This is a gold dipped rose that I bought for my wife before we were married. I actually bought it for Valentine’s Day while we were dating. It is kind of a cool item, and she has had it for quite a while now. I shot it with two Alien Bees 800 with large softboxes.
Today I read page 95 in the Canon 40D manual, AE Lock.
Today we have Kayden! He is who I was practicing for yesterday. The shot turned out pretty similar to the practice shot yesterday with the cabbage patch kid. He was pretty stubborn about going to sleep, but I think we got some cute shots anyway. The shot was lit with two Alien Bees 800 with large softboxes at 45 degrees on camera right and left, with the right one turned down just a bit compared to the left.
Today I read page 74 in the 5D Mark II manual, File Numbering Methods.
Today I am doing a little bit of practice and pre-setup for a shoot I have tomorrow. Last week one of my maternity clients had her little boy, and tomorrow she is bringing him in for his first portraits. I am really excited to do them! I did a portrait similar to this one her (with my actual son, not a doll) when he was born, and I had a beautiful 16×24 canvas printed of it. She said that she really wanted that picture, so tonight I assigned myself the job of practicing to re-create that shot. I think I did a pretty good job of making it look like the original, so I think the results will be good tomorrow. That also means that tomorrow’s shot of the day will be from a paid shoot. On days where I actually get paid to shoot, you can bet that I will be using them for this project! Check back tomorrow to see how close I got to this!
Today I read page 133 in my 5D Mark II manual, Magnified View.
Today I give you a Pepsi can.I shot this trying to think like a commercial photographer would. Trying to keep space for the advertising company to put text and other graphics.the only thing I did do was to stylize the can to be more like a drawing than a photograph. Also the reflection is real. I shot this on a piece of plexi-glass on a white seamless paper background. I used an Alien Bee 800 with large softbox to light it and one more with a 7 inch reflector to light the background.
Today I also read page 137 in the 5D Mark II manual, Playing Movies.
Today Lori made waffles for breakfast. She likes them with strawberries and whipped cream on them, I prefer syrup, but hers look better! This was taken next to my patio doors, and is shot using all natural light.
Today I read page 86 in the 5D Mark II manual, Self-timer Operation.
Today we have a picture of my son Caleb and my wife Lori. We were at my mom’s house tonight and she likes to give the kids baths. Caleb really loves baths now and was being very funny. I caught this sweet moment of Lori and Caleb during his bath. The lighting was just the bathroom light, so it was a good thing I had the 5D MArk II so I could shoot at ISO 1000 with no problem.
Today I read page 141 in the 5D Mark II manual, Protecting Images.
This morning our area had a lot of fog. I knew that there might be something cool to photograph as the sun came up through the fog. this picture is some woods at the end of a field near my house. The fog actually got quite bad this morning. So bad in fact that there was a 31 car pile-up on the highway, and another 7 car pile up about 2 miles south of the first. By some amazing miracle, no one was killed, and only one person remains in serious condition. The highway was closed for over 7 hours while the State Patrol reconstructed the accident, and removed the cars and cleaned up the highway. I actually drove past where the cars were taken and saw some of them. Simply amazing that no one was killed. There were cars flipped over and cars piled on top of each other. Unfortunately, I could not get a picture of the cars. The State Patrol would not let me, but I will never forget seeing 30 cars lined up, and completely mashed.
Today I read page 31 in the 5D Mark II manual, Attaching and Detaching a Lens.
Cookies! Snickerdoodles to be exact. The are probably my favorite cookie of all time. I had to make some tonight for tomorrow, and I thought, why not make it the subject of a photograph. I am really interested in food photography, and would like to learn how to get better at it, but that will come with time. For this shot, I used a large fluorescent ring light I have and lit it from above. Pretty simple set up really.
Today I read page 172 in my 5D Mark II manual, Setting Custom Functions.
Today we have Elmo. This is one of my daughter’s favorite toys, and unfortunately, tonight I didn’t have a lot of time to shoot. Elmo was lit from the front (camera left) with an Alien Bee 800 with large soft box, and with an Alien Bee 800 to the right and behind Elmo with just a 7-inch reflector to create the rim light look. I tried a few shot with the light in the same position, but with a softbox, and just couldn’t get the effect I wanted. With a little playing I threw the 7-inch reflector on there and got closer to what I wanted. It was good practice for sure.
Today I read pages 78-80 in my 5D Mark II manual, Selecting the AF Mode.
If anyone out there is considering a photographer, do NOT choose these two! Judge Joe Brown, who really knows his stuff, smacks these two “professional” photographers with a judgement $1500 above what the plaintiff was asking for! These photographers were using and entry level DSLR (The Canon Rebel XTi), and kit lenses that come with the camera. Any one can get this kit right now at Best Buy for probably $800 and get a printer thrown in too! I actually started with a kit similar to this to learn the basics, and when I decided to open my business, I opened my check book! A good photographer could probably get away with using the camera, but those lenses are paperweights! This is why I only use top of the line camera bodies, and top of the line lenses, flashes, and anything else I have. These so called “professional” photographers got exactly what they deserved! This is also why it pays to ask the photographer about their equipment. Even if you don’t know exactly what they are talking about, the photographer better! These ladies didn’t even know the speed of their lens! That is probably only the top 1 or 2 things you should know! Rest assured, that this kind of situation would never happen with Adam Marin Photography. Besides acting like and having professional equipment, I absolutely stand behind my work 100%. If you are not happy, 100% money back!
