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 ....

Water Drops.....

2 days back I bought Vivitar DF 383 flash which is a budget flash; my dream came true. After an exhaustive review around the budget speedlites I decided to go with Vivitar although Yongnuo YN-560 is also a good flash (may be that will be my next flash). 

So the first experiment I wanted to do was to capture the water droplets as many of the photo enthusiast does. I am happy with my Canon T1i & its kit lens (18-55mm) which gave me these satisfactory results which I am happy to share with you. To be honest I don't know what difference it would have made if I had a macro lens..

The set up was quite simple, but since it was related to water my daugter Urvi was very much interested to help me in everything by playing in it....she wanted to almost swim in that cake pan filled with water. Finally she was successfull to splash water on the camera and flash unit....and got a 'fatka' as a reward :)

I used the gift bag & a gift wrap paper as background, the colours of droplets are reflected from these backgrounds.

And here is the setup..

My Valentine...

On this valentine day I dedicate this post to my greatest supporter, best friend, and wife Kamakshi. I believe any hobby to continue, you need a great support from your near ones and someone should understand how much you are into it...Kamakshi motivated my photography hobby by always saying yes to the things I do, the things I buy, assisting me in photography set ups, by giving me various suggestions, telling me where I am wrong & most important is sparing time whenever I need it...what else I want ?? My blog is a outcome of her suggestion..she wanted me to record my experiments and she believe this way I will not lose the traction on my hobby.... trust me that’s a "BIG" support and motivation.

Many a times I feel guilty that I am so much obsessed with my hobby, I just don’t give attention to her likes and wishes. I am very poor in getting any kind of gift to make her happy...so thought of expressing my feelings to her through this post… Kamakshi you are my Valentine.. J

Winter outside office

Everyday during lunch I see these sit-out benches outside the office canteen, these days they are covered with snow and looks beautiful.... of-course I wanted to photograph it. Last weekend it was a sunny day so I came to office just to shoot it and gone back with these pictures... 

The Glass

It was my long time wish to photograph a glassware and today I gave a shot to utilize a reflection of light to capture some pics. I have used white cardboard sheet & 2 CFL 100w equivalent lights. It would have been great if I had a good strobe unit to for richer reflection. To get more light I have used +2 exposure compensation keeping the ISO100 to avoid any noise.

Green Bay Winter..

When weather gets colder in Green Bay, the snow covers almost everything on the ground, the Fox River pass through the city is almost frozen...I feel lucky to be here in such a wonderful weather. Every morning while going to office I see the scenic landscapes which appeals me to capture it in my camera. But the problem is I cannot stop the car in between to take the pictures...so last weekend I decided to go out to the park (Voyager Park) which is on the Fox River bay. The temperature was down to -14 Deg Cel, the whole park was covered with snow and I was walking in almost 1.5 ft deep snow, believe me it was amazing experience. However it was so cold that i was rushing through the images to get back to my car to be more comfortable. I ended up having couple of good pictures, here they are...

This is little technical but would like to mention here ...
Brilliant white snow confuses the camera meter reading since it wants to make everything mid-toned which leads to under-exposed shots ... and snow looks gray in the final image. I dialed exposure compensation value to+1.5 to +2 which gave me kind of correct exposures..

All photos - f/20, ISO200, Auto shutter, Exp Comp in the range +1.5 to +2, hand held

Attempting Food Photographs

I believe food photography is one the of challenging fields which demands lots of creative angles, understanding deft of field & study of light. I would definitely like to give my best efforts to capture some nice food photographs. Here are my first food photographs to capture Diwali sweets, ‘Karanji’ & ‘Rava ladoo’ which my wife Kamakshi prepared for this Diwali....


Like Pu La Deshpande mentioned in “Asa Mi Asa Mi”... राजहंसाचे चालणे| जगी झालीया शाहणे | म्हणुनी काय कवणे| चालूची नये | ;) in simple words "Doing your best means never stop trying.”

Product Photographs

Adding couple of more photos on product photography tryouts. All these pictures taken on a white background with contiguous light focus. CFL lights are good and cheap to try out this lighting set ups, though I wish to have a flash (Speedlight) which will give me more flexibility to tryout creative lighting setup


This is a Harley Davidson 1:18 die-cast replica I bought from HD museum at Milwaukee with the intention to photograph it. With 18-55mm lense I still find it challenging to get closeup and tryout different angles to minute details. This picture is captured at 55mm zoomout position on tripod.

f14 0.8'' ISO100 Exposure comp+1.3 steps

This is my daughter's (Urvi's) first tooth brush we bought from Walmart - when I was shooting above bike picutres she was plyaing with this brush, so I just thought it could be a good prodcut to photograph...and here it is ....

f14 1/8 ISO100 33mm

Cello Tape Dispenser

   I am always fascinated with the product photography. Whenever I see the product catalogs of  popular retailer shops like Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond I feel like buying the products just looking at the pictures. I am giving my try to capture some product photographs on my table top studio...this is one of them..

Canon T1i 

f36 - 1/3 - ISO100 @55mm on Tripod

The Moon ...

Hi,

The first posting of my blog – the Moon which implies to my name- Shashi.

Like many of us I always had a wish to take a detailed photograph of moon in which I could see the craters on the moon. Since the time I bought my first DSLR (Canon T1i), I was eager to photograph a moon but the challenge was to go near as much as possible....without a space ship ;-). With the kit lens of 18-55mm it was too difficult to get the close enough capture. To overcome the problem I had two options, either take the picture at the moon rise or have a telephoto zoom. Thanks to Santosh Abhyankar from whom I got the Canon 55-250mm lens and then I chase the moon rise in a city called De Pere (Wisconsin, US) where I am staying..... I think the photo has come near to my expectation, what do you think ??

Canon T1i

f7.1 - 1/230 - ISO100 @250mm