13/365: Flash of Inspiration

I'm beginning to suspect that the first bottleneck of creativity that this project will pass thru is the limited subject matter around my house. So far the ideas have been flowing surprisingly well, and the repeated exercising of the Creativity Muscle is having the same effect as any exercise on a real muscle...it seems to be getting stronger, and used to the strain (you all may disagree). hit the jump for more...

But as a working man, the days are filled with other activities (specifically a lot of video editing at the moment), and by the time I get around to taking my daily photo, I have little time to do it. The elaborate lighting schemes I have been tossing around get nixed for something easy, something quick, something RIGHT HERE IN THE HOUSE.

Tonight was the worst so far...I'd have a good idea, then set it up in my head, and realize there wasn't enough time  left in the day or energy in my body to try it (tonight, anyway). So I started looking around for something to spark an idea, walking into each room and staring around...I looked at my photo bookshelf...maybe something here...and then it hit me. Non-photographers out there, pardon my esotericism. You may not have heard of Joe McNally, but if you aren't blind, I can almost guarantee you've seen a picture that he took. Unless you've never read National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, New York, Business Week, LIFE or Men's Journal, that is. He has written a couple books now that have taught me a lot. "The Moment It Clicks" is a shot, a spark, a flash of inspiration for any photographer. If creativity could be converted to watts, there's enough practical and entertaining information in that book to power Vegas for a day, or light up my face even. If you are a photog, and you haven't heard of Joe or read his books, come out from under your rock there and welcome to the light my friend! Gosh you look pale...what? the light hurts your eyes? Try these blublockers. No, I promise you look good in them. Seriously, they updated the design since you crawled under there...ok, you're right. You look like an idiot. Apparently the old school yellow ray-bans are big again too, but talk about looking like an idiot...

Strobist info: One Canon 580II on camera as master, firing up into the ceiling at 1/16 power for room fill, one 580II taped in the book at full power with a couple goldish gels on it. Added a Quantary (sp?) in a tight grid at 1/8 power camera left and a bit lower, aimed right at the book. Normally I can't trigger the slave eye on that thing in sync with the 580s in IR mode, but it worked this time, could be the long flash duration of full power or the slow shutter sync of the 5dmk2...