tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30359625814742588692011-12-24T07:14:05.300-05:00Making pictures rather than taking them.Thomasnoreply@blogger.comBlogger691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-85258143035049035922011-10-08T22:52:00.000-04:002011-11-09T18:02:17.253-05:00

I've been fortunate enough to photograph three wedding ceremonies or receptions at the Meridian House in Washington, D.C. Usually, the bride and groom have chosen it because it's such a pretty place. But in the case of Kari and Jon, they had a bit of extra inside knowledge about what a cool place it is: Kari works there. Kari's a Minnesotan who landed in DC and found a very nice opportunity

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com01630 Crescent Pl NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA38.920096 -77.038248938.918552 -77.0407164 38.921640000000004 -77.0357814tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-90131870444069259552011-10-03T23:07:00.000-04:002011-10-27T16:40:08.262-04:00

My wife calls weddings my "anthropology projects." At each new celebration I photograph, I see new family traditions and new customs. When Adam married Jeannie at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, they invited Squire Richard Hillman to lead a procession from there to William Paca House and make the official proclamation announcing their nuptials. This was a first for me, and so I've

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0Annapolis, MD, USA38.9784453 -76.492182938.9290703 -76.5711469 39.027820299999995 -76.4132189tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-62342395934344859572011-09-28T16:08:00.001-04:002011-09-28T16:59:11.447-04:00

I just picked up a new Nikon P7100 digital camera, and have been carrying it around me with for a few days testing it. So far, so good.. a fuller report will come. I'm waiting, in particular, for the day (soon) when I can convert the NRW files to DNG's and then look at them in Lightroom and ACR. But here's a quick test image from twilight yesterday as I walked on the footpath near my home. Photo

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-37870754380110300402011-09-25T16:34:00.000-04:002011-10-15T16:38:55.487-04:00

I only met Richard on the day before he married Sarah, but I knew all about how he had proposed to her at the Wishing Well in Disneyland and how his bride-to-be was very eager to have that Disney princess wedding. In truth, Sarah was as pretty as any screen princess, and the two of them had a very sweet wedding. Richard is a combat-hardened Marine, but does have a welcoming warmth and genuine

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-72929316259335185452011-09-18T23:19:00.000-04:002011-10-04T23:24:40.603-04:00

In 2010 at a wedding in D.C. I was fortunate enough to spend a few minutes talking with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and found her to be personable and charming; not to mention, wise. In 2011, when I photographed Kimberly and Jonathan’s wedding at Decatur House in Washington, D.C., Madame Justice was the officiant for the ceremony, and I was able to chat with her for a few more

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0Washington, DC, USA38.8951118 -77.036365838.7962463 -77.1942943 38.993977300000005 -76.8784373tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-79150928496748430192011-09-10T22:23:00.000-04:002011-10-04T22:57:10.319-04:00

Paca House in Annapolis is a wonderful place to hold a wedding. When Liz and Joey got married there this September, they were lucky enough to get one of the few sunny days we had in this very rainy month. They deserved a nice day: they're a very cool couple. Joe's sons were his best men, and the entire day was very family-friendly. Venue

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-60859968826007971432011-05-31T19:14:00.000-04:002011-10-04T23:00:06.382-04:00

Abby and Jamison got married this spring at the Tremont Grand in Baltimore, and it was one fine party. Jamison is a sports writer at The Baltimore Sun, where I used to work, so there were a lot of current and former Sun people there. Here are a few images from their celebration.. Venue: Tremont Plaza Hotel in Baltimore

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-55798909807771936242010-03-15T13:10:00.014-04:002010-03-15T15:58:14.675-04:00

When I travel I love to make photographs of the things I've seen and experienced. Everyone does. If you're seeing a city for the first time, it's likely you'll go to the major tourist spots and take pictures, and if you're lucky you'll end up with images just as pretty as what you saw in the guidebook. That's nice, but why end up with the same photos that everyone else has seen? Having your

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-76304876833769369642009-10-09T11:30:00.006-04:002009-10-15T10:28:00.332-04:00

UPDATED 10/15/09 -- These auctions have ended. Congrats to those who now are enjoying reliable long-distance flash triggering! Now that I've filled out my RadioPopper system with the JrX transmitters and receivers, I am finally putting my old Pocket Wizards up on eBay. I've got a couple PW transmitters, one PW Plus II transceiver, and several receivers up there, as well as a bunch of cords that

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-67507684417810952462009-06-26T13:10:00.009-04:002009-06-26T13:45:33.026-04:00

Just a few days ago my sparkly, shiny new Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens arrived from B&H Photo. I was lucky enough to check their website during one of the ten-minute periods when they have these in stock and placed my order right away. Half an hour later, they were sold out again.Inside the box was a packet of papers, one of which was was the form you have to fill out and send in to get the extra

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-19518836577970038242009-06-05T15:13:00.010-04:002009-06-06T11:19:28.739-04:00

I've had a couple people ask me what I would recommend they do about purchasing either the RadioPopper Px and JrX system or the new Pocket Wizard system, both of which will allow tremendous control of your flashes and studio systems right from your camera.Short answer: I'm going to go with RadioPoppers. Long answer: it's hard to know from here which system is going to be better in the long run.

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-30961390731192923272009-05-26T10:50:00.004-04:002009-05-26T11:19:57.728-04:00

Most of the time when I have to deal with a product issue it's a frustrating experience where nothing gets resolved. Companies hide behind the FAQ pages and the "support" sections of their websites and if you're lucky you can send an email that may be answered by an autoresponder with a tracking number within 48 hours to which you should not reply. But that's not the case with Leap Devices,

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-71847452410845903642009-05-24T22:31:00.006-04:002009-05-25T23:26:35.424-04:00

This was a sad weekend for me. My next-door neighbors, who were the first to greet us when we moved in 14 years ago, are moving away to a new home a few miles away. Because all their kids were home and I wouldn't have many chances to gather them like this again soon, I offered to make a family portrait as a going-away gift. As I prepared to shoot them in our neighborhood, I realized that for most

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-13498019036556869432009-04-03T21:24:00.020-04:002009-04-04T13:07:54.071-04:00

My posting about shooting group portraits has been one of the most-viewed on this blog, and this week's story about, um, "changes" to the new Israeli Cabinet gives me the chance to talk about one of the most important aspects of any group photo.IT'S NICE TO BE ABLE TO SEE EVERYBODY.Isn't that the whole purpose of getting everyone together and telling them to stand up straight? You want to see

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-8060900353027878852009-04-03T20:55:00.008-04:002009-04-04T13:51:27.005-04:00

The BBC's website has this story today that deals with the problems that can arise when you get a group of people together for a portrait.Now that Benjamin Netanyahu has finally emerged as the next leader of Israel, he has formed his cabinet and introduced the group to the media. But two newspapers in Israel, described by the BBC as ultra-orthodox, were uncomfortable with the fact that there are

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-62281206659798106682009-03-30T14:58:00.001-04:002009-04-01T16:15:37.992-04:00

Let me start this review of the RadioPopper PX system by saying that, in general, I love RadioPoppers and they have made a dramatic difference in how easily I can work on assignment. They're great: reliable and with tremendous range, they make it much easier to shoot out there in the field.That said, I'm gonna have to declare that I'm not crazy about how these were redesigned from a physical

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-53522650979002207532009-03-25T18:00:00.002-04:002009-03-27T18:58:57.266-04:00

How's that for a lame headline? But it kinda works with the picture. Now let's get serious..I got the SB-900 a couple weeks ago and have mostly stared at it trying to figure out the buttons (yes, I have read the manual cover-to-cover.) This flash has been out for a few months but I didn't really need to add a flash to my collection of speedlights until recently.This thing's a monster. Huge flash.

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-52896987773594761022009-03-19T10:22:00.000-04:002009-03-19T19:12:29.574-04:00

With the new design of RadioPopper PX receivers, a number of improvements have been made as far as performance is concerned. I'll be providing a fuller review on that quite soon. But while they seem to interface nicely with Canon flashes (unless you need help with autofocus) they seem to be a poor match for Nikon flashes. But it doesn't have to be this way.Seen from above, this setup looks mighty

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-12544536025436804282009-03-06T23:47:00.012-05:002009-03-20T15:27:03.329-04:00

Ever since I first started playing with craft foam to make my DIY snoot for my SB-800 flashes, I've been mulling the possibilities of using this stuff for other kinds of light modifiers and gobos. Now, using a 12x18" sheet of white craft foam I've been able to make a couple of nice big diffusers for my speedlights that fold down to almost nothing and can be stuffed in to any spare space in my

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-73603842653398509012009-03-02T23:05:00.008-05:002009-03-04T11:55:44.574-05:00

I sold all my film cameras last weekend, and it felt good. The Mamiya M645 system with four lenses, powerwinder and polaroid back? Sold.The TWO Contax G2 bodies, six lenses (every one they made for it) and two flashes? Sold. Two Nikon F100's. Sold. An N-90, too. Man, that was one beat-up dinosaur.Also, about nine Nikon speedlights, leaving me with only eight now. Don't worry, I'll order more.

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-38224261769220363582009-02-23T08:35:00.002-05:002009-02-23T08:52:19.091-05:00

One website I visit pretty regularly is put forth by CreativeTechs, a group of Mac-oriented smart folks out in Seattle. On their tipsblog the offer up very useful information not only about Macs but about Photoshop, InDesign and other programs as well.Now they're offering a free online Photoshop CS4 class that starts in just a few days. What's the catch?The class is free. CreativeTechs are

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-5799776435948498892009-02-20T20:17:00.006-05:002009-02-20T22:45:31.589-05:00

Last night when I got home from a shoot far, far away I found that the very nice UPS man had left me a box containing my new RadioPopper PX Transmitter and three PX receivers. For now I've not had a chance to do much other than stick Velcro on them and figure out the many menu options. But soon I'll have a larger review.One thing that I've been wondering about is how well the new transmitter

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-11021459515067289032009-02-16T11:19:00.005-05:002009-02-20T20:10:59.088-05:00

PocketWizard has announced today a new generation of transmitters that are designed to let you take advantage of the e-TTl capabilities of Canon flashes. This looks pretty exciting, and is a departure from the traditional mode of merely firing your flash from a distance, which they have done very reliably for many years.So far they do not have the gear available for Nikon flashes, claiming that

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-43539628816319236842009-02-15T12:16:00.000-05:002009-04-07T12:17:01.966-04:00

Joanne & Scott are going to have a great wedding in Baltimore at the Engineer's Club later this Spring, and we had a chance to get together recently to shoot their engagement portrait. Luckily, we had one of those rare (though, maybe getting more common lately) warm days in February, and it allowed us to make some fun photos down near the Baltimore waterfront.Of course, in winter, as the sun

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-65225623963939812962009-02-14T18:17:00.002-05:002009-02-14T18:36:21.578-05:00

If you wander over to the RadioPopper blog they have a posting up now that offers some exciting news about the new JrX receivers. They claim that these will enable you to use your Alien Bees monolights in sync with high shutter speeds. They demonstrate this on a video on the blog that's long on excitement and not so long on meaty nuggets. But it's worth a watch.I just ordered my new PX

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-16904741600358303602009-02-12T21:27:00.010-05:002009-02-20T23:01:53.760-05:00

The localized adjustments pane in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.2 has a nice little feature that I didn't pay much attention to at first, but now I use pretty frequently. When you are using the Adjustments Brush in the Develop Module you can view the area that you're brushing by means of a mask that Lightroom creates.Use the "K" key or click on the brush icon to call up the local adjustments

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-1901936918740465332009-02-07T12:38:00.001-05:002009-04-07T12:40:12.458-04:00

Elsa Sophia (what a beautiful name) is the new daughter of proud parents Errol & Sara, who let me photograph their wedding at Hendry House in Arlington in 2005. They were joined that day by a group of their friends from the Peace Corps, whom Errol & Sara had met when they were working in Africa. It was a great party. Now that the parents are settled down in the States again they've enlarged their

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-17038987578487322312009-01-25T12:41:00.000-05:002009-04-07T12:42:01.430-04:00

One of the best things about working with couples at their weddings is that, after weeks or months of talking with them and getting to know what they're like and then spending one of the biggest days of their lives right next to them is that we often end up thinking of each other as friends rather than just "clients" and "our wedding photographer." Such is the case with Dave & Samantha, and

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-74565810988699605282009-01-22T18:43:00.004-05:002009-02-21T21:59:00.034-05:00

When I'm out in the field shooting I'm always looking for ways to lighten my load and give me the most flexibility. In the past couple years I've moved away from taking along my Norman 400b or my Lumedyne 400-watt packs and have relied more on Nikon speedlights to take care of my on-location needs. Fortunately, as both cameras and flashes have gotten better, this is easier and easier.One thing

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-4370366609615291872009-01-13T15:08:00.003-05:002009-02-21T22:02:35.923-05:00

A while back I wrote about making black & white photos using Lightroom adjustments and I still use these techniques today to convert my color photos to grayscale images. At the very end of that entry I mentioned a technique for desaturating images using the Hue-Saturation-Luminance panel in the Develop module that I first learned from reading Matt Kloskowski's Lightroom Killer Tips. Instead of

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-33304489399988413952008-12-28T12:40:00.005-05:002009-02-21T22:03:36.607-05:00

Celebratin' the ability to shoot at high ISO values. Frankly, this is a revolution, as far as I'm concerned.Why the D3 and D700? Before getting those cameras I was fairly well contented with using my D200 and my S5 (which I still love) and I pushed them pretty far in trying new techniques. But I was, frankly, disappointed at the amount of sensor noise that I saw whenever I went above about ISO

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-33361821836664760022008-12-18T12:43:00.000-05:002009-04-07T12:43:37.572-04:00

The clients that I work with start out as brides and grooms, and soon become not just married couples but families. Margaret and Steve asked me to photograph their wedding at the Springfield Country Club in Virginia in late 2005, and since that time they have had two very cool children. The most recent arrival, Virginia Marie, was baptised in December at St. Bernadette's Catholic Church in

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-7426773303430835432008-12-15T16:22:00.001-05:002009-02-21T22:04:34.081-05:00

New RadioPopper transmitters & receivers announced! After this weekend's announcement of a new generation of RadioPoppers, I may just end up selling off my Pocket Wizards. All 10 of 'em.Why?If the promise holds true, and I suspect it will, this next iteration of Poppers will not only let me control my SB-800's, but will also let me remotely adjust the power output from my Alien Bees.Since getting

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-79050707372031117572008-11-24T20:21:00.005-05:002009-02-21T22:05:38.507-05:00

One issue that comes up when I'm working with the Fuji Finepix S5, a camera I otherwise love, is that the ability to zoom in on your images on the back of the camera was, well, let's just say "limited." Comparing the S5 to the zooming abilities of the Nikon D3, the D700 or even the D200 really drives home that inadequacy.Fuji built in to the S5 the ability to quickly zoom in to a face (as much as

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-82588226410782123152008-11-17T12:44:00.002-05:002009-04-07T13:37:19.557-04:00

One day in late summer while I was buying hardware at Lowes I got a call Tim, who was eager to talk to me about photographing his wedding at Hendry House in Arlington in just a few short weeks. So, trying to block out the background music and the sounds of forklifts moving palettes around, we had a great conversation about his plans to marry Sheila in a daytime ceremony. We hit it off right away.

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-9005271629327003442008-11-03T17:57:00.003-05:002009-04-08T20:09:15.437-04:00

Carey & Nick asked me to do the photography for their wedding in Roland Park's St. David's Church in Baltimore. This is a lovely and intimate sanctuary in the northern part of Baltimore. The priest there, Father Scott, was performing his first marriage service since transferring from another parish, and I was a little worried that he was going to be quite strict about my working in his church.

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-9739751504337465692008-10-21T20:46:00.002-04:002009-04-08T22:34:20.232-04:00

After I first met with Anthony & Barbie, I was exhausted. The two of them radiate so much energy and joy that I felt like I needed a nap after talking with them about their wedding at St. Mathew's Cathedral in Washington. Anthony is an incredibly gregarious gent, and Barbie is bubbly and lively, and after their ceremony they had a really nice reception at Meridian House. Decorative tealights were

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-85398166629187585092008-10-04T21:33:00.002-04:002009-04-08T22:30:40.857-04:00

I first met Emily & Jon only three days before photographing their wedding. They both live in Chicago, but had their wedding at The Fairmont Hotel in Washington in September. So they came over once they got to town and we even shot an engagement photo of them. We went to a nice fence on a tree-lined street not far from my house. From what I hear, her dad was shocked at the PDA when he saw the

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-78821939014700198742008-09-22T11:49:00.001-04:002009-04-09T12:20:52.094-04:00

The day that Jena & Kirk got married, the remnants of a big tropical storm passed through the Washington area. All morning the torrents came down, and many of the photography plans that we’d hoped for — riding in a horse-drawn coach around the National Mall, shooting pictures at the monuments — had to be called off. But it turned out that the rain moved on through by the time the wedding party

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-6570966605066631052008-09-15T22:36:00.005-04:002008-09-15T22:57:25.468-04:00

Reader Steve Lee has come up with what looks like a nice way to mount a RadioPopper Transmitter right on top of your camera.As you've realized by now if you've bought these amazing little devices, they don't have any sort of shoe-mounting mechanism if you want to use your camera's built-in flash to cue the transmitter. So, unless you were attaching it to a flash that's already in your camera's

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-56553044369012273182008-09-12T21:30:00.002-04:002008-09-16T10:41:55.087-04:00

Matt Kloskowski recently posted two good videos over at LightroomKillerTips.com about how to use the new Camera Raw Profiles that Adobe has created to work with Lightroom 2. They're worth watching.When Adobe first put out these profiles, I installed them but didn't really have much of a clue about what they did. Now, after watching Matt's first video on the subject I've made my own presets for

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-77584662646762867012008-08-30T22:33:00.001-04:002009-02-05T23:29:28.347-05:00

I've had my RadioPopper transmitter and receivers for a few weeks now and have enjoyed playing with them. But most of the time that's happened in fairly predictable situations where I mostly had the chance to check the range and reliability of the units.Now, though, I've had a couple of opportunities to use them in somewhat more demanding situations, where I didn't just have to get them to fire

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-41518847676856901772008-08-18T17:40:00.001-04:002008-08-26T22:05:06.905-04:00

My neighbor came over the other night and asked if I could do a favor: her daughter just turned 16 and was having a bunch of her friends over for a night out to celebrate. Could I shoot a couple pictures? Sure.What I envisioned was that I'd be shooting inside their house, just bouncing a flash as the crowd of teenagers acted like, well, teenagers. But when Brooke's mom came over to get me

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-81429586694645822952008-08-06T17:14:00.007-04:002008-08-06T18:12:27.972-04:00

This has been roughly the facial expression I've had ever since I installed Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, which has been out in release form for about a week now.I'll try to have a more complete review in the coming days, but some facets I like are:The Adjustment Brush gives you more control than you had in the Beta version, and given that you had nothing at all to work with in Lightroom 1 it's a

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-14216103953953065172008-08-03T14:45:00.000-04:002008-08-06T17:10:54.865-04:00

I've had a Nikon D3 for a few weeks now, and just submitted my review to B&H about my experiences with it. Watch for that on their website.As much as I love the D3, I do find that there are plenty of times when I really am glad I have my Fuji S5 along, because the sensor in the S5 does amazing things. To elaborate on this, I have to make a confession:I screw up sometimes.Once in a while I blow an

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-21067075780669954602008-07-18T20:58:00.006-04:002009-02-21T21:49:32.772-05:00

What's the difference between RadioPoppers and Pocket Wizards? Several of you have emailed me about this, as you try to figure out how to spend your money.I'm not going to be able to speak to technical issues, like what radio frequencies are used or what sorts of situations will cause interference or anything like that. But I can tell you some things from a users perspective.First off,

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-8827002907510689072008-06-30T17:05:00.009-04:002008-06-30T22:22:48.463-04:00

Lightroom 2 Beta has been a lot of fun to play with, and I’ve actually gone a lot further than just playing with it as I’ve toned several entire weddings and corporate shoots with the program.With each new generation of Lightroom, Adobe seems to make it smarter and faster. Even as a Beta, LR2 runs fairly quickly on my Mac G5, which seems like an ancient machine to me now that the ultra-bionic

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-76869265478639312482008-06-28T16:50:00.016-04:002008-06-28T19:43:30.690-04:00

i-ttl works here, with one flash bouncing to the left of these meeting attendees.Now that I have a set of Radiopoppers to play with, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how ttl and i-ttl flash works with my Nikons. I’m going to assume that the criteria are roughly the same with Canon flashes and cameras, though I don’t use Canon.Specifically, I want to do more with the techniques that I already

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-43592230344063882672008-06-25T13:16:00.032-04:002009-02-10T12:14:39.924-05:00

Please note: Since writing this first posting about RadioPoppers I've have many more chances to use them and test their capabilities. Those of you wanting to know a little more about them can click on the links at right. Almost every post has something about my experience with RadioPoppers and lighting techinque. -January 2009-Roughly ten days ago my RadioPopper Transmitter & Receiver package

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-17964866659147587332008-05-27T21:19:00.004-04:002009-02-21T21:51:13.428-05:00

Over the weekend I was shooting a family portrait and noticed that one of my Nikon SB-800's, working off a Pocket Wizard and supposedly firing at around 1/2-power, wasn't putting out as much light as I expected. Chimping first alerted me to this, and my flashmeter confirmed it. Sure enough, no matter what power level I set the flash at it was just clicking out a little wink of light.

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-88542222995383791312008-05-22T11:51:00.005-04:002008-05-22T12:11:37.386-04:00

I'm a big fan of collections in Lightroom, because they help me keep track of the various edits I make on shoots. From a wedding, for example, I will have a first edit of everything that I kinda like, then an edit for a web presentation, then the final proof edit, then an edit for a DVD, then an album edit, and maybe one or two more after that.Granted, I could keep all that stuff labeled with

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-16760286822122233382008-05-13T11:41:00.013-04:002008-05-22T12:14:10.924-04:00

Two SB-800's used here: one on-camera at 1-stop under with a diffuser dometriggering one at right set to set about 1/3-stop overexposure. Lately I’ve been trying to push the limits on i-ttl somewhat, playing especially with high-speed synch, and also seeing just how far I can get from my lights and still make them work.But the big surprise to me these last few days is that I can use BOTH my

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-31077039444425368632008-04-03T18:10:00.005-04:002008-04-03T18:46:55.877-04:00

Adobe has made available the next "beta" build of Lightroom, and at a glance it looks like they've made some amazing improvements to this already-powerful program.I've only had a few minutes to play with it, and will do a more thorough examination of the program in a couple weeks (I'm on the road until April 22nd) but at a glance I see at least three things I know I'm gonna love:1) The ability to

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-40938461157562799682008-03-31T09:46:00.004-04:002008-03-31T10:45:09.187-04:00

Over the weekend I had a wonderful wedding up in New York. I got to join Stephanie & Sam as they held their ceremony in Scarsdale and then dined and danced the night away at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx.Something I do quite often in big reception halls like this one is to put up a couple of Alien Bees (with those DIY gobos) on one side of the room to augment the ambient. This gives

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-68085042010799629262008-03-16T16:27:00.020-04:002008-03-16T22:11:23.219-04:00

There seem to be a lot of lovers of Alien Bees out there, and I’m one of them. My Bees are reliable, durable, and best of all, inexpensive. For the price of one Dynalite or Elinchrome I can break and replace one of my Bees about three times. But I haven’t had to do that yet.If I’m shooting a “small” job, like making a portrait of someone, I’ll generally use my SB-800’s, which I can set up on

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-44910255773391572882008-03-09T22:28:00.030-04:002008-03-12T10:01:28.973-04:00

Keys, BrusselsIn the March 2008 issue of Photoshop User magazine, Katrin Eismann has a wonderful article about how important it is to go see a lot of actual prints in order to learn how to make better prints of your own special images. It's worth reading, and Photoshop User is just one of the many benefits of being a NAPP member. I find a lot of inspiration in the tools and technique tips that I

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-9638924034038866372008-03-06T22:45:00.014-05:002008-03-12T10:18:24.891-04:00

Reaction to the news as it spreads across the land.The results are in.The Wedding Photojournalist Association holds four photography contests each year, and I've been fortunate enough to do fairly well in the last couple rounds. This is always a tough contest, with photographers competing from around the world, so it's nice to have made a few images that rose to the fore.Even better, I made it in

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-15563094857758510272008-03-01T19:45:00.007-05:002008-03-12T10:10:40.819-04:00

After I finished writing that last post about speeding your workflow with the Adobe Digital Negative Converter, I realized that most of my ideas about this being true were anecdotal. That is, it SEEMED to me that it was quicker going that route but I had never really tested it. Being the good son-of-a-scientist that I am (my dad's a retired nuclear physicist) I decided to run some tests. I

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-50516350494201147122008-02-27T17:53:00.003-05:002008-03-06T18:22:17.973-05:00

When I come back from a wedding, I've got hundreds and hundreds of RAW files that have to be dealt with. It's not uncommon to have 20-30 gigabytes of data on several CompactFlash (CF) cards. Here's what I do to manage all those photos.When I put a CF card in to my reader I like to copy the files directly to an external hard drive rather than having some program (Lightroom or Photo Mechanic) do

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-14155712225403423382008-02-21T16:30:00.000-05:002008-03-06T17:56:17.603-05:00

A 2007 survey of photographers using Photohop and Lightroom found that something like 40% of those photographers are now converting their RAW images to Adobe's DNG format. I do this too, and I thought it might be helpful to tell some about what I know about the format and also describe my workflow. When I began shooting digitally I didn't work with RAW files at all. Mainly that choice was driven

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-44050846685801121332008-02-03T22:28:00.000-05:002008-02-08T18:02:10.509-05:00

My wife and mother-in-law recently went on a three-week trip to Morocco. They visited a lot of cool places, and they each took a lot of photos. When they came back we went through each of their pictures as they told me all about the trip. But we ran in to an interesting problem trying to match up their stories because her mom's photos were all taken five years, three months and 11 days before

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-32386179752975958492008-01-30T19:08:00.001-05:002008-01-30T19:13:11.438-05:00

Or, technically, high above it.Back in a few days with more stuff. Stay tuned..

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-47734399963925959912008-01-29T23:24:00.001-05:002008-01-30T13:02:59.082-05:00

Looking at the December 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, I was pleased to see that Annie Leibovitz didn't shrink from the challenge of shooting a giant group photo of the American patrons of the Tate Modern Museum. Way to go, Annie! You're gonna do just fine in this biz.In my own humble corner of the world, I'm shooting group shots all the time. These range from family clusters with just a handful of

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-10920394443185129782008-01-27T19:03:00.000-05:002008-01-30T13:01:35.626-05:00

Working in Adobe Photoshop, I often found myself confronted with a situation where I had a lot of images that needed a similar adjustment. Especially with portrait sessions I may have a number of images with very nearly the same lighting and color. Because I'm good about using my meter and my noggin, my exposures are usually pretty close, but I often like to add a bit of contrast or saturation as

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-4710549708815178712008-01-27T13:39:00.000-05:002008-01-27T14:50:05.999-05:00

Kayaker on Cape CodWhen I travel with my camera, I consider it an opportunity to make the pictures that I'm really gonna treasure down the road, and I never quite know what sorts of situations I'm going to be facing. Sometimes I want to make a photo that shows the grandeur of a large cathedral or palace, and other times I want to show off little details. So I used to carry a pretty big pro SLR

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-41598133844812108502008-01-23T19:17:00.000-05:002008-01-29T10:53:22.501-05:00

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom gives digital photographers the ability to make terrific black & white images from digital images captured in color. In fact I think the latest round of this software (and also Adobe Camera Raw's recent updates) gives photographers the ability to make more interesting B&W images than could be made with film.I should start by saying that I was a die-hard film user well in

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-16515399475133051832008-01-19T17:02:00.000-05:002008-01-20T14:00:36.168-05:00

It seems that for a long time I fell out of the habit of using umbrellas when I shot. It was just one more thing to carry and set up, one more thing to break down or break on the job. As a news photographer I always wanted to get ready quickly and be as light and nimble with my gear as I could be. So most of the time I just used the little diffuser caps that came with my Nikon flashes or bounced

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-12355073084288279822007-12-30T17:53:00.000-05:002008-01-29T16:32:18.454-05:00

It may seem odd for a photographer to admit that my favorite time to shoot pictures is after the sun has gone away. I just love dusk, and all the possibilities that come with it. The sky almost never looks as rich and interesting and full of different hues, and if you time it just right you can get a really nice balance between buildings that are lit up and the fading sunset. So when clients

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035962581474258869.post-31492728325917105072007-12-28T21:27:00.000-05:002008-01-29T16:31:16.223-05:00

One of the venues I love coming back to is Antrim 1844 Inn in Taneytown, Maryland. This charming facility has everything in one place, creating a mix of intimate environments and wider public spaces for celebrations. The historic main house is usually where couples prepare before the ceremony and then hold cocktail hour afterward, while the receptions I've attended have been in the more modern

Thomasnoreply@blogger.com0