FBC Fall Festival Quick Pics

It is Halloween again, and once again it was time to play with some lighting tricks in the photo booth. Events like this, where hundreds of people are filing through, provide great opportunities to try new things with real pressure. ( last year's results)

For 2010 I decided to get a ringlight, which I had not used before. Dallas Camera's Alien Bees AB800 was out of commission so I got upgraded a Profoto Acute 1200 ringlight setup. Very cool, although I really need to spend more time with a ring to play with ratios and such.

First things first.... as you might expect, in a poorly lit room (big pupils) the ringlight is a red-eye monster. I should have expected that. Other than that (and needing more experience with it) it was a lot of fun.

The rim/separation light is two gridded Elinchrom bxri500 monolights.

Here are some pics

One of my favorites... a very sad clown


Buzz and Woody


There were lots of witches, but this one had a great expression and eyes for the costume.


The Profoto ringlight is light and nimble enough to pull it off of the tripod from time to time.. like when kids are crawling around on the ground... fun stuff.


There is no place like home...




There were lots of Star Wars folks, but this guy is intense. And he has cool light sabers.

Have a good week out there,

Don J.

Weekend backyard fun

Although there were storms around on Friday night, the weekend was beautiful in our neck of the woods. The lovely wife is the green-thumb of the household, so she was having fun in the back yard. I took pictures.

It just happened that as the sun went behind the trees, the light got really good. If you don't know already, the hour around sunset is called the 'Golden Hour' or the 'Magic Hour' for a reason.

These shots were all taken with the Canon 5D and a 50mm f1.4.

Watering the plants... looks better with nice light...


Wash out the background with the bright sky? No problemo.


And when she starts to get a bit tired of the paparazzi treatment...


I took the opportunity to play with the Kenko extension tubes that were a birthday present last year. These all use the 20mm 'mid-size' tube, still with the 50mm.

Details, details


Plants


Flowers


Bugs



Using extension tubes is a great way to get some macro shots without breaking the bank for macro lenses. As with anything else, the light really makes it, so even these shots were helped by the nice evening light.


Have a great week everyone... make the time to play with your toys!

Don J.