136/365: Joseph.

Experimenting with small, harsh light sources. I had my 580ex2 triggering off-camera, mostly trying to position with my left hand...Trying zooming it all the way to 105mm, but it wasn't small enough. I didn't have my grids, homemade or store-bought, but I did have a cereal-box snoot that I made awhile back, completely covered with gaffer's tape to hold it's form. Tightens the beam down real hard, but there's very little falloff on the edges, less than with a grid, so it's kinda hard to put exactly in the right place, especially when you are trying to hold the light and shoot. Here, Joe acted as his own light stand and held the flash to his left. The on-camera flash, which was triggering the off, was also aimed at the ceiling and turned way down to give the rest of the shot a bit of exposure.

I've been pretty slow on the uptake lately here on the 365. Life has a way of...accelerating. Not to worry. I will not stop, even if I don't get a shot up everyday, I'll always get myself caught up eventually. Another thing I've slacked on lately has been my themes - After finishing the conceptual Alphabet month, I needed a bit of free-verse time to decompress. That has gone on for awhile, but in case you didn't notice, I did sort of have an unofficial compositional thread running through some of the photos since then. Call me design-challenged, but I like symmetry and center-weighted compositions. Yes, I know the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, and the value of tension in composition, created with various off-center framing and composition. But the act of Making a Photograph gives me a sense of 'presentation' that often seems to call for a grounded, stable composition. Even within compositions such as that link, there can be some movement created and lines for the viewer to follow. Eyes and body position help us find places to look. I especially like to use symmetry in landscapes and natural settings, since Nature seems to have a love/hate relationship with that particular design technique as well (flowers being a great example of both symmetry and asymmetry).

Anyway, I do have a new theme in the works, but it's a little different, another non-technical theme (though it will involve lots of lighting, so expect some diagrams). This one will be story and character-based. I'm in the process of getting the characters ready, and next week I'm off to California to film for an upcoming Cirque Productions original release, but after that I should be able to kick it off. Here's a little sneak peek:

-llg