Pixel Darkroom Photography

Exploring new techniques. Mr. Legoman found himself a time contraption which he turned into a slightly unbalanced carrousel. I experimented with stroboscopic flash to get more Legomen in the image. For those of you who do know what stroboscopic flash is, you are geeks. For the rest of us, it’s called simply triggering the flash multiple times during the same one long exposure. The great thing about the Lego Tennessee Time Killer is that it does work on its own, and once you wind it up, it keeps turning forever. It’s so efficient that you could make electricity with it, once you have all the wires connected to the wheels and to a dynamo. I actually charged back my flash batteries while posting this and I then started to power up my laptop with the Tennessee Time Killer. It’s actually providing quite a bit of energy. The way the global warming game is playing right now, I believe even cars will have a bigger scale rubber band powering them and instead of gas station, there will just be strong guys winding up the rubber band in the back of your trunk to power you up for another few days. I can’t believe you’re still reading this.

Strobist info: 580 EX (II) X 4. CL, CR, CL zoomed to 105mm with snoots and grids at 1/32 via on camera 580 EX II in stroboscopic mode. Just play with the Hz and the amount of pops. Shot at f/22 to kill ambient over the 1′3″ seconds exposure. I got 4 pops.

Homeschooling. Yes, jump and worry. Many people were shocked, too. Not to mention all the Romanians we know. (Some have never heard of such thing, and some have said that it’s a great idea if you can afford it. Well, as a Vancouver photographer and a pianist, I have to say that I make close to Fortune 500 salary and I could afford to homeschool my son on the moon if I wanted to, but we just made a decision to keep it simple, down to earth.) We believe it is the best thing for our children right now, so we started to homeschool. Early, I might add. I’m not going to go into the details about it. I’ll just say it’s fun. For us and for the kid(s), too, so far. Today I had the chance to do some of the work with my son and I must say I loved it. Homeschooling is great, it’s flexible and it allows us to spend a lot more time as a family.

Image available for licensing.
Lighting information: 580 ex II CL bounced back into white wall and CL as rim/hair light, triggered via Pocket Wizards. Speaking of Pocket Wizards, I’m working on an iPhone application that will trigger Pocket Wizards. Stay tuned for the launch. I’ll post more info as it comes along.

Note: If you believed the Fortune 500 reference, the post about the UFO, the post about why (new) technology should be kept away from the hands of women, then you need to stop by here more often, and remember that we like to use irony sometimes.

The Jenga Tower.

Strobist info: 580 EX II x3 via Pocket Wizards. 1/32 power CL and CR with red gels and blue gels, and the top one (slightly CL with green gel at 1/128 with coroplast snoot and zoomed to 50mm or so, for less power.) Setup shot here.

Strobist info: 580 EX II CL zoomed 50mm at 1/128 via ST-E2.

Something went wrong today. I stopped by the Low Elevation Greenbelt Overpass (known in the area as L.E.G.O.) and this special team was there. Some rescue went on, there was a helicopter and some other type of experimental aircraft, an Octan bottle and a bunch of people trying to keep everything under control. We were advised to keep distance and clear the area quickly. I only had time to grab my telephoto lens and shoot this image. Obviously there was some kind of accident or something went wrong. One can never be too careful around these things.

Strobist info: 580 EX II CL 1/64 24mm, 580 EX II CR 1/64 14mm triggered via pw. Both laid flat on the tabl… highway. Shot at 1/60 f7.1. Setup shot… Aerial view here.

Today I wasn’t planning to get this shot. I got called to do this on the spot and I kinda had to make it work with one light. Everything, besides the cake, was improvised. I’m glad it turned out the way it did. And the cake was good. Mmm, mmm,… Happy birthday, Timi!

Strobist info: 580 EX into umbrella, CR at 1/2 via PW. Slow shutter for small tungsten fill. That’s why you can see the little orange spot in the middle. I usually don’t tweak with the images, cause there’s just so dang many, so pretty much what you see is straight from camera. I’ll let you know when I tweak, that’s if it’s not obvious. Don’t forget to grab the RSS and share on Facebook, Twitter, and what have you,… right below.

I had the chance to photograph some toy trains over the summer. I finally went over the whole set and picked a few favourites. Poul and Ulla Pendersen have been building this world for the past 7-8 years. It’s amazing how many little things he and his wife created. He builds the tracks and the sets while his wife paints everything. If you see some little guy anywhere, she painted it. There are thousands and thousands of little people. It’s a whole world. They say it’s 2000 sq ft just for the trains. I was like a little kid looking all over the place not even knowing what to photograph. Amazing. What a joy to see this world. If you find yourself there, plan for a few good hours of just watching these toys. Talk to Poul, he’s an amazing guy.

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