Light Stick

A couple of people have asked me about this so I thought I would do a quick posting. I love using strobes when shooting portraits and since alot of those are environmental shoots I have to be mobile. Therefore my traveling light rig is as follows: Shurline 4-9ft paint pole. Kacey paint pole adapter, Wescott Rapidbox and of course a Canon 600EX-RT.

Now I can mount any light modifier on top this pole that can extend to 9 ft. Most recently I experimented with a snoot. The results were hit & miss but I did like the effect.

Blue Angels 2014

I’ve tried to shoot them a couple of times as they took off from the Oakland airport during their practice runs. Sunday after we got home from the wedding we made the last minute decision to ferry into the City to photograph the Blue Angels. Like an idiot I thought I would be the only one with this bright idea. The lines were so long and there was a serious delay in the ferry schedule. Just as we were pulling out of Oakland the show started. The outside seats were packed and with the roar of the Blue Angels, everyone rushed to the rails of the ferry and I was left behind a bunch of tall people using their ding dang camera phones!

I didn’t get very good photos but it was an experience. We were not allowed to stay on the ferry to do a round trip so after exiting and walking to the end of what appeared to be a 300-person line we decided to walk from Pier 41 to Pier 1 and bus it back home. What I thought would be a couple hour trip turned into a 6 hour journey.

Jenn & Dodger

I haven’t shot a portrait in awhile so what better time than now! Luckily our neighbor Jennifer was willing and I asked her bring Dodger. I couldn’t have chosen a worse day. The wind prevented me from using any light modifiers on my speedlites. I was just about to send her a text message to cancel when she showed up. Ok we’re shooting bare flash and we’ll get some harsh shadows, no problem.

Dodger was uninterested in the portrait process and it was difficult to get his attention. With most dogs I have an immediate bond. He couldn’t care less about me which was a blow to my dog ego.

Miami Sept 2014

I had to spend some time training at the home office 30 minutes south of Miami. Luckily I was in the same class as my co-worker buddy Jhonathan.

Training was quite demanding so we didn’t go out much other than to eat dinner in the local area. Friday night Jhonathan did give me some exposure to Ecuadorian food. The last time I saw him we could not find an single place in the bay area that served Ecuadorian food.

Later we explored the Miami Beach scene. To my surprise it was pretty quiet. Other than the ringtail lemmer.

Over the weekend we did drive down to Key West which is the southern most location in the US, unfortunately I was unimpressed.

Wanting to take advantage of the local food scene we did our best to hit as many of the ethnic restaurants. This included Jamaican (good goat), Peruvian Polpus (octopus), Filipino, Colombian Patacones, Argentinian, Italian & Japanese.

The final day a fellow employee flying back to Australia handed me a bottle of scotch. Which we shared that evening in the breakfast room of our Holiday Inn. I ended up passing it along to an engineer who would be there another 3 weeks.

I came back home 6 lbs heavier. Other than the vast eating, the hot & humid weather prevented me from my daily walks after dinner.