A week or two ago, after reading a very helpful blog post by Lisa Bettany (I LOVE her photography; check her website out), I managed to get back into the swing of things; I think it had a lot to do with reading Lisa’s blog, particularly because a while ago she went through a similar issue, where she felt that none of the photos she took were any good (the different being she’s a professional and I’m not ). I got the opportunity to photograph some of my late grandfather’s World War II medals, which let me put some of my practical skills to the test. I made myself a back-lit softbox with a flash behind the medal and a shoot-through umbrella above. Doing some minor post-shot colour tweaks, I got some great looking shots which, I think, do the medals justice.

This past weekend, I got the opportunity to have take some photos of a get-together with a couple high school friends, and the camera came out again. Although a number of my photos didn’t turn out, I was very happy with the results of some others.

Finally on Sunday, I went through my back yard and the back lane, taking photos of the trees in bloom and an old truck in a neighbour’s back yard. Although the photos I had originally intended on taking didn’t turn out nearly as well as I had hoped, other ones worked out nicely.

So, in attempt to get back into the photography (and blogging!) groove, I’ve decided to put up another 45 photos from the past weeks. As always, your comments and constructive criticisms are welcome and encouraged.

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Anyway, this batch of photos is from my first photo shoot, which I did at Level 3 Studios with a bunch of friends. This was a great first experience in a photo shoot scenario, but also very daunting and intimidating. I’d love to do it again, but I might need some more ideas before I go into that.

Because I was rushed, I never had the chance to do any major photo manipulation with these, and I think a fair number of these will look better after some simple changes, such as a grey scale or sepia tone added to them. I’d love to do that to a selection of them and upload them later.

As per usual, I really appreciate your comments. Post a comment below; I read all of them, I promise!

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As per usual, I really appreciate your comments. Post a comment below; I read all of them, I promise!

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I also did a bit of shooting last night in my room with my macro lens of a plant I have. I love some of the colors that came out of the shots, and I included two at the end of the gallery.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free as always to comment below.

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As always, I welcome your comments. Add a comment below!

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My Cactus V2 Flash Triggers

Recently, I bought a set of Cactus V2 remote flash triggers off of a friend for my camera. These allow me to use a flash off-camera, which can give me a number of different lighting effects based upon position and intensity. I’ve been trying them out a lot so I can get a grasp on how to use them, and it’s been an interesting experience. Below I’ve got a few sample photos, as well as some of my learning experiences.

The first photo I ever took with an off-camera flash was of my living room. Needless to say, my first shot was not impressive. It wasn’t even good. Hell, it’s barely worth posting, but it was a step forward. I was learning, and also testing the triggers to make sure they actually worked. If nothing else, I was really interesting at this point with some of the potential effects that I’d be able to do with it.

My first off-camera flash shot. Hardly anything good.

As with anything, practice makes perfect, and despite the rather bland first photo, I stuck with it, trying a number of different effects. I looked around my house for things to photograph that might make for some interesting photos, particularly with some different lighting. An improvement came when I took a photo of a decorative house and Christmas scene that my mom had set up on an antique radio. A bunch of random adjustments and a dozen-or-so photos later, I came up with something that looked decent. Again, definitely not a masterpiece, but a step forward in the right direction.

A small Christmas scene that was set up in our living room.

Eager to try out my new toy at a swing lesson, I decided to try my hand at photographing moving targets. Looking back at the photos, very few of them turned out well at all. Some turned out okay, and two of them are below. A few turned out well, and ended up in this week’s gallery entry, which I hope you’ll check out. I think jumping into the deep end was a little too hard for me; there were far too many variables to juggle, including the flash position, flash power, camera focus and zoom settings, and the position and orientation of the people I was photographing. It was simply too much to handle all in one shot when I’m still learning the basics when it comes to the lighting, and I’m still learning things about my camera. In retrospect, I should have waited a while before bringing them along.

Tiffany at the swing lesson. I think the lighting is much too hard in this.

This I'm a little happier with. It turned out better, and the light isn't as harsh.

But, some of my stuff did turn out well, and they’re in this week’s gallery. Some of those are shot with an off-camera flash; others are not. As far as cost-worth purchases go for aspiring photographers, these flash triggers are the best purchase I’ve made (just surpassing the 50mm EF 1.8/f lens). If you have an external flash, pick yourself up a set of these and a cheap camera tripod; you won’t regret it.

If you’d care to see some of my better photos (ie. this week’s gallery), you can take a look at the Jan. 8/10 gallery here.

I just picked up a new Sigma 70-300mm 4.0-5.6/f telephoto lens for my Canon XTi body, and decided to try it out at swing last night. I’m also starting to use my external flash more now, and it’s taking some getting used to, but I’m liking some of the results so far. Thus, take a look at the gallery or the Dec. 29/09 album for some of the shots that I took. Let me know what you think!

As always, I welcome your feedback; just post a comment below!

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By popular demand of a few of my friends, I’m putting up a small sampling of the photos I’ve taken with it over the past few days. Although I’m still getting used to the lens, I’m really happy with the results so far. You can check out the full album of new photos right here.