Dustin Diaz Photography

This is James Buckhouse, a marketing chap at Twitter. This shot was taken during our bi-monthly intranet office shoots and I figured I'd share the info with folks since it's quite a common setup.

camera, setup, strobist info: see here

238/365. I'll be back — meet the Governator in high-def

This is Arnold @Schwarzenegger. This shot was taken right darn near 3m 20s in this video during his tour of the Twoffice. The photographer you see in the video is the "official governors photographer" whom asked me to take an official head shot of him (the photographer) before the event started. He was very cool and just getting into strobist kinda photography. We worked well together and avoided getting in each others photos.

At exactly 1m 38s during the video you'll see me snapping a few holding up an SB in one hand and a D3 in the other.

I posted a few others on the Twitter office flickr account for anyone interested in checking those out.

The other thing I wanted to mention about this shot is the irony of catching Arnold behind his security guard with those terminator eyes... I mean really, who would mess with him?

Other than that, I apologize for the 2nd day in a row without having a strobist shot... but you just can't pass up having the Governator himself being part of the 365.

Hasta la vista mañana.

202/365. We mean Biz — See the plan in detail.

Today was a scheduled photoshoot with Biz & Ev. Those photos are being personally delivered to the two of them for various press purposes etc.

I pulled this one out of Biz because it's just a great shot of Biz in an informal setting and really describes the mood of Twitter.

I could describe why this photo works so well with having all the busyness yet calm focus. But there's another reason why Biz's hands are twirling quickly, which is because there are fresh sandwhiches directly behind me (lunch time).

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

201/365. Amanda Palmer is dead ~ Who killed Amanda... reading — solve the mystery.

So... as-is the nature of Twitter, people come by. This time, Amanda Palmer. Albeit spending 20 minutes during a missed lunch to do the shoot, it was well worth it.

Also, the high-resolution photos were sent directly too her, but be sure to check out the sneak peak thumbnails

Last but not least, I got to really put my new Lastolite Triflash Bracket to good use. see why below...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

197/365. A very long day — empathize?

This was basically a long day due to complications at work that revoke responses like this. By the way Ev has been doing a great job and handling all this mess.

As for me, I'll continue to keep my head down, work, take photos, and love my wife.

setup, camera, strobsist info: see here

195/365. Twitter + Mallika Sherawat — Take a trip to Bollywood

Center of attention (in the dress) is Bollywood Diva Mallika Sherawat. I had not previously known of her, but of course getting a group photo was the only proper thing to do.

From left to right: Sangeeta, Maggie, Britt, Mallika, Jenna, and Alex.

There was literally about 1 minute to prepare for this shot... needless to say as soon as my lights were able to trigger light... we were locked in for photos. Not bad for manually adjusting everything in a split moment. I would have changed a few things if I had more time (and light) — but this works.

lighting geeks read on...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

161/365. I'm a 21 year old visual designer ~ Vitor Lourenço

Everyone, this is Vitor. He designed twitter.com. Not bad, eh? He's also huge in Brazil I hear.

Today we had a brief photoshoot at the Twoffice so we can begin building our company intranet (every company has one of those, right?) My goal was to get as far away from your typical badge photo and get something that lets out the inner rockstar in all of us.

And now for some of the nerdy photography stuff (feel free to stop reading now). When shooting large groups of people (separately), it's always a challenge to come up with a setup that will, in one sense, fit as a "one size fits all".

There are various setups that look more flattering on women, and of course others that make men look more... masculine (so to speak).

But taking into account time and volume, it's best to go for a general purpose setup. However, you still want to be far from boring (who wants that) — so I took the spotlight softbox approach, along with a feathered touch of rim on the side just for fill. Keep the keylight slightly above and direct, and you've got a rockstar :)

setup: similar to this (minus one side light)

strobist info:
SB-900 @ 1/4 @ 17mm into 28" westcott softbox high, above, direct — 3' away
SB-900 @ 1/8 @ 35mm into 43" shoot thru umbrella highly feathered - 5' away

camera info: Nikon D3 | 24-70mm(ƒ/2.8G)@31mm | ƒ/5.6 | ISO 320 | 1/200s

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

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

252/365. I do things ~ Jason Goldman — no really, he does things

Everyone... if you didn't know him, this is Jason @Goldman. He's kind of a somebody at Twitter who does things. He didn't know I'd be posting this one to my 365 project, but surely, this attention won't bother 'em.

K. it's late. let's do this...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here