Black Bear
In times of need, Bear transforms into “Black Bear” a shadowy force that is more bite than bark. Rather than a phone booth, Bear transforms herself in Photoshop, then charges off into the night.
All posts filed under: Photography
Karate on the Beach
Building up a larger selection of karate photographs for an assignment I’m working on. James agreed to step out of the dojo for some beach training images. (The above sequence is an example of using a fast shutter speed to freeze motion when shooting without flash. I used a reflector to add some light as I was shooting into the sun.)
High Speed Apple
Just made a clever little upgrade to my computer which I thought I’d share. In previous blogs I talked about the joys and pains of my Apple desktop behemoth. These Mac Pro computers are big and powerful, but also surprisingly easy to upgrade. The procedures to install new memory or hard disk drives are pretty much plug and play. I’d upgraded the memory (Photoshop runs faster) and hard disk drives (big photos need lots of room) and things were running fine. My friend Steve (not Jobs) advised me about the next step – a solid-state drive. A solid-state drive (SSD) has several advantages over a standard hard disk drive (HDD). As they have no moving parts, they are more reliable and can access data faster. They’re also silent and run cooler than HDDs. The main drawback is that they are far more expensive per GB of capacity. For those people who are still using desktops that can hold multiple drives there is a fantastic opportunity. You use cheaper, much larger HDDs for storing the data …
High Speed Bear (More Flash Duration Testing)
Some more flash duration testing this time with Bear as the model. When using natural light you can freeze action by using a fast shutter speed. When using a strobe (and low ambient light) you freeze action with the light from the strobe rather than the shutter. The length of the pulse of light that comes out of the strobe is the flash duration. The shorter the flash duration the cleaner the image as you will get less blur. In these shots I threw a dog biscuit with one hand and pressed the shutter with the other. Bear is quite happy to work for food.
Matsubayashi-ryu Toshimitsu Arakaki Dojo
I used the 35mm wide angle for images 3 and 4. It allowed me to be right in amongst the action and have a good depth of field even at a large aperture. This was another instance that I would have struggled to shoot wih film. I had to use ISO 1000 and shoot quite a number of frames to get the images.
Always read the instructions
Photography Workshops in Okinawa
Starting this month I shall be holding some weekend photography workshops on Okinawa. I’ll be starting off with “Photography 101” courses for beginners, and then later will be offering more advanced classes including studio work and night photography. I’ll be teaching most of the courses, but I also intend to bring in specialists in their particular field from mainland Japan. (Light Painter Trevor Williams is already on board as one of the visiting instructors, see his work in action on Japanese News!) So here’s the info on the first class PHOTOGRAPHY 101 Weekend Workshop April 23 & 24 2011 Who is the course for? The beginner or novice photographer who has a digital SLR and wishes to progress beyond the green fully auto mode. People who want to take better photographs of their friends and family rather than point, shoot and hope for the best. What do I need to bring? Your digital SLR camera, lens, your camera manual, memory card, battery and charger. If you have a digital compact rather than a …
Ursula on Grace
A couple of shots of Ursula channeling the spirit of Grace Jones (I am aware that Ms. Jones is not actually dead). It became clear in this shoot why Profoto describe their equipment as light shaping tools. By using a zoom reflector with a grid for the hair light (positioned behind the model) I could shape the light until it created the highlights on the neck and jaw. (Of course you can do this with any lighting brand, Profoto just have the cleverest tagline.)
Meibu-kan Goju-ryu Karate Dojo, Okinawa
Going Wide
Having sold off a few of the lenses I wasn’t using regularly, I just acquired the 35mm wide angle for my 645D. After really regretting not having this lens at the Okayama Hadaka Matsuri it had become a priority purchase. Although not a super wide angle (it’s field of view on the 645D is equivalent to around 27mm on a FF 35mm camera), it does allow you to be quite creative. Normally you don’t use wide angles for fashion or portraits, as they can easily have a House of Mirrors effect on people. Occasionally, however, they can be used to good effect to accentuate a model’s physique. I shot the above image with a new lighting set up, and a Panton chair I got for 75% off on Amazon Japan. More info on the lights in a future blog. Big thanks to Ursula for modeling in this shot.
