Dustin Diaz Photography

218/365. Stand in the place where you live — Now face North ~ R.E.M. (Stand)

The feedback for yesterday's shot and the videos were great. If you haven't had a chance to check out the videos, do that.

For tonight's shot, I took some video... but... I'm just too damn tired to put it into something useful. And because of that, you'll have to deal with the text-only version :(

strobist info: SB900 @ 1/16 @ 17mm w/ 1/2 CTO gel into 43" shoot-thru umbrella camera left
SB-900 @ 1/64 @ 200mm camera right far back

camera info: Nikon D3 | 200mm stubby | ƒ/2.0 | ISO 1600 | 1/50s — Tripoded via pocket wizards

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

148/365. But then I spent so many nights just thinking how you done me wrong... I grew strong ~ Gloria Gaynor (I will survive)

So a day went by as some of you might have noticed without a photo. Life happens.

My camera has yet to return from Nikon, and I returned my rental yesterday — thus Erin comes through... which means I had a little more fun with some video. I've been beefing up the strobist info series because sometime this next week I'll be featured on a little website... stay tuned.

And so of course, the camera geeks click the linkers...

setup, camera, strobist info: watch the video

141/365. I'm Popular. I make football bets, I'm a teachers pet ~ Nada (Popular)

Ok, so I have this really dorky lettermans jacket from college (Sacramento State). They were awarded to us at the end of the season for those that made Conference Finals. But really, nobody ever EVER wore them — but I kept mine anyway. And of course the glasses, Erin and I picked those up at a thrift store down the street for a few bucks.

Lastly, this shot was taken in our bedroom — which means I'm not posting a setup photo because our bedroom has laundry lying around everywhere. So the plain text version will have to suffice.

strobist info: (two light pony)
SB-900 @ 1/4 @ 17mm into 43" silver reflective umbrella high camera left
SB-900 @ 1/16 @ 24mm w/ green gel directly behind subject pointed at wall.
triggered via pocket wizard ii's

camera info: Nikon D3 | 50mm(ƒ/1.4G) | ƒ/9.0 | ISO 200 | 1/250s — Tripoded
triggered via radio remote

140/365. Girl phoned me the other day and said "Come on over, there's nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home ~ Rodney Dangerfield

So I have rented another Nikon D3, this time from Borrow Lenses. Damn are they so much cheaper! And they deliver for free :) This shot was taken up near Guererro in a nice little neighborhood of houses. I was fond of the "no wind" factor, and of course, this fence. I tricked out my radio remote by placing my iPhone in front of it.... making it look like a phone that can call the moon.

Other than that, I've been getting quite a few questions on "how do you do this every day?" — I thought about this, and the answer is simple.

If you're passionate about something enough, you will do it. Consider a cross-country runner (athlete) who trains daily. For anyone to be decently competitive, they must train at least two (or more) hours a day. Including warmup, an eight mile run, cooldown, stretching, and lifting weights.

These same principles apply to what I'm doing now, except I'm not running, I'm going out, setting up lights, taking a photo, tearing down, post-processing, documenting (via strobist info), and describing this right now.

Which brings us to the final point, you strobistas can read on...

setup, camera, and strobist info: see here

139/365. Alcohol may be a man's worst enemy, but the bible says "love your enemy" ~ Frank Sinatra
(large on black)

Today I thought I'd throw together a "special edition" strobist info shoot seeing as how Erin let me borrow the 5D2 again — I figured I would take advantage of its video-taking capabilities. And lucky for you, Flickr limits videos to just 90 seconds (otherwise I would ramble on forever).

Other than that, it was a long work day (from home). I didn't come in to work because of a strained achilles... my guess is that I'm not used to walking (to work) so much. By the end of the day, however, I felt I simply had to get out of the house to snap a quick shot around the corner.

So all you camera lighting setup nerds - this ones for you

camera, setup, strobist info: see the video

120/365. Are you trying to say I don't know how to play?

I've had this trumpet sitting in my closet for 12 years, I'm pretty sure I still know how to play it... or at least hold it correctly.... is this right? Hehe. Thanks to Erin, I almost gave this up to good will, but she said it would make a fun prop. She was right.

One more thing, this is my first photo from our new studio setup. It's totally awesome. Erin made the big investment :)

Nevertheless, here's that 'ol setup stroby diagramer. cheers!

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

53/365. Um, Peter, according to this, you're not a genius. In fact... you're mentally retarded. ~ Brian Griffin on Peter's test results (Family Guy)

Had a lazy Sunday. Picked up a Battery pack + 150w inverter for $54 at the Kragen's. Sure beats paying Profoto $1,000+ for any of their batteries!

On another note, I wrote another post on SLR Geek titled 5D mkii versus D700; Strobist Edition. Comments or questions are welcome on my blog.

Tonight's shot was done with a DIY grid spot made out of coroplast, super glue, and gaffers tape.

strobist info: Nikon SB-600 @ 1/2 power on 85mm head thru 1/8" grids (hard light, long throw)

camera info: Nikon D700 | 50mm(f/1.4G) | f/16 | 1/250s | ISO 200

wardrobe info: 10 year old beanie from R.E.I. and an ODEO t-shirt.