My wife and I were at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on Sunday for a bit. Here some fun shots you might enjoy.

Photography at its core is the capture of light. No light, no photo. So, if there is not enough light for the photo I am trying to capture, I need to be able to create it. The light also has to be the right type of light for type of photo I am trying to get. If I am trying to shoot a formal portrait for a senior photo I need a soft, controlled light. This gives the face nice modeling, very soft shadows that add a feel of dimension to the face.

I use two different flash systems. On Wednesday I was practicing with my “studio” lighting setup that I would use to do a formal portrait. Think of the lights with the big umbrellas. This setup, as I was using it on Wednesday, consisted of 3 flash heads and power packs (my studio lighting is battery powered so I can easily use it at weddings and other locations as well), 2 photography umbrellas, some diffusers and a white background. The original plan for the practice shoot was to just have my wife model for me (my favorite model by the way), but our cat Chester decided he needed some new photos for his Facebook page (long story). So before we know it he had stolen the show. Next time Chester is getting locked in the other room so I can get some good shots of my wife WITHOUT her shirt covered in cat hair. Oh the joy of owning a Deva cat.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment. Yes, Chester is a BIG kitty who is a little on the heavy side.

While visiting my sister for Thanksgiving I took a break from all the turkey to have some “camera fun time.”

I had a couple of goals in mind while shooting. My first goal was to get some photos that my sister and her husband would want to hang on their walls. I tackled this by getting some shots of their new house and his old trucks, some old barbed wire for the rustic western look they are going for in their decor, and some shots of their kids and horses. My second goal was to get better at capturing clouds and good sky details in my photos while still getting good foreground exposure. My approach for that was to set my exposure to 1.5 stops under-exposed and bump up the foreground when I processed the photos on my computer afterwards.

Enough talk. Here some of my favorites and the slideshow.

The barbed wire shots.

My favorite of the barbed wire shots:

My brother-in-law’s truck (classic Dodge Power Wagon):

A couple of the scenic shots and my niece:

One of the “nice things” (frrm a photo standpoint) about the part of North Dakota where they live is the air pollution from the coal burning power plants and the effect that has on the sunsets. The one below is not at all uncommon. I loved it.