Aircraft and tracks

I have added some new photos of aircraft and train tracks too my collection on flickr. so if you are one of the folks that follow this site please go and check it out. The time of day was not perfect for shooting photos but they ase worth sharing and getting comments on. So go on over to flickr and see what people have to share. By the way, I never got any feedback on what you are interested in and wanted to see more of on this site so I am going to keep giving a variety of topics and information.
Get out there and take some pictures and have a blast doing it. As always this site welcomes any and all comments and suggestions.

Five weeks

Well there is only five more weeks left before I leave for San Diego. I'm looking forward to this trip. There has been a lot that I have learned about photography that I didn't know before. While I am in San Diego I will be posting the photos on my flickr page. So keep your eyes out for some really good stuff in September to show up on that page. If you've not been here before and would like to see some of my old work, just click on my photos on the right under (Sites worth looking at.). I hope that you like the work posted there and promise some great new photos to come. If you have the time and a passion for photography, visit the other sites I have listed and get some great information as well as seeing some wonderful works of art. Enjoy and have a great day.

Strip light cheat sheet card

If you shoot a lot indoors with strip lights, Here is a great and easy to make reference tool.

What's In The Card?

The card shows three positions of two strip lights. The first raw shows the angle of the light strips. The black shape (yea, those are 'V' and 'H') shows the angle of the strip light and the gray circle (yes, it is a dot) shows the position of the model.
In the first position, the two strip lights are positioned right and left, 45 degrees off axis.
The second position shows the light when the two lights are positioned right and left of the subject.
The third and last position is from when the strip lights are positioned 135 degrees to camera axis - that is slightly behind the subject.
Those three settings should give a pretty good idea on how strip lights work when positioned vertically (I can't promise there will not be a follow up with a horizontal position ;)

bigger version here

Using The Cheat Sheet Card

Well, you would need some strip lights to make it relevant :).
If you love the idea of strip lights, you can get a pair of photoflex half domes or  create your own using a box or an electric rail.
For each lighting setting that you consider, the card shows you what will be the added light effect when adding strip lights into the mix.
I would assume it is best used with the portrait lighting cheat sheet card.

Making The Card

The setup is pretty simple, two strip lights one from each side of the model, about a meter away. The head of the model is at the middle of the strip. (This is crucial, get to much under light and your model will turn out looking like Franken-strip).
We kept the position of the model, and the relative distance of the strips and moved them along an imaginary circle.

The last picture that we took was the back light one. I did not feel too good about it so I added a snooted strobe on the front for a more pleasing look, just so we won't leave of with a scary picture.

This is free information that you can share with your friends or fellow bloggers. You can find other great ideas at DIY photography.

Links on this page.

If you have not explored this whole site yet, I highly advise that you visit the links I have posted to the right. You came see a mixed variety of my photos that are posted on Flickr (which is a site I highly recommend if you want to share some of your work.). Also you will find a site that has awsome works of art at American pride and passion. (He calls it painting with light) I call it amazing.  If you are looking to purchace additional equipment look at dpreview before you do. They have a staff that resource all the new things out there as will as products that have been out there for a few years. They don't tell you what to buy, they just give you the facts on the products. Well I could go on about each one of them and what they do for you. But I'll just leave it to you to explore for yourself. Enjoy those sites and happy shooting.

Reviewing the Nikon D90

It is only fair that I review the Nikon D90 since I have done one on the Canon T3i. As with the T3i the D90 is designed for the passionate photographer. And they are both in the same price range. The D90 offer a 12.3 megapixel Dk-format CMOS imaging. Which still gives you exceptional picture quality. The D90 does 24fps in a HD movie mode with a jpeg format so you have great versitility so you can pull a single shot from your movie with expected quality. The Nikon sene recognition system delivers razer sharp images in a wide variety on conditions. Nikon's 3D color matrix metering II with scene recognition system offering unmatched exposure accuracy. And the auto active D-lighting optimizesdetails within shadows and highlights improving contrast situations.
So you need to weigh out what type of photography you really want to do. The Nikon D90 and the Canon T3i are both exceptionl cameras for the active photo enthusiest or even the simi-pro. Just remember that the camera business is changing almost daily. so if you are not quite ready to start shooting. just wait til you are. you'll be glad you did in the long run.

Accessories may differ by country or area.

San Diego I'm on my way.

It's almost time for me to go back home. It has been two years since my last visit, and that has been a long two years. I wanted to be there for the fourth of July fireworks, but it just wasn't in the cards. (And you have to play the cards you are dealt in life.). Well it won't be much longer now. I plan to be there the last week of August and will stay til the end of September. I love it every time I get back home to visit my mom and two of my four brothers. We spend time together fishing, kayaking and enjoy catching up on years past. One thing that I also love about it is that I have so many photo opportunities there. The city, beach, desert and mountains (yes I have mountains here in Tennessee but their not the same.). I will still keep up on this blog while I'm there. I am hoping to get some unique photos there and have time to share them and some tips on how they were accomplished. I love sharing information with you all as you can tell by my past post. So keep coming back and I will keep sharing my work with you. "San Diego I'll see you soon.