Photographing Another Wedding

I had another opportunity to photograph a wedding at my church.  It was an evening wedding.  Simple and casual was the theme.  The couple wanted to go the non-traditional route and change it up a bit.  No lighting of the candles, no piano music.  Just a harpist playing beautiful sweet music.

The bride and groom handed out leis and beaded necklaces to their family members before the ceremony

The married couple

Their beautiful cake was vegan

The happy couple!

I had a dilemma trying to decide which lens to use.  I brought my 24-85mm, 60mm micro, and 85mm lens with me.  I ended up using the 24-85mm for 90% of the time and the 60mm for close ups.  I also used my SB-700 flash with diffuser when the lighting became difficult to capture the moment.

While I enjoy photographing weddings at my church, I hope to do some weddings at another venue.  I would enjoy the challenge and change of environment.  We'll see.

Slave Settings for Nikon SB-600 Speedlight

I finally had a chance to take some pictures of my SB-600.  Here's my instructions on how to set the Nikon SB-600 Speedlight as a slave flash.

My SB-600 flash with normal settings:

SB-600 normal display (P7100)

Press the "Zoom" and "-" buttons simultaneously and hold until the CSM setting mode displays.  Then press the "-" or the "+" to get to the wireless connection setting.  This will appear as a squiggly "z" shaped arrow and displays "OFF" by default:  

SB-600 showing wireless communication is Off  (P7100)

Press the "Mode" button once to change from "OFF" to "ON":

SB-600 showing wireless communication is On (P7100)

Press the Power "ON/OFF" button to exit the CSM setting mode.  The display will now show the SB-600 in slave mode with CH set to 3 and Group set to A (default settings):

SB-600 set to slave on Channel 3 and Group A (P7100)

Once my SB-600 is set to slave, the flash will remain powered on and ready to go.  Red LED lights will blink until I take a picture and then continue to blink afterwards.  Also the SB-600 will make a chime sound when I take a picture to let me know that the flash was fired.  Nice!



Here is my new SB-700 Speedlight.  It is set to Master and would be installed on my D7000.  On the lower right, is the On/Off/Slave/Master toggle and button switch.  To set this flash to Master, I press and hold the round button while moving the toggle to Master.  Here's what the display settings look like:

SB-700 set as Master (P7100)

In the above picture, you can see that I've set my Group A flash exposure setting to -1.00 EV and the (M)aster set to 0.0EV.  Group B flash exposure is showing "---" as there are no flashes being used for this group.  Pressing the "SEL" button several times allows me to move between the different fields displayed.  I use the rotating dial (around the OK button) to make my changes.  Once I make the appropriate changes, I just press the "OK" button to accept the changes.  Now I'm ready to take my pictures.

My next adventure will be to use my D7000 DSLR as the commander or master flash and then set my SB-700 as a slave as well as my SB-600.  Stay tuned!

Pictures were taken with my Nikon Coolpix P7100 and Nikon SB-400 flash.

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!

A Type of Hyacinth

Here's an interesting flower I found in our garden.  The Latin name is Camassia.  The common name is Indian Hyacinth or Wild Hyacinth.  This was hidden underneath some tall shrubs and I ended up using my small external flash to bring out the color.  

The flowers were growing at the edge of the garden.  I sometimes hesitate to go beyond that point as I might come across a snake or some other critters that are lurking around.  I prefer to avoid those kinds of surprises.  

My Photog Moment: A Wedding

This afternoon I had a chance to shoot a wedding.  A friend from church got married.  I gifted the pictures as a wedding present.  I'll be back to post my wedding shoot experience.

Can you believe these stilettos?  

The happy couple...Dan and Chain

A "fun" moment with the family

I just knew they had it in them

I've included additional pictures to this post:

Another Gadget in My Bag

I want to take a moment to thank my brother for bringing to my attention a cool toy that I added to my bag a few months ago.  It's an ultraportable laptop by Samsung.  I was able to get this for half price at my local Staples store.  It has an 11.6" matte screen, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD and has chicklet-type keys similar to the Mac Book Pro laptops.   It came with Windows 7 Home Premium edition as well as MS Office 2010 Student edition.  What a deal!

It's not like a "netbook" at all.  It's much more powerful and weighs less than 4 pounds.  It's truly ultraportable!

A built-in SDHC reader is located underneath the front/bottom of the laptop

Two USB ports and an SVGA connection

Power connector, NIC, a third USB port, HDMI connector, and output audio jack

I primarily use this as a travel device for photo editing, posting to my blogs, writing reviews, checking my emails, and doing research on the Internet.  It also has an SDHC reader built into the laptop and I take this with me on photo shoots.

When my brother came to visit me last year, we went window shopping at Staples.  He said the key words..."check this out" and pointed to this laptop.  After a few minutes of playing, I was hooked.  I waited and waited for a few weeks and finally Staples put it on sale.

It is quick to start up and shut down.  I've installed the latest version of PhotoShop Elements and it runs beautifully.  I've been extremely happy with this purchase.  I'm enjoying the portability and light weight feature of this new toy.

To my brother...a big thank you!

Taking Time Out

I haven't taken many pictures this month and February is almost gone.  My D7000 has been idle for most of the month along with my Canon S90 and my Nikon AW100.

Except...I have been using my trusty old iPhone 3GS.  Hubby had an open hernia surgery a week ago.  While we were at the hospital and waiting for pre-op procedures, I was able to capture a photog moment with him wearing a puffy cap on his head.  I had his permission to take the pic of him.  He was probably anxious/antsy before the surgery and we tried to have some fun while we were waiting.

Oh and I did take a picture of my latest work in progress (WIP) oil painting of a beach scene in the Caribbean.  I'm either waiting for it to dry and add a few details or I just might call it finished.  Sometimes...simple is better.

Hubby is slowly recovering and I've been spending a lot of time taking care of him.  Quality time with him.  We've been laughing a lot.  We've been taking slow walks together.  It's probably a good thing I'm taking a break from my many hobbies.  You know, kind of like getting back to the basics of enjoying each other's company.

Painted Tonight...Christmas Candles

A quick painting tonight.  I ended up using 8 brushes to paint this small painting.  

Yellow Ochre wash sketch

Painted in the dark value

Decided to paint the candles next

The finished painting...Christmas Candles

My palette.  The only color I didn't use was the blue...which turned out blah!

Another Painting in Progress...My Second Rose

I'm glad I took a short break from painting.  I was having a problem getting inspired.  My quick sketches and drawings kept me in practice (e.g. learning to look).  I was able to get some rest over this long weekend.  After I dropped my brother off at the airport, I came home to paint.  I thought I was going to paint one of my sketches, but decided at the last minute to paint another rose from one of my photographs.

So, here is my work in progress:

Painted a rough sketch using a thinned yellow ochre wash

Painted the dark value

Painted the mid value

Painted the light value

Painted the details and blended the values

I have to laugh at myself.  At one point during my painting session, I had three brushes and my palette in my left hand.  I ended up getting paint everywhere.  You can see on my canvas paper some mistakes where my brush and my hand got in the way.  Here's the result after 1-1/2 hours of painting:

Second Rose...a work in progress

A Pencil Sketch...Spiderwort Flowers

This evening I had some time to do a quick pencil sketch.  This will eventually be used as a future reference for a painting.

Spiderwort sketch

I figured out a way to take pictures of my artwork with a flash.  I prop up my sketch pad/painting vertically.  I place my Sto-Fen Omni-bounce over my SB-600 flash.  I turn my flash to the back and bounce the flash off the ceiling/wall behind me.  This so far, produces a nice even flash without any shiny highlights on the subject.

Not a Rose-y Day

I've been trying to paint at least 2-3 hours a week...if I'm lucky.  If the week nights are busy, I wait to do the 2-3 hours on the weekend.  That's the goal I've set to become proficient at this new hobby.

Today I allocated some hours to paint...after I was done with teaching a knitting class.  I thought the class was would take 2 to 2-1/2 hours the most.  It went on for 4 hours.  I was a tired puppy.  

It took an hour to put away all the knitting stuff and then collect myself in front of my canvas and arrange the paints, palette knives, and miscellaneous art stuff.  This blank canvas stared back at me:

I've been collecting pictures of stuff to paint (e.g. flowers, blueberries, our beloved beagle, some buildings, etc).  I pulled out a picture of a pink rose and thought it would be an interesting challenge for me.  So, here's my sketch in a thinned yellow ochre wash:

I have to tell you, my heart was not in the mood to paint.  I could tell as I was mixing the colors for the pink rose and then for the green foliage (lack of) and background...I just wasn't happy with the colors.  So, I trudged along and applied the paint to the canvas panel and this was the so-so results of my efforts:  

I decided not to touch the painting anymore and let it sit and dry for the next few days.  Was I trying to tackle a subject that was way over my head?  Not really.  I've done several pencil sketches of roses and other flowers...it's not a new subject for me.  Was it because I was using a cheap canvas panel?  That may have something to do with it...it was from Walmart.  Was I too tired to paint?  Yes!

Lessons learned:  (1) not to use cheap art materials.  I'm using good paint and great brushes.  What was that?  You get what you paid for?  I know, I know.  No more cheapie canvas panels.  (2) Not to attempt too many hobbies in one day.  (3) Stay on target and focus on the hobby (e.g. painting) that I want to work on.

Back to the drawing board....

Three Apples Painting

This evening, I got a chance to sit and paint for a few hours.  I went ahead and finished my apples painting by adding in the shadows and then painting the white paper towel underneath.

Rough sketch (left) and final painting

Three Apples (close up)

I'm going to leave the painting as is and call it "done".  I've been learning that the more I touch something, the more I overwork it.  Simple and less is better.  

Now, I'm off to look for a photo to paint from.  I've only got thousands to look at.  Sigh!

Apples - WIP

In less than two weeks, I'm on my fifth oil painting which is an apple study.  I used titanium white, lemon yellow, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, and yellow ochre.  The three primary colors represent cool colors.

My palette

Used yellow ochre mixed with thinner to create a light wash for my outline

Still a work in progress...to be completed later this week

Two More Paintings on Values and Secondary Colors

Here's my third oil painting called 'Secondary Colors'.  This represents the purple, green, and orange colors that are created by mixing the primary colors (red, yellow, blue).  I then mixed the purple, green, and orange colors to create the background colors.  I also used white to create the lighter colors.  I have to wait a few days for this painting to dry before I can finish it.

'Secondary Colors' painted on a canvas panel

My second painting represents another take on values, but in the color blue.  I used Ultramarine blue and white to create the values.  Before I can finish this painting, I have to wait a few more days for the paint to dry.  

'Values 2' painted on canvas paper

I'm trying to figure out if I should paint the back ground first and let it throughly dry and then paint the objects.  Currently, I'm painting the objects first and then painting the background.  This method makes it harder to paint in between the objects.

As for photography, I didn't realize how hard it is to take pictures of oil paintings.  I have to use my external flash to capture the details, but at the same time I get a lot of shiny spots from the painting.

My New Hobby...Oil Painting

I've been interested in drawing/sketching since Jr High when I took the required art class, but I never pursued a career in the arts.  Let alone an education in that field.  In 2000, I picked up watercolor painting.  I took a local class that got me off to the wrong start.  One, my paintings were miserable looking and two, my instructor wasn't that good.  That was a short lived hobby.  In 2002, I decided to get back into watercolors and took an 8 week course at an Old Town shop.  I studied with a wonderful lady, Karyn, who painted beautiful and lively scenes.  I wanted to paint like her.  My painting skills improved immensely as she introduced me to artist/professional paints and brushes.  That made a huge difference.  I continued painting for another year or so.

Since then, I have taken on additional hobbies like sewing and knitting garments and accessories.  I really enjoyed spending time in my fiber arts.  My short lived painting experiences helped me see a gamut of colors, hues and textures.

Now, I've taken up oil painting.  I looked around for classes, but decided to learn this new hobby on my own.  The money I would have spent for the lessons, was instead used for my new supplies (paints, palette, and brushes).

My first oil painting called 'Values'

After playing around with the oils, I can honestly say that I enjoy it more than watercolors.  I did a wet-on-wet or single layer technique and it only took two hours to complete this painting.  

My painting area.  One of my watercolor paintings is hanging on the wall (upper right)

I got the hang of holding the palette in my hand and didn't feel any fatigue.  It felt natural.  I also managed to hold additional brushes and a paper towel in the same hand.  I do need to get a larger palette once I start painting with additional colors and do more mixing.  

I love my clear acrylic palette

I found this inexpensive table top easel on the Internet.  The easel itself is adjustable to different angles.    It can also hold large size canvases.  For this painting, I used Canvas Paper and taped it to a board.  This is a cheap alternative to canvas.  Once I progress further along...I have canvases waiting for action.

My portable table top easel with a storage drawer

I am using water miscible oils called Artisan from Winsor and Newton.  It supposedly feels like the real oil paints, but I can use soap and water to clean up my tools.  I decided to go this route as I didn't want to deal with irritants and vapors in the house.

Photography is stil my number one hobby.  As you can see, I still end up taking pictures of my other hobbies.