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Can ordinary be interesting?

February 19, 2009 Jason4 Comments

A while back I took Tracy out for an afternon/evening in Denver. I agreed to leave my camera behind, but in case she wanted to catch a moment for posterity’s sake, I grabbed the P&S one she asked for as a Christmas gift. After her initial interest waned in taking pictures, I ended up with the camera in hand (go figure) and even shared a few here on the blog (remember the bottle caps in the grocery?). Anyway, it got me to thinking about how to take ordinary scenes and make them interesting. I guess that’s part of the role of being a photographer: making the ordinary extraordinary.

We do see the world differently than others, and by capturing our vision, and then sharing it with the world with our particular expression, otherwise ordinary scenes can be seen in a new and different light. With that idea in mind, here’s one I captured recently (with my own camera) that kind of spoke to me in that way:

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What made this unique for me was the ambient light. No gels, no lighting tricks or anything – it was on our weekend getaway, and since not very many places outside of mountain cabins have things like wood stoves, the idea hit me to catch this scene. What makes it (for me) is the fact that the ambient light is very “fireside”. The tungsten light combined with the sun setting behind the trees outside made this a perfect scene. So, up went the tripod, the shutter went long, and I kept the aperture up, and noise down. (5 seconds, f10, and ISO 100 for the techies in the crowd).

I think it worked, but would like to hear from the readers out there. Does this work? Can ordinary scenes be made extraordinary? What about the role a photographer has? Is there really a “symbolic” or larger purpose for people who enjoy taking pictures? What do you enjoy about photography? Feel free to sound off in the comments, as there are no wrong answers here…

In the meantime, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here Friday!

The Power of Action

February 18, 2009 Jason6 Comments

Until this last weekend, I had very limited experience with astrophotography. The concepts and techniques of the field are well documented, and I have read several articles on the subject. What this last weekend demonstrated to me, (and what I often tell everyone who reads this blog), is that there is no better way to learn something than to just get out and do it! This is the power of action!

Over the course of a pleasantly long weekend with my wife, we had an opportunity to view an absolutely breath-taking night sky, without the pollution of light interference. The pure darkness of the mountains, coupled with the lack of urban and suburban sprawl, revealed the brilliance of the night skies to me. As I shared the moment with Tracy, a part of me finally caved and said “Sorry, but I’ve got to take a picture of this!” Admitting defeat as a camera widow, she went inside, and I tried to recall the articles with their knowledge:

Tripod (critical for stability!)
Shoot wide (calls for fewer adjustments during long exposures which also means longer shutter speed allowances)
Shutter release (never release the shutter manually on such scenes – increases too much vibration)
In camera noise reduction…(long exposures tend to create noise as a consequence)
Higher aperture (for greater depth of field)
And then there was something about the shutter speed…no more than…what? I could not for the life of me remember!

So, with the digital mantra in place, I tried many different exposures. My first attempt was a 30 second exposure at f8.0 and ISO 100. The on-screen results were not that great. So, I took things to the extremeon my next shot, 30 second exposure, f8.0 and ISO 3200. The result: I saw stars on screen! Excited at the prospect ofcapturing the scene, I promptly returned to the secluded getaway mentality, forgetting the cardinal rule of digital: to shoot many, many shots, and at many, many settings.

What I also forgot is that in astrophotography there are more than the above considerations to take into account. After getting home and realizing my blunder, I re-read the articles and remembered that as a general rule, ISO should never go above 800, and because the earth is always moving, you should never shoot an exposure longer than 5-10 seconds, because stars will blur by then. (As was evidenced during post processing…)

So, the result was nothing too rewarding. Certainly nothing that will get me fame in fortune in National Geographic or anything like that. I did manage to massage something close to what we saw with some post work (including some serious Noise Ninja assistance, drastic curves adjustments, the glowing edges filter, and a little black and white conversion, just for starters…

While the end result is “not too shabby”, it certainly is nothing like these stellar (literally and figuratively) shots from Astropix.com I must admit that I am now considering adding to my gear collection, and that I need to refresh on the techniques of astro-photography, the best method for learning is to simply get out and shoot. Want to capture the light? Then here’s teh call to action, because it is, after all, the only way to capture the world around you in images!

For those interested in learning more about astro-photography, here’s a couple resources I’ve got in my bookmarks (how I wish I had my computer with me at the time!):

If anyone has their own links, resources, tips, tricks, suggestions, and ideas for astrophotography, feel free to share them in the comments. In the meantime, thanks for stopping in and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Long Weekends Rule!

February 17, 2009 Jason1 Comment

A long weekend is always a good thing. When you combine that with the ability to literally “get away from it all”, they are even better. I had the great fortune of being able to secure an idyllic getaway cabin in the mountains of Colorado over this last weekend. We were quite literally cut off from the world with no cell phones, no internet – nada!

It was quite refreshing to be honest, and is due, in no small part to the lack of a post at all yesterday. (I did get back in time to cobble one together, but rather chose to bask in the last few hours of what was truly a wonderful holiday weekend, Hallmark though it was!)

Of course, I did take the camera with me, and will have many to share over the course of the next few weeks as I post process things, and filter out the keepers. So, for today let’s just leave things where they are. Rest assured though, I am “back in the saddle”, and will hopefully have the weekly podcast up for your listening pleasure tomorrow!

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here bright and early!

Let Me Count the Ways…

February 13, 2009 Jason1 Comment

A Hallmark Holiday will be upon us tomorrow here in the U.S. The flower, chocolate, and teddy bear industries probably generate at least half (if not more) of their annual revenue from this weekend alone. As a photographer, you can take advantage of this in many ways (that’s right, there’s photo ops here too!)

Here’s a couple ideas for photo ops this weekend:

Flowers are always great for photos – get that macro lens out, and capture the detail of the petals.
Red, pink, blush, browns of chocolate, and much much more – lots of colors. Throw your lens to manual and go deliberately out of focus for some great abstracts!
Taking your significant other some place special? The views are likely appealing, so make sure you take a camera with you (even if it’s a compact). Sunset dinners (sunsets are great photo ops, in my opinion, no matter how many times they’ve been captured already because each one is different!) provide venues too. Near water? Nothing better for reflections!
Valentine’s Portraits – lots of people become enamored enough to propose during this weekend – seize the day and offer couple’s portraits for the happy pair!

These are just a few ways to take advantage of the holiday. Ahh, Valentine’s Day – how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. How many ways can you think of to capture the day? Share your ideas in the comments section. In the meantime, Happy Valentine’s Day a little early. Try not to think of today as Friday the 13th – instead think of it as the day before Valentine’s Day! Happy Shooting and we’ll see you back here Monday.

Multimedia Monday

February 9, 2009 Jason1 Comment

With the “New and Improved” podcast starting out at PLM this week, there’s a couple exciting things to announce. First off, the drawing for the Think Tank Photo Streetwalker bag was done live on the podcast this week, and the winner was announced in the lead segment. Congrats go out to the winner (you know who you are!), so do get me your address so I can ship you the bag post haste!

The meat segment (aka middle segment) I talk about some new sources of inspiration – specifically the grocery store and in a restaurant. The next time you are at a restaurant, take your camera because the table makes for a great tripod, and you can get some really cool shots. Case in point, is the new gallery I have set up here at the blog, titled Tabletop Photography. I’m also sharing a few sources of inspiration from the grocery store too (tune in tomorrow for those).

The listener questions were really good ones from Meredith and Jason, where I take a look at the value of carbon fiber and the issue of when and where are we permitted to photograph. Last but not least, the photo tip of the week concerns copyright and registering your work, so make sure you stay tuned for that.

Lots of photo goodness to share, so make sure you tune in for the audio, and stop by the blog to pick up the link for the photo gallery. Photos, podcasts, and questions galore. Enjoy the day and we’ll see you back here tomorrow! Happy Shooting!

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CB Equals PLM

February 4, 2009 Jason2 Comments

As previous posts have indicated, the time has been approaching where the podcast will be moving from being hosted here at CB over to Personal Life Media. After some of the initial duplicating of audio posts from here over to PLM, the feed is nw prepped and ready for migration. I’ll still have original copies of all podcasts, both video and audio here, but as we move forward, future audio podcasts will all be hosted by the folks over at PLM. I’m looking forward to the partnership, and hopefully it will result in better quality both in podcasts and in blog posts for the listening and reading audience.

As the tentative schedule yesterday indicated, some initial podcasts (14 total) will be repeats, but starting next week, all-new content will be posted over at the new site. You can bookmark it directly via your web browser or pick it up in iTunes at the new addresses below:

Via the web: http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/516-learning-digital-photography

Via iTunes: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Learning-Digital-Photography

I will continue to post content here on a regular basis, to inclue photos, articles, photographer interviews, product reviews, contests and all the content you have enjoyed for the past two years. The days that podcasts come out though, the blog here will become the repository for show notes, so there will be some minor adjustments as I massage the schedule to accommodate those ends. It looks like the podcast date will also shift once again to Monday for publication. I think this makes 4 of the 5 days of the week where I have tried publishing, so we’ll see how it goes… If things need to change again, I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to speed here on the blog.

So, that makes two maintenance and housekeeping posts in one week, but now that things are “official”, figured I’d better let everyone know to update their feeds accordingly – if you like the blog posts, then don’t change a thing. If you like the podcasts, then update your feeds. If you like both, then just change a little bit. Regardless of whether it’s the blog, the podcast or both though – never forget to go out shooting! (That’s what I’m doing tomorrow), so thanks to everyone for all the support and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Just When You Get Caught Up…

February 3, 2009 Jason5 Comments

Life throws more at you! Today, I got word from the good folks over at Personal Life Media, that the web page is now set up and ready for porting the pre-existing podcasts from CB over for their hosting. Unfortunately, they can only take the audio, so video will have to remain here. It also means a naming convention change, so here’s the shows by blog post title that will be ported over, their existing Track # and their Future track #:

Noise Lighting and Links, Oh My!, #49 – will become Episode #1
Monday Morning Quarterback, #54 – will become #2
New Podcast is Up, #55 – will become Episode #3
Don’t Fear the Forums, #56 – Will become Episode #4
Nitty Gritty Details, #57 – Will become Episode #5
Photowalks and Software Cycles, #58 – will become Episode #6
Creative versus Communicative Process, #59 – will become Episode #7
Money, Socializing and Freebies, #60 – will become Episode #8
Cool Christmas Cards and other Candy, #61 – will become Episode#9
Food for Thought, #62 – will become Episode #10
The Final Broadcast of 2008, #63 – will become Episode #11
The Show Must Go On, #64 – will become Episode #12
The Meat is in the Maintenance, #65 – will become Episode #13
Three Competing Interests, #66 – will become Episode #14

I am in the process of porting the audio files, blog post materials, and links over to the new interface, so it may not show up completely yet. You know what they say about an ounce of prevention though… I’ll probably also make the above bullet points a dedicated reference page to refer to here on the blog for those that may want to see how the migration goes.

When things go live, I will make sure to cross-post here with the new URL, iTunes, and RSS feeds. Rest assured though, fellow photogs, CB will not be let go though as I will continue to make my regular posts here including photos, articles, text interviews, and other photo goodness. Thanks to all for your patience, and if you want to get a sneak peak of the new look of the show, you can peer through the fence here

While it may seem like there is a lot of work involved in this proces (and there is), in the long run it will be well worth it for everyone because the resulting show will have much better audio quality, and we’ll gain access to a wider distribution, which means sponsors, contests, and really cool product reviews. I may as well go ahead and spill the beans in the form of a teaser – so look for some upcoming professionals to give some insights on Lensbaby and the Composer! This also means discounts on purchases, and free give-aways too, so listeners can enjoy discounts, insights, and feedback from working professionals, enthusiasts, and many across the industry.

Another Magazine Article!

January 30, 2009 JasonLeave a comment

Well, I completely lost track of the week and did not get the weekly podcast recorded in time for publication today. So, while I could have gone with the alliterative “Forgetful Friday” blog title, I figured that would have been a little too on the nose. So, instead, I’ll share the exciting news that the latest issue of PhotographyBB magazine has been published. Dave Seeram, editor-in-chief, announced it a few days ago on the website, so do stop over and download the latest article now. Make sure you take a peek at the article Photography Food for Thought (pgs 19-22), it was the contribution of yours truly to this months issue! Of course the rest of the magazine is a worthwhile read too. I particularly enjoyed Dave’s article on Photoshop Retouching. He’s got a unique balance of technical expertise and translating that skill to the written word. Thanks go out to Dave and the entire publishing crew over at PhotographyBB for another opportunity to share an article with a wider audience than is here at CB!

That’s it for this week. Happy shooting, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here Monday with the belated podcast!

Defining Your Image Composition

January 27, 2009 Jason4 Comments

Composition in photography can have many origins. You can take a pretty concrete subject and place it in an interesting environment. The Rule of Thirds is one that is often used when creating photographic compositions. Other times, the way that lines or curves within a scene are the compelling factor. Architectural images use the idea of linear direction to compell the viewer. Finally, the nature of light can also be a huge factor when composing an image. After all, when looking at the word “photography”, it’s pretty clear how integral light can be to capturing your vision. The Greek root “photos” literally means “light” (while “graphos” means to draw or paint – so photography really could be pretty succinctly defined as “painting with light”.)

So, we have three elements that can contribute to image composition:

Positioning your subject
Directing viewer via leading lines
Compelling the viewer via light

While there are no hard and fast rules in any form of artistic expression, these are three fundamentals that I try to keep in mind when capturing the world around me. Sometimes I’ll find my images successfully utilizes only one of these elements. Naturally, there are also times where two are executed well. Naturally, I am luckiest though, is when all three are effectively brought into an image.

Here’s an example of what I am talking about. Can you identify which elements of image composition are present? Is there a defined subject that is well positioned? What about compelling lines to define the image? Finally, is there anything that draws your eye from the light or shadows? Sound off in the comments, and let me know:

: Brick Circle

Unintended Inspiration

January 26, 2009 Jason2 Comments

Today I thought I’d share a little “inspirational” series with the readership. I had taken a break from reading blogs, magazines, news, twitter, forums, and all the other associated activities related to keeping current and learning about photography to actually put together to make some dinner. Photography had exited my mind – I was taking a break, not even thinking about it. So there I was, slicing and dicing, cutting celery, carrots, and onions for a spaghetti sauce, when BAM! I saw some colors and shapes on the white cutting board and my knee jerk reaction was: “Hey, that looks like one of those stock photos! I wonder if I could make one like that!?”

Well, of course I had no equipment set up, no preparation, no lighting, no glycerine (it makes food shine), and had not given any thought to composition or anything like that. But, having the 40D nearby, I figured what the heck, so began to document the process. First, I had the celery cut:

Then, I cut some carrots:

Then, after some onions, it all went into a pot to brown in a butter sauce:

After adding some ground pork and turkey, a little white wine and milk to steam down:

Then once it had steamed down, the final stage, adding tomatoes:

The shots here are not all that great, but it does give a “back story” of sorts and helps to illustrate that sometimes you can find color and inspiration in the oddest of places – even if you’re not even looking for it. So, if you ever find yourself stuck in a rut, trying to find some inspiration, sometimes it’s best to just stop trying so hard. Forget about it and put your efforts into other things (like cooking). Before you know it – you’l have new visions and challenges laid at your feet, waiting for your vision to bring it all together. I’m sure others have experienced this too, so let’s hear it! What other scenarios have produced unintended inspiration for you? Feel free to share your stories, shots, and anecdotes in the comments! Until tomorrow, Happy Shooting!