Friday, May 28, 2010

SSBR Workshops- Denver & Seattle

Just announced! Small Strobes, Big Results DENVER: July 31, 2010 & SEATTLE: Aug 19, 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

My Chives Are Open


About this time every year, I look forward to the chives in my garden opening. This morning, as I walked around my pond with my morning coffee, I noticed that a beautiful clump of chives had opened. For the first time in several days, the wind has stopped and the morning light was perfect for some photography.

When I shoot flowers and the sun is perhaps a bit harsher than I'd like, I pull out a 5 in 1 diffusion panel. I place the panel as close to my subject as possible, too far away provides only shade. I want the panel to be the light source, the closer you move the panel to your subject the more of a light source the panel becomes.

Here is a quick set up photo of the diffusion panel in place. When I travel on business or vacation, I will always include a diffusion panel in my bag.

I have a Mentor Series Trek coming up this July. I'll be leading a trek to Newport Rhode Island, July 23-25th. I understand their are a few more space available, if your interested in joining me you can find more information HERE. I will also be in Maine at the Maine Media Workshops teaching a lighting workshop called "Lite & Compact Small Strobes on Location" Sept. 12-18th. More information regarding this workshop can be found at their web site.

Don't forget to check out my new web site, let me know what you think. DT

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

New Web Site

A couple of week ago, I signed up for a trial account at a web site company called Squarespace. If you've ever listened to the Podcast "LightSource Photography" hosted by Bill Crawford and Ed Hidden, you'll be familiar with this company. Squarespace is a regular sponsors of the Podcast.

I haven't up dated my web site in years, mostly because it required having my web master (my wife, Debbie) to handle those changes. She has her own clients and I always felt as though I was taking her time away from her clients. I was looking for a web hosting and web development company that I could easily manage myself and one that wasn't going to break the bank.

I really like the all the options available at Squarespace, I'm able to incorporate my web site, photo galleriers and blog all at one site. They have seamless blog importing from Blogger, WordPress and other blog platforms. For those of you that have an iPhone, they now have an iPhone application allowing you to check your site, post to your blog, and see your traffic while your on the road! Another pretty nice feature are the Social Intergration widgets they have, allowing you to aggregate data from across your various social networks completely within the Squarespace invironment.

It's nice to have a web site that I can update as often as I wish without feeling that I'm imposing on my wife's time. Squarespace has several price packages that fits every pocket book. I chose the Pro lever for about $200 per year, it allows several up grades that a basic package does not. I've looked around a bit at different services and I felt that Squarespace offered the most for the price. Check them out.

I also like the fact that I have a blog incorporated right into my new site, I'll continue using Blogger for the time being as it seamlessly imports directly into my Squarespace site. I hope you'll take a few moments to visit my new site, look at some new images and perhaps also check out Squarespace for yourself. DT

Nikonian Lighting Workshop

I always love visiting San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. I was actually born and raised in California, Southern CA to be exact. I've spent a lot of time in the Bay Area, it is always a treat to visit.

I conducted a Nikonian Lighting Workshop there recently, a Nikonian workshop is very similar to a SSBR workshop. The workshop is designed for just Nikon users, hence the name Nikonians. In these workshops we use the Nikon CLS method to fire our strobes remotely, rather than Pocket Wizards. On the second day of the workshop, we had a wonderful model to photography by the name Sujan. She came to us via Model Mayhem.

The workshop was held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Union City, just south of Oakland. This photograph of Sujan was made in one of the large conference rooms located on the hotel property. I used two Nikon SB-800's for this shot. The key light was a 43" Westcott umbrella used in the shoot through position. The second light was placed in the rear of the room and shot through a decorative wood lattice which created a nice pattern on the back wall of the room.

I photographed Sujan using my 80-200 f/2.8, lens was set to about 140mm and the aperture was f/2.8. I set my ISO to 800 and my shutter speed was 1/100. I was collecting a bit of ambient coming through a set of windows at the right side of the room. In the photo below you can see the set up.

You can see that a reflector was used in front and below the model just below the frame, in order to bounce light back into Sujan to open the shadows as well as provide an extra catch light in her eyes. I the photo below you can see the background light, which I might add, had a full CTO over the flash head to add warmth.

If your interested in learning more about using your shoe mounted strobes off camera, and creating studio quality light on location, join me at a workshop. I have several venues coming up you might be interested in. I'll be in Maine at the Maine Media Workshops teaching a week long location lighting workshop in September. Maine is a wonderful location and there still are a few spaces available. For more information about that workshop, visit the Maine Media Workshops website.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Dallas PPA - Thanks

This past Tuesday I was the guest speaker at the May meeting of the Dallas chapter of the PPA (Professional Photographers Association) I wanted to extend a special thanks Elena Hernandez for the invitation to Dallas.

What a treat it is to meet the many friends I've made via this blog face to face. We had a packed house, I'd say about 100 or so crammed into the hotel conference room. Thanks so much for making me feel so welcomed. I look forward to my next visit to the Dallas area. DT

I have several up coming workshops I thought I'd mention to you. I'll be teaching in Vienna and London for PhotoPress Productions, for more information regarding these workshops click HERE.

I'll also be in the North East teaching at the Maine Media Workshops in Sept. A full week of loction lighting Lite & Compact using small strobes. More info HERE.

I also have two Mentor Series Treks later this year. Newport Rhode Island & Egypt