Penning Photography Daily

I work with Jeff.

When he was a teen aged lad, he had a 1968 Yamaha 125 cc 2-cycle motorcycle. At that time, the most powerful bike you could get as a teen was a 125cc. Jeff loved the freedom his bike gave him.

Along the road to today, Jeff gave up his bike for larger, 4-wheeled transportation.

Since fuel costs have risen quite a bit, Jeff went in search of a motorcycle. He found a duplicate of his teen-era Yamaha, in good condition on eBay. He bought it, and if I recall the story, he drove it over 200 miles via back-roads to it’s new home.

Jeff spent some time restoring and bringing the bike back to great condition.

He now uses this very economical bike as a fair-weather means of transport to and from work, using less congested streets (to lessen the potential for a mishap).

Jeff’s saving fuel cost, and getting a thrilling reminder of his teen-aged youth, every time he puts that helmet on and lets the wind whip his face, to and from work. =)

We just happened to leave work at the same time today.

Using my newest light modifier: The Lightscoop

My Pentax K10D has an on-board pop-up flash.

As you might notice, when ever a pop-up or direct flash is used, most photos have that “Deer-In-The-Headlights” look to them.

Harsh, full-throttle light which give the portrait a hard-light look.

Flash modifiers are a fascination with me. Must be the latent physicist in me – all those photons being slung about wily-nilly.

I received my latest one tonight in the post.

The Lightscoop hooks onto the hot-shoe of the camera. It allows the pop-up flash to open, and direct it’s light up and backwards to either the ceiling or a wall (hopefully a white or light colored wall).

This re-direction of the light of the flash, allows the light to bounce off the ceiling or wall and spread itself around your subject, giving a much softer effect.

My subject of the first photo? Me.

Lightscoop on, ISO 800, f2.8, camera held at arms length and “Bob’s your Uncle!”

I like it.

Less bulky than the Pentax 540 flash with diffuser attached (which will still be needed for many occasions).

Easy to whip on and keep using for quick portraits and small group shots indoors. Family shots and such.

So many photos to take, so little time to do it! =)

I was busy today, processing photos from a commercial photo shoot. Product for a website. Fun, but time-consuming.

As the sun was setting, I stopped my work, grabbed camera and went seeking the sunset.

This was taken on the way home from my tour of the countryside. Almost my last photo taken.

I was just starting to copy web galleries of the commercial photos to my website, when the power went out.

“Click”

No fade to black, just the click of the heads retracting on my hard drive and no lights.

Sigh.

Eventually, the lights came back on, and I once again started the upload.

I’m now on my 4th try at uploading. I keep bombing out for one reason or another.

So. With it being late, and no POTD up, and with my usual workflow tool, Lightroom, busy, I slid the SD card into it’s reader and fired up Irfanview, my old standby.

irfanview.com – A great tool. Its free, but I pay to support the author: Irfan Skiljan.

I picked this one out, and fiddled with it a bit.

For your pleasure, and to satisfy my commitment!

Time flies swiftly to the observer, daintily dipping toe into the temporal stream.

My sister Trish.

Two years older and always my protector.

I journeyed to her house today to work on her computer. It was not cooperating with PDF files very well.

Turns out, it was more than 6 years ago that I put the computer together for her and installed it in her spare room.

She’s still on dial-up, and is running Windows XP on 128 Meg. of memory. You read that correctly, 128 Meg. of RAM and XP. I upgraded her years ago from Window 98 to XP. I did it. It still works.

The computing experience is similar to watching an artist draw with crayons. Slowly.

I got her fixed up, and convinced her to save for an inexpensive new computing platform. One from this century.

Dial-up might still have to suffice, as she’s in a one-horse town: only one broadband Internet provider, who’s rates are outrageous on her parochial-school-teacher salary.

I’m looking into alternatives for the computer and the Internet speed.

In the mean time, Trish and I had a delightful time as we always do. Talking, laughing, reminiscing and debating.

I love you Trish. I’m glad you’re my sister. =)

I heard that there was an outdoor cinema, playing a movie in a local park tonight.

That sounded like a worthy taking off point for a photo of the day.

Sunsets put me in mind of the infinite, the universe. They fill me with awe and wonder.

As I was pulling out of my street, I first saw this great tableau of the sky at sunset and had to capture it.

This isn’t it.

But that’s how my journey began. =)

Once I made my way to the park, the sky had changed again, and for the better.

I stopped and captured it against the trees of the park.

The is one of two I took at about the same time.

The differences are my fiddling with sliders in Lightroom.

I’m still in awe, even when I add my changes to what nature presented.

(The outdoor movie crowd was mundane in comparison)

Testing out some lighting and setup for a commercial shoot I’m doing tomorrow.

I used a roll of shelf lining paper – really foam – as the backdrop and table base. It’s a bit shiny, so I might substitute a cloth tomorrow.

I’ll bring plenty of options and backup for everything.

Two strobes – left and right – elevated above the plane of the objects some 30 degrees. Both had diffusers on: Gary Fong products: The Whale Tail on my Pentax 540 and the Lightsphere Photojournalist II Cloud on my Vivitar 283.

The hard part is balancing the light.

There’s some glare on these tangerines, but I’m not too freaked out by it.

The good thing is, I’m more ready now for the assignment than I was.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Bonus: It was fun!

Me

Two strobes – One behind me spilling upwards on the wall, the other in my right hand, held slightly above my eyes.

A bit of post processing.

Playing with light. Trying to capture my spirit in pixels.

Boy did I have to fiddle with positioning and focus a bunch for this!

I like the slight smile, and tilt of my head. I was trying to get a natural smile and keep the reflection out of my glasses.

Works for me!