CushPhlog

A soggy engineer

Aaron Cushing — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:57:35 +0000

Another shot from the series pertaining to our Innovative Projects publication. This guy did some work on fish ladders: devices that allow fish to swim around a dam in a river or stream. Pretty cool stuff. The concept of the shoot was to have him soaked and holding a ladder. Ok then, I can do that!

Here’s a fun one, of the many

ISO 250, 1/40sec @ f7.1, 20mm. ambient flourescent gym lighting, with a strobe slightly to camera-left.

here’s the final that was chosen to run with the article. It’s not my fave from the day, but it works best with the layout in the mag. Oh well.

This has obviously had some post-production done on it. Mostly just a bit of Lightroom crunching, the background zapped out in Photoshop, and the shadow & reflection rebuilt.

ISO250, 1/40sec @ f7.1 18mm. Again, ambient flourescent and a strobe at camera-right.

All in all, this was a very fun day. I scored an assistant for the shoot–a fella from a local photog school (thanks Neil!!). A church gym, a giant tarp taped to the wall & floor, compressed air, water, bubbles, ladders, and an engineer who wasn’t much of an egghead.

electric spuds

Aaron Cushing — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:35:19 +0000

Got another call for a conceptual image. This is a guy who helped design a biomass facility that burns potato waste to generate electricity. This is a two-light setup. Main light is firing through a softbox from camera-left, about 5′ off the ground, and a fill card just out of frame on the right. Another flash is zoomed and snooted blasting at the potatoes on the table. I ended up combining two shots in post, in order to get a bit of depth to the exposure.

Most of this is 1/200sec at f8.0 ISO 160 at 18mm. Darker bits were a stop slower, with only the second flash firing. Combined with some masking in PhotoShop, and a bit of lightroom twiddling.

this shoot tired me out!

Aaron Cushing — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:59:07 +0000

I got a call first thing in the morning that I was needed to shoot a location portrait that afternoon. Naturally, I’m swamped in other work, nursing a nasty cough & sinus cold, and just wanting to do ANYTHING else. But the show must go on. The engineer and his client were only available this particular day, and the site had a rare stockpile of the material in question (shredded tires). So we packed a van, drove the 45 minutes to the site, met with the plant manager briefly (who had thankfully already been warned), set-up & shot for about 30 minutes, and drove back to the office. Fun times.

This one is 1/100sec at f8.0, ISO 200 at 32mm, with a big blast of flash from camera-left to try to combat the afternoon sun.

This one was 1/100sec at f11, ISO200, at 18mm. A blast of flash from camera-left too, but I’m luvin the lens flare here.

This particular facility recycles tires into various rubber products. The pile we’re standing on is used as a lightweight aggregate fill–a base for road construction in specialized cases. Yup, chunks of shredded tires. These guys used the product in an award-winning engineering project near St. Stephen NB. Cool.

Ethiopian Schoolboys

Aaron Cushing — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:18:32 +0000

I met these two fine fellows while touring a school in Addis.

1/200sec @ f7.1, 55mm. Converted to B&W in Lightroom.

Catching Up

Aaron Cushing — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:14:20 +0000

Well, I haven’t been shooting DAILY, but but as much as seems reasonable. I’m in the process of adding a bunch of flicks from the past couple of months. Be sure to scroll through the “older posts”, because I’m posting these catch-up things under the date they were shot.

Bass

Aaron Cushing — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:13:02 +0000

Matthew West played a concert, with full band, here in Fredericton, along with Josh Wilson. Excellent all around! Here’s a closeup of the tattered old Fender Jazz bass.

1/30sec @ f5.6, 105mm. cropped & sharpened in Lightroom

Christmassy Portrait

Aaron Cushing — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:10:49 +0000

Part of a series of Christmassy portraits for work. These were my first experience using a seamless background, and a 3-light setup. One BG light clamped to the back of the seat; mainlight is a medium softbox at camera left about 6′ high, in fairly close; fill light on camera right is another strobe through a white umbrella. These were lots of fun, and the final product is cool too.

1/125sec @ f4.2, 32mm. Background to be totally removed in Photoshop, and composited with a bunch of other similar shots.

Thanksgiving Portraits

Aaron Cushing — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:08:04 +0000

I’m not much of a portrait shooter, but I’m trying. These two monkeys are my boys, Christopher on the left, and Liam on the right.

1/80sec @ f5.0, 56mm. Desaturated in LightRoom, and cropped I think.

Newfoundland Rocks

Aaron Cushing — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:05:59 +0000

Some rocky Newfoundland turf. Beautiful. This was one frame from what became a pano. I could’ve stayed and wandered for a long time.

1/125sec @ f5.6, 18mm. A bit of LR love with vibrance and some sharpening.

Another Newfie Lake

Aaron Cushing — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:04:12 +0000

Another one from my NL trip. This really reminds me of something that my Grandfather would’ve painted.

1/200sec @ f7.1, 18mm. A bit of LR push, but again, just to recapture the feeling of the moment.