181/365 Strobist boot camp assignment #3

Yay it's done.
OCF to camera left about 9 feet from subject, directed straight at subjects face, I have a light, with a gel cover (blue) directly behind subject. It's the set up I've been trying to achieve. Eric pointed me to the strobist flicker group (here)where they show all of the set ups (thanks dude).
This one is with a blue gel:

and this one with the orange gel

They are a bit dramatic but it's the look I was going for.

180/365 Pusing myself . . .

I'm almost half way done with this 365 project and today, I must confess, I've had to push really hard to post. Not only did I have to push myself, I had to PUSH my subject and can't you tell by the delight in her face? Thanks honey, mommy really appreciates it.


The other thing that I'm working on is Off camera flash - me and some friends (Elli & Eric) are doing Strobist Bootcamp assignments. I have studio lights but these are smaller and more portable. I used the SB800 behind the subject and the studio light to camera right.
It's not the look I was going for so I'll keep practicing.

179/365 My first Canvas

I will be offering canvases to my customers so I had to start ordering studio samples. Here is my first canvas. It's an amazing picture of my younger kids so I thought it would be great on canvas and I wasn't disappointed. This one has a tiny flaw on the canvas and I'm waiting to hear back from the company. Weather or not I use this company for my canvases depends on how they handle this issue.



Speaking of disappointed I have a big bone to pick with VistaPrint. If you use VistaPrint for ANY OF YOUR PRINTING NEEDS - please read the fine print and don't ever re-enter your e-mail address because that means that you are agreeing to something. I will vent somemore about this issue in later post.

Strange creatures growing in my garden. . .178/365

Big sigh . . .177/365

The big sigh is because I dropped off both of my cameras to get cleaned today. They will be back home on Tuesday . . .sigh
It's weird not having them here - LOL sooo... I dusted off my daughters D-40, which is not bad.
My parents came over and while they were "busy" I took a couple of snaps of them. My dad is reading the paper, my mom is cleaning the yard. She's looking around making big plans on how to conquer all of the leaves. LOL, she's gonna be mad at me but I love this image of her. Not sure what it is but I do really like it. She hates it - LOL.



and I also tried my hand at macro photography. Well, it was really windy and I did not have a tri-pod so I see blurr but fun colors.

Bloom . . . 176/365

For the last two weeks I've stalked this tree in my neighbors yard and it finally bloomed. Just 3 days ago I took a picture of it and there were barely blooms there - today it's in full bloom.
It was very windy therefore very hard to get a good picture of the blooms but they are gorgeous. Very large, silky looking and very fragrant. Just beautiful. The problem is that they don't last very long. Just a couple of days and they'll be falling petals to be replaced by the leaves that the tree will sport all summer long.

OCF and a Motocycle ride. . . 175/365

Today Dave & I went to see a movie called "I love you Man" it was funny but not a "kids" movie.
On the way back home the shift linkage bar on the Harley became disconnected. It's the bar that shifts the gears on the bike. Basically no shifting no moving.
Luckily the theatre is right by a Sears store and Dave ran in and bought a pair of pliers to try and snap it back in place. It did not work. We brained stormed and figured, after about an hour or so, that we could "tape" it (well, Dave's idea). In the end "WE" ended up repairing the bike (temporarily) with zip ties. Yeah, zip ties, four of them to be exact. It got us back home. Sometimes it just pays to be creative :)

Elli, Eric and I have been trying to practice Off camera flash. Dave figured out how too put both speed lights on remote. In this image one speedlight is behind him the other is to his right on the ground.
There are so many items to buy to do this correctly but I was happy at least to practice.

Almost . . .174/365

I almost did not take a picture today. Life happens you know, but then I thought, I've gone 174 days straight without missing a post and I just had to come up with something. So there you have my little doxy's. They need to go to the groomers really bad. I'm having a heck of a hard time with this pink backdrop. It turns white in the middle. I have no back light. Just a large softbox camera right and reflector subject right. Any suggestions?



Oh by the way, Elli and Tess, yesterdays garbage bags are from Walmart. Thanks for your comments.

Earth Day . . . 173/365

"A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children." -- John James Audubon

It's a small step, but none the less a step. Always looking for ways to conserve/preserve.


"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

Bella & Bella Bunny . . .172/365

Look who's spending the night!!!
After bath time she saw me messing around with the "pink" backdrop and she "let me" take a couple of snaps of her. After each picture she'd say "I wanna see" she wanted me to show her the images on my camera.

I know I have some pink "spill" on her hair and the backdrop was blown out but she only let me take a few and she was done. LOL


Again, I know that technically there are a lot of errors BUT check out those shoes! LOL

Almost . . .171/365

My neighbors Magnolia tree blooms are ALMOST opened. Then we know spring in well on it's way. It's a gorgeous tree. Blooms in the spring then shed's it's flowers and then the leaves come out. It's backwards, go figure, either way in full bloom it's absolutely stunning.

A play date . . . 170/365

And what a great excuse to use my new "props"
Isabella and I had our play date today. We sure had fun. Gotta love those rain boots that she refuses to give up.

I couldn't just pick one fav for today so I picked 4.






If you want to see more of yesterdays pictures they are here: Flicker
To my family, Easter pictures are up on my site: www.srmarekphotography.comEnter full screen, password: Easter

Photographers at play. . .169/365

Today I went to visit my friend Pam Lopez. Pam has taught me a lot about studio lighting and p.p. She has been a great help in my growth. Out of it has come a great friendship.
She lives 2 hours from me but it was so worth the drive.
Today we used her little girl as the model and boy was she a ton of fun.
Here she is showing us her balancing skills, pretending to be tight rope walking. Pam picked up these awesome little umbrellas and nets is several colors.



Little did I know that I would be sent home with 2 colorful umbrellas, 2 matching nets, a canvas backdrop (that I cannot wait to use) some crayons and a few other items. How did I get so lucky? I feel like I hit the lottery.

Pam, words cannot express how grateful I am for EVERYTHING you've done to help me along the way and for all of the gifts.

Also, in the front room Pam has a Wilky original. I saw when she posted this canvas but pictures do not do the image on canvas justice. It looks like an oil painting - the colors are amazing.

What are these called? 168/365

These lovely ladies just planted themselves and started growing and multiplying in the shady part of my yard. What are they called? They are so dainty and cute.


My sister in law gave me this old boot a couple of years ago. It's so cute and I'm loving the sun flare again. I know where to meet it every evening. LOL

I love spring! . . . 167/365

Yet another super busy day but the sun stays up later and later
and I thought nothing says spring better than daffodils and sunflares!
I do LOVE spring.

New Model by candle light. . .166/365

It's another late night for me but I've come too far not to take a picture and post. So, today I give you my new model by candle light. You might see more of her to come, who knows?


And family, I am sorry but I have not posted our Easter pictures yet. I will have them really soon. I promise.

Downward facing dog . . . 165/365

It's a yoga pose. Yes I've been keeping up with my practice. The more I do, the more I notice how busy my mind is. Working on getting that to relax. I'll keep you posted.
Another late one for us. My picture of the day for obvious reasons

and I wanted to share some of David's art. He took the picture and sat by me and told me exactly how to edit it for him. It's his art, it's dark and different but it's beautiful.

Adding to yesterdays post 164/365

Thanks for the comments Eric -
almost OCF means that I couldn't figure out how to slave my flash so I used my SB800 on camera. I know - cheating.

I've edited a little bit better and I added texture to the black and white. Creepy background? Not unusual for us. Dave, my in-laws, Khalila & I were looking at this interesting tree in an old country cementery, not unusual for us - LOL.

Strobist assignment 164/365

I'm tired
it's late
and my assignment is 2 weeks overdue. Well, I'm not happy with the results but seems like if I don't just post it, I won't be able to move on to assignment #3. I think I missed the mark with OFC. Well, almost OFC. I could have done much better with a reflector.
Hey give it a grade.

Easter Day! 163/365

It's been a fun and wonderful day. I have many more pictures to share but I'll probably link them up tomorrow or tuesday as it's almost midnight and I have to work tomorrow.
This is especially to my family who is following this blog (which I found out today that they read it every day, faithfully. Hi Jan(mom-in-law), Hi Alex(dad-in-law), Hi Aunt Pat!(aunt in law) so check back I'll have them up by then.





Stay tuned, more to come.

Dramatic lighting . . .162/365

My second youngest, Khalila.
More studio practice.

Izzy . . .161/365

Happy Good friday. I was off of work today but it was a very busy day - Here's Izzy
took a few of him in the studio.
How's the lighting? I only used one softbox.

A carnival in town. . . 160/365

I took these pictures yesterday but I had to run computer scans - so I'd thought I'd let you know:
there appears to be a trojan horse being passed around in facebook. I received several e-mail notifications say I had a new message, from a friend on facebook. When I opened it, it was a trojan horse.

Luckily my computer is well protected and I recieved immediate notification to run all of my scans. I hope that's the end of it.

I will not be sending any facebook comments - so do not open any from me.

This type of virus happend a few years ago in AOL I believe. The trojan attaches to someone's buddy list and sends itself to everyone on the list, it continues to travel that way.
That's why I didn't post yesterday, but these are the pictures I took yesterday:

New Life . . . 159/365

There's a challenge on One Photo Source. To take pictures of "New Life" whatever that means to you. Here are my takes on that challenge.

Well, it is spring and a lot of the plant life around here have learned to survive winter. Although, it was 30 degrees this morning with a lovely layer of frost over everything outside, the plants do continue to press forward. There's a lesson for us.






Which one do you like best?