The Harvest restaurant inside the Chicago Downtown Marriott is your basic upscale American cuisine with burgers, steaks, and the like. I was going in with rather high expectations seeing as how Harvest is the primary restaurant for the Marriott, but you never know until your taste buds have their final say.
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Harvest Restaurant Chicago, Il – Foodgasm
Champps Park Meadows – Food Fail
I am going to be traveling a lot this year and as such, I will be eating at places all over the country. No, I love food..I mean I REALLY love food and when I find a place I like I really want to share it…however…in the case of Champps Americana in Park Meadows Colorada I was in for one horrible evening of culinary disaster.
Lighting Demo at Buena Park Camera Show
If you are looking for good deals on photography equipment, you should check out Bargain Camera Shows which take place in Pasadena, Buena Park, and San Diego. Today we were in Buena Park with my Blackbelt Lighting Products and had models from VIP Model Events.
For these shots we had a super simple setup with just a 44″ softbox umbrella with a Blackbelt Lighting BB560 speedlite in it set to 1/2 power. With the camera set to 1/250th, ISO 100, f/5.6 we were able to pull really nice light. The softbox umbrella was mounted on a lightweight boom arm so that the umbrella was positioned about 2′ above the model and about a 45 degree angle up from their face.
Wonderland Studio Shoot with Westcott Products
My friend and fellow photographer Devin Workman often does some really interesting photo shoots and I have wanted to collaborate with him on some projects for quite a while and this weekend the stars aligned and we hooked up to do a fun shoot at Wonderland Studios in Anaheim, Ca.
Part of the goal of this shoot was to try out some new modifiers from one of my favorite companies FJ Westcott. The two main products that we were working with were the 7′ White Reflective Umbrella and the 43″ Orb Softbox.
After using these two products for a day of shooting they are my new favorite modifiers. The light quality from these large modifiers is super smooth while still being controllable.
Here is a setup shot showing just the 43″ Orb being used to light the model. Because of the Orb’s large size, we only needed this single modifier. In this case we were using an Alien Bees AB1600 on only about 1/32 power with the camera on ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/250th second. This gave us super fast recycle times with enough power to still use a very low ISO setting and avoid any digital noise in the image.
I will be doing a complete review of these products on Camera Dojo soon so stayed tuned for more information. To see more of the images from this shoot, visit my SMUGMUG site at http://kgarrison.smugmug.com.
LA ShootThis! Group Shoot Event March 25th
I talk a lot about working with other photographers to improve your skills, learn new tricks, and collaborate on projects together so I often attend group shoots whenever I can. This weekend we had a shoot planned with the LA ShootThis! group and as we were getting started, the rain started coming down. The sky was gray and ugly so I took a tip from my friend Chris Diset and set the camera’s white balance to tungsten and gelled the flash with a 1/2 CTO gel. This got the skin tones really nice but turned the dull gray sky into something a little more interesting.
We finally relocated into a dry parking structure for some more shooting and I chose a spot with almost no ambient lighting so that I could have total control over the lighting.
In this shot, I used a single 24″ softbox from BlackbeltLighting.com and had Amanda turned directly facing the light. This harsh angle provided a nice soft light on her face while illuminating the back wall at the same time.
In this next shot, I had pulled the softbox about 15′ away from the wall so that it wouldn’t light up the wall and then used a second flash with the same 1/2 CTO gel as before pointed at the side of his head to create the hair light.
With Kelsey, I didn’t want the lighting to be quite as dramatic so I placed a third light to camera right with an ExpoImaging Rouge Flashbender as a basic fill light. I still had the 24″ softbox and gelled hair light in the same position as the shot of JK above.
Moving the gelled light from the side to directly behind Kelsey’s head. we got a completely different look with a dramatic rim light effect.
To see more pictures from the event, check out my SmugMug Gallery.
Lensbaby Edge 80 Mini-Review
I am a huge fan of the Lensbaby lenses and I have owned every model since the original version. Each iteration gets better and easier to use and delivers better quality images. When Lensbaby introduced the Optic Swap system, enabling different effects with the same platform, this was a serious game changer. In fact, in order to really see how far I could push the entire Lensbaby system, I shot an entire wedding with the Lensbaby system.
I really believe that the Sweet 35 and Edge 80 have taken the Lensbaby products from being a niche lens into being a professional quality tool.
The latest additions to the Lensbaby family include the Composer Pro, which is an improved version of the Composer offering better movement and locking control. The Sweet 35, which is the first Lensbaby optic with an adjustable aperture and 35mm focal length. The Edge 80 is an 80mm lens with adjustable aperture and built-in extension tube for closeup work.
While I will be doing a complete review of the new products very soon, I wanted to do a quick test and see how well these new optics stake up. Since I had a model at a camera show with me yesterday, I decided to bust out the Edge 80 and see how it would perform. The first thing you should know is that these are manual focus lenses, and this can certainly present a problem when using the small viewfinder and a large aperture. The image below was done at f/5.6 using the Edge 80. The camera settings were ISO 200 and 1/100th Shutter speed.
To really do this image justice, I have cropped into the left eye to show the level of detail. Keep in mind that this was taken at 1/100th and was shot handheld. and not on a tripod.
For being a handheld shot, on manual focus, using the viewfinder, I would say that is some really sharp detail there. To say that my first impressions are good would be quite an understatement. I really believe that the Sweet 35 and Edge 80 have taken the Lensbaby products from being a niche lens into being a professional quality tool. Stay tuned for a more complete review coming soon.
Vanguard Heralder 33 Messenger Bag
If you have seen me almost anywhere outside my office you are likely to have seen the Vanguard UpRise 38 messenger bag that I have been using for the past few years. While it has served me well, I had a little trouble putting a full sized DSLR with battery grip and lens into the bag. I would have to take it all apart and put the individual components in. When I saw the new Heralder 33 thought that this might solve a few issues.
Packing for this week’s trip I wanted to see what see how much I could take with me easily with the new bag. Here is the correct. Peter list of everything that I packed into the bag.
- Sigma 24-70 2.8
- Canon EOS 7D with 50mm lens and battery grip
- Canon 70-200 2.8 IS L
- Canon 580 EX II
- Lensbaby Composer Pro w/Sweet 35
- Lensbaby Edge 80
- Dell XPS laptop
- Motorola Xoom tablet
- Vanguard GH200 Pistol Grip ballhead
- Extra pair of glasses
- Cell phone
Also notice the tripod sling built into the front holding a Tonaex Kerry Garrison Signature tripod
That is one heck of a lot of gear and the camera is all set and ready to pull out and shoot. I am will see how it goes working with the bag this week. One downside…the bigger the bag, the more you can stuff in it, and the heavier it will get. I’m glad I didn’t get the Heralder 38, I would have it too heavy to carry.
Brad Pitt’s Wedding Photos
Brad and I have been friends for a bit over five years now and when I found out he was marrying Mary I couldn’t have been any happier for the two of them. Even better, Brad asked me to shoot his wedding and I agreed immediately. The ceremony took place at a nice venue overlooking the water. The weather was just perfect even if it was just a little chilly. I have lost track of how many weddings I have attended the past few years and having heard more speeches than I care to remember, I will admit to getting a bit misty eyed when Brad’s daughter Hannah gave a speech during the ceremony.
You just have to give both Brad and Mary credit for finding love again with each other. They have actually known each other for 26 years and it just took this much time for the stars to align for them. I wish Brad (yes, his name really is Brad Pitt) and Mary the best in their new life together. Peace my friend!
Kicking the Diet Coke Addiction
1983 was a magical year for me. Not only was it the year I graduated from high school (yes, I realize I just dated myself) but it was also the year that I discovered Diet Coke. We started serving Diet Coke at the Del Taco that I worked at and it was a magical elixir from the Gods. I could now drink as much soda as I wanted and not suck in a single calorie. The Coca-Cola Company obviously had found some magical spring with bubbled forth this fizzy goodness and would forever change my life. Within about a month of replacing Coke with Diet Coke as my go-to drink, I could never drink “regular” Coke or Pepsi again, they just felt too “heavy”.
GoCast #20 – Readers Questions
In this episode, I tackle some readers questions that have been sent in.During this episode we talking about fixing exposure issues, bouncing light, using reflectors, shooting groups of people, rechargeable batteries, and a handful of other topics.
This one was recorded in our cargo van so the noise reduction makes it sound pretty tiney. I apologize for the poor audio quality.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydenIRIsUrY