Strobist

A long time ago, in a galaxy not far away. A young man decided to start taking photos. By that time the man thought that using a flashlight is too sophisticated and he wanted to stick with natural. That sounds logical, because natural light comes from mother nature – from the sun. And the sun is good – if you don’t stay in sunlight unprotected for too long.

Anyhow, this young man shot picture after picture. He was pretty horrible in the beginning and still is. But then there was this evil dark force that avoided taking good pictures. He needed more light. Artificial light. Strobe light. And strobe light it was…

…after this short introduction, I just wanted to announce, that I made my way into the undiscovered field of flash photography. Not undiscovered for so many others out there, but yet for me a very unknown territory.

As you might have noticed, I wasn’t always a big fan of using a flashlight with a camera, but after all these years in photography using natural light, I found, that it was time to try something new and tear down some walls. I tried to take pictures of several still lives lately but wasn’t satisfied with how it came out. I was using a macro flashlight with a ring set on top of the lens, but the results I received with this were even more unsatisfying.

Twelve strings to heaven

Anyhow, I finally ordered a bunch of of Yongnuo flashlights, two light stands and several additional things to complete the setup. And what can I say – the first shooting was complete mess. Yes, a complete overkill in setup and lack of knowledge. What followed afterwards wasn’t a period of face palming. I thought I was sort of prepared when I bought all these things, because I found that I read and watched enough on the internet to get enough view inside. But I was wrong.

I studied the manuals for multiple times, I watched more and more tutorials on the internet to gain more knowledge on flash photography. And I read more and more guides on how to do flash photography. Actually, all these things didn’t make me a professional flash photographer, but I received the lost pieces of the puzzle I needed to actually get a solid beginning. The basic knowledge to start and also know where the path is leading to.

Without a doubt, there’s (and always will be) a lot of things to learn about, but that’s the intriguing part about in photography. And it’s a lot of fun to learn all these things, because it combines two aspects in my life I’m a big of – art and technology. And to merge these two and get a fine creative output, that is what drives me.

50mm love

No, God damn it, not what you think, this post is about one of my new lenses for my photo camera, horny, naughty bastards ( ^^ ). I bought my first lens with a fixed focal length, the Canon EF 50mm/1,8 II. As you can see in the name, the focal length is 50mm and I can get up to aperture 1,8, which is absolutely fantastic for shooting very close objects. Additionally did I buy a set of extension tubes, which work very well in conjunction with the Canon lens and the increased focus and newly gained macro abilities are awesome. I’ve done some test shots, yes of course, and the final results were as sharp as the razor blade of Stone Cold Steve Austin. I’m very, very… I mean, VERY amused by the depth of field that you can get with such a lens and this apterture. As far as I know does this lens only use five fins to actually open/close for the exposure but the bokeh it actually builds in the area of the depth of field looks very smooth and soft and not too edgy.

Finally, this lens is apparently awesome and totally fulfils all my needs and requirements. I’m really looking forward to do the first macro shots with this lens in combination with the extension and I’m also really, really excited about doing the first portrait shots with this lens. A nice toy for just 100,- EUR and of course something to fall in love with.