Lizard Lamp

Lizard Lamp (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100202 – Lizard Lamp, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/80 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 160, 50mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

Recently I have had less and less time to plan out my picture for the day.  It used to be that I would spend up to, and sometimes over, an hour looking for an interesting subject and then shooting it many different ways.  Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to find the little things in my every day life that I take for granted and shoot them quickly.  This bedside table lamp in my hotel room is one of those little things.  I turn this lamp, or one just like it, on and off multiple times each day during the week.  The texture of the lamp base has always struck me as interesting.  Today, I decided to take a picture of it for the first time.  No special processing was used to get the end result.  It is straight out of my camera.

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Blasphemy

Blasphemy (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100201 – Blasphemy, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/80 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 500, 50mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

This is what my setup looks like when I am crashing in a hotel during the week.  The Wacom tablet makes the trip with me when I hit the road.  The MacBook Pro has become my primary machine for both work and photography.  However, since nearly all of my company’s clients still use PC-based software applications, I keep a Windows XP virtual machine available.

I had an incredibly tough time getting the color balance correct in this photograph.  If I adjusted for the room coloring to remove the yellow tones, the screen on the laptop was no longer at the correct balance.  The version of the photograph above was adjusted to make the colors on the screen look right.  However, this left the colors in the room very yellow.  I probably needed to go with an approach of adjusting the color balance on two separate layers in Photoshop and then use masking to merge them together.

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A First Time for Everything

A First Time for Everything (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100131 – A First Time for Everything, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400, 70mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)

Today I can say I had my first real gig as a photographer.  My friend asked if I could help him out by taking a corporate head shot for his boss’ web site.  Of course I told him it would not be a problem and that it was  perfect timing as I am heading to my company’s winter meeting to do head shots of all my coworkers later in the week.  The setup for this shot was three small strobes.  One in a soft box at camera right as the key, one in a reflective umbrella on camera left as the fill and a third gridded and pointed up at the background from behind the subject.  It turns out that the intended fill light became the key.  I guess I am still learning the ETTL and ratios functions in the Canon system.  However, even though they got switched on me, I like the overall picture.  The lighting is clean and there is good separation from the background.  Maybe next time I will leave just a bit more head room in the shot to allow for future clients to be able to frame their images.

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Back to the 80’s

Back to the 80's (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100130 – Back to the 80’s, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/100 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 800, 35mm (EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS)

Our friends had an 80’s party tonight to celebrate a thirtieth birthday.  We decided to take some high-key galmor shots to help remember the event.  I broke out the white seamless paper and set up three flashes to achieve the almost completely blanked out background, a.k.a. high-key, photograph.  Two flashes were used to light the subjects, one high and camera right and one high and camera left.  Both flashes were equipped with a reflective umbrella and tilted down at forty five degrees to get complete coverage.  The third flash was behind the subjects at camera right.  It was only a few inches away from the background and aimed in such a way so the light was feathered across the background.  I did this to avoid a hot-spot from appearing on the seamless papear close to the where the flash head was on the right side of the frame.  To prevent any of the light from the background flash from getting on the subjects or into the camera lens, I used a gobo on it.  While not a perfect high-key photograph, I think it is not bad at all for a first attempt at this type of shoot.

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Thanks To A Tip

Thanks To A Tip (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100129 – Thanks To A Tip, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/320 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 100, 50mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

I received a text message from a friend this morning suggesting that I take a look outside for a picture opportunity.  Sure enough, when I peaked out the front door, I saw a beautifully lit sky.  I grabbed the camera from inside and spent about five minutes shooting the sky in my pajamas.  I love the color in this photograph, especially against the silhouetted houses.

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TV Time

TV Time (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100128 – TV Time, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400, 50mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

It has been a super long week.  I think this picture speaks to my level of exhaustion.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for the project.

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Photo Pit Stop

Photo Pit Shot (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100127 – Photo Pit Shop, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
20.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

On my way back home from New Jersey this week, I took a short pit stop in order to take today’s picture.  The Maryland welcome center on I95 is the last rest stop on my now weekly commute.  I set up on the hill overlooking I95 with my tripod and 50mm lens.  My goal was to capture the streaking lights of passing by cars using a long exposure.  This twenty second exposure really brought out the little amount of light that was left in the sky.

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A Lucky Lunch

A Lucky Lunch (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100126 – A Lucky Lunch, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/3200 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400, 185 mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)

I was on my way to Wegmans today to pick up some lunch to bring back to work when I spotted this hawk in a tree fifteen yards off the parking lot.  Luckily I still had the DSLR in the trunk of my car, usually I bring it into work and lock it up during the day.  I quickly parked the car and got to work getting my 70-200mm lens and flash put onto my camera.  By the time I was ready to start shooting the hawk, she had flown about fifty yards away into another tree.  I made the small trek and started shooting picture after picture when I could fill the frame with my new friend.  I set the flash in a way to provide me a bit of catch light in the hawk’s eyes.  Doing this gave life to the bird, without it, the hawk may have looked fake.

I spent about fifteen minutes taking different shots using both the wide-side, 70mm, and long-side, 200mm, focal lengths.  In the process, I walked a complete circle around the tree where my friend stayed perched during the shoot.  At one point I was about fifteen yards away from the the tree.  The hawk did not seem to mind my presence and constant flashing.  In fact, she was even kind enough to try several different head positions for me.

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Hotel Life: Midnight Snack

Hotel Life: Midnight Snack (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100125 – Hotel Life: Midnight Snack, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/60 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 400, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

Tonight I took a walk around the floors of the Marriott hotel looking for an interesting subject to capture for the project.  The vending machine on the first floor, outside of the gym believe it or not, wound up being my target for the night.  The single light in the vending machine offered interesting lighting on the bags of chips and other goodies found inside.  I enhanced the effect slightly by adding a vignette in post processing.

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HIttin’ the Road

HIttin' the Road (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100124 – HIttin’ the Road, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/30 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 3200, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

I was about to head out the door for another week on the road when I remembered that I still needed to take a picture for the day.  I decided to snap a picture of all my “luggage”.   Two out of the four pieces of luggage are strictly camera gear.  The two bags on the left contain my camera, various accessories, a portable light stand and convertible umbrella, tripod, and Wacom tablet.  I figured that I can never be too prepared for being able to take pictures and work on them while I am hanging out in my hotel room each night during the week.

I used Matt Kloskowski’s “The Cutting Edge” Lightroom preset in post.

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