Clarissa’s Book Blog has a beautiful new theme. Check out the great reviews by Clarissa and myself here.

Crazy-L always makes a face. I used to think it was for the camera, like one of those fake smiles kids have when their mom says ’say cheese’. Nope, the more I watch him the more I realize he is always making a face. This is his normal.

This is a one light setup. Key light SB600 1/2 power about 3 feet from subject 45 degrees camera left shot through a shoot through umbrella. Camera settings are balanced for ambient fill at 1/80 f7.1 ISO 100 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Flash was gelled with a 1/4 CTO for warmth. Learn to light at Strobist.com. Happy Snapping!

I bribed B-boy with some candy and had a chance to play around with my reverse lens adapter. It has turned my 50mm 1.4 into a macro lens. Manual focus and aperture selection and a depth of field about the width of my finger, but for $15 I’m not complaining. There is a link to using a reverse lens adapter here.

I lit some candles and threw it out of focus to play with the shaped bokeh thing. It’s cute! I’m going to have to actually find a subject and create a real picture with it. A link to a shaped bokeh tutorial is here.

Water drops. Lots of fun. Here is the tutorial if you would like to try it for yourself.

I had a wonderful time at the photography workshop.  The workshop was held at the Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens and taught by Tom Buchanan.  It was a lot of fun to get together with other photographers and spend a day learning and taking pictures.  You can see some of my favorite shots on my photoblog, p1x.ca.

This is a fantastic book blog that offers an insight into the book without giving anything away. A great mix of contemporary and classic titles ensures there is something for everyone. Why is it my favorite? They let me contribute, ha ha. Check it out at clarissasbookblog.com.