Here is the Blasted Cat

Last night Lenore and I were wrapping Christmas presents so there was a bit of wrapping paper left over. This afternoon I took a piece of it and set it up as a backdrop sweep. I captured my little tormentor "Papaya the Blasted Cat" and placed her on it. With the help of my cat wranglers Jay and Annika I was able to photograph her. She looks like a sweet and gentle cat doesn't she? She really is when she isn't trying to catch birds around the bird feeders when I'm photographing birds. Merry Christmas to all, chris

Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon 28-135 IS at 75mm. Camera Setting- ISO 400, AV Mode, F5.6, 1/10th of a sec.

Is it Wine Time? Creating a Stock Shot

This afternoon I worked on domestic chores around the house and then I worked on putting together a stock image that can be used in the wine or tourism industry. What I had in mind was a dark rich colored red wine being poured into a wine glass on a rough old wooden table.

I had the table out in the garage ready for use. It is a table top made from pallet pieces that is rough and aged. Perfect for this creation. Next I needed about four wine glasses so I could switch from one glass to the next and not have to stop and empty the glass each time I wanted to shoot. That was easy, a quick trip to the cabinet solved that. Same for the wine I just grabbed an open bottle of red from Beringer from the counter top. I also needed a funnel for refilling the bottle and a pitcher to easily dump glasses into. All easily found in the kitchen cupboards

For the set up I started with a sky blue background but I quickly realized it wasn't going to fit the dark rich mood that I was looking for so I switched to black. Just a simple piece of black tagboard placed about three feet back from the whole set up.

For my lights I used one spotted snoot on the side of the glass itself and I lit up the rest of the table from the other side with a highly diffused wider light that was flagged to keep it off of the backdrop. I shot and poured about ten glasses. Futzing around with the lighting ratios until i got what i was looking for. A fine glass of wine.

God's blessings to all,

chris