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Archive of ‘Technology’ category

Family, Headshots, Personal, Photography, Portrait, Technology | 0 comment

Profoto A1 High Speed Sync and Cherry Blossoms – Tech Tuesday

Woman portrait with cherry blossom background
Woman portrait with cherry blossom background
Falls Church cherry blossom tree in full bloom

Falls Church cherry blossom tree in full bloom

The cherry blossom have been in full bloom around the DC Area. This year, they have been particularly beautiful! They have the light puff ball look with very light colored blooms that really stands out against the bark of the surrounding trees.

Falls Church cherry blossom tree in full bloom

During this time of quarantine, I have been productive in my home studio. But keeping inside means I have not been going out of the house to make many photos. I know there are many projects that you can do while staying at home, but this was the first really purpose-driven photos I have done in a week. I was inspired do these first by the beautiful cherry tree of our neighbor that was in full bloom!

Camera Tech

Camera setup BTS for portrait shoot
Profoto A1, Nikon D850, blooming cherry tree

Next, I wanted to try the Hi Speed Sync options of the Profoto A1 flashes. This is a new piece of gear that I am still learning. I may be replacing all of my lighting gear to Profoto I the near future. If this does in fact come true, I will be sure to make a post about the reasons for it. But for this quick test shoot, I mounted one of the A1 flashes firing into a Westcott Rapid Box Octa with the outer diffusion panel installed. I did not use the deflector plate as the A1 does not completely fit the cut out for the speedlight on the back of the Octabox. The A1 has a circular face at its output and most speedlights are rectangular.

I used another Profoto A1 as a remote controller for the off-camera light, and it worked right away! The flash could keep up at 1/1000th to 1/8000th of a second, and it was still filling the entire frame with an even exposure. I am anxious to try this setup again as I really like the results. The resulting images were much more in balance with the background compared to an exposure without the flash. I was impressed with this first high speed sync experiment with this gear!

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Personal, Photography, Technology | 0 comment

Throwback Thursday – TV

“Don’t kill the messenger!”

The form of the “messenger” is ever changing especially in the information age. Although it is usually not a person that you meet face to face, it is usually a screen. For a long time now, our messenger has been behemoth of screen not in terms of size, but in weight and girth – an old Sony XBR CRT TV. This thing was state of the art in Y2K! It had a “flat” screen not that it’s enclosure was small, but that the glass screen in front was no longer bulbous. Thus, giving the picture a much truer perspective for viewers.

Sony CRT XBR TV
Sony CRT XBR TV

This was our first major purchase after we moved into our new house. Emphatically, it became a focal point for our living room. We painted the room a dark red color, we installed black-out shades. Its 4:3 aspect ratio picture was BEAUTIFUL! We paired it with speakers to fill the room with all the chirps, beeps, and booms from the best DVDs. We hosted movie nights, and enjoyed using the technology to bring friends together. Moreover we see films more closely as they were intended by creators.

Original Setting

Home Theater
Home Theater

From other broadcast programming, we were able to witness many important events – presidential elections, inspiring musical performances, 9/11/2001, amazing athletic wins by our college football team, crushing losses by our professional team, and even some of our own creations – old home movies updated to be shared before they are lost.

Sony CRT XBR TV
Sony CRT XBR TV

But technology marches on, and it is finally time to upgrade. The front of the TV has many scars from the few times we have moved it – only once did we change its room, and that was only when the house was changed too. The power button barely has any coating left from all of its use! We were going to wait until the TV would no longer work. All the new movies and TV shows were wide screen, and all the new connections for streaming content from the internet could not be connected due to technical reasons. But we held on to it for almost 15 years. We only hope the new messenger does the job half as well as its predecessor.

Sony CRT XBR TV
Sony CRT XBR TV

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Black and White Challenge – Part 2

Nokesville, VA

To follow up from a post a few Fridays ago, I’m posting here more black and white photos I made specifically for the Facebook Black and White Challenge. Being that these were made over the holidays, we spent a lot of time with our family. The familiar surroundings sometimes makes it difficult to make new photos. The scenes are too familiar, and nuances that make for compelling images seem difficult to pick out. Sometimes, you just need to change your angle. Get higher, or get lower. That is usually my first go-to move! Here Dani, a little dachshund becomes much larger in the photo. I put my head and camera right on the ground. I took a series of photos as she sniffed around the grass. In a stroke of luck, she licked making her look like a lioness!

Dani-in-the-yard
Dani-in-the-yard

Moody Environments

In these other photos, the mood was really helped by a thick fog rolling in from the river. It was an unusually warm air day, but the water was still cold creating the foggy scene. You could almost feel the low ceiling when you were standing by the edge of the water. Not too much noise was cutting through their either – only lapping water and shore birds. This image of the tree branches cutting through the negative space of the cloudy background made me think of canvas paintings of a coastline. This is almost exactly how the photo was captured in camera:

Trees-through-the-fog
Trees-through-the-fog

The last took a little more work in Photoshop. I placed a neutral density (ND) filter in front of my wide angle lens. This filter does not change the color tone of the scene, it only makes it darker – like sunglasses for your camera! Putting the camera on a tripod, the ND filter allows you to lower the shutter speed which makes the moving water smooth into a blurry sheet at the bottom of the photo. To simplify the photo even more, I removed some string running across the pylons, and other piers that jutted into the left and right sides of the frame. It makes for a more minimalistic presentation that my eye likes much more than the original. Have a great weekend, readers!

Foggy-pier
Foggy-pier

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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