learning to flash

So, as I mentioned before, I bought myself one of these for christmas. I finally stopped procrastinating about it and just tried it out for a client shoot the other day.

I was happy to see that it's dedicated to my camera, so I didn't actually have to pretend to know how to use it and fiddle around until it did something. Basically you install it onto your camera's hotshoe and away you go. All I had to do was turn it on and it examined my camera settings and fired whenever I pressed the shutter button on the camera.

Now, as convenient as that is, I do still intend to learn how it works so I can use it for more complicated set ups, but for now I'm pretty pleased that I could be an idiot and still have it work for me.

I did a quick couple before/after shots to see what the difference was:

As you can see, a pretty decent difference in lighting. I still don't like the "flash shadow" that shows up, so I did my best to minimize that throughout the shoot. Because this flash can swivel around in all directions, I had it pointed at my reflector to the left of the camera. I tried it on the silver side first, but that was too much contrast for this particular kind of portrait, so I switched it over to the opaque white side to give a lighter diffusion. It's still a bit stark in some of them, but for the most part it did what I wanted it to.

After changing to a horizontal frame for some shots, I started bouncing it off the ceiling instead. My ceiling isn't necessarily the best for this since it's that textured kind with all the bumps on it, but I liked the result none the less.

The ceiling bounce offered a better version of the kind of light I was looking for. There's enough extra light to get a brighter picture, but without the flash sacrificing the natural light coming in from the window.

So, nothing terribly complicated at all. Just a matter of finding things to bounce it off of and hopefully avoiding the ghastly flash shadow that makes everything look like a cardboard cut out. In the future hopefully I'll be able to report on using the flash's manual settings and maybe try using it off the camera. It did come with a stand! For now though, I'm happy. Winter is so overcast around here, it's hard to get a good amount of natural light shining in through the windows.

Also, that's my kitty Noelle being her usual nosey self. I believe she was looking to have an affection attack, but we were kind of busy.

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Here are a couple of the final images:

business abby, originally uploaded by avalilly.

business abby, originally uploaded by avalilly.

the facebook plunge

Blogger, meet facebook.

I think you'll be great friends.

So yes, I have made myself a facebook fan page. I didn't think I'd want to, but one really can't ignore the usefulness of that platform - especially for the local connections who spend a lot of time on there and not a lot of time learning that you take photos by other means. Much of the stuff on there you've probably already seen if you follow this blog or my flickr, but there's a few that you won't have. I'm going to add a Photo Retouching gallery to show some before and afters of my photos. So atleast that will be new!

If you like, go ahead and "like" me on facebook if you have an account! I appreciate any support. As far as I know, fan pages don't assault your notification boxes like groups do. I'm still trying to figure it out. It's linked to my personal account, so I'm finding it difficult to navigate between the two. Maybe once there's more activity on it, it'll be easier to tell.

Anywho, I thought I'd pop in with that bit of news seeing as I've been a bit lazy about taking new photos lately. I have a shoot booked for tomorrow, so I'll atleast have that to post about. Lots of new ideas in the works too, I just have to get over this cold and the feeling that my bed is the only place to be when not at work!

I hope January has been treating you well!

portfolio help!

portfolio help!, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Hello Bloggers!

I need some help putting a printed portfolio of my photographic work together in a fairly short amount of time. I have an interview with the college I'm doing a Digital Photography certificate with to get myself exempt from the first couple of mandatory courses, as I feel they don't offer much that I would learn from. To do this I have to prove that I can handle a camera already, so I have to bring in some work to show them and then do a small evaluation.

Since I have to be away working all weekend, I thought I'd ask for other people's opinions since the interview could be as early as Monday. If you'd like to help, please follow the photo link to my Flickr photostream where you can find more of my work. You can leave a link to a couple of images that you think I should include in the comments of this entry, or on the Flickr photo if you have an account. I greatly appreciate any input!

Thank you <3

a late seasons greetings

Various things that denote the warmth of the holidays to me:

last year, originally uploaded by avalilly.

candied crystal, originally uploaded by avalilly.

the lounge, originally uploaded by avalilly.

warmth, originally uploaded by avalilly.

moment, originally uploaded by avalilly.

christmas bokeh book love, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I meant to do this sooner, but I really wanted to get that shot of the candy cane heart before I made this post. Silly me, I just got around to taking that photo yesterday. The rest are just a random selection of holiday-esque photos I've taken either this season or during the 2009/2010 transition. I love this time of year. I wish it had been more festive this year for us, but current circumstances aside, it was still nice.

The new year holds a lot of good things to come. I'm very much looking forward to it. I don't really have any resolutions, as I'm not very good at them. However, I have decided my mantra this year will be to "be bold". I can't just wait for life to happen on its own. I'm going to go after the things I want and hopefully my goals won't prove to be aiming too high. I'm ready to leave 2010 behind.

Happy New Year to you and your's! <3

happy birthday, camera

My camera is now 2 years old. I purchased it on Boxing Day 2008, althought it didn't arrive until probably actually this same day two years ago haha. Last year I bought it a Canon 50mm f/1.8 II and I've had a lot of fun learning new things with that. This year I thought about it for a while and couldn't think of another lens (in my price range) that would be a useful enough addition to the repertoire, so I started looking into flashes.

This year I finally decided on a Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash. I haven't actually used one before so it's a bit of a weird move for me, but I'm really hoping I learn a lot and benefit from this piece of equipment. Winter is so dark anyways, so generally I go to work in the dark and come home just after the sun has set. It doesn't leave me much options for photography until I get a day off and usually my priorities are to relax a bit or travel to Toronto to visit various lovely people in my life.

To go with it, I grabbed a set of these as well: Sanyo Eneloop NiMH Rechargeable Batteries. I've been in desperate need of some good rechargeables for a long time now. My current ones hold a charge for about 5 hours, if that. I think they were originally purchased in the 90's though, so they've had a long life. I researched a bit and these Sanyo Eneloops seem like they'll be a good purchase. Since I don't have a camera phone, I want to keep my point and shoot Canon A590IS in my purse so I can still use it whenever I see something interesting. They sound like they keep a charge for a really long time even when not being used, so I'm excited to try them out and see how they go.

So yes. Happy birthday, camera! I hope you enjoy the copious amounts of money I spend on you...

sneak peak

time, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Here's one of the first shots from my photoshoot with the lovely Abby from friday.

It's a shame I've been so busy, because I just want to come home and work on these! I'll have more up soon though.

Still in love with the location. <3

27/52

au naturel, originally uploaded by avalilly.

27 of 52! I'm getting closer. So slowly, but surely.

Yes, square crop. Not excited about it, but it really was the best way to resolve it. I will probably play with this some more, maybe do a before after for ye all to see what it went through to get to here. It's been suggested to try making the texture wrap around my shoulders, which could be interesting! I'll have to get out my digital paint brush and see what I can do. Textures can only do so much on their own.

I may or may not have scrubbed a few layers of skin off in the shower trying to get the red and the spirit gum off my forehead. I forgot I had spirit gum remover. D'oh.