Photography – Page 50 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Banner Yet Waves

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I find the image of the Texas flag in tatters with the Marathon Oil Tower as a backdrop somewhat compelling. Shot on the fly when I was picking Cynthia up from work.

I Can Has Electricity

Why is this man smiling? Because power to the house was restored at 5:00 am this morning. I awoke with a start when the hall light came on and the ceiling fan started spinning. I was like a child on Xmas morning running around the house declaring that Santa had been here.

I was shouting “Power! We have power!” which startled and confused the crap out of Cynthia who was sleeping soundly.

Earlier yesterday evening I had borrowed a generator from a neighbor who had his power restored the other day and had hooked up the TV and enjoyed some quality time with my TV and a box fan. I was not extremely confident in the generator so I turned it off prior to going to bed as I imagined how horrible it would be to burn the house down after making it this far.

Dooley was in much better spirits this morning, greeting us by repeating “Good Morning” and “I Love You” over and over.

If you had told me we’d be without power for six and a half days I wouldn’t have believed you. And I certainly didn’t think I could go that long in the Houston heat. The cool front was a blessing, but it still wore very thin. Once the power came on and the initial rush of joy passed I began to sag quite a bit. I’m still very tired and this load off my mind has allowed the fatigue to come to the surface.

Yes, I shaved the “Ike Beard.” That was my agreement with the universe.

Cynthia Surveys The Skies

Flash Fun

Last May I wrote about The PRESSlite VerteXâ„¢ over on the Technology Bytes web site. At the time I wrote the article the actual device was not available, but I was very interested and was anxious to get my hands on one.

The VerteX is unique light modifier that has the ability to give you a greater level of control over the light flow from your swivel-head flash.

Well, today I have an actual sample of the device in hand thanks to the generosity of the folks at Presslite. And what amazing timing? What with the new flash and all….

It’s pretty slick. It basically fits on the end of a swivel flash and by adjusting two versatile little panels you can easily and quickly diffuse or redirect light in a variety of ways.

These are some sample shots that my co-worker Luis was kind enough to let me take.

This is full flash

As expected, the subject is brightly illuminated, perhaps even harshly so. But check out what happens when I move the VereX into place and use the white panels to diffuse and bounce the light onto the subject

Far less harsh but maybe no bright enough. One quick flip and I diffuse 50% of the flash and project the other 50 using the mirror side

You start to see the possibilities. The VerteX lets you use your flash in a number of ways that can really let you fine tune how you light your subject. By taking the above and just fine tuning the angles a bit more this was the final result

I don’t claim to be a skilled user of flash in my photography, but I like the results.

Check out the Presslite Web site for 3D demos of all of the devices capabilities. They offer some really interesting demos and some real life applications for the VerteX.

Tim The Enchanter

So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth.

In other words, welcome to the Galleria!

Mistah Jay

This guy is VERY skittish and he doesn’t tend to hang around for very long.

Fortunately his call is loud and quite distinctive so when he is in the yard, you know it. I just happned to have the camera ready when I heard him this evening and was able to fire off a few shots before he dashed off.

Through the kitchen window with the SAL-135F18Z. Not too shabby.

Illuminati

The HVL-F58AM arrived today in the mail. Normally, I don’t like shooting with a flash but if I am to progress to the next level in my photography I need to explore it as an option.

My biggest pet peeve about flash photography is that images shot straight on with the built in flash or even an add-on flash unit tend to look terrible. Obviously, if you know what you are doing, you can get good results but I am not in danger of actually knowing what I am doing.

Satyr, who was instrumental in my development of available light photography, recently gave me the heads up on the new flash unit from Sony to compliment their line of dSLR cameras. I checked out the early press releases and determined that this might be the flash unit for me.

What struck me the most was the versatility of how this flash can be shaped to allow for bounce as well as proper illumination even when shooting in portrait mode. Check out this video

The flash unit just came out this month and due to a promotion from the Sony Style web site I was able to purchase one at a significant discount.

This thing is AMAZING! Out of the box and mounted on my camera, full on automatic and this is the result:

Dohsung

Great color, smart white balance. SWEEEEET!

Even better, with the Sony Alpha 700 it can be used right out of the box as a wireless flash. This shot was taken with the flash unit sitting to the left of the subject (Luis):

Luis

Again, full auto. Good color, nice contrast due to the light coming in from the side.

Of course the wireless aspect opens up a whole new dimension for shooting with a flash. A dimension of dramatic possibilities…

Mr. Evil

I have a lot to learn, but I am encouraged by such good and fun results minutes out of the box.