Happy New Year!

As a new year arrives, I am reminded of the importance of keeping traditions alive and especially when considering photography – keeping up with a theme or body of work that you have created.  I have a holiday phot6o tradition that I have been observing for quite a few years now. I go through all the motions, setup flashes and take a photo of cookies for Santa. This is always used as an electronic holiday card for my Facebook page. This year was no exception, sometimes the cookies change or the plate or even the glass but the idea of shooting cookies in from of a Christmas tree remains the same. I always shoot with a shallow depth of field to blur the lights on the tree and always show some sort of present in the background. It is interesting to see these photos year after year and see how things remain the same, but my skill level increases. I remember the first time I took this sort of shot, and the time involved and the trial and error to get a good mixture of ambient and strobe light in the frame.

This shot was taken using a snoot on a photoflex 600W monobloc. The strobe is positioned behind the camera and to the right. I filled in the left side of the photo with a large piece of foamcore.  I aimed the light from the strobe at the cup to make sure the viewer could easily and clearly read the cookies for santa text. The bouncecard lit the rest of the plate.

2015 was a year of big changes for me, and I am energized and ready to get back to the projects I am working on and to start working on still life shoots. Thank you for reading and wishing you the happiest of new years!

Ted