Random update

I haven't been spending much time with my camera lately.  Lots of things competing for my attention and I have been busy in other things.

During and after my recent portrait session I realized how little I know about posing a model and how I need to learn more techniques.  My lighting techniques have proved pretty effective and improving my posing should really help my portrait quality.

Instead of taking photos, among other things, I've been reading a lot more.  Both for a technical writing class I'm undertaking as well as  photography techniques.  I've also been reading up on body language, and what a fascinating, complex subject it is.  Hopefully having a better understanding of body language will help with my portrait photography.  It certainly explains why some photos have a stronger attraction or emotive response than others.

I certainly have every intention of picking up my camera again but also plan on continuing my (mixed) reading as it all adds into who I am and also into my photography.

Portrait photo examples

I promised I would post some examples from my recent portrait session and after a longer delay than I intended, I am fulfilling that promise.

All photos were taken with a SB-600 on a stand with a Lastolite softbox and a 42" white reflector.  The lens I was using was my 60mm Micro-Nikkor (effective 90mm on my D100).  The model was a very talented, young lady called Laney.  She is a natural in front of the camera which belies her young age and she has a very classic look, reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood.

Portrait session

I had a great photo session this weekend with a wonderful, young, talented model called Laney.  Despite her young age, she's a natural in front of the camera.

The photo session also gave me the perfect opportunity to try out my new Lastolite softbox.  And I can report that it worked wonderfully - and the extra features of the Joe McNally special edition are great extras.  One speedlite firing into a softbox and a white reflector for fill can produce some wonderful lighting.  So much so, I never did use the umbrella I also had with me and stuck with the softbox/reflector combo.

Now comes the next stage in the photo session where I go through all the photos and carryout preliminary editing to remove any dust spots and weed out any where the focus was slightly off. Once this is done, I'll be burning copies to a DVD for Laney and her family.

Once this is done, I will post some examples here and on my website, so stay tuned.

New gear

My recent birthday brought me some more new photo gear, thank you Lisa!  I now have a Lastolite softbox for use with my SB-600 flash for better portrait lighting.  

Now I just need to break out my camera, dust it off and practice with my new umbrellas and softbox to get used to how they modify the light in portraits and still-life shoots.

The new year has lots of potential to further my photography...I just wonder where it will lead.  I'll keep you informed via this blog and will also try to have some new photos posted here soon.

December update

Still a little quiet on the photography front but I did have the chance to work on my recent group portrait photo.  Fired up my printer and after doing some maintenance work (head clean/tank change) ran off a couple of prints so I can mount and frame the best one.

I did consider getting out and about this morning for a sunrise photo opportunity but it turned out to be a pretty flat and overcast sunrise.  Instead I think I'll look to trying out my new Lastolite 40in shoot-through umbrellas (thanks Santa!).

Quick update

Not a lot happening on the photography side of things right now. I did take
a few family group portraits over Thanksgiving but not much else.

One thing I did finally do though was sign up for Adobe's Creative Cloud.
Now for a monthly subscription I have all the latest versions of Adobe's
software - Photoshop and Lightroom being my main interest. Of course this
means that I have to do a crash course on getting to know the new versions.


This and "normal life" stuff has been keeping my attention lately. Add in
the upcoming holidays and finding gifts for family (on both sides of the
Atlantic) and I'm finding my time vanishes quicker than I would like. At
least I do have a couple of weeks time off coming up soon, so I plan on
getting in plenty of photography in that time.

Another good day of learning

I had a pretty productive day yesterday and learnt a few new things to boot, which is never a bad thing.

The day started off with my decision to do some photo reconnaissance at Turkey Mountain in Tulsa.  I've been wanting to locate some higher elevation viewpoints of the Tulsa metro area as there are some promising potential photos to be taken.  

Once at Turkey Mountain I decided to leave my tripod in the car and took the monopod instead (so glad I did this) to save weight.  Also, the supplied carry strap on the tripod doesn't work too well as it is top heavy so keeps flipping itself upside-down.  And, as I later discovered, a monopod makes a pretty useful hiking pole to aid traversing broken terrain.

However, I did find at the end of the day, my Lowepro Stealth Reporter bag is not very suitable for hiking over several miles of trails.  My shoulders are not very happy today...then again, have a few aches and pains in other places too!  Suffice to say I will be investigating a back pack for future trips here....and I fully plan on returning.

Okay, back to the trails and views.  I picked the "yellow" trail as it followed along the line of the Arkansas River and had the higher potential of good views over Tulsa.  Unfortunately as it turned out, the views were a little disappointing in a photographic sense.  There were few spots where there was uninterrupted views of the (interesting) Tulsa skyline(s).  Even the Autumnal trees with the lesser foliage did a good job of blocking things.  Don't get me wrong, the trail was very enjoyable, just not what I was looking for.

My best opportunity came at approximately the mid-way point on the trail, when I got to the "spider" part, where the "pink" trail passed close by and there was a view of the Tulsa downtown area:

Admittedly, in this recon photo, the sky is pretty boring and I will need to zoom/crop quite a bit to concentrate on the downtown skyline but it certainly has potential.  Should look much better with a great sunrise/sunset lighting the buildings and skyline...just need to be here at the right time to catch either.  Although, I'm leaning more towards a sunrise as I'm not so sure I fancy navigating the trail back down to the parking lot in the light of dusk (or later) - definitely need a good headlamp to light your way so as to not lose the trail and/or injure yourself.

Here is a zoomed/cropped recon photo to give a better idea of how things would look:

Again, a pretty flat and boring sky - not helped with this being taken in the early afternoon but then again, this is just a recon to find viewpoints to revisit at a later date when the light is better.

My only real "keeper" photograph of my visit is this one of the trail itself.  I spotted this tree that had grown around a huge boulder just to the side of the trail and the autumnal leaves just added to the scene:

All in all I had a great time at Turkey Mountain and fully intend to visit again.  I want to learn the trails better (recon them for photo viewpoints/vistas) as well as be there under more favorable lighting conditions to capture better photos of Tulsa.