Dustin Diaz Photography

132/365. I consider skateboarding an art form, a life style and a sport ~ Tony Hawk

It's no secret that I love skateboarding. Been doin' it since preschool. Nevertheless, tonight was frustrating despite it being perfect weather and zero traffic in this alley (I could have posed nude (Ha, yea right)! The exposures just weren't turning around right... and I finally figured it out in the end, that I never set the ISO (it was at 1,250)... even that rim light at 1/128th was coming out too bright (I thought). Oh well, the life of a 365 goes on.

One particular thing to note is that everything else you see (broom, roses, detergent buckets)... they were all found lying around in the alley. Figured I could make good use of 'em.

Other than that, you strobofenes can read on...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

131/365. Thank you, Mario... but our Princess is in another castle ~ Super Mario Bros. (NES 1985)

I found this awesome belt buckle in a thrift store. Seriously, it rules... but I'd never "actually" wear it out "for reals"... or would I? But more to the point, did anyone ever play this game... and get to that point where you'd jump thru hoops and fire pits, dodge hammer bros, stomp turtles, run underneath dragons... only to get to some stupid toad to tell you "our princess is in another freakin' castle!!!" How nerve racking!

Anyhow, more on the stuffs... that fancy watch was a gift for my birthday (last year). There is an inscription that says "console.debug(Date());" — that's JavaScript nerd talk for logging the date to your browser console.

Lastly, this may be the closest thing I will release to the public that is almost a straight up crotch shot. For those seriously concerned with the techy details, read on...

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

130/365. Photography... is a very serious business

After making a trip downtown knowing Erin bought new lipstick and glasses, and I bought a new hat and glasses... this idea bloomed shortly after.

This is in fact one of my first "photoshopped" photos of my 365 in the sense that it was two different exposures, and I combined them into one. Hence the EXIF info got blown.

Anyhow, there's not much else to the story except that I nailed Erin's shot on the first try. We took another just to be safe. Also note that this is the first time I've used the stubby not wide open at ƒ/2.0... which leaves me to the rest of the techy details for the true photo nerds. y'all can read on.

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

129/365. Happy 5th birthday, Flickr

do this photo justice by seeing it large

What a crazy night being in a room filled with more cameras than you could imagine. Today marked a belated 5th birthday (5.25 to be exact) for Flickr. In celebration, there was a party downtown in San Francisco. And as you could imagine, we packed light. Unfortunately I don't have a complimentary setup photo since this was more or less a "one-time-only" shot that we either got it right, or not at all. Not to mention, this may be the only time in my life that I will ever have an entire room looking at me while I stand on top of a bar (although no sexy dance proceded).

Cheers to flickr, and thank you for continuing to be awesome.

camera, setup, strobist junkies... you can keep reading the giant chuck of text that ensues...

camera info: Nikon D700 | 14-24mm(ƒ/2.8G)@15mm | ƒ/4.0 | ISO 640 | 1/50s

strobist:
SB-900 @ 1/8 @ 14mm thru 1/8 CTO camera left
SB-900 @ 1/8 @ 14mm thru 1/8 CTO camera right
SB-900 @ 1/4 @ 20mm into 43" silver umbrella high center behind me standing on top of the bar. triggered via pocket wizard ii's

setup: it took near 30 minutes of coordinating this photo, from pulling my gear out of my bag, putting it together, talking to people, drinking my margarita, having Erin project manage the crowd as to where to stand and when to throw the balls, then splitting up the crowd into blues & pinks.. then lastly a small countdown... and a quick "boom, boom, boom" (three frames (this was the middle frame)). Cheers.

[UPDATE] this photo was blogged on Yodel Anecdotal! :)
[UPDATE2] Stephen Garcia managed to get a photo of me taking this picture
[UPDATE3] Apparently there was a vide of this shot! :)

128/365. One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor ~ George Carlin

May he rest in peace....

Tonight was interesting because I literally took a gamble. I packed three lightstands, three flashes, three gels, and the stubby (and of course my camera). I left the umbrellas and softboxes at home and really thought "what the hell am I going to do?"...

Even after I decided I liked a spot, I setup each lightstand still not knowing why... then randomly found a paper bag on a bench with an empty bottle of Patron inside. I pulled it out, set it on this water drain grill thingy, then spread apart the lights... took a snap.... liked it... slightly adjusted the lights, then snapped again... and this is what you see now :)

You lighting rehab clinic folk read on...

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

127/365. 2 legit 2 quit ~ MC Hammer

It's not every day you get to hang out with MC Hammer. But today it happened at the Twitter HQ. Oh, yeah, and the guy on the right, that's Britt... he's been around since Twitter was like 5 guys.

Anyhow, I may have been the only person in the office that at one point in time memorized every single word from his Please, Hammer, Don't hurt 'em album.... and then went on to do family dance offs to Too Legit to Quit (hey, I was eleven).

Regarding this particular photo, if you ever have the chance to shoot a celebrity (with a camera), you do not want to waste time baffling with settings. Therefore I dialed in to what I was hoping to be a perfect exposure... and I came pretty damn near close (considering I shoot full manual across the board (shutter, aperture, iso, WB, flash — JPEG)... and on that note, strobist setup junkaholics read on...

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

125/365. The moon doth shine, and our ballast is old wine. ~ T.L. Peacock (1785-1866) Nightmare Abbey

So today marks a buck and a quarter :) And with the colder misty weather outside, I decided to stay inside (but mostly because I'm lazy and didn't want to put on a shirt).

Nevertheless, we picked up this wine near Sonoma in Healdsburg at J Vineyards. This is their dessert wine. It's awesome.

My favorite part about this photo is the natural rust appearance coming from the window (no post-processing filters required!). It really made that giant moon bokeh ball stand out quite nicely

And to the final point, strobaholics, read on...

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

123/365. Weird ~ Of a strikingly odd or unusual character. Strange.

Ok, I'll be honest, sometimes I just grab a few lights, some lightstands, PW's, and whatever random props, then head out the door. I had no idea what I was going for... so in the end you get... weird!

The best part is the expressions on people as they walk by. I also had two conversations with people and had to remember to take off the glasses.

Anyhow, tomorrow I finally start my first day on the job at Twitter. Exciting new opportunities await.

Lastly, for all folks that sent Flickrmails... I'm still getting to them! I have not forgot about you.

The rest of you lighting nuts... yeah. read the stuffs

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

122/365. 1000+ ~ Google Reader

If anyone uses Google Reader, you'll know exactly what this shirt means. I was able to nab one of these shirts at the SxSW conference last March, it's awesome.

Anyhow, I decided to at least be a little more creative with the new studio... afterall, this is what 365's are all about; practice, practice, practice. Soon we'll both have a giant pile of tricks to do pretty much anything in here.

Nevertheless, fear not, my true spirit remains outside in the city. Thanks Don for the tip on the Portraiture plugin for photoshop.

lighting freaks... do what it is you do...

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

This was too fun to pass, I took this shot yesterday in our studio. Strobist info is similar to this shot taken by Erin.

I have found that taking photos in the studio is much harder than going out into the city night only because it requires a lot more creativity in the photo since it's all about the subject — you literally have no other option on a white seamless background.

Nevertheless, I still have a photo due later today, so I'll get right on that in a few hours.