Scattered Thoughts . . .

I had written in a previous blog entry that Kenzie and I did a mini photo session this afternoon in our living room with one studio light.  The primary purpose was to do some shooting with film using her Fuji Evo Hybrid Instax camera and my Mint TL70 Instax camera so today was mostly about film cameras.    We also shot some photos with my new-to-me Fuji X30 digital camera since I'm still learning about that classic old digital camera.  I just picked up this little Fuji compact camera a few days ago but this was the first opportunity I had to shoot a few portraits.  I shot only these two photos below with the Fuji X30 and I think they turned out great.    For a compact camera with a relatively small sensor, this camera handles very well and produces some nice images.  I'm still learning how to best use this camera and its wide variety of features but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.  I think I can get even better images with this camera with a bit more practice and tw

A few weeks ago, we did a short photo shoot with Lukey and Kenzie and I wrote a blog entry about that evening previously .  I ended up with a lot of great photos but I thought I would share a few of the outtakes here and briefly describe the problems or difficulties we had in getting a good shot. This first one shows what happened when I tried to use a reflector to bounce some of sunlight that was shining brightly behind them onto Lukey and Kenzie's darkened faces.  They had the sun at their backs so they were very much silhouetted against the bright, colorful background.  My camera is capable of capturing a lot of data in a larger dynamic range than most cameras but adding some light to their darkened faces would make things better for light, shadow, contrast, color, and clarity...  this reflector was a tried and true way to brighten up darkened faces...  or so I thought...   No matter which type of reflector I used, the kids could not keep their eyes open!  I first tried using th

It is a hot and humid day today so I am indoors in the air conditioning today.  My original plan was to put the table saw on the deck and start cutting some lumber to finish a large desk and shelves. Unfortunately, it is far too hot outside for my health so I changed plans for the day. ("Too hot" means any environment which is consistently in the 80s... hot environments cause anaphylaxis and numerous debilitating neurological and gastro-intestinal problems for me... today is in the mid-90s, so I'm in the air conditioned living room.) Yongnuo YN560-TX transmitter mounted on my camera. So, as I was sitting in the air conditioning, I pulled out some new photography flashes I recently purchased. I opted for flashes rather than big studio lights so I could stay as portable and flexible as possible (and to minimize storage space required in the house!) . Also, being on a very limited budget, I needed a low cost system and this system fits the bill. Up until now, I

Formal headshot from our makeshift, improvised living room studio...  he looks like he should be working at NASA here! This is the time of year when the families of every high school senior are scrambling to get some photos of their senior for the school yearbook. Even though I seem to have a camera affixed to my hand at all times, we also have found ourselves scrambling to put together some photos to submit for Adam's yearbook.   Although I needed to shoot a couple of headshots of Adam, it turns out that our most difficult task was choosing which of the many candid photos I have on hand to send in for submission to the yearbook! Adam has always done a good job at avoiding me whenever I have the camera in hand, however, I have done a better job at still managing to get good photos of him regardless.  Of course, long telephoto lenses help me with being stealthy and staying under Adam's radar. That being said, I actually found more than two dozen good photos of Adam that