Photo of the day

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Picture of the day. Avatar self portrait

I came accross a picture of Avatar in a photo magazine and decided to emulate it. I made few different ones and this is the one that I kept.

There were quite a few layers to make this image and it was pretty fun. I’m talking my wife into it now.

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Picture of the day. Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex

Back in December 2009 Pocket Wizard run a US meet up tour hosted by Mark Wallace. First of all, thanks to Pocket Wizard for showing firsthand how capable this devises are; it was great being able to use them in real life scenarios. As expected this little creatures did not disappoint anyone within the over 100 photographers that were there.

Mark Wallace is a top-notch instructor. His demonstration was outstanding, with plenty of information and knowledge not only about the use of Pocket Wizards but lighting and other techniques in general. The 6 or so hours of the class went by really fast shooting live models in a great studio location. The lay out was nothing but perfect, there were 5 stations with models and different lighting and backgrounds.

Pocket Wizards are not Pocket Change, but are worth the investment. I just got one Mini TT1 and two Flex’s and I’m looking to buy a third Flex as soon as budget allows it to end up with a 3 light set up. It is great being able to set  stands with light modifiers in a matter of minutes without the need of plugs or wires, indoor or outdoor and maintain E-TTL, the freedom and features that this system allows keeps on going on and on.

Here is a link to some highlight from the class http://www.youtube.com/snapfactory#p/a/u/1/Ea2PLp74b6E

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Self portrait Canon 7D Remote shooting

Last night when I came home from work I thought of taking some self portraits from a different angle and this is what I came up with.

I mounted a Canon EFS 10-22 f 3.5-4.5 set the camera to master to trigger the Canon 430EX II flash and the flash was set to manual power and adjusted the power to suit the image at about 1/16th. To trigger the camera I used a remote control Canon RC1.

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Photo of the day. Santa Clarita CA sunset

I was coming home from work and happened to have the camera with me. The sun was setting  and the freeway was really bad. The decision between keep on crawling on the 14 freeway North or exit and take a few pictures was pretty easy. The decision Between color or B&W wasn’t so here are both.

Picture was taken with Canon 7D and a Canon EF 24-70mm 2.8

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Canon 7D self portrait

I just got a Canon 7D and put the 40D to rest as a back up body. My first impression of the camera is that it’s worth every dime. It truly is an improvement over the 40D, needless to say I think it was worth waiting for it as supposed of going with the 50D  when it first came out. 

One aspect the I really like about the new body is that I can use the flash detached from the body allowing me a lot of freedom. I have not tried it outdoor jet but indoor is doing a pretty good job so far. The other thing that is a big leap forward is the focusing system, it is faster and more accurate so far and it has a lot more choices (which I’m learning still) and although it has tons of extra features those 2 are the ones that caught my attention the most so far.

This few pictures I took are with the wireless flash function. @ canon 580 EX as main and fill one to the left and one to the right and a Canon 430EXII on the back top left all worked just fine.

The last picture of my daughter was done with available light  at a higher ISO Canon 7D and Canon EF 24-70  2.8L

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Photo of the day. Pregnancy pictures.

A few weeks back I was asked by a co-worker to take her pregnancy pictures. It was a fun session, I guess the fact that we work together made it easier on both of us, besides  she is easy to photograph and was not be afraid of the camera. Her idea was to keep it simple; we used a pretty basic black and white back grounds and 2 lights ( Canon 580 EX as a main Canon 430 EXII as a fill and a Canon 580 EXII as the master) 2 umbrellas and that was about it. The lense used was 90% a Canon EF  24-70 mm 2.8 and for the rest the Canon EFS 10-22 mm 4-5.6 and Canon EF 70-200 mm 2.8 IS.

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Photo of the day. kids

Happy new years to you all. I hope 2010 brings nothing but good things.

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Photo of the day. Family portraits

Last weekend we gather at the house and took a few family pictures. The set up was pretty simplistic 2 Canon Speedlights with umbrellas (left and right) with a third speedlight on the camera shoe as the master. Plan good old black background and the lens was a Canon 24-70 F2.8 .

Here are some of the pictures.

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Photo of the day. First time eating popsicles

Today I got a new lens for my camera. Canon 24-70 F2.8 L . Needless to say I’m pretty happy since I wanted it for a  while. The sad part is that my next day off is on Wednesday “4 days of waiting” to much for me. So my test subject was my great family.

Today it was Sebastian’s first popsicle so while he was having fun and enjoying new things I was doing the same behind the camera, having fun and enjoying my new lens.

Lighting was not the best so I cranked up the ISO to 800  F4.0 speed at  1/50th and used two light sources one Canon 580EXII pointed to the ceiling with the white card up (nothing high fashion) and a Canon 430EXII as a slave pointed to the corner of the wall and ceiling to the right. The flashes where set at +2/3 . One thing to notice is that the slave sis not make a huge difference on the image, it did help but with just one light one can get great results as well.

Alex Elias

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Outdoor Family pictures

Today I had the pleassure to spend a few hours with Lauren and her beautiful family. Thank you very much for trusting me with those pictures I trully enjoyed it.

Best wishes with the new boy coming soon. I guess will be doing this again soon.