PBPhoto

Cookies?, originally uploaded by paggre.

This is the beauty of my sweet wife enjoying blogging. She gives me photography work to do. She is my best customer. So here I have tried a trick that I saw somewhere recently. A piece of white poster board with a piece of clear plexiglass over the top. Gives a nice reflection. Also used gels on the background flash to get 2 different colors. The background is actually hunter green. So no gel gave me that and a red gel gives this. Could have made it any color. Used a makeshift reflector. A fedex box that was laying around. Fun stuff.

Strobist: 285HV into silver umbrella at 1/4 power camera left, white fedex box propped up against a mason jar camera right, Sunpak 411 gelled red at 1/8 power for background.

Sunrise Guard Tower, originally uploaded by paggre.

This is my second trip to this guard tower trying to get something that I like. I like this. The first trip I did not bring my lighting rig. So everything was just silhouetted against the sky. Not bad but not what I wanted. I wanted detail in the chair and sand. So any of you expert landscapers help me out. I figure I need a graduated filter to accomplish that.

So I also tried an HDR'ish kind of approach. I took 3 exposures and combined them. Tried 2 approaches to this as well. One was a script for the gimp. The other was tufuse for windows. Tufuse worked the best but still not the look I was after.

So for this I had one bare flash and took a few shots to aim the flash the way I wanted it. Then I just kept the ambient exposure down 1 stop and brought up the flash power until it looked good to me.

Quick Check Under The Hood, originally uploaded by paggre.

Not sure what he was looking for. I think he was trying to see if he could adjust the seat height. Later he had me adjust the height on HIS bike. He still like to get on this tricycle even though he swamps it.

Late afternoon sun here. Added some sharpening with un-sharp mask in the Gimp.

What You Talkin' About?, originally uploaded by paggre.

I get this look a lot these days. Experimenting with the rim light here. I am looking forward to a day when these guys will sit for me so that I can take their picture. These days it is a challenge to try to get a photo at all. Always pinging off the walls. Not a great subject for experimentation.

Sunrise Again, originally uploaded by paggre.

OK. Another shot of the same sunrise. Incorporated the idea suggested that I have more of the bridge and some of the palms in the foreground. The colors are amazing. Thank you Lord. Still, I want to find some more interesting things to put in the foreground. I do not really like the palms or the bridge for that matter but that is where I was so I used it. I should have used said bridge to make my way to the beach.

Landscapes definitely take time. You have to find a good location. Have an interesting sky. Wait for just the right light. I'm not there yet.