Fascinated by The Light

Last Saturday was a day of firsts and surprises. I was shooting a 5-month-old and his parents. And I invited a photography intern to join me for this session. That was a first for me, a solo photographer for 10 years. The intern’s employer has an Omicron Chromatically Correct LED Ringlight and he sent it along with his intern to use at the session. Let the surprises begin!

This is the most awesome light! I was fascinated from the moment I saw it and it just kept getting better. The light is big enough to hold lots of LEDs, so it’s bright, yet it’s not heavy. It’s “continuous on” is perfect for the way I like to shoot. We weren’t using a tripod with it, and hand held it takes a bit to get used to the balance. The results are worth the effort! I’m hoping that future development might include a padded hand hold of sorts. Back to the light. The color of the light really matched my sunlight tuned continuous cold lights, so no color competition, just an extra glow of beautiful, “natural” looking light. The additional light gave us faster shutter speeds which is an important element in capturing sharp images of squirming, wiggling babies.

Then there are the perfect round little catch-lights in the baby’s eyes. Love the effect! And unlike flash which can be difficult to control with the delicate skin of a baby, this is a soft gentle light. How it can be both very bright and gentle is for the scientists to describe. For the artist it’s just wonderful, and that’s enough for me.

As a shooter of a mirrorless camera system that creates outstanding video, the continuous light source is critical. I was able to capture a couple of video clips and the light really helps them look their best. Not having to have one light source for video and another for stills is very important to the flow and enjoyment of the session. This light does it all and beautifully!

If getting to see and use the light wasn’t enough of a first and wonderful surprise, the light held one more delight for us. The baby could not take his eyes off of it! He was fascinated by the light, which made getting him to look where we wanted a lot easier than rattling, squeaking and all the other funny stuff that we do to get babies to look.

Saturday was really fun, the images are wonderful and now I must add that light to my kit. Hats off to Quantum for being innovative and doing it so well!

A little about me and my studio:
After 20+ years in a computer tech job, I am enjoying a second and more fulfilling career as a portrait and sports photographer in suburban Milwaukee. For portraits I work on location and from my cozy residential studio.

I have met with some personal challenges and needed to reduce the physical strain from carrying heavy pro cameras and lenses around. I jumped into the mirrorless world with both feet and no safety net. As of April 2012 I have retired my big DSLR’s and picked up a couple of small, light mirrorless cameras and now use them on every shoot. I’m evolving from a still photo only photographer into a photo+video+audio hybrid image maker.