Over the weekend, I was taking some time to review some new hardware (not done testing yet, so gotta wait there) and I was testing in various types of lighting conditions, and at various burst rates. During the course of the testing, I remembered how beautiful the bokeh is on the Sigma 70mm Macro lens. Continue reading “Beautiful Bokeh”
Tag: potd
The Droid Hath Come
That’s right folks – the time has come for an upgrade to my rinky dinky 1990’s flip phone. I’ve gotten with the decade and upgraded to a Droid from Motorola (yes, I am on Verizon). The upgrade was pretty smooth, although the “tech” at Best Buy had trouble migrating my contacts over. Since I use Gmail for most of my contact info anyway, I figured it would migrate in pretty seamlessly once I got online and sure enough, everything pulled down no problem.
So, how is this related to photography? Well, I can now take and share 5 MP photos with much more ease. The Droid also has an app for Audioboo, so I can go back to creating audio shorts regularly on all things photography too. Plus, as photographers, let’s face it, we are gadget-hounds, and this is definitely a gadget worth considering. Here’s a couple pics I took of the Droid the other day:
There’s the Main screen of the Droid, with my own wallpaper already selected as the background. The audio port is the 3.5mm standard, and another neat feature I like is the micro-USB port for charging and tethering to a computer (that’s right, tethering to a computer!) Check it out:
And, the headphone jack which is right next to the on/off button – makes it easy to find and access:
And, last but not least – the 5 MP camera! This is probably what I am most excited about!
If you’d like to see some actual pics from the camera… check out the new blog I set up just for that purpose. I’ll try to post a shot or two every day over at: www.mydroidpics.com
That’s it for today, but more photo goodness coming tomorrow, but I can’t tell you yet (it’s a surprise!)…happy shooting and we’ll see you then!
The Ides of April
Well, it’s not really the ides of April, more the Ides of Closing. Yup, us nomads are at it again – we just can’t seem to settle down. Our cross-country move into an apartment for 6 months, then another move into our current house for two years was not enough. Nope, we got the itch again. Funny how the moving itch is coincidentally happening within a week of our seven year anniversary. Isn’t that supposed to be the itch? Oh well, I’ll take this itch over the alternative. So, with this being closing date and all, I’ve clearly got a lot on the plate today and throughout the remainder of the week.
Believe it or not though, I’ve got a couple really good posts lined up over the next few days (amazing what happens to your content when you plan ahead, eh? 🙂 ) For today, I am bringing back the “Shout outs” theme from the previous months Flickr Group contributions. These are just a sampling from the entire month of March to the group pool, and have nothing to do with the contests. Just some images that I thought deserved a little recognition…so, without further ado, here’s that random sampling. Thanks to all who have so generously shared their images and who continue to do so – it’s awesome to enjoy all the talent that is out there!
I think I got the order right, but if I cross-referenced these wrong after download, please let me know. Honors this month go respectively to the following people:
- Grey Hamster
- Josh Cohen
- KaleidoscopePhotos
- karensk7
- KBTImages
- NZSnapper
- Sue90ca
- and whalenmdw
Thanks to them especially for their creative, inspiring and thoughtful contributions! Everyone’s were really great so it was even hard to narrow it down to a select few here too. Keep on sharing and next month, we’ll see which ones end up on the blog. Stop over to their respective Flickr threads and give them some praise for their excellent work!
Speaking of months – don’t forget there’s not much time left in April to enter the Balance themed contest to win an Expo Disc from the generous folks over at Expo Imaging! Entries are taken until midnight April 30th, MDT (GMT-7). Good luck and don’t forget to enter your images in the thread here.
Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for more news and updates from the LDP/CB corner of the photo world! 🙂
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News Flash: There’s something new abuzz in the iTunes store!
The Perils of Polarizers
Happy Monday all! My apologies at the absence on Friday – it seems some gremlins absconded with all my time on Thursday, so in the absence of any halfway decent content, decided to make it a legitimate “no blog” day heading into the weekend. But, a new week is here, and I’ve got a cool topic to cover briefly with you…that being:
Polarizing Filters
Polarizing filters can be a godsend – they can really bring out blues in a sky, or minimize reflections in windows, and can really help to improve the quality of your work. At the same time, polarizers can also be very tricky to use. On my recent trip to Arizona (I shot a weekend with Rich Charpentier of The Airstream Chronicles), there were many opportunities to bring out the gorgeous blue sky, and contrast it with the amazing colors in the orange rocks that the American Southwest is known for.
The problem with polarizers is that the blue that is brought out is not a consistent blue – it usually gets stronger as you move toward the light source. So, when you go to stitch things together, the results can be less than satisfactory with evident banding and shifts on hue of the blue skies. Take a look at the example below to see what I am talking about regarding the banding…
See how the sky has blues that aren’t consistent? It’s because I did not rotate the filter to accommodate the shift in blues as I shot across the scene.
Another problem is kind of hinted at above – what if you have a sky where you want the blue to pop, but the foreground includes a water reflection that is an integral part of your composition? The answer here is to expose both with, and without the polarizing effect, and then blend together the two shots later in post production. Masking off parts of images is much easier to deal with than the polarizing effect in the sky, but it’s a pitfall of panorama photography to be aware of.
As it happened, later on that day I was capturing another scene where there was no sky, so it was a non-issue. Here, the key is to remember to spin your filter so that the reflection does reveal itself, otherwise you will think you are doing something severely wrong when you can see the reflection with your eye, but not through the lens. I probably spent a good five minutes trying to change the angle of view before I realized it was just a quick spin of the filter to reveal the reflection below me…
As, as you can see, there are benefits to polarizers and there are also downsides to consider as well. When used correctly, they can really add to the character of an image. For those looking at specific recommendations, here are the ones in my gear bag:
But enough about my thoughts on polarizing filters – what about you? Do you think they are legitimate tools to alter a scene? What about reproducing the effect in post production? Which ones do you use? Do you have a favorite or do you prefer all photography “au naturale”? Sound off in the comments or via email!
Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow for more photography goodness!
Thank goodness for the blog!
Ever have one of those days where you know that you are doing something wrong with your gear – but for some reason it’s just not clicking (so to speak)? I had just such a day recently. I still have the DIY-style radio triggers from Cactus I bought last year (still have not upgraded to the Cybersyncs), and I was trying to light something off camera for a macro shot with this little solution. Try as I might, I could not get the transmitter to fire my 580 when on camera. For the life of me, if I tried one setup, I tried at least several dozen, all to no avail! Finally, in frustration, I tossed the whole thing aside.
Then today, I was considering some advice on blog content to help “promote” archived content. One such technique is to do a theme of “a year ago today…” and reference a post from that same day last year. Well, last year today I did a neat little write-up on…yup, these little Cactus triggers. Lo and behold, the one combination of cables, wires and gadgets I did not try was the one I demonstrated nearly a year ago to the day that does work with these guys. Oh the joys of camera gadgetry! With all the gear and gadgets we own, it’s really amazing that we are able to keep this stuff in our heads as we do. Well, mine must have sprung a leak, because I ended up reading my own blog on how to configure my own gear! Well, thank goodness for the blog, eh?
In honor of finally figuring out (from my own writing no less) how to create the shot I was trying to get, and in kind of a rebirth of the “What’s This?” series from last year, here’s that shot for you today. The first person to guess what this is – wins!
I’ll give everyone a hint – it has to do with photography! 🙂 Oh, and as an aside, I am loving the noise reduction in LR3 Beta 2! I was at ISO 100, but some noise still creeped in – nothing LR3B2 couldn’t cure rather quickly!
Also, in light of it being “tax day” here in the states, to lighten your mood, here’s a laugh from WTD (I’ve not posted one of their cartoons in a while – though I do keep visiting every day!)
The Rest of the Story…
Last Monday, you learned of my trip to White Pocket, AZ. I met up with fellow photographer/blogger Rich Charpentier of “The Airstream Chronicles”. As we left off last week, he had met me at the Page, AZ airport, and we were heading off into the Arizona desert. The ride was smooth at first, but as soon as we started the off-roading, things got a little bumpy. True to form though, his Nissan Titan handled it with aplomb. Check out this short video footage of the off-roading adventure, with Rich driving and me recording:
You’ve also already seen some of the shots from the trip, but here’s a few more to satisfy the image-intensive crowd!
Have a great Monday and we’ll see you back here tomorrow when I announce the winner of the March Contest and the theme/prize for April…it’s another good one so be sure to tune in for that! Happy shooting and we’ll see you then!
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White Pocket, AZ
Many of you have written in, asking when I am going to post some of the photos taken from the Arizona trip over last weekend. Wait no longer, for here are some from the trip! Several of these are potential “portfolio” shots…still debating which ones to include and which ones to leave off. I’ve posted them to Flickr and to NAPP with some pretty positive feedback thus far, but here’s your chance to sound off on which ones to include in the newest updates. Let me know what you think:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
So, which are your favorites? All, any, none? Sound off in the comments! Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow! Happy shooting!
The Journey Began…
“The Journey” began with a double-stop plane ride on a double prop plane. From Denver to Farmington, then Farmington to Page. Each ride was about an hour, but in this cramped sardine can of a ride, there’s never a dull moment! The pilots did their level best to keep the plane not only aloft, but sailing sans bumps. Given the snow in Denver on Friday, the outbound trip was no picnic. Thankfully motion-sickness is not normally a factor, but alas, no in-flight naps were possible for all but the soundest of sleepers!
After the trip, the question was now whether the unknown stranger would reveal himself. Of course, having talked to the guy for over a year via email exchanges, shared podcasts and blog posts, it was a pretty safe bet this guy wouldn’t hack my head off with an ice ax or anything. Still…with a trail name of “gadgetat” when he hiked the Appalachian Trail for over 4 months straight – you never know what you’ll run into. This guy has already indicated he beats to his own drum. A former engineer with AT&T, HAM radio operator, and New Hampshire resident found enough internal strength of will to head out and travel the land in an airstream – not a lot of space to live in, but enough for him!
Not only did he reveal himself, but the easy-going nature and willingness to really engage in conversation and talk similar interests was evident. So off we rode into the desert…with the rocks, the cacti, and the sand. Oh yeah, and the heat – because it is a desert, so it’s warmer there than anywhere right? Don’t forget the heat…
We traveled in his Titan, not the Airstream (thank God!) – and this was a monster of a truck! It flew down the paved roads with ease. The size and strength was enough to reassure me that this could probably handle most off-roading adventures. Of course, having never off-roaded much myself, the durability remained to be seen…
More tk…
Sun wind and Frost
A short excursion over the weekend took me down to see Rich Charpentier of “The Airstream Chronicles“. For those of you that follow the blog, you’ll know that Rich has been on the podcast before and we’ve been sharing war stories for a little over a year now about photography. Well, this last weekend, we got a chance to shoot one of his favorite little haunts, the not-so-well-known “White Pocket” in the dunes. It was quite the trip…from a windy trip down in a twin propeller plane, to some nice afternoon sun while there on the afternoon Saturday, to frost at night inside our tent! Yeah, it got pretty cold! So much so we ditched the tent and went for the warmth of his trusty Titan before shooting some sunrise shots of the morning colors. Quite a spectacular trip, and while only there for 12 hours of shoot time, I managed to burn off 8 gigs of photos! I can’t even imagine what a 3 day trip would result in (lots of post process time is my guess).
More to come with the full back story and more photos that are worked up from the trip, but for now, it’s good to be back in a bed with controlled heat and coffee! Thanks to Rich for the invitation, and be sure to visit his blog for more of the sordid details this coming week over at The Airstream Chronicles!
In other news – the podcast and blog now has an 800 number! That’s right, you can call in your questions and get them answered right here on the blog, or listen to answers on the podcast. To call in and have your questions responded to directly from me give it a whirl: 866-809-8663 If you are outside the U.S., I’d recommend Skype for calls as 800 number calls are free from anywhere! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, when I’ll for sure have some more details and photos from the trip to White Pocket!
Accidentally interesting
Last night I was working on a deadline for the PhotographyBB March Magazine issue (check for that to come out shortly – another couple weeks), and found myself trolling through my archives of images searching for examples to help illustrate my point. I came across a shoot I did solo a while back where I was down in South Carolina. I was on a dock trying to catch the fading sun to the west, and catching your stereotypical sunsets in SC isn’t easy because there’s too much LAND in the way…not enough water!
This was actually where I first learned the value of checking your entire surroundings because sometimes the best shot may be behind you. I turned around and caught this image:
Nice enough, but not really something I wanted to include in a portfolio of sorts to include in the now well-known PhotographyBB Magazine! Then I noticed something…apparently I had tried multiple exposure settings while on a tripod…I was bracketing! I had the same f-stop, same ISO, but the shutter speed was changing. Back then I was shooting with my venerable XT (now sold), and the whole idea of bracketing and even HDR was just not even close to being on my radar. Yet here I am now years later, trolling through archives with an opportunity to go back in time.
So, I pulled the 4 or 5 images together, cobbled them over to Photomatix and ran some tone mapping (didn’t even look at the settings, just was testing a whim to see if it would produce anything). Well, let’s just say it was…interesting. It clearly showed my sensor was absolutely filthy (sky splotches everywhere), and I clearly hadn’t learned the fine tuning of checking the edges or even cutting off important lines (like ship masts) from the composition. Nevertheless, the result was…accidentally interesting. I’ll leave it to you to judge:
