Hartsord's Random Stabs in the Dark

Tauren Shaman , originally uploaded by Hartsord . I don't have much opportunity to go on model shoots, so I've taken to shooting models of a different sort. This is a 9" or so model of a Tauren Shaman from Warcraft. I was able to get it on sale at the Alabang Town Center, for about P1000. I really love the detail on this model. For this shot, I used my Sigma 24-70/2.8 EX DG Macro lens. The model is placed on a sheet of black felt paper held in my DIY lightbox. Lit with a Vivitar 285HV with a DIY grid on the right, and a Sigma EF500 DG Super on the left. One technique that I picked up from Strobist.com is to put a CTO gel on a flash to simulate tungsten lighting, and balance it with the tungsten setting on the camera. CTO gelled flashes will come out correctly, as with the right flash in this shot, but other flashes will turn out bluish, as with the left flash in this case, which only had a 1/4 CTO gel on it.

Gen 09 , originally uploaded by Hartsord . Hi there! I finally discovered how to set up Flickr to link with my blog. Maybe this will help me jumpstart my blogging. This photo is a test of my new Sigma 70mm/2.8 EX DG macro lens, and a practice of my Strobist technique. The figure is Gen, from Street Fighter, and it's a highly articulated figure (see the double-joints?), with replaceable hands and head. I really like that it's double-jointed, so I tried to duplicate some Tai-chi stances, especially with the replacement hands. Lesson: it's really hard to balance these things. The background is a piece of red felt paper stuck with blu-tack on my wall, and the whole thing is lit with a Sigma EF500 DG Super flash on the right side, and a Vivitar 285HV flash on the left. Well, you can look forward to more posts from me now! Edit: By the way, I'm now a moderator of PiPho ( http://www.pinoyphotography.org/ ), I now have a Canon EOS 40D, and most of my photos are now on Flickr ...