Dustin Diaz Photography

341/365. I am not a permanent — and the only thing keeping me dry is where I am ~ Postal Service

I can feel my throat getting dry.... which means I shouldn't be taking photos like this outside in the freezing San Francisco weather. As I'm typing this I may have finally caught that cough I've been avoiding all year.

Anyway, today was a Monday. This is how Monday's go.

Lighting geeks, do your thing :)

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

162/365. This place is a prison ~ Postal Service

A few things... (deep breath)...

I was featured in an interview for Strobist.com. Thank you David Hobby — I am infitnitly honored.

This shot was taken after one of those longer kindof work days. This photo mostly explains it.

Now to talk about a few geeky things (this is where normal folks stop reading).

I thought a lot about the similarities between new age web design (I'm not calling it web 2.0) and location photography. It nearly mirrors a quote Doug Bowman mentioned on Twitter — "the challenge of designing around user-customization is the new 'designing around dynamic content'".

In the world of location & strobist photography, our dynamic content is each and every location. But as time goes on, we shoot similar locations, and they can become somewhat predictable. However the customizations that happen on-spot, is wind. It's always hard to tell what weather is going to do — but we use precaution...

Here are some precautions I take.

1) setup lights first (attach gels, pocketwizards) "without" umbrellas, softboxes, octaboxes, etc.

2) Secure stands with weight

3) Setup camera, adjust exposure appropriately.

4) attach light modifiers (umbrellas etc) — then raise lightstands to appropriate height.

5) shoot quickly, then immediately tear down.

all this stuff said, setup junkys read on...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

137/365. The stale taste of recycled air ~ The Postal Service

Today Erin and I did a photo shoot of a graduation at UC Berkeley. I gotta admit, I really like this D3. The smaller form factor and thick grip makes it comfortable to hold (compared to D700 + MB-D10).

Anyhow, this shot was taken much later in the night after sun has passed and the air was finally chilled. It even fulfills my weird photo fettish of fire hydrants (except calling it a fettish sounds gross). One small note that you might find funny — Erin pointed out that she found out where my inspiration comes from: Chuck! Go ahead and watch a brief recap of season 1 to get a good idea of where the influence comes from (especially the night scenes). A common pair of lights you'll see is CTO fill, and bare bulb (blue w/ cool white balance) for rim. One could even call it the "two light pony". It's 'very' common, but more importantly, makes a huge difference in the "rad" department.

For those interested in the rest, read on...

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

113/365. I'm staring at the asphalt wondering, what's burried underneath...
... where I am ~ Postal Service (The District sleeps alone tonight)

Apparently my announcement yesterday was a bit too subtle... almost nobody got it. So let me make it clear, I am resigning from Google, and joining Twitter! Yes yes, lots of excitement. Maybe one day I'll finally meet Oprah or Shaq.

Anyhow, this shot was taken near our home. Erin had this great idea for a self portrait and did that quite nicely. I was gonna do one too, but then decided... "can I just take a picture of your legs?"

K.... on with it.. strobist fools and junkies, here you go...

camera, setup, and strobist info: see here

Another final thing: I've received about a dozen comments and emails talking about my "style"... in requests for me to change-things-up so to speak. Let me remind me everyone that I really only have time to shoot at night (I have a day job), and I'm enjoying what I'm doing. If you're looking for something different, feel free to browse the other 11,000+ photos in my stream. It usually takes a good month or two to fully evolve to a new type of style, but I personally feel I'm trying new things every day — and hey, this isn't easy to find inspiration on a daily basis.