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Narihiro Shinjo with the Profoto B1 on location

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After taking the studio images against the black background for the Karate Masters Portrait Project, I asked Shinjo sensei if we could walk down to the beach and get a few location portraits. I unplugged, then packed up the Profoto 7a generator and pro head I’d used in the dojo, and grabbed the new Profoto B1 battery powered head and the beauty dish. Set ambient exposure for the desired background then light up the subject with the flash. On location lighting with a bit of punch 🙂

Whale Watching on Okinawa

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It’s whale watching season in Okinawa. I’m doing some research and taking pics for a future article. Choppy seas, dark skies, and subjects that don’t respond to direction (Excuse me, if you would be so kind as to breach in front of the boat.) make getting decent shots a bit of a lottery. I have one keeper from the first trip, and hopefully I’ll get some more interesting pics over the next few weeks.

Portraits of a Firefighter

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Firefighter Mac dropped by the studio and brought his gear so I could shoot some portraits. The black turnout gear about is for structural fires while the silver suit  is for aviation fires I started shooting on a clean white background and then slowly transformed the studio and lighting to give a more atmospheric look to the images. Lighting – Charcoal background. Small Smoke Machine. Beauty dish powered by Profoto Pro-7a as the main light. Small softbox as low fill. Medium size strip softboxes on both sides adding rimlight (powered by Profoto compacts). A fifth compact aimed at the background. Strobes triggered with PocketWizards. All images shot with the Pentax 645D and the HD PENTAX-D FA645 MACRO 90mmF2.8ED AW S

Profoto B1 Review

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What is it? The Profoto B1 500 AirTTL, a powerful flash you can take on location. It’s like a cordless version of the Profoto D1 monolight.  Power comes from a lithium battery pack. 500Ws makes it approximately 10 times more powerful than a speedlight. Clever electronics allow you to control the output accurately over 9 stops (full to 1/256). The lithium battery gives enough power for 220 full power shots. It’s also capable of operating in TTL mode with certain cameras. Flash duration is also rapid. A Profoto radio trigger is integrated into the head. Accepts Profoto’s light shaping modifiers. Why did you buy one?  Power and a fast recycle time so that on location I can balance ambient light with flash to create both the shot I want, and also capture the moment after. The high capacity of the lithium battery means I’m not going to run out of juice during a standard shoot. As with all Profoto equipment the head is designed around a cylinder approximately 10cm in diameter. This means all my heads from …

Pentax K3 with Pentax smc DA* 55mm 1:1.4 SDM

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Last weekend, while teaching my Fundamentals Workshop, I talked about the advantages of a fast prime lens for portraits. I often recommend the f1.8 or f1.4 50mm lenses to Nikon and Canon shooters. Pentax has the 55mm 1.4 which is one of their pro-grade DA* lenses. Fantastic quality, and priced as such at US$799. I used the K3 with the 55mm on the second day of the class as we explored the Yomitan area, and the combination produces a bright clear viewfinder with the ability to get a lovely shallow depth of field and nice bokeh. In many ways the results are similar to my 645D with the 90mm macro lens. Not the same resolution (however 24 MP is more than enough for most applications), but it is from a smaller, lighter, cheaper package. I often hear new photographers chatting about wanting to upgrade to 35mm full frame, with the notion that they can’t produce professional shots (either artistically or commercially) with an APS sensor camera. The reality is that APS sensor cameras can give …

Cherry Blossom Viewing in Okinawa

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The cherry trees are blossoming in Okinawa. Soft pink petals dot the mountainsides of northern Okinawa, and line the roads up Mt. Yaedake. As in mainland Japan, hanami (flower viewing) is extremely popular during their brief bloom. On weekends things can get a little busy, and it may seem like half the island is trying to snap pictures of the flowers. Probably best to go up on a weekday, but be quick or you’ll find the petals have already cascaded to the ground. A big thank you to Yuki for modeling, and allowing me to get some beautiful hanami shots to add to my portfolio.

HD PENTAX-DA 55-300 mm F4-5.8ED WR

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While in Tokyo I though I’d test out the new telephoto zoom that Pentax has lent me for a few weeks. It’s got an impressive range from 55-300mm, HD coatings on the lens elements and a sturdy weather-proof construction. It’s also reasonably priced, it’s available from Amazon.com for around 400 dollars. As my flight back to Okinawa was from Narita Airport, I decided to take the subway from Shinjuku to Ueno, then switch to the Keisei Skyliner express train. Right next to the Keisei Ueno Station is the entrance to Ueno Zoo, and as I’d never been before, I thought I’d drop by for a couple of hours.  The zoo offered plenty of opportunities to utilize the telephoto zoom. I also tried out using burst mode, working on the theory that the shots in the middle of the burst are often sharper. The relatively small maximum aperture of f5.8 when shooting at 300mm was offset by increasing the ISO to 800 so that shutter speeds were kept fast. Ueno Zoo is Japan’s oldest zoo, and in many …

Pentax K3 in the Studio

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Four studio portraits taken with the new Pentax K3 digital SLR camera. Very pleased with the results this little camera can achieve. Alongside the Pentax K3, I used my medium format digital 645D. Although the K3 could not match the level of detail you get from 645D’s 40 megapixel sensor it produced fantastic images. When looking at the entire shoot in Lightroom the best pics were those in which the lighting or pose were just right rather than those coming from one particular camera. When you consider that the Pentax K-3 on Amazon is a fraction of the price of the 645D this is even more impressive. Like the 645D, the K3 now has dual SD lots. This is fantastic. I’m a huge fan of redundancy (insert Thatcher joke here), and being able to save the data to both cards gives me that extra level of security I want when working with a client. There are a few differences in the layout of the camera compared to its predecessor the K5. Pentaxians will have to refer to the …