Canon EOS 1D Mark III

"And if you needed it hyphy I take it to the Bay. Frisco to Sac-town They do it everyday" - This Is Why I'm Hot: MIMS

After sending off my previous camera my replacement camera had arrived today. The only thing I've really done with it was change some of the settings and horsed around with the burst rate on it.

I'll be sending the camera off to Canon's service center to have a few things checked out before I put it to use. With it being a holiday weekend here in the states I'm hoping to receive my camera back from Canon by end of next week. *crosses fingers*

Oh what's with the gaffer tape you might ask? Well for 3 reasons 1) I am not sponsored by Canon so no need to advertise them for free 2) makes my gear look like old crappy stuff and finally because I'm a ninja.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/8 power shoot through umbrella camera right

Camera settings:
1/400 f/8 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

iPhone camera

I took this photo of a bench the other day and for some reason I'm just drawn to this photo a lot. So much so that I ended up making it my wallpaper for my phone.

The colors and simplicity are just one of the reasons why I like this one a lot.

Choosing a camera

With my Canon EOS 40D gone I soon found myself thrown back into the pool of people asking themselves:

What camera should I buy?

I started to ask myself what did I like and what didn't I like with the 40D. Based on the list I came up with a few things that I wanted my next camera to have.

• Respectable high ISO performance
• Quicker than quick auto focusing
• High fps
• Ability to control speedlights on camera
• Auto sensor cleaning
• Large LCD

Using my list, I started to browse the Canon line up and found 2 cameras that could fit my needs as a photographer. The Canon EOS 1D Mark III and the EOS 50D.

The 50D is an evolution of my previous 40D, more mega pixels crammed into that APS-C sensor and higher ISO capabilities. The 1D Mark III on the other hand sported an APS-H sensor, along with higher ISO but what really stood out was it's ability to lock on focus very quickly. Having 45 AF points to which 19 of those are user selectable certainly helps out a lot.

What I found interesting was that in spot meter mode the meter actually follows the AF point you select. That in itself sold me as spot metering is my preferred metering mode. Not to mention the ability to shoot 10fps... I'll need to book a flight to the SQ F1 race.

Using my list I went with the 1D Mark III.

Flickr Explore

So just what is Flickr Explore? You know I have no clue. The description on the Flickr website states the following

There are lots of elements that make something 'interesting' (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing.

Even with that I'm still confused. But I do enjoy the viewing the photos that end up in this section along with those photos posted to the groups I follow. Lots of great talent out there and loads of inspiration.

Working Shoes

Been away for awhile (hey I only signed up to do 50 photos anyways). One of the main reasons why I haven't been posting lately is that I've been working out some gigs.

So for awhile it will be sporadic with posting, even when I get my replacement body. Maybe I shouldn't call this dailyphoto anymore since it's no longer a daily.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/16 power 1/4 CTO snoot/grid

Camera settings:
1/500 f/2.5 ISO400

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Eventful day

Today was a very nice day (productive wise). In the morning I did a Windows Vista tutorial even though I haven't really used it since I'm all about OS X. After that I headed home to have some cookies and milk before heading out again for a meeting for some photography work and that turned out really well also. At least I figured it did since I came home with a couple of loafs of freshly baked bread.

I'm now hopeful that I will get a replacement camera in a few weeks so that I can start taking photos as a result of the meeting today. Photo was taken from the meeting with my iPhone. (If you can figure out what place this is then you figured out who I met with)

Canon EOS 40D

"Let me see you touch the ground" - Hoochie Mama: 2 Live Crew

I no longer have my Canon 40D. It's gone and hopefully in a few weeks replaced with something else. So today's photo is the last photo I have of it before I placed it back in it's box and shipped to the other side of the nation.

Today's photo was inspired by the emails and comments I received about my tripod and how do I get some of my low angle shots. The tripod I use is an older Bogen 3001. This tripod has seen a lot of action and has a lot of mismatching screws and bolts holding it together now yet it still works.

What I really like the most about this tripod is that I can take the center shaft and invert it so that the camera mounts from below. So now you can see how I take those low angle shots.

Main lighting was provided by a 580EX II in a shoot through umbrella up high. To fill in the back side of the camera/lens I placed a 430EX out of the cameras frame and pointed it towards the tripod.

Bye Canon 40D! It was fun working with you, take care!

Strobist info:

1 580EX II 1/4 power shoot through umbrella high camera right
1 430EX 1/8 power snoot/grid off frame camera left

Camera settings:
1/500 f/8 ISO800

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

The Pianist

"Come to the Northside of the V. The C the R the E the S T" - 2 Hard for the F***** Radio: Mac Dre

#battle is really a fun group. Post a picture and someone's bound to come at you with their photo. That's what happened to my Revenge of the High Hat photo. Originally, it was to respond to @Shaznyc Skateboard Assassins. Now C. Strife comes at me with \m/

Not one to back down I come back as The Pianist. I don't play covers I write my own music son! Actually, no, I play covers :P

Main lighting was provided by a 580EX overhead in a shoot through umbrella (I really, really, really, need to buy a boom stand). To give the front of my body and the piano a bit of lift I placed another 580EX on a light stand out of frame camera left. Background lighting was provided by a 430EX on the floor.

Strobist info:
1 580EX II 1/1 power shoot through umbrella (side facing back wall has been covered) above me and the piano
1 580EX II 1/8 power bare out of frame camera left
1 430EX 1/4 power shot through a mixing cup of water behind the 2nd 580EX II camera left

Camera settings:
1/200 f/8 ISO100

Lens used:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM

Setup shot can be found here

1/500

"Some pop, some lock, some move robotic. Like Cash Money, I stay in pocket." - Universal Mind Control: Common ft. Pharrell

I thought I'd do something different for today's daily. Instead of using my DSLR I swapped it for my trusty PowerShot G2. The reason being is that it has an electronic shutter instead of the mechanical one which would allow me to use a higher sync speed without having any shutter creep.

I was able to sync up to 1/500 on the G2 compared to 1/250 on the DSLR. With the higher sync speed I was able to brush off more ambient to mix with the flash.

Speaking of flash main lighting was provided by a 580EX II on a light stand camera right. A bit of back lighting was provided by a 430EX on a gorilla pod behind Madeline to give that "oh so special highlights on the hair".

I may look into getting a Lecia D-Lux 4 now.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II 1/1 power high camera right
1 430EX 1/4 CTO behind Madeline on a gorilla pod

Camera settings:
1/500 f/8 ISO800

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Revenge of the High Hat

"She wanna have whatever she like. She can, if she bring her friend" - Kid Cudi

Tonight I did the antenna mod on my Cactus V2s transmitter so that I could trigger my flash at a greater distance. Once I put everything back together I headed out to take this photo.

I placed the drums in the middle of the street with the camera on the sidewalk I then proceeded to place the flashes at various lengths and what I found out was that I need to invest in some Pocket Wizard Plus II.

Goofing around indoors is fine but once you get outside and wanting longer distances man these things will irk you!

Revenge of the High Hat is in direct response to @Shaznyc Skateboard Assassins

Strobist info:

1 580EX II 1/16 power shoot through umbrella (removed for setup shot due to wind) high camera left
1 550EX 1/32 power red gel on street pointed at base of high hat stand camera right
1 430EX 1/16 power 1/4 CTO on gorilla pod pointed to the road behind me camera right

Camera settings:
1/25 f/2.8 ISO1600

Lens used:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Setup shot can be found here

Day 'N' Night

"The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at nite" - Kid Cudi

It was pretty funny that @photosip took a photo of Claudia's Tiramisu at the same time @monatheism made some as well. So I'm like ZOMG #battle time.

For whatever reason I decided I would do something a bit different with it. Instead of just shooting it as is, I had this bright idea to freeze it for a bit then cut it up into slices and alternate the slices with mascarpone to build up some height, only to totally cut the height down with a freaking bowl! D'oh! Then I thought hmm I should top it off with something bright... a maraschino cherry!

I tried it afterwards and well... you gotta wonder what the hell you got to be smoking to come up with stuff like this. That's why the only I do in the kitchen is make a bowl of cereal.... yep.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/8 power 1/4 CTO fired through a DIY beauty dish high camera left (as if you couldn't tell by the shadow :P )

Camera settings:
1/160 f/4 ISO200

Lens used:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

I Can

"If the truth is told, the youth can grow then learn to survive until they gain control" - Nas

Our church had a bazaar today and we found some great deals on some dress up items, an easy bake oven and a desk for my daughter. Currently she's been doing her homework on the play, kitchen or coffee table. So it was nice to find a desk that she can do her homework on, draw and place her computer on.

Not bad as we got the whole lot for $20USD. You can tell this was made for a desktop/tower with that hole on the left. I have some extra lights around the house that I will mount to this so she can have some overhead lighting.

Main lighting came from a 580EX in a shoot through umbrella camera left. I added a 550EX pointed to the wall to give it try to break it a bit from the background. To give the laminated wood a bit of color I placed a CTO'd 430EX on the floor camera right.

Madeline liked her desk so much she embraced it before she headed for her afternoon nap.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/1 power shoot through umbrella high camera left
1 430EX 1/32 power 1/4 CTO on the floor camera right
1 550EX 1/8 power behind and to the right of desk out of frame pointed at wall

Camera settings:
1/160 f/4 ISO100

Lens used:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM

Setup shot can be found here.

How many shots?

There are many different ways to go about shooting a photograph. Here is my quick and dirty method since a) I'm usually by myself and b) I want to get in and out of there as soon as possible!

The first thing I will do is meter for ambient light (all you natural light photographers should be familiar with that) then drop it a stop or two depending on what I'm trying to do.



Once I'm happy with the amount of ambient I have I'll work on the main lighting. How do I decide how much power or where to position it? For power setting I'll usually guess how much I'll need given the distance it will be from the subject I'm lighting and if I'm using a modifier or not. I find that 1/8 power is a good starting point and I'll work from there. As far as positioning, it just depends on where I want to light source to come from. I'll also use the test/pilot button so I can get a an idea of how it's hitting.



I approach accent lighting the same way I do the main. If I really want to control how the light falls I'll add a snoot or a grid to it.



So all in all it took about 6 shots to get today's daily out:

Photo 1 Ambient test
Photo 2 Main test
Photo 3 Key test
Phoot 4 Me
Phoot 5 Me again but increased the key a bit.
Phoot 6 Setup shot

Then I pack up and head on out.

Let Me Ride

"rollin' in my '4 with 16 switches" - Dr. Dre

If you've been following me on Twitter or on Brightkite today, you'll know that I was test driving a few cars today. I'm contemplating replacing my failing 12 year old car with something more modern but at the same time I just don't want car payments... you hear me? That's what led to the idea of today's photos, test driving.

The wind let down a bit so I was able to shoot a 430EX through an umbrella for main lighting. It was suppose to be a 580EX II but for some reason it just wasn't triggering. A bit of fill light was provided by a 550EX aimed towards the backside of the RR pole.

Yes I have chicken legs... I already know.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/4 power 1/4 CTO shoot through umbrella facing directly at me.
1 550EX 1/16 power red gel ground camera left firing towards the back of the RR crossing pole.

Camera settings:
1/40 f/2.8 ISO800

Lens used:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Setup shot can be found here

Passin Me By

And now the world around me be gets movin in slow motion - The Pharcyde

I always wondered would it would be like to jump into light speed so I decided to put the camera at the rear of the van and proceeded to light the interior with 1 580EX. To give the front some sort of interest I put a 550EX and a 430EX up front and had a go driving around.

I did get some looks at other motorist since here was this van driving next to them and every few seconds bright flashes of colored lights would go off.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/8 power 1/4 CTO bounced up camera left
1 430EX 1/32 power blue gel passenger seat pointed at center console
1 550EX 1/32 power red gel floor of driver seat pointed toward passenger seat pointed at garage door camera right

Camera settings:
0.6s f/8 ISO100

Lens used:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM

Triggered via onOne Software DSLR Camera Remote Pro Edition

Setup shot can be found here

Paparazzi

Tonight @monatheism and myself were at Taste of the Nation. We were having a great time sampling all the food and chatting it up with the chefs. We even got in with the brigade at Bouchon. While I was taking some photos of the chefs this lady says "You there with the camera, you're paparazzi tonight, follow this girl and take her picture!" I turn around and find out I'm suppose to follow Holly Madison.

So I follow directions and do the snap snap snap thing and figured, eh I'll use this for my dailyphoto.

Since it was the whole paparazzi thing I had no time to set up an off camera strobe so everything was done via a hot shoe mounted 430EX (gosh I love that little guy) pointed behind me for some bounce action.

Strobist info:

1 430EX hot shoe mounted 1/4 power head pointed over my left shoulder

Camera settings:
1/40 f/2.8 ISO800

Lens used:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM

Cosmic Assassins

You weak now seat yo ass in the back - DJ Qbert

Wow things really did carried away. First it was just fist fights, then bats and then a ninja with a bat. Then to top it off someone had to bring the guns. Self destruction, you're headed for self destruction. I'm walking away from this as well and start mixing up the cuts in the garage.

Lucha libre makes a cameo in this photo cutting it up for us tonight.

Main lighting is provided by a 580EX II in a shoot through umbrella close to me as I was running the power low as not to contaminate the rest of the shot, while a bit of rim lighting came from a snoot/grid 430EX. Giving the background some flava is a 550EX gelled red and shot through a mixing cup of water and a 580EX II gelled blue shot through 2 glasses of water.

We're up in the club.... errr garage for this party!

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera left
1 430EX (rim) 1/4 power 1/4 CTO snoot/grid behind me camera right
1 550EX (background) 1/4 power red gel shoot through mixing cup of water behind me pointed at garage door camera right
1 580EX II (background) 1/4 power blue gel shoot through 2 glasses of water behind the Mackie mixer pointed at garage door camera left.

Camera settings:
1/200 f/2.8 ISO100

Lens used:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM

Setup shot can be found here

#bokeh

"Yo, it was a brown wallet, it had props numbers had my jimmy hats I got to get it man" -Q-Tip

It's just one of those nights where you come home and you're just dead tired and all you want to do is take a shower, pour yourself a nice tall ice cold glass of milk and sit in front of the TV watching the latest release of Bleach.

No strobist info since well, I didn't use a flash unless you count the street lights and a car down the street as off camera lighting.

Camera settings:
1/30 f/2.8 ISO1600

Lens used:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Cat meet Dog

"We'll keep on rockin, keep on shockin you'll keep lookin, starin, and mockin" - Milk

With our busy life we don't have the time nor the energy to take care of a real pet so my children have a robotic cat and dog to keep them company. What's great about this is if they are done playing with them we just put them back on their base station. No feeding, no cleaning no worrying who will take care of them when we go on vacation.

I wanted to try out the Live View feature of onOne Software's DSLR camera remote for this photo. So after setting up my ad-hoc network I enabled live view from the iPhone and got a live stream of what the camera was looking at. I was able to adjust the umbrella and my feet to make sure they didn't get in the shot. This app is proving very useful each time I use it.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/64 power 1/4 CTO shoot through umbrella above subject hand held
1 580EX II 1/128 power red gel camera right on light stand
1 550EX 1/128 power blue gel camera left on gorillapod

Camera settings:
1/30 f/2.8 ISO1600

Lens used:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Triggered via onOne Software DSLR Camera Remote Pro Edition

Setup shot can be found here