My Little Angels

With all the prep work for our big cross state move to Tampa, FL I haven't done much studio photography lately.  I did manage few days ago to snap a few photos of my daughters wearing their mothers wedding dress.  

I didn't get around to get them prepped for the web till today.  I have a few more, but wanted to share just these 2.

We never did trash the dress during our wedding photo session, so the dress has been sitting in our closet for almost 17 years.  This was totally my wife's idea, but I think they came out adorable!  

Little Angel Zoey

I am not going to lie, a little tear came out when I initially saw them in the dress, but then I realized that I have banned them from dating till 25 years old, so no worries there! :)

New Additions To My Home Studio

Couple quick new additions to the home studio was in order.

I was finally able to get (2) heavy duty light stands to replace my previous crappy kit light stands.  I chose the Impact Turtle Base C-Stand Kit from BHphotovideo.com.  I am very impressed with the build and quality and would highly recommend these to anyone looking for good priced/quality items.  They were $50 cheaper than my Avenger light stand and the quality seems to be the same, if not better. 

After doing some research on an affordable large octa softbox, I decided to go with the Fotodiox 60" EZ-Pro.  It had some favorable reviews on Amazon and the price was right.  To have this package complete, I picked up the egg grid for it as well.  

After getting the items over the weekend, I got inspired to paint the home studio (ex dining room) area with a light gray color.  The red was really reflecting back a lot of color on my photos.  It was a cheap Home Depot paint, so it took 3 coats to cover well.  It was time well spent though as I am now able to use the wall for some compositing, and no more color reflections.

The top photo is a self portrait shot with 1 light, the 60" octa on to the gray wall.  Post processed with Photoshop with added textures for the wall background.  

I am very happy with this softbox so far, and looking forward to getting some actual models in front of it soon!

Mini Me aka Zachary

It's been 9 months since our little joy Zachary was born.  Time has gone by super fast,  but one thing has remained constant and that is lack of sleep for mommy and daddy :).  

This little guy has the fastest battery recharging system in the world!  If you look up the definition of POWER NAP on Google, Zachary's name should come up :).  

He is a cutie, and that smile will disarm you immediately.  Zachary is ready to walk any day (heck if it was up to him he would go straight to running).  He is now able to stand still on his own which is the coolest thing to see.

Zachary standing on his own

I know the minute he starts walking, we are in trouble.  Time to child proof some things for the third and final time.

I got a few shots of Zachary yesterday with the whole family helping out.  The girls were great "wranglers of babies" and they got him to smile pretty good.  These 3 shots were my favorites, so I hope you enjoy them as well.

I shall call you...Mini Me

NAPP HDR Brackets Fun

Thanks to RC Concepcion and his brackets, everyone had a little fun today doing some HDR post processing on the NAPP members site.  If you don't belong to NAPP...you should!  It's the best $99 a year you can possibly spend.

It was a long day today, but I managed to squeeze in a quick post process of those brackets.  Quick merge to HDR from within Lightroom 4 to Photoshop CS6.  Then stylized in PS6 for the final look.

Per RC's request, “Just working on a file RC gave us at photoshopuser.com”

Enjoy!

Read Some Books

I was going to shoot some poses for composites tonight along with my brother.  I went ahead and setup the lights and was just firing off a few selfies before getting to some of the lighting I was after.  

Next thing I hear is a pop/hiss followed by bad burnt electronics smell.  Needless to say one of my B800's bit the dust :(.

I fired off an email to their support to see what they can do for me.  Will find out Monday.

I wanted to create something better tonight.  This is my standard light testing pose, and it was the only usable photo pre explosion :).  

Background was just a single exposure shot at local Barnes and Noble earlier today while on an out and about with the family.