Early this morning I headed out and drove back to my favorite spot to go hiking around, Ohiopyle. The sun was out, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature was just about right for a crisp Fall hike. So enough of my talk, here are the pictures.
This is one of my favorite times of the year to take outdoor portraits. The color from the leaves is so vibrant and can add so much to a picture. I did a few portrait sessions over the past few days and below are some of my favorite shots to come out of them.
I much prefer outdoor on location shooting rather than being stuck inside with a plain backdrop. The kids seem to enjoy it more too.
Working outdoors can be a bit tricky, especially when the sun is bright. Working in shade is a must. Even then, you have to be very careful about any stray shards of light streaming down through the foliage or reflecting off of water and windows. Once you find a nice area though, setting up a light or two and manually dialing in power isn’t difficult.
Of course, when children are involved, getting their attention is often the most difficult part of the shoot. The above shot is a composite of two pictures and Photoshopped together. I normally do everything I can to get the shot framed and correct in camera, but sometimes there is no other way.
I’ve been trying to simplify my process when working with children, as their patience level isn’t very high. This has lead me to use only a single light on a small lightstand with a small softbox on it. The flash is fired with a radio trigger set (low cost Cactus v4 set) and output is set manually. Once the flash is dialed in, just keep firing.
My new favorite combo for single subject shooting is my Olympus OMD E-M5 with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens on the front. This kit is lightweight, easy to set up and shoots fast. The face detect autofocus actually works wonders in situations like this since it’ll track the face first, and if it can’t find it (unusual) it defaults to a focus point of your choice. It works great so you can compose and take a shot, then recompose for another without messing with focus points.
That’s all I have for now.
This past Saturday, my wife and I reserved a spot in the Laurel Caverns lower caving tour. This set of caverns goes about 45 stories deep and the majority of it is unlighted. There is a good amount of climbing over and down rocks as well as some crawling. The spaces can be very tight. This was my first time doing something like this, and I had no idea what to expect. It was amazing at how pitch black and quiet it is when you’re that far underground. The mind starts to wander and think about what would happen if the flashlights failed. Anyway, here are the pictures (all taken with an OMD E-M5). The first is above the mountain, the next are far below it.
After the caving tour, my wife and I spent the night at the Summit Inn. This hotel was built around 1902 and sits on top of a mountain overlooking the town of Hopwood. In this day and age, finding places with this much character is tough. The woodwork is beautiful and in the lobby sits a large stone fireplace with plenty of old wooden chairs around it.
My family and I had yet another very busy weekend. Here are some shots I grabbed during the past few days.
