My First Girl’s Softball Game

On Saturday, I attended my first girl’s softball game.  My granddaughter is playing softball this year, which, of course means that grandma and grandpa is about to get a lesson in girls’ softball.

My first lesson is one of style—the boys have none and the girls are all about style (at least six year-old are).  Note the socks.  You got to admit these socks have a lot more style than the standard red, blue, etc socks that the boys wear.   

Enjoy.

Model Shoot #5A

Anne’s comment about a sepia tone got me thinking—maybe, just maybe.  So, I deleted the photo that I intended to show today and substituted this sepia toned image of the last posting.

The conversion to sepia was made using nik Silver Efex Pro.  I used a strong curves adjustment, burned the edges of both the left and bottom of the photo and used a yellow filter to even the tones.

No matter how many years I do this, I will never stop being amazed at how black and white seems to simplify and increase the emotional impact of a photo.

Enjoy.

Model Shoot #5

Not too much to this photo.  Model is very close to a door so that the light can fill her face.  Shot the photo tight to emphasize her eyes and lips.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 1,800, f/4 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast and applied some noise reduction.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter to add some pop to her face and greater contrast with background.

Model Shoot #4

For those of you who think modeling is easy, I have a simple question:  could you look this good while leaning against a wall in a warehouse with temperatures around 50 degrees dressed in this outfit?  Jay wanted her to lean against the wall but was concerned about how cold the wall was.  She felt the wall and said: no problem.  That is professionalism.   

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 2,200, f/6.7 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast, applied some noise reduction and vignettting.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro skin softer filter.

Model Shoot #3

Big hair + frilly dresses + wild make-up + albino Texas Rat + cold warehouse = HIGH FASHION.

 Yep, that’s the exact formula for high fashion that I learned in college and it seemed to be the one employed at my model shoot.

I was quite surprised at how all the models seemed to think nothing of having the snake draped over them.  The snake, on the other hand, had a different idea.  She (I was told the snake was a “she”) was in constant motion and often got completely tangled in the model’s hair—which made for some interesting moments.

 Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at ISO 1,600, f/2.8 and 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast and applied some noise reduction.

Photoshop CS5—converted the photo to black and white using nik Silver Efex Pro.

Model Shoot #2

Although I normally have some idea as to what my final image will be in my mind as I take the photo, I must admit, this one emerged almost exactly like I imagined it.  I wanted one sharp eye and almost everything else softly focused.  I thought the darkness of her eyes versus the light colors of everything else would draw the viewers’ eyes directly to the eyes.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 50mm, ISO 900, f/2.8 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

 

Lightroom—Set black and white points and increased mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop CS5—removed a few distracting elements within the photo and used nik Color Efex Pro skin softener filter.

Model Shoot #1

A couple weeks ago, I fell into a model shoot with photographer Jay Marroquin and designer Lizzi London—both were great being around!  The reason I said that I “fell into” the shoot is because I went by a friend’s warehouse to show him my D3 and D3x and discuss what I thought were the advantages of the D3 over the D2x (which he has).  Well, Jay was using his warehouse for a shoot of Lizzi’s clothing that morning.  The three photographers (Jay, a Canon guy, Greg and I) discussed all sorts of geek camera stuff and how Jay was planning on shooting the models.

Jay planned to use a two Canon flash setup in e-TTL mode and triggered by the PocketWizard FlexTT5.   After seeing the results using the PocketWizard, I was sold—sold to the tune of buying Nikon compatible ones (more on them in a later post).  Jay asked if I wanted to shoot.  The FlexTT5’s were not compatible with my Nikon camera so all my shots were natural light only—usually at ISO of 800 to 2,200 and f-stops of 2.8 to 5.6.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at shot at 200mm ISO 1,100, f/5.6 and 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop CS5—removed a few distracting elements within the photo and used nik Color Efex Pro skin softener filter.