JamesCrossman.com » Houston Strobists

Houston Strobist Meetup – January 2010

James — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:38:49 +0000

The lighting presentation for the Houston MugtoMug went well this past week and i hope i shared some of my passion and love for lighting at the event. Now there is another chance to get some key pieces of lighting information to take home with you (like these guys are doing from some strobist experimentation in 2007):

I am pleased to announce that the Houston Strobist meetup for January is open to all who wish to either practice what we learned this past week, to share new projects that are built, or who just want to learn and practice how to light their photography. It will be at the Coffee Groundz once again, on January 24, 2010 from 6:30 to 9:30pm.

If there is anything you want us to work with you on, please leave a note here in the comments or on our Houston Strobist Flickr group.

Strobist 101 at the Houston MugtoMug

James — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:10:57 +0000

I have been asked to speak and give demonstrations of off-camera lighting at the January 19, 2010 meeting of Houston MugtoMug at The Coffee Groundz from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. So if you have ever wanted to know how to add light to a portrait or other photograph besides the harsh, flat light of the flash mounted on the camera, then please come.

As an example of what I have been able to do since I started on the Strobist journey, please consider these Senior Portraits and other images:

The Houston MugtoMug group is a local Smug Mug Users Group or SMUG. I use Smug Mug for displaying proofs of my work to my clients and for managing on-line sales. The people there have been awesome, and worth checking out.

If you are one of my fellow Strobists from my Flickr group, Houston Strobist, please come and share and help keep me in line. Or if you caught my presentation at PhotoCamp Houston last year, and have been inspired to make your own light modifiers, please bring them.

I look forward to seeing you there.

If you had any problem opening the link to the Coffee Groundz website to get the address and directions, they are at 2503 Bagby Street Houston, TX 77006 and here’s a map.

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Photographing Dinosaurs

James — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:08:17 +0000

Q: How do you light a Tyrannosaurus Rex?
A: Anyway he wants you to

A Toy Dinosaur from my son's collection, lit with a Canon 580EX II at 1/32 from above in a shoot-through, and a Rayflash on a second 580EX II at 1/128 power for balanced fill. A flag was used to keep light off the background.

I have been impressed with the way the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) has taken to social media with their blog and twitter access and reached out to photographers. Some time ago, Erin at HMNS and I had a phone call and HMNS is doing something that I am so excited and jazzed about. On Sunday, March 8, 2009, HMNS will open its doors to those of us in the Houston Strobist group for four hours of after-hours lighting and fun.

For those who don’t know, a Strobist is a person who learns to use light in photography more creatively by getting the light off of his camera. So we have permission to bring models, and to set up our lights as we need to get the best use of the museum.

If you are a member of Flickr.com and want to attend the meet-up, please drop me a line or leave a message in the Houston Strobist Group. And if you want to spend some time reading and learning about lighting, let me point you to the Strobist website, and the Lighting 101 class.

It has done wonders for my photography and I am grateful that HMNS could work something out for my fellow Houston Strobists.

Update! Someone noticed that I never included the results of that question about dinosaurs. Here’s a shot that involved 12′ lighting stands to highlight the teeth and then other strobists holding strobes for me on the balcony above: