Using any excuse I can to practice taking pictures and not having a good place to setup at home, I used Karen and Randy’s Awesome 12th Night party as the perfect place to get a few practice pictures…

Karen was nice enough to let me use her “Heated attic / Junk Room / Sewing Room” as a studio space at the last minute.  I pulled out all my equipment, put it together and set to taking a few pictures… well, what I thought was going to be a few pictures… After a while I noticed there was a line 0ut the door and down the hall! Talk about pressure! And the fact that I enjoyed myself, maybe a little too much!

I hope everybody likes the results – and the humor that’s in there too.  It was a blast and I want to do it again sometime soon!

I learned a few things too

• Black backgrounds are interesting to shoot against – a backlight helps A LOT! But dark hair and clothes make it a challenge sometimes… but you can have fun with it.
• Make sure the diopter adjustment on your viewfinder is set correctly – especially when you are using manual focus - otherwise you are going to end up with a lot of slightly out of focus photos (DOH!)
• It is amazing how much space you really need when you are shooting with a backdrop, multiple flashes, soft-boxes, etc.
• Drink Water

That’s just a few – I need to start keeping a better notebook.

As I was leaving work tonight I happened to see that they have started turning on the LED lights on the Duke Energy building… and boy does it add a lot of color to the skyline… I can’t wait until they get it all synchronized and coordinated…

And on a side note – this particular view has changed a lot in the last couple of years – here is a picture from the same location in July, 2006