Out of the Darkness-Ybor Practice Shoot

  Last night I traveled to Ybor City to practice night photography with off camera flash-I have limited experience in this area and interested in learning as much as I can about it. I started off a little frustrated but ended up with a few images I really like. All photos wee taken with Canon 580 flash mounted on a monopod with a Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser attached to it.  I am amazed to see how powerful one 580 Flash can be in the dark!

I love taking jumping photos, or just freezing motion in general as I am able to capture moments that go too quickly for the human eye to appreciate.  Here my model for the evening, Charles jumps up in the air in and alley very popular for photographers in Ybor.  There was some visible light and walls in the background which I blacked out in Photo Shop to make this shot into what I wanted it to be from the start.

  Okay believe it or not Charles was sitting in total darkness here. I mean, it was so dark that I could barely see him much less his expression as I took a series of photos here-the flash was about 8 feet from him and the Diffuser produced a beautiful and even wash of light. 

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  I have no idea what this thing Charles is sitting in/on was! It was round and had four legs and was wobbly just sitting in the alley.  I really liked the silver sheeting propped up against the wall behind it. I did not intentionally make everything besides his skin Black and White here, it is simple the way it really was!

  This is I think my favorite taken at the end of the night. I positioned the flash along a wall to the left of Charles. When he looked straight at me his face was in split lighting,half lit, half dark. I asked him to turn his face toward the light a little and got just what I wanted, Rembrandt lighting!  I really enjoyed this practice shoot and am eager to learn more about this area of photography. There is always so much more to learn!

Stephanie

Night Photography-Curtis Hixon Park Tampa

  Last night I went with some fellow photographers to practice some night photography at Curtis Hixon Park
This is a beautiful new park that opened earlier this year on the river across from the University. It is located next to two museums including a new children's museum that just opened last week.  I have not done much night photography yet and had a lot of fun. We arrived shortly before sunset with the sun shining on the building above.

  This photo is of the view across the river. It rained earlier in the evening and there were still a lot of clouds around. We have a lot of beautiful sunsets in this area!

  I really love this image. The river is on the left, the Tampa Museum of Art on the right. There is some mist rising from the ground where the lights are. I believe there are usually jets of water shooting up here during the day.

   When it gets dark the museum puts on an amazing light show!  This park is beautiful both during the day and at night!

  I love the way palm trees look lit up at night. I love the art on this building but it is getting faded, I think they need to rehab or replace it soon.

  This is the kind of fountain that I believe normally flows in the other photo where the mist was. 

I really enjoyed wandering around this park at night. Very peaceful and beautiful. I will  photographing someone here soon and am now very excited about it, there seem to be unlimited possibilities for some fantastic images. That shoot will take place late afternoon into early evening so I will have a wonderful variety of photos from the park-and my subject to show you then!

in downtown