Amber

One of my favorite subjects is Amber who is getting ready for the Miss United States Missouri Pageant at the beginning of April. Like all really good models she is able to go from sultry to pixyish in a moment... offering me a variety of looks... lighting and shutter release is almost all I have to do.
The black dress and the blue dress shots were all done with one light in a pan reflector covered with translucent white, rip-stop nylon and a silver reflector below her position bouncing light upward. Background was medium gray paper roll. F-stop varied between F16 and F22 throughout the shoot. Nikon D3 with 105mm lens throughout.

Sometimes called "glamour lighting" this light is fired point-blank at the face at a little less than a 45 degree angle and the reflected light fills in from below.
One of these or the many others we took will be her headshot for the competition and an entry in the Miss Photogenic contest.
Three lights were used in the last set-up. The pan reflector, a light overhead bounced from a silvered umbrella and a direct flash on the background which was changes to white. The above shot I did not use the background light as I wanted a more monochromatic image to highlight her eyes an lips.
Amber was called "Barbie" in high school.... but I think she's more like a porcelain ballerina.... she's also got moxie.... which helps in this endeavor :)

Kauffman Falling Part 2

The second installment of images I took last Saturday in Kauffman Gardens.

Samantha

Just one more quarter and my latest subject, Samantha, will be a freshman in high school. She plays violin and guitar, draws, and already knows that she wants to be an architect. At her age I was still in potty training.
We did a few studio shots and then headed to the West Bottoms for more casual shots that match her personality. All images captured with the Nikon D3. Studio shots with the Nikon 105mm macro, 1/250th and F16 at ASA 200. Location shots all taken with the 70-200 F2.8 Nikon Zoom at F8, F11 and F2.8.... ASA from 200 to 800 using the SB900 for fill when necessary.

Les Fleurs du Jour

Acquired a new lens this week so HAD to test it. Nikon 105mm macro. Sharpest lens I have ever owned. Headed out to Kauffman Gardens for some closeup work. The Gardens right now are at their peak of Spring beauty. 4801 Rockhill Road diagonal from the Nelson Gallery.... free. Technical info as we go along.All photos were opened in Photoshop.... no intensification of color was done. Vignetting was applied in a lot of the shots to provide more emphasis to the feature flower.

Those with relatively shallow depth of field (focus) were shot at f5.6 to f8... others that are deeper in focus were shot at f16.... none were shot with smaller aperture although the lens will stop down to f32.

All images were shot with available light; no flash used.
Tripods are not allowed in the garden (something I approve of) so in doing macro photography hand held a fast shutter speed is essential. Many of the close up flower shots were made at ISO 800 or 1000 to enable a shutter speed from 1/500th all the way up to 1/4000th. The lens has image stabilization built in but even that is not useful at higher magnifications.

With any warmer weather the roses will go crazy.... probably peak in the next 10 days.
Lady bug hiding.



This lens will go 1:1 on its own without any extension tubes.... however you end up very close to your subject to get that ratio. (Merely means that the object you're photographing is the same size on the image as it is in real life.) For insects I will probably use a Nikon extension... the TC-1.7 E... so I'm further back. Although most insects don't really care....



This lens also has a gorgeous "bokeh" which refers to the manner in which the lens renders the out-of-focus background. Very smooth and accurate colors with a gentle blur.
In addition to vignetting I burn in portions of the photo to emphasize the main subject. As in photojournalism though I don't remove or artificially add anything to the images so they are what you would see if you were standing beside me.

All shots were taken with a Nikon D3 and the 105mm. Not using zoom once in a while makes you think a little harder and it's healthy.

All of the plants have their names nearby so you don't have to guess what they are like you do on this blog.