Daily random pictures you have taken...

Just today I was thinking about how I tend to get stuck in a groove and photograph it until I have completely lost interest. Last night my girlfriend and I were talking about trying to visit every state park in Texas and it hit me that I should just photograph Texas. It will provide me a wide variety of subjects, motivation to explore things I would otherwise ignore and inspire me to get to better know my state in an attempt to capture it. When you think about where you live, there are distinct things that characterize it: wild life, landscapes, people, events, cityscapes, industries, etc. In the next two months I will probably shoot at an Audubon preserve, a cycling race in a small towns downtown, the motor sports ranch, at least one live music event, and maybe the Forth Worth Stockyards. That's just some quick off the cuff ideas based on plans I already had. I think I can probably shoot Texas forever and not run out of nouns to photograph.

 

Sounds like a good plan. I do believe you need to switch up every now and then, I've been shooting cars for years and I just need some new subjects. I've been looking through some of the shots people are getting using strobe lights and it's just incredible work.

 

today, BTS
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Very nice, though I'm not a fan of the tats. What kind of lighting do you use?

 

profoto 1200ws mono light. i am not a fan of the tats either

 

They seem very out of place on her.

I just picked up one of these to get me started in lighting. I've seen some incredible stuff from the Profotos, but they're a bit out of my price range.

http://www.paulcbuff.com/x1600.php

 

Do you guys prefer flash to softbox lighting?

 

I've never fired a strobe other than an old Vivitar 285 that gave me plenty of headaches and I sold after a couple weeks. But, from my limited knowledge I believe you can do both with the flash inside the softbox. Or did you mean flash (580EX, SB800) vs strobe (like the link I posted)?

 

Usually flash is a bare head. Strobes (studio lights) get a softbox. Two very different results. Light modifiers have so many different effects, they each have their place.

Here is natural light. The ink is very pronounced now.
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I was shooting cars yesterday.

It is reeeealllllyyyyy difficult to get good shots of cars passing you with +250 km/h at a distance of 1.5-15 meters

 

Really what I mean is constant lighting as opposed to momentary (flash, however diffused).

I understand flash for action, but am curious what it buys in the studio environment.

Shot this with two soft boxes and two umbrellas, with CFL bulbs.

 

And this was a standard floor lamp laid on its side.

 

Regular hotlights have a very "spill" effect, in otherwords, not sharp hilights. Hot lights are meant to fill an area evenly. Think of the lightbulb as having diffusion built in.

 

But can't you gain the same effect by not diffusing a point source light (eg LED)?

I'd guess generally speedlights and strobes are more intense because they throw all their power into brief discharges.

 

I just always assumed that continuous lights would draw a lot more energy than a strobe simply because of the amount of time they are on. Plus they must get a lot hotter and there is almost no portability.

 

This is what I'm just completely blown away by. One single strobe and they get these results, you may need to join the site to see the images, if you haven't already and it's a fantastic photo forum.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=969584

 

Guys, links have been sent to you via PM

 

Tried something new for the new moon on Friday night.
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Blissful road

"Bliss" is not just a wallpaper found in Windows XP thru Win7, it truly exists. Took these today while out and about.

Pic 1
Latitude:38.63725880858182°
Longitude:-121.10317468643188°

Pic 2
Latitude:38.6279227°
Longitude:-121.0858317°
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Brilliant :d

 

Awesome, I've always wanted to try that as well...my uncle takes a bunch of those and I love the look of them!

What were your settings?

PS. saw the British Airlines plane again!

 

The best advice is to aim for the northern star and then try out different ISO and shuttertimes (bulb).

I try to limit my shots in series. Its better to shoot 10 pics a 3 minutes rather than 1 pic on 30 minutes.

And dobit when there is no moon in sight. The moon create too much light. Akso dont aim at the moon, it moves as well.

 

The best advice is to aim for the northern star and then try out different ISO and shuttertimes (bulb).

I try to limit my shots in series. Its better to shoot 10 pics a 3 minutes rather than 1 pic on 30 minutes

 

You're pretty close, it looks like the hill now has vines growing on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_(image)

 

Thanks Tim. I'll check them out when I'm off my work computer.

Right, but LED's use relatively low power, produce less heat, can be made in precise colors (including white), and are very durable (I've broken a few CFL bulbs moving lights during shoots. Love getting that mercury everywhere). I'm probably going to replace most of my lights with LEDs sooner or later. I can't readily find any in standard e26 sockets that match the output of my eiko 500 watt lamps, but really I don't need 10,000 lumens per bulb.