VAL's Voice Activated Lights

(VALs) can go a long way. a great video from the BYU shooting team shows some great lighting techniques and VALing with a monoblok Video

Geo Metro

Geo Metro
Originally uploaded by Kirk Howard

Trash the Dress...

I barrowed this from the Strobist blog. This great a photo shoot on the beach. Some very clever ideas and great inspiration for location portrait shots.

I really like the kite camera setup for the Canon G9. I would like to know how they did that?

Have a great weekend, mine started today. I off to hunt the allusive Great White Snail, also know as Abalone. I will post some shots from our trip.



Chasing Sunset - Part II from Pieter Van Impe on Vimeo.

Thanks to Didier Jouret, who sent me a link to this video from a Pieter Van Impe "Trash the Dress" -type shoot.

This one is not so much about lighting, but it does include all of the typical stuff: Beach, sunset, trippy beats, happy couple, some champagne, a little nipple pinching, a kite-mounted Canon G9 for overheads, ... wait, WHAT?

Dude, I so want that G9 kite mount. He uses the G9 on a monster light stand, too.

Related links:
:: Pieter Van Impe ::
:: Tom Museeuw ::
:: Bridseye Kite Aerial Photography ::
:: Didier Jouret :: (Videographer)

Magic Lights...

I have to admit I have turned out to be a bit of a blog Junkie. Have been using the Google reader to combine all the blogs I subscribe to into on little readers digest online version. I have my reader set up to only load the newest entry to a subscription blog.

One of the blogs a frequently read is the Strobist. In some incestual way all these blogs are linked together. I first started to read Scott Kelby’s blog Photoshop Insider. I have read most of his books and I am a huge fan of his Business Plan and work ethic, not to mention I enjoy his writing style and photography.

Next is Matt Kloskowski. Matt has the very popular Adobe Lightroom Killer Tips blog that I read. Also, Matt works for NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). Now Scott Kelby is the editor and publisher of Photoshop User and Layers magazines, president and co-founder NAPP and author of many books, and co-author with Matt on a few books. So Scott is Matt’s boss.

Then there is Joe McNally’s blog. I am a new reader to his blog. He has been a photographer for over 30 years and his expertise and experience is educational. He has recently released a book called “The Moment it Clicks…”. Ever since I read this book I have become a fan of his work and a subscriber to his blog.

Joe is a regular contributor to NAPP’s Photoshop User magazine. He also has on-line classes on the new Kelby Training web site. Do you see where I am going with this?

This leads us to David Hobby. Yea that’s right his last name is Hobby. What a great name. Months ago I stumbled across his blog (Strobist) and found it interesting and fascinating. David is a master of off camera lighting. Either he uses a flash or strobe or studio lighting, but his focus is getting the light away from the camera. He is also a big fan of D.I.Y. (Do it Yourself) projects. I am currently working on a D.I.Y. project that I read about on his blog, that he got from another blog.

Back to the incestual part of this post. I read Joe McNally’s blog about his trip to Dubai to teach photography techniques. Also on the trip were Scott Kelby and David Hobby. David went into the desert one evening to help with a photo shot. I say this because he assisted in setting up the Nikon SB-800 Light Tree for off camera lighting.

I imagine it will only be a matter of time before Scott Kelby will Assimilate David Hobby into the NAPP Collective. If it hasn't happen already.

David on his blog this morning has added a link to another blog. This blog talks about the use of rope lighting to show action. Here is a picture and the link to the blog. It is well worth a read. I have some new ideas now.

M.B.A....

Taking pictures can be difficult enough with lighting, proper exposer, focus, subject matter and the list goes on. Going to a

public aquarium in very dim light without the use of a tripod doesn't make it easier.

My wife and I recently went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I took my camera gear with me to try and capture images of the life in the aquarium. While there was much to see and to photograph trying to capture the best image is a challenge.

First the M.B.A. doesn’t allow tripods or monopods into the building. The reasons for this are clear. Can you imagine with all the visitors to the aquarium, gawking at all the displays and then have some photographer(s) setup a tri-pod in front of said display. It would be a mess. People kicking the legs of the tripod, gear crashing to the floor. It would be complete chaos.

Some displays in the aquarium won’t allow use of a flash. In the large display tanks the M.B.A. discouraged the use of flash, because it drove the large pelagics to the rear of the tank. It seems the bigger fish are camera shy.

This is what I recommend for taking photographs in an aquarium setting:

1. Use the highest speed wide angle zoom you have access to. I used my Nikkor 18~70mm f3.5-4.5. I found this lens was not fast enough. I could have used my Nikkor fixed 50mm f1.8, but the wide angle wouldn’t be enough to allow the coverage of most display tamks.

2. Increase your ISO between 400 to 800. The higher your ISO the more digital noise will be seen on the image.

3. Use an off camera flash when possible. I used my Nikon SB-600 strobe. I had it hand-held and tethered to the camera. This gave me the ability move the strobe around the outside of the tanks to shoot through the glass and minimize the amount of reflection back into the lens. For more information on use of off camera flash, read the Strobist.

4. Also to help minimize the light being reflected into the lens (lens flare), I recommend a soft rubber lens hood. not only will his help eliminate lens flare, this will also give you a very soft seal when you push the lens up to the aquarium glass. I purchased a rubber lens hood for less the $10.00.

To be continued…