Canon 28-105mm good generic lens...

What a coincident....I recently came to know that my neighbor (Owen Zyltra) is a photographer, thats a great surprise for a hobbyist like me !! Last week we had a chat over his apartment and exchanged our photography thoughts...which was a fruitful discussion...Owen is a Canon shooter (5D / 40D) and has almost all the gears which I dream about, the prime and L series lenses which covers most of the focal ranges, Canon Speedlites, elilnchrom light system, pocket wizards etc etc....so no doubt I was amazed.

The best part is he lend me 28-108mm macro lens ... it’s a pretty good lens which covers generic focal lengths. With my Canon T1i the equivalent focal length comes to 44.8-160mm which give me better compression at f4.5 which is cool.. I enjoyed shooting with this lens indoor/outdoor, low light and with off camera flash... here are some pics I shoot of my daughter Urvi :)

Thanks Owen :)

 

Doty Park shoot

After a long time I got an opportunity to participate in  a group photo shoot for "Focus July Monthly Meeting" which was at Doty Park, Neenah,WI.... thanks to Christy Euclide who organised this.

I had no specific agenda in mind but I was carrying a Westcott 60" umbrella light modifier so wanted utilize it as much as possible. To be honest I am not very happy with the results since I got lot of hard shadows where I was expecting the soft light....might be either I am still not placing the light in right direction or I should have at least one more fill light. The One-Light technique is not quite simple as I thought earlier.... I need to learn more from Zac Arias.

 The best thing about such shoot is, you get new friends who are either professional photographers or newbies like me who came to learn and experience the new things....happy shooting

Model: Skylar Kuehnl
Place: Doty Park, WI
Light modifier: Westcott 60in umbrella

Kids...its fun to shoot

I thoroughly enjoy photographing kids, recently I got an opportunity to photograph two lovely kids of my friend (Rajas Kirtane).... 3months old Ishan and his bro Yash....I was able to take the shots as these kids cooperated very well...

My main intention was to produce "High Key" shots which would have lots of white or highlights in totality without much compromise on skin tone.... I know I need to learn a lot on compositions and exposures but I believe my baby steps will take me to achieve this one day.... every photo shoot is a learning experience for me and I enjoyed it with satisfaction.

This was my first shoot with new Westcott 60inch Umbrella I bought last week and I am totally satisfied with the quality of light it produced. I wanted to photograph Ishu baby for long time but I was waiting to get my budget ready for this umbrella.... looking at the results I feel this light modifier is worth to its cost $47.

Set up: 2 Vivitar flash in 2:1 ratio, one with umbrella and one background. f/5.6 to f/8, 1/200 (sync speed for Canon T1i), ISO100

Heavy Metal Shoot - Green Bay

Last Sunday (02/20) I had participated in a Photo shoot organised by a Green Bay photography club, the whole experience was not less than a roller coaster ride... I went back with couple of good shots and lot of lessons.
During my engineering days I never thought that someday I will encounter a mechanical factory full of professional models to shoot... Mechanical factory is all about workers in blue/gray uniforms,production targets, supervisor hovering around to check if any worker is hanging around, machines are making all kinds of noise in which you barely hear what other person is saying etc etc - The scene was total opposite in the factory I visited yesterday....the shop was filled up by rock music, photographer were setting up their shooting gears and all over the floor funky chunky models were roaming around with all kinds of fashion clothing which I had seen only on TV or fashion magazines.......now just imagine !!
Looking around this chaos I had no idea from where to start and what to do....by the time i took out my camera and light stand, one model approached me for a shoot. Believe me I had no words to reply, I just said yes and she quickly started posing by nearest available machine...I was literally sweating... but then I took some pictures and showed her...according to her it was fabulous pictures of the day !! the fact is day was just started .... hehehe..she must have understood what is my level ;))
After couple of shots, my brand new Vivitar flash fell down from the light stand...i realized during all that hasty set up i did not fix it properly on a light stand (lessons learnt - don't get confused, cool down, make sure every equipment is in right place and then start!!)
After a little warm up I requested couple of models and found that everyone was interested to get shoot. All these models were either professionals or studying in some fashion schools. Through this kind of photo shoots they are benefited by creating their portfolios (may be for free) by various pro/learning photographers and increase their network. Also the photographers get opportunity to shoot various models at one time one location - so its a win win game ! I liked the whole concept of meet up shoot...

I get to know what all photography gears used by Pros and how they handle it. Most of the time, the minimum the equipments the better it is..... I have observed most of the photographers were untilising one light equipment gear with keep it simple strategy...which was cool.

Here are some of the shots....

 

 

The entire photoshoot ....