Catchlight Studios Photography

Dramatic Light at the Orlando Camera Club

This month's competition theme at the Orlando Camera Club was "Dramatic Light". That turned out to be rather timely, having held our Bodybuilding Workshop last weekend, and dramatic, edgy lighting was one of our goals for that event.

Anyway, John entered the Color A and Monochrome categories and was both surprised and delighted to win first place in both!

This was the winning color image. "Guitar Player" was shot about 3 years ago with a single Alien Bee studio strobe fitted with a grid off to camera left and slightly behind the subject. The camera was a Nikon D2x with the Nikon 18-200 mm lens. It is actually funny that I used this lens as I never really liked it and subsequently sold it!

 

My monochrome entry, "No Pain No Gain" was actually posted here last week and was shot during our pre-workshop shoot with Arno Nasshan. The image was shot with a single Nikon SB800 flash fitted with a Honl grid. The camera was a Nikon D3s with 24-70 f/2.8 lens.

In a way then, both images were similar in their execution. Post-processing for this image included Topaz Adjust 4 followed by black-and-white conversion using Nik Silver Efex Pro.

 

Many thanks to the three judges tonight for their kind comments.
 
 

A weekend with Joe McNally

Thanks to the Orlando Camera Club, we had the pleasure of having Joe McNally in town this weekend. For those that don't know Joe, he is one of the leading photographers in the country and a master of lighting with both large and small flash.

Joe started out on Friday night with an entertaining slide show and Q&A. On Saturday, he went to work with his able assistant, Drew, demonstrating a never-ending stream of lighting setups and solutions with our two excellent models, Brooklyn and Robyn. It was great to see such a wide range of equipment demonstrated, and Joe answered everyone's questions very directly.

On Sunday, a few of us were able to go out with Joe and the models to shoot a few lighting scenarios for ourselves. Here are a few images from the weekend.

Joe explaining the finer points of Nikon's Creative Lighting System:

 

A fine array of Nikon Speedlights and accessories:

 

Joe demonstrates a quick beauty light setup with Robyn.

 

Some images from Lake Eola on Sunday morning:

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Monochrome Image of the Year Award

Regular readers of our Blog may remember this image (entitled "Office Space") from earlier in the year. It was taken at the National Building Museum in Washington DC, and was the monochrome category winner for the April competition at the Orlando Camera Club. The theme for that competition was "Out of Place".

Well, this evening I was amazed to learn that it also won the Monochrome Image of the Year award at the Camera Club's Annual Competition.

My thanks to the judges!

Competition Win

Susan's image "Red Leaf on Stones" won the Orlando Camera Club's Best of Category award (Class A - Color) last Monday evening. The image was shot with a Nikon D700 with a 105 mm Nikon macro lens. The set up was lit with a Wescott TD5 continuous fluorescent head mounted a medium-sized softbox.

Out of Place

"Out of Place" was the theme in this month's competition at the Orlando Camera Club. The image below was taken in the National Building Museum during our recent trip to Washington DC. Looking down from a high balcony I was struck by this businessman in his suit, leaning up against one of the enormous columns that grace the floor of the Museum. He was illuminated by a shaft of light from one of the high windows, and his papers acted as a reflector, bouncing light back into his face.

The image was shot with a Nikon D3 and 70-200 mm lens, and converted to monochrome with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro. It took First Place in the Class A Monochrome category of the competition.

2008 Nature's Best Award

As we wrote some time ago, the Orlando Camera Club (of which Susan and I are Past-Presidents) were the winners of the 2008 Nature's Best award. Susan was one of 9 photographers from OCC that was included in the winning portfolio.

The composite of the winning portfolio is currently hanging in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, and Susan and I visited the exhibition a week or so ago (just in time for the cherry blossoms).

Susan's image, BTW, is the centerpiece of the display.

Blue Angels Air Show

Last Sunday, Susan and I took a day off photographing for other people and joined 28 other members of the Orlando Camera Club on a trip to the Blue Angels Air Show at the Kennedy Space Center. All those long lenses trained towards the skies were a sight to behold! Here's one of my favorite shots of the day:

Congratulations to the Orlando Camera Club

We just got the news that the Orlando Camera Club - of which Susan and I are both Past Presidents - has been selected as a winner of the 2008 "Nature's Best" Windland Smith Rice International Award. Nine photographers from the Club (including Susan) submitted a portfolio of images for consideration. Their images are expected to be displayed at an exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Here is a group shot of the winning photographers.