More Strobing

Light falloff was this weeks lesson. Well technically last week's, but like clothes, life and everything else I'm a week behind.



The coolest part of today was setting up my studio upstairs in the Review building. It's technically the morgue for all the dead publications, but since ours isn't filled and nowhere close to being so I took it upon myself to relocate a small studio up there. The drawback, a very low ceiling. About 6.5 feet. The good news, my camera equipment all fits up there much nicer than in my house. Plus I get to play around all I want whenever I want with no one bothering me. I did lesson 1.2 up there tonight. Just one more thing to draw me into the paper at night. I'm sure this will be completely fine until Stephanie moves in with me.

On the flip-side, if she ever kicks me out for the night there is a cot up there. Could come in handy for those midday siestas as well. If she did kick me out for the night it would be like a kid getting punished by being sent to his bedroom where all his toys are.

Anyway, I have to say I'm starting to understand the inverse square law a little bit. To most photographers that's near blasphemy. If you're not a photographer than my apologies for this senseless rambling about stuff you don't care about. Scroll down to see some big boobs while I talk to the rest.

Basically the inverse square law says that light falloff is much greater when the light source is much closer and much less when it is further away. Hence the really light background on the right and the darker background on the left. I could have used this at an assignment today as I would have really liked to cut the background down significantly more to eliminate a distracting sign. A very oversimplified explanation, but good for most people to at least get them started.

I'm really getting the hang of this off camera lighting stuff. Now I just need to buy a set of pocket wizards. If you know anyone wanting to sell some off let me know. I'd love to pick up a set of used ones, but not many people get rid of them because of how handy and reliable they are. If I can find a new remote trigger for the Quantum Slave II's Stephen gave me I'd use them too. They actually work very nicely, but either the cords Stephen had were bad or the connection inside the trigger is faulty. I'm going to try my hand at trying to fix it tomorrow, but I don't have a solder gun nor am I very good at it. Well enough for tonight. I'm tired from so many different things it would take too long to post them.

EIU, Can we get any more popular?

I'm betting it's not just Erin's personality that moved her to round 2 of the reality show.

Stephen sent me the link to this photo. In Urlacher's defense, somebody yelled 'fumble' right before this photo and he grabbed the first inflated thing he saw.


Chris DeRosa told me at work today that he was watching the new reality television show Rock of Love with Brett Michaels last night and realized one of the girls was an Eastern grad. The girl Erin is a former Delta Zeta. Sure enough I look it up on the website and he was right. It doesn't list her as an Eastern grad, but doe say she's from Bloomington, Ill., and a former Miss Hooters Illinois 2002.

I also recognized her as I used to see her in the gym with her former boyfriend Greg Collier all the time. *Secret confession* I used to try and choose the elliptical machine behind the stair stepper when she was in there.

It's crazy how EIU keeps breeding more and more quasi-celebrities. Check Erin and all the other lovely ladies out on VH1.

I'll add more info if I can find her facebook or myspace, but I don't know how to spell her last name right now. It's something like Chaddock or Shaddock. If you find out let me know.

*Update*
Her myspace is set to private and she only accepts friends she knows. I'm truly disappointed. She's going to have to start a new myspace page for fans.

Star Trails

Stars streak the rural Tuscola night sky Sunday night.


Stephen and I headed out southeast of town last night to shoot star trails. We needed an area with little or no light pollution. This was nearly impossible as Charleston gives off a decent amount of light, Champaign gives off a ton and all the plants west of Tuscola give off a ton of light. The photos still turned out pretty cool. This photo took 1024 seconds or roughly 17 minutes. The long exposure is how you get the star trails. The downside is that you get a lot of grain from doing a long exposure. I still like the effect. We're going to try it next time we go fishing out at Lake Charleston. There's really not much until you hit Effingham, south of Charleston and nothing east until you hit Indianapolis, so maybe the light pollution will be significantly less out at the lake. I've got a few more photos I'll post on my flickr page when I get them edited.

I have to admit though. There's something a little creepy about sitting in the middle of country road late on a Sunday night. Especially with another dude. The way stars reflect into his eyes....did I say that out loud?