If you’re interested this was shot Nikon CLS with a Lastolite EasyBox, my go-to setup for quick on location portrait light.

For almost the entire shoot I was using just the one light. Kinda felt like Zack Arias for a minute there. Though I suppose since I wasn’t using big strobes and just using nikon speedlights, you might be thinking “more like McNally” but, there is no way Joe could use just one. Just his lighting gear bag is drool-worthy. I’ll get there someday, it just probably wont be anytime soon, and since he’s not likely to stop buying gear I’ll probably always be envious of what he’s got in his bag. For now though I’m making do with what I’ve got: 2 speedlights, a pair of shoot through umbrellas, a 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser and now this 24″ Ezybox. You’d be surprised what these few tools can accomplish. BTW if anyone actually compared me to either Zack or Joe at this point in my career, I’d probably piss myself.

On a side note: I bumped up the image sizes for this post, since the portrait oriented shots were leaving some space on either side, and frankly it bugged me. I like things to line up, have a certain order about them, but then some of you already knew that about me, didn’t you. What do you guys think of the giant-size photos? Do you want me to go back and upsize the older posts too?

Her band The Scarlet Ending had just flown home to Syracuse from a USO tour of West Asia, were now heading back into the studio to finish up their latest efforts for a full length due in March 2010, and Kayleigh herself was working on still more recordings as one half of Elective, a side project she started with composer/filmmaker CJ Wallis of Vancouver, BC. I was thrilled to not only get to spend some time catching up over dinner, but also to be able to make these images of her at the studio and hear some of TSE’s hard work. As a bonus I got to check out the newest (and well on its way to being the nicest) recording space in my hometown plus preview a few tracks from other bands who were recording there too.

Lighting setup for these images were again pretty simple. Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe high to the side and, on the one image, another bare light kicking into the ceiling to bring up the background out of blackness. Switched between the 24-70 and 70-200 for lenses but these three came from the 24-70 at 70mm. I’d really like to get that Nikon 85 1.4 but its not going to happen till Spring it seems, unless someone gifts it to me of course, since moving expenses will be eating all of my savings I’m sure. Ce la vie.

Casey and I spent a rainy afternoon together in Brooklyn while she was getting ready for a party that evening. We kept the atmosphere casual and I just worked around her as she prepared some delicious mushroom bruschetta that I would unfortunately not get to taste, as I had elsewhere to be that night. Casey was wonderful to work with, all smiley and happy all the time. It actually took us quite a few attempts to get the above no nonsense expression. Kept the main light – my Lastolite Ezybox mentioned in the last post – about head level to push the light in to her face better and popped another flash in the back to use as either fill for the room or a highlight as I saw fit.

Shot both of these with the camera on manual and speedlights on TTL. I can’t really decide if I like using the flashes in TTL or not. It is nice when the subject is moving and the light levels need to change, but other times I really just want the steadiness of “this-is-exactly-how-much-light-you’ll-get” manual mode. It was interesting to play with nonetheless, and changing it all from the menu in the D700 makes it super easy to try it out when I have the time.

Good things coming later this week!

Now, if you’re a nerd like me, you might like to know that I shot this session, and the next three sessions that I’ll be posting over the next week, with a new toy. I ventured to the B&H store in Manhattan to stare in wonder and then to eventually buy this Lastolite Easybox Hotshoe 24″ speedlight softbox. It’s a mouthful of a name but it’s a wonderful little accessory for off-camera, small flash photography. First saw one in action while in Montana for school when my buddy Thomas picked one up. I was envious ever since and have just now caved and bought one. For me at least, it is well worth owning one. I shoot a lot with speedlights and up till now was making do with umbrellas for portrait scenarios. This light modifier has already become my staple for enlarging and softening my light, especially when lighting people. My only gripe with it was that in order to use it with an umbrella adapter/moveable angle adapter you need a double spigot – envision a double sided threaded bit at the business end of a lightstand – which would be a nice include in their kit, even if they bump the price of the kit $5. Basically if you want to angle this thing at all other than 90 degrees using a straight stand, you need one.

Check back for the next installment of Portrait Session in a few days. If I’m feeling artsy-fartsy I may draw up a basic lighting diagram for how most of these sessions went. Be warned though, it really is pretty basic, both in technique and in my ability to draw.

Here’s one last photo from Central Park. Jaclyn and I, like countless others that afternoon, spread a blanket out under the warm sun on the crest of a knoll in the lawn known as Sheep Meadow, unpacked our lunch and gazed up at the beauty that was around us. Sundays are about her only days off, so we were both glad the weather was gorgeous. I told myself to make more portraits this trip, or at least make more images of people if candid moments presented themselves. So trying to keep that goal I proceeded to annoy almost every one of my friends I visited. Whats more, I put the results up on the internet – lucky them! Below is another frame of Paula on the beach in “deluxe-bury” just a few miles from her Marshfield, Mass home.

And here are a few from an afternoon at my sister’s home. I’m not entirely convinced that she lets her kids play on the piano as readily as they explained to us they could, so when she had stepped out for the afternoon and it was just Uncle Jeff and Gramma left, they made sure to enjoy themselves. As you might imagine, all of their musical selections were played forté, especially the pieces that required all six of their hands. Adaline stayed the longest at the keys, teaching the glow-in-the-dark bats she received for Halloween how to play. I’m glad I will soon be living a lot closer to them.

Incidentally, the title of this post is the name of a record – a pretty good one at that – and you can hear a song from that band (The Creature Comforts) right here: Showboat

I have traveled the contiguous 48 States many, many times, but a few had evaded me. Maine was the last on my list (other than Alaska and Hawaii of course) and I finally got to check her off that list on a crisp October morning, in perhaps the most perfect of scenarios.

I had driven from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to stay a few days, visit some old friends and experience the heart of New England in Autumn. My old friend Paula and her man Matt were lovely enough to put me up for a night, and Paula showed me around the next day and graciously tolerated my camera in her face as we explored her neighboring beach towns. The coast was exactly as I had expected it, except better in every way. Sunny with a stiff breeze, wet sand and a blueish hue that seemed to saturate everything with a cold, sad flavor of a deserted New England beach in the Fall. After a day at the edge of the Atlantic I headed to “Boston proper” – as Kaleena had put it – to meet her for food and drinks. Then I made the late night drive up 95 into Vacationland and nestled into a rented room a few miles off the highway.

In the morning I found my way down to the coast to brave the thirty-some-odd degree weather plus wind for a glance at the North Atlantic. I can understand why so many have been drawn to a life out there past the horizon, on the cold and rolling waves of a seafaring vocation. I then turned abruptly and drove off into the woods of Maine to be surrounded by the gloriousness of a New England forest in Autumn. More on that next time.

Friday however, I took a break from the plexiglass and Positionable Mounting Adhesive and had some fun behind the camera again. It was only for a little over an hour due to some tight schedules, but we had fun. Hopefully I’ll get to work with these fun and talented young ladies again in the future when we all have a little more time and my head isn’t totally consumed with preparing for a gallery show. Chanel and Janice (red hair) are on their way to NYC this weekend for meetings with agencies this coming week. Here’s a handful from the session:

I had of course brought my camera and had asked her to make some images with me, and since she’s a good sport she agreed. Emma has worked with a few other friends of hers that are also photographers, like Eric Wimberly and Allister Ann so she isn’t unbearably squeamish in front of a camera like most of my friends are. I haven’t done an official survey or anything, but she’s probably my most photographed friend. Here’s a few frames I made of her from that afternoon, and again many thanks to Emma.

I just got back from a trip to NY (the reason for which I will explain in another post when I am less excited about the photos I’m posting on here). On this trip I got to spend a few wonderful hours with my sister’s family in the backyard of our old house, where she now lives with her husband and three young kids. I made a promise to myself recently to just take more pictures and not worry about if they are all going to be amazingly lit or perfectly composed before I even pick up the camera. I even put the camera on “not manual” which took some doing for me. I never really liked letting control of things go to the camera, even if it is really good at it. But there I was in the backyard with kids running around and their were faces in direct sun and then shade every 3 seconds as they ran around me in circles… so aperture priority it was.

Central New York can be very unpredictable in March, and this sunny 60 degree day was proof. The ground had just thawed and only a few patches of snow remained where the ground had been shaded by the neighboring trees, but even those were melting quickly, adding to the squishiness of the ground. My sister’s kids are adorable, and these images feel like they could’ve been from an era before she and I (not much older than Eliot and Ada are now) had ever wandered the backyard on our first spring-like day in that new house.