DIYPhotography.net

I used to love a good what do you get when you cross jokes. I still do. What do you get when you cross a battery with a pure sine inverter? Read on to find out.

As you probably know, I am a big fan of small flashes. (*cough* Strobist *cough), but sometimes small flashes just don't have the juice to light up a scene. It may be a big place that needs tons of power or a huge light sucking modifier that eats up all the light from your strobe. (Try using the SB 900 on the westcott 2.15 meters octabank, that would be an interesting strobe challenge). So I do have one big 400WS flash. (Ok, just before you hit me with the "you call 400WS big?? ppffffhhh!", I'd say that it was big enough for me when I bought it, and it was I could afford.

So anyway, if you are in a studio this is no biggy. Plug the flash to the wall socket, dial up the power and you are good to go. But what if you are outside the studio. On the beach, park, moon? [Image by andyarmstrong]

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A few weeks back I was asked by my daughter's kindergarten teacher to come and take everyone's portraits of a kindergarten custom party.

Of course I said yes. Then I hit me. I am scared sick from staying home alone with my daughter and one of her friends, how the heck am I going to manage 35 kids running around?

OK, I'll talk about kids a bit later. Before this let's talk setup. 

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When I just started exploring artificial lighting, I had no strobes. I had no light stands and had no nothing. Yea, when I was your age, we use to walk barefoot to school. In January. When it snowed. *cough* *cough* sorry. Something just took over me. 

Anyway, when I just started lighting, I looked for the cheapest light that I can afford. Halogen seemed like a good choice. It was cheap and it could be plugged in even cheap light stands. With some baking paper, it ever provided some diffused light. [Image by fangleman].

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OK, so we've had about 400 articles on taking pictures. What do you do with all those images?

I know you did not expect me to come up with a dull answer like tag them, upload them to Flickr (though Flickr is great), or put them in an album I know you are expecting something with a little more handy work. No to worry, this project will provide a great show-off with minimal effort.

Here is a neat way to display your images. And Yes - it will require some DIYing. (Are they still saying neat nowadays? I got all my English from watching the A-team). Thank you Dima Tsvetkov for this great tutorial.

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This is the last prize announcement of the DIYPhotography 3rd Anniversary (D3A) Contest.

I know many readers of this blog are strobists by heart, and would never use a flash bigger than a shoe sized 11.

Many do this because they want to keep portable, spontaneous, not give up the ability to shot outdoors. This is your chance to explore something new.  Read more to find out what Tronix are adding to the mix of cool prizes. Click to continue ›

Kindergarten teachers are gods. No really. Gods, I tell you.

I just had a really wacky weekend, where I volunteered to shoot thirty something little hurricanes kids at my daughter's Kindergarten. 

They had a huge custom party and wanted some portraits to remember. As the teacher knows I carry a camera on occasion, she asked. How did I byte into this one could I say no? I'll post a complete on assignment on this soon. In the meantime, here is a little tip:  How to Child Proof A Lightstand.

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As you may know, I really dig the creative minds over at Lensbaby. They are right on the mark when it comes to adding some creativity in your images. All you have to do is to let go on all those fancy multi-matrix-focus-technology, and you gain access to instant tap of creativity. This is why I was so glad when the nice people of Lensbaby decided to join as sponsors for D3A. Read more after the jump. Click to continue ›

It has been quite a long time since the last speed links segment. I tried to have a bit of everything on this one. Ranging from keno-flo lights to the lighting "geeks" through some ode to film shops to Lighting and portrait techniques.

D3A - the contest we're having for the 3rd DIYP Anniversary is still running till the end of this month. Click to continue ›

There definitely is.

Just before I share the cool prize #3 - that will let you freeze time, a quick update on D3A rules. As advised by Addie, I am changing the prizes-to-winners algorithm. The general Idea is that every winner will select their own prize in descending order. That means that the first place winner will get first selection, second winner will go next and so on.

The motivation for this is doubled. The first motivation is that winners will not get a prize they already own. The second motivation is that hey! You win - you get to pick! Maybe you like the "second place" prize more then the "first", or maybe you don't need one of the prizes. Read the full change over at the rules page. Click to continue ›

The next video by Zack Arias made for Scott Kelby is circulating the web now. As a person who always juggle between photography, family and day job, (and usually feel I don't have enough time to get any of them right)  this really helped me focus. Thank you Zack.

More on Zack's blog.

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