Vadim Molochnikov

Rabbi Portrait #2

Vadim — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:36:35 +0000

Candid moment.

Father and Son Football Sunday

Vadim — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:33:43 +0000

While we didn’t have much of a winter, spring hasn’t really arrived yet. This Sunday was the only nice day in the last two weeks. The last time I took some photos of Denis was when snow was still on the ground. So we grabbed a football and a camera and went out for a quick lifestyle photo shoot. The sun, which was hidden behind the clouds, was casting a nice soft light.

The key to great kids photography is engagement. It can’t just be a photo shoot, it has to be a play date.

Suburbia at Night

Vadim — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:26:32 +0000

The other night I couldn’t sleep so I grabbed my wide angle and roamed the neighborhood for half an hour. This is what I saw. Peace and quiet.

CustomUSB Blog Moved

Vadim — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:54:10 +0000

The official CustomUSB.com Blog has been moved to http://www.customusb.com/blog/. There, you can find all the past articles as well as all the new ones. I will still be updating it, it just looks move official now.

CustomUSB.com Official Blog

Capability Vs. Credibility

Vadim — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:16:35 +0000

You may be the most capable sales person on the planet, but if I can’t trust you, we can’t work together.

Create the Best Damn Flash Bouncer You Will Ever Use

Vadim — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:24:46 +0000

Years ago, when I first started shooting weddings, I came across a pretty novel way of bouncing the light from your camera flash onto the subject. The photographer I was shooting with was using a piece of white cardboard that was mounted to his flash using a small strap of velcro. It produced a nice soft light which evenly filled in all the dark areas on the subject and worked similar to the LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer, but without the hefty price tag.

Prior to that, I either bounced the light off the ceiling/wall (which didn’t work too well if you had high or painted ceilings) or aimed the flash directly at the subject (which created harsh shadows and unevenly exposed areas). Compared to this, the handmade bouncer was a revelation.

The original cardboard bouncer was cut from a regular piece of cardboard and lasted only a couple of weddings before it became dirty or damaged. For the past several years I’ve been trying to perfect this product and I think I have the winning formula.

If you were looking for a way to diffuse the harsh light from you on-camera and off-camera flash, this is the only flash bouncer you will ever need.

Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:

White Foam Board – you can pick this up at Walmart, Target or any stationary store, like Staples. It costs anywhere from $2 to $4, depending on size and store.
Scotch All Weather Fasteners – for mounting the bouncer to the flash unit.
Flash Bouncer Template – I made a template in Adobe Illustrator for cutting out the bouncer from the foam board.

STEP 1

Download the Flash Bouncer Template and use it to cut out the shape of the bouncer from the foam board. For mine, I used a laser engraver which made the edges smooth and even. (see photos below)

STEP 2

Attach Scotch All Weather Fasteners to the bottom part of the bouncer and back head piece of your flash. (see photos below)

That’s it!

Here’s how the whole kit looks assembled.

The Rabbi

Vadim — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:13:36 +0000

Shimmy Susskind, a Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi doing the evening prayer at his home in Vernon Hills, IL. Chabad is the world’s largest and best-known Hasidic movements with more than 1300 institutions in over 70 countries. The Susskind family, originally from Brooklyn, established the Vernon Hills Chabad house in 2010. Only a year into its existence, it already has more than 300 members.

Lighting: PCB Ultra 1800 with Westcott umbrella at about 30 degrees, pointing from subject’s chest level up. 1/16th power. Canon 430 flash with handmade bouncer on top of bookshelf behind subject, -2 compensation. You can see entire light setup here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/molotalk/5886898500/in/photostream.

Camera Settings: Canon 40D, 50mm f/8 1/50 ISO 400

Editing: tone correction, manual dodge and burn, sharpening

Royce

Vadim — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:21:13 +0000

This is Royce (known as Pedro in his formal life). He was adopted a month ago from Orphans of the Storm, an animal shelter in Riverwoods, IL, and renamed after a Latin singer, Prince Royce (because my wife likes Latin music). We never knew we wanted a dog, until we saw him.

Best of Miami Music Festival 2010

Vadim — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:19:33 +0000

Just got back from Miami where MMF and The Urban Network put together a music conference. All of these photos were taken with my new $1000 point-and-shoot, Leica D-Lux 4. I gotta tell you, I love the image quality this little bad boy produces. It is excellent in low light conditions and as long as you have a steady hand, you can take low noise shots at ISO 400. If I was on the Leica marketing team, I would definitely put together a campaign – “I am a professional photographer. And this is my point-and-shoot.”

On the final note, if I was to describe Miami in two words, they would be “fake opulence.” Definitely NOT my kind of town.

113

Vadim — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:06:35 +0000

My first math book was wrong. One plus one does not equal two. It equals three. In fact, sometimes it equals a lot more than that.

If I am skilled at something and you are skilled at something and we collaborate, great things can happen – greater than what we can do individually.

This is how open source and social media work. Someone starts a project, others join in and the end result is something all of those people could never have achieved individually.

I propose a new term – 113.

Obama’s election was a 113. Twitter is a 113. Being remarkable requires 113.