Jo Ann and My New Lighthing Set-up

Tonight I got to practice with my new lighting set-up that came yesterday from B&H. I'm still trying to learn what I'm doing right or wrong. If you have any suggestions, let know....

My test subject was my friend Jo Ann.

Jo Ann, thanks for being a great subject and willing to try all different poses and being patient with me when I was adjusting "things."

My favorite standing on a stool and look down shot...love Jo Ann's eyes in this one:

I Got My Lighthing Goods! Woo Hoo!

I'm officially a "strobist" girl! LOL! I got my lighting goods today from B&H!

With Mike's help I officially fired the first test shots tonight with my new SB800s! Yee ha!

I still don't know what I'm doing but, heck, who does the first time you do something? Well, I guess I could read all of the books and articles I want but nothing beats just opening everything up, having someone help you set everything, and just "doing."

Yes, I'm one of those people... "directions? what are directions?"

Sometimes it makes life harder but that seems to be the only way I learn.... just jump right in and try things out. I don't think it's a bad way to be...sometimes you extend your learning curve a bit but it's fun just testing things and learning as you go.

I still have some more things to get Sunday when I drive into the city to go to B&H in person (and lose myself for hours) but once I get the rest of what I need I should be "good to go" for easy, portable, lighting!

Great suggestion by Mike! Thanks for your help!

Here they are!



Lucas got bored of my lighting excitement very quickly and decided to get up on the couch and take a nap. *LOL*







I know...blurry...darn P&S...shoulda put it on Macro...but you get the idea.


More regarding the lights can be seen HERE and HERE.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

My family Christmas:

What would a photographer be without their camera during the holidays...well it wouldn't be me!

These are my favorites from Christmas day. I shot them with the SB800 flash (mostly) pointed straight at the ceiling. What a great light it creates in the room when you bounce the flash!!


I love this one of my Mom:



My Cousin (he loves to make this face for photos):



My Aunt:



My Aunt & my Cousin (her son):



My Mom and the "gravy" (yeah, we're Italian...we call tomato sauce "gravy"):



My hubby & his Dad:



One of my favorites of the day... My Grandpa who we got to smile/laugh.
The pic of him I took before this one...looked like quite the grumpy gramps.



My Brother-in-law and his Fiancé:



And of course...every year I make the family pose for a group shot (thank goodness for a tripod and a remote shutter release!):



And then when everyone cleared out I asked my husband to let me take a couple of us "since the tripod was already set up!" :D I love that my dog joined in the shot!!

Giving Thanks

Today was Thanksgiving and we were blessed with beautiful weather (66 degrees).

We got together at my mother's house for Turkey dinner. I decided to take my camera (of course) and I also brought along my tripod and new Gary Fong Lightsphere.

I thought it would be nice (especially with the nice weather) to take some portraits of my family (including myself). Everyone was up for the idea so we took them right when I arrived at my mom's.

We found a nice spot outside her house and I set up the tripod, etc and joined the group for photos. The thing that made it very easy was the remote control shutter release. I could get everyone set up through the view finder and then join them with ease and snap the photo.

I made sure I tried to find a little shade but we were limited where we could take the photos where my mom lives. I used the flash (with the lightsphere) like everyone suggested and it worked really well.

We got some great shots and some fun ones too! My sister and her husband didn't arrive until it was dark so they weren't able to join in the pics but I got some nice ones of my grandfather, my aunt, my, my husband and my mom.

Check out a few below:







This was tonemapped in Photomatrix. I wanted to make it look "funky":

Wedding Night

We attended our friends wedding tonight...our friend Joanna took this photo of me and my husband with my Nikon D80. I think it came out really well:



I'll add more shots of the wedding later....

Gotta Shoot Something, Right?

Well...it's dark when I leave work so no pictures on the way home for a while.

That leaves indoor shots as my only option for photography at the moment and I haven't decided to set any indoor macros or still lifes up yet.

Today my only photographic opportunity was when I noticed my Lab Lucas playing tug-o-war with his sleep-over pal for this week (my Mom's dog Emma).

I found it humorous that they were fighthing over a giant Shamu! The Shamu is the size of Emma! LOL!



*Of course, photographically, I wish the coat and Marshalls shopping bag were not in the photo but what can you do on a minutes notice. These were just for fun.

Here's my buddy...love those big brown eyes:



And of course I had to get my hubby greeting Lucas and our cute little houseguest when he got home from work:

Boredom Kicks in....

Got really bored this weekend so I did some self portraits to test the use of my new flash (Nikon SB800) and Manfrotto tripod.

Until I get some more friends and family to volunteer to be my models I guess I will have to settle for myself! LOL! I'm please with the results of the editing of skin, eyes, and use of filters on the shots.

To view the gallery with all of the self portaits I've done click HERE.

Example #1


Example #2