The Munchkin's Notebook

On October 24 th , I worked with the lovely Beatrixz Xclusivez . This shoot revolved around a fall leaf headpiece I made to match the season. We shot at Phillips Park in Beavercreek, I like this location because it has three nice features a big red barn with silo, a pond, and a gazebo.   For this shoot I focused on using the barn and the pond as a background For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Light stand Small soft box I shot 205 frames between ISO 100.   My aperture varied between F5 to F20 with a majority of the shots taken at F5.   My shutter speed ranged from 1/60s to 1/250s with a majority of the frames being shot at 1/200s.   My focal range varied from 18mm to 80mm with the most common focal length being 18mm followed by 20mm.   Since this shoot was focused on the headpiece, many of my shots were beauty shots.   Two of my favorite shots are a beauty shot taken using walls of the barn as a background. In the first shot, I...

On the evening of  October 24 th , I worked with the lovely Markiel on a parachute dress shoot. We did this shoot at Oaks Quarry Park , at sunset.  Oaks Quarry Park is a good place for this type of shoot with the open spaces and the unique landscape that can go from lush green to barren looking across the seasons.  For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Speed Light trigger Speedlight battery pack Light stand CTO gels I shot 124 frames at ISO 100 with an aperture of F8.   I used an aperture of F8 to ensure depth of field and focus.   My shutter speed ranged from 1/50s to 1/640s with a majority of the frames being shot at 1/80s.   My focal range varied from 18mm to 80mm with the most common focal length being 18mm which ensured I got the whole dress in the frame.   I prefer to shoot the parachute dress with an assistant for two reasons, 1) it is a lot of dress, 2) it makes it easier to fluff the dress to make it billow in t...

(ISO 200, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/200s, Focal Length 18mm) On November 8 th , I worked with the lovely Megan Rice to shoot my green parachute dress at Carriage Hill Metro Park . This is a different location from were I have been shooting the parachute dress, so the shots have a different feel about them.   Carriage Hill is a farm park, so there are several old/restored farm buildings, farm animals, and fields.   For this shoot I was glad the Megan brought her boyfriend, because he helped fluff the dress up to get the nice billow effect.   While my husband managed the lighting by holding the painter’s pole with a speed light on it. For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Painter’s Pole Assistant I shot 214 frames between ISO 200.   My aperture varied depending on where we were shooting in the park.   In some cases, I was shooting almost directly into the sun while in other cases we were in the shade. Thus, my aperture varied from F5 to F13,...

On the evening of  November 7th, I participated in a group shoot with the Cincinnati Female Image Makers at a train depot.  The group was 10 people,  5 models and 5 photographers all the photographers wore masks during the shoot, which was 95% outside, except for the few instances people were in the one open train car.  Before the shoot everyone was provided a few mood boards for inspiration, the models went for a more vintage1940’s look in there outfits instead of steampunk look.  For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Light stand Mini soft box I shot 247 frames over the course of 75 minutes.   (Each photographer is given 15-minutes per model.) I shoot the 247 frames at ISO 200.   I used three apertures over the course of the shoot F5, which was the most prevalent, F6.3, and F8 which was the least prevalent. My shutter speed ranged from 1/25s to 1/250s with a majority of the frames being shot at 1/250s and 1/160s.   My fo...

On October 11 th , I worked with Dayvon on a cyber concept shoot. This shoot was designed around a pair of contact lens with a circuit board pattern. This inspired me to think about things like “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and cyber punk in general.    For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights 2 Phottix strobes 2 Phottix Rectangular Softboxes with a grid 2 C-stands Blue gels Silver garage insulation Backdrop stand Black backdrop Connectable foam workout mats For this shoot I started out using four lights. The first two were small speed lights with blue gels attached placed on the floor aimed at the backdrop.  The backdrop was silver garage insulation, which looks like silver bubble wrap. The backdrop reflected the blue light forward providing a bit of rim light.  My main two lights were the strobes is rectangular soft boxes with grids attached. For this shoot I kept the lighting very low key, styled along that of a photo of Ryan Gosling i...

  On October 3 rd , I worked with the lovely Megan Rice to shoot a lovely deep purple dress from designer Ewa Jobka . This shoot was done in Lebanon, Ohio at Colonial Park South. The park has a nice little creek bed and bridge where we did most of the photos that day.   For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Light stand Small soft box For this shoot the focus was on how the color of the leaves complemented the dress. For those who don’t remember their color wheel, violet/purples complement is yellow.   In this case the dress fell closer to the red-violet shade thus its complement is yellow-green which is very close to the color of the initial leaf color change and the color of the light as it comes through the leaves.     I shot 216 frames between ISO 100 (55 frames) and ISO 400 (161 frames).   My aperture was set at F4.5. My shutter speed ranged from 1/40s to 1/250s with a majority of the frames being shot at 1/250s.   My f...

  On October 11 th , I got to do a little bit of cosplay photography with Eowinth Cosplay and Apollo Ven .   This was a   Lord of the Rings (LOTR) shoot, which we did out at a local state park.   For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Light stand Umbrellas Trigger Eowinth Cosplay and Apollo Ven like to do joint cosplays, were the characters have some sort of relationship with each other. In this case Eowinth was Thranduil and Apollo Ven was Legolas, for those not up on their LOTR lore, Thranduil is Legolas’s father.  Thus, during this shoot, I tried to capture a little bit of the tenuous relationship between Thranduil and Legolas. Additionally, in preparation for the shoot, I looked at several of the LOTR movie stills for both characters to guide me on some poses, lighting, and most importantly color tones that set the overall mood of the image.   This shoot was a bit of a challenge, due to the location.  While the locatio...