Every Time I Start to Blog ...

Every time I start to get this blog going again all my other ongoing projects decide to ramp up! As always, I am upgrading my equipment (which I will blog about another day) and with the little lull I perceived in current work I decided I would take the time to sell my oldest camera body, my Canon 1D Mark II. I ran up a quick post on Photography-on-the.net where I am participant. Since there are thousands of pictures of this body and anyone who would buy should know what it looks like and how it works I didn't post any pictures of it ... I just said it didn't have any dings or dents or imperfections and I wanted $1700 for it. Well, of course, the first response was, "I'd like to see pictures of it!" Well, I figured if I was going to take pictures of it and post them I might as well put it on eBay, too. So, I surveyed the ones for sale on eBay and found they were mostly in the $1300-1400 range. So I got ready to take pictures and reprice it. I went to knock out a note to the initial querier about this but there was another note waiting for me asking some other question so I told this guy I was about to reprice and do pictures ... and he shot back that he'd buy it. So that's done, but it was a bit more effort (I'm skipping A LOT of intervening stuff) than I expected.

Next thing I know there's an email from B&H that they have Canon 1Ds Mark III's in stock after a several month absence due to high demand. That's their $8,000 USD body with 21 megapixels and some other new technologies. I've been waiting for about four months to buy one so I ordered one and it shipped this morning and will be here next week. I am not the kind of guy who lives for his equipment. I plan for equipment months in advance, budget it, order it and move on while it ships. I have never paid for overnight or two day shipping. If I needed it that quick, I would, but I plan and have so far been successful.

But to get back to the topic ... I had promised to talk about starting into glamor shooting beginning with my wife when all this broke loose. So, I have only managed to shoot a few frames as tests. I have also coordinated with the other two neighbor ladies who are going to act as test models for me. This morning they even agreed to model together (it'll be mostly head shots) and Marna may even join. They are my daughter's kindergarten teacher and my daughter's "boyfriend's mother". My daughter is six years old. I guess if it wasn't for my daughter I wouldn't have any models! :-)

Here is one my test images of my wife, Marna. I have always done "business" style portraits with rather flat lighting but now that I am venturing into glamor it is a whole new world. I have read lots of articles and watched lots of videos (and am awaiting Jason Cole's DVD set to come to market in April) and attended on workshop last year and am scheduled for another, with Frank Dorhoof in L.A. this June. But nothing really prepares you for the acid test in the studio. It is suddenly all about dynamic ratios and hair lights and edge lighting and poses and on and on. I've got a lot of work to do. And I know that skin treatment is a big deal in this area and because most of what I do documentary in nature I have no skill or experience in this area yet so please don't judge this image too harshly.

So, while I would normally be expecting to spend a few hours with Marna in the studio this Sunday (I do the Lord's work on Sundays ... shoot pictures!), this week I am off to take an intermediate Photoshop seminar at the Lepp Institute in Los Osos, California, about an hour up the road from me with instructor Tim Grey. My wife and daughter and I will be taking our truck camper and they'll play while I slave away in the seminar! :-)

Just to make my life interesting I will be shooting Don Rickles tonight at the casino.

Be Safe!
Dwight