The Munchkin's Notebook

On July 15 th , I did a session with Laci . This session was inspired by the original 1959 Barbie doll.   Note this shoot was planned before the actor’s strike and is focused on the legacy of the doll itself not the movie. I fully support both the actors and writer’s guild strike and this shoot was not done in promotion of the movie. For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Canon 80D 18-200mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 72-inch umbrella with sock 43-inch ocatbox 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands 1 black backdrop 4 pink plastic table cloths 3x6 silver reflector Sandbags Kiddie pool Ball-pit balls Lawn chair Towel Pink metal side table/stool Astroturf The set up The set up for this shoot was relatively simple.  I started with hanging the black backdrop to block light coming in through the windows. I then taped together the four tablecloths,...

On July 8 th , I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots ’ meet up at the abandoned Cresson Sanatorium and Prison  in Cresson, VA.   The group shot here last in year in April, you can read about that experience here .   This time it was warm and sunny as compared to cold and snow of the last time.  For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Trigger 2 Light stands 18-200mm lens Gels Smoke Genie Headlamp Sunscreen Bug spray Camera Settings: This was an indoor/outdoor event, however most of the shots I took were inside the buildings. Note since this is an abandoned space there is no electricity meaning there was no indoor light except for window light. Thus, I used flash for all my images. For this event I shot using ISO 100 to ISO 1600, but mostly using ISO 200.  My aperture ranged from F5.6 to F9 with most shots being taken at F8. While yes it was extremely dark in several areas, especially the tunnels I kept at F8 ...

This year I attended AwesomeCon . I originally planned to have at least a week separating my trip to Ireland and my attendance at AwesomeCon. However, work training interfered with that and my Ireland trip needed to be shifted only giving me a day and a half between the two events.  I can say I wasn’t 100-percent at AwesomeCon; because I limited the number of shoots per day it was manageable.  I only did four shoots which is a far cry from the 20 I usually do at a convention. Additionally, being able to “easily” commute between the convention and homemade things better, since I was able to sleep in my own bed every night.  Finally, the convention is less crowded then Katsucon thus going a long way to making it feel less stressful overall.    Now let’s talk some photography. For AwesomeCon I was shooting with my Canon 80D with an 18-200mm Canon lens. I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand. T...