Lukas and Ben were playing with me the other night with light painting. Lukas was trying to look like he could throw a ball of green lightning like a Super Hero.

This is a winter sunrise from my kitchen window. I am not a morning person. In all of the photos I’ve ever taken this is the first one I’ve ever tagged ’sunrise’, ha ha.

Lookin’ good if I do say so myself. This is a three light setup with a background of some old non-glossy vinyl. (How fortunate I am to have a father-in-law that works at a transfer station, ha ha.)

1. I have my key light SB600 1/4 power about three feet away from subject 45 degrees camera right through a shoot through umbrella.
2. A side/cross light LumoPro 120 1/16 power 5 feet away 45 degrees back camera left bare.
3. A LumoPro 120 pointed at the background behind the subject ( 1/16 I think?).
I am about 4 feet in front of subject shooting handheld at 1/250 at f10 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. White balance set to flash and no gels used. Minimal processing for contrast etc in Photoshop CS4. I have the C-Man facing the umbrella and then turning slightly towards me. Adjust glasses if necessary to eliminate reflections, and work quickly if you have a grumpy subject, ha ha. I had to trade a back massage for his modeling services.

K-Cat with her favorite toy buddy. This is a two light set up using a wall in our basement as a backdrop.
1. Key light is an SB600 1/4 power 2 feet away from subject 45 degrees camera right through a shoot through umbrella.
2. Fill light is a LumoPro 120 1/4 power 4 feet away from subject 45 degrees camera left bounced off of the ceiling.
I am about 3 feet in front of K-Cat shooting at 1/200 f5.6 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Try to keep your subject at least 2 or 3 feet away from the wall to minimize any shadows. Happy Snapping!

K-Cat fell asleep in a toy storage bucket today. I thought she had stuffed her blanket in the bucket, but when I helped her out I saw Buddy, crushed at the bottom. Looks comfy. Shot with an SB600 45 degrees camera right fired at the ceiling for fill. Shot at 1/30 f2.8 ISO 100 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Happy Snapping!

A storm was rolling in today at sunset. I have a feeling it might mean snow, but the clouds were amazing! This panoramic photo doesn’t do them justice. Click here for a larger image.

More B-Cookie. Why? Because B-Cookie sits still and can’t get away from me. Using natural light coming from behind camera through a North facing window. Shot at 1/80 f2.8 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1/4 lens on a Nikon D200.

These are some shots of Park Lake at sunset, taken at the end of Lukas’ Birthday Party. If you want to get a more dramatic sunset, expose for the sky on auto and see what the camera’s settings are. Switch over to manual and use the same settings. Then start taking pictures, raising the shutter speed higher each time. The faster the shutter speed, the darker and sometimes more dramatic the sunset will look. Sometimes you can play with the white balance too. If you set it to fluorescent you can get a magenta boost to your sunset. Try it out and play around until you get what you like. Happy Snapping!

So here is my first attempt at food photography. I use a recipe program called MacGourmet and it has an option to attach a photo to each recipe. I thought a good way to practice some food photography would be to take a picture of the things I bake. Unfortunately, not everything I make looks as good as it tastes, ha ha. Here is the recipe for No Bake Cookies.

Fireworks are beautiful and a lot of fun. A tripod is a must since you will want to keep your shutter open about 2 seconds to capture the full bloom. Set up your camera aimed at the fireworks and start out with a shutter speed of 2 seconds at f8 ISO 200. If you want to keep your shutter open longer to capture more fireworks going off in succession, you can raise your aperture up to f11 or higher to make a smaller hole for the light to come in. Play around and try it out. Happy Snapping!