I just returned from an assignment to shoot a home here in Bel Air that goes all out in decorating for Halloween. I purposely arrived at sunset so I could make good use of the sky as well as see the lights on display.

This shot was taken at 6:50p — about 20 minutes after sunset.

To make the sky look even more blue, I set my camera’s white balance to tungsten. The rest of the camera settings were 1/4 sec SS, ISO 200, f/5.6.

I also used two off-camera strobes, both with a CTO gel to match my tungsten setting of the camera. One Vivitar 285 at 1/8 power on lightstand about 15 feet in front of left side of house. Second Vivitar 285 at 1/2 power in my right hand over my head pointed at front door area.

This technique works great for portraits taken at dusk with the sky in the background.

Yesterday I was out on an absolutely beautiful day taking photos of the Hunter Trials put on by the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club.

If you’ve ever been to an event like this, you would know that horse jumps are spread out over a large area. Typically as a photographer, you can usually find a location to capture two, maybe three jumps at a reasonable distance to produce decent images.

For the first time at an event, I experimented with using a remote camera. It was like being in two places at the same time!

For this shot, I setup my camera about 8 feet away from the side of the jump with my 14mm lens. I used a special cable that connects the camera to one of my Pocket Wizard radio receivers.

I was about 1500 feet away shooting at a different jump, but could see this jump and manually triggered my transmitter as horses made their jumps at this fence. Being 1500 feet away and not having a good angle (horse running away from me) does bring in more challenges — such as knowing exactly when the horse is about to jump. I found myself hitting the trigger button a bit early or late, so I did not always get the “perfect” shot. Now knowing this, I will make sure to setup future remote cameras in locations that I will be able to nail the jump at a higher percentage.

I’m looking forward to my next equestrian event to try this out again.

On Friday night the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opened it’s 2007 season at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. This night also welcomed Maestra Marin Alsop, the first woman to head a major American symphony.

For this night, I was contracted to photograph the “after-party” consisting of candids and some posed shots for the BSO of the cast and BSO donors. To help light the room and subjects, I utilized two off-camera strobes, as well as an on-camera flash for fill light.

There were approximately 300 in attendance, and the mood of the night was extremely up-beat. I’m sure the champange and food helped, but in general I think everyone was extremely pleased with the nights performance.