The Munchkin's Notebook

ISO 100, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/15s, Focal Length 24mm In early January I received the Smoke Genie which I kickstarted last year. The Smoke Genie is a small handheld smoke machine that is about the size of 20oz bottle of pop. I always wanted a smoke machine but a lot of the ones I have seen have been too large and can’t provide the type of control I would want.   Now I have worked with dry ice and you can’t really control that, but if I was going to invest in a smoke machine, I wanted to ensure it was controllable, met a variety of needs, and small to be able to easily store it.   The Smoke Genie met all those needs and is really designed for the small creative, not the DJ trying to make haze at the club or the big movie production team with budget to spare.    Only bad part is it doesn’t ship with batteries, so I had order batteries before I could use it.   So last weekend I finally had the batteries and a chance to test it out these are the results.   ...

  On January 29 th , I did a pregnancy announcement session thecullimoreclan . They chose to not do a traditional announcement session that was all lovey-dovey but went with a fun and playful space theme to include costumes.   This was the first pregnancy announcement session I have ever done, I usually don’t do sessions like this, since my work usually leans a little more towards fine art then traditional family portraiture.   But there is always a first time for everything. For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D 18-200mm lens Trigger 1 strobe 2 speedlight 1 c-stands 1 Backdrop stand A-clamps Sandbags 1 strip box Grey backdrop Galaxy backdrop Large Foam Triangle Foam Squares Bowls   The inspiration for the session was provided by the couple, as they indicated the center of their universe was about to change.  They provided the gala...

On January 23 rd , I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up held Blue Valley Winery in Delaplane, Virginia. The winery is located off I-66 as you head towards Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Mountains, which provides for views across farmland and rocky ridges. We had a snow storm a few days before, which impacted the southern area more then the northern areas of Virginia thus there was still a nice amount of snow cover at the winery due to its location, which was great for some more dramatic shots.   Although the inside of the winery had a nice modern yet rustic vibe which also worked for those cosplays that weren’t quite suited for the outdoors and snow.   For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed light Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens The weather that day was cold with a cloudy and a bit overcast and not overly dramatic sky.   I thought I might run into a problem with my lens fogging by going from warm to cold and back again so I ...