A few years ago, I worked on a project for Keith Watson, aka “Watty”, head coach of the John Carroll Wrestling team (a private high school in Bel Air, MD). Watty, who is sometimes referred to the P.T. Barnum of Harford County wrestling – he is always thinking of ways to market and promote his school and the sport — contacted me with an idea of wanting to create a poster that displays their 2008-2009 wrestling schedule along with a picture of the team on it. His first thought was to assemble the team on someone’s front porch and have some slogan referring to porch, big dogs, etc.

My first reaction was trying to find a large enough porch for a shot like this, but even more challenging would be to find a time when all these guys would be free at the same time (over the summer), to make the shoot. These are high school boys, many who have summer jobs, are on family vacations, or are more interested in hanging with their girlfriends. I offered up a different idea — photograph each wrestler individually with a green screen background, cut them out and create the illusion of a group shot. Using this method, each wrestler would be lit under controlled conditions much easier than trying to setup lights on location. This approach provides a way to now come up with any background image to use for the poster. The other advantage, is weather is a non-factor, so no rain out date would have to be planned.

I went to the school on the last day of the school year, setup and shot each wrestler that Coach Watson wanted to be in the poster, before they all spread like wildfire after finishing the school year. I photographed each wrestler standing straight ahead, angled to the left and finally to the right. This way, back at my computer, I could arrange the wrestlers and in which direction I wanted them to be facing all through Photoshop.

At the top left, is a sample original image of one of the wrestlers shot with the green screen. I use a Photoshop plug-in called Primatte Chromakey for extracting the subject from the background. Once cut out, I processed each image to give it a slight grunge look rather than keeping the image looking like a portrait. The second photo — with white background — shows the edited, cutout image.

The two main keys to getting a good cutout image is to light the background as evenly as possible, and to avoid the green light reflected off the background to spill onto your subject. For this shoot, I used two Canon 580EXs shot into 30″ umbrellas to light the background. The umbrellas were set at a 45-degree angle on each side of the background. The light was not as even as I would have liked, but it was close enough. To keep the spill to a minimum, I made sure my background was 1-stop darker than my exposure on my subject. In addition, I moved the subject 8 feet away from the background.  I lit each wrestler with one AB800 with large softbox to camera left and placed a large white reflector just out of frame camera right.

Once I cutout the 16 individual wrestler images, I arranged them to look as though they were all together for the group shot in a casual style. The idea was not to make this look like a high school team photograph. I then added in a photo I took of some ominous clouds and did some creative Photoshop work to give the illusion of lightning.

Here is the final result

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My basic fried egg sandwich, is probably a bit different than the norm, but it can be easily tweaked to your own tastes.

The ingredients I use for one sandwich is, two eggs, white bread (untoasted), mayonaise, butter, provolone cheese and some Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt.

In a pan, over medium heat, add a tablespoon of butter.

Once the pan is good and hot, add your two eggs, and season with Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt to taste.

Break the yolks and spread gently through the egg. While the eggs are cooking, spread mayonnaise on one piece of bread, and butter on the other.

Once turned, place the cheese on one of the eggs. When you remove, take the egg with the cheese off first, and place the second egg on top of the cheese portion of the first egg.

Cut on a diagonal and enjoy. They are so good, you’ll probably end up making a second one.

Here are a few ideas to help you customize to suit your own needs:

• Toast the bread
• Use whole wheat or rye instead of white bread
• Change cheese type to american, colby, etc.
• Don’t break yolks, but you probably will want toasted bread
• Add ketchup

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Why do men and women argue over the toilet? Not over who should use it first after coming home when more than one person has a need to use it, but the long-lived debate of whether to leave the seat up or down.

Stop Arguing!

You’ve come to the right place, for I am going to put an end to the arguing and give you the solution that is fair, and aesthetically pleasing to all.

Each time you visit the bathroom, restroom, water closet, or whatever term you call the room with the toilet, the seat and lid should be down.

Toilet Rules

Step 1.

• MEN: You will bend over and lift only the lid, if you will be doing #2, or the lid and seat, if you will just be doing #1.
• WOMEN: You will bend over and lift the lid.

Step 2.
Use the facility as required.

Step 3.
When finished return the toilet to the proper finish position — seat and lid down.

Advantages

• It is so much better looking to see a toilet with the lid down than if it is up.
• This requires men and women to do pretty much equal duty.
• Keeping lid down, contains germs while flushing
• Reduces the chances of other items in the room — like your toothbrush — becoming contaminated by germs
• Arguing over the toilet seat will never be a reason to end a marriage or relationship

Disadvantages

• None. I can’t think of any.

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The other day, I posted an image titled “In The Spotlight”, and it got me thinking of creating a new category under Photography called, “Behind The Scene.”  This category will show/explain how some of my photographs were set-up.

This photograph was created in my basement, on pergo flooring that looks like pine.

The first challenge was trying to figure out how to create the look of an overhead spotlight. If I just used a flash, I knew there would be spill from the light all over the place, which was not the desired effect.

I immediately headed for our storage room, to scrounge for ideas. After thinking, “I really need to clean this room”, I saw some shipping tubes which I purchased from Staples on the shelf and thought maybe I could somehow figure out how to attach this to the flash head. To my surprise and delight, the tube fit just snug enough as-is over my Canon 580EX flash head, where I did not have to rig up some sort of adapter. I guess the Staples slogan of “that was easy”, is true!

Once I had the spotlight figured, out, erecting something to put it directly overhead of the basketball was fairly straightforward. I used one of my Bogen Autopoles, which puts pressure on the floor and ceiling to stay in place, and attached a Matthellini Grip to the pole and an Avenger 40″ Extension arm to the grip. To get the flash mounted, I first attached a Superclamp to the extension arm and used an umbrella mount to put the two together. The Pocket Wizard (to trigger the flash), I just hung over the extension arm.

Flash Settings

The Canon 580EX used overhead was set at 1/8 power. I positioned a second 580EX at 1/32 power on floor with a homemade snoot, pointed directly at ball to give a bit of fill to the lower half of ball, otherwise it would be in too much shadow.

I took a wide shot of the entire scene, so you can see the two flashes firing at the same time to produce the desired lighting.

Who knew an old basketball from the garage could turn into such a stunning model? I was quite pleased with the way this turned out. By looking at the image itself, you would think it was sitting on a basketball court floor, and not in my basement.

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I bet most of you think of the fake wood looking desk with doors on each end. Well, that’s what I’ve assembled, and have photos of the different steps along the way.

When you visit Staples, Office Max, or any store that sells computer desks and you pick out one of these for your own use, let me first warn you, the box they are packed in are heavy! The model here — #404594 — weighs in at a mere 117 pounds. You’ll need a helper or truck dolly to get this sucker into your home.

Upon opening the box, it will immediately hit your that this won’t be a 15-minute job. Plan on setting aside 2 to 3+ hours. There are many steps and many parts and pieces that must get assembled.

Step 1 – Layout the Ends, Uprights and Bottoms

Dig through the box of pieces and find these six items and lay them on carpet (or cardboard) so not to scratch them.

The instruction manual gives each part a letter or letter/number combination and you should find either a sticker or ink imprint on the edge of each part.

Step 2 – Insert Hidden Cams and Cam Dowels

The desk is put together with cams, so insert them into each of the cam holes on the sides, uprights and bottoms.

Before inserting the cam dowels, make sure the arrow on each cam is pointed towards the outside, so the dowel can be inserted properly.

Step 3 – Fasten Drawer Runners to Ends and Uprights

Locate the proper runners (labeled) and fasten with screws into the pre-drilled holes. Take care in making sure you have the roller facing in the proper direction.

Step 4 – Fasten Ends and Uprights to Bottoms

Now, you’ll begin to feel you are making some progress. Attach the proper bottom to the correct end and upright. You’ll insert the cam dowels into the pre-drilled holes and turn the cam with a screw driver 210-degrees to tighten properly. If you only turn the cam 180-degrees, it won’t be tight enough.

Step 5 – Fasten Angle Brackets to Ends

The bases attach to angle brackets that are fastened to the ends. These bases give the bottom a finished look. Be sure the edges of the angle brackets are even with the edges of the ends.

Step 6 – Nail Veneer to Backs

To give a finished look to the rear of the desk, you’ll nail a sheet of veneer to each of the two backs.

You’ll want to make sure that you have the veneer placed on squarely, and that the holes that line up along the horizontal bottom or those nails will not fasten properly.

DAVE TIP: Start out putting the nails in only halfway until you are confident everything is square and lined up properly. Having to remove the nails once hammered home may cause cussing.

Step 7 – Fasten Ends & Uprights to the Top

Now we’re cooking with gas! It’s really starting to look like a desk — especially when you stand on your head.

Fasten the ends and uprights to the top with the hidden cams. Once again, tighten these 210-degrees.

Step 8 – Attach Modesty Panel to the Uprights

The modesty panel is attached with four black screws coming in through the sides and also to two angle brackets you’ll have to fasten through the pre-drilled holes.

Step 9 – Fasten Runner to Keyboard Shelf

Screw the runners to the keyboard shelf. Make sure to use the properly labeled runner and position the roller in the proper direction.

Step 10 – Mount the Hinges and Hinge Brackets

Because everything is pre-drilled, attaching the hinges and hinge brackets is pretty straight forward. Line up the holes and screw in tightly.

Once you have them attached, and you have mounted the doors, you will most likely have to make vertical or depth adjustments. These adjustments are rather simple and involved turning in/out the appropriate adjustment screw on the hinge or hinge bracket.

Step 11 – Assemble Drawers

The drawer sides and backs are already grooved, and to put them together involves sliding the sides onto the back. Once you have done that, slide the drawer bottom into place.

There are drawer front brackets that slide through the groves that the front of the drawer will attach too.

Step 12 – Fasten Drawer Slides and Finish Hardware

Attach the drawer slides and add the pull knobs. Then insert drawers into the unit.

The Finished Product

It may take you a long time to put this desk together, but once completed, it is all worth it.

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If you’ve ever been to an equestrian cross-country event, where horse and rider travel at a swift pace over “natural” terrain, including hills, dips, and water, and over jumps built out of fallen trees or piles of debris, you know that if you want to take photos, you can’t be at each jump. However, you can usually find a location to capture two, maybe three jumps at a reasonable distance to produce decent images.

You can, without the need to hire additional photographers, cover more jumps all by yourself. How so? With the use of wireless remotes and extra cameras. It is like being in two (or more) places at the same time!

For this photo, I setup a second camera with a 14mm lens on a tripod about 8 feet away from the side of the jump. I used a pre-trigger with switch cord from Paramount Cords that connects the camera to a PocketWizard radio receiver.

I was roughly 1500-feet away from the remote camera, shooting at a different jump, but could see this jump and manually triggered my transmitter as horses made their way over this fence. Being 1500-feet away and not having a good angle (horse running away from me) does bring in more challenges — such as knowing exactly when the horse is about to jump. I found myself hitting the trigger button a bit early or late, so I did not always get the “perfect” shot.

A lesson-learned was to make sure to set up remote cameras in locations that give you a good angle to see the horse and jump, so as to be able to anticipate the jump at a higher percentage.

I’m sure there are other type of events remote camera’s would be useful — share your ideas below.

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A composite made from 16 individual photos.

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My mother-in-law purchased this Staples brand faux leather chair and asked me to put it together for her. The side of the box says it’s a Berwell Chair, model 19564.

No tools (on your behalf) are needed. The parts are all bolts with a hex head, and the allen wrench needed , is supplied in the box.

Plan on this taking between 15-20 minutes to assemble.

The manual said “easy instructions”, and I must say, they did not lie.

Step 1 – Attach Casters and Gas Lift to Base

There are five casters that fit into the base of the chair. It takes a bit of pressure to pop them into place. Be careful not to pinch your hand if the wheels move.

The gas lift just sets right into the top side of the base, simple as pie.

Step 2 – Attach Seat Plate and Arm Rests to Seat

You take the seat plate and line up the holes on the underside of the seat, and screw in four (4) bolts. Both the seat bottom and the seat plate are marked with FRONT, so just make sure they match.

Attach the right armrest — which is the more difficult side, for the tilt mechanism is slightly in the way — with three (3) bolts.

Next, attach the left armrest, also with three (3) bolts.

Step 3 – Attach Seat Back to Seat Bottom

The backrest is attached with four (4) bolts, two directly into the seat and the other two through the seat plate and then into the seat.

Here is the finished assembly. The chair seat and armrests can be set up/down, and the chair can be set to rock, or be stationary. My first impression is positive.

Check out the computer desk I put together to go along with this fine chair.

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