Adam Marin Photography

Dora, Dora, Dora the explorer! Tomorrow I have to do a business portrait session, and I want to do a different lighting setup than I usually do, so tonight I set up my lights and did some portraits of my daughters Dora doll. I think I got my lighting dialed in to where I want it. Unfortunately, when I do these late night sessions, I have to rely on toys, rather than say my wife, but I think this works out pretty well. At least I am practicing and trying something new.

Today I read page 90 in the Canon 40D manual.

Tonight I decided to take a drive near sunset to look for some photo opportunities. I knew about this trail that goes across the Fox River and I have been kind of trying to find it for a while. Tonight I finally happened upon it (on the other side of the river than what I wanted). It is a pretty cool new bridge, and the park on the side that I was on it pretty cool. There is a boat landing and some nice playground equipment. I was happy that I finally was able to come across it and I would like to go back to take some other images like when it is foggy, or at night.

Today I read page 128 in the Canon 40D manual.

Spring is here! I noticed the other day that some daffodils that we planted at the end of last summer have started to spring up in the last few weeks with the warm weather we have been having. This is a clump of them that are in my backyard near some woods that we have behind the house. I have been wanting to create an image like this ever since I started seriously with my photography. Today I finally got the chance. I was inspired by the photography of Michelle at My Two Seasons and her amazing images of flowers and budding trees. Today was a great day, because it was very overcast, so the light was nice and diffuse, but there was enough light that I didn’t need any kind of flash. Thanks to Michelle for the inspiration, and I hope to do a lot more! I am actually going to be planting a lot more flowers and things this year so I have more photographic subjects close to home when I can’t get away!

Today I read page 26 in the Canon 40D manual.

Today I photographed my son’s new favorite toy that also happens to be an old favorite of my daughter. They both love this little push car. It plays music and makes sounds. It is a pretty fun little toy for kids. I photographed it using my two large softboxes, and then processed it in Lightroom 3 Beta 2, Photoshop CS4, and onOne’s Photo Tools 2.5. It is a fun shot that my kids will like when they are older I am sure!

Today I read page 64 in Canon 40D manual,

Tonight we have my Fender acoustic guitar. I photographed it using my B800 and a large softbox. I then processed the image using onOne’s PhotoTune, and PhotoTools. I think it is a kind of interesting image being a close up of the sound hole, but really the focus is more on the bridge.

Today I read page 35 of 40D manual.

Today, I did a quick session with my son Caleb. I had this setup for a client, but they had to reschedule, so why waste it? I went and got some bowls, and some utensils, and some flour for his face, and I think they turned out pretty cute.

Today I read page 86 in the Canon 40D manual.

Today my daughter got to color Easter Eggs at Grandma Debbie’s house. She is going to be in Las Vegas during Easter, and didn’t want to miss Addison coloring eggs, so we decided to do it a little early. She had so much fun coloring the eggs! She is getting so big, she was doing most of the work all by herself. It makes me sad, but happy that I am a photographer and she and her brother are my favorite subjects, so we will have lot of memories for years to come. This shot was of some eggs she had finished coloring. It was lit just with natural light.

Read page 61 in 40D manual.

Today, I am continuing with a basketball shot. And no, I didn’t cheat, I made more images today. I changed the lighting to be one bare bulb B800 from the front. I then used Topaz Adjust 4 to create the dark ghostly look, in fact it was the Dark Ghostly preset that I used. I think the image is interesting, and different from everything else I have done.

Today page 123 in the 40D manual.

March Madness is here! Today’s image is one of my old basketballs, The basketball is lit from behind with two bare-bulb B800′s, and from the front with a 580EXII. I then processed the image using Topaz Adjust 4 to give it a little more gritty feel to it. There are a couple of other interesting things about this image. If you happen to have a Canon 40D you would know that the maximum sync speed of the 40D is 1/250 sec. You may notice that I shot the image at 1/320 sec, faster than the sync speed. Why did I do this? Well I wanted to use the faster sync speed to create a natural gradient on the top of the image. You may say, but the top looks brighter than the bottom…well, that is the second interesting part. I actually held the camera completely upside down in order to make the gradient come up from the bottom. I then flipped the image in Lightroom 3. This image is a combination of techniques that I picked up from a Scott Kelby web cast the other night, and from David Zeiser’s book “Captured By The Light”. I think it makes the image more interesting to me, because I know what went in to make it, and now you do as well.

Today I read page 154 in the 40D manual.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It is a tradition here, as I am sure it is many other places, for bars to serve green beer on St. Patrick’s Day. This particular beer was sitting on my kitchen table, next to my patio doors. The mug is one that my brother brought back from Munich, Germany for me when he was on a college trip there. I took some beer and filled the mug (which took a little more than three cans, added about 5 drops of green food coloring, and that was it. The lighting is all natural light with my patio doors to the left, and a small home made reflector to the right. That is how I got the cool catch lights all the way down both sides of the glass. Pretty simple, but pretty cool as well, I think anyway!

Today I read page 54 in the 40D manual.