Interwar Postcard

  

Athena and Golem Zeus: Today in Herstory, by and © Michael Zara.

A recent Strobist post involved how to shoot a person who’s not too keen on “having my picture taken,” and discussed the use of a shoot-through umbrella combined with on-axis fill flash. So, after dinner Saturday, we tried out some lighting ratios in a loose and, uh, eccentric atmosphere.

This is lit from about 45° camera left and high, using a Canon Speedlite 580EXII with a shoot-through umbrella. I added some fill on the right side using the 580EX on-camera (but off-axis to the right, camera vertical) with the Omnibounce, dropped 2 stops.

   
Jackson’s View, by and © monkeytime.

After reading Mark Alberhasky’s post on not missing great shots because of either waiting for the greater shots just around the bend or putting off shooting until one has one’s best gear in hand, I made sure to have my beat-up Canon SD450 charged and in my bag before leaving today for the office. (H/T to Imaging Insider.) Lucky that I did, because the skies over Santa Monica were damn near photogenic at quittin’ time. This view from my colleague Jackson’s window was made with the SD450 on full Auto mode.

Get my good side!, by and © monkeytime

Over at Strobist, David Hobby cuts through the non-essential numbers (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) and focuses on the core of balancing ambient light and flash. 

Lloyd, above: I dropped the ambient two stops and shot on flash, ungelled. Nyahhhh!

   

Ranier from Maury (HDR), by and © monkeytime.

Last Thanksgiving, I visited the Seattle area, staying on Maury Island (Vashon Island) in the Puget Sound with friends whose house had the back-porch view of Mount Ranier seen in this image. I shot this at about 5:15 p.m. The foreground was in deep shadow, while the mountain was still in relatively bright sun. (more…)

 

Telegraph Hill and Tower, by and © monkeytime.

The 5D kit did not lend itself well to traipsing around San Francisco this month – or maybe I just didn’t lend myself well to carrying the load. At times I wished I had only my little Powershot, but, then, there would have been shots I couldn’t have gotten, like this one. I shot this just a few minutes short of Noon, against significant glare, which was compounded by shooting through an office building window. (more…)