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Playing with the new softbox

Mark — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:30:29 +0000

Recently I was able to get a softbox for my Vivitar 285HV, and I played with it a bit tonight. I’m so impressed with the light it gives, and am anxious to get it out of the studio and into an outdoor shooting setup. I have a ton to learn about feathering, balancing a rim light, countering light, and so much more, but that’s one of the great things about digital: you can shoot and shoot and shoot to learn!

I’ve got an image in my mind of a particular series of pictures I want to do for canvas printing, and I’m really getting close to where I would like it to be.

Here are some from tonight:

I will say that the consistency out of the 285HV seems to be a bit lacking. I saw variances of about 1/2 a stop if I fired off too quickly. It could have been low batteries (they were low), but it’s not a high-performance flash and I never expected it to be. Regardless, I don’t anticipate outgrowing it any time soon – it gives light 100% of the time (thank you, CyberSyncs!), and right now I can easily manage a half-stop variance.

Gingerbread cookies

Mark — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:04:29 +0000

We made gingerbread cookies the other day to pass out to the neighbors. There was flour everywhere, but we had a lot of fun!

And we made a special one for Uncle Paul:

Evasive

Mark — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:46:48 +0000

Wow, I’m finding the perfect “Christmas picture” of the kids this year to be incredibly evasive. They’re doing quite well, considering, and I’m learning patience far more quickly than I might have liked.

Tami and I decided we wanted to do some pretty special cards this year, since I waffled and missed doing baby announcements for Jeremiah. So I’ve been trying some new equipment to capture the perfect family picture. And other than patience, the big thing I’ve learned is the importance of knowing how to take a picture with the mindset that the extra equipment is supposed to be there to aide, not to drive the shot.

No matter how nice the kids look, without creativity I’ll end up with another session of WalMart-looking pictures. Grrr.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mark — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:51:47 +0000

I love you!

So much to say, so little organization

Mark — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:38:34 +0000

I haven’t been posting much around here lately. I’m actually in a place right now in which I have just a ton of things to write about, but nothing is organized. It’s all jumbled in my head, and I haven’t been able to devote enough single-sitting time to work any of it out in an understandable fashion. I have links, ideas, plans, thoughts about books I’m reading, things the kids do and say, Bible verses that have jumped out lately, topics I’m discussing with folks at church, and so much more. Oh, I wish I could write with the clarity and completeness that Tim Challies does!

But tomorrow evening and Saturday promise to be exciting and humbling as Tami and I attend a marriage seminar led by Dr. Art Azurdia of Western Seminary, hosted by Living Water Community Church at the Lauralwood Baptist Church facilities here in Vancouver. Wow, that’s a mouthful.

Yoof toose no more

Mark — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:19:36 +0000

The kids really had a good laugh at a video posted of their friend Joshua singing “I have a yoof toose, yoof toose…” They’ve been singing it around the house in honor of Timothy’s newly-loose tooth for the past month or so. Well tonight, when Timothy found out that cousin Ben also had a loose tooth that was about to come out, he started timidly wiggling it a bit to try to beat Ben at getting it out. He was whining a bit, and finally, when he had a good grasp of it with a bloody kleenex, I smacked his elbow. Pop! It came out before he even knew what happened, and we started doing the “first tooth out” jig.

It’s under his pillow now in the hopes it might turn into devalued American dollars overnight.