And so it begins… Again….

Well I said I’d do it…

January begins and so does my Project 52! 52 weeks, 52 photos. And just like every journey, my project begins with the first step…

Click for Larger View

 A self-portrait! Yea, I know; not terribly original but it has to start somewhere, doesn’t it? Besides, if I’m gonna explore photography, I have to brush up on my skills, don’t I? What better way to do that than to pull out a few of my lighting books and try to assimilate as much of that knowledge as I can. On the plus side; most photography books have plenty of pictures to use as a reference (for those of us who are easily distracted by bright shiny objects… oh look! A penny!)

For those that are interested I include a simple lighting diagram;

Pretty simple stuff really; I set up one of my speedlites (The YN-560) on the ground in front of me with a snoot (OK, a rolled up piece of paper...) pointed up at the cover of the book and the other one (My Nikon SB600) I had in my lap pointed up at my face.

I had the camera on a tripod a few feet away and a piece of black duvateen hung over the door behind me. I stopped down the lens so the background would read pure black and just added enough light with the speedlites that I would come out well lit. I probably should have bumped up the exposure on the one that was pointed at the book but then again, this project is a learning process. I used my wireless remote to set off the camera and the flashes (that's why my right hand is down at my side...) and the rest is history....

If this was a New Years resolution, I'd be batting 1000 right now. The question is; will I be able to stick with it? I can't say right now, I do know that  this simple little project was a lot of fun and I actually learned something (when in doubt, crank up the light!).

So the question now is "What's up for week 2"? Well, I did recently pick myself up a brand spanking new Macro lens; a TAMRON 90MM F2.8 DI NIKON MACRO II! I know I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do! I'm seeing some extreme close ups in my near future....