Yes, it's official...I'm one year closer to the big "50" today so I better squeeze as much life out of my 40's as I can this year. LOL.
Anyway, I got a few inexpensive items for my birthday that I've wanted to have and play around with for quite some time.
I already had a light stand and reflector, but never had an umbrella or umbrella adapter where I could mount my 580EX II and play with light for portraits or other things such as still life or product shots. Now I do. :)
I also got some Cokin flash gels so I can balance flash temp with ambient light or for creative use. So, I'm looking forward to some fun shots and playing around with it all.
Any suggestions of some good techniques, books, websites etc. on what you can do creatively with one flash with our without gels, one 32" 5 in 1 reflector and a shoot thru umbrella? Yes, I know about strobist.com etc, but looking for more ideas as well. Anything would be appreciated including links to good photos and how they were lit. Time for some fun! :)
Got some suggestions on stocking your house for the big 50:
arthritis pain pills, Icy hot patches, depends, ebsome salts, lots of bandages, a note pad on the fridge so you can write as soon as you think of something you need to do or get, a lumbar support for your chair, gas-x, warm slippers (non skid only), a clapper so you don't have to trip over stuff to turn on the light when you make the 100 trips to the bathroom at night.
Well much more but I forgot to write it on my note pad attached to the fridge....
Got some suggestions on stocking your house for the big 50:
arthritis pain pills, Icy hot patches, depends, ebsome salts, lots of bandages, a note pad on the fridge so you can write as soon as you think of something you need to do or get, a lumbar support for your chair, gas-x, warm slippers (non skid only), a clapper so you don't have to trip over stuff to turn on the light when you make the 100 trips to the bathroom at night.
Well much more but I forgot to write it on my note pad attached to the fridge....
LMAO! Katie you have me cracking up. Those are ALL great suggestions. LOL. Hopefully I won't need the depends anytime soon though, but the rest is starting to sound like real necessities. :)
Hey Dave, look at it this way, at least it's still getting closer... sure beats either of the alternatives:
- It quits getting closer (!)
- It's getting farther away again (sigh)
Hey Dave, look at it this way, at least it's still getting closer... sure beats either of the alternatives:
- It quits getting closer (!)
- It's getting farther away again (sigh)
Good points Fritz! LOL. Especially the first one...that would NOT be the better alternative. :)
Hah! Thanks Dr. :) I actually like TMBG as well. Hard to believe how fast time goes. Seems like just yesterday they formed, but it was like 30 years ago or close to it. LOL.
and I kinda drug your post off topic, I've got a few books but none really cover all your subjects and some are either too basic or WAYYY to advanced (at this time for me LOL) I've googled and u-tubed a lot on strobes and gels and found much better help than the books I have.
and I kinda drug your post off topic, I've got a few books but none really cover all your subjects and some are either too basic or WAYYY to advanced (at this time for me LOL) I've googled and u-tubed a lot on strobes and gels and found much better help than the books I have.
Thanks Katie! :) I've learned a lot of great things by researching on Google and Bing as well as YouTube over the years. All great resources although I'm really annoyed with YouTube lately since they changed the layout and took the "X" away from the videos so I could delete the videos that don't interest me from my subscriptions. In fact when I watch the whole video it stays on my stream until it's pushed down the page by new videos. SOOOOOO annoying that I swore I wouldn't use YouTube until they fixed it. Well, while I don't go on there nearly as much as I used to since it's ruining the experience I still catch the important videos I want to see.
Happy b-day!!!! Get one of those memo recorders to tell what you're leaving the room for so that when you stop in the middle of the hall and can't remember where you were going, you'll know!!
As for suggestions for your lighting set-up, you have a really nice starter kit. I suggest just playing with it so that you get a feel for what one light can do. I have yet to go on any website, anywhere, that will give me ideas. I use it the other way around: I fool around, get something I like, then look it up to see how it can get better.
Happy b-day!!!! Get one of those memo recorders to tell what you're leaving the room for so that when you stop in the middle of the hall and can't remember where you were going, you'll know!!
As for suggestions for your lighting set-up, you have a really nice starter kit. I suggest just playing with it so that you get a feel for what one light can do. I have yet to go on any website, anywhere, that will give me ideas. I use it the other way around: I fool around, get something I like, then look it up to see how it can get better.
LOL...Thanks Johanna. The problem with the recorder is that I'd probably forget where I put it when I go back to listen to it. LOL. Still think I have a little time left though before I need to go to those extremes. I mean...er...wha...um...what were we talking about again? (rewinding...rewinding... oh yeahhh.!) :)
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I know soft-boxes are more controllable etc., but I just wanted the shoot through and gels for now to experiment with and have some fun. I've always been big on ambient lighting and I do use my flash with a omni dome diffuser triggered by my 7D when I set it on something, but I wanted something more ideal to diffuse the light and add more versatility. I just need more play time with it. With a round trip drive of about 90 minutes to and from work, plus the work day that doesn't leave a lot of me time at the moment. :)
