Dustin Diaz Photography

255/365. This is 1994 — remember?

Dunno what happened to yesterday, but we're back on track today.

Tonight Erin and I did a shoot for San Francisco Magazine. Had a couple good ones... but none that I could technically post here since I'm sending those to the editor.

I picked this one out since it was outside the context of what they were looking for.

Many folks were dressed up in their best 90's outfits, including this woman. They even passed out slap-on wrist bracelets, how awesome is that? You know you remember those too.

Anyhow, I wasn't able to snap a setup shot. I suppose I could have if I tried a little harder... but somehow I think since it was a paid gig, "getting the setup shot" sorta went out the door. In the meantime, this louzy text will have to suffice...

strobist info: SB-900 @ 1/4 @ 17mm w/ 1/2 CTO into 43" white umbrella tucked up high in a corner.

183/365. The pre-pre-party to July 4th — join the luau

Today we went to a Luau as part of the July 2nd festivities... a madeup pre-pre party for American Independence Day.... yeah. It made sense at the time.

Anyway, Erin rounded up some folks and played light assistant which ultimately led us to this shot after a number of fires.

Not bad for a few beers, wine, and shot of nasty tequilla (I spit most of it out anyhow). Oh and hey, did you know the 365 is now officially half way done!!!

In other news, we got a new kitchen table. Woo!

K. You don't care about that stuffs.

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

176/365. Untitled — Get in the rhythm

This is Brazilian Samba dancing. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, was a day late in posting this. On with this...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

168/365. I can't stop raving... I can't stop raving... I can't stop... ~ Dune — have some ecstasy

So... I've never personally done ecstasy, but good 'ol Flat Eric here seems to be havin' a blast. Oh, and if you curious about the tie in to Dune, have a throw back and watch the rave video.

Tonight started off with me wanting to take a photo of our new wedding rings... but then... somehow... it turned into this.

Ok, time for some more Q & A pulled from the most common questions I get from y'alls emails

Q: "How do you get such perfect focus on your self portraits?"

A: Well, perfect is debatable, but my technique is simply and works "most of the time" and with patience.

First, use your AF to lock onto something near by where you will be standing. Notice in near all my shots I'm near "something". Lock on those things. Then swap your camera back to manual focus, then start firing away with your remotes, timers, intervals, tourists... who/whatever fires it, your chances are now much greater. Even in this shot where I had a tourist press the shutter, I disabled the AF on them so they wouldn't have the option to mess it up. I knew "exactly" where to walk and stayed directly on that focal plane.

Secondly, use "spot focusing". You Nikon folk, it looks like this as explained by Rockwell (ignore what he says about it — it's still useful).

The "big dumb rectangle" is given too many options and doesn't know where to focus.... especially at night in busy settings like... oh I don't know... a city!

Q: I've been thinking about by *brand x* flash. What do you think?

A: If you haven't read this article I wrote on Flash Photography and pwning the inverse square law, do that now... and there's a section at the bottom which discusses a bit about "what flash do I buy?"

Personally, I LOVE the SB-900, but it's understood that for most folks it's a big commitment. The way I see it, it's like buying a new lens... except most great lenses can cost $1,000+. And in my world, my flashes are far more important and an influence in my photography than a pile of lenses.

Q: "Would you ever consider making a book with all these setup shots?"

A: Don't think it hasn't crossed my mind, but that's time I don't have right now. One day I'd love to throw together some of my most unique shots along with outtakes, alternate takes, and of course some extra commentary on how I arrived at each shot.

But you know... not now.

And finally, that link that usually ends up at the bottom....

setup, camera, strobist info: see here (pssst... 4 light setup!)

144/365. Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire ~ George Bernard Shaw
(express yourself)

Today was the San Francisco Mission Carnaval. Tens of thousands of people along with a mass slew of photographers were out today which makes it difficult to get any shot. It was unclear whether you needed a press pass to get into the middle of the street — cops were everywhere watching the sidelines... but there appeared to be an unwritten rule that if you had a big enough camera, you could waltz right in (no pun intended).

Anyhow, this is the Energia do Samba dance group with a friend of ours shown center of attention. They were all awesome.

Be sure to check out Erin's photo stream later this afternoon for more photos from the parade.

strobist: n/a

camera info: Nikon D3 | 85mm(ƒ/1.4D) | ƒ/1.4 | ISO 200 | 1/5000s — full manual

75/365. No really, you tell *me* what's going on.

Seriously, if you can explain what's going on in this picture, props to you. This was one of those spur of the moment / get up on a chair / point the camera at the people kind of shot. It was also the first time I had mounted my flash to my camera in quite a while, and it kinda felt good to be a little lazy. Braden (the man pictured front and left) helped me as a light assistant for the day. He's totally awesome.

strobist info: Nikon SB-900 on good 'ol classic bounce pointing straight up mounted go camera (sorry, no off camera fun-ness today) @ 1/2 power with CTO gel.

I know, it's a rough life.
On another note, we had another fun night of shooting in the living room. It's getting easier and we need the practice. There is one other photo I posted for tonight, and it's previous to this one. Cheers.