Happy Halloween

To everyone reading this, whether by design or fortunate mishap, 'thank you'. Have a great autumn season and let's not forget to celebrate life while we have it.


Strobist Info:
SB800 camera-right behind white bedsheet acting as diffuser fired full power.
SB800 cameral-left behind subject for slight rim light fired 1/32 power.
SB800 on ground between subjects facing upward with red gel fired at 1/4 power.
Vivitar 285 camera-right and high providing light on 'face' and shoulder of left subject.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Zombies Eat Brains

October is an incredible month. On the one hand, it is the beginning of all the wonderful weather here in Phoenix. On the other, it is the beginning of the end of all the wonderful weather here in Phoenix.

You see, my son (pictured here trying out the zombie Halloween costume we bought today) has his birthday in October, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, then Valentines, then Easter, then 'poof!' summer's back!

It all goes too fast.

Strobist Info:
2 SB800's 50 degrees left and right behind subject 1/128 power.
1 SB800 slightly camera left 1/64 power

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Glad to Be a Dad . . .

. . . or more accurately, glad to be Shannon's Dad. It is important to express gratitude - today mine is for my son, he makes parenthood easy.


For this photo I used separate planes of light for each each element of the image. There are 5 strobes illuminating the scene - it is explained here.

Paradise Valley / Scottsdale Home Interiors

Just as I started getting geared up for some cool location-graphicy-poppy yoga stuff I get thrown a curve ball - interiors. Turns out shooting interiors is pretty dang fun and one heck of a lighting puzzle.

I have had lots of fun on these shoots; have learned a lot; and am I ever improving my Photoshop skills! ;-)

It seems the real challenge lies in getting the proper mix of ambient and artificial lighting - which turns out can be a rather complex series of options.

For the Powder Room, the light casting the textured shadow around the mirror is ambient. I added a bit of light up high to bound the top of the image with an SB800 CTO gelled. I also hit the pedestal of the sink with an SB800 set to 105mm and CTO gelled.


For the Dinette I used two SB800's behind umbrellas to minimize the hot spot reflections on the many shiny surfaces. I also used a snooted SB800 to shoot a bit of light against the tiled backsplash (a bit too hot I might add).



For the sitting area in the Master Bedroom I cross-lit the alcove using 2 SB800's fired at 45 degrees diagonally across the space - about 6' high. The highlights on the TV and to the right of the sofa are from the natural light coming in from the right.


To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.