Strawberry Splash - High Speed Photography with simple gear

f/8, ISO 100, shutter speed: 2 seconds (click the picture to see it larger)

I recently came across some of Pascal Bovet's images on Flickr and found that he'd linked a lot of his stuff to his website with many of his behind the scenes tricks - and of course I had to try this one out!

Initially I set everything up as he described with one light on my background and one light for the scene pointing down from above (see setup image below).

The basic idea is that you typically hit a ceiling with your flash sync speed somewhere around 1/250 sec. which is fast enough to capture many things, but...not fast enough to capture others.

One way of getting around this is to leave your shutter open longer in a dark environment and trigger your lights manually. A flash burst from your speedlight is a lot faster than 1/250 sec. Using my Nikon SB-24 to light the glass and the strawberry, for example, at 1/16th power gives me a flash duration of around 1/11000th of a second!

Getting to Know Your Own Modifiers

Preamble....

For a small number of you, this post might be very insightful and you may even feel so motivated to carry out the same experiment. For the vast majority though...I realize it might be a bit of a slog, so don't worry...I completely understand - but be sure to tune in next week when we get into making great, crisp images of fresh strawberries splashing into a wine glass full of water and freezing the action at high speed.

Since I first got my first umbrella some 6 months ago and my second umbrella, softbox and reflector set a couple months ago I've been meaning to get to know them a little better. What's the difference in light quality, what's the difference in catch light, how much light am I losing/gaining using one vs. the other¿?

I finally decided it was time to find out. I did a whole pile of test, which were by no means completely comprehensive or overly scientific, but I did manage to find the answers to some of my own questions and feel better equipped to handle different situations as a result.

Where Inspiration Comes From

Cristy giving an inspired impromptu concert in the street

The best thing that can happen to a person is to become inspired. There's just no replacement for that feeling of curiosity and excitement we sometimes feel when we've experienced something great that we just can't wait to try out ourselves! And within the rich world of photography there is PLENTY to motivate and push us to want to do new things.

I really love the Strobist community that David Hobby has created. The knowledge is all out there and you're encouraged to learn and participate - the only real stipulation is...don't be a dick....

Lisa Bettany is also an encouraging source of inspiration. Part of the great thing about her (besides the fact that she's a fellow Canadian) is that you can see her whole journey from not that long ago when she was using a lot of the gear I have now and was already producing some really great work fairly early on in the game. She's gone on to get some pretty great gigs and now takes spectacular images, so...it is possible!

Sunday Funny!

...because it's more fun to be a clown sometimes....

The Business of Photography

Setup info for putting together this shot below (composite of 3 photos)

I must admit the business end of photography does seem a bit daunting. Luckily there are tons of resources online to help with that side of things....

Evoled Green Lighting Solutions and redLetter

redLetter - 128 Cumberland Street, Toronto

Evoled QP70 (image by me, of course)

After doing a small job for Evoled Green Lighting Solutions I did a little a little bit of research into the situation concerning our standards and changing laws in North America regarding light bulbs. By 2012 we're supposed to have done away entirely with incandescent bulbs and the current trend is in favour of those curly fluorescents (CFLs) containing mercury, which emit UV rays. There's a lot of debate as to how safe those bulbs really are and many are already complaining of skin conditions. But don't believe me...I don't know any more about this stuff than the next guy - do a quick google search or check out the links on the Evoled website and form your own opinions....

Happy Birthday!

Self portrait (click image to view larger)

Last week was my birthday - and what better way to celebrate than to pull out a nice, fat Cohiba and start tugging away in a vintage suit with a terrible trailer trash handlebar moustache?!

The problem is...I'm not much of a smoker, so by the time we finished up and got the image we were after...I was admittedly feeling (and likely looking) a little green.

Gels: Turn Your Kitchen into a Portrait Studio! ...and a little DIY....

The amazingly beautiful Cristy

Even more Cristy

Honl Gel System and a super easy DIY Speedstrap: