The Munchkin's Notebook

On July 28, I did a clean modern fashion session with Diana and May, inspired by some late 80’s and early 90’s fashion shoots. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Strobe 1 PlatyPod 1 rectangular soft box 1 6-foot umbrella with sock 2 C-stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Seamless in Egg Nogg Spyder Color Checker Card Posing cubes White Wrapping paper   The set up For this session, I went clean and simple.  I started with a Savage Universal seamless in the color Egg Nogg.  This color tends to enhance skin tones and is a nice neutral base.  Then, I placed posing cubes wrapped in white paper in the center of the seamless.  I wrapped the cubes in white paper, as my cubes are dark brown and white, which was a better look for this session.   For the lights, I started by pl...

On July 27th, I had a session with the MelPool Cosplay to test my new stained glass concept.   At first, I was concerned that Roy from Fire Emblem wouldn’t fit the concept, but then I saw the images of the character appearing in Super Smash Brothers.   The Super Smash Brothers shows the character in a castle with large stained glass windows, so the concept was a good fit.      For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 rectangular soft boxes with grid 1 1x2 strip box 2 Phottix Strobe 1 Westcott FJ400 2 C-stands Platypod Sandbags Bell reflector plus grid Backdrop stand Grey backdrop 4 two-foot Aperture light bars Table Bench 4 plexiglass sheets Window wrap 8 2x4 foot insulation panels Gaff tape Aluminum foil   The set up To see how I made the stained glass window, view my ot...

On July 27th, I had a session with the lovely Natalie to test my new stained glass set design.   The set design was inspired by old church windows and chapel rooms in castles.     For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 rectangular soft box with grid 1 54-inch umbrella with diffusion 1 Phottix Strobe 1 Westcott FJ400 2 C-stands Sandbags Bell reflector plus grid Backdrop stand Grey backdrop 4 two-foot Aperture light bars 2 smoke genies’ Orange silicone gel Table Bench 4 plexiglass sheets Window wrap 8 2x4 foot insulation panels Gaff tape Aluminum foil 2 Candelabra Electric candles The set up First, let's discuss how I made the stained glass panels.  I covered pieces of plexiglass with stained glass printed window cling wrap.  I then gaff taped two insulation panels togethe...

On May 25, I did a conceptual photoshoot with Anastasia.   The idea behind this shoot was escaping the box you put yourself in in your mind.   I thought of the concept based on comments I have seen about people saying things like “I’m not sure if I should post these pictures of myself that I like” or “I’m scared to post because these images don’t seem go enough.”   Sometimes it is hard to escape the box in your mind but when you do it opens up new experiences.   For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 Phottix Strobes 2 C-stands Sand bags PVC pipe & fittings Plastic drop cloth Tape Flowers Sunscreen Bug spray The set up The first thing I did was find a shady spot in my backyard to set up the box.  I then assembled the box using PVC pipes and corner fittings that were painted s...

On June 9th, I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots ’ meet-up held at Skate N’ Fun Zone in Manassas, VA.  This was an interesting place to hold a photo meet up and challenged both cosplayers and photographers.  The location was very colorful and very open due to the skate rink.  I think this was challenging location due to colors, needing the right cosplay to make it truly work, and possibly needing to be able to roller skate some.  I did take some good photos, but I wouldn’t say this was my best work. For this session I used: Canon R6 1 Speed light Trigger 1 Light stands 24 - 105mm lens Gels Assistant Camera Settings: For this shoot I used a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO2000 when I was in the laser tag section.  Though in general my ISO stayed around ISO 400 to balance ambient and flash.  I kept my aperture wide open at F4 or F4.5 to blur backgrounds, as the backgrounds could be very distracting.  While my shutter speed ra...

On June 2, I did a photo shoot with Coralinx Cosplay at Meadowlark Gardens for her Taylor Swift inspired Folklore fairy cosplay.  The cosplay was inspired by Taylor Swift fan art by Alef Vernon .  I choose to do an on location shoot for this cosplay session, because Meadowlark has several little places that work perfectly for cosplay and allowed for more variety in the photos. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger Small ocatbox. Speedlight Painter’s pole assistant     The set up Since this session was done on location, there wasn’t a lot of set up for the session.  The main thing was getting the speed light mounted on the painter’s pole with a small ocatbox, so I could add that pop of light to the model’s face.  Natural light is great, and reflectors work well but you can’t match the control of a flash.  Th...