Latest shots

I have been out shooting more with the d300s and finally have some day shots! So far I can say that the subtle changes on the back of the camera make life easier, especially the dedicated center button on the d-pad. The high iso on this camera is still blowing my mind. I will do a formal test in the next couple weeks and post it up here. There is a noticeable improvement over the d300. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. All of these are straight out of camera. Any effects were done using a filter system.

This may be my last post for a little while as am in Vancouver next week shooting. Be prepared for some rad commercial photos of something you wouldn’t expect when I come back!

Petzl Challenge

I have entered one of my pictures into a contest that Petzl is hosting. The images they are looking for should illustrate their headlamps and how a person may use them. I have attached the shot I entered below and would kindly ask you, if you enjoy the image please vote 5 stars by following this link http://contest.tikka2.com/photo.php?id=60ccca852a49aa19606629def549bac0

This image was shot during one of our camping trips to Jasper this summer. The models are Eric and Jasmine setting up their tent after dark and set. This was shot with a d300 and a sigma 10-20, fired remotely using a wireless shutter release on the bulb setting.

More Night photos

Alicia and I decided to head out to shoot some more night shoots Saturday evening. The initial location ended up being too dark as the moon was covered by clouds for the better part of the evening. Alicia is picking up a d300 this week (major upgrade from her canon xsi) so I was letting her shoot with my old d300. The second photo below is one made possible only by a digital camera. The first one is a fun shot that really shows how rad the evening sky can look. It was shot with the d300s and a 10-20 mounted to a tripod.

For this shot I will explain why I used the settings I did. Once again shot with the d300s although I used a 35mm f1.8. I left the lens wide open and had to crank the iso to 6400. Why you ask would a person shoot a landscape at such ludicrous settings? Trust me, these are by no means ideal settings but were critical for getting this shot. In the first shot I used a much lower iso and longer shutter speed to capture the movement in the clouds against the trees. This time I could not have any movement in the clouds as the formation was one that was unique. Even with these settings I could barely get a hand holdable shutter speed. As per usual, I will field any questions in the comment section below!

First D300s Video

I recently picked up a new Nikon d300s. I haven’t had much of a chance to test it out in ideal conditions yet so I can’t offer a full review yet. I have only shot a few frames in the darkness with it. From those tests I can say that the high iso is noticeably better than the d300. I will post a full review later. Here is my first attempt at a video with the 300s. Shot using various car mounts. This footage is pretty much straight out of the camera as I have never edited a video before. The lens used was a sigma 10-20 recorded to a new sandisk extreme 3 card. Enjoy and let me know what you think. The music is by Port Blue.

Click on the video for true HD glory.

Edmonton Skyline

Here is a quick 6 shot panorama from last night.  Unfortunately I don’t have a proper pan head so I had to use my manfrotto 188rc2 head.  I used lightroom to process the files and photoshop CS4 to merge them together.  If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments.  The picture is below followed by a 100% crop showing detail. I am linking to the fullsize image because it does not fit on the page.

100% crop

 

 

Corporate Headshot – Lorraine

Yesterday a friend called me up looking for a headshot.  She needed a simple shot as she will be featured in the Edmonton Journal.  I used only one light as I am personally not a fan of many other photographers using one or two soft boxes or fill and then a harsh (usually just a strobe through a bare reflector) as a kicker on the hair and shoulders of the subject.  One medium chimera softbox was used, shot with a d300 + 60mm macro, metered by a sekonic L778.  A roll of Arctic White seamless paper was used for the backdrop.  I have a feeling the black and white version will be used for her feature in the paper.

Merlin

I recently had a print request from an image someone had seen years ago.  This image brought me back to a fun day of skateboarding with my friend Merlin.  We shot very few frames that night but are some, in my opinion, very cool lifestyle portraits.  These are re edits and are presented in black and white.  The first image is still one of my favourites to date.  I have a 20×30 matte canvas hanging in my living room that attracts every person’s attention that has visited.  Here are the photos, they were shot a couple years ago when I was shooting a canon system.  All natural light.

Some Night Shots

Last Friday my friend who is new to photography wanted me to come out and help him with his night photography.  I took him to a couple high places in the city to shoot some skyline shots and ended up with a couple shots of my own that I enjoy.  These were shot with either the 60mm macro or the 70-200 vr.

Toyota Hilux

Yesterday a friend and I went out shooting/offroading for some fun.  Here are a couple of the shots from the day.  TIP:  When shooting in snow you can use a super high shutter speed 1/1000 or better to get a cool effect of the snow being suspended in the air or you can use a slower shutter speed 1/50 or so to get nice snow streaks throughout the image.

Location Portraits with Jasmine

Two days ago my friend Jasmine was in town for a couple days.  Jasmine is a very active, outdoor oriented girl who is also a photographer.  Jasmine’s style and mine are very similar, you can see her work in the links section to the right of this entry. I had not used my portable strobes for quite some time so we thought it would be a good idea to take them out and give them a good workout.  Equipment used was a d300 and a wide range of lenses.  We also used Jasmine’s Rollei from 1956 but we do not have those shots yet.   Lighting equipment used was a Balcar AQ1200 pack channeled through an iris head. (only one head was used in conjunction with natural sunlight.  A medium and small chimera softbox were used for light mods.  All metering and triggering of lights was done with a combination of pocket wizards and a sekonic 778 meter.  I have attached a few set up shots at the bottom of the post to show roughly how the lights were set up.  If you have any questions regarding anything else please feel free to ask in the comments and I will go into more detail.