Dustin Diaz Photography

136/365. A throne is only a bench covered in velvet ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

I've rented a D3 for the weekend while I wait for my D700 to come back from Nikon. It's actually smaller than when the MB-D10 battery pack is attached. It makes for an interesting feel. The dials and buttons are also in interesting places, and I think the firmware is old. I do however love the 100% viewfinder - now everything I see in the frame is actually being captured up to the edges. Other neat things are the dual-card slot, and the voice memo. That could come in really handy when doing strobist setup shots :)

Anyway, this was taken up on Guererro and 24th — and as anyone knows, I have a thing for benches. This was one was taken with ambient-light only. Felt good too since I got a glimpse from some car headlights passing by. The reflection turned out perfect on the bench.

And as for yesterday's post, that's life... and it goes on. Cheers.

134/365. A Fine Frenzy

So despite yesterday's words, Erin played the role of the awesome wife (as usual) and let me borrow her 5Dmk2 to take to work with me since A Fine Frenzy (Alison) visited the Twoffice.

As you can see here, Britt made a reintroduction to my stream after being featured with MC Hammer... I can see a trend starting here.

Regarding all your awesome comments yesterday and today of my Nikon camera fail... to answer a few questions:

1) "You should use your old D300 or D40"
- I don't have either of those cameras anymore. I sold each one to buy the next.

2) "You should just use your iPhone"
- No. I refuse to after the last time. The D700 is barely able to keep up with my imagination let alone a camera phone.

3) "At least you didn't drop the stubby"
- actually, yes I did. That too is going back to Nikon for repair.

4) "You should buy a cheap film camera"
- nothing against film. I love it. But I don't have that amount of time.

5) "could you at least rent in the meantime"
- I may end up doing this because, more importantly, we have a few photoshoots coming up, and I can't be without a camera.

Finally, regarding the 365, I'm still figuring that part out — consider it still in flux.

strobist info:
SB-900 @ 1/8 @ 17mm w/ warm gel into 60" soft reflective umbrella, high camera left
SB-900 @ 1/32 @ 20mm into 43" shoot thru white satin umbrella behind britt
triggered via pocket wizard ii's

camera info: Nikon D... er.. I mean Canon 5Dmk2 | 135mm(ƒ/2.0L) | ƒ/2.0 | ISO 100 | 1/125s — Handheld

133/365. Leaving for a while...

I have awful, awful news. But it is with great displeasure and sadness that I have to take a break from my 365.

Why you ask? Because my camera (D700) fell off the tripod, destroying the internal shutter doors and mirror.

This (ironic) photo was the last of the evening, directly before digging through my bag to switch lenses and take the "strobist info" photo to add to the collection. Go figure.

So today, I ask my frequent Flickrers who visit my stream daily to be patient while my gear is sent back to Nikon for repair.

And finally, to the strobist community, you are awesome. Keep making the world a brighter place (pun intended).

setup, camera, strobist info: FAIL

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

126/365. evidence of seis de mayo

So this photo was the only shot of the day, and it's a day late. And yes, it was taken with my iPhone....

We decided to put up piñatas and go for margaritas in celebration of the day after cinco de mayo since everyone was too busy.

Sorry, no setup or strobist info ;) That will resume later.