Tag Archives: equipment

Assignment, Photography

A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 2

Cutting the rug– I dragged the shutter shooting at ISO 400 1/6 sec @ f2.8 and set my flash to 1/32 power.

As twilight approached, we went one deck below for our scrumptious dinner.

My choice of fish delectably decorated with a bright red pepper  looked mouth-watering.

Had our waitress not warn us that the pepper was a jalapeño, all the drinks in the “Open bar” wouldn’t have been enough to quell its hotness.

By the time I finished, the late evening light was just too good to ignore.

It was also time to raise the ISO from 100 to 400 to get a shutter speed that I knew I could comfortably handhold.

Using my 580EX off-camera in manual mode, even at 1/128th power, in such close quarters required me to feather its output some more.

The built-in white diffuser card was actually kicking in too much light.

I ended up using my fingers over the flash head.

Continue reading A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 2 →

Assignment, Photography

A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 1

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Michelle’s dad, Lee, gives her away at the ceremony as Alex looks on. Extreme contrast is always a photographic challenge. I was at least 40 feet back. Because the 580EX had to kick in quite a bit of light from that distance, I used the external power pack to allow for quicker recycling. 1/200 sec f5.6 ISO 100. I should have raised the shutter speed to 1/320 sec from 1/200 sec to retain the highlight in the bride’s veil in retrospect. My 580 EX speedlight was at 1/2 power.

There is no doubt, a wedding on board a ship is romantic.

I’ve been a part of 3. My first time  was on board the Star of India in San Diego too many years ago now.

Though the cutter never left the dock and the temperature was  too hot to be in a suit and tie, I can still remember the name of the vessel.

Two days after I quit the newspaper business I shot my first wedding “professionally” on board the Dandeanna, a yacht which circled Marina Del Rey for 4 hours.

On that occasion, I remember borrowing a 2nd camera body from the person who replaced at the newspaper.

Waiting for the guests–The Empress at the dock before all the guests board her for the evening’s cruise and festivities.

Those of you thinking about doing weddings for a living, yes, you should never shoot a wedding with just one camera.

It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

This weekend was a special treat and a delight.

My nephew Alex married his sweetheart Michelle on board the Empress as we cruised  the Sacramento and American River. Continue reading A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 1 →

Photography

Photogear I shouldn’t have bought

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Every so often when I clean out my closet, I’ll come across an item which is still in pristine condition just the way it was after I broke the clear shrink-wrap.

It starts me wondering, “What the heck was I thinking?”

You are bound to disagree with me, but before you post your comments, which I encourage you to, remember this:

The tools any artist finds indispensable is dependent on usage. And usage is dictated most by the types of subjects we point our lenses at. So with that in mind…

400mm telephoto f4.5

When I was in college in Ohio, I owned a 400 mm f4.5 telephoto lens. MInd you, this was in the old days of film and manual focus. In the Midwest where I went to school, that lens was only used in the best of lighting conditions. The aperture of f4.5 was way too slow for anything but outdoor sports which happen in good light. Those of you reading this have to realize even in today’s high ISO capability DSLRs, trying to get a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec is asking a lot.

Flash diffusers

Over the years I’ve bought some doozies. I once bought a diffuser which you inflate by blowing up like a beach ball.

I even had one that was a miniature umbrella that attached to the flash.

Diffusers for flash units or Speedlights/Speedlites are often not the problem. It’s the placement of the flash, being on camera.

Now I’m wondering as I write this if I’ll ever be seen with Gary Fong’s Lightsphere. Continue reading Photogear I shouldn’t have bought →

Photography

On location group photos

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Hadia Habibi & Al Nar Bellydancers

Working on location outdoors can simplify matters especially if you’re photographing a group.

A well-chosen location and an equally well-chosen time of the day  can free you from having to set up a seamless or Muslin background if your subject is a group of more than 5 or 6 people.

You see, the problem with photographing any kind of group is deciding what to use as your background.

What lens to use? Wide angle lenses make everyone smaller, introduces a lot of clutter in the background and has too much depth-of-field. I used the 80mm setting on my 80-200 zoom. The downside? I have to step way back from the group and that means if you’re soft-spoken, you’ll need a bullhorn. The other problem?  How do you position your light without it showing up in the picture? Since your light will be closer to your subjects than you are physically, that may mean using a boom to raise the lights out of the frame. I got away with moving my light just outside of the frame on the left. Marvin, my assistant, was also holding  a reflector on the left to kick back the directional sunlight coming in from the right.

Unless you plan on cramming everybody so close like sardines, the bigger your group, it follows then, the more space you’ll need.

Realistically, once you have about 8 people, you’re almost assuredly out of space indoors in most studios. And even the biggest seamless paper or Muslin background hung on the long side up will not be enough.

Continue reading On location group photos →