OneLight Seminar DVD
4.4.2010  |   Add comment   |   No comments  |  Permalink
I got a chance to check out the double DVD called OneLight Seminar DVD and had an urge to come and write you about it.

Zack Arias is Atlanta based strobist that can be categorized as David Hobby-type of photographer. His seminar covers use of strobes in such a way that only one strobe is used in his photography either bare, with umbrella or beautiful Wescott Apollo 50" softbox.

The package includes two DVDs, both are two-hours in length. In the first DVD he tells you a lot about basics of light and gear. The latter disc contains video of him working with his clients. Zack talks a lot during the photo shoots and explains you why he does things the way he does.

The first disc didn't quite have too much of new information for me. Perhaps the inverse square law thing was new to me and he explained it really well so that even I could understand it.

Second disc, as I mentioned earlier, shows client work. I really liked this one as you got a feeling you where right there in action with him. Perhaps the funniest things were his team being kicked out by security twice in a row in different locations. They were shooting on private property without permits.

In addition impromptu photo shoot of party people sowing up at a parking lot was neat to see as well. Zack's face after photographed girl yelled "Oh my god I look so good on that picture" was just priceless.

All in all I really liked the videos, even though it didn't contain much of new stuff I didn't learn from Strobist's blog and other sources on the internet. The most value in this seminar was to see a pro working with his clients.

Zack Arias - OneLight Seminar DVD


It's a beautiful world
14.1.2010  |   Add comment   |   No comments  |  Permalink
It's been really quiet for when photography is considered. usually this time of year is quiet in wedding photography and I haven't had the time to promote corporate photography services, so pretty much lately I have been doing family photography with my EOS 400D only.

Few weeks ago we got an idea at work that I should take portraits of our whole team. So today I brought my gear to work and setup my lil'strobe studio at the back of our office.

usually when I browse through fashion magazines where sexy blondes do their poses, I tend to think what the studio looked like outside the frame. In some cases it was top pro studio but for sure others where low-budget warehouses. I am not beautiful and there is no way you can make me one, but as illustrated in this picture, it doesn't matter what the surroundings beyond the frame is, we can have a bautiful picture of this beautiful world.


AG Bouncer in the media
14.10.2009  |   Add comment   |   No comments  |  Permalink
Last night I happened to watch the Star -channel and it had a program about fashion desiger Michael Kors' fashion show in New York. Michael Kors, in case you don't know, is one of the judges in Project Runway show on TV.

So this program on Star showed hectic life of models and designers working on the show and bunch of papparazzis were taking pictures of Michael Kors. During that scene I noticed one of the photographers had AG Bouncer light diffuser attached to his flash. It seemed to be made of the real IKEA material and correct attachment system and all. It was nice to see my creation used by a pro.

The recipy for AG Bouncer is still available at:

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Gary-Fong-Lightsphere


Photographying our gerbils
7.9.2009  |   Add comment   |   No comments  |  Permalink
Two weeks ago we got three girl gerbils for us. At first, everything seemed OK until we noticed one of the girl gerbils was actually a boy. So we had to get a new terrarium for it as well as another boy gerbil as his friend.

Now that the gerbils got used to us, I decided to take some pictures of our new babies. I used external flash and pointed it toward the ceiling and little bit tilted toward the back so tha the flash would not reflect from the glass walls of the terrarium. Also, I didn't want to stress the gerbils with direct flash light.

The gerbils didn't actually get bothered with the flash light or the focusing aid light coming from the flash (which I don't like being pointed at me). The gerbils are very quick to move from place to place, so I rarely managed to get a good picture with single shot, unless they were monitoring what's going on, as if guarding their nest.

Pictures of our gerbils


Thoughts about flash light modifiers
18.8.2009  |   Add comment   |   No comments  |  Permalink
Recently I have noticed, that I use less and less light modifiers on my flash. Only color correction gels are the most frequent in use, but otherwise I tend to leave out the Stofens or my DIY lightsphere thingies. I have started to use the flash light more in the bounce fashion, where I direct the flash to a wall or ceiling that would create most attractive and natural looking light. In one forum, I learned a trick where the user turn the flash 180 degreen into her back and little upwords without any light modifiers. I put this trick into test and it turned out really good. I like the results of pictures taken this way if the walls and ceiling are white.

If the walls and ceiling are dark brown colored, the ofcourse you cannot bounce the light. In these cases I use the Stofen cup on my flash and have it pointing little upwords, creating softer light that in-your-face approach.


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