Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 30mm, 100iso, f/7.1, 1/50th

I had two hours free in the middle of the day and I was coming up blank on the drawing boards. After going to work and getting home at close to 11pm I knew I had to shoot something. Knowing that I only had one backdrop paper at my house and that I used it a couple days ago for a shoot I decided to shoot against a red wall in one of the rooms in my house.

One of my reasons for doing a photo each day was to experiment with light and learn the effects of light placements and modification. Not wanting to set up anything too complex, I set up the camera on a tripod (1), hung a Sunpak 555 (4) with small diffuser from above using a magic arm and super clamp, a White Lightning X1600 (3) from behind with small reflector aimed towards the camera, and used a large umbrella (2) on the ground in front as a reflector to bounce some light back up.

Shot with iPhone 4

Shot with iPhone 4

I took about 12 photos total in this shoot. Making adjustments and getting the settings was pretty quick and then it was just a matter of figuring out where to stand. Because the main light source was coming from above, as I stood closer to the camera less light would be hitting the front of my face, which is why I used the umbrella for a little bounce. Its always good to get some gaffers tape and mark a spot, although at the time I couldn’t remember where my gaffers was. Here are a couple other shots.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 30mm, 100iso, f/7.1, 1/50th

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 30mm, 100iso, f/7.1, 1/50th

Minor adjustments in Lightroom and those where the final images!

I’m always looking for assistants, models, ideas for shoots and requests. Just post a comment, email me, or send me a message on twitter.

Thanks for looking!

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 24mm, 100iso, f/13, 1/100th

Sometimes on my lunch break I go home and prepare for a zombie attack. I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about killing zombies….but I do know about a little thing called INTIMIDATION. I don’t know many zombies that are willing to challenge me when I’m looking like this….

I had a full day planned out and the only block of time that I really had free was my lunch break. I figured that since I had to clean up from the last shoot I would move my equipment into the location for the next one. Since I only had a hour I decided to shoot another portrait in my house. I walked around my house looking for locations and it came down to either the kitchen or the garage. I decided on the garage because of the space and I figured it would take to long to set up the kitchen scene, although I do plan on doing a cooking photoshoot.

First thing I did was choose to shoot at the workbench/tool area. It was the most complete looking thing in my garage and provided good framing (the workbench and tools on the wall don’t extend past the crop of these photos. I then set up the camera and took some test photos to get a general idea for what it was going to look like.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 24mm, 100iso, f/13, 1/100th

Once the camera was in place (1) I began setting up lights. I had a White Lightning X1600 (2) shot into an umbrella to the left of the camera, another White Lightning X1600 (4) hung from the right of the camera and behind the model, and a Sunpak 555 (3) hung to the left of the camera and behind the model.

Shot with iPhone 4

Shot with iPhone 4

First test shot…quick grab something and put it on your face!

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 24mm, 100iso, f/13, 1/100th

The lights and camera were in place after some adjusting and I had taken some test photos to get it right. The only thing left to do was take some photos. I grabbed an old dust covered snorkeling mask, two power drills, a safety mask, and went to town.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 24mm, 100iso, f/13, 1/100th

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24-70mm @ 24mm, 100iso, f/13, 1/100th

The final images came after a small crop and some minor adjustments to levels, saturation and contrast.

I’m always looking for assistants, models, ideas for shoots and requests. Just post a comment, email me, or send me a message on twitter.

Thanks for looking!

5/23/10 -  Irvine, CA – UC Irvine Fencing team member Alex Helmintoller poses for a portrait.

When the 2010 UCI Photolympics were happening I knew that I definitely wanted to enter the max amount of photos in the portraits category. I like shooting athletes and I wanted to do something unique. Luckily Alex from my dorm was on the fencing team at UCI and was willing to help me out with my photoshoot. He brought all his gear and we headed out late one night to shoot these photos. I also wanted to get a female subject wearing the outfit just to see what it would look like, so Jaclyn Wang also accompanied us on the shoot. The photos of Alex and Jaclyn both turned out great, but I could only select one to submit so I went with the one of Alex. Below is the shot of Jaclyn, along with a shot of our crew for the night.

I used my blue backdrop since it was the only one I had, and just setup a little studio in the living room of my dorm. The shots for her project were done pretty quick, but we spent hours after just taking photos for fun. The rest of the photos can be seen here.