Photorturnity

Sporcle Guys, May 14, 2009
Derek Pharr and Matthew Ramme, Seattle, Washington
Nikon D80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 @ f/8, 1/200s, ISO 100
Developed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3, ACR 4.4 profile

Let me introduce you to Sporcle.com. It is awesome. You will lose much free time there.

Sporcle is the product of one of my soccer teammates and a couple of his buddies. Today I got an e-mail from Matt asking if I owned a "real camera". (No, Matt, my camera exists in a plane of existence between this one and the next, and you can only use it when you submit to the will of the spoon that does not bend.) The Boston Globe writing a story on the site and requested a photo to go with it. Matt wanted something better than a point-and-shoot snapshot, hence the call to me.

We found a shady spot around the corner from my house (since my currently sprained ankle limits my travel), I set up the ol' SB-800 flash on my tripod-cum-lightstand with the LumiQuest Softbox III, and we snapped away. A little tweaking in Lightroom and here you go. Not bad for a one-light shot, methinks. Though I would have preferred a taller stand to highlight the hair a little, and a second light or reflector to fill the shadows on the left side.

Although nothing is guaranteed, I'm pretty psyched to think that a photo of mine might be in print. Even if it is only in Boston. Thanks to Matt for remembering that I'm a photo geek, and thanks to David Hobby for his numerous tips on how to not suck at this sort of thing.