Posts Tagged ‘flash’

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!

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Sip and Shop – Fairfax Corner

Models on the Plaza at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media
Models on the Plaza at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media

Fairfax, Virginia

Earlier this month, the Peterson Companies contacted me for a Sip and Shop photography shoot at Fairfax Corner. Because I have done a number of projects for the marketing team there, I looked forward to making these images with them. We met on undeniably the hottest day of the summer so far! Despite the heat and humidity, the models assembled were troopers and did not let the conditions show on their faces.

Cocktails to Go now available at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media
Cocktails to Go now available at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media

In the light of newly passed legislation you can now carry alcohol through certain sections of the property. Following the directions on this website, it is possible to enjoy alcoholic beverages in one of the most walkable shopping centers in northern Virginia. Fairfax Corner on the positive side, is very pedestrian friendly. Being that they have many restaurants that are participating, I can see this being very popular! Especially if we have more days that are as hot as the day of this shoot. Thanks to Joanna and Crystan for reaching out and helping me make these fun photos for their advertising!

Sip and Shop now available at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media
Sip and Shop now available at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media
Sip and Shop now available at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media
Sip and Shop now available at Fairfax Corner ©TimeLine Media

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

2017 May Flowers

Home Gardens

Since it is almost June, I wanted to look back at some 2017 May flowers. Once the April showers end, these pop up right out of the ground. Well, mostly. In this case, I found some flowers blooming in my uncle’s garden. For practice, I brought out a lens that I rarely use. In fact, the 50mm F/1.2 lens was purchased by my father! Due to an unchanging mount on Nikon cameras, it can still be used on my current digital camera. However, it is manual focus only. I do not have much experience without using auto focus technology, so this is an added challenge for me. Surely, I will keep this kind of experimentation to personal projects only. I will have to devote much more time to practice before I can take this lens on a client shoot. Of course, this wide open aperture really makes for some nice out-of-focus areas behind the main subjects.

2017 May Flowers in my uncle's garden ©TimeLine Media
2017 May Flowers in my uncle's garden ©TimeLine Media
2017 May Flowers in my uncle's garden ©TimeLine Media
2017 May Flowers in my uncle’s garden ©TimeLine Media

McKee Beshers

Additionally, we took a trip last summer to the McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area near Poolesville, Maryland. This year we were a bit late in getting to the sunflower fields. When we arrived, many of the flowers were already half full of petals. What are your favorite Springtime flower locations? What else do you photograph for personal projects these days?

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

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