...a glimpse of life...

...new stuff...

2010-11-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

...an image using the sigma 12-24 on the 5d. Pretty freaking cool I would say. I first got this lens when i was using a Nikon d70 and loved it. That was 6 years ago. Never used it on the d2x much. Now on the 5d, it is blowing my mind. Its sharp wide and awesome.

I am using an Adorama Nikon G Lens to Canon EOS Body Adapter on the lens, so there is no auto focus. it is a great adapter. the F-stops dont click like it says it does, but it works like a charm. Built quality is really good and its a lot cheaper then a lot of the other adapter versions out there. Check it out: http://www.adorama.com/CZNKGEOSAF.html

2009-11-04T18:57:00.000-08:00

youtube videos on photography... thats awesome...

Duane Michals

Garry Winogrand

Joe Mcnally

thats it for now... :D

2009-07-31T17:15:00.000-07:00

dan... right after i finished putting the thing together...

....its finally done... the past week i have been spending a lot of time at the woodshop trying to make a 11x14 camera... and its done...

dan at the workshop did most of the woodwork, and i put together the plan... it looks gorgeous... the bellows is finally on...

i took the front standard off a Linhof and the monorail and made a 11x14 back standard for it... cannot wait to try it out... soon images will be done.... some final touchs have to be done... but its basically ready to take photos... initially i thought i would take it outside to take portraits... but the thing probably weighs 20 or 30 pounds... so we will have to see...

here are a few photos of the beast...
this is the basic starting point...

the ground glass...

i made my own film back... so these are the boards that hold the negative...

the lens mount...

the bellows getting put together...

the bellows mounted...

WALA!!! the library...

...5 photographs...

2009-06-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

...i think thinking of putting in 5 portraits for the hasselblad online showcase... i think i have the 5...

...where i should be now...

2009-04-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

...i should be in philly right now... i really should be...

as i lay dying is touring the east coast again... and i was in worcester with them yesterday... only real downside was... they were part of metal fest... and there were a thousand other bands... so photographing them was quite the challenge... i am still trying to work on individual portraits of theirs... but that clearly didnt happen... i needed a break... and it was awesome to see the peeps catch up and such... i gotta eventually look and see if i got any good photos out of the last trip... hoepfully i will get to go out again when they are in NY and boston next month... cant wait..

....oh yea... the venue across from the palladium... had the Greatful Dead playing... and the parking lot was a ruckus... really...

...stuff i grew up with...

2009-01-11T21:47:00.001-08:00

so... last wednsday Cliff and I decided to go and work on our Masking exercises at the North Station... one of the call force firefighters, sam, was kind enough to keep us company and help us through... it was great...

well... at the end of our little training session... i heard Sam hum the tune from Airwolf... yes... fuckin airwolf... i use to love that show... when i was 10... :D

so... thanks to youtube... here it is... and a few other shows i grew up with...

streetHawk...

and obviously the A team... i LOVED that van...

mcgyver... yes... thats why i carry the swiss army knief everywhere... its no secret...

my fav:

there ends tonights thoughts...

...so... amanda and scott are off....

2008-09-01T11:33:00.001-07:00

...my good friends Amanda and Scott left for Oregon earlier today... they will be driving a dodge van across the country for two weeks... i wish i could go with them...

they are both artists... and i know scott from engineering... but... apparently as it turns out... neither one of us ended up using what we spend four years of our lives because our true calling is somehwhere else...

he is an awesome painter... and an ace guitarist... no wonder we got along so well... they will be missed... but i am sure i will be able to go out and visit them soon enough...

the story behind the photograph... well... i spent days planning this out... we had a costume at hand too... when i was setting up lights last night... one of the local security people came up and said... we coudlnt have the van on the grass, understandable, and we couldnt take photographs without a permit...fuckin retarded... we live here... anyway... pissed i started packing up... then decided... we should do a photo anyways... cause i think we have every right too... went along to do some serious strobist stuff... light painting with a sb800... came out pretty well i thought...

all for now... class start tomorrow... i am still setting up my studio... going NUTsssssss

...so... just another saturday night...

2008-08-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

...chris and I drove into northampton saturday night... i had a crappy morning... so decided to go on a little adventure...

of course... being early... we had an opportunity to mess around... and got carried away. chris got a pair of glasses and we were now late meeting up with jordan... :P

... as you can tell the scene outside the bar was very phototogenic... with the perfect light... we meet a couple of the band memebers... they were sitting right across from us... and apparently... one of them was from vienna... check them out... www.thesimiplepleasure.com

we decided to jump around and take some photos obviously here is how the overall lighting was... i didnt have my camera... so was using chris' 20d... for the life of me... i couldnt figure out how to use the autofocus on it...

...once we got a couple of jumps in... tamara from simple watching us all this time decided she wanted in on it tooo... what an awesome jump it was... alas... i wish we had more time to play around... but there was a show inside to go toooo... :D

...so...here is to the memory of Rose...

2008-08-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

soo... a few years ago... when i didnt know anything about photographing dance, i emailed this lovely belly dancer if i could come and photograph one of her performances... and maybe some backstage documentary stuff... to my surprise... i got an very positive email back... saying i am more then welcome to... and with a bunch of options...

so i headed upto mount holyoke to photograph her... Rose Champagne... i photographed a few of her performance over the next couple of years... and even in the short time she knew me... she treated me like she knew me for years... gorgeous dancer tooo she was...

i recieved an email today from one of her students recognising my name in the dance photo thats on the umass magazine... informing me that Rose passed away earlier this year after batteling with a brain tumor for the last few years...

we talked in december about using some of my photos for a DVD that she was working on... but i never followed up on it because of my busy spring semester... i would have known about this earlier if i did...

...so... here is a video...

2008-08-04T13:58:00.001-07:00

...its becky and christina's dance photo by the CT river in Hadley...

the video is... i think 5 mins long and document the whole shoot for this one photograph... we were obviously out longer... i think an hour... and tried out different stuff...

thanks to Eric for the video...

they also have this in the new issue of the UMASS Alumni magazine...

and finally the video...

...so... a few more places online...

2008-08-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

...its been an interesting summer...

someone put my flickr Darth Vader set on digg.com http://digg.com/arts_culture/The_Life_of_Vader_PICS

and it pretty much went all over the web after that... i think my flickr account got 150000 views that day alone... that sent has over 50000 view on its own... kinda crazy... i thought i was readin the numbers wrong until Matt told me he saw the photo on digg.com... :D oh well...

apparently there are a few more blogs that has the set going... i love what people have to say about it... its the first link if you google "life of vader"

http://denver.yourhub.com/~yopauly
http://allyzay.blogspot.com/2007/11/emo-vader.html
this one cracked me up: http://youngjedi.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/08/scientists-buil.html

on a more serious note... umass magazine has a article about me: http://www.umassmag.com/2008/Summer_2008/class_notes/missing-moments.html

cant wait for Daath to start touring, Emil said they will be up here soon... september maybe... should be fun...

...so...here is to a new END...

2008-05-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

...last exam... hopefully... once i started it... i couldnt wait to get out... the probability of me staying for the whole 2 hour of the probability exam was very low... but i did...

i knew where i was going afterwards... new york... poughkeepsie to be exact... going to photograph As I lay Dying for the next two days...

finding the place wasnt hard... and i got to park right next to the tourbus... so i wasnt worried about gettin jumped with a crap load of camera stuff... anyway... Kevin was there... and most of the band was up too... funny thing... when i showed up... they were making this little going away present for the fans for later...

i got to sign it too...

i found Nick doing his regular warm ups in the dressing room... sitting against a red wall... lit only by the window and a spot... it was perfect... i think i photographed the same thing for the next hour and a half... and the result... i think was totally worth my 1400 miles of driving and following the band...

i ended up photographing the show from the sound booth... the performance was great... i really want to see them open air though... i think its going to be INSANE...

...after the performance... it was an interesting night... it was Jordans and Wades birthday... so there was a little bit of craziness... and then... Matt and Mike tied Josh up with electrical tape and put a burger king crown on him... i havent laughed this hard in a while... by the end of it all... it was pretty late... i ended up crashing with them in the bus...

only to be woken up by Dale at 7 in the morning... with only 2 hours of sleep... we drove to Hartford CT... stopped for breakfast at a nice little diner... i LOVE diners...

anyway... here started another long day... and i didnt sleep until 6 am the next day... after driving home...

hartford was scary... around 3 in the morning after the performance... i was setting up my lights right outside the bus to take portraits of the band... NO... heard two gun shots... 8 cop cars showed up within minutes... one of them came up to be and started questioning me how long i have been out... and if i heard anything... and so on...

last time around it was the rain that put the photoshoot back... the cops this time... :( oh well... i had to pack up... i really didnt want to photograph them in a sketchy neighborhood at 3 in the morning...

alas... wait till i see them again...

been really tired after i got back... unmotivated... and highly depressed for some reason... anyway... these past couple of days have been pretty bad... with school out... no one is around... i think i will to to NY this weekend and see if something comes out of that...

well... here is something that kinda got me excited... the umass alumni magazine wants to do an artist profile... of ME... and give me the back cover... kinda didnt hit me at the time... but... thats actually pretty cool... BUT... i have to come up with an actual artist statement for this one...

last time i did that... it was 3 lines... but i dont think that would work...

anyways...

dasvadanya people... for now... if the waves dont catch me... or trucks dont run me over ... or the stars dont fall on me... or i dont get my heart broken... you shall hear from me again...

...so...what do you have to say about me...

2008-05-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

...funny thing...

after Alen informed me of my photos being used on some russian site... i wanted to google and see if i could find anything... to my surprise... there is one other place where that particular series of photos have been talked about... russian again... but this gentleman was kind enough to give me credit for my work...

russian site

i dont think the translation is very good...but give it a read anyways...

also... David... who started the whole 'strobist' movement... wrote a little underwater photography article about one of my photos... kinda funny... should check this out:

me on strobist!!!

finals week... so thats it for now...

but...stuff thats coming up...

- photographing George Faison at the fire house in NYC tomorrow...
- running to meet up with as i Lay Dying in NY on wednsday... stayin with them till Hartford...
- setting up time to photograph tony kushner in his studio sometime in may...june...
- work work work...

until next time...

...so...an interesting weekend coming up...

2008-04-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

...absolutely...

if i end up as a corpse in some random morgue in jersey... dont be surprised...

going down to NY sometime on friday for the weekend workshop at ICP... i think i will be helping Julie because ED is probably not back from the Middle east yet... anyways... cant wait... there are a bunch of stuff on friday in springfield too so... its going to be pretty crazy... and thursdays... and wednsdays... all full of dancers... and ofcourse... CLASSES

anyways... i was talking to Emil... guitarist for Daath... and he might be coming up to maryland to visit the Epiphone factory... there is that slight chance... i might go down and see him... i think they are nearly done with their new album too... should be a fun little trip non the less... dont know when its gonna happen... but sometime...

cheerios for now... hope you all have a good week...

...so...all it is, is just some deer...without the deer...

2008-04-08T19:15:00.001-07:00

...first off... people to that...

Autumn... for supplying with the deer stuff...
Justin, Craig, Loretta... thank you thank you for letting me use the space... and waiting for me to finish up...

and Melissa... for coming down... putting up with me... helping me set up the fishing lines... and basically spend a good hour and a half for ONE photograph...

awesomeness... i wish i was videotaping the setup.. like i have been doing for my last couple of shoots... but just didnt have the time to...

anyway... this is the end result...

that was fun...

...so... an idle mind... is a devils workshop...

2008-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

...i have been thinking... which is of course NEVER a good sign... where do i see myself in a year or two??? hmmm well... going to gradschool, i will be pretty much in amherst for the next three years... but... there are these long summers... what happens then... realistically... i work and make enough money to support myself through the next year... but hey... you have loans and credit cards to do that... right???

...ok... so what i am gettin at is... i want to travel around in europe... and africa... and ofcourse the rest of the world... i am "CURIOUS nafis" and i want to see it all... but that is ideally... realistically i will probably end up doing it in pieces... so here is the first... starting in turkey... going through middle east... north africa on to spain and portugal and back to turkey through southern europe... NO IDEA how much it is going to cost... but i guess i have a year or so to figure that out...

just thinking aloud nothing more... but if it does happen... it would mean i will get to see where i was born... oh the funnn...

...so...another early morning alarm...

2008-03-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

...it was a good night sleep... oh well... atleast thats how it started off... 5am... the pager went off... some house on a little road off belchertown RD had a fire... off i went... it was freezing cold...

...i hate it when i am behind a cop car... they get out of their car... and whip out their flash lights and point it at you... hate it hate it... but... now its not a problem anymore... he came up... i rolled down the window... "...good morning officer... i have here to photo....." "yes yes... go on..."

haha... the helmet and the jacket works out perfectly... :D

i am glad i got to see the chief though... he informed me that... in the coming weeks... there will be another training fire... and they will be bringing down a house... ohhh the excitement that ran through me... cause last time this happend i got this...

that is it for now...

...so... THAT WAS GREAT...

2008-03-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

...GOD... finally got back home... what a weekend...

left friday for NY... it was a pleasant ride... with a great last minute company of course... thanks to Katie... i didnt have to ride down there alone... would have sucked...

got very little sleep... the last night... i was just up with gordan... doing nothing... and the second night... i ended up watching the Aussie GP... yes... the time difference was convinent...

the workshops however was amazing... Ed is a great teacher... and i got some good feedback and ideas about my work... cant wait to start the next project... should be interesting to see how it comes out...

oh yes... so wassup with ferrari??? kimi??? massa??? no win... i was horribly dissapointed... after staying up that late... no WIN???

hopefully next race... i cant belive the Formula 1 season is back on... weeks after spring break should be fun...

...miss Emily is suppose to come up ...so that should be a fun couple of day... i really hope she doesnt cancel... i still feel bad that we couldnt hang out last time she was around... but this time should make up for it....

anyway... i just drove back home... been a LOOOOONGGGG day... and lot of ideas and thoughts going through that little brain of mine... so... gotta call it a night...

....so... new tour dates...

2008-03-08T16:09:00.001-08:00

...they just put up the new tour dates for As I lay Daying... looks pretty good... hopefully i will get to hang out a lot more this time around...

possible places i might meet up with them...

2008-05-12 Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, NY

2008-05-18 Higher Ground, Burlington, VT

2008-05-21 The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY

2008-05-22 Webster Theatre, Hartford, CT

2008-05-23 Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ

hartford and poughkeepsie is absolutely going to happen... maybe burlington has a high possibility... i have always wanted to visit RIT... so just might drive up there...

and this time hopefully i can actually go through with my portraits of them... and no freezing rain comes into play... anyways... cannot wait... should be a lot of fun...

for a full schedule check out: http://www.asilaydying.com/shows.php let me know if anyone is going to be at the shows...

...so...spring break it is...

2008-03-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

...kinda excited about this one for once...

the weekend is going to be one of three... working with Ed Kashi at ICP on a weekend workshop... i will probably learn much more then what i will be helping out with... but i am sure thats how it goes most of the time... that will always be the way...

so... why the excitement about 6 hour drives and weekend stays in NY... well... its NY... and how often do you get to spend a WHOLE weekend working with a National Geographic photographer...

anyway...the workshop dates are:

March 15-16
May 3-4
June 14-15

so... if you make it out there... i am sure i will see you...

and... since its spring break... i might end up staying in NY for a few days... so... any planned adventures are welcome... :D just let me know...

...for the sake of a photograph on the post...

i have been really excited about doing the series of edward gorey photographs... i cant wait to get this ball rolling... as the ones i have shot has been absolute funn...

...so...the life of an 'artist'...

2008-03-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

...its been a while... the only time i will end up watching old seinfeld episodes one after the other late into early mornings... is when something is awefully going wrong... over the past couple of weeks... i have been doing exactly that... but i cannot figure out whats wrong...

ponder

ponder

alas... nothing... i guess i would have to think some more... maybe its just what they call premature midlife crisis... hmmm interesting it would be if it is/was true... but catching up on my seinfelds is rewarding non the less...

enough of that...

last week i got a pretty pleasant phone call actually... i was extremely surprised... it was Jeanette Cole... the first time i met her, i was with Mariah and Liz... and were were wondering around this old building looking for a space to take some photos... we came upong this empty studio... and we were happily taking photographs... as it happens, it was Jeanetts office, and she came in... as we were apologising and heading out... she insisted we stay and finish up...

awefully nice... anyway... i met her a couple of weeks ago and left my number and emial because her students needed photographs taken of their artwork...

...i thought she was calling me about some work to be photographed... but alas... she just offered me a position to come in as a Grad student into the MFA program... if my mom wasnt in the other room... i probably would have freaked out with excitement... so... yes... hush hush if you see my mom... i am still planning out a way to come out of the "engineering closet" and break it to her...be a broke... bankrupt... dumb artist...

...so...thats the 3rd box alarm...

2008-02-13T16:32:00.001-08:00

yea... that was... the 3rd one i think this week... and all 3 times... it woke me up... one in the middle of the night... one was at like 4 day before yesterday... and today... in such a horrible rainy day... i decide to take a nap in the afternoon... and guess what... something is burning down...

it wasnt that bad... it was an electrical malfunction... i was wet, cold and totally going the opposite direction in a one way road... thankfully the cop who was closing the road down pointed at a driving space for me to park... that was awefully nice of him...

anyway... this weather sucks... and i have tons of work... have to print photos for the 5 college photo exhibition starting at Smith next week... actually... some of you reading this might be in it... so you guys better check it out... i will tag a note when i make my final selection of the images going in...

and then shoot tomorrow... excited... and then off for the weekend...

right now... i need some rest... my three elipsis looks like six... i feel extremely sleepy... and tired... and toooooonnnnns of work...

enough said...

...and some venting...

2008-02-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

... a couple of things have been really bothering me recently... its the surplus of unprofessional people... a little history... most of the photo work i have been doing does not involve any financial transaction... but recently... due to my growing credit card bills... i have decided its time i made some money to pay off my investment in equipment and so on... my very supporting friends in the dance dept and theater dept has obviously been my patrons...

...normally i would imagine you would schedule a shoot with a photographer you like... make an appointment...take care of business... shoot... he get you the images... end of story...

now... it has happened to me twice... people have asked me to do headshots... or simple modelling portfolios... and offered me money... being a nice guy... i have done the shoot... and sent them the photos without asking for an advance... in the first instance... she said i was going to get a check in the mail... 3 months later when i sent an emailing wondering if the check has been misplaced... i get a reply sayin something along the line.... "...I really dont like the headshots you did for me... i have no use for it... so i dont think it is worth it..."

now... i have found out later that... the photographs i took was used for publicity stuff... now the questions is... how unprofessional do you have to be... to pull a stunt like that...

first off... we had a deal... and that should be honored... and second... how do you get the nerve to complain about photographs that you have used...

... i know there are great photographers out there taking stunning photographs of people... i try my best... and obviously sometimes it lacks... but that doesnt mean i havent spent my time getting you a product that you asked for... so not being compensated at the end is absolutely ridiculous and a slap in the face... no matter how bad my work is... i dont think it deseves to be treated like that...

so... at the end... i have decided to create a little 'List' of people i am not working with anymore... might be just my bad luck or an absolute lack of picture taking abilities... but i think it is unacceptable non the less...

1. Katrina Ylimaki
2. Samantha Melchiorri

... i think that is enough for one night...

...so... here are some winter adventures so far...

2008-02-11T16:55:00.001-08:00

...i had to miss my first week of school... its just school i thought... but i thought it was pretty much worth it...

anyway... touring with As I lay dying was pretty good... it involved a lot of driving... but totally worth the experience... i met up with them at the 9:30 club in DC and then followed them to Mr Smalls at Pittsburg...

hopefully they are suppose to play at a couple of venues in the northeast in april sometime... and i will get to see them again...

...this semester will probably keep me pretty busy with the last of my engineering classes, Control Systems and Probability... not fun... but its gotta be done...

things coming up...

...a trip to Florida during spring break... its very iffy i am sure... but if it does happen... i will get to visit Emil and see Daath in studio working on their new album... should be fun... and ofcourse... it would be a trip taken on four wheels...hopefully for whole duration of it...

...and this is more uncertain then the trip above... but there is a slight chance... i might end up spending weekends or more then a few days with the New York circus at some point... again... the project is still getting planned... but we will see what happens... :D

...the adventures of TedAndy...

2008-01-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

...not exactly how i would have liked... but who am i kidding...

so here you see is us working on a short... i am still editing... so bare with me... i decided to call it "...the adventures of TedAndy..." a character we came up with... and is mostly shaped and brought in life to you by Troy... this first draft version... is not scripted... and is totally impromptu...

hopefully in the coming weeks... we will have a few more stuff to put up... :D

other then that... i have been greatly inspired by Edward Gorey... picking up on troy suggestion... i think most of the remaining winter break... and the spring semester is going to be spent recreating Edward Goreys work in photographs... espicially inspiring is his "Gashlycrumb tinies"... learning the alphabets using visual cues and of course my favorite part... the highly disturbing and dark commentary...

until my next post...

oh yes... if you are remotely into fairy tales...

...so...winter plans....

2007-12-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

...there come a time... when one has to look at oneself and try and see where they are going in life.......... oh wait... sorry wrong post... this, is a few years early...

so... what am i going to do... now the the freakin busy semester is over...??? hmmm good question...

i can:

1. i am yet to upload photos from my summer road trip(i was kinda organizing them last night... came out to be around 5000 photographs, 40 gigs worth)

2. upload more from the numerous portraits i have taken

3. upload... yea a lot of photos...

4. i could use this time to take more photos tooo... which brings us to my january plans...

... suppose to be in NY for new years with john and company... back to amherst for a couple of weeks... and then off to NY again probalby around the 12th for a week to attend... hopefully TA a class at ICP(very up in the air right now)... most of the other times... i would be trying hard to pay off some of the credit card debts i have so eloquently accrued...

come the end of january... i am going on tour with As I Lay Dying, for their east coast tour... starting in DC(on the 29th i think)... we will be at pittsburgh...(yay... i get to see my lovely sister...)... cleaveland... detroit... and who knows... i guess it all depends on how much of the first two weeks of classes i want to miss...

anyway... it should be a very interesting couple of months... esp when there is a possibility of photographing Seinfeld and Conan o' Brian at some point... :D

oh yes... and the SHORT... how can i forget... a couple of us are workin on a short film... and hopefully we will get a lot of that work done by the end of january... well... we are still workin on the script... so... :D wish us luck... and if you want to be a part of it... i am sure we can get you busy... :D

happy holidays people... or who ever is bored enought to be reading this...

...scenes from a memory...

2007-10-09T09:17:00.001-07:00

memories... thats what my assignment is from my photo in the expanded field class... i tried a few ideas... but all left me feelin incomplete... not enough depth to sustain 10 or more images... alas i was listening to Dreamtheaters Metropolis II: Scenes from a Memory... what a perfect combination... the story i was looking for... the dreams and memories i was wishing were mine...

to read a bit about whats going on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_Pt._2:_Scenes_from_a_Memory

its kinda confusing... highly recommend you grab a copy of the album it would be 70 mins of absolute bliss... this has to be one of dreamtheaters best albums ever...

anyway... i dearly thank the people who made this shoot possible... it was a last minute thing... and i have been trying to put it together for a while... but things just kept fallin thorugh... so thank you guys for helping me out...

Jen, Dean, Pete, Jason and the generous hosts at North C apartment... Toan, Jamal, Sean and Joe(yes joe... you were there in spirit... hope florida was fun... and our wall posts...)

above you see the most complicated photo of the shoot... complicated because i was trying to get a lot of emotions in the photo and lay out the premise of the whole story... Victoria is torn in an affair with the two brother's the Miracle(R) and Jullian(L). we were trying to show her having a secret affair with the Miracle... I was initially trying to have Nicolas in the photo too (played by our friend Dean in the series...) but it just because to complicated and too much info onto a single photo...

techy stuff:
this was lit with 4 sb-800s one sitting on the camera the rest are either on the window ledge on the left... on a light stand right above my head and one with Jason on the right lighting toan...

we were goint to shoot the Suicide/murder shots outside... but it just rained so we ended up in the stairwell...

it was a fun 3 hours... :D

...badAss blissfullness...

2007-09-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

...we ended up at Vassar this wonderful weekend... hung out with some 'beautiful' people... the trip ended with a wonderful dunkin breakfast in the middle of the Hudson River... thanks to Pete's boating skills...

the picture you see here is a collaboration... pete, brendan, Eric and I... we were printing some photos when i realized we could be shooting some photos outside in the studio... since it was a theater studio... i didnt have my strobes with me.. but we had access to the lightboard... half an hour of trying to figure out how to turn it on and where the circuit breakers were.. we were in business... lot of fun playing around with theater lights... the end result... u can judge yourself...

till the next entry...

...so... its here...

2007-08-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

...people who know me well...know how infatuated i am with swiss army knives... well... i lost my last one durring the bustrip... and i was really really upset about it... i loose these in the worst possible places... the one before i lost a couple of years back in the lab... just left it there... and someone picked it up...

so... woke up this morning and sweet... i had a ocuple of emails...

"Your item arrived at 8:18 AM on August 7, 2007 in AMHERST, MA 01002. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later."

i just ran out... grabbed the damn box... and woooohooo... i amathe so Happy....

...so... its 1am...

2007-07-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

...its 1am... and i think i will hit the sack early... its been quite a day... at the end... i am left still utterly confused... about what i dont know... but there is definitely a lot of confusion...

hung out with toan and chris after the longest time... they were playing chess at Rao's when i left... who won i wonder...???

anyway... things i have been doing lately... i will just make a list... i will also add a couple of things i WILL do...

...listening to couple of metallica concerts form 07... not half as bad as u might think... children of bodom... i believe its the 'follow the reaper' album... trans-siberian orchestra...and ascendency by trivium...

....trying to make the polaroid film i have on the 4 by 5 i just got... just not workin... absolute crap... i took apart the lens and cleaned it... looks brand spanking new now... :D

...working at the university gallery... but my workstudy still hasnt come through... so that kinda sucks... i may be confused... but i really hate the financial aid office with a passion... i really do... no confusion there... they are truly evil...

...best part of the summer, after the roadtrip, has to be my involvement with the production of Helmet... its awesome working with the theater people again... ofcourse maryann, troy, lauria, talya and mike are extra fun people to work with... i will be going down to NY with them during performance week starting on the 10th of august... so that should be fun... photographing the production is very differnt from photographing the christmas carol or the caucasian chalk circle, both of which were much bigger productions... anyway... its fun... i hope i can get some good images for them... http://www.helmet-wannaplay.com/

...extra interesting stuff should happen on the 19th and the 20th... after a lot of phone calls and dissapointment... i think i might finally be able to photograph Ozz Fest... i will be documenting the band Daath for the whole day... the people at the Agency group and Roadrunner records deserves props for making this a reality... i should be getting a schedule soon so i know whats going on... fingers crossed... i am excited... august should be an exciting month... and ofcourse... there is school to look forward to in september... and friends coming back...

...i am also expecting a box tomorrow afternoon... hopefully in it will be some things that i currently desire... greatly...

ciao fellow people...

until the uncertain next time...

...ontheroad....

2007-05-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

...i will be leaving saturday... leaving all of u... check up on us at http://ontheroad07.blogspot.com/

see yea all when back...

...so...aspen chase...

2007-05-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

so... there i was... ready for a busy day... bio550 class... work on the cancer genetics paper... cancer genetics class... hand in the paper... and then my final photoshoot with the fire dept... later in the night... three fire trucks... two ambulances... melissa... jamal... and mariah as my model... what a great day planned ahead...

met liz readin up for her final presentation while i was walking to class... she has an amazing job in NY... so will be leaving after this semester... i will miss her dearly...

anyway... being the ideal student... i walk into class... and our prof as usual has a lot of videos ready for us to watch... animal behaviour... so its basiclaly monkeys jumping around and fighting aroudn for mates... hahaha... oh well... 5 mins into the class... my pager went off... box alarm.... "structure fire at Aspen chase" i knew where it was... so decided to skip class... and be the ideal on call photographer... hahaha

took b43 downtown... and then just ran... RAN a mile down main street to aspen chase... i got there just before the ladder truck did... wow... i could see the smoke a couple of blocks... the fire was just coming through the roof... everyone was runing around... and i oculd hear over the radio that the fire wasnt under control...

...i was photographing inside the police lines... so this cop comes up to me and goes... ahh.... buddy... you gotta be outside that yellow line... the Asst Chief was standing right next to me... and he goes... "its all right... he is photographing for us" hahaha... sweet...

the next two hours... i just ran around... Mary told me yesterday that Ryan lived at that apt... sorry ryan... i hope all get well... and u are allowed back into you place soon...

the fire was put out by the ladder truck... it was getting too dangerous... so they pulled out all the firemen... on my way back... i was getting ready to leave... but wanted to see if the Dept was still training that night... for the photoshoot...walking upto George... i was stopped by another cop... this time he was pretty serious... and was determined to get me out of the yellow zone... george saw me talking to him... so came up and told him that i had the Asst chiefs permission to photograph... so he left me alone... five mins into my conversation this old fellow... in a civil dress with his walkie talkie come up to us...and goes... you have to leave... :P i was like... ok ok... i am about to leave anyways... i dont want trouble... :-D

apparently the Asst chief found out that they kicked me off... he later told George that... they will get me a fire fighter helmet, i woudlnt mind one of those cool jackets too, next time so that i dont get bothered.... :D

i dont think they have found the cause... but i am sure it sucks...

there were two other fires that day... crazy times...

yea... i still gotta finish the cancer genetics paper... :P

...so...what happens on the walk back from campus at 2:30 in the morning...

2007-03-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

...so... i am walking back home after spendin hours at the library... passing the pond i run into this view... i dont know... either its really late... and i am just way to sleepy to realise it... but i can just see a good photoshoot here... absolutely... its going to be hard work... but there is def sth here... and i am going to find out what...

...walkin a bit more... i found another place that looks to be a good spot for a shoot... at this point.. i know i am way to sleepy to realise that i am just dreaming about photographs...

anyway... hopefully i have entered the right apartment... and hopefully i am using my own computer and not someone else... and hopefully i am not sleep walking...

if all goes well... and the photo still looks good tomorrow morning... many of you will be gettin bugged by me... basically asking you to stay up with me... late into the night... and helpin me make an image... thus making you a timeless piece of what i call art...

well... people i am sure disagree... but then... i live in a totally sheltered world...only full of myself... and u all know that already...

i really need to sleep...

good morning...

ps... if u read a green good morning at the library white board... right infront of the procastination center... i wrote that... so... hope u have a better day then i do...

...so this is how my break is suppose to go... cool...

2007-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

...so...thats on our way to boston... toans parents picked us up... so it was a nice rride up there...

i didnt have a media pass for the game... so had to call up tom kendell to see if he could get me one at the last minute... he couldnt... BUT... we talked ourselves to one... hahaha.... the guy at the media desk was pretty cool... Scott i think his name was... ogt the pass... got good place to shoot the game for... and had a blast for the next 4 hours... good food... neat times...

we came back to toans place pretty late... but i woke up to the sounds of firetruck at 330 in the morning... looked out the window... and wow... the house behind us was on fire... my camera was upstairs in toans room... so i ran up... woke him up... "dude... the house behind urs is on fire... i am going out... come come..." i think i woke up his mom too... cause i saw her standing outside when we were walkin back...

...the red hoodie in the second image... that was his house... he started screamin at me right after that photo... "u think this is funny nigger" (...yea right... racism IS a thing of the past...) ... he sounded drunk... or maybe drugged...

interestin...

saturday was fun tooo... met up with meg and her friends at the boston commons spent hours at the borders there photographin...

...walked up to the boston library... but it was closed :( then some more fun at the prudential center... :D

tuesday... coming back i decided to meet meg after she got out of class... i will be late... but what the hell... she is coming down to see me off... the least i could do... got some amazing images... i hope they had as much fun as i did... meg and laurel came down...

...so back home right now... worked most of the day yesterday... and am goign into work as soon as i finish this... :D oh yea... have to work on the SDP frame... call up the insurance company... and tons of other stuff to do before that... :P

a couple of things really bothered me though... so... this homeless guy come up an asks for change... wala... for the first time... i have change... so i give it to him... 10 mins later... this other dude come up... i look for more change... and i dont find any... "i am sorry... i am afraid i just gave it all away..."

"...you dont have to lie... just say you dont want to give..." came the reply... what the fuck...???

anyone who knows me... would know... i would go out of my way to help people out... all u have to do is ask... but people sometimes dont get it... but when u get shit like that... it just pisses me off... it happened twice this week... and i reallly dont care about the homeless guys... but god...the other time... what a bunch of fuckin cunt bags... so ungreatfull and full of themselves... sorry for the obscenities...

other then that... a pretty good break so far...

K

...so...whats going on with me...

2007-03-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

...nothing is going on... atleast... i dont see anything going out with me... had an exam this week... should have gone better... atleast the class has make ups at the end... so... that is a good thing...

hmmm...SDP presentation is kinda bothering me... i will hopefully have the frame made out by the end of the weekend... damn that reminds me... i gotta finish up studying on the probability exam too... loads to do... so little time...

next week should be interesting... after the exam and the presentation... i have a lot of photography to do... :D sweet... Prof. Billbob Brown just emailed me... if i could photograph the faculty concert... awesome... should be fun... wednsday night... i think the show is during the weekend... so... probably will be going to more dances then i thought i would... :D

*update* fire dept shoot...

oh yes.. its happening... and the weather looks good... 'might' be running into a few problems... but i think it will work out... to much setup might not be a good thing always... especially on an accident scene... but... we will have an accident... so... it is promising... alredy scouted the spot... neat... its at a T intersection... 3 cars i am told.... :D i coudlnt be happier... lost my car with a light pole.. so... this is a lot better.... :D i want to see if i can get on top of one of the trailors lying around there.... get a birdsy eye view... hahaha... probalby wont let me... but hey... gotta try right...yes im wearing shorts... so yes... thats that...

i am still bored... oh yea... we might go on a studying tour around the library... hoping... once meg is here... that should be finally some more fun...

ok... thats it... i am in seans room.. gotta goo off now...

ps : yes i am wearing shorts... thats sean describing himself... not me... :D

...so... something you all have been waiting for...

2007-02-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

...yes... its been a busy day... got out at 11... came back around 8...

classes... try and do some design for our SDP photo rig... have to give it to Rob by this weekend...

yesterday... i was just thinking... whats missing this semester... finally it hit me... a shoot with the fire department... hmmm gotta make it happen... so... went to the north station to talk to the assistant chief... to see how possible it is...

well... its happening... and its going to be big... party involved... you lucky people... :D...

production notes:

its going to be a scene of a tragic accident... ofcourse with a bit of twisted humor... subjects in the scene... fireman(a very good chunk of the student fource i am guessing) and people involved in the accident, probably people i will convince its a good idea to tag along with me on the day...i thought i will pay tribute to the failed fatal car crash i was involved in...

anyway... i will be working on some sketches for the shoot, as soon as i get some time,... so keep an eye out... if you see the center of amherst closed off... i am probably making my photos... :D

its going to be a logistical nightmare... but... hopefully some priceless images to look forward too...

for now... i will leave u with something i got to do today... that cheered me up for a moment...

Sean...from the series... 'the change'

...so... whats wrong with me...

2007-02-19T21:39:00.000-08:00

...highlight of the weekend... i lost my scarf... why is my life... seemingly going well... and then gets punctuated by these disastars.... i lost my scarf today... and yes... its a disastar... my fav one... :'( worse part... i dont have insurance for that... i had that for the car... damn it...

hmmm... well... it was ok otherwise... got some work done at the library... and on the way back... lost my scarf ofcourse... took some photos at north...

racially charged... i know... my thoughts read on...

well... put people of 5 different races in the same room... all with equal intellect...and an infinite amount of respect for each other... this is what is bound to happen...i am gald we all move along...and love to appreciate each others differences and get along...if u know me... u probably know my actual views on the subject... people should be respected no matter who they are...where they are from... what god they prey too... how much money they make... what their skin colors is and so on.... that said... i think people do stereotype... and its funny... and sometimes amusing to see how wrong they are... or in some cases... how right they are... this series of photos deals with that...

now that we all love each other... lets have some fun in the coming months... :D

...so...why am i not dead after that car crash...

2007-02-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

...so yes... why am i still here after the crash... i mean... the police were kinda surprised... and the towing guy thought i was sad because of who ever was driving... so... it finally hit me... that was pretty freakingly close... it would have just been 6 years earlier... but... its close enough... haha... my neck could have snapped... i think... but yes... sadly for some of you... i am still here... barely...

... i do think god has a sense of humor though... u know... how they say... all your life flashs before you... right before your death... well... u know what i saw... everything that i am going to miss due to my early departure... how fucked up is that... i mean... even at the last moments i am alive... u get teased by the one 'all knowing being' ... funny... i think... tragic as well...

...happy fuckin valentines day...

2007-02-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

...yes... it was... wasnt it... def ended with a BANG!!!

snow day... nice weather outside... went on a drive with ricky to best buy to grab a digital optical cable so that we can play mortal kombat in surround sound... check... an hour of MK... best valentines day ever...

so on our way back... we run into these kids snow boarding on the banks of the football fields (yes... its football... not soccer...) so... we park ... go out... and photograph kids jumping ramps in freezing temperatures.... good times definitely...

...initially i decided to stay at home and get some work done... but then the guys wanted me to come and hang out... then saber called... and mary... and i was like... oh well... might as well just go and say hi... my mom goes... take the bus... its icy outside... u shouldnt be drivin...

being an ass... i took the car... dropped of mary... and went to sabers place... i have been turning his invittions for atleast two years... so... thought i would atleast make the effort of showing up this time...

had a nice couple of hours there... and then decided to head back... and drop by toans and seans... oh well... that never happened...

up triangle street... hit a ice patch... made a 90... hmmm... and i am thinking... "...wait a sec here... why am i going forward sideways...??? .... and hey... i am heading right towards that electric pole.... "BANG"" what a fuckin pole that was...

...911... i had my fire dept pager on me... so was just waiting to hear... "5184... collision with a light pole on the intersection of kellogg and triangle st... the idiot says he is okay... dispatch........"

...police reports.... waiting for the tow truck for an hour and a half... well... yea... i had a lovely evening....

...i am sitting the hospital bed right now... and the people i love the most got me a nice laptop to tell the world what happened to me... well... the view is nice... everything is white and clean... unlike my lovely room... and there are a hundred tubes stuck in me... and a catheter in my fore arm....

....the car is a wrreck... and so am i... well... always was... but hey...

....a part of me died last night... this is just a ghost of what once was... if u see me around the campus... its just my spirit watching over u...

good bye my friends...

...long long LONG day...

2007-02-14T00:41:00.000-08:00

...so... it was suppose to be a long day... its 4 am... so i guess it was... if there is class tomorrow... i am gonna miss the photo class...

anyway... was an interesting day... went in for animal behaviour (...thats how the british spell it...) i had all my stuff with me... and ofcourse the priceless d2x... had to shoot the stuff for the UMass magazine...

once i was done with class... headed straight for the library... Sean called me... he was going to be my model for the day... :D exciting times... i knew puttin him in the "Cell zone" was a fun idea... i was gonna do some fun photos... so i asked him to bring a tooth brush and paste with him... hour of scouting, setting up and shooting for the magazine... i was done... and now for 10 mins of fun...

we ran into Liz at the library... and she was kind enough to hang out... and have a good laugh at what i was doing... i think she took a few snaps herself of me workin... looking forward to those... :D

fun shoot:

...we went for lunch afterwards liz, sean and i.... well... another stunning image there... :

...had cancer genetics class afterwards... and then off to the SDP meeting with brendan and rob... i ran into toan and went down to the collegian to see Eric about the media passes for the UMass vs Northeastern game in boston on the 25th... thought i would go down to boston on sunday and check out the game up close... should be fun if everything comes through...

...had to shoot a meeting at SOM for the collegian... and then... finally... after a long long day... back home at 8... or was it 7... who cares...

anyway... i havent seen ricky in a while... so when he called about some help to setup his home theater system... i decided to go over... fixed up the speaker... and had a game of mortal kombat armageddon... wow... what a freakin game... i love MK... and this version has all characters starting from MK 1... god i died and went to heaven....

apparently it started snowing while i was there... so after i got back... i drove up to campus to photograph the snowy campus... wow... what a view... and isnt it fun to drive the car in the snow... it fish tails and stuff... :D... i am def a happy camper... walked and drove around campus for an hour... nearly wet and probably suffering from hypothermia... got back at 12 or 1... i think...

the next few hours are a blurr.... anyways... here i am... still awake writing this...

not a boring day... well... i didnt get time to think about it... so... maybe i can find ways to make it sound boring... but that for another time...

oh yea... an amusing fact... while walking with toan... and thinking of how to offend people... came up with something... if you are really pissed at some... say:

"fuck you...(...pause...).... and your forefathers...."

note: its all about the pause... the longer the pause... the higher up in the geneaology you are going... so... the more forefathers u are.... u know what i am gettin at....

...not a bad day...

2007-02-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

...so yea... after staying awake till 3... finally handed in my probability HW... hmmm cant remember the last time i actually did that...

...photographing art all day is pretty exciting... ran into this awesome printer... Michael Mazur... great artist... going through the university galleries archives is more fun then i could have imagined... plus... no one bosses u around... good work... :D.... thanks Liz... oh damn... i forgot to call her... gotta do it now...

hmmm... what else... yea... i will be photographing the library over the next couple of weeks for the UMass magazine... so... looking forward to that... lot of interesting images will come out i am sure... oh yes... and i met my match at the office today... she is so cool... we are going to have so much fun.... i just know it... might end up marrying this girl*... i know it... u will be seeing us together a lot... :D hahaha

oh yes... and Matt called... might be going out on a bit of adventure tonight as well... he is doing parkour style stunts around campus tomorrow morning... so... he will be scouting tonight and laying down ice so he can slide in the morning... tomorrow is going to be awesome... i know... but tonight might be interesting too... cold... but interesting...

gotta get my act together for SDP too... i have been putting together a blue print for our camera rig... so hopefully within the week we can send out an order for the parts... and have the thing made soon... :D... should be exciting...

*girl: she has a white tattoo that says D2Xs

...bloggin...

2007-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

...so... i got inspired by this friend of mine to write a blog... sean to be exact: www.tulsamherst.blogspot.com/

...anyway... reading his stuff... i thought... "wow... he is a good writer... and a really interesting person... and he is sharing all his thoughts with us"

...well... i am not intelligent and i rarely have 'shareable' experiences or thoughts... but i do laugh at myself a lot... so thought i will share the thoughts so we can all laugh... at me... and have a rackus...

...reason for the clean look (shaved and short hair): well... i have been having this feeling that... everytime i walk into starbucks... everyone seems to be on AMBER alert, looking at me weird... i reach to get my camera out from my bags... and they seem to be looking for their cell phones... hmmm... i thought... too much trouble... lets try and blend in for once... :D obviously... i will still be the balck sheep in the herd...

...couple of good things did happen this weekend... got in the shower with two other guys and photograph ourselves... printed 2 copies of 16 by 20 inch black and white prints out of my xpan negatives... simply STUNNING... saw Kara, probably for last time before she leaves for costa rica... oh yea... and made fun of Pat... :P... sorry... i hope u can forgive me... i saw her for the first time this semester... and the first thing she said was... "...i hate u nafis..." i think thats the last thing she said to me too... two hours later... oh yea... our whole conversation was puntuated by that phrase as well... hmmm... now that i think of it... i wasnt very nice today...

damn... probability homework... will try and continue the documentation of my boring life soon...

...PHOTOSHOOT four B: inside on a cold day...

2006-12-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

Originally uploaded by maneeacc.

sb28 on manual 1/16 on the top left.

this was done using a sekonic flash meter at first, although shot with the d70. i was originally playing around with the flash synced to a mamiya tlr, but thought the photo was too cool to take a chance on film... so ended up shooting a few with the d70... will get the 120 roll soon... hopefully they came out nice too...

...PHOTOSHOOT four: outside on a cold day...

2006-12-25T20:50:00.000-08:00

Originally uploaded by maneeacc.

sb800 -1.7EV low on the left and one sb800 0EV on the top right

playing around with cls... i think shooting more and more is helping me understand how the lights respond... and playing around with the group setting on the master sb800 and so on...

...PHOTOSHOOT four: Toan and Flor...

2006-12-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

for the first image: one SB800 on top.... and a second one lighting the fire extinguisher...
for the second image: one SB 800... on top...

...PHOTOSHOOT three II...

2006-12-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

this is totally setup btw... it was a lot of work...

*no firefighters were hurt during the making of this image* ... :D

one SB800... set at +1/3ev

this was shot right after the last one... shot this for the photo III class... inspired by Crewdson i have to admit... actually... i am experementing with setup shots a lot lately...

...PHOTOSHOOT three...

2006-12-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

master flash SB800

one slave set to 0ev

this was shot on a really cold day... was documenting the training of the Amherst Fire Dept. called one of my friends cause i knew there would be interesting photos to be taken... :D

...PHOTOSHOOT two...

2006-12-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

, originally uploaded by maneeacc.

SB800s again... trying out some environmental portraits...

the results came out nice... was shooting with the 70-200 initially... but for these shots used the 18-70mm

for the second image...

one SB800 top left... set at +1.7ev i think

post processing: just added a bit of blue and cyan... maybe resulting in a green cast... :P but i liked how the leaves in the back felt...

...PHOTOSHOOT one: sb800 with a DIY lightmodifier

2006-09-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

had some fun on friday... :D

shot with the light diffuser i made earlier... on a manfrotto light boom... sb800 all around...
i liked the results... not very original... i dont think... but it was my first work with a model... outside... and with strobes... so...

...EXP four: sb800 with a DIY lightmodifier

2006-09-03T12:24:00.001-07:00

Camera: d70
Lens: nikon 70-200 VR
lighting: 1 SB800 with the modifier shown...

...this was shot using nikon camera control... first time i am playing around with the time lapse option.... amazing tool... definitly should try it out sometime...

...the sb800 was held with a bogen boom... handy lightstand...

...the light modifier is a plastic box...with aluminium foil and a paper towel to modify the light... it softened it upu a bit... but i will have to play around with white material some more to see what other results i can obtain...

thoughts... let me know...

...old EXPS: Claire

2006-08-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

this is also from a while back... just thought of uploading it...

shot with a d70 and 180mm 2.8 nikor
flash used: SB15 in A mode

i was really impressed with the flash... balanced it really well... and ofcourse the lens is just AMAZING... the DOF at 2.8 really worked out i think for this photo...

the flash was bounced of the wall...

lemme know what you think... any help would be great... :D

...old EXPs: baby in a bucket...

2006-07-19T00:36:00.000-07:00

SB-15 on a D70

flash mode A

i think the lighting i ended up using is very interesting. the SB-15 seems to work really well in A mode... with the D70 in this case... it work amazingly well... i have had luck using thw strobe with the 180mm lens and still got amazing results with bounced flash ...

in this image the light is bounced of the wall on the left... f6.3 at 1/60th

...EXP 3: standing green...

2006-07-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

...hey all... here is another trial from yesterday... the results came out quite nice... so... here it is...

again, two SB800 setup... group C is in the box and set at -1.3ev and group B is on the chair set at -3.0ev... both are set to ittl wireless i wanted the DOF to be decent... but not too much... the aperture set is f7.1 at 1/250...

...a cardboard box and a frosted clip file was used... :D

i liked how the shadows played out... and the veins in the leaf...

thoughts... suggestions... as always...

...EXP 2: multiple SB800s...

2006-07-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

gear used: nikon d70
lights: 3 SB800s

this really is my first real attempt playing around with the nikon CLS system(excuse my bad teeth)... i really wasnt feeling like france WIN against spain... when spain was actually playing better... so decided to play around with the new flashes i had just gotten...

the main light coming from the right is a SB800 (set as group A) on a Slik camera stand.... there is a Fill light SB800 (group B) on the left on a pillow on the ground... the third SB800 is on the camera set to master.

group A is set to TTL -1EV
group B is set to TTL -3EV

shutter speed is around 1/15th and 1/8th with aperture at f5.6 or 8.

i really like how the subject(myself) was caught pretty crisply even at such a slow shutter speed. also thought including the television might be a good idea... so did...

hope this helps... let me know if you have any questions... or maybe suggestions on how to improve these images...

...here we go...(EXP 1 strobes underwater)

2006-07-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

setup:

Nikonos II and SB-15.
film used: Fuji 400.

the nikons is an amazing rangefinder, well if you can call it that. no metering what so ever, absolutely manual. its flash sync is at 1/60th. the SB-15 was in a rollei E 34 underwater housing.

this was the first time shooting really manually with a flash. so this is what i did. i knew shooting the SB15 in automatic might not work underwater. the light from the unit will probably get reflected in the plastic housing and fool the flash meter. firing it in M mode might be too much power for the image. so i put the flash into strobe mode. for the SB15, this results in a flash output of 1/13th full power. then i metered the ambient light around the pool with a sekonic L358. i knew i wasnt shooting too deep so there probably would be some ambient light involved.
what ever reading i got from the meter, i opened up the aperture 2 stops just to make sure i take into account the light lost underwater.

well... what you see above is the result. the strobe was placed to your left. focusing was done manually. i think the s-stop for this photo was around 5.6.

any questions... let me know... i found a leak in the rewind shaft... so will have to fix that before i take it underwater again... :D

...a bit of inTro....

2006-07-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

i have never 'blogged' before... so this should be really interesting...

anyway, mostly i am going to be documenting my experiments in photography... especially with strobes...

i am a Nikon user... so grabbed a copy of "the speed of light" when it came out... and WOW!!! some amazing stuff... anyway... last month i decided to get some strobes to try out studio photography.... my choices were either the Alien Bees... or SB800's

needless to say, went with the SB800's... i want to do onlocation lighting setups, and i dont think the alien bees with the heavy power packes would offer me as much as the nikon speedlights... so there it was... part of my summer earnings gone to B and H... what i got? here it is...

2 SB800's, Manfrotto 3398B and a flash hotshoe(sadly something is wrong with it, and it doesnt work... sucks... should just send it back... but probably would end up costing me more)

the Manfrotto 3398B is pretty amazing. its a lightstand that can be converted to a boom. very useful if i want to have a SB800 as a top light. will post a setup soon.

let me know if you have any questions about any of the above... i will try and let you know about the experience i had with it...

...first post...

2006-07-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

hello everyone... this is my try at blogging... hopefully i will try and update my blog throughout its existance, frequently...

will post more stuff soon...

keep coming back...