The store started selling giant strawberries before the snow has even melted off the ground. Before we could eat them, I had to claim right to photograph them first. They were just as good as the look.
Strobist info: SB-900 into 60" Impact white shoot through umbrella camera left and above. SB-800 into 45" Impact white shoot through umbrella camera right and above. SB-600 bare pointed at white styrofoam board behind strawberries providing diffuse backlight. Triggered with pop up flash in commander mode setting power out put for two front flashes to full manual 1/1 output.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Close up of Giant Strawberry
Monday, March 8, 2010
Giant Strawberries
The store started selling giant strawberries before the snow has even melted off the ground. Before we could eat them, I had to claim right to photograph them first. They were just as good as the look.
Strobist info: SB-900 into 60" Impact white shoot through umbrella camera left and above. SB-800 into 45" Impact white shoot through umbrella camera right and above. SB-600 bare pointed at white styrofoam board behind strawberries providing diffuse backlight. Triggered with pop up flash in commander mode setting power out put for two front flashes to full manual 1/1 output.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Family Photo for early 2010
Larger size here - farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4402208697_5091a4f2d9_b.jpg
Sabbath morning before church we made this family photo. We planned the previous night on doing it in the morning. We got up extra early to shoot it. I had the video camera out with the intention of recording it but I forgot to turn it on! We shot with it tethered into a laptop and went through several arrangements/poses. Out of about a hundred this was the best with everybody having good smiles etc.
This was shot in our main living room. The camera was about 20 feet away (shooting with the 85 mm really requires some distance). We were about 5 feet in front of the white backdrop. I had the flash in the 60" umbrellas at about 7 1/2' in height angled down at us and across. It was about 7 feet away from us to try and provide consistent light on everyone. I didn't want to go to full 1/1 power output on my SB-900 (because of recycling time) and so to keep it at 1/2 I increased my iso to 320. This allowed me to blow out the background with 2 flashes at about 1/8-1/4 power output and shoot at f/7.1 which resulted in about 3 1/2 ' depth of field (calculated with my handy dandy iPhone DOF calculator). I flipped the focus switch to manual after getting focus and never flipped it back. Fortunately, everything came out alright, but we did move around some and focus could have got off.
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200) [+]
* Aperture: f/7.1 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 320 [+]
Strobist info: SB-900 into 60" Impact reflected umbrella camera left slightly and above. SB-800 and SB-600 behind us and shoot at white satin back drop to overexpose to white (one left one right). Triggered with pop up flash in commander mode.
Adobe Lightroom for initial processing. Adobe Photoshop for layers and curves this and that. Adobe Lightroom for cropping.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A fuzzy baby chick named Coca
A Fuzzy Baby Chick named Coca.
We received our shipment of baby chicks from McMurray's. This is a 1-day old baby chick. This is Danielle's baby chick - named Coca. The chicks were hatched on Saturday afternoon and arrived at the post office in Rochester by noon on Sunday. We made a second trip into town just to pick them up. We transfered them to the little swimming pool we have and dipped their beaks in water and showed them the food. The kids and Becky spent about 2 hours sitting there playing with them! Lots of 'peep peep peep ...' in the air!
Strobist info: SB-900 into Impact 60" reflected umbrella camera left and a bit above. SB-600 into 45" Impact shoot through umbrella camera left and behind chick. SB-800 into Wescott 43" shoot through umbrella camera right and behind chick. Fluorescent light banks left and right (4 foot, 2 bulbs, 40 watts each, 5000k color temp). Triggered with pop up flash on my D80 with commander menu setting power output. 150 watt equivalent CFL bare flood light bulb to right of chick for a bit of orange side light (at - 2 to 3 ev).
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60) [+]
* Aperture: f/4.0 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 160 [+]
Friday, February 19, 2010
Natalie's fuzzy baby chick
We received our shipment of baby chicks from McMurray's. This is a 1-day old baby chick. This is Natalie's baby chick. The chicks were hatched on Saturday afternoon and arrived at the post office in Rochester by noon on Sunday. We made a second trip into town just to pick them up. We transfered them to the little swimming pool we have and dipped their beaks in water and showed them the food. The kids and Becky spent about 2 hours sitting there playing with them! Lots of 'peep peep peep ...' in the air!
Strobist info: SB-900 into Impact 60" reflected umbrella camera left and a bit above. SB-600 into 45" Impact shoot through umbrella camera left and behind chick. SB-800 into Wescott 43" shoot through umbrella camera right and behind chick. Fluorescent light banks left and right (4 foot, 2 bulbs, 40 watts each, 5000k color temp). Triggered with pop up flash on my D80 with commander menu setting power output. 150 watt equivalent CFL bare flood light bulb to right of chick for a bit of orange side light (at - 2 to 3 ev).
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60) [+]
* Aperture: f/4.0 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 160 [+]
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Fuzzy Yellow Baby Chick
Fuzzy Yellow Baby Chick.
We received our shipment of baby chicks from McMurray's. This is a 1-day old baby chick. It is a Buff Orpington. After I took a few photos, this one promptly laid a nice little present on my black cloth! The chicks were hatched on Saturday afternoon and arrived at the post office in Rochester by noon on Sunday. We made a second trip into town just to pick them up. We transfered them to the little swimming pool we have and dipped their beaks in water and showed them the food. The kids and Becky spent about 2 hours sitting there playing with them! Lots of 'peep peep peep ...' in the air!
According to Wikipedia:
The Orpington is a breed of chicken named after the village of Orpington in Kent county England, which was made famous in part by this breed. Belonging to the English class of chickens, it was bred to be an excellent layer with good meat quality. Their large size and soft appearance together with their rich color and gentle contours make them very attractive, and as such its popularity has grown as a show bird rather than a utility breed. Being rather heavy, they are unable to fly,[3] so they work well as backyard birds. Due to their build they do well in very cold climates. The fluff of their feathers allow rain water to penetrate their feathers, so they must be kept out of the rain. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buff_Orpington
Strobist info: SB-900 into Impact 60" reflected umbrella camera left and a bit above. SB-600 into 45" Impact shoot through umbrella camera left and behind chick. SB-800 into Wescott 43" shoot through umbrella camera right and behind chick. Fluorescent light banks left and right (4 foot, 2 bulbs, 40 watts each, 5000k color temp). Triggered with pop up flash on my D80 with commander menu setting power output. 150 watt equivalent CFL bare flood light bulb to right of chick for a bit of orange side light (at - 2 to 3 ev).
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60) [+]
* Aperture: f/4.0 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 160 [+]
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Hole in the Snow
Brent and I went out for a long trek through the snow. Here is an interesting snow formation we found. Any ideas?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Carl and Becky
Before church one Sabbath, Becky and I made a few couple portraits. This is the one we liked best.
Strobist info: SB-900 into 60" reflected Impact umbrella camera slight left and above. SB-800 into white 45" shoot through umbrella behind left. SB-600 into 43" shoot through umbrella behind right. Fluorescent strips left and right for slight rim light.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A Sunny July Morning in Minnesota
A Sunny July Morning in Minnesota.
While it is the end of January when I'm posting this, my thoughts are on days like this. The morning likely was still somewhat crisp and cool at 7:30 am when I took this. The day would get warmer into the high 70s or low 80s.
This is a single image made facing west with the sun to my back. Tonemapped for HDR effect and then massaged in Photoshop.
Remembering My Garden
Remembering my garden. In the midst of winter, when there is snow on the ground, it sure is nice ... to remember my crisp green garden from last summer. taken 6/18/09.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Natalie with new braces and new contacts.
Natlie in the space of 2 days got braces and contacts! Here is the new Natalie! She curled her hair this morning with the help of Becky.
Strobist info: SB-900 into 60" reflected Impact umbrella camera left and above. SB-800 into 45" shoot through umbrella to the left and behind and above for hair light. SB-600 into 43" shoot through umbrella to the right and behind and above for hair light. Two 4 foot fluorescent light banks - one left one right - with 2 40 watt 5000k light bulbs for slight rim light and focusing aid (these contributed just enough to show light spots on her hair and cheeks in a photo without the flashes). Shot tethed into Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 with Adobe Lightroom auto importing. Displayed on the laptop so Natalie could see the photos as we went along.
Brent holding a pan of Cinnamon Rolls
Brent holding a pan of Becky's brown sugar cinnamon rolls ready to be baked. They were fantastic. We had powdered sugar/brown sugar frosting on top of them. We sat in the living room eating them in front of the fire as the sun set casting a purple/pink hue over the snow outside.
Cinnamon Rolls - Large Depth of Field
Becky's brown sugar cinnamon rolls ready to be baked. They were fantastic. We had powdered sugar/brown sugar frosting on top of them. We sat in the living room eating them in front of the fire as the sun set casting a purple/pink hue over the snow outside.
Shot at f/8 for a large depth of field. Compare to the other one I posted shot at f/1.4 for a shallow depth of field.
Cinnamon Rolls - Shallow Depth of Field
Cinnamon Rolls - Shallow Depth of Field.
Here are Becky's brown sugar cinnamon rolls ready to be baked. Shot with an aperture of f/1.4 for shallow depth of field. See my other photo shot at f/8 for a larger depth of field.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
A Snowy Stream Meandering Through Minnesota
A Snowy Stream Meandering Through Minnesota.
While visiting my parents over in Albert Lea, I noticed these exceptionally tall drifts encasing this little stream. A great opportunity to capture that range of exposure with HDR! It was bright and sunny and since I don't have ND filters, I used an aperture of f/32 and ISO to try and achieve a slow enough shutter speed to get some smoothing of the water movements. Exposures of 1/15s, 1/4s, and 1 second used at f/32.
My wife thinks I took the processing too far (when I asked her if I had or not). I promptly replied that that was what I had intended! :-)
The Frosty Tip Tops
This is one of the tallest oak trees around Dad and Mom's place.
The heavy mist of night settled in on the trees and when the sky cleared in the morning there was a wonderful photo opportunity. Too bad I didn't have more time to take advantage of it!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Frosty Trees with Snowbank
This one has more foreground interest than the one I posted yesterday. What do you think?
The heavy mist of night settled in on the trees and when the sky cleared in the morning there was a wonderful photo opportunity. Too bad I didn't have more time to take advantage of it!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Snow and Sun kissed Tree Tops
Heavy frost settled in on the trees over night. There was a dense fog that the sun burned through. This left a deep vibrant blue sky with the sun lighting the tree tops.
Family photo in the snow
We went for a walk under pitch blue skies, with vibrant white snow on Sabbath afternoon to look at a piece of land not far from Dad and Mom's. Dad, Brent, Mom, Carrie, Becky, Danielle and Natalie are pictured.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
A snowy view to the Southwest.
A Snowy view to the Southwest. We've had quite the cold winter with multiple snows. The most recent snow added several more inches.
A Snowy view to the north
A Snowy view to the north. We've had quite the cold winter with multiple snows. The most recent snow added several more inches.
A Snowy View to the South.
A Snowy View to the South. We've had quite the cold winter with multiple snows. The most recent snow added several more inches.
A Snowy View to the East with Natalie petting Angel.
A Snowy View to the East with Natalie petting Angel.
We've had quite the cold winter with multiple snows. The most recent snow added several more inches.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Natalie with Curls
Natalie got a new curling iron and Becky curled her hair before church. While they were finishing curling her hair, I set up my lights for a portrait. Mom and Dad and Ben had come for New Year's Day and stayed over night. For New Year's Day lunch we cooked a turkey and a bunch of other food. Becky made pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. I cooked the turkey, made potatoes with Becky along with realy turkey gravy. Saturday morning I got up about 5:15 and adjusted the fire. It was -16 over night and the house had got a bit cold. I made pancakes, tater rounds in the oven and a big bown of peaches with rasperries from the freezer. Mom cleaned up and did dishes. Thanks Mom for doing dishes on your birthday! We went over to Carrie and Jon's place after church and had a meal there, took a tour of the house Jon built and was just finishing on being sold and then went home.
Strobist info: SB-900 into 45" Impact reflected umbrella camera left up close to her. SB-800 into 43" white satin Wescott shoot through umbrella camera right and behind and up high for hair light. SB-600 into pringles snoot camera left and behind left of her up high for a bit of extra hair light. 4' Fluorescent light box on either side for slight edge/fill light (each with 2 bulbs 40 watts at 5000k). Triggered with pop up flash with IR pass through filter infront. Power levels set in commander menu on D80. 7' tall white styrofoam reflector camera right and in front of camera providing some extra fill on that side.

