Nephew, Nephew, Niece with Studio Lighting

Nephew, originally uploaded by SoLostAndFound / Bill Lindsay.

Here are the next batch of siblings. The oldest is missing here since he could not come. I tried for something different here as well. If I can corner the oldest to get him to match,these will make a fun group to put up at their house. Maybe a full group for grandma?....

It is definitely different then what I grew up with. I had 2 cousins and an aunt and uncle. On my dads side it was a little more confusing. I know of some, but we really don't have much contact with them. But marriage into my wife's family, that is a big extended family. It is fun for my daughters and good to be a part of such a big thing.

Strobist Info: Shot with a Novatron V600D and 3 Flash Heads. Two had Umbrellas or Soft Boxes and the third had a snoot.

EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Thanks for looking.

Day 194, Daughters and Electras 3 of 3

Day 194, Daughters and Electras 3 of 3, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

We love bikes here. Well, I love bikes and my kids are getting it from me. They all have an Electra and they love them. I shot their bikes as well, but they are not ready to post. I want to reshoot them to make them match.

I also want to shoot all of my bikes as well. I have 3 Electras and my Cannondale Synapse. I will get them up before I sell a few of them.

Thanks for looking,
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 193, Daughters 1 of 3

Day 193, Daughters 1 of 3, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

So I have had the studio lights and backdrops up in my garage for awhile now because I wanted to shoot some stuff with them to put up here. Here is the first that I am throwing up, my daughters.

They are really all pretty good to my eye. I had to up the contrast to hide the backdrop flaws, but all in all they came out pretty good.  I shot them to put up in order on the wall.  I placed number 2 in the middle of the frame just to make it work with the side of the frame shots for 1 and 3.  They hang pretty well on the wall.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture:	f/1.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 153, Engagement Portraits

Day 153, Engagement Shoot, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Here are some shots from an Engagement photo shoot. They wanted something for the announcements. This holding hands shot is one of my favorites. It never makes the announcement, but I like it none the less. In fact, my favorites never make the announcements. They usually end up on the table at the reception. This is a great couple and they will go far.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/2.5
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Flash fired, red-eye reduction

Day 144, First Dance, Daddy Daughter Dance and Last Dance

Day 144, First Dance, Mr and Mrs, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

I love these three images and they really seemed to bring an emotion that group posed shots can't. The image of the Bride and Groom dancing their first dance as Husband and Wife really showed how in love they are. The shot of the Bride with her Father, It showed the love there as well. Since this couple had their reception the next day, they really just wanted to enjoy the reception. After pretty much everyone else had gone, they had the last dance to themselves. It was great to shoot this. I will be shooting another for this family, the Brides Cousin, in May and the engagement photos this Saturday.  

I really milked this wedding for images for the blog, thanks for bearing with me. I can not begin to tell you how much I stressed over this. For the most part, there were no errors that I could not rescue. Only a few images were going to have to be converted to "Artistic". I did this 365 project for the purpose of becoming a better photographer. It is a great goal and I can't entirely believe how much things have changed for me as a photographer. I have had a image published for a travel guide, wikipedia, and now the LA Times has asked to run one of my images this weekend in their local blog. I of course said yes. If they do in fact run it, I will put up a separate post for that when it happens.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture:	f/1.4
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 143, Mr and Mrs

Day 142, Mr and Mrs, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This might be the last day I make you look at these wedding images. But then again, It may not. This is after we got through all of the family group pics, which I don't like as well. But this image came out great!. I like that you can see his wedding ring and the little smirk on his face. They really were great to shoot.

OK, tomorrow will be the last day of wedding images.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/1.6
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 142, Mr and Mrs

Day 141, Mr and Mrs, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

So to continue the thread of out of order. After the wedding the Bride wanted to get some pictures of the two of them at a park here in Riverside, Citrus State Park. This round were of the Bride in her dress and the Groom in his dress blues. It is a perfect time of year for this, the flowers over the trellis were perfect. These were the set that I had to correct the huge blue cast and the way they came out underexposed. I will take that with the light orb over the harshness of the flash without the light orb since the blue cast and slight underexposure was an easy fix as long as I shoot in RAW. I set the white balance to auto the next day at the reception and it came out really well.

By the way, I am really proud of this Bride and Groom since I have known her since she was born. Her uncle is my best friend since we were 11. Her parents and grandparents are some of the closest people in my life. She is brilliant and can make much of her life and his. The groom is one of this countries best, a two Iraq tour Marine who comes from a great family. They have one of the best chances to make a happy life. I hope it for them.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	30 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 120, Black & White Engagement Pictures

IMG_5320 (2).jpg, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Here are some more of JT and Casaundra that I did in Black & White.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS 10D
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction

Day 119, First Engagement Pictures

CRW_5295 (1).jpg, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is JT and Casaundra. They are close to me and I am taking their wedding pictures. This is one of the engagement shots that we took for their announcement. JT has done 3 tours in Iraq and Casaundra is one of the smartest people I know. Together they could be one bright spot in the world. I love this picture since it really shows how they feel about each other. The second picture is the one they decided to use for their announcement since it shows them both looking at the camera. They were great models. Not bad for my first portraits that are not immediate family.

Congrats!

Thanks for looking.

EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS 10D
Exposure:	1/3999 sec
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 117, Our Emerging City, Orange Art Project

IMG_7248.jpg, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is one of the Oranges from the Orange Art Project. This one is in the lobby of the Wells Fargo Bank, and Best, Best, and Krieger Building in the down town area. This is not the best photo, it is really a snapshot, but I really was having a hard time putting something together for this one. I will have to go back and try to get something more interesting.

Thanks for looking.

EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	21 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 44, Father and Son

Father and Son, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

One of the main reasons that I am doing this pic a day blog, is for me to find things that work for me. I want to build up on the arsenal of picture ideas so that I have something to work with when I need to shoot for a side business. I love this picture. It is not technically perfect yet, but it has the elements of something that could be a cool pose down the road. This one of my brother-in-laws, and his son. What a fun kid. I tried it again on my wife and daughter. I want to get a better lighting for this, maybe a flash that is off the camera and fills in dad better. I will play with this one.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 43, Cousins in Red

Cousins in Red, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

One of the many great things about my life is my Wife. When I married her, I had no idea that I would find in this huge family of hers a place. but they are one of my joys. I know, I know, what about all of that mother-in-law baggage and the way everyone is in your business. But I think that I must have the best Mother-in-Law in the world. She is really a wonderful woman. All of my brother and sisters in law are great.

The best part is my kids have something that I did not, cousins. They have lots of cousins. And they are like best friends. I have two and they are really great people, but they were 5 to 10 years older then me, and well, you can see where that goes. The age difference is not so great anymore, but now we are not close, not like my girls and all of their cousins. The funny thing is , that is how it worked out on both sides.

So here is one of many pictures of cousins.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 19, Family Portrait

Day 19, Family Portrait, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

What a chaotic night! If you saw my post a few days back on my brother, Andrew, you had the chance to read that I bought a studio light set up and a backdrop. I seem to always aim much higher then I should. For my first song on the guitar, I wanted Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn. Talk about over my head. Clapton has these monster mutant long fingers, and I still haven't got one song down on what are now a collection of 3 guitars. They look great hung on my wall in my office. I have since backed it down a little and I am working on Johnny Cash stuff now.

For my first studio type portrait, I tried to shoot 23 people (half of them are kids) with a brand new set up and next to no time to work out the bugs. Did I say half of them were kids? So I made some big errors and I am not happy with the portraits. I am working out some fixes with photoshop, but just the same, it was as big a let down as not being able to pick up a guitar and drop Claptonesque riffs.

While I had everything set up, I ran each family through and shot some other pics for fun. I like how these came out. For next time, I will move the subjects forward a little and put up a backdrop light or hair light. I will make sure the backdrop is ironed. That was really an easy fix in iPhoto. Just a little of the retouch tool. I will hook up my camera to a laptop and then I will catch lighting problems in the first few shots. I will.... well the list is kinda long. But the individual family groups were not bad. Here is the "funny" shot that I have done some of the editing on. (the backdrop was about 2 feet to small on the sides and about 5 feet too small in the front - a lot of photoshop to fill in and make look natural)

Here below are the shots of my parents, my brothers and their wives and children and my sister and her husband and children. Clicking on any of them will take you to my Flickr photostream and you can see them in larger formats there.
I just can't wait to try again.

__________________________________________

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	28 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV