New soup container Strobist style hack

A friend bought some PF Changs for us, and one of the items was in a large soup container. My mind was working once I saw it. I have done a "similar" mod to a smaller soup container. But this one was more of a portrait style light mod.

Disclaimer- yes, it does look silly. Show up with this to a paid gig and prepared to be laughed at. However, the same can be said of the Fong stuff. People say it looks like a taco tip container!

So here is the setup:

What you can see is the soup container with a dual paint job. Inside is half painted white with plastic friendly spray paint. The outside is half painted with plastic friendly spray paint. The top is the same but it is completely covered to help bounce the light out the front.
I measured my strobe on the bottom, and cut out with a box cutter. (very carefully!)

First, here is a bounce light shot:

While very easy and helpful, there are always shadows on people's face. This is caused by the light coming from above and not in front. A straight up strobe to the face is usually over whelming.
Setting up an umbrella is not always easy nor quick. So I thought, why not try to do a quick and dirty mod?

Here is the result:

Not saying it is perfect, but it is a drastic improvement in the quality of the light source.
The downfall is that the strobe has to stay in one direction- I cannot go to horizontal grip for shots with this mod. If I did, I would be lighting to the side and not the front!


[update with self photos, thank goodness for timers]

1/8 power bounce off ceiling:

Notice the shadows and barely lit. Normally in these conditions I go up to 1/4 power and adjust from there.

Strobe test- 1/8 power with mod:

Strobe test- 1/8 power direct with built in diffuser:

Strobe test- 1/8 power direct:

And yes, I couldn't see for a little bit. Yozzers.

Winning!

"I hate to lose" or something like that. Conversely, "I love to win" or "I'm very competitive." That's all the basically the same idea. I've read that in several places on several different sites about photographers and their take on photography. The ones who go down this path more often than not are in photojournalism or sports photography. They have deadlines, they have high pressure clients, and they have a lot of competition to get the shot. Just get it done.

I suppose there are some wedding photographers who have that view- win the client over. Get a great result for a winning response. But that is so loosely viewed through the lens of the person with the job. What is validation for some is not for others- money, clients reaction, being as professional as possible.

It comes down to the person taking the photos- are they happy with the results? Are they happy their photo is on the front page or the back page? Are they happy they have a job? If they enter a contest, if they don't get first, are they happy?

The results in photography are not as clear cut as the score in a baseball game.

Where do emotions mix in with photography?

The statements above in quotes all have a similar theme- emotions. Getting the shot at your own pace is one thing, but getting mad that someone else got it, or did it better is something completely different. I can see reasons for "winning" a photograph:

·         Pride to be the best

·         Motivation to be prepared

·         Knowing your best shot is going to get the job done

·         Motivation to go the extra step

·         Learning from your own failure

·         Expanding to different information and techniques

I've never been competitive in photography. I do it because I like it. Now and then I randomly get a complement I wasn't expecting. It is a nice validation of my results, but I don't go out of my way to do so. Such as submitting a photo to a contest, or selling my photos actively. (ok ok, I have submitted some to micro-stock sites) I do it because I find it fun, interesting, and a way to share. I don't know if I would have that competitive hustle needed to be a professional. I would need motivation, like this is how I am feeding my family now.

Being able to control and harshness that emotion is also very important.

How long can someone keep going like that, to be emotionally invested in the outcome for years before it really gets to them? To know that you will never ALWAYS win, that there is only so much preparation you can achieve would just eat at me. Lastly, to know there are always new people coming in to the field. They might be just as hungry, but the crowd of amateur photographers don't have to be as good as consistently as the professional- they just need to be lucky. That would drive me nuts as a professional- lucky rather than good.

With photography, I have learned that what I thought was a 'whatever' shot can be prized by someone else. It is interpretation. Things I thought that rocked the house, were received with coolness by others. The important thing is to find a client, whether it is a newspaper or school year book, or whomever likes your results.

            I think to be a professional and successful one, you need to be a bit competitive. That provides motivation, that provides focus, and ultimately a method of validation- pay, success, more jobs, whatever makes you tick.

Just don't get eaten by the monster of emotions which could easily be done. There is little difference between love and hate.

Vastly underused

It has been several months since I last posted anything in this blog... I am horrible, I know. I counter with, I work full time, going back to school, and I got two kids under 2. So *pppppppptttthhhhhhh* to you! (assuming you wonder why I don't update this blog that often)

In the mean time, I have some photography accomplishments to post about! Figure I might as well toot my own horn for a bit:

• My Flickr account went past 1,000,000 collective views back on February 11th. It took 6.5 years to get there.
  
• My photos from the Calvert Hall v. Loyola annual football game were used in the Calvert Hall Alumni newsletter. Matter of fact, one of my shots was on the cover.
  
• I sold an image to be used on the cover of an upcoming book about Bono. Small academic book, but still- its a cover image!
  
• An image I have of Sierra was selected for a national dog food advertising campaign.
  
• Another image I have was used for another national advertising campaign. If you can find it, good on you. I also wrote about the image story for @U2.
  
• I got a Canon 7D camera body. =)

In other news:

My RSS feed list for photography stands at 33 sources.

Liking Flickr's new sharing methods!

Been using Twitter more for commenting on things I find now photo-related.

Six years ago

It has been nearly six years since my buddy Matt badgered me in to getting a Flickr account. I didn't quite understand the impact it might have, but I went with it. He seemed to be smarter on these things than I was. I was interested in photography, and I didn't want to self host images. It was a good solid site, free at first!

Now it is almost six years to the day that I signed up. And I have put up over 7,500 items- 99.999% images. A bucket load of the images are U2, followed by Sierra my dog, then Gamenight. Five years of TurkeyBowl- Thanksgiving day game between Calvert Hall and Loyola. Four years of the Hon Fest.

I could go on and on... and I nearly did... but in most of that time I never really considered myself a professional. Just a guy who like taking photos and sharing them.
Well, recently things have changed a little bit. I am not sure what happened... and without getting myself in to trouble with Flickr, lets just say I have been able to obtain a few things that I wouldn't have otherwise.

So thank you to Matt, and thank you to all those who have taken a look- more than 960,000 times. (seriously, thats a lot)


Just put up my first video from the 7D: