Action Figures...

My eight year old nephew helped me pose some of his Action Figures on the Air Hockey table.
He was much more than just a voice activated light stand. He helped me pick the ones best lit and even pressed the remote shutter release a couple times.

These are from a the 24-105 f4L IS lit by an 8 year old boy with a 580EXII triggered with a pocketwizard at 1/128 power. Just me playing in manual. Nothing fancy this time. He wanted immediate results. Next time I will play with some gobo or cookies and flag off some of the spilled over light.

Click on the title of the post to see them ALL on their Flickr set.

Anthropologie Christmas...

For Christmas, I arranged for her to have a private shopping experience at Anthropologie. They were wonderfully accommodating... i highly recommend using their personal shopping service.

She was sooooooo happy! You can see it on her face!

Theatre Lab Cabaret Benefit & Auction

Photos from the Theatre Lab's annual Cabaret Benefit & Auction held on 09 Nov 09 at the Sphinx Club at Almas Temple in Washington, DC. The evening was hosted by William S. Cohen and Diane WIllkens with Special Guest Presenter Peggy Cooper Cafriz, honoring Jeffrey Z. Slavin. The event was much more powerful this year than the last... some great presentations and performances - a great amount of money was raised for the theatre and its programs!

I love the space the event is in but am praying that someday they will have a powerful single non-gelled spot that could hit the stage so I could key off of that. A lot of pink and green and blue gelled lights I have to fight through in Aperture. I was not feeling well that night and did to want to fight parking so I did not bring the off-camera strobes and PocketWizards. The whole night felt off for me.

Majority of this was with the 24-105L f4 IS... with a 580EXII on camera. I should have brought something faster like the 16-35 f2.8L since I used the flash sparingly to start with. I get hung up about not having IS.

Click on the title of this post to view the whole set (106 photos) in Flickr.

First Star Shine The Light Reception...

Photos from First Star's Second Annual
"Shine the Light on Children's Rights"
Cocktail Reception and Benefit.. complete with a silent auction.
Lots of DC beautiful people showed up and it was a very fun event.
I like what this group does.. and this was their most fun event yet that I have captured.

A challenging space.. basement lounge with reds, yellows and darks. I was going to go with an off-camera 580EXII justin-clamped up high camera left but that got complicated and I was never happy about the angle. Plus, my improvised stand ended up getting moved anyway so I used a single 580EXII bounced up with a stofen. What turned out to be a large space quickly filled up with lots of people - FAST... so it worked.

Google them.. a worthwhile non-profit here in DC.
Click on the title of the post to view them all in their Flickr set.

The Music Man rehearsals...

... I will be busy shooting a lot of Theatre the next three weeks. Click on the title of the post to view the pool of rehearsal shots I will be adding to periodically of the Mount Vernon Community Children's Theatre Musical production of The Music Man. Show opens on 13 Nov 09. Check out http://www.mvcct.org for more info.

I am really rocking with the spot metering on the 5DmkII. I love this camera... and the separation the 70-200 f2.8L IS gives... such an awesome lens.

First Star Congressional Event...

...Shots from First Star's Congressional Release Briefing and National Press Conference in the US Capitol.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy spoke at the event and was very engaging.

I love photographing in the US Capitol... the light in the room was cool. Neat colour - white ceiling for good flash bounce, slightly warmed by a big brass lighting fixture. I can see how corporate event type photography can get stale but it was fun to work the angles so I got the First Star logo worked into the pictures. It was nice to play with the composition.

Click on the title of the post to get to the flickr set to see them all.

Dracula (a family musical)...

... select shots from the Georgetown Theatre Company's production of "Dracula, A Family Musical". This show is directed by Catherine Aselford and Juliana Avery and will be performed at the lower lever of The Shops at Georgetown Park on Saturdays and Sundays, 1300, 17 Oct - 08 Nov 09.

It was a unique space with minimalist set that is used very creatively. I know it will be great show! Look it up at http://www.georgetowntheatre.org for more info.

Click on the title of the post to see all 147 photos on Flickr as a slideshow.

Clarendon 10K...

... a study of legs (and running shoes) during the Clarendon 10K.

Fun practice in manual with the 5DmkII and with panning. Photos showing motion shot at f4, 1/60 to 1/40 for just the right amount of blur. Used the 70-200 f2.8L IS but never racked it out given my close vantage point. Added a touch of vignetting and vibrancy to the colours for fun.

Click on the title of the post to get to the flickr set to see all 110 in a slide show. Best viewed if "Eye of a Tiger" is playing in the background.

Nocturnal walk-about...

... a saturday midnight walk-about in the Rosslyn/Courthouse area of Arlington.

Manual shooting with the Canon nifty-fifty (50mm f1.8). This fixed lense is super fun...

and a great gift from my lover.

Nocturnal walk-about

Self Portrait in Russia...

... while in Moscow a few months ago, i read a good Strobist article on high key lighting which provided some motivation. White tiled bathroom and three hotel lamps as spots with their shades taken off. No cable release. Had to use the self timer and place the camera on the toilet seat (which was down!).

Bought the hat at a local market. You can tell the bottles were full (and still sealed) so I did not have to pay the high mini-bar prices. In my hand was a coke with ice.
It turned out about 65% as good as i had envisioned it.

Kid's Tattoos...

... select pictures of a Children's Puppetry Group taught at the Theatre Lab as part of their summer's Children's Camp. The kids were supposed to be working on some kind of puppet show... but the day I saw them, they were getting cool temporary tattoos!

When viewed on the photo-blog, click on the title of the post to see the full Flickr Set.

Jenlene's Fundraiser at ACKC...

...Shots from Jenlene's Fundraiser at Artfully Chocolate/Kingsbury Confections in NW DC. The fundraiser was a play-reading event to raise money for Theatre Lab's "Send a Kid to Theatre Camp". She raised over $300 and local playwrights got their plays read by their peers.

The biggest hit for me was the reading of a Doogie Howser screenplay written by a friend when she was a young teen. It should have been on network TV!

Click the title of the post to get to see the whole Flickr set.

Labor Day Partay...

... a small intimate gathering of musicians, friends of musicians and those who date musicians characterized by cool colours, unique faces, funny stories and the ubiquitous red cup.

All shot with the 5DmkII and a 24-105 f4L IS. A single 580EXII bounced off the white ceiling (thank god for white) triggered by a pocket wizard. I upped the vibrancy a bit and added some select vignetting just for fun. I meant to shoot more with some shutter drag.. but i simply forgot.

The Jungle Book (Play)...

... teen musical put on by the Theatre Lab.

It was only about 40 minutes long but still an amazing and colourful show.

I need to get external battery packs to my flashes so they fire/recharge faster. The Pocket Wizards are working great... so great it is hard to stop just blazing away. I had my camera set to 400 ISO the whole time so many of my non-flashed shots were not usable.

Click on the title of the post to get to the entire Flickr set.

Back to Crystal City...

... more scenes from my home town. Confederate flags are creepy to me. So is not washing your lemons!

Gawd...

... the magic of f32. Sometimes i forget to look up.

Baywatch on Lake Erie...

... lifeguards keeping watch on a stretch of beach at Evangola State Park, Angola, NY. Rain and cold and tiny waves on Lake Erie.

Evangola Pirate Fest...

... twists of fate led me to the Evangola Pirate Fest at Evangola State Park in Angola, NY. They bill themselves as "Always The last Weekend in June" this way they never have to print new T-shirts with dates on them.

Sure it rained, but hey... there were Pirates!

Rich's Wedding...

... A trip to upstate NY to witness the wedding of Rich & Katie. I brought the 70-200 f2.8L IS in an attempt to avoid dancing (which worked). A rainbow appeared during the reception so it turned into a photo shoot with a hot model.

I never shoot weddings - too much pressure... but the cake looked way to yummy to NOT shoot.

Click on the title of the post to view the Flickr set.

Dupont Adventures...

... a late night adventure through Dupont Circle.

Thanks Southwest Airlines...

... recent flights to and from Buffalo, Baltimore and St. Louis were very nice to me. Here is some photographic fun during the BWI-BUF-BWI leg of my journey.

All done with the Canon 5DmkII and the 24-105mm f4L (my walk-around Lens). This was an experiment in reflections, flare and glare, exposure modes and some vibrancy/contrast manipulation in Aperture.

Click on the title of the post to get to the Flickr set.

Missouri Botanical Gardens...

... photography fun with my nephews at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.

Click the title of the post to get to the Flickr set.

Gordon's Stoplight Drive In...

... the best burger joint in the world (and my third favorite place to eat).

The Mess (band)...

... I finally caught Rob Meyer in a band.   They (The Mess) rocked the bar (The Office) in Crystal City, MO (my home town).

Poor lense choice and bad placement of the 580ExII flashes triggered with pocket wizards.  Very crowded, bland bar walls and bar lighting as well so twas not easy.   This was the best I came up with and all required a fair amount of processing.   Vignetting was the only thing I could do in Aperture to make them pop.

Click on the title of the post to get to the Flickr set.

The Secret Garden (play)...

Photos from the 2009 Theatre Lab Teen Institute musical performance of The Secret Garden directed by Michael Russotto and Buzz Mauro. Such amazing acting with a wonderful set and costumes. Visually, this was so "Spot On" to catch with the Canon and easy to get lost through the viewfinder since I don't really HEAR the dialog and songs when I am shooting. For me, it is all about the faces and seeing the actors lost in their own characters.

All was shot using the 5DmkII with the 70-200 f2.8L IS and two 580EXII's (one left and one right of the stage on stands up high) triggered with the new pocketwizards. I am catching so much of the show with this light that I am almost getting "too much" coverage. The above represent just a few that interested me.

Click on the title of the post to get to the Flickr Set. Please view as a slideshow to get the full experience.

Clarendon Dog Wash...

Dogs + Water + Soap = sad dogs shaking water everywhere!

It was Beautiful.

... a corporate track team hosted a Dog Wash in Clarendon to raise money for a cancer related charity. Great idea for this neighborhood and i knew it would be a great opportunity to catch something fun. This was shot in manual mode. Caught a lot of highlights so I need to watch my metering more... it changed much more rapidly than I was used to.

Click on the title of the post to get to the Flickr set to view all as a slideshow.

Russia at Peace...

... and here are the rest of the photos from my Moscow excursion. It was the architecture that caught my eye most. The ladies all wear high heels (i know not why) but it was the architecture that intrigued me the most. I would go back in the winter... if i could afford it.

Click on the title of the post for the full Moscow Flickr set.

Russia at War...

... much of my free time in Moscow was spent touring two large Russian Military Museums and visiting their equivalent "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". The military art and life-sized dioramas in the museums were intriguing but capturing their antiquated/historic missiles pointing up into the sky were most intriguing. They rightfully take very much pride in their WWII successes and the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Moscow at night...

... a few weeks ago i was lucky enough to spend some time in Moscow during Russia Day!
This was all from wandering around the Red Square area.

These were done with the 40D on a borrowed tripod (thank you Embassy!) except for the fireworks shots which were hand held and pure luck. I forgot my cable release so had to use the self timer. I wanted to bring the 5DmkII but was afraid it would get stolen given where i was staying.