My son was sure to include a Luke Skywalker minifigure to our family trip last weekend and asked me to photograph him from behind. With today being such a special day for all those Star Wars fans, I couldn’t think of a better photo to share. May the Fourth Be With You!
Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/250 | f/9.0 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430 EXII | RAW
~signed, Carltonaut
If you’re new to my blog, you probably think all my photos are Lego related. I’ll admit that I have a few photos featuring Legos, but the past few days I’ve been sharing multiple photos of Legos from a trip to southern Utah. Since I’ve mentioned the trip a few times, I’ll just stick to sharing the photo in this blog post.
Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/200 | f/9.0 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430EXII | RAW
I can’t forget to mention that even this photo was the brain child of my 10-year-old son. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
~signed, Carltonaut
Last week I celebrated by 33rd birthday. With graying whiskers and growing forehead, I am on the road to getting old. But I don’t let the upcoming baldness keep me from being young. I took my kids to Holdman Studios at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah to make glass flowers.
I had purchased a Living Social deal to make four glass flowers for $56. I was looking to make it a double date with my wife and another couple, but we weren’t able to get that scheduled and the vouchers were quickly expiring. So we scheduled a session and went down ready to make art.
We picked out our colors, though I think my kids picked out much better colors than me. We sat on the bench and waited for the molten ball of glass clinging to the end of a metal rod to come our way so we could shape the ball into a blooming flower. After all that work and excitement, we had to leave them behind so they could slowly cool, so it wasn’t until a few days later that I was able to get down to Lehi to pick them up.
Once I got the kids to bed tonight, I whipped out my camera stuff to snap a few photos of the flowers with a LED backlight and a Speedlight mounted to the camera to help illuminate the glass. In the end, I really liked how the photos turned out – plus it made my rather poor color choices look much better than it does in person. 
Anyway, if you live within driving distance of Thanksgiving Point and are looking for a fun family or youth group activity, check out Holdman Studios and click on Glass Flowers to book a session today.
~signed, Carltonaut
A few weeks ago I took a trip to Houston (sans kids) to visit my wife who’s been down there since December. On my way back home, I swung by a gift shop at the airport to grab a little something for my kids, since they were upset that I went to Houston and they didn’t (but at $900 a ticket, it just wasn’t feasible). I found Sheriff badges with my kids’ names on them. I figured they would enjoy the Texan flare of their gift.
When I got home, the kids, as predicted, really liked the star-shaped badges. It helped make them less upset with me, too.
The following week, I thought it would be fun to swing by Zurchers (our local party supply store) and grab some supplies to help “Cowboy’ify” and “Cowgirl-ify” who kids for a photo shoot. The idea was to capture a photo of my kids and share it with my wife. It was a little bit of a challenge to keep the kids from spilling the beans to my wife, but they kept their lips sealed throughout the whole process.
So honey, if you’re reading this – this photo is for you!
As for the photography side of things, it was fun to use my little photo studio to capture each kid separately, but assure the lighting was the same for each one. Then I used Photoshop to put the three hoodlums in the same photo. The backdrop got a little challenging, so I had to compile two different photos – one of the garage door and the other of a gravel road down the street. I was hoping that would make it look more western.
I was pretty pleased with the final outcome, and while the garage and kid photos were shot with my Canon 60D, the gravel road was shot with my iPhone during a walk with the kids earlier today.
So while I am happy to share the photography elements behind the photo, the purpose was to bring a smile to my wife’s face, knowing that the kids and me love her and hope she knows the Carlton Posse will be there for her and look forward to seeing her in person later this month.
~signed, Carltonaut
After spending 20 minutes getting everything setup for the shot – the catch basin filled and positioned, the water dropper aligned, flash settings configured and synced with the camera, the tripod arranged and the Canon 60D positioned – I just had to keep shooting until my camera card was full. Needless to say, I had a ton of photos to comb through, many of which had no splash or were underlit.
I was glad to have shot in RAW so I could make any adjustments to help highlight or change the look for the photo to accentuate different aspects. I created a set on Flickr with my favorites from the photo shoot, but here is my favorite shot from this go-around.
I’m sorry I don’t have the camera settings listed for this photo. I’ve already pulled them from my camera and am not able to see them (that I know of anyway).
I like this photo because the ripples in the water area creating a sort of target, with the objective being a splash dead center. However, the water drop that is milliseconds from splashing into the water is slightly off target, which I feel adds to the interest in the photo.
~signed, Carltonaut
The paperclip was merely a tool I was using for a completely different capture, but I loved the way it turned out and couldn’t resist sharing it.
Canon 60D | 100mm 2.8 macro lens | 1/13 | f/8.0 | ISO 400 | Flash+LED Flashmate
My real intent was to capture water droplets impacting the water. I had spent a good portion of my day off getting everything together for a contraption that would allow me have a drop hit the same point every time, thus taking the guess work out of my focus.
Once everything was set up, I needed something to allow me to mark where that point on the water is. In rummaging through our catch-all drawer in the kitchen, I found a paperclip. Since I know from my science days paperclips can float on water, I grabbed it out, bent one part so I had a handle, and gently placed it on the surface of the water, underneath where the water drops would make impact.
Once I had the camera focus set on that point, I was ready to take my shots of the drops – but I snapped a few photos of the paperclip as it floated out of position, just for kicks. Well, nearly an hour later, the paperclip photo was my favorite capture of the whole evening. I ran into some reflection challenges with the water drops, so I’m still waiting until I get one that “moves me” before I share it publicly.
Oh, and the reason the paperclip has a red tint to it is because I placed a red gel over my Speedlite 430EXII flash, which was placed level with the surface of the water, just to the left of the bowl, and wirelessly triggered using my on-camera flash.
Enjoy the photo, and know that yes – paperclips can float on water thanks to the surface tension offered up by a bowl of H2O.
~signed, Carltonaut
If I admit that I got this idea off of Pinterest, does that mean I lose my “Man Card”? But as a dad, I couldn’t resist the opportunity of capturing my young daughter in my wife’s wedding dress, with the idea of displaying it at her wedding when she turns 30 (Hey, a dad can hope, right?)
After rummaging through our closet to dig out my wife’s gorgeous wedding dress, I maneuvered my 6-year-old daughter into the dress. Obviously it was a little big for her, and the gown has a lot of fluff in the skirt, so I didn’t want my daughter to get lost in the poofyness.
She was a good sport, though she kept complaining about the dress being pretty itchy. I tried a couple of cutesie ones, then tried my hand at a few artistic ones. Here is my favorite photo from the whole shoot.
Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/60 | f/4.0 | ISO 200 | Canon Speedlite 430 EXII
You are welcome to check out the Bridezilla shot I captured, or some of the other ones from the shoot.
As for lighting for this shoot, I turned out all the lights in the house, allowing the daylight in from the windows to serve as the natural light. I used a Flashmate LED video light from GiSTEQ placed behind my daughter to serve as a fill light, the the Canon Speedlight 430 EXII mounted to the camera to provide the front lighting source. I am still a novice when it comes to figuring out lighting, but I learn by playing.
I invite others to try this same concept, and since you’ve seen it on a blog and not on Pinterest, you hopefully won’t lose your Man Card like I just did.
~signed, Carltonaut
Manned exploration to the moon ceased before I was born in 1980. Now in my 30s, I am fascinated with the history, grandeur and intrigue of the space program (yes, I stayed up till 2 am watching Curiosity land on Mars). I’ve also stayed up till 2 am taking photos of the moon or capturing star trails. I think it’s pretty obvious that when I can combine space and photography, it’s gonna be another late night.
Beyond just sharing the photos, I thought I would include information about how I set up and took the photo, so if someone else wants to re-create it, they have a good starting point. I am also including this How-To write to the DIY Photography’s How I Took It contest.
After a quick trip to Home Depot, I had all the supplies I needed, and it didn’t cost more than $15. The items included three 10′ PVC pipes and some connectors, along with the 
ever popular black Duct Tape. In my backyard, I hooked two of the pipes together using a straight connector. However, when I lifted it into the air, it would bend way too far. Using duct tape, I attached the third pipe across the joint of the first two. This provided the support I needed.
I didn’t want to have to fight with the objects spinning while I shot my photos, so before I attached the third pipe, I had cut three 8″ pieces and configured the setup seen in the photo to the left. Using thread, I hooked one end to the model and the other to the pipe (I cut a small notch in the pipe so the string wouldn’t slip off as easily). I then hoisted the contraption into the air and duct taped the bottom part to the trampoline leg, and used rope to hook the upper part of the pipes to the sturdy pole on the trampoline netting.
Now I just had to wait for the full moon (the Harvest Moon) to get out from behind the neighbor’s tree, and then position the model near the moon. I set the camera on the tripod and framed the shot I was looking for. I had to constantly keep adjusting the shot, because the moon kept moving across the sky. In manual mode, I set the aperture to f/25 so I had the largest depth of field possible (although it still wasn’t enough to have both elements – the moon and the model – in focus).
Using the wireless shutter-release function, I warmed up my Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash and put it in wireless mode. After I got into position on the step-stool (to help me get closer to the model with the flash in hand), I held the flash in position and triggered the shutter. Since only one of the two objects (the moon or the model) could be in focus at any one time (see sample on the left), I had to change the focal point for each photo, then combine the two photos in Photoshop later.
Here are the two final photos along with the specific camera settings for each photo, and any post-processing in Photoshop.
MOON Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/25 | f/25 | ISO 100 | Converted to BW
MODEL Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/25 | f/25 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II | RAW – Adjusted exposure and levels, erased out-of-focus moon, cropped closer
MOON Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/25 | f/25 | ISO 100 | Converted to BW
MODEL Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/25 | f/25 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II | Adjusted levels, erased out-of-focus moon, cropped closer
I have another shot I am working to capture, but it will take a little more planning and play to get it to work the way I’m envisioning it. Stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy this little bit of trick photography.
~signed, Carltonaut
I’ve played with this lighting technique as part of bokeh photography as a way of adding a background that correlates with the subject of the photo. I first learned about using this technique in bokeh in a blog post I came across earlier this year. Since then, I’ve used it for Valentines Day and St. Patrick’s Day.
With the first day of autumn (Sept 22) just around the corner, I thought this “fall colors” photo, along with a tutorial on how I took it (as part of the DIY How I Took It contest), would expose other photographers to the technique, and show how simple it is to execute.
Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/60 | f/1.8 | ISO 400 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II
Step 1 – Gather the necessary Supplies
Step 2 – Punch and Prepare the Lens
Step 3 – Setting up the Scene
Step 4 – Setting the Camera and Taking the Shots
Here are a few other outtakes from this photo shoot to show how slight adjustments can change the photo outcome.
If you give this a shot, post a link to your photos below. It’s always fun to see how others implement certain techniques.
~signed, Carltonaut
Did you watch the 2012 Summer Olympics in London? If you saw the Men’s 100M and 200M finals, you will probably know what my son and I are doing in these photos.
Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 10″ | f/9.0 | ISO 400 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II | B&W
Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 10″ | f/9.0 | ISO 400 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II
A member from the CTE-Salt Lake City photography groups I participate in issued a great photo challenge – Silhouettes. While I have occasionally taken photos with a subject between my camera and the sun, I have never done silhouettes indoors using an off-camera flash – but it worked and has sparked my interest in shooting a few other things to capture a silhouette of various ‘space’ objects.
~signed, Carltonaut
