Ring Flash

I have just completed my DIY ring flash. I think it turned out great, plus the cost was less than $20.00 This flash was made with Home Depot materials, and things laying around the studio.

The main component consists of a 10.5 inch utility light made of aluminum and a 4 X 5 inch heating duct coupling. The mounting system is fashioned out of fittings laying around the studio. Small ball head, flash shoe, Bogen mounting plate from a flexarm that I had and small stud. Of course there is the red paint!

This ring flash is just another tool the have up your sleeve if you need it. This ring light is very lite weight, less than the weight of the PVC one I started to build before finding the parts for this version. I fire the strobe using the Nikon SU-800 command unit. The complete ring flash is comfortable to handle and as I mentioned earlier, very lite weight. One other great thing, it comes in any color you want!

Here is a close up of the parts I fashioned together for the mounting system. I'm going to be making another one for my intern and will be photographing the entire process.

The black gaffers tape is used to cover the rough metal joints between the heating coupling and the main dish. The diffusion material is made from a product I bought sometime ago from B&H. It is a heavy plastic type of material, we use to use this stuff when we made our soft boxes before there where commercial boxes available.

Thought you might enjoy seeing my new toy. I really don't have any plans on using it just yet. Kinda fun.

Putting Anne to rest.

For those of you who did not realize, my Father and Step Mother both passed away several months ago. Anne passed away 4/12/07 and my Father on 7/16/07.

It was Anne's wishes to have her ashes placed at several lawn bowling clubs throughout California. Anne was a singles women's champion in the early 80's, she loved bowling and even got my dad into it.

Soon after Anne passed away, my father health declined. He was only able to place Anne's ashes at one of 7 locations she listed. After my dad's passing and some time to take care of family matters, my family and I took Anne ashes to Northern California.

My family and I where able to squeeze in some vacation time for ourselves while in CA. I took only a Snap and shoot camera with me. I wanted to show you some of the images taken while there. I was shooting with a Canon G9.

We had about 6 days to noodle around as well as placing Anne at her request locations. We saw the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA, Monterey Bay and San Francisco. I shot all of these pictures using the camera in manual mode. Kinda liberating just traveling with a lite weight camera that produces some fine images. Let me know what you think of the images, hope you enjoy.

Just click HERE.

Lighting a small CAD room

I am currently working on an annual report for a large construction company based in California. The first lag of the assignment took Erik and I to Yakima, WA and Ogden UT.

The video I've attached here is from the Yakima portion of the trip. My client has a "HOT PLANT" (Asphalt plant) in Yakima and a recently remodeled office they wanted photographed. This video is of a young lady seated in front of a CAD computer in a very very small room in recently remodeled offices. You will hear the audio of me working with my model giving direction to her. I'm simply looking for a natural body position of the subject, trying various things to create a natural looking moment. The fact is, the subjects I photograph are not professional models and it is my job to put them at ease and to find a "comfortable & natural" pose for them and me.

I used 2 SB-800 strobes to lite the room. The main light has a CTO filter on the strobe head and the flash has a snoot on it to contain the light to just the subject. The second light is bounced into the ceiling to provide a fill light. This strobe has a CTB filter attached to the head of the flash. This flash provide the base of cool blue in the room. The main light over powers the fill to provide an natural skin tone to the subject.

I hope you enjoy the video, please let me know if you would like to see more of these and perhaps what kind of information you would like to see.

Here is an example of a photo from this series that did not work for me. In this shot, the back of the chair is blocking my view of the maps I placed in the rack behind my subject.

I will be posting other images from this assignment in the next several posts. I have several other location to shoot for this assignment. I'll be traveling to St. Louis, California (Monterey, Sacramento, Yosemite), Key Largo, FL and other locations not yet known.

Precision Shooting

I have just completed a recent assignment for a Canadian drilling company based in Alberta, Canada. My client, Precision Drilling has 4 rigs currently drilling on the western slope of Colorado. Precision was looking for a beautiful calendar shot of one of there rigs along with some working shots around the rig.

This video will give you an insight into how I approach my location shoots and how I work with people on location. I've been shooting annual reports for 24 years, I just love shooting!

Billy Bob

When Erik and I travel shooting various assignments for clients, we travel with Billy Bob!

You see, Erik and I where in New Orleans for Halloween in 2001, we where shooting an annual report for an oil & gas client on the coast. Erik bought some Billy Bob teeth as his costume for our night out on Bourbon Street.

From that time on, Erik would travel with his "teeth" and put them in for all my test shots when on assignment. I have quite a collection of Billy Bob shots from around the country, Billy Bob as an executive, doctor, fireman and countless others.

This video was shot without my knowledge, Erik set up the video camera in his hotel room while brushing his teeth. Wait until you see this.

WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant)

Having an assistant when shooting here is a must.The WIPP safely disposes of the nation's defense-related transuranic radioactive waste. WIPP is located in the Chihuahuan Desert, outside Carlsbad, NM. WIPP began disposal operations in March 1999. WIPP is a U.S. Department of Energy facility.

I was contracted by an engineering firm to document the underground disposal of the radioactive waste being shipped to WIPP from around the country. When I first received the call for this assignment, my first thought about the waste was that of old fuel rods or something like that. Where in fact, the waste takes the form of old gloves, tools, clothing and other items that may have been exposed to radioactive materials in the process of making nuclear weapons.

Shipments are received by truck from various places like, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rocky Flats, Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab, etc. WIPP has received over 6000 such shipments to date. This waste is stored underground about 1/2 mile down in the Permian Salt Formation. The disposal rooms are roughly 33 feet wide, 500 feet long, and about 15 feet in height.

The really radioactive stuff is placed into horizontal boreholes in the disposal room walls. The other less radioactive stuff is stored in the open rooms in barrels and other types of containers.

Shooting underground is no easy task! Conditions can run the gambit. Dirty, cold, hot, wet, dusty and down right miserable