Tag Archives: flash

Against The Light

by John Thurston

Against The Light

Looking over my earlier efforts at winter landscapes, I decided that my lighting decisions were too conservative and would never capture the feel of a winter snowscape. In February of 2014, I tried to change that by using more aggressive sun angles and shooting into the light. I didn’t want to go full contre jour because so much of what I find engaging are the textures of the surfaces, and MF3D is superb at capturing textures.

Here, I tried to position the camera so both lenses were shaded by the distant trunk, and positioned a flash on the left. I then waited while the earth turned, and tripped the shutter as the shadow-line reached the camera.

The result is the the best representation I’ve been able to make of a Juneau winter day. The sky isn’t blown out, but is a featureless sea with a floating sun. The trees are more than silhouettes and able to contribute to the story.

Standing Proud

by John Thurston
Standing Proud

Standing Proud

This image has been a while in the making. After reviewing my  attempts at winter landscapes, I went out to try to do some things differently. I loaded a pack, took the first sunny day off work, and headed out to Cowee Creek where I knew I’d have moderate snow, free-standing trees, and a dramatic backdrop lit by the low afternoon sun. The film was exposed in February of 2014, processed by DR5 in May, and mounted in February of 2015.

To try to force the back of foreground tree trunk out of the shadows, I used a couple of Vivitar 285 flashes. One weak one firing forward (and slightly right) from just below the camera, and a stronger one coming from the far left.

While I think my concepts were correct, I fell short in the execution. This was the last roll of the day. It is a tested characteristic of my camera that the shutter timings start to drift at low voltages. By the time this roll was exposed, the batteries in the TL120 were failing in the cold and the right side was under exposed.

Dripping Foliage

by John Thurston
Foliage at Cowee Creek

Foliage at Cowee Creek

While this film was exposed in February of 2014, I only mounted this image recently and Boris’s foliage efforts prompted me to include it in the folio. While it lacks the diversity of color most people associate with “foliage”, I hoped the medium would be able to convey the textures and details I found that day.

I have been generally dissatisfied with the winter landscapes I’ve made, so tried to do this session differently. Rather than try to frame with the sun behind or safely off the lens, I shot into the sun or let it come aggressively in from the side. This is a “from the side” shot with at least one Vivitar 285 providing fill against the natural light. I didn’t make a lighting sketch, but I suspect there was one above the camera and a stronger one firing from the right.

Coney Island Mermaid with Umbrella

by Jim Harp

Scan000084Coney Island Mermaid with Umbrella- Jim Harp

Shot with a TL-120 and a Vivitar 285H fill-flash with plastic diffusor.   The fill flash is an important element in this shot, without it her face would have mostly been in shadow.     The Coney Island Mermaid Parade happens on the first Saturday after the Summer Solstice every year and is a wonderful opportunity to get interesting people shots.   There are plenty of photographers with interesting rigs who attend, but the TL-120 never fails to attract attention.

Self Portrait with Bubble (Bubble Lights 2.4)

by Bob Venezia

Self-Portrait with BubbleOur fearless leader John has suggested we all enter self-portraits. So here you go. A couple years ago I was preparing to have a photo session with my friend (and master bubble blower) Tom Noddy. I wanted to work out the kinks before Tom came over so I experimented. Can’t remember if I had a digital slr at the time but that would have been invaluable. I’m sure I took readings from a flash meter plus I did some tests for DOF with a tape measure running away from the camera. My memory is that the tape measure showed focus on the inch numbers 28 through 32 but the notes on this image indicate a wider range.

This is shot with the TL-120 with Provia 400X, 1/60th of a second at f22. The focus was cranked to the .8 marker. The notes indicate that my face was at 32″, the bubble at 24″. There was a large potato masher style flash aimed at the ceiling and a Vivitar 283 equipped with a lightsphere (yes, I bought one of those silly things). There was black velvet draped behind to limit the depth in the scene. Shot in my dining room.

Cranberry Crush (with crabapples)

by John Thurston

The back of the mount says “TL120”, but it lies. This dates from 2005 and I didn’t have a TL120 until 2006. I found another unmounted image from this same roll and it is obviously from my Rolleidoscop.

The girls are working on crushing Crabapples (which they have just picked off the tree in the yard). They had a recipe for “Cranberry Crush”, and lacking any cranberries, decided to see what they got using local ingredients.

I am working on framing an image, and trying to figure out how to drive the flash. My flash technique is terrible and this marginal success I can attribute only to luck. I have no idea how I managed to get the exposure this close with a Vivitar 285 bounced off the ceiling.

Harris Hawk, Hawkfest

by Matt Neima

 


TL120 with flash

Every year I go to Holiday Beach in the fall, this is near Point Pelee Ontario, the southernmost point in Canada. This is where Lake Huron is the most narrow, so lots of birds and monarchs pass by on their migrations.

This was my first attempt using flash with the TL120. This falconer is standing under a tree, in deep shade, with a beautiful Harris Hawk. These birds are from Central and South America, this is not one of the many raptors that we see migrating here. This picture is from about 2 years ago.

Tornado Bubble #10

by Bob Venezia

Tom Noddy and the Tornado Bubble

Tom Noddy and the Tornado Bubble

In the last loop, I included a shot of my friend Tom Noddy with one of his marvelous bubbles. That was shot with the TL-120 and some bounce flash, but when I tried to figure out the exposure, I made some gross errors. So why did the pictures come out okay? I apparently made a whole bunch more errors in making my settings. Yes, I’m an idiot. But I’m an extremely lucky idiot.

This year I did some test shots before inviting Tom over again. There’s black velvet hung behind, because the DOF is extremely shallow. I think we had sharpness between about 28 and 32 inches. I had several flash units triggered by slaves, mostly bouncing off the ceiling here. (I’ve been reading the strobist blog a lot lately, and trying to learn more about the use of flash.)

To create this, Tom blows a bubble and catches it on the wand. He blows a second bubble below it, filled with smoke, so the smaller smoke bubble is attached and hanging below the clear bubble. Tom sticks a wet straw through the wall of the top bubble and blows gently, so the air is swirling inside. Then he break the membrane between the 2 bubbles, so now the smoke is inside the bubble with the swirling air, and the smoke is still somewhat concentrated. Finally, he opens a  hole in top of the bubble, so the bubble deflates like a balloon, forcing out the swirling smoke. I shot a bunch of these. Every time you shoot one, you watch what it continues to do, and you think, “Dang! It got even better after I fired!”

I like the detail of the swirling smoke, and the saturated colors on the top of the bubble.

Tetrahedron

by Bob Venezia
Tom Noddy and Bubble Tetrahedron

Tom Noddy and Bubble Tetrahedron

One of my best friends is Tom Noddy, aka “the Bubble Guy.” Tom appeared on the Tonight Show back when Johnny Carson was still host, and he travels the world doing his act. I’d always wanted to shoot some of his bubbles, but I had no experience shooting portraits in MF 3d. This is one of the simplest bubbles he makes. He also makes a cube, a dodecahedron, a 6-pointed star, a carousel, etc, etc.

Settings unrecorded. I had help from Don Lopp, who attended the shoot. We draped black velvet behind Tom, had a floor lamp beside him, and I bounced a flash off the ceiling.