CharleyL
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I've had an occasional (last was 2 years ago Christmas) glass of wine, but haven't been a regular drinker for about 28 years. I do have wine and whisky props for photography, and a few have been opened, but never drank. I was mostly a beer drinker though, and I just decided one day that I didn't need it, didn't like the resulting feeling any more, so why drink it.
So now I have a question. The whisky in the glass. Just soft drink for the bubbles and color? I recently bought some plastic ice cubes because the real ice was melting too quickly, sometimes. The plastic cubes look great, but don't float, so not the look that I wanted. So I'm back to using the real cubes, but have mixed the real with the plastic a few times. I have done a few food shoots for a restaurant, but used alternates for some of it (Never eat what I shoot). Glycerin droplets, applied one a a time in mixed sizes on glasses of cold drinks looks like real moisture droplets, and they don't move, if you keep them small.
I too have had my share of health problems. Nine heart surgeries, a pacemaker, cancer survivor twice, and metal knees from fire fighting. I just got out of the hospital last Wednesday, a 4 day treatment (but not surgery) for heart problems related to my pacemaker. At this time I'm the caregiver for my wife with broken back and broken pelvis, and a 54 year old son with MD who is spending his life in an electric wheelchair now. So I'm caregiver for both of them, but I need one myself. My time for photography is very limited lately. I'm soon to be 84 and do photography and woodworking to keep me busy and out of trouble, but neither is seeing much of me in last 4 years since wife's fall.
About 6 years ago I realized that with my children all now adults and out of the house I had a large 2nd master bedroom suite upstairs in my home that, except for some attic junk, would make a small, but workable photo/video studio. I have always wanted one of my own, but life kept getting in the way. So I set about converting this 19 X 26' bedroom into my shooting room. The big hallway at the top of the stairs is the hair/make-up, and break area. The refreshments are there, but the breaks always end up in the shooting room. Behind the camera are two doors, a walk-in closet, and a yet to be finished two sink master bathroom. There is another large and long walk-in closet off the hallway that contains some of my props, but it's mostly filled with family items.
All of my lighting power is now controlled by wireless remotes at the camera stands. I have two old 6'6" camera stands that I refurbished. The backdrops (6) are motorized with a wireless remote in the camera stands too, and I have added a wireless control for the center ceiling light, so I can turn this ceiling light on and off without moving in the darkened studio. There is a remote for this light at my computer and another one at the wheeled toolbox where I frequently set my camera between shoots, if it's not on a camera stand. A fourth wireless remote replaced the wall switch at the door. I like to leave the ceiling work light on during shoots, if it's light does not affect the shoot. I use the lower threshold F-Stop setting to block it if I can, but when necessary, I can turn it off and on now, without the need to move around in the dark during a shoot. I also have a wireless control at each camera stand that lets me turn on and off each kind/group of photo lights. strobe, LED panels for video, two 500 watt spot lights (theater effect), black lights for Halloween, etc. All power for lights now comes from ceiling outlets, so no cables on the floor to trip over. A minimum of tripod light stands on the floor too. A DIY ceiling grid keeps a lot off the floor. I can hang anything relatively light in weight like lights from this ceiling grid that's about 4" below the ceiling.
I've been shooting flowers lately. I am improving, but only just started with flowers about a year ago. Black backgrounds mostly, and light only on the flowers have been my latest attempts.
Charley
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