Quick and Easy Portrait
December 28, 2009 | Filed Under People, group portrait | Leave a Comment
CAMERA: Canon 5DMkII; LENS: Canon 85 f/1.8; FLASH: Canon 580EX
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is recharging their internal batteries for the New Year.
During the holidays, families get together and it’s the perfect time to capture some great memories with your camera. Of course, most of us aren’t going to setup a huge elaborate lighting configuration with all the hustle and bustle going on in the house, so in a pinch find yourself a background that is not too busy or cluttered, grab your camera with an external flash to pop onto the hot-shoe, and a piece of white foam or poster board (optional).
The photo above was taken with my flash bounced behind me into the corner of the ceiling and wall. Sitting on the table in front of my subjects was a white 2×3 piece of foam board tilted slightly to bounce some light up to reduce some of the shadows in the eye sockets and under the chin. It’s not going to look as if it was shot in the studio with a softbox or beauty dish for a main light, along with a fill light, hair light and back light, but for something that just takes seconds to setup and keeps your holiday party or any other celebration moving along without interruption, it’s a perfect solution.
Quick. Easy. Painless.
The Search for a Christmas Tree 2009
December 15, 2009 | Filed Under Personal, family, kids | Leave a Comment
An early snowfall arrived here in Maryland on the same day my family planned on finding and cutting down our Christmas tree. The annual trip to a tree farm has been a Hoffmann family tradition for 13 years now.
Grammy pulls Henry away just as he attempts to step through a puddle.
Keely is armed with the mighty saw
Henry wanders the field
Keely keeps her eye on her tree of choice
A Long Weekend at the Beach
August 24, 2009 | Filed Under Personal, family, kids, vacation | Leave a Comment
I took my wife and two youngest kids for a long weekend at Bethany Beach in Delaware. Of course I couldn’t leave my camera home.
Kids Will Be Kids
May 31, 2009 | Filed Under family, headshots, kids | 1 Comment
Today my 7-year old daughter Keely, tried her hand at doing face painting … on my 2-year old son, Henry.
I happened to be setting up for headshots I’m doing on Tuesday, and my daughter decided now that she has mastered the art of painting on faces, to try her hand at doing photography. She gave Henry explicit directions on how to pose (which of course went on deaf ears), and then manned the camera (with my careful eyes on her making sure she wouldn’t break anyting) and snapped off a few shots. I was able to salvage a few somewhat usable images. I think it’s time for me to spend some time now educating Keely on the art of photography. I think she is showing a liking to it.
Headphone Discovery
April 25, 2009 | Filed Under family, kids | Leave a Comment
You’ve got to listen to WonderPets without outside noise distractions.