first looks at the parabola....

30 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this is more of a technical blog.... my strobist friends would be more interested in it than anyone else... just got my hands on my new Elinchrom Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa".... so, I was just itching to put my hands on it.... I swooped on it like a bird of prey!!.... it didn't take long between unpacking and the first shoot.... although the setup was bit of a pain for me....

tried to follow the instructions fully, but as it turned out, the instructions were for all Rotalux series products, which also included typical softboxes with four edges... but octa was definitely different.... and caused more pain than I had thought about.... the product's build quality is excellent, although the softbox material seemed a bit thin... but that thing also brought the weight down to something really manageable... the steel ribs are awesome... they really give confidence to the user that this softbox would bend, but not break; although this strength also makes it harder to setup in the first place... the strength of the ribs makes them twist and that deforms the shape of the softbox... but gets corrected once the softbox is fully setup for the first time....

I had a hard time setting it up, really.... this was my first Elinchrom softbox, which may be one of the reasons behind finding it difficult to negotiate... but once the whole thing was setup, it looked brilliant!... I used the Deep Octa without the translucent dome that came with it, because apart from the dome, it already had a double diffusion... so, the light was already great.... the dis-assembly was another pain, as I struggled to find an easy way to get the tight ribs out of those sockets in the speedring.... it took me several minutes to figure out the best way.... and then it was easy as anything.... I timed both setup and dismantle at between 3:00 - 3:30 minutes.... and I wasn't rushing at all... the timing included unpacking from the nice soft bag that it came with....

the practical weight (without the diffusion dome) of the softbox with the bag was just around 1.5kg, which is really within acceptable limits.... and considering the size of the soft bag (2ft 9inch) I thought it would be one of the most portable pieces in my collection.... the bag doesn't have any pockets for the diffusion panels, which would've been really nice though... but it gives great padded protection and gives a good feel....

I only had a brief stint shooting with it and got some nice overall results.... the light modifier is a wonderful light controller... its a biggish light source, yet it doesn't spread the light everywhere.... it now gives me lots of new possibilities.... I tired it out with the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS with A-head... I had my every ready model Lamisa ready in front of my camera.... and there you go... I was only looking for an excuse to shoot some frames.... she had her first haircut since her third birthday less than a week ago... so, the big "three" was still there to be photographed.... hope to write some more blogs on those soon enough.... glad that I had been able to break through the busy times and write a blog of some substance....

anyway, lots more to come....

getting along with newborns....

23 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

its been a while that I had been able to write a blog.... had been busy like hell.... the new business effort of ours has kept us on our toes.... we had received lots of responses from our friends.... and they extended their helping hands to spread the words.... we're really indebted to all those....

our newborn photography efforts have brought us a big audience within a short time.... we don't want to boast, but we haven't come across such efforts in Bangladesh so far.... anyway, this is just the start and there are much much more coming up... we are getting calls on a regular basis from parents of babies of all ages.... a lot of them have lamented that their children have already passed the newborn age (up to 6 weeks).... but we must assure them that moments are never lost with babies as long as they stay babies.... and we are here to make sure that the moments are not lost....

we have learned many things with newborns as we work along.... hope to share those little bits and pieces of experience in more detail in coming blog posts.... newborns are a challenge to photograph, but also great fun.... their adorable appearances make any photography efforts worth it....

 

had not been able to write the technical stuff for some time..... so, just thought it won't be bad to share some of those, although not in a lot of details....  the first two pictures were done using a single softbox with a single YN-560.... if I'm not wrong, the first one was done with a Lastolite Ezybox 24" Hotshoe softbox and the next one was done with Westcott 28" Apollo softbox.... the third image was done with the above two softboxes combined.... I wanted a bathing in light for that image... so, although flat, the lighting was intentional...

 

the last four images were done using a single light source.... an Elinchrom Ranger RX + Simpex Pro 120cm x 50cm softbox.... I simply love this combination because of the control it gives...I've used several lenses for these images.... depending on their perspective, aperture requirement, convenience, and DoF, I've used an ultra-sharp Sigma 150mm Macro, cheap Nikkor 28-80mm and the superb Nikkor 50mm 1.4... in all of the cases, Elinchrom Skyport was the trigger for these strobist stuff....

please don't forget to watch our Newborn Photography Album in Facebook....

a lot lot more to come.... 

looking back towards that road.....

14 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

the lure of the corporate world is very strong.... it prevents one from engaging in something that he/she might've desired throughout your life.... it makes one hungry for more... for more of that small but pricy piece of paper.... I had tried hard enough to make a meaning of my life... never found a solution in that corporate environ... this environ was supposed to be means to happiness... but as it turned out, it was anything but that.... it was buying my soul off.... and thats the point where my conscience took over and knocked me off the road.... a perfect road to happiness turned into an unpredictable ride... its the choice that we made.... together.... and here we go.... our new life starts right here, right now....

seven years' relationship is hard to forget....lots of memories... and achievements too... some of those have a face; others, not.... some have attractive shapes.... others, nothing but papers... but they all have one purpose... recognition.... a sort of incentive to keep one on that road.... when I look back at that road, I only find memories....

came out of that door for the last time.... just yesterday.... memories are still strong.... it was a quick decision to keep those memories in the camera before they fade out somewhat.... Lamisa was more than happy to play with Daddy's "gifts".... she seemed so happy.... never realising the intrinsic value of those nice-looking shapes.... but it was never the purpose to make her understand that.... she would one day remember the day looking at the pictures.... thats what remains.... isn't it?

anyway, on the technical side, I tried to keep it as simple as possible... used the Elinchrom Ranger + Simpex 120cm x 50cm combination.... its my favourite combination for controlling light.... and also one of the easiest to set up.... used a bare white wall as the backdrop....

more to come soon enough....

fried under the strobes!!

08 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

well, during Eid-ul Azha, there's hardly any chance of missing the delicious kababs (or some may also say kebab)..... the Eid Day is basically hectic and mostly passes managing the sacrifice and the freezer.... but the day after Eid usually an opportunity to relax.... this is when you can sit down and let your taste buds appreciate the quality of the food.... no place for a vegetarian though... after all, this is Eid-ul Azha... vegetarians go into hibernation during this time of the year....

and when you have some opportunity to snap those delicious stuff before they fill your tummy, you get to grab your camera.... its a difficult shoot keeping your nose-buds waiting.... and also difficult to try to style food as they arrive at the table... and this is a time of rising fuel prices... so, why not try frying some kebab with strobes??.... thank to David Hobby, we now have a hope!!.... those YN-560s can pack a punch!!.... its kebab time!!










and thats a lotta effort for basically one picture.... my wife had a tough time preparing all the items and also to style them.... last time during Eid-ul Fitr, I forgot to mention the names of the food items and faced queries on that.... now, the food have names... Stick Kebab, Keema Salad, Tikki Kebab and Bindi Polao were the items this time.... and yes, all the items tasted at least as good as they showed up.... :)

as far as technical stuff is concerned, used two lights in a simple setup.... one bare YN-560 on a lightstand around 8-10 feet away on left, and a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox + YN-560 flash combination on camera right.... also experimented with some warm gels, which didn't produce exceptional results.... the trigger used was an Elinchrom Skyport with the light on the right.... the light on the left was on optical trigger (S1) mode....

a lot more to come....

Saadi..... @11 days only!

04 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

such opportunities don't last for long..... I became a proud uncle of a lovely baby boy on 24th October... that the second child of my elder brother.... I didn't wanna lose the opportunity to snap this little angel before he became too big to be called a newborn.... babies don't remain babies for long.... so, time was of essence... he was just named Saadi.... and when we came to know that Saadi was coming straight to our place, we simply didn't wanna lose a moment.... it surely was one of the best days we had in recent times... not just with the camera, but with a lot of fun as well.... Saadi is the younger brother of Tabassum, my niece... and Tabassum is the long-time playing partner of Lamisa, my child.... though they don't get that much opportunity to play together....

 


Saadi was so adorable and kept so quiet for so long.... he gave us ample opportunities to take photos in several different setups.... his patience amazed us and made us happy.... by the time he woke up, we were basically done with our shoot, and trying on a bonus one....










this is a second attempt of ours to catch him in his nap.... we tried this once before already.... we went to Saadi's grandma's place on 31 October to steal some quick snaps.... but we weren't really happy with the results as he was not going into his deep sleep for even a moment.... this second attempt wiped off the earlier disappointments... but we still hope to catch another session with Saadi before he is no longer a newborn....







anyway, our idea was a to use some props to show how small the little champ was.... and to keep things simple, I kept the lighting setup fairly simple.... used two light here... used the "Lazy Light" for an overall fill and used a YN-560 + 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox combination to remove any other shadows.... for the first six shots, I used a cheap 28-80mm lens for general convenience, and as I was also using a small aperture for a bit of depth.... for the last four images, I switched to a 50mm 1.4 lens to create a soft look with shallow DoF....





please excuse for the big watermarks.... we just don't want these images showing up in a commercial venture without our knowledge.... we had experienced bad things before quite a few times...

a lot more coming up....