Day 40 - Xavier Helps Me Out

    Xavier helped his old man out again today playing with lights. I let him off the hook when I could tell he was getting annoyed with me.

    7D and 24-70 2.8L@ 1/200, f/22, ISO100, 50mm. Two B800's for lights. Beauty dish w/diffuser camera right and one with barn doors for rim.

Day 39 - Stacey is the God of War

     So I always see images in magazines, posters and on commercials that I want to recreate. I had seen an image for the video game God of War 3 and thought it would be cool to recreate something like that. Sadly my Photoshop talents aren't that great when it comes to reverse engineering things like this, most of my skill surrounds pretty typical photo manipulation. As luck would have it though I got my copy of Photoshop User magazine in the mail today with a section on how to create this. Since I have some decent PS experience it didn't me long at all to grab my wife, shoot a photo and use the article as a reference to create what you see above.

Day 38 - Xavier Profile Test

     This is a test shot I did with Xavier for a set of black and white profile shots I want to do of the kids to hang. The test shots I think came out pretty well, but I have a few more things I want to try before deciding on a set for print.

     Shot with 7D and 24-70 @ISO100, 40mm, f/5.6. 1/200. 1 B800 with barn doors was used for lighting and the B&W conversion  and PP was done in Photoshop.

Day 37 - Knee Slider

     This is a knee puck from my track pants the last time I wore them and that was at the end of the season in 2008. Nothing artistic about this shot, but it does hold a rather significant memory for me. For those of you not familiar with these, knee pucks (or knee sliders) are used to create a barrier between the knee of the rider and the asphalt when the knee is down in a turn. You can see the wearing along the edge and top of it from just a little dragging knee at Putnam Raceway. What's unusual about this puck is the dirt and grass embedded in it. :) There was only about 5 mins left in the last session of the 2nd day and I had a run off into the in field at around 75 coming around a turn called Dead Bear. Unfortunately I hit a dip, bump or hole causing myself and the bike to go flying. I walked away from the wreck, but the bike was totaled. That weekend was easily some of the most fun I've ever had. I got another bike that very next Spring but haven't been back to the track yet. I hope this year is my year to get back out there and bring home some pucks that are a little less dirt and grass filled.

Day 36 - Tree Rat

      We have a feeder outside our window at work and we get all sort of critters coming by to take advantage of it. This little guy like to run off birds that are sitting on the ground picking up some of the feed. Today though he ran into a couple of large geese that weren't having any of it.

     7D and 100-400 4.5-5.6 L IS@ ISO400, f/5.6, 1/320, 400mm.

Day 35 - Push Play

     Another grab what's closest shot. Macro shot of the remote that was sitting on my desk and apparently is a tad dusty.

Canon 7D and 100mm macro@ 1/200, f/8. This is lit similar to yesterday's shot using a B800 with the beauty dish and diffusion sock.

Day 34 - Macro Fun

     So what is it? Other than a macro shot of course. It's a tool some photographers use and that's all I'm saying. :)

     7D and 100mm macro@ f/8, 1/200. I used one of the B800's at about 1/4 power and the beauty dish w/diffusion sock attached.

Day 33 - New Bees

     Here's a quick shot I took of the new Alien Bees B800 I said I'd post. With these I also picked up a beauty dish and a grid. Although I haven't given them much of a workout they have performed really well. I'm going to be making it a point to use these a ton over the next few months.If you want more information about these you can head over to www.alienbees.com and check them out.

Day 32 - Ciara

     Ciara popped into my office to say good night before she went to bed and became my shot of the day.

7D and 24-70 2.8L@ 1/200, 24mm, f/2.8. 580EX on camera with the Demb bounce flash w/diffuser.

Day 31 - Tools of the Trade

     Lo-carb Monster is like a little can of heaven that gets me through a long day...

Day 30 - OXF 16 Final Shot

     I spent last night shooting Ohio Xtreme Fighting's St. Patty's Day Smackdown show. This was the last action shot I took and the final blow that ended the last fight of the night. Here Todd Smart finished off his opponent Mark Binder. Congrats to all the fighters who fought and put on a great show. The OXF is a regular show here and you can find more information at OXFMMA.com.

     Shooting specs: 7D and 24 - 70 2.8L@ ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/400. As you can see even at such a high ISO this camera puts out a quality that is perfectly usable for things like the web and some media print.

Day 29 - Xavier Lends A Hand

     I know I said I would post up photos of the AB800s today, but I got my Expodisc (neutral) today and had to give it a whirl. My oldest son Xavier helped me out while I tried using the Expodisc with custom white balance for the first time. I've got to say it works perfect and is incredibly easy to use.

     7D and 24-70 2.8L @ 1/200, f/11, 57mm. 2 AB800's, one slightly camera right with the beauty dish and one back with barn doors to used as a rim light.

Day 28 - Xander Helps Me Out

     I can always count on my little man to help me out when i want to test or try something. In this case my beauty dish and Alien Bees replacement lights came today. I'll post up shots of those tomorrow. Here I used a single AB800 with the beauty dish attached and I used one of the old flashes that was already set up as a rim/hair light.

Day 27 - Intuos

    It was finally time to replace by old Wacom Intuos 3 tablet with a new Intuos 4 tablet. Bonus is now it matches the lights on my lit Razor keyboard and mouse. The new version is definitely worth the upgrade and with a missing pen and a writing surface that was coming off the old one it was also definitely time.

Day 26 - Me

     Yup this is me. A bit tired, and scruffy, but me none the less. My triggers for my strobes came in today to I took the opportunity to test them out. Shot with 7D and 24-70 2.8L@ 1/200, f/8. Lit by two strobes and a piece of foam core. I did the black and white conversion in Photoshop.

Day 25 - Wooden Figure and PS Boredom

     Another let's grab something close and shoot it day. This is a little wooden figure that's semi-posable that I threw some hard lighting on and had my way with in Photoshop. The shooting specifics aren't overly important in this one although I'll throw up the original if anyone really wants to see it.

Day 24 - Burn Filament, Burn!

     This was the first time I've shot something and made sure I had a fire extinguisher near by while doing it. This was fun and I could probably shoot these all night. Good thing I bought plenty of bulbs, I guarantee I'll be shooting this again and again.

     This was shot with my 7D and 100mm Macro@ f/5.6, 1/640. I used a the cheapest 90 watt bulb I could find for this. Frankly breaking the bulb was more unnerving than than turning it on without the glass. I broke the bulb in a plastic zip lock bag to keep glass from going everywhere. I used your typical lamp and a power strip as the switch.

Day 23 - PS3 Logo

     Today's is a simple shot of the PlayStation logo from a PS3. Shot with 7D and 100mm Macro@ 1/200, f/8. To light the shot I used a 580EX camera mounted and a sheet of paper as a reflector.

Day 22 - Early Morning Fog

     I love early morning heavy fog and I hope I get a chance to get out to one of the area parks to catch similar scenes. I walked out of the house this morning to head to work saw this and ran in to grab the camera. Just a quick snap with a similar feel of something I would like to shoot in the future.

     Chip's been giving me a hard time about not including photo info. I'll try to do better at remembering to add it with every post. Here you go: 7D and 24-70 2.8L@52mm, 1/320, f/5.6. There was nothing extra done to this image.

Day 21 - Xander

     Here's another picture of Xander who you'll see a ton throughout this project. This is just a quick snap I took and played around with a little. I fixed a few blemishes and messed with the eyes a bit. I also used it as a test for new sharpening settings with the newer camera body.

Day 20 - Xander Bike Sequence

     Warmer weather is finally here and we get to get outdoors when we can for some fresh air and shooting. Here I've decided to do an informal test/check of the 7D's tracking and focus performance. Xander was moving at a pretty good clip straight at me while I let the 7D fire away with its drive mode in high-speed continuous using AI-Servo mode. I used the 100-400 for this shot which I've come to really enjoy.

Day 19 - Stacey

     Today's lighting test subject volunteer is my wife Stacey. This is shots using 2 strobes (that are more than ready to be replaced) and a piece of white foam core acting as a reflector. My youngest Xander makes the perfect reflector holder I've found. Both strobes are pretty beat up and don't perform the greatest any more so sadly I think it's time for them to go.

Day 18 - Candle Flame

     A rather simple shot for today. Here's one of a group of photos I took while testing out shooting a candle flame. I have a few ideas for shooting candles or scenes lit by candles so I was getting some practice in using a single candle as a light source.

Day 17 - Xander

Meet Xander my youngest son and someone I'm sure you'll see plenty of here. He's always eager to help me out especially when it comes to photo stuff. I was testing out one of my flash heads (soon to be replaced) with a large softbox and he was ready to jump right in front of the lens.

Day 16 - Side-by-side Fun

     So today's shot I thought we'd have some fun with. I've placed two images side by side and they are noticeably different. Most photographers I'm sure will be able to figure out pretty quickly what I did. So having said that what did I do?

Day 15 - My On The Go Equipment

     Last night I decided to grab one of the point and shoots and take a picture of my gear that I'm usually on the go with. So a quick list of what you see here: Kata bag, 7D, 40D, 100-400L, 24-70L, 100mm Macro, 50 1.8, 580EX, SD1200 P&S, Demb Flash bounce w/diffuser, Black Rapid camera strap and a Newton Flash bracket. The 40D stays at home a large amount of times when I don't need to worry about having a backup on me. You also don't see the little stuff like batteries, cards, reflector and grey card that are in the bag still. If I go shoot something larger I'll pack additional lights, modifiers, stands and background paper if I need it. Just a lot of stuff.

Day 14 - Bullet

     Pew, pew, pew. I'm going to the range tomorrow with a friend so I thought why not shoot a bullet? Get it? SHOOT a BULLET? OK, OK I can hear the groans now. I'll stick to the photos and let others handle the jokes. Nothing too amazing here just a .40 S&W Gold Dot 180 grain if I remember correctly.

    7D & 100mm macro@ ISO100, 1/200, f/8. This was shot in my light tent on a black insert. This is lit with the 580ex like all of the others have been so far.

Day 13 - Unmotivated Flower

     Well if today's shot isn't a big bag o'fail. *sigh* One of those times where I had an idea when I went and picked the flower I wanted to use and then when I got to shooting it I lost all motivation for the concept. It's a flower shot obviously and a rather poor attempt at macro with it, lack of motivation will do that. The DoF is a tad too thin given the bright color of the center. Oh well there's always tomorrow...

Day 12 - Colorized Smoke

     There's something special about shooting smoke. It's impossible for me to actually choose which image I like the best when I shoot a series of these. I can get lost for hours staring into the different shapes and letting the mind run wild with thoughts of what I think I see forming in each.

Day 11 - First Shot At Toys

     Woohoo toys! So today thanks to a suggestion from a fellow POTNer the subject was some sort of toy. These are little toys my youngest wins playing some arcade game at one of the local restaurants. I thought it would be a good chance to play with DoF as well. Fun, fun. I'm going to have to shoot these little guys some more this week I think.

     7D and 100mm Macro @ ISO100, f/5.6. Ever trusty 580ex bounced off the ceiling to light..