Another paid show here and it was fun, but the contest was a dud... delayed for over an hour and the women who signed up, 15 or more, bailed and there were three ladies to choose from and I was exhausted as I had to work 10 hours at the camera store. Enjoy and C&C is welcome all shot with K10D and Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 with various settings and situations. Feel free to ask about a specific shot for more information.






















And of course one of myself for good measure

[Eastern Shore Charlie]

Chris....Nice candid indoor pictures. Sharp and setting for flash is right on. To take a picture in a mirror and not have a blinding flash looking back at you is pretty amazing to me. I am afriad of flash... never had much faith.... but seeing your pictures I am curious what is your flash set up on your camera.
Charlie

[blwnhr]

ut seeing your pictures I am curious what is your flash set up on your camera.

+1

I'm keen to know too. Results are fantastic!

[codiac2600]

Chris....Nice candid indoor pictures. Sharp and setting for flash is right on. To take a picture in a mirror and not have a blinding flash looking back at you is pretty amazing to me. I am afriad of flash... never had much faith.... but seeing your pictures I am curious what is your flash set up on your camera.
Charlie

Thanks Charlie and I was afraid of the flash for a long time myself so I know how you feel, but it can be a real tool if you take time to practice and I still have a lot to learn but I'll lend a tip here at the bottom of this reply.

+1

I'm keen to know too. Results are fantastic!

Thanks man and here is the one thing that helps most flashes:

Gary Fong WhaleTail! I know, it's silly, and looks dumb, but it does work and it lets you be a lot more creative in difficult situations than you could imagine.



As you an see in the shot of myself with all my regular gear I have the AF540 flash with WhaleTail diffuser attached, but in this shot the flash was off, just hand held at ISO 640 I believe and f2.8. It works very well and can be very helpful when the light is low and you want a lot of smooth light.

[hamidlmt]

Some dandy pics here and some hot bods, indeed!

What's your flash diffusion setup you've got there? It did a pretty darn nice job for being on-camera.

edit: whoops... guess I didn't read through the entire post first... the whale tail, eh? I'll have to look into that! Who cares what it looks like, as long as it works for ya?!

[little laker]

I'd love to get a job like that one Chris

Nice work. Where do I start handing out my resumes for that type of gig

[codiac2600]

Some dandy pics here and some hot bods, indeed!

What's your flash diffusion setup you've got there? It did a pretty darn nice job for being on-camera.

edit: whoops... guess I didn't read through the entire post first... the whale tail, eh? I'll have to look into that! Who cares what it looks like, as long as it works for ya?!

Thanks Hamid and yes the Gary Fong WhaleTail is priceless when I shoot in low light, gives an almost studio look to the shots.

I'd love to get a job like that one Chris

Nice work. Where do I start handing out my resumes for that type of gig

Hmmm, I originally worked at the bar and they knew I did photography and asked me to shoot an event once and have been their go to guy when they want some new stuff for their website or wall of pics. It's now a little gig I do for a few bars in town and it pays decent, but you can't ask for much since they'd rather just do it themselves because they dont understand how difficult it really can be with a p&s.

[Arpe]

So the white tail (named after the spider of the same name?) is better or worse than the bowl diffuser thingy from Gary Fong? Any idea? Light sphere - just rememebered what it's called.

[codiac2600]

The WhaleTail is much better than the lightsphere, which I've had the chance to play with before deciding on the whaletail. The lightsphere looked like tuppleware for your camera and the Whaletail a litle more refined looking kitchenware. The flaps really give you the ability to shoot in a lot of difficult situations, like the bar, and the only sacrifice was 8AA batteries not to mention the awesome ability to drop in color correction gels right inot the flash.

[Mr Hyde]

Getting paid to photograph a hot body contest......????? Life is good.

[roentarre]

This series is so impressive. Nice works!

[Gaelen]

very nice pictures
You are a lucky man to get paid for that....I would have done it for free

I really like how your pictures turned out with the whale tail....i've been looking at that and the lightsphere for a while, but I think i know which one i'll order now, I wanted to hear some experience about it but you seem pretty enthusiastic about it.

[daacon]

sweet hey zeus ! Do you need an assistant ? Camera boy? Battery Man? Naaaaaaa that sceanrio just looks like trouble for me hahaha (20+ years married to the same wonderful woman!) - Nice shots Chris - think I will enquire on that defuser. I was at a wedding on the weekend and was shooting 'fish in a barrel' at the reception all night with the AF540FGZ Flash. I am pretty new to this so there was allot of inconsistency in my shots that ranged from under exposed - perfect - over exposed - practice practice practice I guess ...

[Cedar]

Wow. Great indoor shots.

I'm something of a flash-phobic myself, from just too many 'lost shots' and my inability to get *reliably* good results with ceiling/wall bounce and/or "better" bounce cards.

I've previously researched the lightspehere, but hadn't heard of the whaletale before. Fong's website shows two models... the studio being the larger model, but there is no comparative language, or even dimensons at this date.

Codiac, am I correct that you're using the "Studio" (larger) model? Could you provide the dimensions of it? Anyone have any opinions (or links to reviews) about the suitability of one over the other?


How did you manage such great color - it had to have been difficult with all of the various colors and intensities of bar lights. Frequent manual WB adjustments? One of those "shoot thru" WB lens caps (do these work well)? Or lots of color correction in post processing?

Thanks again for posting these shots! They help reassure me that it's possible to take (reliably) good indoor shots and without an an off-camera flash.

[Stratman]

Getting paid to photograph a hot body contest......????? Life is good.

It's a tough job, but somebodies gotta do it !!
Hell, I'd pay them to let me do it, lol