I’ve been playing around with Canon’s high speed sync on the flashes, so I decided to tackle capturing a speeding bullet. Before you get any hopes up of seeing a shiny bullet flying through an attached picture, i failed. Absolutely, positively flat on my face failed. But I know why…
Main reason - even at 1/8000 of a second, I don’t think the bullet would be frozen in time, if it was even in the frame.
2nd reason, i need a sound trigger. Basically I had the camera down range with the remote wired back to me. I set the camera to the timer setting, counted to 10, pulled the trigger.
Reason 2.5 - I can’t count worth crap….lol…I was usually a second faster than the flash on my good tries…lol. I got a few lucky shots, but not many. I was shooting my Ruger .22 mainly because I had a box of bullets. I also took my Glock 9mm, but I only had one clip of 10, so that didn’t last long.
Reason 3 - I haven’t been to the gun range in a long time, and I can’t aim. Not to mention I didn’t have my contact in and my sight was wiggling on my barrel.
Call it unprepared or under prepared, either doesn’t really matter, I had fun, learned a little bit, and I will try again. But anyhow, on to the pictures.
Lighting setup: Down range - Canon 550EXII on light stand to camera left with TTL cord back to Canon 5D for main light. a 2nd 550 ex was placed 180 degrees in front of the other speedlight set a slave. I just used the little “foot” and put it on the ground.
To protect my camera & main light ( in case i was a completely horrible shot) - I placed a piece of diamond plate steel against the target stand and then a piece of plywood over it just to help ricochet if i did hit it by chance. Better safe than killing all my equipment. Here are a few of the better shots, and there is one of me with the remote so you can see how i was doing it (not an intentional shot, but it works for demonstration anyhow ).
A model of a putt putt course i made when i was a teen.
When I was cleaning up my office, I found an old Polaroid from when I was a young teenager. It’s of a model volcanic putt putt course that I was planning to build in Cochran. I went all out with my plaster, paint, and planning because I was sure this was how I would spend my adult years; I even had the waterworks running correctly to see how it would all flow. I remember planning on building it where the bypass splits coming into town from Macon, because I was sure it would get the most traffic there. It’s been one of my many grandiose plans, others include - building a shopping center with a bowling alley, teacher supply store, cafe, pizza buffet, bookstore, etc.. and rebuilding the Howard House for parties & events (I still plan on this if it’s ever possible financially). When I was growing up, i can’t even remember all of the shops that I wanted to start, the main one that I remember was a car audio shop, but i mainly wanted to open that to get discounts on stuff for my car. Now that I’m older that one doesn’t really strike my fancy anymore.
Looking through my family, i guess I was supposed to start my own business. My main inspiration is my PawPaw, or my mom’s dad. He started his own TV repair shop in his basement and was very successful. More-so than that, he passed away in ‘94, and to this day, there is still the random phone call from someone wanting to know if he can fix their TV. That kind of reputation is what I strive for, where people know that you can be trusted and counted on. My great uncle started Calvin’s Cleaners here in Cochran, and my cousin still runs it 50+ years later. Another uncle started Atlanta Lightning Protection and he has done jobs such as the Atlanta Aquarium, various govt. jobs and more.
So, I guess this was the right course for me, and hopefully in 50 or so years I can look back and see what a difference I have made. That’s my goal at least. I’ll never retire, not fully, I can’t imagine not doing something with my time; I would just waste away…
It’s been a little while since i’ve posted, i’ve been playing catch-up since my main computer died for a week. But all is up & running again finally. Updates: What’s happened since my last post, other than several photo sessions, my mailbox got destroyed by a semi, lightning hit the studio ( i think) and killed my credit card maching (already have a new one, so no worries, and it was free) and my DSL modem, but I was scheduled to swap to cable on Mon, so again, no worries, I drove 925ish miles this past weekend to the 385th AAA Batallion’s 55th reunion in Greensboro, NC, more on that later…It’s been hectic, but fun…new pics will be posted soon!
Today I worked on a memorial slideshow for Mrs. Sadie Lyles Stewart. She was 95. I didn’t think I knew her, but I was wrong. I had just finished the slideshow when my dad called me, asking if I remembered when he woudl take me over to her house when I was little and she would make me PB&J sandwiches. He said she was crazy about me. That’s just a neat tidbit of the day. Whenever I do slideshows, especially memorial ones, I do my best to honor that person and their life. Sometimes that’s hard with 10-20 pictures, but putting pictures to music can make more of an impression than you realize. So that was my day, the big computer is still hurting, hopefully to be better in the morning. It’s been a long week of computer problems but I think they’re clearing up now, finally!
Well, in this wonderful age of technology and data, I have managed to kill my big Dell computer. Well, injured is a better word I suppose…it’s hurting for sure. So i’m limping along on my laptop while I’m trying to get it fixed. Between that and this heat, it’s a fun day in the office!! :) Anyone have a window unit they want to sell??
Here are a couple more Gully Branch Pictures. These are HDR or High Dynamic
Range pictures. Click the link to learn more about that whole process. It
gives some photos a cartoonish feel.
Over the next year, I will be roaming around Gully Branch - a beautiful 1500
acre area and pavilion just outside of Cochran. I will be capturing the
different seasons as they come in and the wildlife as it roams. I am
looking forward to the challenge, and I have already started working on this
project. I’ve attached a few of my first shots. Enjoy!!
You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful setting than the rolling hills of Lil’ Hoofs farm for an evening wedding. It was great! The rain held off, only a sprinkle or two, and then the sun came back out for a beautiful sunset!
I’ve been playing around with Canon’s high speed sync on the flashes, so I decided to tackle capturing a speeding bullet. Before you get any hopes up of seeing a shiny bullet flying through an attached picture, i failed. Absolutely, positively flat on my face failed. But I know why…
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