After spending many evenings and tens of hours matting my photos and putting them into frames there are two things that make the job easier.  First, is a rocket blower to remove any fine particles from the edges of the frame and the more important tool is your glass cleaner.  The glass cleaner of choice in my household is from Olathe Glass in Olathe, Kansas.

Before I go revealing the brand and all that I’ll tell you about the shot.  I set this up with one strobe, a 285HV set on 1/4th power.  I used a homemade, straw gridded snoot to make the spotlight.  I had a hard time deciding on what background to use.  After trying the fireplace and look around what props I had laying around I decided to make the shot simple by using my kitchen table with the simulated oak pattern.  I wanted to build the tension so I shot on the dark side of the product first to hide the brand, then I switched camera position and moved the label side.  To find out the brand you may have to enlarge the photo and you will certainly have to scroll past the rest of my photo information.  By the way Olathe Glass, thank you for distributing a fine product, in my humble opinion the best glass cleaner in all of Olathe!

Photo info:

Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 40 mm
Exposure: 0.00
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Strobist, single flash

Flickr link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_reynolds/3876193933/

Starting with the photo shoot and ending with the Magazine production this video has everything in between.  I loved seeing a pro setup shop!  This will definitely get your attention

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

I wouldn’t say I’m a rock star photographer who major photography manufactures send tons of stuff to review.  Instead I’m more of an opinionated brat who whines about really bad shams and raves about awesome deals.  I like my equipment page, because I receive questions about the gear I use and now I can send a link with a quick blurb on how I feel about that item.  If the reader is so inclined he can click on the link to buy it.  Major things I try to send to Amazon.com for the best prices (I am an affiliate), but if it’s not on Amazon I’ll gladly point someone to a web site without receiving an affiliate reward.

With that said, I don’t want to turn this blog into a book review site either.  I use Amazon to store my reviews and gladly receive feedback from other users on my reviews, too.  After clicking below you can read my insane amount of reviews.  That’s a joke.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UADJ4MDPH9V0/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Long story short.  If I like the product I’ll write about it.  If it’s really bad I’ll write about.  If it’s mediocre, I’ll use it and you may never know.

One last thing… here’s the setup of the shot above.  I like having the flashes down low so the paper builds texture.  On quick point of clarification, this was taken outside while I watched my kids play ball in the back yard!

That’s a 285HV laying flat on the ground to the right at 1/4 power and a 550EX to the right on a stand.  All fired with my Cactus v4 triggers.

When I get to write about a YouTube miracle and take a picture of the celebrity I feel like a major paparazzi photog.  If you haven’t heard of Bill Leff not to worry, you’ll remember him when you see his video from the police officer’s dash cam as his plane bounces over him to land on the highway.  He’s one of the few pilots I know to achieve widespread Internet fame, and it’s the first thing that announcers point out at any air show.  Bill’s T-6 “Texan” has logged more than 4,000 hours of flight time and Bill has logged more than 20,000 hours of total time. 

One huge benefit of air shows is the bright light and hand holding the camera for every shot.  You’ll notice my air show photos have the propellers almost always frozen… next time I’ll slow the shutter down and try panning a few of the shots to show more motion in the photos.

Photo Info:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/5000 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
Exposure: +1.15
ISO Speed: 320
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

Come on you know you want to see his video…

Many thanks go out to fellow photographer, Bryan, for allowing me to tag along to the Kansas City Aviation Show.  He managed to score some free tickets and knowing just where to station ourselves for the best fly-bys.  Down at the Kansas City Aviation Expo the Lima Lima Flight Team gave a wonderful show and the shutter clicked at just the right moment. Next year I'd love to get their autographs on this shot!

Looks like they have a web site with their schedule: http://www.limalima.com

My Flickr link below will lead you to more detailed shot info.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_reynolds/3850562057/

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I’m a couple days late getting these posted.  Again, these photos were shot with one flash in a shoot through umbrella to the left and a reflective silver umbrella on another flash to the right.  I have a 43” reflector right in the middle while hand holding my Canon 40D right below the reflector.  The background is a 6’x9’ I received from CowboyStudio.

After finally reading the book, When Light Dances, included with my Cactus v4 Triggers I found a great setup that I thought I’d try out.  Ericson Calderon originally submitted this setup and I’m far from an expert but I’ll attempt to show and explain how I made this shot.

First, I cut a piece of aluminum foil and placed it inside the book where the reader has it open.   Maybe I would tape the foil into the book, if it wasn’t anything too special.  Next, I took out my white 43” reflector and set it on the floor.  The lights came next and both were mounted on light stands.  As I attached my lights to their stands I used my Cactus v4 triggers to fire them off without the hampering of so many wires. I’m attaching a quick sketch of exactly where I place the lights and what power settings I had each of them dialed into.

Not everything I shoot turns out perfect the first time.  Here’s my first shot… the model had a great look, but the snooted/grided flash on the right side overshot the foil in the book and didn’t give the proper reflection on the face. 

SIDE NOTE:  I’m still not sure why anyone would call them poverty wizards… they fired every time without a single failure. 

Book Quote: Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

Photograph Information:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 34 mm
Exposure: 0.00
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Strobist

Flickr link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_reynolds/3827619006/

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Here’s the latest mini project, that I’ll be repeating with my youngest tomorrow.  I wanted to do a nice back to school photo to hang on the wall.  Here we started out pretty serious and went downhill rapidly as he’s wearing my shoes in the middle shot. 

Each of the photos was shot with one flash in a shoot through umbrella to the left and a reflective silver umbrella on another flash to the right.  I have a 43” reflector right in the middle while hand holding my Canon 40D right below the reflector.  The background is a 6’x9’ I received yesterday from CowboyStudio.  I paid a whopping $20.21 and so far I think it’s worked out really well, but then again most things seem pretty good on the first day…

Tomorrow, I’ll do another First Day of School project.  See you then!

The new season of Mad Men is about to start and there is a lot of advertising cropping up.  Seeing the details of the photo shoot really gives some perspective of how much $$$ is being thrown into advertising.  I keep thinking it would be nice to have a budget like that!  In any event here’s a video of the poster creation for this season.

Here’s a nice thought… spend time helping other bloggers to make their content better.  That’s what I’m doing this evening.  My first step was to find a good resource to find meaningful blogs to post my meaningful comments.  I started with this link:  http://blog.epicedits.com/2007/11/07/87-great-photography-blogs-and-feeds/

1. http://digital-photography-school.com/night-photography
2. http://photocritic.org/hdr-photography-how-to/
3. http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2009/08/04/highkey-designer-camera-strap-giveaway/#comment-35824
4. http://blogs.photopreneur.com/the-worst-photography-tax-stories
5. http://www.matthewsgibson.com/?p=125
6. http://catchycolors.blogspot.com/
7. http://photodoto.com/capturing-birthday-memories
8. http://www.earthshots.org/2009/08/dolphin-by-paul-hunte
9. http://www.fotohacker.com/2009/01/05/joe-mcnally-explains-his-slow-shutter-grip
10. http://www.goldengod.net/2009/01/13/musings

In all my time living in the small town of Granby, Missouri, I don’t think I took more than a couple dozen photos.  Now, that I live three hours away the shutter clicks go off at a rate of almost 20 a month.  Here’s a shot of the Granby water tower.

Background: This shot was taken around 10AM on August 2nd from with my Canon 40D and the best lens I got, the 17-40MM L.  I only took two shots of the tower and both were equal in presentation.

Favorite Water Quote: 

A man may well bring a horse to the water but he cannot make him drink.
- John Heywood, 1497-1580

Photo Info:
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 40 mm
Exposure: 0.00
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

This photo also appears in my PhotoStream at Flickr.com