A Wedding Shoot in April

I had an opportunity to shoot a wedding at the end of April.  I used my Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 lens and received wonderful results.  While I zoomed in and out throughout the ceremony and reception, I kept my aperture at f/4.  That is one of the nice features about this lens.

Here are the results of my wedding shoot:

I brought my Nikkor 85mm lens with me and it ended up staying in my bag the whole time.  That's how well my 24-120mm lens performed.

Part of my wedding process is designing and printing my own CDs and DVDs which is part of the wedding package.  I have an Epson Artisan printer that is my workhorse.  I can print my CDs/DVDs and photos on this printer.  It's been a lifesaver for me.

In case some of you are wondering I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and photographing weddings on the side.

Next up...a wedding in May.  This time I'm the guest!  :-)

Senior Portrait Session

Back in the beginning of March, I had an opportunity to do Senior Portraits for a friend's son.  Normally I prefer to do Senior Portraits in the Spring or Summer before the student's senior year.  Sometimes the Fall season works as well for last minute portraits.  March was a bit cold to be taking pictures outside.  Given it was a last minute request, I couldn't turn it down.

We met up at the local train station.  I could tell my friend's son was a bit unsure of the portrait session.  I immediately took charge and started to take pictures of him.  After the first ten shots, my friend's son started to relax in front of the lens and started posing for me.

Here's a sample from the photo shoot:

Her son is not an early morning person, so we agreed to meet in the late afternoon.  I spent two hours with my friend and her son taking his portraits at two different local locations.  I used both my 85mm/f1.8 and 24-120mm/f4 lens.  I used my 85mm for the first hour and literally had to "zoom with my feet" to get the right shot.  I used the 24-120mm lens for the second hour and at the second location.  It was a sunny day and I still used my flash for fill-in shots.

He really got into posing for me.  He was a natural at this and made my job easy and fun.  Moments like this is why I enjoy photography.

Putting My New 50mm to the Test

My new lens was patiently waiting in its box for my new B+W filter to arrive.  When I purchased the lens I thought I had a 58mm filter laying around.  I was wrong.  I'm that kind of person.  I won't touch a lens unless it has a filter.  So the lens and I waited...until this evening.

I took a few shots inside my house in low light.  Here's the results:

I'm enjoying the bokeh

Flower bouquet

A quick portrait shot

I then took a step outside to see what was blooming and found this beauty:

Lily of the Nile

All it took was 30 minutes of my time and I'm hooked on this lens!  This 50mm f/1.8G lens equates to a 75mm lens on my D7000 camera.  I think this will be a fine portrait lens!

Backdrop/Background Support System

Since I tend to be a DIYer with my hobbies, I thought about building my own background/backdrop support system for portrait photography.  After much research, I decided against it.  I'm not handy with electric tools and overall it would have been a lot of work.

My brother sent me a link to Cowboy Studios.  I looked around and saw some pretty good support systems.  I knew the main bars that holds the fabric had to be strong.  I've read where other manufacturer's mid section would sag under the weight of the muslin or paper.  I decided on their 10 foot Premium Heavy Duty System (901).  I searched my favorite site and was able to apply my rewards points.  Another great deal.

Way before purchasing this support system, I had already purchased the fabric.  I was at my local G-Street Fabric store and rummaging through their clearance tables when I found this wonderful fabric:

The fabric is not close to being white, but for my use it will do for now.


Here's the Cowboy Premium Heavy Duty (901) Support System:

Here's where the top bar sits on top of one of the adjustable stands:

The two top bars connected (slide one bar into the other and turn 90 degrees):

The logo on one of the stand's leg:

One of the sturdy stand legs:

The storage bag.  The two outer pockets hold the two stands and the inner holds the 4 support bars:  

The bag zipped up and ready to go:

My temporary studio setup with fabric draped over the bar (only have two support bars put together):

For the first few sample pictures I've taken with a fairly wide open aperture, the creases and wrinkles from the fabric don't show.  I will have to invest in a portable steamer later.

I went with a portable system as I do not have the space to setup a permanent studio.  Setup of this portable background system doesn't take too long to install or take down.  Basically, I setup and open the two stands and adjust for height.  I take two, three or all four bars and connect them.  I move my stands apart to fit the length of two, three, or four bar widths.  I lift the bar and place it on top of the stands.  I place and screw down the wing nuts on the pole/stand.  That's it!

Nikon CLS (Master and Slave)...My First Studio Shot

This evening I was staying out of hubby's way.  He was working on his sermon for tomorrow's service.  I decided to pull out my Nikon flashes and try out the Nikon Creative Flash System or CLS.  I did an informal studio setup.  Nothing elaborate.

I had my SB-600 with a medium size softbox on a tripod.  My new SB-700, attached with my Gary Fong Lightsphere was perched on my camera on another tripod.  I placed the SB-600 (slave) to one side and turned the flash head/softbox up towards the ceiling.  My camera was turned sideways (portrait) and the SB-700 (master) flash head was turned up towards the ceiling as well.  

I had to program my SB-600 as a slave.  Not having any instruction book handy, I just played with a couple buttons.  Okay, not knowing what all the icons and symbols meant...I headed over to my buddy Google.com and found what I needed.  I made the change on my flash to slave and it gave me the default channel 3 and group A.  

I configured my SB-700 to master which entailed holding down a button and turning the flash on to Master on the dial.  That was way too simple.  I tried a test flash with the master flash and noticed my slave wasn't going off.  Hmmmmm.  I remembered the number 3 and the letter A from the slave flash default setting.  I looked at the settings again on the master and noticed it was on channel 1.  A quick change to channel 3 and I was all set.  

It took several shots before I finally got the hang of taking a self portrait using the two flashes.  Here's my first studio test shot.  

BTW, I also used my corded remote control to take the pictures.  All I had to do was plug it into my camera and it was ready to go.  

I'm just having way too much fun!