Ocean Cleanup

This past weekend I covered the cleanup on Manila Bay here in the Philippines, part of an around the world ocean cleanup day organized by Ocean Conservancy.

The Cleanup began in 1986 in Texas and in 1989 the Cleanup went global with the addition of Mexico and Canada. Since then, the International Coastal Cleanup has grown to become the largest volunteer effort of its kind for the ocean. Last year alone, nearly 400,000 volunteers in more than 100 countries removed up 6.8 million pounds of trash at 6,485 sites along beaches, rivers, lakes and streams as well as below the water’s surface.

It was amazing to see the effort put into the day by so many people. Sadly the results, as good as they were, seemed hopeless as I watched another line of trash move in on an incoming tide just as the cleanup was finishing up.

Before the cleanup began you can see the amount of trash on the shoreline.

Just a fraction of the people helping Saturday.

The Philippine Coast Guard was on hand to help.

A new line of trash can be seen close to the horizon as it moves in with the incoming tide just as the cleanup is finished.

Marine debris (ocean trash) is more than an eyesore; it is a potential threat to our food supply, to tourism and economic activity, to marine wildlife and ecosystems, and to our own personal health and safety. It even relates to the ocean’s resilience and ability to adapt to the onset of climate change.

Testing in the Rain

Okay so I am sick of the rain. It just seems to rain and rain and rain here lately. Last night I was going a bit stir crazy and decided to walk down the street with two 580 EXIIs and the Canon 5D and play around. I knew a spot where I could hopefully light and shoot and keep everything dry.

This is what you call a dirty kitchen (the outside kitchen) in the Philippines and the vehicle to the right is called oner here in the Philippines, kind of a jeep.

I used a 16-35 zoom at about 24 or somewhere close. It was too dark to worry about recording that at the time.

This first shot is without any strobes...f11@ 20 seconds, ISO 100.

For this shot I used one strobe just off camera right zoomed out as wide as possible -2/3 stop, same aperture and speed. I actually discovered that by slightly pulling out the bounce I could zoom it out to 14mm. Not sure if it is fact but it says so on the display and I thought I saw a difference between that and 24mm. The second strobe was about 15 feet to my right zoomed to 70mm and again -2/3 stop, angled right at the oner.

Travel and PS Brushes

Thought I would go back in time today and talk about a couple of images I shot, the first in the Panhandle of Florida at sunset and the second near Hoi An in Vietnam. Both of these I thought nice enough as they were but wanted to do something a bit more painterly like with them.

I used some brushes I found on diviantart by KeReN R and loaded into Photoshop. The second layer was a BW the third layer with another brush with color. I adjusted the opacity of each one about a dozen times until I liked what I saw, then flattened the image.

The last step was to open a threshold layer and get a true black and then flatten that. The result I like to think was nice and moody.

Shoot Through Translucent Umbrella

I've recently noticed some very nice photos done with these umbrellas, my favorite a photo done of Keith Richards by Annie Liebovitz and decided it was time for me to get over my old dislike for umbrellas. I think there was some part of me that thought umbrellas were for people that couldn't get their hands on a soft-box for one reason or another. And that probably comes from the fact that the first lighting setup I had came with two of the cheesiest umbrellas I have seen to this day.

So add that to the fact that I was getting a bit tired of the light produced from a soft-box and knowing it is always a good idea to try new things I decided it was time to go out and get one.

Here is the first shot I did with one. It is just left of camera feathered off to the right and just pointed slightly down. BTW that is my daughter who is 2 years and four months, loves to pose and have daddy as she says "click, click". But after a about six frames she informed me "me finished".

Fish

Thankfully I am pretty lazy sometimes so the light stayed up last night and there was a fish in the house this AM, a tilapia to be exact so I though it might be fun to shoot it until I put it in the skillet and he or she jumped out on the floor. I have never been real big on grabbing fish, some deep hidden fear of the scales slicing off my shooting finger. Somehow I managed to get it back in the skillet and here is the shot.

Bones

We all keep hearing about how bad the economy is and I was wanting to shoot something with this old skillet I have. So having just eaten some chicken and looking at what was left of my daughter's favorite piece of said chicken I decided it might say something about the way a lot of us are feeling these days.

I used an overhead softbox tilted slightly toward camera and a 580EXII as the only light source. Not sure it says exactly how I feel but pretty close.

Maybe tomorrow there will be some real food around the house!

Boys and a Laptop

Here is something I shot this week playing with some new off camera strobes. They are both 580 EXIIs. The one lighting their faces is bouncing off the laptop screen. I didn't have a blue gel handy (ok I lost it) so I used a notebook my wife had that is blue and leaned it against the screen to give the blue cast to their faces. Of course I didn't tell her until after I used it which I highly recommend. You know this time it's a notebook, next time it's some jewelry...

The light on the front of the laptop is shot through a snoot at about 10 o'clock.

I had seen something like this on http://strobist.blogspot.com and wanted to give it a try. The hardest part of the photo was keeping the boys interested for me to get a decent number of frames fired off but they were pretty good about it all in all.