Last night my daughter told me that she put her Barbie VW on the floor so the kittens could play with it. Turns out, they like it, a lot. My favorite thing about this is how apropos the WWF sticker on the bumper is!
For Mother’s day, my Mom and I got a Yongnuo 560 III flash, some 603 receivers, an umbrella, and a stand. Never using an off-axis flash before, I realized I should test it out and see what we could do. This is just the basics-I wanted to see if I could get the black background during daylight hours, and a shot of Anna’s freckles and eyes-crisp. Now, I’m a total lover of natural light, but if I can use a flash to make images crisper, I’ll take it! I wing everything anyway so how bad could I do with a flash? =P
For this face shot, I knew with only one light source (the flash) I’d probably need to fill in some light on the right side of Anna’s face. We’ve got some makeshift reflectors in the Volvo’s trunk (white poster board, black poster board covered in aluminum foil) but I also still haven’t taken the snow tires out of the trunk. So I improvised and asked my Mother to hold the silver window reflector, you use in your car’s windshield, to reflect the light. While I absolutely love what that reflector did to her eyes, it didn’t reflect as much as I would have liked. Then again, true-to-life coloring on photos isn’t really my thing, so maybe I was over-analyzing the outcome. The shadow on the right of her nose just throws me off something fierce.
All-in-all I’m happy with the first real test shots with the flash and umbrella, and look forward to integrating it into our normal photo shoots!
Initially when I had thought of this idea, it became a painting and actually not scary at all. I think the girl in my story ended up on bed with two kittens laying on either side of her. The book, Moby Dick. But this is what I had in mind from the beginning. Weird thing, I like spooky stuff but I’m apparently only able to paint cute things. What can you do? Not that these pictures are scary by any stretch of the imagination, I mean there’s kittens for crying out loud! =P But Dante’s Inferno just adds a bit of darkness. For the record, the book was opened to a blank page.
Willow stepping over Rosebud.
Little Willow
Willow is the most curious.
Rosebud’s new toy.
Little Dorian Gray
To all human and fur baby Mothers alike, I hope you have a super fantastic day! =)
We love our chickens, a lot. We love our two ducks too…but they’re not team players and don’t seem to like us like the chickens do. I did a quick portrait of Anna and Lillian today, a year later. I also tried to do a portrait with Anna and one of the ducks. The duck wasn’t having any of it and let us know, or let Anna know in a very gross way. hahaha
Anna and Lillian April 20, 2012
Anna and Lillian May 7, 2013
Oh man, my Mom and I were laughing so hard we nearly lost it. Anna on the other hand was so utterly disgusted. After a couple gags, she started laughing as well. So much for the new dress.
Ducks don’t pose.
