365/64 Leaves in the wind

Walking back to my car today, I came across this wind-swept pile of oak leaves, splashed upon the concrete. Not sure what prompted me to pull out the iPhone and snap a picture of it. I think it was the long parallel lines of leaves. It stretched another 10-15 feet beyond this on either edge of the photo.

It was certainly nice taking a leisurely walk back to the car after work this afternoon. Nice day. Gray and calm. Save for the five flights of stairs I had to climb because the elevators where dead in the garage. Oh well.

Got my exercise in for the day at least!

365/63 Around the world.

Chilly night out around the fire. Thursday evening fire practice had quite a few spectators this time around. Ran into a local photographer I know. It was good to see him. He's been busy working on his wedding photography business for the last year, so he's been missing in action from some of the local photog groups.

Not much else to say this evening. Busy getting ready for a photoshoot on Saturday that a few of us have been cooking up for a few weeks. We'll see how well it goes. For now, I sleep. Well, sleep soon.

365/62 It's all fun and games ...

Feeling particularly uninspired Wednesday evening. So, an iPhone arms-length self portrait it is!

365/61 Fancy a game of quidditch?

"Part of being sane, is being a little bit crazy."

Janet Long

I was called insane tonight because of this photo. I can't help it that I wanted to fly around like a stripe-socked bint. Had the broom, could've had the hat.

Three lights going on here: two snooted SB-800's, one behind me aimed at the background, one in front of me to camera right aimed at the broom's straw sweep. SB-900 in a collapsed umbrella to camera left providing the key.

Harkening back to the post yesterday, I'm bloody tired still, so this is all I could muster in a short half-hour time period. Hope you enjoy! And remember, that may not be an airplane on the radar ... that might be me. So don't shoot.

365/60 Dead Tired

"God help me. I'm so tired. I need my sleep. I make no bones about it. I need eight hours a day, and at least ten at night ..."

Bill Hicks

Long day with an early start. By the end of the day, I want nothing more to do than to fall into bed and sleep until I'm ready to wake. Not one moment more, not one moment less.

It's days like this that I dread on this project because, invariably, I get to my last give waking minutes and remember that I have yet to shoot something. And then, I scramble around the house looking for something to do, but it can only expend enough energy to keep me from actually waking up.

So, tonight, I flopped on the bed, dropped the camera into place, and let it snap a few photos for me while I napped. Worked out great.

365/59 Sinister

I've always been a bit fascinated by some of the hand-held speedlight photos I've seen done by Joe McNally. Tonight, I stumbled across another that he did where he was holding two very close to the sides of his head. His photo was done in broad daylight, though. I didn't have any of that, so I ran with it in my own way. I took a series of photos, moving the speedlights farther and farther out, starting at about 4 inches from my head.

I like how it turned out. Very sinister looking. I think, if I had to do it differently, I would reposition the lights by 90 degrees, so the long edge of the flash was going along the edge of my face instead of across the side of my head.

Though, one thing's for sure: next time I do this, I'm going to set the lights up on stands instead of hand-holding. It'd be much easier to manage taking the photos this way. Who knew?

365/58 Ambient Light

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

Edith Wharton

We had a birthday party for a friend yesterday. It was an evening of awesome food, awesome friends, and awesome discussions. We wanted the house to be nice and subdued, so we filled each room with tea lights and killed all the lamps in the place. We had these candles arranged on the coffee table in the living room. Couldn't help but notice the glow it was putting out. There were a few shots where the reflection of the flames on the table paralleled the line of waxy containers, but I liked how this photo turned out.