So… this was my evening. I’ll post the final result tomorrow 😁

I played around filming the Dragon Dads with an anamorphic lens a few weeks ago. I didn’t have any specific product in mind, just having fun. I think this came out pretty epic though.

Went out Friday night (really, Saturday morning) to photograph a cool abandoned building Tom Sorensen found just south of where that monstrous data center in Box Elder is supposed to go in. Tom, Benjamin Sant, and I all went out there. I threw some Aputure MC light pucks on stands to light the interior (it was creepy as hell in there, especially with rodents I could hear but not see scurrying about), and grabbed a shot with moonlight to light the exterior. The foreground is 18 x 30-second exposures, and the sky is 78 x 30-second exposures. All at f/2.8, ISO 1600, using a Sony A7 IV camera and Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM lens. The second image adds two more sky exposures where we had either extremely bright or extremely long meteor show up. I’m still debating which I like more. The third image is a screen shot of a deep sky target i started imaging the same night, and the fourth is BTS, shot on my Sony A6700 camera and Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 lens.

Just had a great haircut by Amber Lee Bridenstine. She showed me how to do a down/curly look. I might mix it up and do that once in a while, but I’ll probably still tie it back most of the time. Still, if you’re in the Ogden area, and looking for an LGBT-affirming hair stylist (she does coloring and other stuff too), she’s good peeps. Still debating if I want to do something adventurous for pride month this year, like rainbow tips…

I just saw an ad for a Samsung T7 SSD pop up on my feed and just for giggles I decided to see what price they’re going for right now. Holy crap. I spent less than $300 for one of these drives a year and a half ago and now they’re selling for over $1K. Between the Strait of Hormuz putting a strain on oil and AI putting a strain on electronics, this is ridiculous.

Gobos on gobos. I thought I’d take my new @aputure.lighting Spotlight II I won at NAB for a spin. Custom gobo of my logo made by @machine_artist, shining through an Aputure Spotlight Mini Zoom and 60D, surrounded by a projection from the Spotlight II using my @amarancreators 300c, which gets a lot of power from the larger Spotlight versus my little Amaran Spotlight SE. Rim light is the new Amaran Ray 120c with the mini fresnel. The key light is an Amaran F22c and the background gradient is from an Amaran PT4c and PT1c.

NAB was awesome and closed out with me winning a brand new Aputure Spotlight II! This wasn’t a random drawing, but a game where we were given three seconds to memorize a random color, and then accurately recreate it using HSL (hue/saturation/luminance) sliders. I managed to beat out five other players, one of which had an “ASC” on his badge. Thank you Aputure!

So long Colorado. See you next month for the US Air Force Academy graduation. Now, onto Las Vegas for NAB!

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