Lost Without You

When shooting weddings, I'm always on the look out for a nice location for some great photographs near the church. The ceremony was held in a church in San Lorenzo Ruiz Church in Walnut,CA. As I was looking for a place to park, I saw this nice trail and said to myself, this is a perfect spot for the newly weds. Their DVD montage song "Lost Without You" by Robin Thicke fits the location. I underexposed the background by a stop, and lit the couple using an off camera flash. Shot was taken with Canon 5D II with 24-70mm at 24mm, F/5.6 at 1/1600 second, ISO 100. 580 EX Flash was triggered by a Pocketwizard mini TT1 attached to the camera and Flex TT5 attached to the off camera flash in hyper sync mode.

Wedding Rings

I've been playing around with lighting lately...cheap lighting that is. In the photo above, the lighting used was an Eveready Flashlight which I bought at Lowes for $2.99 for 2. Can't get any cheaper than that.

What I love about this light besides being cheap and light, is that it gives enough illumination to create a dramatic lighting. Like in this case, looked for a window with just enough light to illuminate the background but not overpower the flash light.
Set my camera to Tungsten White balance (which gave me the bluish background) and the same time to match the color temperature the flash light produces.

Shot was taken with a Canon 5D fitted with a macro lens. Exposure was set to 1/160 sec @f/2.8 ISO 800.

Baby Portrait - Adrian

It has been a while since my last baby portrait. And after this shoot, I realized how much I miss shooting baby portraits. While waiting for Adrian and his parents, I started setting up my lighting. With baby portraits, a simple one light setup has always been in my bag of lighting tricks. A large soft light from camera left and a large reflector on camera right.

When Adrian and parents came, his Dad told me that he had just fallen into sleep. This is a good sign, we just had to wait for baby Adrian to wake up. After a few minutes, he woke up and like any another baby he was wondering where he was. When Adrian saw his mom and dad a touch of smile came out of his face, and I said this would be an awesome session. Adrian is in a good mood. We hurried down to start shooting.

He was such a good boy during the whole shoot. Can't wait to follow up shoot with baby Adrian.

Here are some of the shots:

Lito Sy in Los Angeles

I'm always looking for a workshop that would help me take my photography to the next level. With the current economic troubles we are having, it is very difficult to find a very informative and valuable workshop without spending a fortune.

Luckily, an International Award Winning Wedding and Portrait Photographer named Lito Sy will be in Los Angeles for a 2 Day workshop. Yup, that's right a two day workshop. It get's better for only $395 for a 2 day workshop, this a simply a no brainer. It get's even better, there are payment options that I believe are very attractive, not to mention lunch buffet for two days. That's right Lunch buffet.Register before Feb 20, 2010 and get the early bird rate of $375.

For details on the workshop click here.

Mark Wallace US Meetup Tour by Pocket Wizard hits Pier59 studios.

When I heard news that Pocketwizard has released their Flex mini TT1 and Flex TT5, I was intrigued by what these little devices can do. Not only you can shoot at shutter speeds of 1/8000 of a sec, it also does e-TTL communicated via radio, no more line of sight issues. Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with the outcome I was getting. Misfires, over exposure, under exposure, etc. I was not a happy camper.

Then I heard that Mark Wallace from snapfactory.com has partnered with Pocketwizard to promote the enhancements and finally resolved the range issues, over and under exposures, etc. that a lot of photographer has been complaining. As it turned out, some Canon flashes were emitting noise that interferes with the communication between the mini TT1 and flex TT5. Instead of pointing the blame to Canon Flashes' RF noise, they developed a sock (yes you read it right, "socks") and called it AC5 soft shield. These socks blocks the RF noise coming out of Canon's flashes. I said to myself, please let there be a stop in Los Angeles. I guess Pocketwizard heard me. Not only they are giving an AC5 soft shield for free, Mark Wallace will be hosting a workshop on lighting and demonstrate the two devices. To add icing to the cake, there will be Models as well. What else could you ask for.

With the AC5 soft shield on the Canon Flashes, Pocketwizard has resolved the range and other issues that you might have read or heard with the AC5 soft shield. With the addition of the optimized hypersync speed and configurable rear curtain sync, getting one is a no brainer.

As always, Mark Wallace workshop is very informative. He explains characteristics of light, direction of light, e-TTL, speed sync etc.. etc.. without that assumption that all attendees are armed with this knowledge already.


Here's Mark Wallace in action:








Here are some photos of models I took. These photos were shot in e-TTL mode.

580 EX II (TTL Mode) with flex TT5 on camera right bounced thru an umbrella trigerred by mini TT1
Shot @ 1/60 - f4



Bare 580 EX II (TTL mode) with flex TT5 on camera left trigerred by mini TT1
Shot @ 1/125 - f4

New "L" series from Canon - 100mm macro f/2.8 IS

Canon recently added another "L" series to their macro lens lineup. The best part it has Image Stabilization. Based on initial reviews, the new Canon 100mm L macro lens is extremely sharp wide open.

This is also th first lens on the market to incorporate Canon's new Hybrid Image Stabilization Technology. Hybrid IS effectively compensates for both angular and shift camera shake during close-up shooting. The lens was developed to expand users' photographing range and allow a wider range of users to easily enjoy macro photography.

Click here for more details

Creating Lighting Styles and Using the Mini and Flex's Features Educational Session - FREE

Mark Wallace photographer and educator, will be holding educational sessions throughout the event on Creating Lighting Styles and Using the Mini and Flex's Features for Creative Results.
Sign up now limited seats available.

The best part, Pocketwizard is sponsoring the Tour.

For details on this free education session, click here.

To sign up, click here.