Trying out my new franken-brella thingy

| May 2, 2010

I watched a really good instructional video this weekend on portable lighting techniques which prompted me to Frankenstein-up a small portable strobe umbrella that I can take outside and use wirelessly with my camera. Here are some of my test shots inside:

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Looking good so far! Next we went outside to backlight Sam with that magic sunset light:

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Here she is trying to eat some azaleas that Pam picked for her to explore:

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Pretty good results for some quick and dirty experimentation! With a little more work, this should be a great set up for quick lighting outside when I am too lazy to run extension cords outside for my big studio lights.

The eaglets have landed

| May 2, 2010

Sam has some really special visitors in the area that we went to visit yesterday at the Heinz Wildlife Refuge. Can you spot them?

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What, you don’t see them? Look closer!

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In the upper right of the image there is a bald eagle nest! That’s right, for only the third time in 200 years, there is a nesting pair of bald eagles in the Philadelphia region. The nest here has two small male eaglets! Look to the left and down slightly from the nest, just to the right of the tree trunk. There you can see a bald eagle in all his glory! As a father, I like to imagine that is the male, watching guard over his growing young family. This is an incredible sight for us, only the second eagle I have ever seen in the wild and Pam and Sam’s first! It was well worth the three-mile round trip hike in 90 degree heat. Doesn’t Sam looked thrilled?

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I suspect we’ll be seeing lots more of that happy face in the future as I drag her around to revel in nature’s grandeur.