How does it feel to be a ghost?

Selfs
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Cross and Blossoms.

Blog 0414
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Taken at Lexington Cemetery. Fiddled with in LR2 and PS CS3.

Cows on Yellow

Retreads-9
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

It's an old image that I've always liked.

Window Light and noise.

Corral-34
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Embarrassing failures have always been great teaching tools.

This is one of my favorite images from a shoot I did this Sunday. I had several complicated lighting setups, but we did this one with just some window light and a gold reflector to open up the shadow side of her face a little (and just a little, as you can see).

However, if you view this image at any size, you'll see that it's pretty damn noisy.

If you check out the EXIF data, you'll see why. I shot it at ISO 1600. Because I'm a bonehead who forgets to check important camera settings before he starts shooting.

The whole shoot was in 1600. I tried to process in ways to minimize the noise, but that's just a stop-gap.

However, shooting right now, for me, is about learning. This wasn't a client that had invested a lot of money in the shoot, so I could afford to experiment and even fail. It took a pretty significant mistake, but, without a doubt, I learned an important lesson.

It's kind of like the time my high school Latin teacher forced me to stand in front of the class and drilled me, military style, on 3rd declension endings because I hadn't learned them like I was supposed to. (I can still recite them at will.) Or the time that a manager forced me to carry around 10 bottles of steak sauce in an already full apron during the rush at restaurant because I had forgotten to ask a table if they would like any. I never forgot again.

That, it seems, is the learning process. Though I'm a hard-headed dumbass who doesn't always get it right, sometimes I have to fall on my face to remember to look at my feet.

Happy Accident.

Blog 4-5-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

It's not all planned, folks. This image mostly happened because I forgot to turn on the speedlight I was using as the main, and the reflective gun just happens to be picking up a touch of the ambient in the room.

For bonus points, guess who.

Cones

Blog 4-4-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Pink love

Blog 4-3-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

I took this at Lexington Cemetery last week. I was just looking to take pictures of these tress, but I saw this couple walking, and I couldn't resist.

Daffodils

Blog 4-2-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

More nature photos. Hopefully next week, I'll have some different stuff to post.

Self portrait

Self-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

I couldn't think of a better way to learn than to do some self portraits.
I feel like that's incredibly vain, but nobody is a more cooperative model than me. Most were exceptionally blurry, but I really like a few, including this one.

It's a pretty simple setup. I'm shooting in aperture priority. EV is down 2 stops. Main is a softbox above me and camera right, close to the axis. Fill is a shoot-through below me, also near the axis. Clamshell-ish setup.

Pink on Pink

Blog 3-31-06
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

More spring nature shots. Hopefully I'll have something of a different tenor soon.

Purple and Green

Paris 3-22-10
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Brown on Green.

Georgetown 2-21-02
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Spring, it seems, is almost here. However, my fascination with the Sigma 70-300 is fading. That's what I used for this image. It's not bad in smaller sizes, but at full size, the sharpness is DEFINITELY lacking. I guess that's cheap glass for you.

Brown on Blue.

Georgetown 2-21-08
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

More than anything, I liked the combination of colors in this shot.

Backlit pink.

Blog 3-27-06
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

I like the color and the backlighting.

However, it looks like the JPG compression introduced some clipping, maybe in the red channel. That's a bit frustrating.

Goose portrait.

Blog 3-26-06
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Spill

Blog 3-25-06
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Found this almost entirely by accident somewhere I hadn't even planned on going, and I absolutely had to shoot it.

Bee on Bradford Pear

Paris 3-22-07
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Damn you William Wordsworth.

Paris 3-22-08
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

This shot isn't that great, the English major in me just wanted a chance to reference Wordsworth.

Pump.

Blog 03-22-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Close

Blog 03-21-01
Originally uploaded by Josh Bobbitt

Nikon D80

2 SB-600's fired via CLS into white foam core reflectors.