I recall hearing from the experts that this year the cicada numbers are quite low. Certainly that familiar cicada noise did seem absent for some time, but not now. We seem to have plenty of the wee creatures around in our garden … and on the washing I might add. Anyway, whilst out in the garden thinking how dry it is and how the leaves seem to be changing colour … hopefully because of the heat rather than the approach of winter … I couldn’t help but notice several of the cicada skins on my silver birch trees. It always amazes me how much detail of the creature remains and how little of the old skin is damaged as the creature emerges. Looking at the photos below you’ll see its claws, hairs etc. etc. Quite amazing. Oh, click on the i age to get an enlarged view 🙂
I’ve been working with my studio lights, reflectors and gobos to get a moody high contrast mood in some monochrome portrait shots. There’s a bit of work involved and truth be told I haven’t been finding it that easy with my studio lights. One of the issue has been the ambient light in the rooms. Unless the room is very dark the effect of the hard light from the strobes is not as harsh as you may want. With little ambient light it’s a tad awkward to see what you’re doing so all in all it’s been a challenge for me. A way to resolve this problem is to use a high flash sync’ speed. By using a fast shutter speed the effect of the ambient light is considerably reduced. Directing the flash to the area of interest and reducing the amount of light spill by use of a snoot further helps create a more dramatic shot. The monochrome shot in this post illustrates this to some extent. Always tricky to shoot yourself, but this may give you and idea of what I mean. This photo was taken at midday today on a pretty bright and sunny day in a well lit office. By using a high flash sync’ speed I could use a shutter speed of 1/8000 second. This in conjunction with an ISO of 100 helps to significantly darken the background. (Aperture was at f2.8 to reduce depth of field). This is great news for me as I need much less equipment to carry with me. Furthermore, the time of day when the shots are taken are less critical as is the location.
The colour image was taken a few minutes later. Same settings as for the monochrome image but this time a second speedlight fitted with an orange gel was placed behind me. These are very quick and dirty shots taken a little earlier today really as a proof of concept. With careful positioning of speedlights I suspect some very lovely images can be captured. Oh, and a better looking model wouldn’t go amiss! 
These past few days have been pretty busy for me and I must admit that it was only today that I noticed the plant. What a wonderful surprise to see my new plant in flower! I couldn’t resist and had to take a photo to show you. Click on the image and you’ll be able to see a larger version of the shot. Do you like?
