Craigspics

Muskoka, Ontario

Went up to Muskoka area for vacation. I truly love this area and the highlight was Algonquin Provincial Park. We stayed at the Pines cottage resort, it was exactly what we were looking for. No one bothered us, it was so peaceful and we came and went as we pleased. As I am with photography our schedule is pretty messed up. I had planned to be up before sunrise every day and be back around 1:00pm take a nap then be out again in late afternoon light but, the first couple of days it rained so we stayed at the cottage, remember this was also a vacation so we just relaxed and did nothing. I only was up one morning before sunrise and was able to photograph the fog over Oxtongue Lake, So I was happy with that. We only seen two Moose, one was after dark so no photo and one I did get a shot of but was behind trees, still I managed a shot that wasn't the best of the moose but made for a nice artsy shot of the moose in it's environment. Did not see any bears and I was hoping to get a photo but maybe some where next year. I did get a shot of a beaver swimming up stream and of course we had chipmunks and red squirrels climbing all over me for peanuts at the cottage which I thought was cool but there are laws with feeding wild animals and with these little guys I was told they are there every year on the resort property and live there so do they still apply? I know everyone including the kids always do so I'm not sure on this one. The main purpose was to visit Algonquin park everyday and we did. We hiked the shorter trails, no more than 2 km and we drove from one end to the other and back on the #60 corridor and for the trails we purchased a summer pass so we could hike the trails. Aside from Algonquin park are also rapids and waterfalls around the Muskoka area, the waterfall I found to be fairly scenic was Muskoka High falls in Bracebridge. Ragged rapids were also pretty cool and fairly aggressive which made for nice photos. All in all we had an awesome time and found ourselves even looking at a cottage to buy but, the prices are just to high. Here's a few phots for now and as I edit I will ad more.

Full Length Portraits

This is Sara. I'd like to start off with how awesome this person is, such a great personality and I had a really good time doing this shoot with her. She wasn't feeling 100 % but still showed up as planned and made the best of it and for that i was very impressed with her keeping her word. To also ad to this, her boyfriend went fishing and she still came to the photo shoot and said she would join him later. Did I mention she really enjoys fishing and being outdoors. So I thank you Sara for your loyalty and for being involved in what i love doing (Photography). When someone is this beautiful you really can't take a bad photo so she made this so easy. Here I will post a couple of photos and post more later, she did say she wanted to do this again so hopefully I'll be posting even more soon. Here's the setup, Now I should mention that I don't use a flash meter, I used to in the film days but now just set up and find i'm usually good from the start. I don't use exact ratios either so can't tell you what they are, I've been doing this a long time and now just go by what i see. I will ad though that I've just started doing portraits again and it being new to me with digital meaning the editing is what i'm trying with new and different things and just looking for a good look that I'm happy with. Oh and of course my backgrounds I placed her in are HDR done in Potomatix Pro. Using the Sigma 10-20mm 4-5.6 at 10mm. I use all portable flash, yongnuo EX II for my lighting, Fill was at camera left, 40" shoot through umbrella, main light was 2 24" soft boxes stacked above one another used like a strip box at camera right, another was mounted to the ceiling aimed at a 9 foot white seamless paper background just above and behind the model. Camera, Sony alpha 580, 100 ISO, 1/125 sec, f8. 18-55 Sony lens.

And of course I had to shoot those gorgeous legs

April Songbirds

Well here we are another spring season, yet still quite cool in temperature. I've taken a few songbird photos. I wanted to get what I could without the vegetation on the trees. Sort of like different bird species in almost the setting or background. I find these photos look good paired together enlarged on my walls. Time has been so tight with building the in home studio and finding models, taking photos then editing everything, but I really love it and can't get enough, it's just taking longer than i expected especially with finding models.

Headshot Composites

Here are a few more comps that i did about a month ago. It's been really slow with getting models, they keep cancelling, so this past month has been driving me nuts! So anyway,
This is Bree. I only did head shots of her and she was so relaxed and natural at it, she seems pretty excited to do more so hopefully i will be posting more soon. This was also a TFP shoot so i wanted to give her prints of just headshots to start off and not over whelm her, and she really does have an awesome look about her, very beautiful. I also wanted her to sign a model release before posting, even though i know it's not needed for this purpose but I like to make sure it's taken care of before moving on. I sure hope things pick up soon.

Composite Portrait of Lori

Thought I'd do another of Lori. I really need to find more people for portraits so, if anyone in the Windsor area likes getting their picture taken let me know at craigspics.tk@gmail.com and I'll write back with more details. So back to this post, not much more to say here. This is the same set up as the other post of Lori and her dog. Of course as you can see the background is of the Detroit river done in HDR and processed in photomatix pro.

Selfie Portrait

Ok this is one I did of myself. I usually don't like doing pics of myself but at the time I was bored and had no one to tie to a chair. This was taken a few months ago and I figure I'd post it. The background is in HDR and under Ouellette ave. in Jackson park, Windsor Ontario. This was three lights and don't ask me what I was trying to say with this one. Just thought a little attitude would look interesting.

3 and 4 edge light photos

This is my niece Lori. It's who we decided to spend new years eve with. So while everyone had a few drinks i set up my lights and took some photos. I use 2 small softboxes, one on each side and a little behind the subject and a umbrella, i think it's around 36 inches as a shoot through up above the camera and another smaller umbrella below aiming up from the floor, now this smaller umbrella I usually use for fill also but for under the chin like a butterfly lighting but here i used it for the lower half of her body since in this case i used a wide focal length lens (10mm) and aimed it down and above her. I did not bring my background stand, It would not fit to well in their living room. I also don't mind the lights in the photo because i remove the subject and place them in another background and in this photo of Lori i just made a white background in photoshop and placed her in it. The only thing i had to do was ad a little shadow near her feet also done in photoshop.
Now for her dog Gemma i used the same setup only my stands that i use will only go down so far so i had to aim them downwards and i only used the large umbrella in front for fill, then there's the fact that the dog did not want to stay still so having her in the exact spot was impossible, this was the best shot that worked ok with the lights. Then of course in photoshop i placed Gemma in an HDR background that i took last summer downtown Windsor and processed it in photmatix pro. I guess I should ad that i use Yongnuo YN-560 II portable flash units triggered from camera with a flashwave II wireless radio save to one flash unit and the others trigger from the built in optical slaves which work very well and have not misfired yet in about eight months i've had them.
The lens for Lori was the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 lens and for Gemma was a Sony 18-55mm kit lens, Sony alpha 580 camera, both photos 1/125 sec. f8 100 ISO.

I would like to ad one more important fact, when usually I use a wide lens with someones face close to the lens which destorts and whatever is closest to the lens looks larger, I use the liquify tool in photoshop to shrink the nose back to a more normal look. Click on the photo and look at the unfinished and finished photos to see the difference.

This is the original photo only with the skin retouching done.

Original photo

The background

Outdoor portrait

This is my daughter In law. Lea. She was kind enough to sit in for a photo. This was back in the summer when I got a few more of the Yongnuo YN-560II flash units. I was just playing with them in the backyard and asked Lea to model for me. I think she looks amazing and for something i didn't plan, this came out pretty good, She really should do more.
I used 2 20" softboxes for the main and fill lights and a bare flash for a backlight which created the smoke to show up so well and i love the way it lit her face. This is the way i love to use light, I can't get enough of the way it looks. I also used photoshop cs6 and a wacom tablet for post.

Composite portraits in HDR backgrounds

Here are a few of the neighbours daughter i took a month or so ago. Two photos that are of the same portrait i took in the studio and were placed in different backgrounds with a soccer theme, which she plays for her school and the other was of her in her everyday clothes on a background of stairs taken downtown Windsor, Ont.

Yongnuo Speedlite YN560-II

At the beginning of the summer this year 2013, I had decided to buy two Yongnuo Speedlites (YN560-II) after tons of research and now it's the middle of September and I just bought two more. These are awesome, I have been using these for all my portraits and they have not let me down once. They are manual only flashes and that's all i ever use except for wildlife, Birds mostly, and that is a dedicated through the lens flash but a totally different topic. These flashes i use with two 24 inch softboxes and a 40 inch umbrella and my setup is usually like Joel Grimes, three edge lighting technique. So my point is if anyone is looking for a decent manual Speedlite these are cheap and well made. I'm not going to get into the specs, you can google these and there is tons of info on these all over, i will leave a link "here" if you don't mind waiting a few weeks to get these. Shipping is free and there's no duty. So with these four i don't have to use my vivitar 285, wich is falling apart but will do for an extra for now.
This first photo i took when i got the first two flashes playing around in the garage, the second i took is an orb Weaver in my back yard.

Weekend Composites

Well last weekend was labor day weekend and I needed some more backgrounds, so Michele and i went downtown Windsor on Saturday and i took more photos. The week before that, we went to Grand Bend, Ontario. I got one photo i really liked from that weekend somewhere in a small town. So i went and picked up my Nephew Robert on Sunday and i set up a studio in the living room and did a shoot for three backgrounds i picked. Robert is awesome to work with, when i explain what i want him to do, he understands what i'm trying to achieve with my backgrounds and he is very easy to direct. It sure makes the session more enjoyable in studio photography and he's pretty natural at it.
The first photo was a 3 light setup, two 24 inch softboxes from behind and on both sides about 5 feet high and a 40 inch umbrella directly camera for fill about the same height. And I used 50% glycerin and 50% water to get the sweat look on his face.
The second photo was lit with two lights with only one 24 inch softbox from camera left, 5 feet high and 40 inch umbrella above camera at 5 feet high, and the third photo was the at same angles but lowered because he was kneeling down, almost sitting on the floor. I then used photoshop to remove Robert and place him in the backgrounds.
You can view these photos large by clicking on them.

Composite Potraits

Well, this is what I have been spending my time on lately.
This is my nephew Robert. I decided to take his portrait while everyone was having a few drinks one Saturday night, I don't drink so I took these shots of him in the backyard and it was the perfect excuse to get my equipment out and play around. This was at night using two 24 inch softboxes, one on each side and a 40 inch umbrella only a few feet in front and at about 1 foot above him. Then in photoshop I did some skin smoothing and removed skin blemishes and dodging/burning, then placed him in some backgrounds I took last summer in downtown Windsor. The backgrounds, I used Topaz adjust for the effect they have. You can view these large by clicking on them.

Songbirds in the yard

Ok, Well here are a few more songbirds and a squirrel that keeps taking all the food. I have found the squirrels dragging the peanut and suet feeders across the yard, I don't know if they thought they would be able to carry it up a tree but they always end up near one. Now i just put more feed in areas they can access the food and it works Ok for the birds with their own supply. I thought i would throw this photo in of the Squirrel cause i like the this portrait shot. As for the birds i have a few that were feeding their young again, this year i have seen quite a few species that i did not get photos of, it's been hard with working and finding time when you need to do chores on your days off.
I am now starting to do some people portraits and will be posting them here soon, I've been wanting to get back into portraits and now with spring being over with, it's when i do songbirds mostly and near the end of summer i find more interesting insects so for the in between stuff and throughout winter i can do portraits of people, so that will be here within a couple of weeks.