96 DRAPERY PANELS

Finally, i have a self portrait that i love, so much i feel quite narcissistic. :D

I was taking photos at the old vehicles, and i had most of my studio equipment along. For that matter, i always have most of it along.
I had the standard black background so i simply draped it over the back of the pickup-truck...it had these high wooden sides.

So as far as it goes, this photo is mostly sunlight. The only reason why it is not completely sunlit, the background would have become too grey from sunlight so i used the flash to focus more light on me, and underexpose the background.

And then i pushed it though Lightroom and then Photoshop. The textures i picked off some website. but as far as I can tell you, they come from my downloads folder where i store the hundreds of images i have downloaded for inspiration.

But for the record, if i had complete artistic freedom when shooting people and editing, all my photos would have this style; Dramatic and detail rich.

Strobist info: bare flash at same angle as sun. full power, snooted. Remotely fired using PT-04 triggers.

....frown induced by blinding sun....
___________________________
Today, easter Sunday, It was our turn to take care of grandpa at the hospital. My parents and i spend the morning there, singing easter songs, and lifting his spirits, we came home as early as we could to get the second church sermon.
___________________________
At the hospital in the waiting room i found a book "14,000 things to be happy about" by Barbara Ann Knifer. I was such a sucker that i asked a nurse if i could buy it off the hospital. She told me that i could have it and that she had donated it to the hospital. So now i'm paging though it. and smiling my heart out. The book is filled with so many fascinating things that i have been missing out in life. It's good inspiration for things to do, or maybe just pay closer attention to.

This was our house for 10 days -- no walls, but wooden blinds that could be lowered (and we did because it rained); no electricity (candles); and on the left side behind the fale is a thatched wall and behind that wall is an outdoor garden shower with warm water; and also a real flush toilet and sink with running water (rain catchment pumped into a water-tower and gravity-fed to three of the five fales). Fales are pre-fabricated in Bali and are not really Tongan at all. But they are new and clean and set back just far enough from the ocean that you don't get salt spray between your teeth. Patti has cedar shake roofs on her buildings -- rather than palm thatch, which would have been more typical of Tonga.