Swinging By

Swinging By, originally uploaded by RLHyde [breatheindigital].

I realized quite late in the day that I needed to post up a photo for today, and the shots from the boudoir set I did on Wednesday (my first paying gig!) aren't ready yet, nor have I screened them with the client. So, as it turned out, Kathleen and I headed out to a nearby playground that we like to take walks through (and play on), but we had only about 20 minutes to get a shot off before a thunderstorm blew in. The thunder storm failed to really come our way, but it was threatening, and I didn't feel like having my equipment out, or be surrounded by a metal play structure, while there was lightning in the sky. Call me nervous.

Dish of Beauty

Dish of Beauty, originally uploaded by RLHyde [breatheindigital].

I've been big into building my own fancy light augmentation tools lately. I could be spending many hundreds of dollars on professional tools, or I could just put together stuff for free or nearly free. Such is the case with this photo.

There are these things called "beauty dishes", which, as you might imagine, are meant to make girls look radiant and beautiful, or rather more so than usual. They're mostly out of my price range, and most of them are built for studio lights anyway, not little flashes like mine. So, I built one out of a turkey pan. Presto, awesome light. Took about 5 minutes to make.

Of course it helps to have people like Cammila on hand to let you experiment with all your new photo equipment, but hey, at least the hardware is easy to come by.

Walls of Depot Town

Blue Wall, originally uploaded by RLHyde [breatheindigital].

I love Ypsilanti, and it seems that I love it more and more every time I spend some time around the Depot Town area. Kathleen and I spent much of the day there on Saturday (lunch at Sidetrack, a trip to Shadow Art Fair at the Corner, and some reading at the Ugly Mug), and while we were around Depot Town I noticed how beautiful these old buildings really are. I just had to get a few shots of her posing in front of them.

I think I'll definitely be using these areas as backdrops for photo shoots in the future, so keep your eyes pealed.

Red Wall, originally uploaded by RLHyde [breatheindigital].