The Munchkin's Notebook

On March 30th, I did a session for the lovely Natalie of Archaic Costumes & Designs for her constellation dress.   I specifically reached out to her because this dress really inspired me and helped me tap back into my creative side. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands 1 grey canvas backdrop Sandbags 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 grids 1 3x6’ silver reflector A-clamps Ladder 1 blue velvet curtain 3 yards crushed blue velvet 2 yards grey velvet Books Table Bench Electric candles Telescope Skull Astrolabes   The set up When I saw the dress, I immediately thought of the Renaissance and a few paintings showing Renaissance astrologers, thus the theme for the shoot was born.  To keep with the theme, I started with a hand-painted grey canv...

This is a very late wrap-up of Katsucon 2024, but I have been busy with war college; thankfully, I graduate in June.  Because of college, I didn’t have my normal Katsucon session schedule because, I needed to balance schoolwork with my post convention photo editing workload.  Also, my husband and I brought our niece with us, it was her first big convention, and we needed to make sure she could enjoy the convention.  I would like to give a special shout-out to LifeofCosplay for showing my niece the cosplayer's perspective of Katsucon. We arrived on Friday afternoon, instead of our normal Thursday evening, which meant I did not have any Friday sessions scheduled.  I didn’t get out onto the floor until after 3:00PM because I had to be on a teleconference till 2:30PM.  I took a few floor shots and went to the cosplay met gala runway show since I knew several people walking the runway.  This year’s gala was moved to the Cherry Bloom Ballroom, where they were ...

On February 11, I did a traditional portrait session for Yancy. In this session I focused on getting him nice headshots for professional sites, as well as some nice portraits that showcase his style. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stand 1 grey seamless 1 canvas backdrop Sandbags 2 rectangular soft boxes Eye-light reflector Chair Stool End table Decanter Rocks Glass The set up For this session I shot two basic sets up, one for a headshot and one for traditional full body portraits. The reason I did two set ups was because the client needed two types of photos, headshots for professional websites and then more traditional photos for personal use. Now while the sets of are fairly similar, how they are applied is not. For the traditional headshot lighting, I used two str...

This year seemed to zoom by, and I don’t know if that was because I was trying to fit everything in before school started or just because I’m getting older.  In August, I started an intensive 10-month Master’s Degree program at the Eisenhower School for work, and you can’t take leave while in the program.  So, I had to squeeze all my annual leave in before August.  Because of school, I didn’t shoot as much as usual in the last half of the year, and I won’t be shooting that much in the first half of the new year.   But even with that restriction, I still accomplished a lot. In 2023, I shot 8732 frames, which is 15-percent decrease from last year.  I edited 4732 frames which is a 2-percent decrease from 2022.  Either I’m becoming more thoughtful in my composition or better at culling images, possibly both.  My most used ISO was ISO 100 with 39-percent of my photos being shot at this ISO.  With ISO 200 being a close second with 35-perecent of ...

On December 16 th , I did a Gilded Age inspired session with Laci Neal .   The inspiration for the shoot was a mix of the show “The Gilded Age” and historical photos of Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt from the 1880s.       For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stand 1 canvas backdrop Sandbags 1 rectangular softbox 6x6 silver reflector Light stand Bell reflector with grid Boom arm Clamps Tablet clamp Flower arrangements Chair Flower stand Wine glass Hand mirror Opera Glasses Tiny purse   The set up For this session, I wanted to channel the images of the heiresses of the American Gilded Age, specifically images of Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt.  From these images I gathered they were either taken in their sprawling mansions or simpl...

On November 19 th , I did a holiday themed session with Sanj .   For this session, I wanted to do a set consisting of all silvers and whites with these large ornaments I bought at Michales Crafts.   The set really, I think is reminiscent of a modern or simplistic window display, giving the shoot a very commercial feel. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 2 c-stands 2 light stands 1 Backdrop stand 1 canvas backdrop Sandbags 1 octabox 1 bell reflector 6x6 foot silver reflector 40-degree Grid Barndoors White backdrop Ottoman White cloth Ornaments Fishing line Silver bells Stool 3x6 foot metal frame White garland Dowel rods J-hooks Backdrop bar   The set up To build the set I hung a white backdrop with enough length to cover the floor.  I then hung the...