Apr. 5 '16 ~ Test shot with a Lensbaby sweet 50. This is such a FUN lens to use even though its THE most difficult lens I've ever worked with. It creates a blurred effect except for a small focal point in the photograph. You can direct where this focal point will be by maneuvering the ball & socket lens. Its manual only which adds to the difficultly. A steep learning curve but well worth the time & effort!

Nov. 18 '15 ~ This is the final edit from yesterday's photo shoot with my beautiful friend Ash. I used a silver beauty dish as the main light and attached yellow & orange gels to the two other lights on the side (gels are just a flimsy piece of thin plastic you place in front of a strobe to achieve colored light). I put the camera on a tripod and used a self-timer so I could have my hands free to throw a piece of thin red fabric in the air while Ash flipped her head back at the same second. This is the end result.

Simple portrait of an inspiring & insanely talented friend. I made three cheap make-shift-snoots for this shoot (a snoot is a funnel that directs the light to a much smaller beam thus creating less light "spill" and more shadows. Its great to be used for lighting a very specific area of your subject i.e. makes an excellent hair and background light). I was inspired by this type of lighting after watching a video on how to replicate 1940s glam-movie-star lighting. I ordered black aluminum foil and black gaffer tape and shaped the funnel into place. I think, though, after this I'll just end up buying a real snoot as it was kinda a pain to shape everything into place!