Headed on a trip Sunday, September 30, 2007

I'm headed out of town for the next week or so, so I thought I'd make one last posting before I go. (I might get a chance to post something while I'm away, but who knows.)

Anyhow, I'm heading back to Ontario for some family visiting. I will be heading up to Matheson to see my dad's parents, but the main event is my maternal grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. Pretty much everyone from that side of my family will be there, I gather, some of whom I haven't seen in a long time. It should be a good time.

Instead of presents, my grandparents have asked everyone to bring a photo of themselves. The last decent picture I took of myself was a mug shot I made back in February for a media pass. It's alright, but just a head shot and I had just shaved my head back then. It was due for an update.

Yesterday I took some of my gear down into the basement of my apartment (there isn't enough space in my living room). Thankfully the elevator was working then. It has been out of commission since last night. Here (right) is the result.

Well, having gone to the trouble of setting up all the gear, I made several different images that I can use for different things. But this is the one I'm giving to my grandparents for their album.

Making a self portrait is a bit more difficult than making a portrait of someone else. Sure, there's no miscommunication about which way to turn your shoulders or whatever, but you can't see exactly what the camera's looking at. Focusing was a bit of a guess, as was composition. I spent a fair bit of time running back to the camera to look at the shots I had just made.

And I was going to do a two light setup, but I realized that I don't have enough PocketWizards for that—one for the camera, two for the lights ... oh wait, I'm not holding the camera, so I need another to trigger it. I only have three. So it was a nice, simple, one-light session. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Now, it's time to pack ...