Dustin Diaz Photography

174/365. Controlling light is an art ~ Me (I said this, right now)
take a hit (looks great large)

So.... this is me... playing with flying sparks! Clearly not doing a great job at "controlling light" — but I never claimed to be a firefighter.

Anyhow, tonight I was given attention by three different people. One guy who wanted to sell me "energy drinks" for six bucks each. He had three; all of which he pulled from his pocket. Weird. Then he asked me where he could get film developed for cheap. Um... "Walgreens?"

The next guy just wanted to watch. I can usually handle a hundred people watching... but one guy with nobody else around is a little more awkward. I just stood there and waited until he left.

Then the third guy randomly had a 40 gallon plastic bag full of woman's clothes.

man: "hey, I'll take your photo"

me: "no thanks, it has a timer."

man: "but you won't have to run back and forth — just let me do it!"

me: "It actually has an 'interval timer'."

man: "All you fuckin' artists are all alike"

me: "You're right. Thanks for understanding."

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

152/365. Untitled
(get a little personal)

Tonight, it's all about the subject. And before taking this photo, I literally drew blank of ideas. I grabbed my strobist bag and walked off into the city with my wife's 5D2 (thanks again love) feeling lost, tired, and uninspired.

After having fully set up, this guy (in photo) stumbled upon my scene. Since he was rather interested in what I was doing, I asked if he could be my model. I took a single shot — and this is it. The rest is up to you to interprit.

Lastly, there was no time to capture the scene... it was one of the moments where you just had to be there — so there, happy strobist info vacation :) relax a little and just enjoy a good photograph. Cheers!
(Blog: thestrobistden.com)

39/365. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? ~ Batman

It feels like I'm getting closer and closer to midnight for finally getting around to taking my photo of the day. But I suppose the important part is that I'm still getting shots. I rummaged through our toy box again to see what I can shoot and came up with Lego Batman... then remembered a great quote from the 1989 movie. Since I needed harsh edgy shadows, I ditched the umbrella and set my zoom head on tight... anyway, read the strobist info if you're actually curious. Cheers everyone, hope you had a great weekend!

strobist info: Nikon SB600 @ 1/64 power, head at 85mm position, placed 2 feet from subject.

Camera info: Nikon D700 | 24-70mm(f/2.8G)@70mm | ISO 400 | f/10 | 1/250s

model info: Batman by Lego®

These were the decorations in the backyard at Ashley & JR's house.

that is, if there is such a thing. They were, however, in Japan Town

This was up the center of the Plaza at Powell in San Francisco (a mall). Heading up the escalators you can tilt your head over and almost see the top — but not quite. I adjusted some settings on my camera, threw it on manual focus, then stuck my arm out and took a blind chance at a photo. Turned out pretty fun :)

I had to pull this one out of the weeds. I thought to myself, "this would make a good picture...." so I pulled it from the ground (they were dying anyway) and put it up against the trees (I must have looked like an idiot taking this shot), and snapped away.

Go figure that this is attached to the library