‘The Fini PotD’

5D Mk IV – EF 16-35mm F/2.8L – 640W Strobes (x3) – 1/200, f/11, ISO 100, Eval Meter

Well my Peeps, we did it! All good things must end, this includes Project 365. I thought and thought what the final PotD should be and ultimately, Roxie gave me the best advice – be festive. Since it’s New Years Eve, I thought I’d make this PotD festive and unique. Roxie had the idea for the champagne. I then combined it with champagne glasses I received while working for ISP. I thought that was only fitting since my long career in public safety, and supporting public safety, has come to an end. We ended up putting in the streamers and confetti to add more festiveness, and Roxie wrote up the small reminders on the confetti. In hindsight, there is some semblance to the very first PotD – that one was taken in the same location and is also on a black background.

At the beginning of this project, this would have been a difficult shot for me. It is a focus stack of 14 pictures. In addition, I used 3 strobes – two on each side (primary light was left), and an overhead light. The shoot was done tethered to my iMac which is where I controlled the camera. The three Einstein strobes were bluetooth connected via the HUB attached to my hot shoe which I controlled their individual settings through an app on my phone. My Seconic L-358 light meter was attached via cable to the HUB. It was invaluable in getting the aperture correct. The 14 images were initially processed in Lightroom, then imported into Zerene Stacker. The stacked image was then imported back into Lightroom for final processing.

I want to thank everyone for supporting me on this project over the year. In the next week, I will be updating this site with additional info regarding the project. Things like statistics (# photos shot, favorite lens, most used cameras), things I learned, what I’d do different, and the photographers picks of the Best Photos of 2022.

By the way, this is the latest I’ve posted a PotD. Cheers and Happy New Year! Love you all!