The Munchkin's Notebook

At the beginning of October, I got the chance to do a steampunk photoshoot with Nerdenheim Jen at Fort Washington National Park.    The only downside is that it was raining that morning. Fort Washington NP, is located in Maryland along the Potomac River, and is the site of fort built in 1842. It was the only defense for the US capital until the Civil War.  The fort is very well maintained and has several of the original structures from the 1840’s. It also has concrete structures and embattlements from World War I and World War II.    All this makes it an excellent location for a photo shoot and has both outdoor and indoor areas. For this shoot, I had to obtain a permit from the National Park Service, because I was using a model and lighting equipment.  For the shoot I used the following equipment: Canon 70D, 18-200mm lens, Yong Nuo radio triggers, speed-light, painters pole, 2 large golf rain umbrellas, camera rain cover, gallon sized Ziploc...

At the end of September, I got the chance to work with the DC Cosplayer and Photographer meet up group again. This meet up was held at Lake Accotink, which is park Fairfax County Park system.   The theme for this meet up was steampunk. For those who don’t know what steam punk is, it is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates technology and aesthetics designs inspired by the 19-th century industrial steam powered machinery.  The clothing is reminiscent of the British Victorian era or the American “Wild West”. For this shoot, I used a Canon 70D with an 18-200mm lens, a speed-light attached to Young Nu radio triggers mounted on a light stand with an umbrella.  For most of this shoot, I was in bright sunlight, so I used the flash as fill and to separate the subject from the background.  I stuck with an ISO of 100, but varied my aperture and shutter speed depending on the location in the park while mostly using 100% flash power.  I was happy with se...

In September, I got work with a lovely cosplayer, IchigoGami on a Ren from Maji shoot.  I have always liked the costuming of Ren from Maji because of the full skirt and elegance of the costume.  Due to the elegance of the costume, I chose to do the shoot at Green Spring Gardens , in Fairfax County.  The gardens have several nice areas to include a pond, two gazebos, and several small garden areas.  For this shoot, I used a Cannon 70D with an 18-200mm lens, along with flash unit connected to Young Nu radio triggers, a light stand, and umbrella.  I started the shoot in the gazebo located next to the pond then moved through the gardens to the trellis area. The issue I had was trying to correctly expose the model while still trying to capture the interesting cloud pattern in the sky.   For most of the images, I shot using an ISO of 100, with an f5.6 aperture and a variable shutter speed.  In most cases, I was using the flash at full power. ...

I have been busy over the past few months, so got behind on my blog posts.  Therefore, I’m catching up on them now.  Back in June, I entered a photo contest sponsored by Magnum photography through Lens Culture.  Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer members. It “ is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually. ”  Lens culture is one of the most authoritative resources for contemporary photography, and look for exciting work from every continent with a diverse point of view.   I knew I wouldn’t win the contest, because my work is not very “avant-garde”.  I only entered so I could get a critical review of my work.  I entered two set of photos, a general set and a set of just portraits. I felt the critique of the general set was very good and helpful. The reviewer analyzed the pi...