BASSWOOD SHUTTERS

Back at the self-portraits again... argh...

I was supposed to do a senior portrait this morning but it got cancelled. So, I packed-up my stuff and headed out to the backyard... okay, so I only went right outside the door. My goal, natural light portrait in harsh sunlight, control the amount of squinting. Goal achieved? Eh... maybe kind of. My right eyebrow is slightly peaked, and my lower eyelids look a little taught... (I think that's called squinting).

Setup on this shot is as follows:

- 3x6 Litepanel with black cover above subject to create shade.

- 43-inch 5-in-1 Promaster (I think with the white surface) camera-left and about 3 to 4 feet away from subject.

- See the siding on the garage in the background... there's a large house with that same siding on it camera-right and about 6 feet from subject... it produces a ton of fill-light.

Because of the last bullet point above, I realize that I need to find a different location so I don't have that "crutch" to lean on. I need to see what happens, and how I work with it, when that isn't there.

I hadn't done a self-portrait in a while, so I was truthfully looking forward to doing one prior to this... but, I once again realized what a pain they are in regard to focus, framing, and just the general [lack of] spontaneity. It also didn't help that I was trying to do natural light portraits on a day with lots of sporadic cloud-cover (exposure settings are changing constantly... or I had to wait for the clouds to get out of the way).

A couple weeks back I went out before 1st light to set up for whitetail deer photos. There was a lull in activity because of this...... bright, clear full moon. As I walked to get into my location I wanted to snap a pic to show the moonlight. 18mm (M) ISO 200, ET 2.5, f3.5., ADL BKT. The photo looks slightly brighter than it was .... but trust me it was very light.