busy beaver

As this semester winds down, or I should say RAMPS UP to its crescendo. I pause now to reflect over the past few weeks.

A lot has happened.  First we did our Portrait Critique.  That took some time over two sessions.  We covered the needs for the Final package, the Student Exhibit, and the Narrative.  All large and sufficiently important events in their own right.

And each needing it's own unique concentrated effort on our part to accomplish the task of completion.


Printing at the LAB continues to be a dicey proposition.  My political stance on this is I get the need for monitoring and control that the software provides, but I as a former systems consultant and manager of operations for an accounting staff, cannot understand the inability to FIX the problems that exist.  The maker of the software ....enough.  Business real world standards are not being applied here.

The standout event of my past few weeks was the participation in the SCCC Veterans Day celebration ceremony on Mon. Nov. 12, 2012.

I was able to spend time in the set up and practice session on Friday.  And again on the day of the event on Monday.

What a truly great time to have been a part of this undertaking.  To use the knowledge and skill as a photographer we each brought to the table, and to give back a little to those that have served or continue to serve.

The Student Exhibit was next on the agenda.  For me, I was able to have the kindness of KS in producing a large print in time for the hanging work session.  As my prior attempts were not as I had hoped, my rework of the photo was finally as I had wanted and only the final large print would cap off my journey.  It happened, and I think the result was a stellar outcome.  I hope the model Camille can find time to stop in and see the work we produced.


The Multiples is happening next Monday, 11/19, I have the two posters ready for the critique.  I had so many ideas in my head and charted on my story board, but only a couple made it to the production table.  I did like the end result though, Some clever uses of props and photoshop did the rest.

For the Narrative, there are two potential candidates in the ready as catalogs on my HD>  but I plan to shoot one more to give me a full bevy of choice for my selection to present.  The final output format is another ....I have an idea, which is a bit of a grandiose format, but I think it will play well for the topic.


The days have been filled with as much shooting as I can, when I can, where I can.  I have loaded over 1,000 photos in this time.  Much to review and ponder.

And I continue to build and update my studio equipment.  New Kupo light stands, which are exceptional in terms of quality build and features.  I have a few funds left and my aging strobe collection needs some support.  Paul C. Buff Einstein units with the Pocket Wizard trigger built in modules are on my Christmas list.  The are fully digital controlled, which provides a unlimited degree of light control, and have an industry leading flash duration that is hard to match at 1/13,000 duration.  If you ever need that feature it is hard to duplicate some shots without such a fast duration capability.

And finally, as I grow into using my new D600, the unbelievable file size and its rich detail continues to amaze.  Even small crops produce fine details.  And the ability to shoot at very high ISO with acceptable results [such as sio 3200 in some cases] is a luxury I have never had previously.

I remember the days when I pushed my TRI-X to 800   and then the unheard of 1600, but got pretty crappy results with the grain taking away much of the details.