Kaufman Halloween photo opp... Come on out for FREE photos!

If you are in the Kaufman area and haven't made plans for your trick-or-treating adventure, come get a free fun photo at the First Baptist Church Fall Festival from 5:30-7:30 p.m.  I had to miss last year, but this has always been a fun event.

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.

Quick Pics - Costumes

My church hosts an annual "Fall Festival" event as a safe, indoor environment with lots of games, candy, food, games, candy, fun, and candy.

Did I mention the candy?

I volunteered to do a photo booth... surprise!

Since I don't get to try new lighting styles often enough, this was the perfect opportunity.

Karl came to assist, which was awesome, because we had a great turnout. With over 130 subjects (590 photos) in two hours, it was a workout.

The lighting idea was an edgy sort of look. The lighting was an Alien Bee B800 in a 48" Octabox above and directly in front of the subjects, and one AB 1600 on each side about 3' behind the subjects with their standard reflectors.

I used black foamcore as flags to keep the light off of the background.

The results... a lot of fun that worked for almost every costume. Not so great for group shots, but the big soft box was very forgiving in the front to make the shots workable, as with the Scooby Doo gang...

The results...

The Spiderman franchise seems to be doing well.. there were several varieties, but you can't go wrong with these sneakers...


Mario was there in search of his princess..


And there were lots of princesses to choose from... Pink hair takes the cake though.


Cute as a bug was never so true... bug babies were everywhere!




There was quite a large contingent of Jedi types... along with a few from the dark side. Inevitably, there was conflict.


Home-made Palace Guard outfit was cool... with the hat he was about 6' tall.


It was definitely a super-hero hot spot...


I'm thinking this wasn't a costume so much as just an excuse to get the skateboard out...


Cheerleading was popular..


Bewitching witches aplenty..


Animals from the wild...


and the not so wild.


Humor may change as we get older, but whoopie cushion humor is funny no matter your age...


Some parents got clever in the costume department.


And one was just fun to watch walk around...



I hope everyone had a fun and safe evening...

Happy shooting everyone.

Don J.