You've probably seen a picture or two of smoke on Flickr or on the various blogs. They are interesting abstract photos and surprisingly not that difficult to take.

I tried taking a picture of smoke for one of the Project 365 days. But I bungled it and came out with a rather disappointing result. After posting the failure, I realized my mistake and put it on the list of things to revisit. Well a week or so ago, I decided to give smoke another go. It's one of the nice things of doing Project 365, I experimented a lot. A benefit of not doing Project 365 is I have more free time to pursue specific ideas.

Briefly, the setup is the flash is to camera right, pointed directly at the smoke. I then put a gobo on either side of the flash to keep any spill from hitting the piece of black cardboard in back and the camera in front. For the smoke, I bought some incense from Target. You get different color smoke with different kinds of incense but since I was going to change the color in post I didn't put too much thought into which kind I was getting. Also picked up an ashtray since Jenn and I don't smoke.

In order to get nice plumes of smoke, I started three or four sticks going at once. I put a small lamp above to let me see the smoke and focus on it. After a few test shots, I lowered the strobes power enough that I wasn't overpowering the smoke. Then it was just clicking till I was happy. You'll get a lot of misses but that's what makes digital great. Quantity of quality.

Jeff Revell has a good video on how to do this if my brief summary wasn't that helpful.

The results:

Bill Millios hosted a Strobist meetup in Frederick this past Saturday which I attended. The theme was Civil War costumes as well as some bridal dresses. I had been to another Strobist meetup that Bill had put together back in September and knew this was going to be another amazing shoot.

Bill had made contact with a woman who runs a Victorian costume rental shop. In exchange for the pictures showcasing her costumes, she would let us use them. I wasn't sure I would be that inspired by Victorian/Civil War era clothing but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't think it'll be my niche but it had it's own charm. I was itching too shoot something a bit more modern by the end of the day though.

I worked with Hennessey most of the day and we tried several different locals as well as lighting scenarios. Thanks also to Aaron for lending me some of his lighting gear. It pays to have generous friends.

The one downside was the weather did not cooperate. It was cold and rainy for much of the day forcing us indoors which wasn't much better since there wasn't any heat. But we made the most of it and everyone ended up having a good time.

Here are some shots I took:

After shooting a few weddings with Aaron, I finally tagged along on one of his engagement shoots. I was fortunate that it was with a great couple who didn't mind too much that two photographers were snapping away. While Gail and Tucker may have been camera shy, as we all believe ourselves to be, their affection for each other drove past those fears and provided Aaron and I some terrific candid moments.

We started at Chatham which is a great location for portraits. Next we moved on to the battlefield and used the railroad tracks to get some terrific shots.

My main responsibility was holding the reflector and watching out for oncoming trains but I did take a few shots you can see below. We had terrific weather with just a slight haze in the sky to avoid the harsh sun. All told, I think it turned out great and I am sure that Gail and Tucker will be pleased with their engagement shoot.

It was the weekend of photowalks. Along with Shawn's photowalk in D.C. the night before, I hosted a photowalk in Fredericksburg. We had fantastic weather and we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who showed up.





From left to right:

Your's Truly
Aaron - Website - Flickr
Justin - Flickr
Shawn - Website - Flickr
Steve - Flickr
Alex - Flickr
Andrew - Flickr
Jacob - Flickr
Rehan - Flickr

Some of my shots:

On Saturday, Shawn organized a photowalk in D.C. starting at the Lincoln Memorial, heading across the Memorial Bridge to Arlington and then back. It is a superb route for some great long exposure shots. I had taken some shots along the Memorial Bridge several months ago after another photowalk but as eager to join this one to take my time with this area.

It was a great time and Shawn did an excellent job in organizing the photowalk.

Some shots from the photowalk.








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