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~ Today's Shave, November 21st, 2010 ~

Cream/Soap: P.160 Tipo Morbido
Brush: Made Rite, Finest Badger
Razor: Gem 1912
Blade: Gem
Balm: Kiehl's

The Single Edge razor is a sweet close shave, but seems to demand some special attention.  Though it is smooth and ultra close, you can get too much of a good thing and shaving with this on two consecutive days is a challenge.  This is the Gem 1912 manufactured in Brooklyn, New York.  It is loaded with a standard single edge blade, such as what you would use to scrape your vehicle registration sticker from the windshield of your car.  Scary sharp.

The Made Rite brush, refitted with a Finest Badger Fan shaped knot, is absolutely superb.  Not a single complaint!

P.160 carries a wonderful almond scent that lasts through out the shave.  It lathers thick and slick and although I was initially challenged with getting a good lather from it, we have come to an agreement..  This soft soap is no longer available, but I have plenty left and also have two more tubs in my inventory.

Sweet shave today!!

Image from the Nikon D3, 70-200 f/2.8 VR,.  Oddly, this superb lens doesn't allow for focusing on subjects closer than about five feet.  When fitted with a 12mm extension tube you can focus on subjects as close as inches away.  Extension tubes are hollow tubes that simply move the lens further away from the camera's sensor.  They don't have optics and most don't have electrical contacts, but the set used here, made by Kenko, do communicate electronically with the camera body and as such, auto focus and all aspects of metering are retained.  Light is provided by one Nikon SB800 speed light camera right, with a Lumiquest soft box and one SB-800 camera left and slightly behind the setup with a Wescott Apollo soft box.  Lights were triggered by Nikon SU-800 controller.  

Working with small speed lights is a joy.  This setup was shot in the brightly lit home studio, but by properly controlling the exposure settings for the ambient light, the background can be rendered black while the two flash units bring the light back to an appealing composition.  This allows for control of two distinct zones of light...Zone one, the area behind the subject ,can be fully balanced from a brightly lit scene to dark shadows without impacting the light in zone two, that which is falling on the subject.