Pixel Darkroom Photography

This is dedicated to all my friends in the US who watch the NFL season. I shot this in the living room with three Canon flashes, two on the sides behind me as rim lights with light modifiers to avoid light spills and another camera right, below, clamped to one of the tripod’s legs, with a blue gel to simulate the TV light. The TV wasn’t on, although I did search the channels for some NFL images and snapped a few shots. I used those shots for the almost unnoticeable eyes reflections, a reflection on the bottle, for the frame and believe it or not a tiny blurred reflection on the nail that’s pressing a random button on the remote (in order for the red LED light to come on). If you’ve noticed some vapours coming out of the bottle, it is not because I had a fresh cold beer, it is because I used a modified smoke brush to imitate a fresh opened beer bottle (unfortunately the bottle has been long empty). [Insert "buy me a beer" paypal link here].

I have to say I am very touched by what happened today up in Whistler. I wonder if the track is pushing it too far for athletes. I have read in the news a quote by a luger saying that tracks can be tricky without getting so fast. This is the newest and the fastest and apparently the deadliest track. I wonder what the investigations will say. Nodar Kumaritashvili was an experienced luger, and more athletes have crashed in Whistler on this track before. I pray for his family and his team-mates. This is a sober reminder of how fragile life is and how unexpected the end of it can come.

On a different note, even though I’ve lived in many countries and I admire a lot more of them for their cultures and their people I do not own many flags. I could only find the US flag and the Canadian caps for my kids. I hope by the end of the Olympic Games to be able to come up with a more cosmopolitan shot. Enjoy the games. God bless you.

Strobist info: 580 EX II CL on a stand, via ST-E2 in Av mode.

Real games for real people.

Strobist info: 580 EX II via PW at 1/4 (or so) zoomed to 105mm, hand held, CR. 10″ exposure at f22. Focus on the joystick, expose for the TV and then figure out the ratios. I use f22 to get the TV in focus.