Something Borrowed

These are new photos taken last night at the same dojo as before. This was supposed to be a slightly different experience for me since I had borrowed some off camera flashes with optical triggers. So that not only would I get some practice with off camera flash, but also so that this set didn’t look like the first set taken two weeks ago.

Borrowed equipment that I don’t know how to work = FAIL. I couldn’t get any of the other flashes to go off and even though my new on-camera flash was strong enough to bounce off the ceiling (which was pretty high up)… the shots were more boring than… boring.

Still. I’ll have to try to find some time to practice this weekend if I can get this equipment to work – maybe I’ll have Leah stand around and throw things at me while I take her photo. You know – because regular portraits too easily turn zzz…. or something like that. What I’m trying to do is move a little closer to the idea of ‘making a photograph’ as opposed to just ‘taking photographs’ – which obviously I still like doing. But there’s a big difference, and I have big holes when it comes to on demand.

This is Koon Lau – he’s one of the owners of Saraiva MMA. Apparently he really liked the photos from the last time I was there because he asked for full size copies that he could use for general marketing purposes – and you know me, I was just happy that he gave me free reign to shoot everyone and everything in the place. Also, when I gave him the disk last night, he told me that he got around 5 new students because they saw the photos on Facebook – and THAT was awesome to hear.

This past week has been really up and down with our busy schedules and the unpacking – which Leah has done a really terrific job with. Also, we’ve found a pretty good junk-food-chinese spot just down the road. AND even though my commute is technically about 10 miles longer – it only added 10 minutes to my drive both to and from work. So this new apartment thing is working out.

These were all taken with my manual 50mm f/1.8 lens