Photoshop-Lightroom

still cold and rainy, tilted kilt, no brewing day, evening home

Posted by imus on March 27, 2011
Posted in: Photos, Photoshop-Lightroom. Tagged: , , .

Got up a bit earlier today, cold outside, almost under 40 I think. It’s cold downstairs since I put on the AC instead of the Heat last week. Turned on the heat and watched the end of Skyline that I had started last night but just couldn’t finish.

Nicki got up and then went out to go to the store.

I then played upstairs with photos for awhile and Brian came up asking about maybe going to lunch somewhere, suggested the Kilted Kilt that just opened up by the Mall.

Had some lunch there but TOTALLY forgot about the 12:30 before you can buy a beer rule. Stupid Georgia and the liquor laws here. Cute Kilt Girl, light auburn hair and some really nice freckles on her midriff. Brian was his regular somewhat fault finding self. Let the owner/manager know that some of the girls don’t look good in the outfit, mmmmm. OK, thanks. I love him but sometimes he makes me want to crawl under something and disappear. It was fine that he say it to me but….

We then stopped in at the T-Mac for a beer since the Kilt was out of Guinness, what? an Irish bar out of Guinness? Just not right! I had the Victory Heartland Pale Ale and he the Ommegang Chocolate Indulgance, I only have 11 more credits to get my Dean and the stein. Maybe I’ll drink the Schlitz Gusto for the 750th beer.

Stayed home the rest of the day, just messed with some StopShot photos with a glass of water and some dice. I also messed on the Interwebs and waited for a text I didn’t get. I figured that Bill&Suzy didn’t really want me over but I was being polite and would rather get to know them better. I’m really not into the third wheel stuff as much as I seem to get into it. It would have been cool watching them do the beer brewing, it would have been cool.

lunch, photography, beer, friends, march madness ends for gators

Posted by imus on March 26, 2011
Posted in: Beer, Photos, Photoshop-Lightroom. Tagged: , , , .

The weekend is mostly rainy and cool. I didn’t get up till almost 11am and then didn’t get out to lunch until almost 1pm since Brian had called the DirecTV guys and he had blocked the car in the garage. I’m not sure why they don’t always just park on the street.

I came home after lunch and just messed around a bit with the StopShot and took some photos of dropping dice in a wine glass of water. I just simply dropped the dice and then had the camera triggered.

I then went out to T-Mac for a couple of beers, Had the Holy Mackerel Panic Attack and then the Unibroue La Terrible. Saw Dan and Cathy there just before they finished their last beers. They are off to the north next week. Met another couple, Bill and Suzy, they have a 3 yo boy at home and also brew beer. They invited me over to the house tomorrow to witness the brewing process. They and D&C talked about Ireland since D&C are going soon and they went about 3-4 years ago I think. Now I want to go. We discussed the gal at the table next to the bar, she seems to be there EVERY Friday and Saturday, this weekend with an older dude we were theorizing if he was her dad or if there was a romantic connection, didn’t seem to be. Really none of our business. She is HOT in a slutty dirty blond with big breasts sort of way. The cute gator fan hostess and I shared our condolences on the Florida’s elite 8 loss to Balor.

Came home after that, stopping in at the Kroger for some salmon to cook and instead stopping in for wings at the Beef O’Brady’s instead.

lusting for more equipment

Posted by imus on October 11, 2010
Posted in: Photoshop-Lightroom. Tagged: .

On Saturday I had stopped in at Showcase Photo off of Cheshire Bridge Rd. and checked out some photography stuff. Found a few New Domke bags that I liked, small ones that will hold basically a few lenses or maybe a flash along with smaller items. Something to carry around when I don’t want a larger bag to hold a camera as well.

They also had the 190 Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod legs I’d love to have for times I go on a plane to places for photography. My current legs are a bit heavier and too long to get into a carry-on bag.

camera and laptop on a tripod.

Posted by imus on March 12, 2010
Posted in: Photoshop-Lightroom. Tagged: , .

I wouldn’t mind a little setup like this, from Joe McNally:

“I use the Gitzo GT-5560SGT tripod, and mount the Manfrotto Accessory Arm 3153B to it, and then the Gitzo G065 Laptop Platform to that. Couple that up with a ball head such as the Manfrotto 468MG, and you be cooking. I keep the platform at eyeball height so I don’t have to stoop to see the computer. I’m tethered via Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 and a USB 2.0 cable with an extension. Everything is taped down, cause I’m excitable and accident prone. It works real well as a location rig.”

shoot with amanda

Posted by imus on January 28, 2007
Posted in: Photoshop-Lightroom. Tagged: , , .

I got up quite early considering I went to bed at 1:30am,  I tried to get back to sleep but with obsessing about if everything was ready for the shoot and if things would work out OK, I just couldn’t get back to sleep.  I got up and messed with testing some exposures of myself in order to have the main lighting right before Amanda and crew arrived.  I had moved my two lights to be the key (to the left of the camera and forward) and the fill (on camera right and behind), I then placed my brother’s two strobes that he graciously allowed me to use on the left and right of the model pointed toward the background.  I think I metered the key at f/8 and the fill at f/5.6 or 1:2 the background lights read f/16 to blow out the white background.

I was mostly ready by about noon and wanted to eat but was almost to nerved up to do so.  I poured myself a rum and Pepsi (OK, I live in Atlanta but HATE Coke), actually a Pepsi One, (you got to get the help where you can) in order to calm down a bit.  Amanda calls about 1ish and says they are running a bit late so it could be another 1.5 to 2 hours before they get there.  Considering we were shooting for 2:00pm and I still had things to do I was happy for the delay.  They arrived around 2:30ish and we basically jumped right in after the introductions.  I was worried that with everyone (her husband Kris and their s7yo Corbin) there including Brian there would be problems but no everything worked out great.

I felt I started out slow and could have felt a bit more in control but I was glad that after a bit Amanda had some ideas she asked about and things started to flow better.  I think I improved as far as directing her poses but I did leave more up to her than I expect I should have.  In reality I’m better at the technology of the art than the true art part.  Or maybe it is just that I’m more secure in the technology part.  I turned off the Auto Focus and just focused manually, not sure if that was good or bad but I feel that most of the photos were in focus, I exclusively focused on her eyes.  At times I was slow to focus and that might have made her feel like saying, “OK, take the picture please!!” so maybe next time I should try the AF for a bit and see how things work out.  Use the technology to your advantage.

Amanda was tickled about her makeup, especially her eyes and as you can see why here —> http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/47602253/
She looked fantastic if I haven’t already said that.

I learned a few things:
1). set the white balance to flash NOT auto!
2). I need to get better at suggesting poses, sometimes I don’t due to being modest( ie. how about a shot with your butt sticking out more?).
3). maybe use auto focus so model doesn’t have to wait so long for shot.
4). don’t try to bracket manually.

Things I want to do next with a shoot like this:
1). action shots, hair moving etc.  – note need to get a large free standing fan.
2). more implied nudity, way better than real nudity in my book.
3). Take more pictures.

old camera, first 35mm

Posted by imus on December 13, 2002
Posted in: Photoshop-Lightroom. Tagged: , .

Thinking about my photographic history and my first camera given to me by my grandfather. I think it was an old Argus and I found a link to an Argus Collector’s Group on the web. I had given the camera to my younger brother after I got an Minolta SRT201. I wish I hadn’t done that now since he has “lost” the camera.