Dustin Diaz Photography

231/365. Put a cork in it — you know you want to

Everyone, meet Santa Claus, and Chewbacca. I asked them to do something interesting, and they performed. No one was harmed except for some minor issues with some cork getting stuck in Chewy's beard afterward. We had a good laugh afterward and I'm slightly delirious right now.

Just... click on the thing at the bottom of the thing...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

230/365. Shiny Happy People ~ R.E.M. — Throw your love around

So it took a day to finally sort things from the Getty incident. Anyone still interested in that can check out that thread.

Anyhow, this toy is a pretty common guy. He rocks out in the sunlight (batteries not included)... so I'm sure he didn't mind me taking photos with the flash (tee hee).

And believe it or not, this is pretty much straight out of the camera aside from the crop, text, and framing. That small sharpening halo is an artifact of how damn sharp this lens is.

Also, I kinda got lucky with the composition. I fired away a few since I was handholding with a locked focus (AF-L). That massive ball in the back made it seem like he's wearing a helmet. Fun :)

And finally, clickity split...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

187/365. To hell with responsibility — forget reality

Today's shot wasn't exactly fun. It involved climing up to Noe Valley, combating wind, saving falling softboxes, and jumping off a brick wall several times over.

By the time I got home, at the least, my beautiful wife had dinner ready :)

Anyhow, this particular shot was meant to have an old school film + HDR look. It is of course, best viewed large, and looks.... not so great at this 500px size.

I continued on with the video series for the info, although, it's a bit lacking in detail because I couldn't find a proper place to mount the lightstand without it falling over, so I stuck it in some bushes. If anything, it's worth checking out for a good laugh at how lame things were put together.

One final thing to note, this was an HDR taken with a single raw file by simply duplicating the file with different exposures (for anyone that wondered how to get action HDR shots with one image).

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

{edit note}: this is very different from my usual work. by no means am i an HDR expert, or even an enthusiast. But this is what 365's are for. I am bound to churn out some weird crap in hopes to learn a few things along the way.

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

172/365. My species is immune to all human ailments ~ Roger (American Dad)
travel to space

This is Erin's mutant alien bunny doll. He's pretty rad. He's even been on a few adventures.

Anyhow, it was a lazy evening... thus no outside photo.

On another note, this Thursday, Zack Arias will be visiting the Twoffice (sorry, no visitors allowed).

I recommend ANYONE starting off with lighting, or wanting to know more on what you can do with just one light... by all means, get in on the One Light Workshop and / or buy the DVD.

In the meantime, I will continue posting my setups here too :)

Speaking of which...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

121/365. Just because I look sexy on the cover of rolling stone, doesn't mean I'm naughty ~ Britney Spears

uhmmm... worth viewing large on black, yeah.

OK, this was mostly Erin's idea. All I said was "I wanna get a picture of you two in the middle of the street" — then Erin took it from there. I handed the light to Dan, adjusted the light settings, then fired away. I apologize for the Britney Spears quote, it only seemed fitting ;)

you strobist people on crack, read on...

setup, camera, and strobist info: see here

110/365. No Honey, we don't talk to strangers...

This is Malfi, Little Malfi, and of course, Domokun. The Malfi's belong to my Erin.

Ever had one of those moments where you took the perfect shot the first time? Yeah, this was not one of those times. I packed these guys up in the bag in hunt for a good spot only to run into many failures. I kept reorganizing different setups, changing light settings, moving lights, creating different compositions, new scenes. It was frustrating. In the end, I got one that I liked that actually evoked emotion after reviewing it on the LCD screen. Thus, this was the last photo I took of the night.

I had a few crazys pass by while taking this shot... especially this big Mexican bearded dude talking on his phone in a fake woman's voice. It was totally creepy. That's when I knew it was time to leave; not to mention it smelled like pee.

location: 26 & Mission-ish.

Those obsessed with setups and lighting, read on....

setup, camera, and strobist info: see here

Final note: I have a big announcement coming up within the next day or two. Stay tuned.

109/365. We'll show you our train if you show us yours

FYI: The detail on this is super rad, worth checkin' out (large on black).

Everyone, this is the Rohe Family. We had a halfday photoshoot today. It was totally fun and awesome. They were even so very kind to allow me to post a photo publicly to my 365 project.

This shot was taken at the Powell st. BART station. We eventually made our way to the Westfield SF Mall, the Carousel, then an alley back in the Mission. It was quite an adventure. My wife aptly named it the "Personal Paparazzi Package"

Anyhow, hope everyone had a great weekend. Those who have sent emails through Flickr - I'm still getting to you, I promise.

You strobist geeks, you know what to do ;)

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

150/365. Meow meow meow

Everyone, if you haven't met her already, this is Meow meow meow. (That's really her name). I had adopted her after as one of my (only) own after I met Erin. She is 84 years old according to this human to cat years calculator. It was only appropriate that she gets a special day like 150 (seemed like a good round number).

But of course, even if you're not into the strobist stuff... it's worth watching the setup for this one.

Also, a couple other things I want to mention. I noticed some folks have been requesting the 'ol black and white diagrams for the setup info since they are easier to study. I agree. But this is FREE information. Free as in beer. Other folks have requested that I remove the qutoed text on each picture. No. I'll keep doing whatever I think feels right.

Ok..

setup, camera, strobist info: see the video

149/365. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-man ~ Spiderman (2002)
(get friendly with spidey)

So, Spidey makes another comeback! I count the days between the last time I use this mask just to have good reason to use it again since I don't want to over do it too frequently.

Anyway, Nikon finally sent me an estimate which I immediately paid and now waiting for its prompt return. This of course means I'm still playing with Erin's 5D2, which of course means more video as well for you strobist junkies.

On a quick note, for all who have sent me Flickr mails... I extremely apologize for not getting to you! :( I have 116 unread messages which is... unweildy. But fear not, I will get to you all, please just continue to be patient. Thanks for all your support for my 365 — I will continue to give as much knowledge to my ability....

and for the rest of you that just see "bla bla bla bla" and scan to the bottom for the strobist info... here you go.

setup, camera, strobist info: see the video