Last but not least

Okay, last but not least.

This is one of the coolest basses I've ever seen.

It's also a Tim Wilkinson design with Humbucker pick ups, three way toggle, master volume and two separate tone controls.

This has big funk and screaming all over it.

The neck is a solid through neck. Yup, on piece laminated neck from the but to the head all mahogany and maple with a tiger maple top under a loud red sunburst finish.

Photo specs: Pentax K20, smcPemtax 16-50mm f2.8 at 100ISO, 1/10 at f8.0.

That's enough from me for now.

Hope you enjoy, Derek

Gettin' Er Done!

Hey, I'm back. Gone for a while then full er up get it done.

Well I have to attribute it to the weather. Indoors and warm gets me in the studio and this is a great subject as far as I'm concerned.

This is my second guitar. It's a hollow body electric by Crafter. Happened to be in my brother's store ( J and H Music ) while the distributors sales rep was in. She had some sweet deals.

What's interesting with this guitar is not that it's just a hollow body electric but it also has active acoustic pick-ups inside for a very distinctive sound. You can plug this into an A/B switch and use both an electric guitar amp and an acoustic amp.

Anyway I love the tiger maple top on this very sweet guitar.

Hope you enjoy the shots,

Derek

Both were shot with a Pentax K20, 1/90 f6.7 at 100ISO. smc Pentax DA 16-50mm f2.8

One of My "Other Passions"

Okay, so here it is the last day of March and winter just doesn't want to let go. We got 8-10cm here and I'm not liking it one little bit.

Although it did prompt me to share two of my passions with you.

I have recently picked the guitar back up. Mainly because of my brother Jeff took over a guitar store recently and of course I can't resist a good thing.

So here I am playing guitar agin and photographing them as well. Gotta mix them up.

What I'll do is I'll post a couple of each at a time before I make a web gallery of them together.

Here's the first one. It's a Vintage AV1 special gold top. Designed by Tim Wilkinson in the UK and modeled after the famous Les Paul body shape, but

that's the only things they share (along with the fret inlays of course).

She has 2 stacked Humbucker pick-ups which lets you choose a single or double pick-up arrangement along with neck, bridge or both at once. She has an all mahogany body with mahogany neck and rosewood fret board. This is one Boisterous guitar when it wants to be.

Hope you enjoy.

The next one is a unique concept. That's all I'm going to say.

See you next time,

Derek

Smokes was his name!

Okay, here's one from my archives. It's just one of my favourite shots on slide film back in 1981.

This is one of my cats I had then which I saved from the SPCA. He was a siamese mix and about 6 months old when rescued. My wife and I had him, or should I say he had us, for about 10 years.( He's 2 here ).

We lost him in Mount Uniacke to an irresponsible neighbors dog. I mean the neighbor was irresponsible by letting their dog run free not the dog.

Anyway, I would have shot this here in Prospect with my K1000 and probably my smc Pentax-M 1:2 50mm f/2 on Fuji RD 35mm slide film.

Hope you enjoy, Derek

Update on that mini flash

Hi everyone, I realized a couple of things I omitted from yesterdays post.

First, let me clarify. Regardless of the fact that I use a Pentax does not mean I abhor Canons and Nikons. As a matter of fact I think they are great cameras. And to each his own, as long as you can make great pics. It just irks me when product is shoved down your throat. Enough on that topic.

Second, the lower image yesterday lost it's link to the larger view so I'm including it in today's post. There is a little noise in the shadows and I didn't want to put it in a noise reducer. I wanted to show what ISO 1600 at 1/750 second sync produced.

Third, I mentioned the "cheap" slaves I picked up but didn't give a link. Well here it is [slave link DigitalProTalk] and B&H [link]. I looked for it up here in the great white north but no luck.

Anyway, have a great Thursday, Derek

High Speed Sync

Hey everyone, here's a little tidbit I find facinating. It stems from photographers who have decided Canon and Nikon cameras are the "ONLY" cameras in the world. One of the main excuses I hear is high speed sync. If it don't got it then it's not a professional camera and therefore not worth shooting with.

Well, one thing I'll agree with, is high speed sync is great.

I shot these two after I received my most recent order from B&H. I ordered, on David Ziser's recommendation a couple of Smith-Victor wireless slave flashes, along with a few mounting attachments and extra diffusion umbrellas. 

Remember me mentioning the philosophy of finding what you need, with as much as you'll use for as cheap as you can get it for? Well this was one example. 2 wireless Slave flashes, two umbrellas and 2 Impact umbrella mount brackets. The brackets allow you to mount a flash, umbrella, clamp or anything else you can think of hanging off a stand. All for under 160.00 cdn including shipping and taxes to here in Halifax from New York.

Anyway, the theme here is do it for less. The main photo was shot hand held with a PENTAX K20D fitted with an smcPentax 12-24 lens at ISO100, 1/250 second at f/4.

The second was at ISO1600, 1/750 second at f/4. 

I mounted my main flash, a PENTAX AF-540 on top of the camera instead of another stand to get upper and side bounce on the shots respectively. I played with the main power for both to get just the amount of light I was looking for.

The vignetting was added for product focus. These aren't being used for a client just to demonstrate the concept and to try out the flashes and umbrellas which, if you hadn't guessed, I used and found they cycled as quick as my bracketing at 3 frames per second demanded.

Enjoy, Derek

Winter Sunset

Hey everyone, just wanted to share this with you. The shot was taken just as dusk was approaching here in Prospect. So I had to run out and shoot it. ISO100, 1/4s, f8 at 24mm with my K20D and the smc PENTAX DA Star 16-50mm F2.8 ED AL (IF) SDM lens.

Here's the [link] to the other photos I took.

Enjoy, Derek