Red Rock

There is an interesting phenomena with digital cameras I have noticed. Old school film cameras taught us to keep the sun over your left or right shoulder for good exposures. With digital cameras if you can get your sun at exactly 22.5 degree angle over your shoulder you can achieve a terrific 3D effect with super depth in your image like the one above.

Trump Tower

Portrait Lighting with Speedlights

A quick portrait of my daughter. I used the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) to make this portrait lighting look natural. My SB 900 is mounted on camera and used as a master to trigger and regulate the others. The other SB's are used as remotes. I placed them on tables around the room and pointed to the ceiling to achieve a smooth wrap around lighting look. The white ceiling diffuses the light perfectly so I do not need any other light modifiers.

Lighting diagram for the portrait above.

Headless ?

Composition is important to conveying your message or telling a story with your photographs. If your images aren't saying something to the viewer then they are probably just snapshots. I didn't care about the statues head in this photo because I wanted to show the pigeons resting and drinking from the water in the foutain and that promentant stain as my main statement for this photo. I do not need the whole statue to do this so I cropped off his head.

NYC Blues

The new Aurora 2017 software from Macphun is an incredible editing tool. If you're running a Mac you need to try this out, ( soon to be coming in PC format ).

Reflecting Waters

Colorful reflections in Central Park.

Blazing Colors

Autumn scene in Central Park, New York City.

Spearmint Plant

Spearmint plant with little tiny flower blossoms.

The Bandana Brothers

Nittany & Oscar wear their birthday bandanas to finish their photo shoot. Disclaimer...All dachshunds were captive an no dachshunds were hurt or harmed ( except their pride and dignity maybe ) at anytime during this photo shoot. Their owners accept full responsibility for any embarrassment they may have caused the dachshund community. If you try this at home be prepared to have plenty of patience.

Nittany and Oscar dressed as the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. I added a yellow brick road to the city of Oz and the text.

This is another version of the Wizard of Oz theme for Halloween. Below, I thought it would be fun to go back through the years and see previous Nittany and Oscar Halloween costumes and themes.

2015 Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles.

2014 Ghostbuster and Stay Puff Marshmallow man.

2013 Batman and Superman.

2012 Chef and Lobster.

2011 Devil Dog.

Tin Dawg

Here is Oscar in his Halloween costume. He is wearing a tin man costume to match his brother Nittany's scarecrow costume in their Wizard of Oz theme.

Dachshund Portrait Session ( cont. )

This is Oscar, Nittany's brother. He is the least co operative of the two dachshunds. Oscar won't listen to his owner or stand still for more than a split second. That is one reason I went with broad flat lighting. I needed to be able to light these guys up no matter where they stood. Lighting set up explained below.

The Set Up

Because the dachshunds were so energetic I suspended the speedlights from the ceiling and triggered them with remotes with the tabletop set up I mentioned in earlier posts. This set up allows my assistants to move around the tabletop without worry of tripping on wires. The five lights give me plenty of light to light the dogs.

Nittany B&W

Another shot of Nittany the dachshund. This type of wiener dog is very active. To get him to stay in a central location I set up a 6'x3' table and dropped the back drop down the wall and over the table. His owner then attempted to ask him to sit and rewarded him with doggie treats for being good. If you attempt this at home the key word is " patience ".

Dachshund Costume

Here is Nittany with a sneak peak of his Halloween costume. If you guessed he is a clown, witch or beggar you'd be wrong. He is the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.

Gone to the Dogs

Dachshund portrait.

Spider Eyes

Halloween has got nothing on these cross orb weaver spiders. Up close they are very scary looking.

Patterns and Textures

On the back of the main body of this cross orb weaver spider is rich in pattern and texture.

Spider

An extreme close up of the mouth and fangs of a cross orb weaver spider.