Each season, I capture photographs of players who play for my travel baseball team. This season, I'm managing a 10U team--so all of the players are ten years old. I rarely photograph people, so this gives me an opportunity to shoot some portraits of willing subjects. Well, at least their parents are willing!

In fact, the last time I set up the studio lights was for last season's portraits. As a result, I had some difficulty getting the Cyber Commander to synchronize with the receivers. In other words, I was unable to set the device up in such a way that I could control the power of the strobes from the camera using the commander. Although it's been several years since I purchased the kit from Paul C. Buff, I decided to try calling the company. To my surprise, my call was answered promptly by a knowledgeable representative who was able to address my problem in minutes. Now, that's great customer service!

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the session:

Rafe SlagerRafe Slager of the 10U Orland Par Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on June 2, 2017 After posting a few pictures on photography forums for critique, I received questions about how this photograph was lit. So, here was my set up:

LightingSetupUse this to share your lighting setup or to document your setup for future reference. Email me at kevin@kertzdesign for comments and/or suggestions. Not for commercial use. For the background, I unfolded a 5'x7' Botero collapsible background and clipped it to some netting inside one of our batting cages. I lit the background with an Einstein strobe and placed a red gel on the strobe. The main light was an Einstein strobe placed inside a large softbox. I asked a parent to hold a large piece of white foam board at an angle that provided fill light. Fill light is even more important when the subject is wearing a baseball cap!

CLICK HERE to view more images from the photo session.

This morning, my "Florida State Capitol" picture won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day". CLICK HERE to view Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day page.

This image was captured during my tour of the state capitols. At this point, I've photographed 49 of the 50 state capitols. My next and final state capitol is Juneau, Alaska. To view some of the favorite capitol photographs, please CLICK HERE.

This marks the 42nd time that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day". Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

Florida State CapitolImaging Resource's Photo of the Day for June 9, 2016

I was anxious to photograph something, so I desperately looked for a subject in my front yard! I came across an ordinary green leaf. I was skeptical about whether I would create any interesting photographs of this rather ordinary subject, but that's all I had at the time.

After capturing some rather boring pictures of the leaf, I took a much closer look using my Nikon 200 f/4 Micro lens. Before long, I concentrated on a section of the leaf near where the stem meets the leaf. The "scene" reminded me of a river of yellow flowing between two very steep green hills.

I've always liked the color combination of green and yellow. I held a small Nikon flash unit behind the leaf to help bring out the colors and the texture of the leaf.

At first, I made sure to line up the stem so that it was aligned vertically. However, that straight line led to a boring composition. In the end, I decided to let the line run diagonally through the frame--which almost always leads to a more interesting and dynamic composition.

Green leafCloseup of a green leaf in Orland Park, Illinois on May 20, 2017 Out of this single, ordinary green leaf, I created a series of pictures from a photo shoot that lasted about 90 minutes! It paid off to take a closer look.

To view more images of this leaf, as well as some other photos of a pine tree and grass, please CLICK HERE.

Over the past few days, I've been playing with my macro lens. While walking around the neighborhood, I spotted some subjects to photograph. Unfortunately, it's been very windy here in Chicagoland. Strong wind and macro photography generally don't go well together.

So, I decided to bring a couple of the subjects inside. This eliminates the wind and allows me to more carefully compose the pictures as well as to control the lighting and backgrounds. To accomplish this, I quickly set up a little studio on my kitchen table!

Here's what it looks like:

#1: Nikon D800 Camera

#2: Nikon 200 f/4 Micro Lens

#3: Nikon SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander (to trigger #4)

#4: Nikon SB-R200 Wireless Remote Speedlight with Diffuser

#5: Wimberley Plamp

#6: Scissors (to trim unwanted pine needles)

#7: Foam Board (white on one side and black on the other)

#8: Gitzo Tripod

#9: Pine Tree Branch (my subject)

Truth be told, the flash unit (along with the commander to trigger it) probably wan't necessary for creating these pictures. I haven't used these pieces of equipment for a while, so I thought it would be helpful to get the practice with them.

Here are a few of the images of this subject:

Pine tree budsBuds on pine tree in Orland Park, Illinois on May 18, 2017 Pine tree budsBuds on pine tree in Orland Park, Illinois on May 18, 2017 And, here's an image of another subject using the same set up with the foam board flipped to its reverse black side:

Curly grassCurly grass in Orland Park, Illinois on May 18, 2017

This morning, my "Orangutan" picture won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day". CLICK HERE to view Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day page.

This image was captured during my last trip to the Brookfield Zoo. I recently posted a blog entry about this particular photograph.

This marks the 41st time that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day". Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

OrangutanImaging Resource's Photo of the Day for May 18, 2017. This photo earned Honorable Mention as First Runner-Up for May.

Last week, I created a number of photographs using different perspectives of a single dandelion clock. All of these pictures were created with my Nikon D800 and Nikon 200 f4 Micro lens.

Dandelion clockDandelion clock in Orland Park, Illinois on April 28, 2017 Dandelion clockDandelion clock in Orland Park, Illinois on April 28, 2017 Dandelion clockDandelion clock in Orland Park, Illinois on April 28, 2017 Dandelion clockDandelion clock in Orland Park, Illinois on April 28, 2017 Dandelion clockDandelion clock in Orland Park, Illinois on April 28, 2017 Macro photography allows a photographer to capture images of ordinary things in a way that is not ordinarily seen.

This morning, my website welcomed its 200,000th visitor! This number counts only unique visitors--in other words, repeat visits are not counted in this total.

These visitors originate from 157 countries and represent all 7 continents (including Antarctica).

The internet makes it possible to share my photographs with so many people from around the World. I hope you enjoy the images half as much as I enjoy creating them.

On March 24th, my "Sandy Beach" photograph won Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day. At the end of each month, the judges at Imaging Resource review the daily winners and select the top five photographs for the month. The top three photos are awarded prizes (Adorama gift cards) and the other two are recognized as runner-ups.

My "Sandy Beach" photograph was awarded Third Place for the month of March, 2017. CLICK HERE to view the winning entries as well as all the daily winners for the month.