Category Archives: 5511 Project

I was asked to photograph the Cameron family so they can give the photos in an album as a gift to the childrens grandmother. The original plan was to photograph them at Monmouth Battlefield Park but we changed it to Lake Topanemus in Freehold, NJ. Initially I set up my gear at the small beach camera near the edge of the water but at 11am the sun was too much and cause crazy shadows across the face. I moved to what turned out to be a much better location which is in the shade and has a nice view between trees of the lake. The sun was coming straight through and served as a great back light!

Along with my D700, I used a Nikon 24-70mm lens, Nikon SU-800 to trigger a Nikon SB-900 shooting an umbrella. On the other side I had a silver reflector taking some of that sun and putting back on to the front of the family which helped reduce a lot of shadows.

After the family photo was complete we walked around and I took a lot of candid shots of the family. I had fun and I know they did too. I know the grandmother will love the album!

Janet is a singer/songwriter from New Jersey who needed some photos for her myspace music page.  She has never modeled before so she was quite nervous.  Janet made it really easy for me to get good shots because she is a very photogenic girl.  We shot at Monmouth Battlefield State Park, in a few different locations. My favorite shot of the shoot was on the picnic bench you see in the photo.  I shot with my D700 with the SU-800 triggering the SB-900 aimed through the a white umbrella.  The effect was a very soft light.  My exposure was at 1/250 shutter speed and ranging from f/2.8 to f/4.5 to give an even light from the blurred background to subject. After this setup I added an extra SB-900 to the shoot and we changed locations.  Here are some other shots.

http://5511.scottwyden.com

I was bored and waiting for Lost to come on and decided to take 5 minutes and do some self portraits.  I had the Nikon 14-24 lens on my D700 from the previous day at the NY Auto Show so I decided to leave it on.  I placed an SB900 underneath the camera aimed up at my face.  For this shot I was actually tethered to the strobe because I had my gear set up for an event I have to shoot soon.  While I sat on my bed giving a creepy look to the shiny glass staring me in the eye I pushed the remote trigger and got some pretty sweet shots.  They aren’t amazing but it’s practice and it’s fun.   The SB-900 was set to the lowest possible output and the exposure was 1/250 at f/2.8

After a few shots I took some Sylvania DOT-it LED‘s and placed them around my bed.  It added some extra flavor to the shot, but nothing crazy.

Thanks for checking it out!

Scott