Photography by Randy Hanna

Many of you know, both of my daughters as well as my two son-in-laws are  in the military as Officers.  Today I spoke with Coogan (the youngest and a 2006 graduate from the US Air Force Academy), just before she boarded her flight from Virgina to Afghanistan.  While deployment is a father’s worst nightmare, I know that she is well trained and will be well taken care of .  During her frequent visits, I am always able to sneak in a few photos sessions with Coogan.  She is a great model and a true champ when it comes to tolerating Dad’s continuous testing of new lighting equipment.  So in tribute to Coogan, here are a few shots of her from our most recent shoot in October.  Take care dear and be safe.

Love Dad

All images above were taken with a Nikon D700, 70-200 VR lens, SB900’s in 24 inch Lastolite softboxes.

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The annual migration of the Pink Salmon from saltwater to fresh water for spawning is underway on the Puyallup River.  The fishermen and women are shoulder to shoulder in hopes of taking a few fish home.  After painting the front of the house for two days, I got permission to leave the compound.   I grabbed the camera, my dry pants and headed for the river.  I caught the last light of the evening and even took a spill in the water as my wet boots caught a large underwater rock.  I went in up to my shoulder and all I could think about was getting my camera up over my head.  With all of the fishermen looking on, a few water drops were all that hit my D700, but man was the water running down the inside of my dry pants COLD.  Being cold and wet, I was now more interested in getting out of the water rather than getting a great shot.  Unless I decide to return over the next day or so, the shot below will have to do.

Fishermen as far as one can see

Success can be measured by the fish in hand or on the stringer.  The young lady below smiled from ear to ear when she finally landed her fish.

I have mine, where is yours?

Of course a visit to the river is never complete without a stop at my favorite roadside fruit stand for some home grown veggies and fruits.  Wet up to the neck after my spill in the river, in I went.  Soon Autumn will be here and the fresh fruits from the Yakima Valley will be a thing of the past;  already gone are the Walla Walla Sweets.

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This past weekend I had a wonderful time working with Aimee at the Iris Modeling Studio in Seattle.  Aimee was a complete pro and wonderful to work with, simply a natural in front of the camera.  She knew exactly where her best lines were and worked very hard to make sure the camera saw them; when I would move, she would move with me.   These shots were taken with a D300 or D700 using 17-55 or a 70-200 zoom.  In most cases the light was in the upper right in a large softbox.  Reflectors were positioned around Aimee to control the shadows.  In many of the shots, I was wanting deeper shadows than I normally work with.  It turned out to be a hit or miss when it came to balancing the shadows and the strobes.

I’ll be teaching some lighting techniques this weekend at Studo Q in Seattle.  While our primary focus will be the Nikon Creative Lighting System, I will also have on hand a number of light modifiers as well as some new “just out” toys.  The wonderful folks at Radio Poppers sent up some of their new transmitters and receivers for us to play with and we will be sure to give them a hard workout.  I have a shot in mind which will really challenge the Poppers.  Stacy, our lovely model for they day, will be surrounded in a metal cage thanks to an old historic freight elevator.  No doubt, RF signals will be bouncing all over the place; let’s see if they are up to the challenge.

Ok Ok Ok.  This is a major departure from the normal way I shoot and what I usually shoot however, it is all about learning to light your subject to create the visual impact.  Yes – you guessed it, I am working on a special project.  You will no doubt hear more about this particular project as the time draws near.  Till then…..

Cheers and happy photoing

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You have seen a great deal of my youngest daughter, Coogan, lately.  To keep the playing field even, I thought I had better toss in a photo of my oldest daughter, Alexis.  I am blessed by having two wonderful and beautiful daughters.  I am even more blessed by having them as my best friends.  Life simply does not get much better than that!

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Hanalei Valley Lookout offers one of the most famous views on Kauai. The valley is one mile wide and six miles long. Most of the taro grown in Hawaii is grown here. On the valley floor is a one-way truss bridge built in 1912. The bridge was damaged by a tsunami in 1957, and subsequently reinforced.

Although the lighting is all wrong on this shot, I wanted to share with you what ease it is to do a complex panorama from Lightroom using the export to CS4 command for panoramas.  Before using this feature in CS4, I used third party software such as Pano Factory or other stitching software.  New to CS4 is a refined stitching algorithm that really does a great job.  The shot above is a 7 shot stitch using Lightroom and CS4.  So what is involved in making photos like this?

• A level shooting platform in which you can maintain a constant horizon throughout the rotation.
• Set your camera to full manual.  This means WB, focus, and exposure.
• After doing your overall scene exposure evaluation (try the zone system approach), set the exposure.
• Using a cable release to trigger the shutter to minimize the introduction of external motion, take a series of shots overlapping by 30%.
• Process the brightest image in LR and sync the setting to the others in the series.
• Select the images in LR and export to CS4 for panorama.
• Make your final adjustments in CS4 or return the image to LR for the same.

Congratulations, you just hit a home run.

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After some pains with my file manager on my server, I have now released my first blog, fully enabled with RSS support. I hope to post frequently from Africa to keep all up to date on my travels as well as general photography stuff.  Stay tuned as the blog becomes more customized and continues to grow.

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