Mid Winter’s Ball

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Sam

Cherokee Jon Slaughter - sepia

Tuscarora Slim - sepia

I’ve been wanting to do some character portrait images for a while … a friend does cowboy action shooting and they get together over the summer for the matches. Recently they had their “Mid-Winter’s Ball” at a local restaurant so I offered to shoot some photos of the group if they were interested. Everyone comes dressed in their finest cowboy outfits for the dinner and they looked great. I set up some lights and a backdrop and with a little posing assistance from Penny (one of the group) I had a good time and got some fun shots. These are a few of the images that I have processed…more to come later.

Here are the color versions of the images above…Click on the images to view larger.

Cherokee Jon Slaughter - color

Tuscarora Slim - color

Lensbaby Angel

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Sam

Lensbaby Angel - Soft Focus Optic

Christmas day and I thought I’d have some fun with the tree lights and one of our ornaments. Used the soft focus optic with a star disk from the creative aperture kit. Also used the tele converter and the +4 close up adapter. The right distance from the lights, two off camera flashes with snoots to light the angel and you have the formula for the image. Here’s another one from the session, pretty much the same formula but with a “secret” ingredient added…can’t tell you everything.

Lensbaby Angel 2 - Soft Focus Optic

Lensbaby – Soft Focus Optic

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Sam

Ben - Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic

Here’s a image of my great nephew, Ben, shot with the new Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic. I shot this in available light using an off camera fill-flash with a LumiQuest softbox. This is the first time using the new soft focus optic and I think it will be useful. As always, it will take some time to see what situations will work best with this lens.

The Great Mantis Shoot – Part 3

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Sam

Female Mantis - D700, 70-200mm w/500D

The fascination with bugs continues…now officially called “The Great Mantis Shoot”. Got to shoot them while they are here, could be gone tomorrow. Here are two more shots of the large female. I was snapping away in the breeze and a fly landed on the leaf beside the mantis. Well, with lightning speed she snapped the fly up and began feasting on it. I snapped a few with the fly but not quick enough to get anything in focus or any good. Not that you would want to see a fly being decapitated by a mantis…or would you?

Female Mantis 2 - D700, 70-200mm w/500D

Garden Mantis Part 2

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Sam

Female Mantis - D700, 70-200 w/500D

Walking by the rose bush this morning I spotted this large female mantis. As I was about to get the camera I also spotted two more, males this time. Don’t remember seeing this many at once…

Shot this with my D700 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a Canon 500D close-up lens added. Also use a SB-800 with LumiQuest softbox off camera as a fill light. Pretty good detail in the shot as you can see by this 100% section off the head.

Female Mantis 100% view of head

Lilly Rhys – My Great Niece

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Sam

Lilly Rhys Upside-down - D700, 70-200 f/2.8

We were over at my brother-in-law’s home today and of course I took the camera to shoot some updated family photos. Today’s subject, Lilly Rhys, my great niece. I set up an SB-800, clamped to a tripod, and had one of the well-trained family lighting grips hold a 32″ multi-disc diffuser in front of the flash to make for soft shadows. These were shot on the porch because it was raining. A few adjustments in CS3 and we have updated photos of the family for the fridge.

Lilly Rhys Rightside Up - D700, 70-200 f/2.8

Digit Posing – More Like Napping

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Sam

Digit Napping - D700, 70-200 with 1.4x

Playing around with a off camera fill flash with a LumiQuest softbox. Digit, one of our cats seemed like just the subject. Laying on the chair back with the sun coming in the window behind him. Set the exposure to keep the window from blowing out and filled the shadows from camera left with an SB-800 on a light stand. Also using a LumiQuest softbox to soften the shadows from the flash.

Here’s a few more shots from my photo session with Digit…I took a nap after all this excitement.

Digit Awake - D700, 70-200 with 1.4x

Digit Napping #2 - D700, 70-200 with 1.4x

Orchid – Phragmipedium

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Sam

Orchid, Phragmipedium - D700, 24-78mm f/2.8

At our friends home again, this time something that doesn’t move… Gil had quite a collection of orchids but only one was in bloom at the time. Shot this with my 24-70@70mm with a short extension tube and used an off camera flash (SB-800) with small LumiQuest soft-box. this is a combination of two shots, one at F/2.8 and one at f/11. Combined the two images in CS3, painting in the sharpness from the f/11 image. I knew enough to ask Gil to write the name of the orchid down for me…past experience DOES teach well.

Botanical Illustrations

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Sam

Evening Primrose - D700, 24-70 f/2.8 @ f16

I was reading an article on Niall Benvie’s blog the other day on shooting studio flower images in the field. So I thought I’d give it a try. Got this specimen, Oenothera fruticosa (sundrops, narrow leaf evening primrose) from our garden. This was shot in the studio using his field studio setup. Basically using a translucent background and shooting one flash through it. Another flash was used for the front lighting shot through another translucent reflector. Balancing the light and flash to reflector distance are the main problems. Once you get the setup worked out it should be fairly easy to reproduce in the field. Give it a try…I had a good time with it and will certainly give it a shot in the field.

Here is a link to the article on Niall’s blog:
http://niallbenvie.churchilljohnson.co.uk/blog/?page_id=1197

Sam Gray Photo Blog

I'll be posting my recent images on this blog…

Category Archives: Flash