The Munchkin's Notebook

This the first image is of On April 19 th , I attended the Costume & Camera event at Rust Manor House , in Leesburg, VA.  Rust Manor House is part of the NOVA Parks system and hosts weddings and events.  I thought the manor was lovely and the number and variety of rooms available to us was good.  Also, the manor had lovely grounds, so we were not limited to shooting indoors.  I particularly liked the location because it was local to me, and very easy to get to. For this event I used: Canon R6 24 - 105mm lens Cannon speed light Mini-square soft box Light stand Camera Settings: This shoot had a variety of mixed lighting conditions, depending on what room I was in, inside the manor or if I was shooting outside.  While the sky was beautiful clouds and the sun were not behaving that day thus, I was really adjusting settings on the fly while outside. My ISO ranged from 100 ISO to 500 ISO with the most common ISO being ISO 200.  My aperture...

On March 21st, I did a spring-themed session with the lovely Anastasia. I have had this set up in my head for months, and needed to execute it, so I could move on to other thoughts. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobes 2 Cannon Speed Light 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stand 1 white backdrop Sandbags 2 umbrellas Clamps 2 Pink gels Spyder color checker Laptop Teather cable 2 Gold flower stands 2 Gold flower planters Spring flowers (daffodils & tulips) 3 Trellises Astroturf Styrofoam Posing block The setup The image in my head was of a garden full of daffodils and tulips with a trellis.  I don’t have access to a garden like that, so I made my own with fake flowers, a trellis, and astroturf. Note, all the materials were from earlier shoots, because I repurpose and reuse, espe...

On March 8 th , after several reschedules due to weather,   Enchantedwithkahlia  finally got to work with her  to shoot her female version of Captain America in front of the Jefferson Memorial.   The Jefferson Memorial was picked because it is one of the movie filming locations. Though it will only ever look that empty early in the morning, that is why we shot at 7:00AM on a Sunday. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 Speedlight 1 Light stand 1 ¼ CTO gel Assistant The set up This was an early morning sunrise shoot on location, so the setup was rather simple.  A single speed light with a ¼ CTO gel mounted on a light stand held by my assistant.  This setup meets the guidelines for shooting at the memorials.  I went with the ¼ CTO gel to meet better blend with the golden hour sunlight.  Unfortunately, we had ...

For my birthday this year I decided to take the train up to New York City with my husband to see a show.  I decided on the train because it the long run it was a bit more convenient and cheaper than flying when you consider seat class, parking at the airport, getting through TSA, and the taxi ride into and out of Manhattan. We traveled by metro from Wiehle-Reston East station, which has long term parking for $5 a day to Union Station to catch the 5:30PM Acela.  (Though we lucked out as we came back on a Sunday and the gates were open.  Yay free parking!) Acela is the high speed limit train from Union Station, DC to Penn Station, NYC, the overall trip is about 3 hours.   We arrived about 90 minutes before departure time, even though Amtrack suggests 45 minutes.   Arriving early let us grab a quick bite at Wolf Gang Puck’s bistro and figure out where we needed to go to board the train.    The Acela leaves Union Station on either track E ...

On February 28th, I attended the  Costume & Camera  (previously DC Cosplay Photoshoots) event at the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  I have a love/hate relationship with shooting at the National Portrait Gallery; it is a beautiful location due to its architecture, especially on the third floor, and I’m thankful that you are allowed to do portrait photography there as long as you don’t use flash.  What I get frustrated with is the varying colors of light throughout the building and the need to use natural or continuous light.  (I’m a flash girly.)  For this event, I used: Canon R6 24 - 105mm lens Neewer 12-inch LED light Assistant Camera Settings: This shoot was inside the Portrait Gallery, which has a no flash policy, thus I was using a mix of natural and continuous lighting, which affects settings. My ISO ranged from 100 ISO to 3200 ISO with the most common ISO being ISO 1000.  My aperture stayed between F4 and F5, with the most c...