Incessant Expressions

One of the few things that frighten me – Photo of the Day #68

James Westfall — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:30:12 +0000

This is a storm drain right outside my apartment and it gives me the creeps. Even in the daylight, it creeps me out. I don’t know why, it must be a hold-over from childhood of the uhknown because, frankly, I have zero clue what is living inside this thing. We think there might be racoons in there right now but I’m thinking scarier things like gigantic spiders or that crocdile Leatherhead from TMNT. He was a mean ol’ croc and I certainly don’t want him living 100 feet from me. Although he was Cajun so maybe we could cook together.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX @ f/3.5
ISO800 @ 1/15s
Flash WB set to A2
Spot metering

Strobist:
LumoPro LP604 camera left, 2 feet from/above drain, angled 45deg downward
Nikon SB-600 @ 1/16
Westcott 451 43″ umbrella

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A failed experiment – Photo of the Day #67

James Westfall — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:23:53 +0000

I say failed because I just got a new Westcott 43″ collapsible umbrella today around 5PM from MPEX. Tonight, I go shoot around midnight and guess what happens? The slightest of breezes comes by right as I’m taking this shot and blows the stand over. Now I’ve got a busted umbrella and a haunting shot. This is almost what I was going for visually, minus a broken umbrella.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX @ f/5.6
ISO400 @ 1/15s
Spot metering

Strobist info:
LumoPro LP604 approximately 7 feet from base of tree, aimed up around 25deg, with me around 10 feet away at a 60deg angle to stand
Nikon SB-600 in commander mode @ 1/8 into umbrella
(Broken) Westcott 2011 43″ collapsible umbrella

Self portrait – Photo of the Day #66

James Westfall — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:22:31 +0000

Tonight I decided to put one of my new LumoPro light stands to work. This was taken on the old golf course by our apartment right before some rain started rolling in. How is it that I always catcha good night shot when it’s getting ready to rain?!

By the way, Nikon’s CLS works like absolute crap in the dark. I had the camera approximately 17 feet away and the speedlight wouldn’t fire with a 100% completely clear line-of-sight to the camera. I thought these things had a range of at least 20 to 25 feet?!!?! I had to move the camera in about 10 feet and adjust the focus to ~7ft on the focus ring.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D @ f/4
ISO800 @ 1/15s
Spot metering
Flash WB

Strobist info:
LumoPro LP604 approximately 2 feet behind me
Nikon SB-600 in commander mode, aimed at 90 degrees directly at me
Sto-fen diffuser

An American Icon – Photo of the Day #65

James Westfall — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:07:19 +0000

This is the Ford emblem on my neighbor’s truck. Between the near pitch black and the sole street light as a light source, this really struck me as somber and iconic at the same time. Very pleased with this shot.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX @ f/2.2
ISO800 @ 1/6s
Spot metering
Flourescent WB @ “Cool white flourescent #4″

That was a very long weekend!

James Westfall — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:36:51 +0000

We spent all of last week attempting to track down a dog’s owner. Well, we never did but there’s good news to the story. Bubba got a new home on Saturday with our friend Chris. He came over and brought his own pitbull so they could meet each other and socialize together. Turns out, both pitbulls just loved being around each other and played all day. Now Bubba has a nice new home that is HUGE and a new friend to play with! We’re so happy that Bubba has a stable and permanent home.

Sorry there were no new posts last week, we had devoted all of our energies to finding Bubba’s owner or a new home. Luckily we actually found both. His previous owner’s landlord called us yesterday and told us he skipped town. Turned out to be a good thing for Bubba. I also didn’t take any pictures last week because I felt that finding him a home was more important than lugging my camera around. I can always take more pictures, I can’t always help an animal out.

We went to the Florida Ren Fest on Sunday and I’ve got a bunch of pics from that I’ve got to sort through and edit so I’ll be back to taking pictures this week, no worries!

Behold…Bubba Sparxxx – Photo of the day #64

James Westfall — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:49:05 +0000

This was a quick snap of my girlfriend’s Samsung Behold II after Shazam had tagged a song that was playing. I love the color detail from a bright neon OPEN sign on the face of the phone, creates a kind of lucid effect. I thought this was going to turn out poorly based on the on-camera review but at full size, there’s a lot of detail that was captured at ISO800 without a lot of grain, very surprising.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX @ f/2.2
ISO800 @ 1/15s
Matrix metering
Tungsten WB

Man, I’m exhausted

James Westfall — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:11:00 +0000

Sorry for only a few photos this week, I haven’t had any time to take any. We’re still working on reuniting our rescued pitbull with his owner, Sam. However, it’s now been 48 hours and no word from any of our contacts from Sam’s side of town. We’ve spent those 48 hours tracking down stuff like his favorite hang outs, where he lives, phone number, anything we can get and we are still coming up blank. We’ve done as much as we can, monetarily, at this point and are looking into getting the dog kenneled for a few days. Luckily, we have some AWESOME neighbors who are helping us find prospective adoptive homes for the big guy if the owner never turns up.

I’m freaking exhausted and have had practically no sleep the last few days with trying to find the owner and keep this massive dog calmed down. Tomorrow, we’re going to see the Dalai Lama at FAU and that is going to be AMAZING. Right now, I’ve got to go to sleep.

Savior for a day – Photo of the Day #63

James Westfall — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:55:12 +0000

This is Bubba, a dog we rescued today on the north side of Boca Raton. Found him running around with his walking leash on and a collar with no tag. After about two hours we tracked down the owner’s apartment and left him a note to call us. No call yet . But if he doesn’t call soon, we’ve got good leads on where to take this adorable dog to get adopted and not put down!

Party it up – Photo of the Day #62

James Westfall — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:59:35 +0000

This was a random shot of a wedding party at The Dubliner in Mizner Park. I have no idea why they were *there* of all places, but they were and looked to be having some fun. I believe this is the bride and groom.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 @ f/2.2
ISO400 @ 1/8s
Matrix metering
Auto WB A3

Spaten Ice – Photo of the Day #61

James Westfall — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:43:44 +0000

As a continuation of yesterday’s picture, I had the great idea of using my Spaten steins from Zanetoberfest. I had about 8 or 9 others before this that did not turn out just right then I figured I’d just take the diffuser off and strobe it straight into the back of the glasses. I thought it looked great in camera but the larger resolution just screamed to me. I really like this, with the light diffraction through the glass in the center to discolor to a light purple/mauve and then the diffusion across the floor.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 @ f/4
ISO200 @ 1/15s
Matrix Metering
Flash WB

Strobist info:
Nikon SB-600 @ 0deg iTTL BL, approximately 2 feet from glasses with slight bounce on the floor.

BONUS SHOT: Scooter jumping into frame, wanting some beer!.