Work Aint Everything

Work Aint Everything by Brian Donegan

Subodh Shetty as Bruno Mars

After getting lost in the beauty of the dam at Hatta, we ventured forth towards the famed rock pools. It was around 11am and we already had that typical Dubai harsh overhead sun to deal with. The clouds had pretty much vanished…. 

Once our merry band had covered the pools from all angles, I started roping them in to pose for some of my strobist experiments (mental note: next time bring models along…..) Subodh has coind himself the Bruno Mars of the middle east, all thaks to the hat.

For this shot we had harsh sun back lighting Subodh and an SB-800 in a Latolite EzyBox camera left. 

I wanted to achieve the gritty look that everyones been trying to emulate… but ti my taste a slightly toned down version. Plus another factor is that you need hard light to get it perfect and 11 AM sun is pretty much going to drown out your flash in this nick of the woods.

Overall I was quote pleased with the reult and this should print quite well. 

 

Stpping up to Bigger Flash – Or Smaller actually

I’ve been contemplating the move to bigger flash for sometime now to get more versatile at my strobist experiments. I’ve set my sights on the Elinchrom Quadra A – Pro Set.

The best part about these lights is that they are tiny… I went over to Gulf Color Film Labs (the local distributors) the other day to have a look at them and I was blown away. 

To put them into perspective, the heads you see over there are smalled than a Nikon SB-800 speedlight and are yet able to pump out upto 400Ws of light (the SB’s can go upto and equivalent of 100Ws).

The one thing holding me back is the price…. these are a significant investment for a non-pro,, Will go back to contemplating my decision some more and update you all in my next post. 

The Trip to Hatta Dam

Sometimes a random blurt of madness among like minded lunatics with a passion for photography fueled by hot tea at 1AM in the morning can lead to something as beautiful as this:

Bathed in Light by Brian Donegan

To put that statement into perspective, Subodh Shetty, Anjum, Firo and myself randomly met for a hot cup of chai at Philly Cafe. The visit to Hatta Pools was planned for just three of us initially as a photo trip for the next morning at 9AM with the Emirates Photo Club (EPyC).

However as the second cup hit us, I remarked, “Accuweather is predicting clouds at the early hours of the morning. If we leave now, we’ll end up getting that gorgeous morning light….”. Everyone was game.. so with passports in hand, and a trunk full of gear, off we went.

The shot above is a 7 Exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix and finished using ColorEfex Pro 3.0

I of course had my ulterior motives in mind… You see, after recently watching Zack Arias One Light DVD – I was determined to try out the maximum number of scenarios possible with my trusty SB-800 in all conditions of Ambient light and getting there at the crack of dawn was the best option… Selfish Yes…. but worth it.

So as we reached the top of the Dam, while the others began shooting star trails, I redied my strobed and began stalking the others to see who would fill in the shoes of being the model for the morning….

First take was Anjum, he fit the bill perfectly cause of his extensive experience shooting self portraits… The first results:

A simple reflective umbrella shot balancing out the ambient exposure using the shutter speed. Strobist 101.  -

Lighting Diagram:

Contrast that with the image below shot at approximately 11AM later in the day and you get:

Instead of an ubrealla, as this was a close-up portrait, I used a 24″ Softbox from Lastolite.

I’ve clearly been bitten by the lighting bug and love what control it gives you over the mood of your image. I cant wait to see where this journey takes me..

More landscape images to come from this sleep deprived trip. Do make sure to add me as a contact on my Flickr and 500px pages.

Strobist Pratice

I just picked up some new gear and was itching to try it out. So I decided to set up a small product shot at home last evening. The subject is our cordless phone. 

 

This was done with a simple two light setup and the new Rogue Speedgrid. Click through on the lighting diagram for a more detailed explanation on Flickr. 

Morning Glow

Morning Glow by Brian Donegan

Down that Lonely Street

This was captured at around 8PM with the x100 mounted on the spare wheel of my car. 

Down that lonely street by Brian Donegan

I used my trusty Manfrotto Table Tripod. It’s been an awfully useful component in me getting candid restaurant HDRs and goes well with the compactness of the X100. 

The image was post processed in Photomatix Pro and color and halos were removed in PS CS5. For all you PS techies I used the Smart sharpen filter here.

 

I usually prefer the HighPass method (shown below)  to sharpen my images, but not on this one. 

An Easter Egg off my last photo assignment

I recently had the opportunity to shoot for a client at the Atlantis Hotel in the Palm Dubai. It was for a new launch event for some of their products. 

The event took place in the Presidential Suite of the Hotel and so once it was all done and over with, I took my chance and proceeded out into the balcony to savor the view…. and Lo and Behold here is the sight I was greeted with….

 

Looking back down the Palm by Brian Donegan

It has the minature like appearance without the need for any tilt-shift / perspective control lenses… Luckily it was also a slightly couldy day which is very unlikt Dubai… ( all we get is a bald blue sky most of the time)… 

A bit of post using Topaz Adjust 5 and Pro Contrast out of Nik Color Efex 3 and voila….

PS: Still working on the India wedding pictures… will have those up soon… I just couldnt wait to get this up on the web and share it with the world. 

Back after a break

Hi All, 

I’ve been quite busy of late. The day job taking up a lot of my time and I’ve also been travelling. 

Just got back from a trip to Delhi in India where I attended a close friend’s wedding. This also happened to be my first Indian wedding and lets make it clear…. It’s an awesome, but long affair. 

I got the opportunity to take a couple of shots at the engagement ceremony and will put those up in a separate post…. 

One of the other highlights of this trip was that I got the chance to hop across 3 states to Agra and visit the Taj Mahal. Once things for sure, pictures cannot do this historical place justice. This is one of those places that should go on anyones bucketlist. 

So my images for this post come from this magical “wonder of the world”… 

Taj Mahal – Take 2 – Essence by Brian Donegan

The Taj Mahal Take by Brian Donegan

Say Hello to my Little Friend…..