My Dad

I really love my mom and dad.   They are going through some tough times right now as my dad battles cancer.  I would appreciate your prayers for him as he continues his chemotherapy and radiation.

The photo below is one of my favorite photos of my dad.   I shot this in June of 2007 during the timeframe that my dad was being treated for a life-threatening heart ailment.  We were sitting in the breezeway between his house and garage and had natural light coming in from the right and left.  It was about 11:30 am, and the light coming through the lattice work wasn't very strong, but was usable.  I had my D80 and a 50mm/f1.4 lens and rudely photographed him as we were talking.  He was a good sport about it and tried not to ruin the pose.  I used 1/30 second exposure at f/4.0 and ISO 800.  I did some work on it to unclutter the background and to lessen the processed noise.

This photo looks like it was shot in a studio, doesn't it?  Actually, it is very difficult to produce light of this quality in the studio.  I built a large softbox today to try to simulate light coming through a large window.  It worked very well.  It is about 5 feet wide and 8 feet tall with two novatron lights firing into it.  When I saw this photo, it made me realize that I could probably come close to duplicating this light by building another large softbox for the opposite side.

Until next time,

Tony

My Dad

(click to enlarge)