PBPhoto

I had wanted for a long time to bring along my silver reflector on a sunny day outing.  Just wanted to experiment with having the sun behind or at some angle to the subject and using the reflector to direct that light as the main light source.

Some great things about reflectors verses strobes are:
1)  They fold up into about a 10" square.
2)  They weigh less than a pound.
3)  They give a light source size that is similar to an umbrella.  Which means soft light-to-shadow transitions that are great for portraits.
4)  No batteries required.
5)  No radio interference.
6)  They weigh less than a pound.
7)  They fold up into about a 10" square.

A little repetitive but man it sure is true.  So it does come with some downsides.  My daughter thinks it is fun to play on for one.

And it turns out that a huge ball of nuclear fusion is no easier to look at when it is reflected into the eyes.  I think this picture is hilarious.  The squinting and covering of the eyes is classic.  I think that I've read that the way to do it is have the subject close their eyes and then open them on command at the moment you take the shot.

So I found myself directing that sunlight everywhere.  Cool shot into a rotten old log.  So if you don't want to spend the money on a bunch of lighting gear, just go to Wal-Mart and pic up an autoshade.  Give it a shot.

Be blessed.

My friend Kevin has a blog http://kevinkeigley.wordpress.com/.

He apparently has a problem with creepy dolls.  Not sure what that means but I still love him.  So anyway he was asking for submissions of said creepy dolls so this is what I came up with.  Just in time for Halloween.  Note that I have his blog up in the computer screen in the background.

The lighting is a snooted 285HV for the key light and a bare, red-gelled 540EZ behind and below for the red accent.

Here's my most recent family portrait session.  I had a great time with them.  What a great little family with the new (ok not so new) baby.  We met at the beach with about 45 minutes until sunset with another 30 minutes of twilight.  First we tried to take advantage of the direct sunset light up on the boardwalk.  I tried as many different light schemes as I could come up with.  We used the sun as direct light.  We tried using it for backlight as you can see in the following photos.  Awesome how the hair just blows out and you get nice soft light for the face.  I've been trying to do more of this these days. 

We used the sun for side lighting.  This has got to be one of my favorites of the entire section.  As a Daddy, I can relate so much to this shot.  I talk about capturing interactions later on and this is exactly what I'm talking about.

And for a silhouette.


Weights And Wind

Then we even broke out the flash and umbrella.  The wind was blowing hard.  Earlier that day, while sitting in my office, I remembered the two times that my light stand had taken a fall because of the wind.  I knew I needed sandbags but I didn't have any and even if I wanted to buy some (I don't because that costs money and costs even more money if it is "made for photography") there was no time for them to be delivered.  So I'm looking around my office . . . I see my old A3 bag from the Air Force.  It acts as our scuba bag and has masks, snorkels, fins, and WEIGHT BELTS!  So back to the beach.  I set up the stand with flash and open the umbrella.  The only way this works is with the umbrella pointing into the wind.  Otherwise I would be asking some of you from California to ship it back to me.  Just latch the weight belt and drape it over the legs of the tripod.  Works great.

Only drawback is that once it is set, it is not trivial to reposition it because of the wind and the weight so it was easier to move the subjects around in the light.

Interaction
I shoot a lot of pictures in hopes that I capture some moment that stands out.  Little interactions between parent and child.  I caught a few of those here along with the photo at the top and the one of Daddy kissing baby.

Had a few opportunities tonight to shoot.  I noticed the evening sun coming through the boys' bedroom window and I decided to grab the umbrella and balance with the sun.  So I was in the process of doing that when I hear from the master bathroom "Come look at Maggie, she has funny ears".  That lead to this natural light photo.  We have a big window at the bathtub that I have frosted and it makes a great light source. 


So back to the boys' room and another natural light shot here with the sun filtering through the bunk bed beams.