Dave Wilson Photography » Portraits

Rob Roy and the Star Spangled Banner

Dave Wilson — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:59:13 +0000

We spent Easter Sunday morning on USS Lexington and had an impromptu worship service in the hangar deck. One of the cub scout dads, Rob Roy Parnell, is a harmonica player and gave a rendition of Amazing Grace and Star Spangled Banner for us as part of the service.

Sha & Jerry, Austin Zoo

Dave Wilson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:24:06 +0000

I got to the zoo nice and early on Saturday morning and actually spent a while inside by myself before the gates opened. After opening, it didn’t get busy for about 30 minutes but during this time I kept bumping into Sha and Jerry, a couple of the first visitors through the door. We would chat a bit about cameras or whatever then move on, only to bump into each other again a few minutes later.

After an hour or so of this, we met again at the train so I had to take a picture for them. What you can’t see here is Patti, the zoo president, leaning into the train car on my left acting as a VAL* and pointing my flash at Sha. It’s great to have an assistant!

*VAL – Voice Activated Lightstand. Read Joe McNally’s blog for lots more references.

Tiny Dancers

Dave Wilson — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:06:17 +0000

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not a weddings and portraits type of photographer. The thought of being the primary shooter at another wedding (I've done two) gives me the shakes. That said, I love taking candid shots at weddings when I'm there as a guest since, occasionally, I manage to get a shot like this one.

This is undoubtedly my favourite snap from Saturday evening's wedding. The positioning of the two little girls, the rim light on the closer one's hair and her expression are just priceless as far as I'm concerned.

The other great thing about not being the official photographer is that I can come home having enjoyed the party and feeling great about the fact that I got a couple of good shots. The main photographer, has to produce a hundred or more excellent shots in the same time. I guess, I'm just lazy though :-)

Dancing Sisters

Dave Wilson — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:46:45 +0000

Nikki and I went to the best wedding ever yesterday. A couple of friends got married outside on a gorgeous Texas spring evening and had a lovely reception in a marquee on their lawn. Great food was provided and great company was present. All in all, it was a fabulous evening and one of those wonderful weddings where you just know everything is going to be great for the happy couple.

I wasn't taking pictures officially (remember, I don't do weddings) but I brought a camera and 50mm lens (giving me no opportunity to get over-obsessed with the picture taking at the expense of having wedding-reception fun) and grabbed a few candids during the event. This is one of my favourites showing three precious little girls who were dancing after the ceremony. The minute they saw the camera, they lined up and posed beautifully. Although I could have cropped her out, I also loved the other little cousin looking mischievous in the background!

iPhone: Cameron's Eye

Dave Wilson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:15:24 +0000

I was mucking around with my iPhone 4Gs shortly after I got it and wanted to see what it's close focus capability was like so I thrust it into my son's face and took this picture. My first reaction was "wow!" - the camera in this phone is so much better than my older 3Gs.

The final result was achieved using a couple of apps to tweak the original and remove all colour outside the iris. Regardless of my playing, I'm still really impressed at how sharp the image is.

Happy New Year!

Dave Wilson — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 06:14:11 +0000

Wishing all my readers (or viewers, really, since words don't often play a significant role in this photoblog!) a Happy New Year! From our family to yours, may you have a safe, healthy and prosperous 2012.

Electric Parade Cast Member, Walt Disney World

Dave Wilson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:33:29 +0000

One of the Disney cast members on the Honoring America float in the Electric Parade in Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida.

Until a couple of years ago, I would avoid flash like the plague. To me, flash was synonymous with blown out, harshly lit, blue-white soaked images and I used it only in the direst of circumstances. This impression was created back in my film days when using flash meant a fair bit of mental arithmetic (dividing guide numbers by distances) or table lookup (remember those aperture/distance/ISO tables printed on the back of the old flashes). Couple this with the fact that you had to wait a week to see whether you got the settings right or not, and that every wrong attempt cost about 25 cents, and you get a pretty good idea of why using flash was not something I cherished.

Things have, however, become very much easier these days with the advent of advanced flash technology and, probably even more significantly, the general availability of displays on cameras which allow you to see and correct your mistakes immediately. As a result, I now find myself using flash more often than not when shooting people. This may involve light stands and diffusers as in the various family groups I've posted over the last couple of weeks or, as in this case, a single on-camera flash dialed down a couple of stops to provide a bit of fill while the camera is shooting at high ISO.

If you are still scared of your flash, spend some time playing with it and I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. You don't need to spend a fortune and go all Joe "10 SB-900s" McNally to pick up the benefits that can be had by throwing a bit more directed light into your scenes these days. A single flash and a couple of hours reading strobist.com or one of the many other sites dedicated to the use of small flash is all you need to get started.

Christmas Family Portrait 2011

Dave Wilson — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:32:46 +0000

I posted some portraits of the Masters family last week so here's one of us too. This was taken on Thanksgiving morning and will be in our Christmas cards this year (once I get round to addressing all the envelopes).

The setup here was very simple - a single flash in a Westcott Mini-Apollo softbox camera left triggered using Nikon's wonderful CLS system from the D700's onboard speedlight. The 5 second self-timer game me just enough time to dash into the picture and smile before the shutter fired.

From our family to yours, whatever your religion or belief system, have a great festive season!

Two Boys and their Pig

Dave Wilson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:21:50 +0000

This was too cute to pass up. As I was packing up following taking the Masters family group I posted yesterday, the family's pet pig wandered over so we decided it would be fun to grab some shots of the boys with Piggles. Here's one of my favourites.

The Masters Family

Dave Wilson — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:37:21 +0000

As Christmas approaches, people are on the look-out for nice family portraits to put inside the cards. While I don't classify myself as a portrait photographer at all, I occasionally bend to friends' requests and take family snaps for fun and to practice using my strobes. This past Sunday, I spent some time with Adam and Jen Masters and their boys and this is one of the resulting groups that iI rather liked. Followers of the blog may remember the "Feed Station" series I ran a while ago and may recognise Jen's name from those posts - she owns that business.

For this evening shoot on a dull, cloudy day, I used a single SB-600 in a Westcott Mini Apollo softbox situated camera left then a bare SB-600 dialed down a couple of stops for front fill.