“Bring the Rain” | 52.10

So it is safe to say I have been slacking with this 52 weeks thing.  No really, slacking.  It has been nearly 3 months since my last weekly shot, but you see, I have good reason.  Back in January my wife and I welcomed our second daughter into the world and life has not been the same ever since.  The free time I get is used very wisely and naturally paying gigs come before my personal projects.  Still, this project provided a much needed outlet for me, something I have been missing quite a bit.

Thus the reason behind this image.  Lately, with the amount of stress my wife and I are under, it feels like all we have to do is reach out to feel it start pouring down on us. We are extremely thankful for this new addition in our life but the adjustment period has left us feeling exhausted, drained, and shells of what we were. It feels like no matter how often we see dry land, we end up with the feeling of keeping our heads above water.  I would love to say more but this is a photography related blog, right? Just a very stressful time right now.

Enough complaining…

The setup here was relatively simple.  I knew in the back of my mind the direction I wanted to take and needed an initial shot to get this started off right.  This was shot in the studio against a white backdrop.  There were two Calumet Genesis 400s shot into umbrellas to blow the white backdrop out.  Directly in front of me was an Alien Bee ABR800 ring flash with a 56” moon unit.  The lights were all triggered with Cybersyncs.  The shot was taken with a Nikon D700 and Nikon 24-70mm lens.  Settings were ISO200, f/10, and 1/250th.

The shot was actually taken last week, but I just have not had the time to process it the way that I would have wanted.  Here is the original shot from the camera:

Yea, you can tell the light to my left needs some adjusting as the backdrop is not blown out.  Ugh. Here is a shot zoomed out a tad

We were still getting the settings correct and the lights where we wanted.  Without our blockers on hand we used the umbrellas to block the spill from the back.  A little rough around the edges but we got it done.

There was a wide array of processing done using brushes and textures (include Les Blumes and Skeletal Mess).  I looked around for specific cloud images and just couldn’t find what I wanted, so I purchased this image from iStock and then used it to create the clouds as I wanted them.  Here is the final:

As you may or may not know, my wife and I now have our second daughter.  Which means what we want takes a back seat.  So when my wife got a chance to get her hair done, I was really stoked to see the outcome.  So much so I begged her to let me take a quick shot.

My wife normally sports a blonde hair color or dark brown.  So this new hair color was really spicey and I loved seeing it.  Especially after being worn down from caring for a newborn and a 3 year old, it was great seeing how much a new hair style could do for someone.  She took a photo of herself with her iPhone, but it was in the car and just didn’t do the new color justice.  Plus, it didn’t have enough attitude.

So I quickly broke out the ring flash and took this:

Not too shabby, considering this was taken quickly in our home.  But I wanted to fix it up a tad and since I cannot keep my paws out of Photoshop, here is what we ended up with:

Right off the bat you notice the pattern background and vignette.  Some people hate the vignette but I like to use it some times to help darken the edges and draw the eyes more toward the center.  While I normally try not to center anything, it seemed to work here.  Plus, we werent setting up a shoot either.  This was really quick and fun.  Lastly, I darkened the sunglasses a bit to hide her eyes more.  I thought about Photoshopping out the ring over her right eye but opted to leave it in to save some time.

“Midnight Snack” | 52.9

Something interesting happened to me the other weekend. Someone asked me “Hey man, what is going on with your weekly project thing?” I was not really sure anyone had been following along, which is partly why I did not feel super guilty for missing a few weeks. So where have I been?

Life here has been…well….hectic to say the least.  My wife and I are expecting our second girl (due date of Feb. 1st, 2010) and I have been fighting a sickness for a few weeks now.  Throw in an incredibly hectic schedule and this project just took a back burner.  But something clicked when asked about it and it kinda lit the flame back, so I thought I would pick things back up.  My brother-in-law and I have really been working hard on our own photography business and studio.  With so many irons in the fire, some things have to get let go.

Enough of that…

The shot of my head was taken at our studio using two Calumet Genesis 400 lights shot through 45″ umbrellas.

I brought the image in, flipped it so the lighting would match what I shot of the fridge, and then processed it a bit further. The image of me looking into the fridge was shot using two Speedlights.  On the second shelf of the fridge I had an SB-800 shot @ 1/8th up toward the top of the fridge.  I also had an SB 80DX behind the open door @ 1/4th power shot toward the door.  This light ended up not being much in the final image given the post-processing.  The camera was mounted on a tripod and set on a timer.  The Speedlights were fired with CyberSyncs.  I don’t have a behind the scenes shot for this one because I really just wanted to get the light out of the fridge and close the door.  Plus nobody really wants to see a shot of my messy fridge.

The greenery was a stock photo that I purchased from iStockPhoto.  I looked briefly online but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.

“Required Reading” | 52.8

Any sensible person knows that you need to stay up on your zombie knowledge in order to survive the coming apocalypse of darkness.  I hope that these recent additions to my current collection will help further guide me to the right steps to take when the dead walk the earth.

OK, so this is a little late this week.  Sue me.  I was busy.

My sister gave me a super idea for one of these shots but it requires a lot of setup, so I will have to work on getting the items together to pull it off.  It will also be a lot of Photoshop work and since time was limited this week, I went in a different direction.

The setup was relatively simple, yet I was again frustrated with not getting the shot the way I wanted in camera.  I had a Calumet Genesis 400 high above the camera, shot into a 60” Westcott umbrella which was collapsed.  I had another Calumet Genesis 400, shot bare, positioned directly behind me for rim lighting.  I positioned an SB-800 with green gel in front of me facing the book interior.  The camera was on a tripod and set with a timer, lights fired with CyberSyncs.  My camera settings were ISO 200, f/16, and 1/250th.

“Sad Times” | 52.7

Despite our President’s claims that the “economy is back from the brink“, it most certainly isn’t.  Businesses are closing on what seems like a daily basis.  This week, a local newspaper, The Henry County Times, announced it would be closing up shop, after serving the community for years.Who cares, right?  Just another paper.  Just another form of dated media biting the dust.  Print is dead.  Blah, blah, blah.

It hits home with me more than it would have a year ago.  As of right now, I am also a small business owner, and operate in the same community that this paper served.  So it is sad to see them make the decision they have made.  While I understand times are tough, it doesn’t make it any easier. A fellow citizen, Beau Kelley, has put it better than I:

You might ask: Why do you care so much about this?  Don’t you have more important things to worry about?    Yes, I do have other things to worry about.  But being a good citizen means more than worrying only about yourself.  I care because I am tired of seeing our community disintegrate.  I’m not comfortable losing the things I love that make our community special.  I’ve lived in Henry County all my life.  This is my home.  And I am willing to fight for my home.  I am not willing to sit back and watch Henry become just another place to live and work.  It’s time we start supporting each other.  It’s time we become a better community.  This is a wake-up call.

That same citizen has taken it upon himself to setup a website, www.savethehctimes.com, in order to help keep the paper alive.  I applaud his efforts. Since opening our photography studio, local business is vital.  Our family does the very best it can to spend our dollars locally.  It feels like we spend our money wiser that way.  It feels good supporting other local merchants and to keep other businesses going.

Equally sad to me is the fact that The Times was a community supporter.  Mickie is a great person and I am thankful to have met her.  She also supported the arts.  While president of a non-profit art organization, I knew she would run press releases about the group, and she did.  In fact, she always supported the arts and anything that made the community better.

On to some positive stuff, below is the setup:

I took this in my garage while my girls took a nap.  The setup shot makes the garage look horrible and messy.  I almost didn’t post it.  Regardless, with the camera on a tripod/timer, I used the ABR800 as the main light and a Calumet Genesis 400 with shoot through umbrella as a fill light.  I had another Calumet Genesis setup as rim/hair light, high camera left.  I put a little card on the ground to remember where to stand once I get the settings the way that I wanted them. Camera settings were: f/22, ISO 200, and shutter of 1/250th.  Lights triggered via CyberSyncs.

Also, this was not what I had planned for this week at all.  I had something Halloween related in mind, props purchased, etc.  But the loss of another local business was just on my mind.

Last, but not least, gotta give moiht a shout for the inspiration. Prints can be purchased as well.