Nothing says it better than this – thanks Scott, to all our active troops, and all the fallen ones before that paid the ultimate price for our country:
See you back here again tomorrow!
Category: personal
Photo walks, news, and a visit from Scott Kelby
So, as many of you know, Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), Kelby Media Group, Kelby Training Live, and leader of the pack of Photoshop guys over at Photoshop User TV, was in Denver yesterday on his Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tour. He led a seminar yesterday that, despite several technical difficulties, was pretty rockin’ when it comes to establishing a work flow in Lightroom.
Scott is also known for his annual worldwide photo walks that he started last year. This year response has just been enormous to the walks, with several cities (including Denver) filling up within the first 24 hours. Well, on his blog this last Monday, he wrote a Q&A post describing the photo walks, what they are, how they work, and all that stuff. One question he snuck in though was that he would be in Denver and did anyone know of any good places to shoot in the downtown area.
Since I work downtown, (pretty close to the Convention Center I might add), I have a fairly good understanding of where things are, and what’s fun to shoot. So, I posted a comment on his blog of where he could go and what might be fun. To my astonishment, he actually wrote me back via email, asing if I’d be interested in going on a photo shoot with him to kinda show him around! Not give him a few locations, not recommend a restaurant – he invited me on a photo shoot! With him! My jaw about hit the floor, but I did respond that it’d be my pleasure to show him around the area. He sent me some info on where he’d be staying and to come on over after work on Tuesday! My jaw hit the floor again. But, regaining my composure, on Tuesday after work, I walked over to his hotel to meet him. Knocked on the door and sure enough – Mr K. himself! The maker of the Kelby Kool-Ade!
For the next 2 hours, we walked around the downtown area – talking shop, and all that stuff. I was silent for about the first 30 minutes, afraid I would say something utterly stupid to embarrass myself, but as I walked and we talked, found that he’s just a regular guy (despite his amazing base of knowledge, and…well, the fact that he’s Scott Kelby!) After a few hours of shooting, I then enjoyed an amazing dinner with him and his crew – names like Bert, Ben, Moose, Matt, Corey, etc., etc., were bandied about in the regular conversation. Needless to say, I kept quiet for most of it, trying to keep my jaw off the floor. I know, I know – they are all people too, but every time someone’s name was mentioned, I just kept thinking to myself, “Yup, I read their blog too!” Oh, and then for the next day’s seminar – he reserved a front row seat for me! It was an incredible day, and I just wanted to take a day here on the blog to give a nod to Scott for being so open and friendly, and just – so, well….cool!
My shots from the day were pretty much lousy as I totally wasn’t paying attention to my technique or anything – just trying not to look like an idiot. Nevertheless, in honor of his visit to Denver, and in hopes of his return:
Extra Innings with the Sandman
Yep, that was me last night and much earlier than usual. So, instead of the typical pithy witty, jovial, humorous, enjoyable, and informational material that you are used to seeing – let’s take a day off and call this a “No blog post” day. Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
Comparison photos from 10-22mm
Earlier this week on the blog, the 10-22mm Canon was reviewed, and in the comments, Julie asked if I could provide some comparison shots. So, in the interests of demonstrating the perspective change (and provide a few sample shots of things I thought came out well), here’s a plethora of photos. First, the comparisons… all shots were done at 1/50th, f5.0 and ISO 800 from a range of 5 feet, 10 feet, and 15 feet, and pointed straight on at the door. No post processing was done in order to preserve as “raw” a comparison as possible…
At 5 feet on the kit 18-55mm
Now5 feet with the 10-22mm:
Notice how much more of a range of view the 10-22 has even at 10 feet? So much more can be seen now both high and low (notice the tape measure I have in there for scale?)! Moving right along…
Here’s 10 feet on the kit 18-55
And the 10-22 at 10 feet:
Again, even more range of view both top to bottom and left to right (see the book case?) But as we go wider the differences get even more pronounced!
Finally, the kit 18-55 at 15 feet:
And the 10-22mm at 15 feet:
So, you can see why wide angle lenses work well in real estate, eh? Wide angles are particularly useful in capturing architecture, and their prominence in this specific field is very well known!
Other genres of photography can benefit from its use though. Remember the HDR shots I put up last week? These were both taken with the wide angle:
So, landscapes can also benefit from using a wide angle lens. But what about portrait work? Here is where the “group” mentality can come into play. Here’s a shot from a family reunion I took after acquiring this lens (that’s me on the far side, camera right):
You want to be careful about using it for close-up portrait work though, because distortion can work against you, producing unflattering looks (I am intentionally using a super small file size here because it’s really not flattering at all if used wrong):
But of course, this is how the now famous “dog” pictures were developed, so you can try it yourself for unique looks:
So, that’s the ups and downs, the los and highs, the pros and cons of the 10-22. In closing, here’s a parting shot I took from the island in SC where we were having family photo ops and fun!
Try getting that without a wide angle! 🙂 Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
No Trumpts, No Fanfare, Nada
As I was sorting through the CB archives for some content to update for todays post, it dawned on me that I blew right past post #400 without even a mention of thanks to anyone. So, at post #411 (see, I really blew right past it), let me take a moment to give some belated thanks to the listening and reading audience for the past two plus years…
Your comments, feedback, emails, insights and thoughtful notes over this time have been very helpful and motivating in keeping the ball rolling, often through some rather tedious times. I’ve had people share efforts to increase visibility through iTunes reviews, Digg promos, generous donations for offsetting bandwidth, Tweets and Re-tweets, pretty much the whole schmear! It truly is humbling to see the amount of support I have received in this continuing journey, and today I would just like to say:
THANKS!
Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
No Blog Wednesday
Sorry all – but be sure to stop in tomorrow for a really exciting Thursday Thoughts session – my first interview “across the pond” with Kevin Mullins!
Happy Shooting!
Double your laptop storage in ten easy steps!
So, I’ve got the Macbook Pro with the factory default 150GB hard drive. Sounds like a ton of space, right? Well, we all know how quickly that amount of storage can get sucked up these days. So, I considered buying a new laptop drive, buying the latest iteration of the Mac OS and just building one from scratch again. But then I realized, I have lots of storage being eaten up in the drive already by means of exactly that – the OS, the applications, and everything it needs to run. Then it dawned on me – why not just add a second drive?
I bet you are asking, “Ok, Ace, where you gonna add a second drive?”
Well, here’s an easy way to add a second drive to your laptop in 10 easy steps:
1. Buy a USB drive (I got mine at Best Buy – they price matched Newegg which was in and of itself a jaw-dropper but I digress)… but the point here is that addtional storage is cheap! Less than $80 bucks for 320 GB
2. Buy a strip of two-way Velcro tape. I happen to have some from other projects, but at most it’s $5
3. Before messing with the physical setup, plug the drive in and configure as desired. For mine I re-formatted to a Mac partition (journaled), then created folders for my music library and my working photo library on the Mac.
4. I then moved all the data over for the above folders from the pre-existing OS drive.
5. Position new USB drive on back-side of laptop monitor to see where it best fits according to your USB layout – I happened to like mine on the left, as shown:
6. Wrap USB (or Firewire) nice and snug – I used another velcro strip to keep it tightly wrapped.
7. Cut one or two pieces of two-way Velcro, and place one in the middle, and the other one near the top or bottom. (I started with one and added the second):
8. Peel the backing and affix to the USB drive. With the other side still stuck, peel the backing off the second two sets and affix to the back of the monitor.
9. Plug mini-USB (or Firewire) and USB ends of cable back in. (I’d already done it to ensure the slack of the cable was how I liked it, but you can do this afterward too if that makes things easier for you…)
10. Open monitor top, and voila – you have a laptop with two drives!
For the record, I saw someone once with a setup like this, so it’s not completely an original idea. The onyl difference was that he had two of these bad boys connected – a Dymo label printer had identified each as a Time Machine drive and a Files drive. For the cost/size/weight and portability, it’s really not a bad idea. When they fill up, just buy a new drive and port the data over, or even just archive and store in a tupperware shoebox if you prefer.
So, there’s a neat little idea for you this Monday. Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.
The train rides again (take two)…
For today’s post you’ve got a special treat coming, because the train rides again! If you recall, earlier this week I posted the results of a little miniature project where I tried some varying depth of field, angles, and such on a model train. The project results didn’t yield anything breath-taking in picture, but I did learn where the best areas for focusing are on trains. I found out what appealed to me, what appealed to others, and filed it away.
Then, as luck would have it – I had my camera with me today on the way home from work (there were some other trains I wanted to capture on my way in – but the clouds and lighting weren’t as conducive as I’d hoped – plus I would have been late…). A now-defunct set of boxcars were sitting on an unused rail near the house, and as I was driving down the access road, I saw this scene with new appreciation. I felt compelled to stop and try my hand at a life-sized model!
The results are much better in my opinion. The new problem – post processing. As I always try to keep an open mind, after a little post work on exposure, sharpness and levels I said to myself “Wonder how this would look as a black and white…” How is this a problem, you ask? I like both! So, it’s the new poll here – which do you like?
Feel free to share your thoughts on which should be the “keeper” and why in the comments! Meanwhile, enjoy my latest choice from WTD as we head into the weekend…
Happy Friday and Happy shooting! We’ll see y’all back here on Monday! 🙂
Come on Ride the Train
It’s somewhat fitting this week that yours truly is making serious use of the mass transit in Denver because a project that has finally come to fruition is a photo-themed shoot of trains. I’ve always found them quite interesting, and only recently did I come into possession of a very high quality model train to pose as I desired for specific types of compositional and focal impressions. Since the podcast isn’t quite finished, I figured now would be as good a time as any to share with you a sampling of my Train project…
So, there’s the “Train Series”. I tried various lighting scenarios, depth of field, and compositional approaches to see the effect each has. I know which one(s) I like the best – what about you? Any favorites, thoughts, feedback, criqitues? What about your own themed projects? Any sources of inspiration? feel free to share them in the comments section! Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
The basement is… FINISHED!
Okay, you might be inclined to skip today’s post since it is totally a personal post, but don’t do that because it still has something to do with photography (I took some pics of the progress, but they are not really all that great n terms of image quality – horrible on-camera flash, poor lighting, and just no lighting). Nevertheless, in the interests of full disclosure, this is more just a Monday brag session!
Additionally, I should also note that the project was finished a while ago (two maybe three weeks), but I am just now putting all the shots together and into a photo montage and tracked to music. YouTube compression also takes away from it to a certain degree, but you can get the gist. Thanks go out to my brother-in-law Bill, for letting me use a track off his bands’ CD. if you want to know more about the band, they are called Billband, the CD is called “Blurred” and the track is called Original Blend. They can be found at www.billband.com
And now – the basement slideshow:
Like the video? Think it was horrible? Want to learn more about how to create engaging and interesting videos and slideshows? Already know how? Share your ideas,feedback, suggestions, and such in the comments either over at YouTube or here on the blog. n the meantime, Happy Shooting and be sure to stop back tomorrow for the completed presentation of another project – the weekly podcast!