Just a quick note to let you know what I am working on. This weekend was super busy. I was given the chance to experiment with some Sports photography when the NOVA Roller Derby asked me to come and shoot their first match on Saturday! I was super excited and also a little nervous since this was my first real shot at trying Sports Photography. As I have learned, it’s a whole different beast from artistic or even portrait or posed photography. Action is fast and you have to act to get the shot you want. It certainly shed some light on some areas I need to improve on with my skill level (and some gear). I ended up with roughly 1200 shots that need to be gone through and pull out the best of the best. 
As soon as the derby was finished I had to head down south to meet up with my friends Louis and Jen as they get ready for their wedding on Sunday! We hung out the night before the wedding until late and then it was a full day on Sunday (for all of us, but them mostly). I was not the prime Photographer for the wedding and was incredibly glad for that. I really enjoyed the actual wedding and not stressing over getting the right shot. I did, however, take a lot of Candid shots. (About 350 before sorting). The Wedding was amazing and we had a blast.
So there we are, late Sunday night and I have about 1500 photos to sort through and the process the best. I am totally exhausted. I promise I will start working on photos tomorrow.
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Holy Cow, what a weekend!
The Diffused Flash
I learned a few important lessons at DragonCon. First and foremost, never let James talk you into laying down with a Jägermeister bottle if you really like your pants, but most of the lessons revolved around using my flash on my camera. (the Jägermeister story will have to be asked of me in person if you really want to know.)
I had planned to take a lot of pictures at DragonCon (DC) of the various costumes and such, and I like to think I did a fair job, but there were some much more serious photographers there with much better gear. I know I know, it’s not the gear, it’s the eye that goes with it, and there were some folks that had great gear but the shots I saw them make made me kind of weep. But I digress, my biggest failing as far as gear went was my flash use.
I’ll be honest, I am a little scared of my flash. At least I used to be. I have gotten pretty good at adjusting ISO, Aperture, and Speed, to get the right light and clarity, but when you throw a flash into the mix there is a whole new dynamic. Nothing over 180 speed, F-stop is more for DOF than it is for light, and then there is the whole calculating how much flash for the distance to subject…..UGH! Sometimes I felt like I was back in math class! See, I have a SB-600 speed-light to use for Off camera shots and bounce shots, but I ate how harsh the light from it is. Bouncing isn’t as bad, but at when the ceilings are too high and the walls are few….needless to say, I only use it for special occasions.
While at DC my biggest problem when taking shots of folks was lighting. I was using both my 50mm and my 35mm f1.8 and they just weren’t giving me enough light without bumping to ISO 6400 (I had more grain than a 1930’s film!) So I talked with a few of the other Photogs and got some tips on flash use. Derek helped out a Ton with some of these tips. The biggest one being DIFFUSE!!!! I noticed a lot of guys using covers on their flashes, anything that would soften the harshness of the flash. Some went all out with the Gary Fong stuff, while others just had basic caps. There were a few that went simple with a bounce card. Another huge tip was (and I feel kind of silly for not knowing this) Change the White balance to “Flash”. Yeah yeah, say what you like, but when you don’t use a flash that much, this doesn’t occur to you!
No Flash = Lots of NR and Bright Background:
Camera Nikon D5100
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/1.8
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 6400
Flash No Flash
Exposure Program Manual
Subject Distance 2.51 m
Metering Mode Spot
_____________________
Bounce Card = Color, Clarity, Separation!
Camera Nikon D5100
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/3.5
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 1600
Flash On, Return detected
Exposure Program Manual
Subject Distance 0.94 m
Metering Mode Spot
Light Source Flash
White Balance Manual
_______________________
My Macgyver gene kicked in and I set about rigging up a simple white bounce card out of some tape and cardboard bits we had in the room. I dropped my ISO to 100-200, Speed to 160, flash down to -1.8, and Aperture to 1.8. Boom! Shots were clear, not too harsh, and great color. I was amazed. For the rest of the night I only had to adjust the strength of the flash to compensate for the distance to subject. I even busted out the 18-270mm to get some wider angle shots. (Although the D5100, with the SB-600, and the 18-270mm meant Zomg Heavy!)
What I found was that I had to do less noise reduction, I got a MUCH better seperation of subject and background, and the details of the subject came out much better. Not to mention after having a few drinks my steady hand wasn’t so steady! That cinched it! When I got home I started looking up some different diffusers. A lot of the guys at the con were using the Gary Fong Lightsphere but I couldn’t really justify $60 for something that did what a 20 cent piece of cardboard did. Instead I found the Prolight Dome. It was exactly the same as the Gary Fong, but only $13! Sold!
A few days later it arrived and I have to say that most of my shots now are taken using this setup. (indoors of course). I tried a few using off camera, and then a few portrait shots. Thankfully my pets are always willing subjects! (well, almost always.) Given this new found love for the flash, I think I may look at doing a few more Portrait type projects.
So the important take away’s here are:
Diffuse that sucka!
Check your white balance!
Adjust for distance!
Profit!
Ok maybe not profit.
Husker Noir
Now that I am done with the convention Pictures I can get back into some more artistic shots.
Strobist info: Nikon SB-600 set 4 feet to the right of subject using a funnel diffuser aimed at subject. Triggered using wireless trigger.
The Un-Official DragonCon Post.
Why is this an Un-official post? Because I am still processing the whole con. Literally. I am working through all the photos I took processing them to improve the shots, doing laundry from the con, cleaning up the house and also taking care of the new Kitties we adopted the day after!
So why post? Well, there are a few things I want to touch on because they were So Awesome! (well, one not so awesome)
I MET WIL WHEATON!
No really, this was the highlight of the Con for me! Anyone who knows me knows that I kind of have a man-crush (Platonic) for Mr. Wheaton. I made the attempt to meet him at PAX east but apparently, his meemaw died/He was washing his hair/he was dead at the time, and he couldn’t attend. So when I heard he was going to be at DragonCon I was super excited! I was dressed in one of the two costumes I brought, Matty Roth from the comic DMZ. I figured that maybe only 2 people would get the costume but I was not prepared for what happened next. As I stepped up in line and greeted Wil with the Iron Guard Salute, this happened:
Wil:
Me:
Wil:
Me: That’s AWESOME!
I then handed him two 6-sided dice that I made telling him that I “Got exited and made something” which spawned another round of “That’s Awesome!” I also got the chance to tell him that during his Father Son bonding over brewing beer, I was doing the same while building a Tardis. (That’s Awesome, round 4) He signed a picture of himself collating paper and we went on our way. I was giggling for the rest of the day.
Now, the worst experience of the con, sadly, was my one with William Shatner. On my way through the Walk of Fame area, I stopped at the booth for WS and they had mentioned that he would be back in 30 min. There was no line so I figured “I can wait 30 min!” I Happily bought my photo ticket ($75!!!!), picked out my photo (Only Kirk photos, no S My dad says or Denny Crane), and got in line. 30 min turned into 45, then an hour, then longer and longer. The folks at the booth were trying to assure us that he was on his way down. It was nearing 5pm and we knew he had a panel at 5:30pm. (I got in line at 3:30pm). When he finally showed up, the line herders asked if I would let a woman in a wheelchair in front of me, which I had no problem with. (navigating the con in a wheel chair is tough, trust me on this.) She got her autograph and was working on backing out of the area, the handler reached out for my photo and handed it to WS as I got out of the way. When I got back up to the counter, the Photo was signed and I was being shuttled away without barely a glance from WS. I did manage to eek out a “It was very…er..honor” and got a half hearted fist bump before they moved on to the next guy.
Never in all of my conventions and Autograph collecting have I ever been treated like a sheep. It has always been my experience that I am paying the $20+ not for the autograph or the photo, but for the experience of getting 1-2 minutes of time with an actor/author/artist that I genuinely admire enough that I want to Pay for that moment. I don’t do this to collect signatures. I do this because I LIKE these people and want to express how much I appreciate and support their work. If I wanted just a photo with a signature on it, I could have bought one in the dealers room! (and probably paid less.) I have heard that WS is kind of a dick when it comes to conventions, but I really want to believe that maybe he was just being rushed by con handlers, or was having a bad day and doesn’t normally treat fans this way. I can hope right?
The rest of the con was outstanding. Pictures will be coming along soon as well as maybe a real after action report. I <3 everyone I hung out with there!!
These Times they are a’changin
So in the last month or so a huge shake up happened here, and I am not just talking about the earthquake that it VA a few days ago, although that was just weird. For the last few months I have been growing increasingly dis-satisfied with my job. It was supposed to be my dream job and gateway to bigger better things. Turns out it was kind of a bait and switch, (Not the fault of those who got me the job, it just changed drastically after I got there.) and was not what I wanted. Add on that the horrible commute time and we have what My wife and I like to call, “Not paying enough to put up with the crap”. A friend of me saw some of my lamenting tweets and asked if I would be interested in hopping ship. Long story made short, I am now working back in Chantilly/Herndon area!
This also means that I am not in the DC proper area which means that I need to find some other things to take pictures of. Since I am working right next to Dulles, I may try and get over for some airport/plane pictures so keep an eye out for that.
And, of course, we are in the midst of getting ready for DragonCon, so there has been a ton or prep work going on to get costumes and such ready. This year I will only be doing Two costumes! (I know, crazy eh?).
The first is my pride and joy of the year, Giovani Auditori from Assassin’s creed II. Giovani is Ezio’s father. The reason I say it’s a Giovani costume and not an Ezio is that I purchased it from Museum Replicas and they based their design off the Lineage prequel that Ubisoft created before the game. There are quite a few differences between the in game costume and the movie one.
The Second is a very low key costume. Matty Roth, the amature photo-journalist. It’s from the comic DMZ and is a way for me to be in costume and still have the camera on me to take pictures of folks.
We leave for DC on Wed. of next week. Expect lots of pictures and lots of twitter activity!
Fire
Shot for the Gizmodo Shooting Challenge:
I spent Friday evening at a friends place for dinner. He wanted to do a simple BBQ and I thought it would be the best opportunity to get some fire shots. The down side is that no one thought to bring any lighter fluid! After many tries to get the pit started with paper towels and newspaper, I finally relented and went to the local store to get some starter fluid. When I got back I created a massive ball of flame out of the pit (there were a few lines of “Am I missing an eyebrow?). Unfortunately none of those picture came out very well. I did like how simple this one ended up. Just a lone flame off to the side of the pit. Thank god for my zoom lens, that fire was HOT!
Nikon D5100Tamron 18-270mm LensF61/80 sec.ISO-1600185mm
Almost done with the Tardis!
Been a little while since an update due to my starting the new job.
While I was at work the kid Started in on the signs for the top. Went for all wood and painted using a stencil. If we go full size I will definitely look into getting signs made.
Also, I think I see a table saw in my future. All of the cuts here were made with a handheld circular saw or a hand skill saw, and it shows. (and it makes me sad). But hey, this small one was more meant for fun and learning!
So here is where we are now:
We stuck the front door sign (phone box sign) on with Lamination and sticky back.
Whats left is the Lantern, and Window framing, and then some touch up painting!
Bad Wolf Sun Shirt on sale!
Ok, it’s only kind of on sale. I submitted to sites like Teefury, Ript, Shirt.Woot, and a few others but haven’t heard back or they came back with “That’s not really our style” (which makes no sense). So I fell back on my back up plan since I would like to get some of these made and out before DragonCon.
With that, you can now get the Bad Wolf Sun from my mini shop at CafePress! if anyone has any suggestions for a Print Your Own site tat is cheaper than CafePress please let me know. I set the markup as low as I could get it (I think it’s at 1% so I get maybe $0.20 per shirt).
So please pass it on, you can get the shirt at: http://www.cafepress.com/Cheeseitprod
See you at DragonCon!!
Father Son 1/2 size TARDIS build
So, the wife and I have now made it through all of the new Doctors and I am slowly working my way through the classics, as well as catching up on Torchwood.
One of the thing that struck me was the Tardis. I looked at it early on and thought…..I bet I could build one of those. See, I love woodworking. Especially odd ball stuff. I designed and build a box for my cat to have his food and water in that we could see into, but the dog couldn’t get to it. So I thought, “why not build a Tardis!” Shortly afterwards my Son mention that we should do it as a team project. Since he is prepping to join the military, I figured this was a good bond type of thing for us to do.
So, here we are. For the last two months I have been browsing the forum Tardisbuilders.com, looking at everyone’s builds and gaining inspiration. I know that I would have a few days off from work (just switched jobs) and it would be perfect timing for this build. I eventually want to build a Full scale box but wanted to start small and get ideas. This will help me build the larger one when it comes time.
So we started Wednesday and I made a point to try and take pictures along the way. 
Since this is a 1/2 scale (ish) we started with a simple base frame: 
We opted to have the walls be plywood (1/4 inch thick) and cut out the squares. 
Sonic Screwdriver says Math is Hard! 
Cutting out the squares: 
Our Corner pieces are 4×1 inch paired with a 3×1 inch, 4 feet long: 
With the walls attached (doors are just leaning) 
And here we are after today. Doors attached and everything mounted on the base: 
So Thursday we got the backings on all the panels and added a roof to brace for when we add the tiers (and to hold everything in place. 
Also, First Blood happened. I almost always bleed somehow on every project. Thankfully it’s only a small puncture. 
You may also notice that the top is a tad shorter. We cut off about 3 inches to solve the tall top problem. our sinage will be about 3 inches tall so we should have maybe an inch of overage.
A big lesson learned here would be to save the door attachments until after the top is on. We now will need to take the doors off and trim them up a bit as they stick when opening. (Through warped wood or being 1/4 inch off.) That’s one of the downsides to working small scale. even 1/4 of an inch can cause HUGE problems.
Next stop, Lowes to pick up wood for the Signs and Roof! I think we may look at doing a flat roof instead of the slanted as in 1/2 scale the difficulty curve is pretty high.
We painted on Saturday and that means some outside time. I am so glad my shop is downstairs in the basement where it’s nice and cool.
So here’s where we are now: Took the doors off and started painting the main body, first coat. 
While that was drying (and the wife helped with the second coat) the kid and I went down to build the roof. here it is sitting on the top. (Not the actual lantern that will be used) 
I bought some pre-cut plexi for the windows and left the frost plastic on them. 
So that leaves us with the Signs, Window frames, and Lantern for the top.
I opted to not do the Phone box on the side door because of the material we are using being very thin and the overall size being very small. On the plus side, the whole thing is extremely light!
Manassas Battlefield Civil War Recreation
Took some time today to visit the 150th celebration of the Battle of Manassas. Was a great chance to take some photos: (Click to embiggin)
