Toy Students ala tilt-shift

With all the buzz that my Miniature Madison Faux Tilt-Shift collection has gotten, naturally the next step is to try it with video as my K-7 has video functionality. Granted it's winter time and things may not be as conducive to the effect (I like the way trees look when miniaturized) and the set up for shooting wasn't what I wanted. I shot this from the upper deck of the Van Hise building on the UW-Madison Campus. When I got there, I had found that the unremoved snow had drifted waist high along the balcony wall I wanted to shoot from. And given the recent below zero temperatures we had, I was no way going to be able to shoot where I wanted. I found a spot by a planter that was knee to thigh-high and set up my tripod there. So here's my first attempt at a tilt-shift video shot during class break.

The Magnificent Trees Of Madison is a GO!

My personal passion project and perhaps the whole reason I got back into photography after a 10 year break from film, was to photograph the amazing landscapes and trees I have discovered after moving to Madison ten years ago. I was working as an arborist for UW-Madison and a conservation ranger for the city prior to that. I've discovered so many amazing settings that hardly anyone knew about. Summer of 2008, I bought a Pentax K200D DSLR. Why? I could use my old glass and it was weather sealed. My photographic journey began. My first collection, Madiscapes, was part of PhotoMidwest and showcased many of my favorite natural areas of Madison. Next, was my tree project. How can I capture the majestic nature of these amazing natural works of art. I shot and shot and well, was never pleased with my results. The green foliage blends into backgrounds so how do I separate my subject. How can you create depth of field shooting something that can be as tall as 100 feet? So I thought about different aspects as I honed my photography skills. What makes this tree interesting besides its massive girth or immense stature? I focused on flowering or branching patterns. Still not happy. As I started learning on the strobist site and working with off-camera flash, I thought why not use these techniques for trees. My first attempt was a large swamp white oak on the UW campus. A beautiful specimen. But attempt after attempt, my pictures failed to do it justice. Due to its location, nothing I did could serve it well. What can I do? Go at night and use lights to separate my subject from the building in the background. But I was just going to focus on the branching pattern so I needed to shoot this tree in its dormant state sans leaves.

After setting up one light camera right on the famous lower "U" limb of this tree, I decided I needed another light, camera left behind the limb to get the trunk and maybe some separation. As I've said before, setting up lights while get you noticed. Dozens of people asked what I was doing :) The first problem. Being night time, the building behind it had its lights on and was quite the distraction. By this time, I had purchased a Nikon D40 as a backup camera. Because of its unique electronic shutter, I had to use it and not my Pentax. My Pentax has a lousy 1/160 sync speed but the D40 has a 1/400 when using poverty wizards, which is all I had at the time. I dialed it up to 1/400 to kill the ambient, the opposite effect of my last post where I wanted to keep the background ambient, and was able to blackout most of the distracting lights behind it. The rest was eliminated in post. Not bad, for first time strobing, I'd say :)
The first picture on this post is of a magnolia tree taken springtime at UW-Madison arboretum's Longnecker garden. It's a magical place when the cherry trees, lilacs, and magnolias are blooming. Along with the fragrances, you feel like you are in a fairy tale. If you haven't gone, go this year. By now, I had bought a fisheye zoom for my Pentax. My focus now was on the flowers. I started shooting and of course, washed out skies. So I busted out a light on a stand and put it behind me as I was working in macro mode with my fisheye and max out the shutter speed to get some sky in the background. I had fun experimenting that day as well as many of the other photographers shooting out there which was as far as the eye could see :) Some came up to me and asked about my lighting setup and how they'd never thought to do something like that. I think it created quite the image :)
Today, I got word that my tree project was accepted for 2010 City of Madison ARTspace exhibit. I want this to be more than just a photo exhibit and am going to include stories about each tree whether historic or optimal time to view, location and create a little guide pamphlet so people can see these majestic wonders on their own and maybe even give them a hug as I have.

Shooting we we can and where we can't... Guerilla-style!

Where we can't: I've been dying to shoot at this one particular location. It is usually really crowded so had to do it during a down time. Anyone who has seen the One Light dvd knows that someone (security) is always there to ruin/end your shoot. And of course it happened to me. I was asked to leave. But I managed to get a bunch of shooting before that. I wanted to shoot a short instruction vid for my blog but when I got to the location, it was set up for an event. I had to shoot and I had to shoot fast. Not having a voice-activated lightstand, setting up lights will catch more attention. I needed to have a separation from subject and background as it would wash out the warm ambient background I wanted.
Some shots could work knowing the inverse square law and having distance for fallout but that's not always possible.


Shoot through umbrella, camera left. Not what I wanted.


Gridded snoot, camera right. What I wanted :) But you have to watch the harsh shadow it will leave cast on the wall. So you have to plan for cropping it out or shooting it out of frame.

We went and shot at some other places in the building for variety. Couldn't have lightstands so I used my Cybersync Mod to get some off-camera lighting. Shooting with the right hand and lighting with your left doesn't allow you to have the softest lighting but with my foamie diffuser, allows for some great Guerilla-style shooting.

Where we can:


I had back to back shoots planned at the location above. Since I was asked to leave had to go somewhere that would work with a vintage wedding dress. Being a Sunday afternoon around 3, we dashed off to the Capitol building as they allow shooting. Closing at 4, we had little time to get ready/dressed. And even less time to shoot, under 20 minutes. I was working with a wardrobe/stylist so she had to step in as a voice-activated lightstand. I used a portable 15x15" softbox as I wanted to minimize spill and have controlled lighting as opposed to an umbrella. Is it the ideal choice, no. But most of my shooting is done without assistants and on location so I need portability and ease of use. I can put this on a lightstand, hold it myself, or in this case, have someone else hold it.

Pentax K-7 Video

Got my new Pentax K-7 yesterday. I got the camera since I shoot in manual and need the controls on the exterior. Didn't think much about the video functionality until a friend of mine recently asked me about it and I honestly don't know much about it. He told me it was a huge trend that more filmmakers, assuming amateurs, are making the switch to DSLRs that shoot HD video. After some quick research, I found they are supposed to be great in low light and you can shoot through all sort of great lenses. So I have a fisheye that would be fun to shoot with but what else? It's way to cold out to be screwing around so for my first vid shoot I wanted something I could do around the house. Anyone who knows me knows that sunsets are my thing. Now how to translate that to video and use a unique lens. Lightbulb! Shoot some ice on my window with my macro lens with a sunset in the back. As I experimented for the first time with the camera, I noticed some changes and went in a different direction. As I waited, the ice started to melt from opening the inside window. I then focused on the melting ice and saw this cool close up version of what happens when ice melts. As water droplets formed and separated, the top part of it would refract the sunset light behind it and turn a golden color. It was way cool. So I added some music to accompany it and now there is a story. This is a raw video file, not cgi, of ice melting using my 70-300 macro lens. Time hasn't been changed, colors haven't been added. It has only been rotated since shot in portrait mode. Volume is low so may have to turn it up.


As the winter ice melts the journey to spring commences. Each change of state from ice to water is brought upon from the warming sun. Its energy is captured and transferred. With every melting drop formed, we are one day closer. Sunset after sunset go by, drop after drop until the ice is no more. Like sand falling from an hour glass until it's final destination. The end of winter.

Club Photography

I gave club photography a try at Leather & Lace at the Inferno which always has interesting and great attire. I wanted to try out my new Cybersync Mod made for the style I was going after. I wanted the cool background ambient of club lights, lasers, etc. I felt if you use on-camera flash, the light is projected out like a headlight and either washes out or kills off too much of the ambient. So I used an off-camera handheld hot-shoe flash with my mod mentioned in a previous post at 1/16th power. For a diffuser, I used the built-in bounce card as I didn't need to totally light my subjects. I decided the light high, camera left as I was shooting with my right, and aim it down like a spotlight allowing the background to show but it depended on what I was shooting. After some experimenting, from what I could see on my LCD, I liked the results best at 1/5 sec, 800 iso, with rear curtain sync. More pics.

New Years Fashion Extravaganza @High Noon Saloon

This was my 4th fashion runway shoot. All were under different conditions. Dark nightclub, expo hall, outdoors, etc. Shooting runway offers many challenges. Poor lighting, crowds (people wanting to take pics from where you are shooting), varying skin tones, weird angle of shooting and a very fast pace. Sometimes, more exhausting than wedding photography. You have one chance and only one chance to get each end of runway pose. There is no redo.
This particular show was an extremely low-level (ambient) lighting. Most fashion photographers I've talked don't like to use strobes for runway and I've wondered why. I mean you are there to capture the designers collections. Poor ambient lighting will not show off colors, details. I applied what I've learned from David Hobby's amazing Strobist site to my style for runway shooting. Each show needs a different style of lighting depending the venue, space, etc. This show was happening in between two bands to add to any set up problems.
I always show up early that day during runway coaching and get some BTS shots and scout out the place to see what I can do for lighting. This event was going to be a challenge. The elevated stage was 3 1/2 to 4 feet. That puts me at shin/knee height with the models who can be 7 feet tall in heels. I was skeptical about a ladder due to a crowd that is drinking. I decided to go with a milk crate or small step ladder to get some elevation. Now for the lighting challenge. The shooting angle was lower than I wanted so I definitely didn't want my light to shine upward giving the spooky campfire flashlight feel. I decided to try out my new Cybersync hand-held mod from the previous post. Shoot with my right and hold my flash off-camera statue of liberty style with the left to get some height. And to get some sort of diffused/softer light, I went with a DIY foamie thing like this. After some test shots the night of the event, I noticed a blending of subject to background due to the black curtains behind where the bands played. I decided to stick a second flash with a colored gel to provide some contrast. Wasn't the best placement but I literally had a minute or two to set it up after the drum set from the first band came down and the next set was put up for the band that was playing after the fashion show. Designs by Hoi Polloi, Silversark and Gypsy Couture. More pics.