PHO5598: Assignment 9

Assignment 9 was a little difficult for me to distinguish from my other photos as it was all about diffused or bounced flash. I say this because it is very rare that I use direct flash so almost any of my small flash portraits could have been used for this assignment. I ended up submitting the two below photos. The first was shot with the flash in an umbrella setup. The flash was bounced off the white umbrella and onto the subject. The second photo was shot using the small flash attached to the camera and using a diffuser on it while also bouncing it off of the white ceiling above the subject. Diffusing or bouncing the light often enables you to soften the light up which can be harsh and unflattering otherwise. As always, these photos can be found on Flickr as well.

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100 Possibilities: Friendly Easter Pooh

 

 

In which Pooh celebrates Easter with a friend. 
Just realized the other day that I haven’t been posting these on my blog like I thought I had. I am up to #35 or so on Flickr but far behind that here…

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100 Possibilities: Friendly Pooh

In which Pooh finds an Easter friend.
The second photo from Pooh's Easter photo shoot - and also the first in which Pooh is not alone.

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100 Possibilities: Easter Pooh

In which Pooh tries to celebrates Easter.
This was the first of Pooh's Easter photos. I apologize for getting them up here so late (I swear they were taken Easter weekend), but in my defense, they have been up on Flickr for a little while now.

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100 Possibilities: Portrait Pooh

Pooh sits for his portrait.

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100 Possibilities: Panasonic Pooh

Most of Pooh's shots to date have been taken with this little Panasonic camera and he wanted to check it out. He did however, have to follow the rule of using Steph's cameras and have the strap around his wrist.

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100 Possibilities: Junkmail Pooh

Pooh sorts through the coupons that came in the junk mail. Nothing good for him though.

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100 Possibilities: Valentine's Day Shots

For Valentine's Day I bought two bags of heart-shaped chocolates, the kind in the red foil, and did a photo shoot (with and without Pooh). I have chosen three of the Pooh shots to be included in my 100 Possibilities Project and have entitled them below. Hopefully you will all agree with me that they are unique enough to all be included in the project. I had many other shots that I determined were too similar to these or other shots of mine and they therefore could not be included, but are viewable in my Valentine's Day set on Flickr (along with the non-Pooh shots I took).

Heart Pooh

Chocolate Pooh

Valentine Pooh

I really enjoyed my impromptu V-day photo shoot. I used my umbrella kit and Dave's piano bench (as well as a black pashmina) for the setup and controlled my SB-600 flash with my on-camera flash. The setup took longer than I thought it would, but once I got going I had a lot of fun.

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Guitar Glee

Another shot from the 'guitar shoot' with Jess.

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Multiple Musics

Another shot from the shoot I am calling the 'guitar shoot' with Jess.

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Jess' Photo Shoot

Over Christmas Dave's sister, Jess, asked me to take some shots of her playing the guitar for a class assignment she has. Essentially she wanted some shots of her playing, some of her writing some chords/music and some closeup shots of the guitar, etc.My setup was pretty basic, but I was able to use almost all of my new lighting equipment; the Gary Fong diffuser for my on-camera flash, Nikon umbrella kit and SB-600. I took about 500 shots and quickly edited that down to 300 and then later down to 25 or so edited ones (+40 when you include the fact that I converted some into black and white). I am really happy with the outcome of the photo shoot and I will obviously be uploading a select few shots to this blog, but I have uploaded all the edited and signed photos to Flickr, if you would like to view them all now.

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Nikon Umbrella Kit

When I took the Small Flash Workshop at Algonquin College I was introduced to a simple umbrella kit, made by Nikon, that was portable and very useful for off-camera flashes. The Nikon 46" umbrella kit was really awesome and was the main thing from that weekend that really caught my eye (in terms of things I wanted to purchase). I have been mulling it over since then as at $189.99, it wasn't something I wanted to purchase without at least some thought. I was planning on purchasing it before Christmas as a early present to myself, and to help with a semi-assignment I have with some family over the holidays, but hadn't gotten around to it just yet. This past weekend there was a large Nikon sale on at Henry's and the price of this decreased to $169.99. I figured there was no better time than a sale to get the item I wanted.
I brought it home and set it up and am very happy with it thus far. The kit includes a 46" umbrella, a sturdy light stand, a light tight fixture and a carrying case.
The umbrella itself can be converted from the black one shown in the image above (found through Google) to a translucent white one you can shoot through.
The light tight fixture is used to secure both the umbrella and your light (or flash unit) in place. You are able to use equipment with different sized screws (or screw holes) with the different connections that come with the kit.
The carrying case is very nice and looks quite durable. It also has some really convenient pockets inside in which you can store any necessary accessories.
I am finding that with a few quick turns of the knobs, you can secure your equipment in place quite nicely and be ready for shooting.

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