Dragonfly Portraits

I barely squeaked out my 100 photos yesterday (my daily goal for 2010) by taking macro photos of dragonflies. I originally intended to just chase the bugs around our neighborhood pond. I captured some nice images, but nothing too spectacular. There is a trick to shooting these Harriers of the insect world. Most of the time if you spook one, it will just circle around and land right back where it was. The bug in the top photo circled and landed on the same twig seven times, with me moving ever closer. He didn't get the hint until I bumped him with my lens hood. A neighborhood friend saw me geeking out, and presented me with a dragonfly on a stick. This little winged dude wasn't long for the world, but was still clinging to his perch like Velcro. I brought him inside to our makeshift studio, where I was able to control the lighting better. Here's the result:















No wonder you can't sneak up on these things; look at the eyes! It also never occurred to me that they have antennae, or creepy back hair either. The next project is to catch a dragonfly mid-flight. This will take some practice, but it'll sure get my 100 shots out of the way in a hurry.

Learning Studio Lighting, Part I

I had my absolute first portrait shoot today! My father and I have assembled a very modest but capable studio setup consisting of my (now lightstand mounted) Nikon Speedlight SB-800, which we either bounce off of or shoot through a studio umbrella, a reversible silver and white reflector panel, a white background cloth and a black background cloth. The quality of light changes dramatically depending on what strobe angle you employ. Think of the model's position as a clock face: twelve o'clock is directly in front of the model, assuming no crazy poses. The result is about the same as on-camera flash, creating flattened features with little dimensionality. Conversely, position the flash at three o'clock, and the effect is quite dramatic. I was very fortunate to shoot Mrs. Marissa Rose Ladd today, a dynamic model with a good deal of previous experience. She has the ability to project a whole array of emotions and attitudes, from the sweet girl next door, to a Long Island killer.

The topmost photo was taken with a shoot-through umbrella almost head on to the model.

Here are three more shots from this evening, with the lighting described:


Strobe shot through umbrella positioned at the model's 3 o'clock, with no reflector


Strobe bounced against silver umbrella interior, at around 2 o'clock position. White reflector positioned to model's 2 o'clock



Strobe shot through umbrella positioned at model's 1:30 (ish). Silver reflector positioned at 9:30, very close to the face.


The evening was a fantastic learning experience. Marissa was infinitely patient with my camera tomfoolery, and even offered up a ton of pointers and suggestions. I believe without her input these shots would have ended up like drivers license photos. I hope to keep up my education in the studio realm. We need more lights!

Sunday Evening at the Arboretum

I stole my father's Nikon D90 this evening and headed out to stalk some bugs. My D50 has always, and continues to work perfectly, but I wanted to try out some off camera flash setups. Nikon's CLS or Creative Lighting System,a feature found in its newer cameras, allows you to trigger regular hot shoe mount style strobes wirelessly. This sounds great, but there are a few pratfalls to be wary of. One is the sheer amount of variability in your setup. For instance, I was shooting today while holding the flash in my left hand, both flash and camera on full manual. Tiny changes in distance and angle affect your exposure. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it's the whole point, right? The other trouble stems from the triggering nature of CLS. A light sensor on the off camera flash picks up the output from nearby flashes, triggering it to strobe. In certain conditions, such as evening light coming in at a low angle, the external flash can't "see" the other flash. A set of Pocket Wizards are officially on my wish list. Please see my blog gallery for more photos!

Cheating With Limes, or "Saved By the Buoyancy of Citrus"

I have been trying my hand at product photography for the past few days. This involves setting an object on a large sheet of paper, or "seamless" and shooting with high intensity lights to make the background disappear. The problem is I don't have powerful lights, just a speedlite SB-800. This lime project has taken a little bit of Photoshop tweaking.

Here is the original image:


...and here is the final product, after replacing the dark background with white, cloning or healing out the nasty brown scrapes, and increasing saturation a few ticks to make a refreshing, juicy, tasty, fake ass lime:

If anyone would like to learn how to nerd out like this, shoot me an e-mail. I am also posting answers to general photo questions every Friday. If you think I can be of some help, send a message to erickrousephotography@gmail.com. Now go have a mojito.

Rodeo!

Last night I attended the Carousel Farms Rodeo, in Raleigh NC. The event is held every Tuesday night at 7:30. To find this place you head down Capital Boulevard towards Wake Forest, then turn right at the dump truck. You will know what I mean when you see it. We arrived about an hour early to scope out the situation, and were able to see all the participants gearing up, stretching and warming up their horses. Spectators begin to flood in around 7:15, so get there early if you want a seat! The rodeo consists of two events; bull riding and barrel racing. Bull riding is fairly obvious; with one hand, grab onto a sorely pissed off bull and hang on for eight agonizing seconds. Or at least try to!



The barrel races are a bit different, and in my opinion, more exciting than the bull rides. Participants charge around a set of three barrels at full gallop, trying to complete the course in the least amount of time. The idea is to get around the barrel without knocking it over. The course looks like this:


The quickest lap of the evening was just over sixteen seconds. The photographic challenge here is to freeze a galloping subject at night, under weak halogen lights. My camera was as exhausted as the horses by this point in the evening.




The rodeo was an absolute blast! I can't wait to go again. Now that I know what to expect, I may get some better shots next time! Maybe with some rented faster glass...