Photography is always an adventure

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday shooting a test at Kennedy Space Center. We were floating a capsule mockup in the water outside hangar AF. The booster recovery guys were "playing" with different methods of recovering the "crabtrap" as they called it.The first day started out very rainy, with more on the way, but it did start to clear out. This allowed Joe and I to really capture some good shots. We were shooting with 4 camera bodies, and 5 lenses. We had a T1i, a 50D, a XSi and a 5Dmkii. We had the 400 5.6L, the 17-55F2.8 IS, the 100 F2.8 Macro, the 17-40 F4L and the 70-200 F4L IS. We took well over a thousand stills and even exercised the video potential on the T1i and the 5Dmkii.

News News News...

My head is here, and it is pretty wonderful. She needs a little makeup to make her less, ummmm, yellow. Can you tell which is which?  Anyway, I think she'll do nicely. My daughter has taken a liking to her, so she gets her hair brushed a couple of times a day now...

Speaking of my daughter, She got a load of new outfits from Grammie, and put this on this morning. It was so cute, I had to set up some lights real quick. This was an AlienBee 800 just above and to her left with a shoot through umbrella. It was triggered optically with my repaired 580EXii on camera. It was set to manual 1/32 power just to fill in some shadow. Not bad for a 2 minute setup. My daughter was trying out some of the poses she is learning in "hip-hop" dance class. These were taken with my 100mm F2.8Macro since I had loaned my 85 F1.8 out to a friend.

Just for grins I popped one off without the key light, just to show the fill flash's power... Whats interesting, it also showed the reflection off the fish tank.

Anyway, in other news, Florida is a fabulous place to live, especially here.. Took the family out to Playa Linda to see how much damage Earl had done. Short anwser is none. There were some nice waves, and lots of surfers... Then there was also this little guy... He was nice enough to pose, right in the golden hour light.

Just goes to show, there is a nice photo anywhere you look...


Rory Duncan

We have a new pet....

While cleaning out our pantry of expired food, we cam upon a can of cashews that was around during the first four years of the W. administration... It had a hitchhiker. About a thousand really. THis was taken with the canon 100mm F2.8 Macro lens with a 580EXii flash with a homemade mini softbox, triggered with "Pocket Change Wizard" ebay flash trigger.

I can't say too much nice about this guy (girl) other than she has never sent me to the doctor... Which is less than I can say for this guy...

 
This thing that looks like a Wookie dropping looks to me like an Asp. It has the characteristic tear drop shape that denotes this hideous beast. He is about an inch long, and reeking with evil. I once knelt on a *piece* of one of these when we lived in Houston, and my entire leg swelled up. A family friend happened to be a doctor who opened up his practice late on a Sunday to give me a antihistamine shot. Yikes.. Very unpleasant.

I must say that I love macro photography. This particular lens gives a 1:1 magnification ratio on a full frame camera, and 1.6:1 on a crop body. That means that whatever the size in real lift, it can reproduce it at 1.6 times the size on my camera sensor. Since the Canon 50D has a 15.1 megapixel sensor, I can get a lot of magnification out of the system. Combine that with the homemade softbox that is about 6"x6" and you get some nice shots.. That doesn't sound big, but when your subject is an inch or less, that's HUGE.

RAD

Woohoo!

Just got word from the canon service center that the damaged 580EXii speedlite is on its way home.

Speaking of flashes, I am seriously considering picking up a ringflash from alienbees. I love the look it gives, and it can be reconfigured to work as a normal strobe. Anyone have any experience with this guy? Its only 120 bucks more than an 800... Now, who wants to be our first subject to get a nice glamour set?

On a related note, the sunrise this morning was gorgeous. It was about 6:40 and I was going over the railroad bridge on US1 near gardenstreet. A little sliver of sun was poking out through a cloud, leaving a gorgeous firey ring outlining the cloud. I knew I was about 3 minutes away from being able to stop and shoot it. The light at garden street was green, and there was no extra construction traffic over the max-brewer bridge. I pulled off, but man does 3 minutes make a big difference in a sunrise... I still like how it turned out...

Rory Duncan

Sometimes you wonder...

I was looking at manikin heads for testing lighting setups, when I had a thought. Here I was comparing.. (Does it need real human hair? Eww).. contrasting.. Well, she's pretty, but her lips are too big... I thought to myself, I wonder what Staci would do when she opened a box from Amazon, and inside she found a human head? We have been watching a lot of Bones lately...

Rory

Senior Photography Season is Here

We just finished up a set of 3 senior photos, and I have to say I am pretty happy with the shots. Two of the girls we shot down in Cocoa Village along the water. It was a great site with lots of options. We had to fight the noon day sun, but a little help from mother nature took care of most of it. Lets just say Neautral density filters are your friend when its REALLY bright, but you still want to destroy the background. Mother nature gives, and takes away however. We had a fatality when a Florida afternoon thunderstorm blew through the area. We were all hiding under the pavillion (As you know, it only takes 10 minutes or so for these things to blow out), when a freak wind gust tipped over one of my light stands, and broke one of my high dollar portable strobes. Ahh well... $120 later and Canon takes care of it. Thus is life. The girls had three or four outfits each and it took about three hours. They got 160ish pictures out of the deal.

Check out some of the shots at http://roryandstaci.com/seniors.cfm

You can also check out some of the senior studio shots. I really like the look of the black with the contrast of the rose. Its not so overpowering to subtract from the subject. This "studio" was in her dining room. It took about 10 minutes to push the table out of the way and set up the backdrop and lights. We did a little green screen photography as well.. There is one of the examples in the green screen gallery. That background was one she had harvested from the web. I have to admit it gives a nice look. While we were there we also did a shot of her two brothers as well.

Rory Duncan

Some introductions are in order...

Rory and Staci Photography is a small, dedicated group of professional photographers. Actually there are two of us that run the cameras, and one helping out with logistics. My name is Rory Duncan, and I have been seriously into photography for 6 years now. I have a wide range of interests when it comes to photography. I do studio work, candids, birds, spiders, rocket launches, even astrophotography. I am interested in all technical aspects of photography, and how to use them to bring out the art in a shot. Knowing which lens is best, and how much power a strobe has wont help you if you cant compose a shot. Heck, the more you learn about photography, the less you really know. There is always a new technique to bring out the best in a shot. This is why, to me anyway, there is no cookie cutter session. Every setup is different, every location is different, every subject is different. Knowing how to overcome, and turn the situation into a great photograph is what makes a real photographer.

A little about our company. We are a little different than the others. We offer a single price for most shoots. We will come to your location (Within 25 miles of Titusville, FL) for the included price. We will spend an average of 2 hours at your site, and you can expect close to 100 pictures to choose from. We take the time to make you and yours look your best.   We set up in your house, or in a place of your choosing.. No strange places, just your comfort zone. You will end up with printing rights of all the pictures. This means you can get them printed anywhere, on anything without paying high per print costs. This will save you a small fortune. The great part is our entire fee is $100.00 and if you really need it, $50 an hour after the first 2. I feel pretty confident in saying that you should get some FABULOUS shots in the first two hours. We will even fix up and imperfections in your four favorite photos, to make them even more perfect. We offer green screen photography. We shoot you in front of a green screen, and can then digitally subtract it out. This allows us to put you in front of all sorts of fun / exciting backgrounds. This requires a bit of work on our part to make them look great, so they cost $10 per processed picture. Other than that, the only other charge we have is for travelling past 25 miles from Titusville, that will run $0.50 a mile.

Check out our website for a gallery, and our contact information.
http://roryandstaci.com/studio.html

Rory Duncan