warlock,
I had the Fong Lightsphere in my bag the whole day and never used it. Most of these shots used only ambient light. Some my GF was holding a 42" reflector that I just got from amazon.com and a few others I used my SB800 with the omnibounce cover that it came with and just bounced the light off a nearby wall or something. The shot with the couple on the grass, I had my GF hold my SB800 to camera left a few ft away and aimed it down at the couple to cast shadows across their features to add depth. The SB800 was connected to my D70 via an SC-17 cord.

I plan to keep my D70 until it dies. If I were to upgrade today, I'd probably get a D80 and not a D200. The D80 has alot of the same advancements as the D200 (AF mechanisms, sensor performance, viewfinder, etc) but not the super advancements that I probably wouldn't use (like weatherproofing). Also the D80 is still in my price range.

As for the tilt, I was inspired by reading this guys blog: http://www.xanga.com/scottrobert/426820604/item.html

Scott Robert specializes in high end wedding photography and recently was hired to shoot Kris and Anna Bensons rededication party (YES guys - THAT Anna Benson) Check out his blog to see pics from that party.

I'll update the original post with exif info later. check back.

The last all day wedding that I shot (800 pics from 9am to 11pm) I went thru 8 AA Energizer NiMh batteries. Not horrible by any means. If I ever want an external battery pack - I'd definetly go for the black box though - it comes high recommended by event photographers everywhere.

cool i do visit his site ( Scott Robert ), and use the same technique.

I wish your close to my area so we can organize a nice photo safari slash xterra excursion.

This weekend ill be up by the Shenandoah mountains or DC area to get more images, depending If im going to be on call this weekend to get more images.

Keep Shooting Mang!!! and dont forget to share the exif when your not busy

Done.

kj i checked out your site. You have awesome pix! I think the ones you posted here are some of the better ones. I must say, however, I didn't get to see all the pix (some were locked). I loved the pix of "Christie & Dave" at the Berkley Rose Garden!

I'm not sure but it seems like you do better outdoors and with still life. You also seem to do well with kids. Some of your indoor action shots seem a little dark to me.

That sounds about right. Alot of those indoor shots are before I figured out how to effectively use my flash. (I'm still tinkering with that part). Also for indoor shots, I tend to use my cheaper/lower quality kit lens and for the "shots that really count" - I tend to use the better prime lenses (like the 50mm). The prime lenses are clearer, and give better colors and contrast.

I also only just started shooting in NEF format as prior to me playing with Adobe Lightroom - I didn't have the time to post-process NEF shots to JPG one at a time - especially when I take nearly 800 shots at a wedding. (yikes!)

For this latest engagement shoot, I knew that there would only be a handful of shots that I really liked so I shot NEF format and took the time to edit them individually. For weddings - the focus is a little different as I am more an observer and am mostly there to document the festivities, so in effect - quantity may be more important than quality.

Thanks for stopping by.

I had another engagement session with some other friends. Personally, this session wasn't as strong as my previous session. I'm learning and sometimes you take a step backwards in your development. This was probably one of those times.

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

First stop: San Francisco, CA
Golden Gate Park
Japanese Tea Garden

This venue was really challenging for two reasons. The garden was busy. Really busy. It was a nice saturday afternoon and the place was packed with tourists who kept getting in the way. Also I had to stay on the paths and not trample on the grass or soil so that really limited the angles and distances I could use. It was sorta neat "camera watching" though. There were alot of other DSLR users exploring the park with us. I counted several D200's, and D80's. No D50's surprisingly. Also a few 20/30D's. As usual when in SF though, the Nikons outnumbered the Canons. So much for Canon's bragged "larger market share". For some reason, whenever I got to SF - I observe that Nikon's outnumber the Canons like 3 to 1. Strange.

The weather was a little chilly and the sky was foggy and overcast the entire time we were there.

D70 | ISO 640 | f5.6 | 28mm f2.8 | 1/200


D70 | ISO 640 | f5.6 | 28mm f2.8 | 1/500
Maybe someday, I will clone out that handrail.


D70 | ISO 640 | f3.5 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/320


D70 | ISO 320 | f8.0 | 18-70 kit lens | 60mm | 1/160
We waited a good 10-15 minutes for this bench to open up.


D70 | ISO 800 | f4.0 | 28mm f2.8 | 1/1250


D70 | ISO 640 | f5.6 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/400


D70 | ISO 400 | f6.3 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/400
A little fun to relax the models.


D70 | ISO 640 | f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 1/4000

Final Stop: Foster City, CA - Leo Park. This was a much easier venue to shoot at. Blue skys, harsh sunset lighting, and NO CROWDS to deal with. The main limitation was my sucky skills in these conditions and so alot of would be good shots were blown.

D70 | ISO 320 | f9 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/400


D70 | ISO 200 | f2.8 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/1000


D70 | ISO 200 | f6.3 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/400
See the gold reflector?


D70 | ISO 400 | f5.0 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/800
(used a gold reflector here)


D70 | ISO 200 | f4.0 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/500


D70 | ISO 1000 | f4.5 | 50mm f1.8D | 1/8000
(Why the heck was I using ISO 1000????)


This whole session was a surprise for her. It was their 9th yr anniversary and he wanted to surprise her with a photo session. HE also surprised her by proposing and presenting her with a series of rings (pictured above).

Very cool stuff. Hey, I never knock overcast weather. Nature's best lightbox!

Great Shots Man!!!!Me likes