Female Mantis - D700, 85mm PC, f/6 @ 1/320

I was experimenting with some off camera flash today and this female mantis was very, very patient…here’s the setup:

D700, 85mm PC with polarizing filter (on a tripod), PocketWizard MiniTT1 with SU800  (on camera). SB900 (on light-stand) with LumiQuest Softbox and a piece of polarizing film over the flash-head, triggered with PocketWizard FlexTT5. So what’s extra piece of polarizing film over the flash head for? It allows me to dial out any glare on the subject caused by the flash by adjusting the polarizing filter on the camera. Trust me…IT WORKS. You may need to do some test shots adjusting the filter on the camera an 1/8 of a turn each time and checking the results on the LCD to get rid of all the glare or just a little.

Here’s a 100% view of the mantis head in the first image:

Female Mantis - 100% View

Here’s another shot of the same very, very patient female mantis using the same flash setup:

Female Mantis 2 - D700, 85mm PC, f/11 @ 1/40

Female Mantis 2 - 100% View

Floating in Pink - D700, 70-200mm

We took a trip last week to visit my niece and see their new home. I always look forward to taking some photos of my great niece and nephew. While we were there we took a trip one afternoon to the local town beach. Hard to loose my great niece in the water with that pink float, guess what color her new room is…PINK is the word for everything. We had a great visit and got some good family shots. Here’s my great niece mugging for the camera…notice the pink polish on the nails.

Lilly Giggles - D700, 70-200

1000 Cranes - D700, 24-70mm

We went to Virginia last week to help some friends with their daughter’s wedding. It was held at a private house and the bride folded 1000 oragami cranes. Now I’ve done a fair bit of oragami in my day but I don’t think I could make a 1000 cranes.

The 1000 crane story goes:

“Folding a crane takes time, patience, and understanding. These same qualities are vital for a marriage to last and thrive. This is why the symbology of 1,000 hand-folded cranes decorating a wedding is so powerful.”

Well anyone folding 1000 cranes will get a few photos out of me, here’s another shot of some of the show.

1000 Cranes No.2 - D700, 24-70

and one final shot of the party by candle light…

Candlelight Party - D700, 24-70

Jingles Jerr Spurs - D700, 70-200

I know, it says “Cowboy Portraits – Part 2″ and the lead image is a boot…not just any boot. This is Jingles Jerr’s boot and spur, see the attachments on the spur, yes, they do jingle…you pretty much know where Jingle’s is most of the time. He was very gracious to take some time to let me get a boot and spur image.

More portraits in the complete post here…including Jingles.

Jingles Jerr - D700, 70-200

Click on images to view larger..

Coroner - D700, 70-200

There wasn’t a lot of time to take these images, the guys were shooting different stages and getting lunch between stages. Not to mention it was 87 degrees and fairly humid…doesn’t sound all that warm but trust me it felt a lot warmer than that. I had to have the lights set up and ready to go whenever the guys had some time for me…

Letort Lawman - D700, 70-200

I’m pretty sure “Letort Lawman” could get a job as an extra in western films if they were making any in the area…can’t recall any western’s shot in central PA lately…

Letort Lawman 2 - D700, 70-200

I’m voting “Letort Lawman” best model of the day…great poses!!!

Letort Lawman & Sargent Hochbauer - D700, 70-200

Morgan James - D700, 70-200

Morgan James, could be mistaken for Tuscarora Slim’s brother…at least that’s how I see it…

Sargent Hochbauer - D700, 70-200

I’ve been wanting to work on my portrait skills more lately and I got an opportunity to go to a local Cowboy Action Shooting group’s shoot this Saturday. Well the light was not the greatest, a good time to refine some lighting techniques to say the least…I tried to keep it real simple, two off camera flashes, one through a Lastolite Ezbox and the other through a translucent umbrella. I used the Ezbox as the main light and the umbrella as a fill. Positioned my subjects in some shade, or as much shade as I could find, underexposed the background by 2 stops and lit my subjects to taste.

Here’s a few more from the day’s shoot…more to come as I decide on how to process each one…

Click on images for a larger view…

Letort Lawman - D700, 70-200

Tuscarora Slim - D700, 70-200

Cherokee Jon Slaughter - Totally Rad, After

I was reading some good posts on Tony Sweet and John Barclay’s blogs on using the Photoshop plug-in Dirty Pictures by Totally Rad. Well I’m always looking for good plug-ins and adding textures to images really appeals to me. Sooooo of course I went out to the Totally Rad site and took a look. Liked what I saw so I sprung for the plug-in. The image is from a session I did with a local Cowboy Action Shooting group and it seemed like Dirty Pictures was just what it needed… What do you think??? I’m liking the textured image a lot more…

Cherokee Jon Slaughter - Before Totally Rad

Here’s the image of Cherokee Jon Slaughter before he got the Dirty Pictures Totally Rad treatment. Click on images to view larger.

Sea of Yellow - D700, Lensbaby Composer

Shot this at home with some window light and an off camera flash using my Lensbaby Composer. Did some additional work in PS using Nik Color Efex 3.0 and added some fractalius filter to just the one flower.

The long range weather forecast actually had a 50 degree temperature listed on it…sure hope it wasn’t a typo.

Cherokee John Slaughter - Detailed

Just saw a really neat technique posted on Scott Kelby’s blog by his Guest Blog Wednesday person. It’s by Calvin Hollywood a Photoshop Artist located in Heidelberg, Germany. Calvin does some nice stuff and showed a technique he uses to add detail to his images, no he didn’t use any Topaz plug-ins, though you might be able to get the same or similar look using Topaz. His technique just uses PS, blend modes and the surface blur filter…I’m not going to repeat his info. Just go to the posting “It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Calvin Hollywood” at Scot Kelby’s blog and view the video in the posting.

Click on the image in my posting to see it larger and check out Calvin’s neat technique…see you can do all this stuff without plug-ins or you can get some Topaz…

Sorry John, for making you look like a mean character but this image was screaming for this effect.

Letort Lawman and Lady

Some more images from the “Mid Winter’s Ball” photo-shoot, couples this time…all fine folks.

Professor Tinker and Saddie Silks

Sgt. Hochbauer and Dances With Toe Shoes

Jingles Jerr and Bonnie B Good

Some of the images work better in sepia but some of them really need color…as you can see in the “Jingles Jerr & Bonnie B Good ” image. Just wouldn’t be the same in sepia now would it.

No, that’s not their real names…it’s their alias/handle they use in the cowboy action shooting group.

Click on the smaller image to view larger.

Missy - D700, 70-200 f/2.8 @ f/11

Here’s another shot from the Mid Winter’s Ball shoot…this is Missy striking a pose. Did some post production work on this one using Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Silver Efex Pro.

Click on the image to view larger…