1st work week of 2008

The first work week of 2008 is over. I'm taking a girl I know to dinner tonight (it's her birthday) but figured I would post since I have some time. Not much in the way of fancy restaurants here (will probably go eat some sashimi and sushi) but I can't really complain. Weekends are simple here, either going to the beach to swim and fish or sometimes going to see a movie (we have one theatre here). Sunday I will take some more more photos of a basketball game (enjoyed that last weekend) and might do some kayak fishing tomorrow.

Another girl I know (not married despite the ring). She has a simple tattoo on her right breast which I really like. For some reason I'm attracted to girls with tattoos. Not all over your body types, but one or two small tattoos are sexy to me. Hope you enjoy the post of her.

Getting Old

I'm getting old. I admit it, my days of going out and drinking all night long are getting lame. Recently pulled an all night session with a girl I met. We started at 10PM and went all night (drinking and partying that is).... At least it wasn't me dancing on the table. Damn wild night and we left with the sun comming up. By then I had only one thing on my mind and that was sleep. I slept all day but luckily didn't wake up that afternoon with a hangover. She was feeling the "love" from drinking all night long but by 9:00 she wanted to go out again. I had other things planned like getting rid of her so I could get some sanity back in my life. Took another three nights/days before the sanity kicked in an I had finally had enough. I guess I'm at the point in my life where going out to dinner and seeing a nice movie is a good night for me.

This was taken at about 4AM (I think). I have been using my 550ex attached to a Canon camera shoe cord. it allows me to hold the camera in one hand and the flash in my left hand. At least that way I get it off camera and have some more control. It still allows me to use E-TTL which lets the camera control the flash. I also have pocketwizards but for something quick this works well. I use is a lot with my 17-85 zoom lens and it works well with my wide angle and nifty 50 also. Try to hold a long lens (like my 70-200) in one hand and the flash in the other and you will die unless you have the kung fu grip.

Speedlights

Life is tough sometimes. My girlfriend is more than 5,000 miles away and I probably won't see her for at least 6-months. There is a very cute Filipina girl I really want to photograph, but she has other things on her mind. Funny thing is all I want is to photograph her but she made it very clear she wants more. I would normally jump on it (no pun intended), but I'm trying to stick to one girl. So I sit here alone on a Friday night with my cell phone ringing. She just finished her work and I hope she doesn't decide to pop in to see me at the house. After a couple of beers I want to pick up the phone and call her but I know I will regret it in the end. Besides, my girlfriend knows I have kids and accepts that and she is pregnant. I guess that is why the cold shower was invented.

Okay..... This shot was made using two speedlights. The first speedlight is to camera left and slightly above her shooting down. I used a grid on the light to control the fall off. I pointed it at about shoulder blade height. The second speedlight is positioned inside the door to camera right. It is skimming the closet doors and has a red gel attached. Both are triggered with pocket wizards. I had to be careful to watch the light on the girl as when I had the power too high, it was hitting the closet doors and washing our the red gel effect from the other light. Again, get the light in close to control the falloff.

Flash

Just got home from being out with the boss all day long on client calls, which ended in a dinner with another client. Come home and get the kids lunch ready for their school tommorrow, clean some dishes and I'm beat. It's not easy being a single parent at times. I wasn't going to post but since this is a new blog and I'm trying to build up some content I decided to post something.

What can I say? I love asian women and find them very attractive. I met her one day just walking around and we struck up a conversation, which soon led to her coming back to my room where I got this photo. I sometimes like the look of direct flash, with the harsh shadows it creates. Mix that in with a little bit of tungsten lights and you can get a look I like. Now the processing on this photo included a photoshop action called professional retro. I thought it gave the photo and interesting look and feel.

Two more days until the boss leaves.....