Gritty Portrait

Convex Mirror for my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish!

My Convex Mirror for my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish arrived at Midas in Centurion today, so I went and picked it up! It was a grand total of R25 (US$3.27), so not too bad.

Here it is by itself:

And here it is mounted inside the CD spindle cover:

The idea is that the convex mirror will throw more of the light from my SB600 flash into the white bowl of my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish and distribute it more effectively towards my victims willing volunteer models. More light is always a good thing in photography.

The ugly mug hiding behind the camera is me.
;-)

Sample photos to follow soon, watch this space!

First Strobist DIY Beauty Dish Portraits!

I think it works!

Strobist DIY Beauty Dish, on the cheap!

Some of you may remember that a while back I made my own flash diffuser. The original post is here. Well, I am sad to say that it was a dismal failure! In fact I couldn't tell the difference between photos taken with or without my diffusion disaster... at least it didn't cost me anything!

But for some time now I have wanted to build something more effective, a Strobist DIY Beauty Dish! Woohoo! But would it work?

Stuff I used:

1. Old flower pot
2. CD spindle case
3. White and black spray paint
4. Plain white piece of plastic
5. 4mm rivets and washers
6. White silicon
7. Stanley knife

Monochrome Waterfall - The "magic" of black and white film.

I may have posted this one in the past, but when looking through my photos this morning I was struck by how wonderful real black and white film looks and how, try as I might, I just don't quite seem to be able to replicate that look by converting from digital. Can anybody explain to me what the magic of black and white film is? And have you had any success getting your digital to get that same look? If so, please let me know how, I am sure there must be others out there wanting the same answers!

Nikon F801s, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D, Ilford XP2 Super, polarising filter to get rid of reflections, 5 second exposure on a tripod, developed in C41 by my local lab, scanned on a CanoScan 5600F, edited in the GIMP.

I found a true artist!

As I mentioned here: Am I an artist now? I have heard that you are not a real artist until you have photographed a toilet, so using that criteria I have deduced that my friend Chun Chung Lee over at Light Frame Photography is a true artist in the very real sense of the word! Check out this beautiful photo right here: Time For Reflection

A hearty round of applause is in order!

Welcome to the Free State!

Miles and miles of flatness:

But the people are great! Just love them!

Featured Photographer - John Sevigny

Love him or hate him, the guy certainly stirs up emotions and makes you sit up and take notice!

This is my favourite John Sevigny photograph, something in this pic just speaks to me:

A whole lot more John Sevigny here: www.johnsevigny.com and here: http://gonecity.blogspot.com/

Ellie - Cross Processed!

Another of Ellie, but this time by natural light and run through the "Cross Process" plugin of Paintshop Photo Pro X3.

Low Key Portrait

I attended an excellent studio lighting workshop by Pat Bredenkamp today and at the end we were allowed to play with the lights for a bit, so I had some fun! Single 250 watt studio light high right and slightly behind the model with snoot and honeycomb grid.

The Aliens have landed!!

I was bored and decided to have a little fun with an LED flash-light, my tripod and a few victims willing volunteers!

Arrested by the Aliens!

Bedazzled by the Aliens!

Please be careful of those Aliens!

You done yet?

 

Thought so...

St John's Methodist Church, Kroonstad, South Africa.

Time for another portrait! So, without further ado, heeeeeers Kevin!

Cue the sound of wild applause!

 

Why thank you...

Rugged Solutions