
4) Listen to crunch as expensive DSLR mirror strikes back of crap cheap old lens
5) Throw lens on ground and exclaim expletives
6) Post resulting images (if any) on blog, and brag about the vintage and amazing "miniture" look
7) Go to JB Hi-Fi and buy a Holga/Diana or a Lensbaby
8) Take the same photos wihout any frustration or damage to DSLR
9) Don't tell anyone you took them on a Holga/Diana/Lensbaby
10) Write a blog on how wonderful freelensing is

:)

This was taken on 350D, with an old (1972 model) Asahi Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens held in front of the 350D. Some levels in Photoshop.

Hot Stuff

Day 93

Thomas Edison, I bet you would have just giggled with glee at the thought of this - an (old fashion!!!!!) tungsten bulb filament being photographed (?)* on electronic media.

Amazing how far we have come since the first reliable bulb in about 1880. Almost as a amazing as the trouble I had finding a REAL OLD FASHIONED tungsten bulb in the house... They have all been "upgraded" to those [ugly, horrible, dim, murky, depressing and green] wonderful environmentally friendly fluorescent energy saving bulbs.

It always amazes me to think that less than 100 years ago, a lot of things we complain about today were a godsend and "revolutionary". And even moreso, that even 30 years ago a lot of the things we use and abuse today on a daily basis were luxury items for the very very well heeled (portable music, mobile phones) or the uber geeky (computers, electronic organisers). And even today, I use my DSLRs with less thought for their welfare (I won't say less respect, because that is not really true than I used to use my old hand-me-down film SLR.

Times they are a changin'.

40W light filament shot with 350D and a 35mm f/2 lens on 31mm extension tube. Slight levels adjustment and cropping in photoshop.




* the (?)... is it really a photograph these days? What would we call it?

Day 92

Day 92

Just a quick photo. I love the limited DOF this lens gives - the EF 135 f/2L. Just awesome.

Straight out of camera.

Ranj&Manan

Day 91

This cute couple have flown all the way from Singapore for me to do a quick sitting with them. Well, that's not the reason they came, but they have flown all the way from Singapore :)

Today is April 1st. Yeah, the day where you cannot take anything seriously until lunch time, by which time it is too late to do anything much about it anyway. I had to work at the clinic this morning, and managed to duck out just nigh on 1pm. Not too bad. I then rushed home to see the fam, and rushed to meet Ranj&Manan. By the time I left home it was clouding over, and feeling stormy. The weather radar showed a good storm just 1hour off. It doesn't look like it, but what should have been pics with nice hot sun as a rim light, were instead taken in dark gloom (like f/2.8 1/125s ISO 800 plus flash). Yes, quite dark. The good bit was the soft diffuse sort of light from the cloud, which I sorta ruined with my flash.

And here is Ranj. I think she is quite enjoying herself. About 30s after this was taken the skies opened so we retreated.

Canon 5DmkII, EF 135 f/2L at f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/125s, 580EXII in 60inch umbrella 1/16 power at 8:00. For both pics. Maybe it was more like 7:00 for the first one.