Home Alone (Part I)

Last night I was left to my own devices again after guests departed and the family went to bed. (A previous example here) I shouldn't be left alone too often. ; - )

Strobist Info:
One Vivitar 285 camera left, one Vivitar 285 camera right, and and SB800 slightly camera right to illuminate the front of the trunk. All fired with PW's and CTO gelled. Camera set to tungsten WB.

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Zion National Park

Liz and I spent 5 days camping in Zion National Park starting the day after Thanksgiving. What a spectacular place! Interestingly, it is hard to photograph because of the shear faces and deep canyons. Together these elements make for mixed lighting in almost all areas. To truly photograph Zion, you definitely need to shoot at sun-up and sun-down to capture the horizontal rays (which I can tell you, sun-up wasn't happening on this trip since overnight lows dipped into the low 20's). Because of the reasons mentioned above, there are many crappy pictures of Zion in the matrix. Since I didn't want to add to them, I chose not to post 'vistas' but rather more snap-shotty pics from our hike up to Angel's Landing.

This is the modest beginning of the trail skirting by a placid field of cottonwoods with Angel's Landing being the peak in the background to the left.


Here is Liz taking a little break along the way.


This is part of the mellow climb up the first 1,000' up to Angel's Landing. The last 500' feet is a completely different story with shear drops, lots of exposure, and even chains to assist with the final ascent.


And finally, the obligatory self-portrait at the top as evidence I made it. ; - )

Inuit Shaman

Liz, Shannon, and I spent Thanksgiving weekend at Dad & Deb's down in Tucson. They are collectors of very cool artwork and I have had an inclination to photograph some of it for a while now. For the first go I chose a sculpture of an Inuit Shaman carved completely of whalebone.





Strobist Info:
One SB800 fired via CLS. Flash is camera-right for the first picture and camera-left for the second picture.

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1:00 in the Morning

Okay - my story is a little different tonight than it was last night. Instead of waking up in the middle of the night, I simply haven't gone to bed yet (2 1/2 more hours will make 24 awake). As such we find (gasp!) yet another installment of 'Rehash-An-Old-Photoshoot-In-The-Blog-Again'. Forgive me - I will stop the madness here. Besides, I am going to Zion National Park next week and will hopefully have some pics from the trip to post up. Stay tuned . . .



Strobist Info:
Sun camera left and two bare strobes camera right fired using Pocket Wizards. You can tell there were two flashes if you look closely at the double-shadow of her necklace.

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3:30 in the Morning

So I was sleeping very peacefully this morning until about 3:00 a.m. and then 'PING', my eyes opened and that was the end of that. I tried to calm my mind by thinking of photography; didn't work - wide awake. So about 3:30 I got up and started digging back through my photos from the AZ Strobist meet in Jerome. I dug out another that I like and worked on it a bit. Anyway - now it's 6:30 and time to start getting ready for work. I hate rehashing old shoots on my blog, but I hope you enjoy this one nonetheless . . .



Strobist Info:
One strobe behind a shoot-through umbrella camera left and a CTO warmed bare strobe camera right both fired by Pocket Wizards.

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The Fallen

I'm not even sure how to describe this one . . . so I don't think I will (for now anyway).



Strobist Info:
One SB800 behind a shoot-through umbrella camera left fired full power by Pocket Wizards.

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AZ Strobist Meet - Jerome (Part II)

Here are 2 more from the Strobist meet-up.





Now, if I were a real photographer, I would have taken this picture. (Great photograph Carlos!)

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AZ Strobist Meet - Jerome (Part I)

So the AZ Strobist meet up was a great lot of fun. About 20 photographers and 1/2 dozen models. I will post up some more pics from the shoot when I have a few minutes to get organized.



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Overpowering Sunlight

I have wanted to play around with the concept of ovepowering sunlight with my lights but just haven't gotten around to it until now - and even then had to work with a disagreeable model! ;-)

Anyway, this is what I came up with . . .



Strobist Info:
Shot at 1/1000th ! !
2 Viv 285's at full power to the left and right of subject.

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Getting ready for Halloween

Much to my surprise, when I got home from work on Friday, Liz and Shannon had been out doing some light errands during the course of which, they stumbled upon a 'hand-candle' with wicks in each finger and bones in each finger which are revealed as the candle burns down. It was a sweet gesture and well-timed after having a tough week at work. Happy Halloween . . .



Strobist Info
2 Viv 285's left and right at 1/16the power
1 SB800 behind subject at 1/8th power

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