Client shoot- Charm City Cupcakes

A while back, I was deciding how best to ask my future wife to marry me. I had come up with cupcakes. But where could I find a place for a personalized cupcake? The search was pretty limited, but I found a great place- Charm City Cupcakes. (No affiliation with Charm City Cakes) The owner was VERY happy to help me and supplied these amazing cupcakes for me.

Needless to say, my future life loved it and said yes.

That became a theme for all our major events- cupcakes. Who knew, right?

Over time the owner had tried to line up me to shoot some of her cupcakes for her and her website. Things never lined up until last week. We made arrangements to shoot about 30 or so new mini-cupcakes for a new website she was launching.

I was nervous as heck. I didn't know exactly what I would be getting in to, but I was eager to try. All the cupcakes she made were for display only- no eating these.

I had brought just about every weapon and combination I had handy. Snoot, gridspots, both types of umbrellas, my tripod, reflector, etc. Everything I could carry in one go. Turned out I tried most of it all to get the shots she liked.

It took me a while of trial and error to product an image I was happy with and that I could reproduce.

Here is the setup I used with a 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens. The strobe on the left had a small gridspot on it. I was putting that in at about 1/16 or 1/32 power depending on the type cupcake. The chocolate ones required more light.
The strobe on the right was doing through a shoot-thru umbrella for a softer light. I ranged that one from 1/4 power to 1/2 depending on the type of cupcake.
The camera settings were pretty nailed down consistent.

One thing I had wished I had done was gotten the grid lined up better on each photo. I wound up cropping/rotating just about every photo because it wasn't straight!

*sigh*

I showed the owner as I was shooting how they looked and she was happy. Hopefully next time I will have a proper DIY Macro Light box to use. And yes, she wants me to come back to shoot the regular cupcakes in the near future.

Links

Here are the latest batch of photo related links I have come up:

- Most Popular Photography Hacks of 2009- LifeHacker; I don't agree with all of these, but there are some good ones in there.  Solid list by LifeHacker.

- Tell Us What You'd Shoot Using a Camera With 158 Lenses- Gizmodo; I haven't the foggest. First show me what an image from this 'camera' looks like or can do!

- New iPhone App To Create Lighting Diagrams- DIYPhotography; Thats just too cool. I am such a photo geek.

- I have looked in to providing some sort of 'buy a print of my image' sort of functionalitly, and well- it isn't worth it. Just like having a photo-only website wasn't worth it for me either. I just don't generate enough traffic or interest to really justify that sort of investment of time and energy to get so little in return. A struggling/starving artist I am not.

- What the Duck- Damnit, that is about as close to the truth as I care to admit it is. Gotta get me some merch. Great shirts in there! Wish they had the stuffed duck again...

- If you need a Christmas gift idea for me, here is my B&H wish list!

Christmas card photos

I have been waiting a while to post this information about our Christmas card photos. We put our tree up two days after Thanksgiving, and the next day I did our photos with baby in front of the tree. I thought about for a moment but realized, it would be easy to light.
I needed two lights sources- one for the tree behind baby, and one for baby herself.

The strobe on camera left was a bounce umbrella at 1/2 power. Looking back I should have raised that to full power just to see the difference.

The strobe on camera right was a shoot through umbrella on camera right for lighting baby, 1/4 or 1/8 power depending on the lens used. I used my 17-40 f/4 and my 50mm f/1.8 as different depths of focus were attempted.

Over all I was pretty pleased with the results. Next year I am gonna try something different, just not sure what yet!

Links

Here is a collection of links and information I have collected since my last batch:

- Nova DSLR concept reminds us that cameras need not be boring- Engadget; Interesting design concept. No clue how functional it would be, but still interesting.

- The Touchscreen DSLR Is Finally Upon Us- Gizmodo; Oh good grief. It was bound to happen I guess. The biggest part is the tactical response I get with the Canon wheel on the back of my camera. How the heck is that gonna be replaced? What if I drag my nose across the wrong part of the screen? Eek gads!

- This Is One Classy Laser-Made Collapsable Lamp- Gizmodo; I saw this and the first thing that jumped in my mind was 'a way cool diffuser, grid spot, or even pattern for behind the subject!'

- Nikon Girl music video, The Photo Club- YouTube; Funny.

- Gifts for Aspiring Artsy Photographers- Gizmodo; Yeah, no thanks on most of them. Please use my B+H wish list as my true gift guide! Thanks.

I just love What the Duck:

JJ jump

JJ jump
Originally uploaded by Phil Romans

This was a bit of fun to do. I am not much of a post editing sort of guy, I don't even own Photoshop. However, I will use the open source equivalent in Gimp.

How it was done:

Position self.
Check settings on camera for Hi-speed shutter.
Shoot as subject doesn't break himself.

At home, research the heck out of Layer masking.

In Gimp, you can import several photos as layers. Nice.
To each layer I applied a layer mask, making it dark. Gimp made the last photo in the series, where JJ landed, the background image.
So when I went to each layer, I simply panted to reveal that version of him. It got tricky when they overlapped.

Turned out pretty good, and lesson learned on how to make the image!

Links

With late fall here, interesting nature images are in a bit of a lull for me. I haven't taken my camera with me the past two times going for river walks with my dog, and not disappointed about the decision. The last one I didn't see something other than a mallard until ten minutes left. Sad really...
On the positive side I have gotten some really nice photos of my daughter while she plays. As she is a tad lower to the ground than most subjects, I am trying a new method of lighting her. I am still using my shoot through umbrella, but I am putting it on the ground angled up. I simply put the strobe on the floor, and angle the head to match the incline of the umbrella. The resulting light has been just spot on and wonderfully soft.

Links:

- ShutterBuddy Attacks Baby Photo ADD Issue with Simplicity- Gizmodo; Interesting idea. Though I think some toys might be more effective.

- Flickr Chooses Snapfish As Its Preferred Printing Partner- Photography Blog; I guess Qoop has flown the coop. (oh come on, like you weren't thinking the same.) Qoop used to be the primary print function for Flickr.

- Adobe Debuts Photoshop.com Mobile for Android- Photography Blogl; Its coming... mobile Photoshop. Not sure if it will get past the basics (i.e. straighten and crop), but time will tell.

- Portrait Photography In The Eyes Of 5 Years Olds- DIYPhotography; That is just fantastic. I love it.

- Mini Review of the Spyder3 Express- PhotoFocus; I think I need to invest in a monitor calibration tool like this. And the price is pretty darn good considering what it can do for you.

Camera cleaning

I am not referring to making sure there is no dirt on the camera, but rather that the camera sensor is relatively clean of dust and other particulars. I have a Canon 30D, before they introduced the 'micro shake' of the sensor to have small dust drop off every time the camera is turned on. 

I can tell there is stuff on my sensor when the specs show up in shots. I then turn to this shooting to confirm: on a solid sky in the day, push up the F/ to about 15+, and snap. Today the result was this:


Specs all over the place! On no!


When I first encountered this problem, I wasn't sure what I could do. I thought about canned air, but decided against that.
I read up on the issue, and discovered the Gitzo Air Blower. For a Canon, there was a setting for clean sensor. It would cause the reflector mirror to lock up in place exposing the sensor for cleaning. I would turn the body so the sensor would face down, and be careful not to get the blow any close to the sensor than I had to. Then I would have blower do its thing. At first this was enough for me.


After a few times of doing the blower method, it provided to be not enough to clean it properly. I did more research. Some folks refused to do it themselves, and sent the camera body in to a shop to have it professionally cleaned. Then again, most of those folks either had the money or photography was their livelihood and depended on super clean images. Another crowd recommended doing a more through cleaning by hand. I tracked down one cleaning kit from Copper Hill Images.

 I picked up a kit and got nervous. I read horror stories of people who did something wrong and scratched the surface of the sensor... or whatever. For the Copper Hill kit, there were two levels of cleaning- a brush that worked with static cling, and the other that worked with a lint free cloth and a solution. So combined with my blower, I was up to three levels of cleaning. 

Here is the results of today's cleaning from all three, because they were all needed:

I also try two different lenses on the camera, just to make sure the dirt isn't on the lens. You never know!


Finally, here is what the table looked like when I was done cleaning:

Don't get me wrong, sending it in to get it cleaned professionally is great. I have done that once when I was getting another issue taken care of. However, I know that isn't always the best answer. Between time, money, and effort, I am taking the home cleaning first. If it is something beyond my skills, then I have no problem sending it off. Just realize that the sensor is everything for your camera. It isn't like you can just stick a fresh roll of film in if you mess up!

Links

I am working on a photo-related announcement, but until everything is in place I don't want to jump the gun. Lets just say- I am super excited about it if it proves to be true!

Here are some new photo related links I have discovered:

- PhotoTune 3- PhotographyBlog; Not so much the software involved- however cool, it is the location of the sample images. Here is my take on the same location- still wished I had taken my tripod!

- What the Duck just slays me, SLAYS me.

- Kelby Tours, DC Stop- Joe McNally; I see these examples and wish someone could have videoed the setup. I learn SO MUCH better when I work backwards- see the image, see the setup, try myself, repeate. The problem is the last setp- being able to repeate the look. That takes practice and re-examing the example. Hence the video.Also why I loved the Strobist videos.

- A Beginner’s Guide to Flickr- DPS; I joined Flickr back in 2003- over six years ago. So I have just 'grown up' with it. I know it farely well, but this guide helps reinforce that it does things well and how. I just recall losing hours clicking from photo, to stream, to sets, to groups... yikes.

- 5 Tips for Photographing Children- DPS; I was able to take some tips from this very article for a inpromtu Halloween party shoot. Getting them to relax in front of a stranger was the hardest. I busted out the, "Who is your favorite Disney character..." question. That seemed to relax the girls dressed up as princesses.

- I want to practice with a fill light source some soon. I have a nice sheet of coroplast for just that purpose. I think I want to try bouncing a light off the ceiling, and using the sheet to bounce from the ground to under the face. Just creating some fill light. Not sure of the settings yet, but thinking 1/2 strobe power off the ceiling, with 1/100 f/5.6 for starters and see how that goes. Single strobe. Subject might be my daughter sitting in her bumbo seat. Or my normal subject- my dog.

Pieces

-How Should I Price My Photography?- This is an absolutly fantastic article about pricing photography. This is also a fantastic article describing why I will never be a full time photographer. The amount of hustle it would take to get to a decent earning would be so tough to be almost impossible for me. Not that I am afraid of hustle, but that mindset is so different than I am used to that I am pretty sure I would fail before giving myself a fair chance.
I suspect if it was my only means of income, knowing what I know now, I would/could do it. Fear of failure would drive me in new and different ways. It would also probably push me close to hating the one thing I love- snapping photos.
The one piece this article does not describe is price of insurance of any kind. Health insurance, etc. To make an ok living out of photography is an EXTREMELY tough job. I am sure people can do it, but to get the true value of out your work, you need to be willing to push yourself. Stay motivated, and work odd hours. (think when weddings happen or when families are available for potraits) I don't think I could do that...


- New Canon instant rebates available- Lenses, flashes.  Just in time for the holiday season. Nice.

- Norman Rockwell: The Original King of the Photoshop- Gizmodo; Nice discovery. Seems light is light, and editing is still editing... but the end image is paycheck. Norman Rockwell knew that.

- My wish list via B+H Photo Video. Ya know, if you have some spare cash and want to buy me something nice.

Images elsewhere

A couple years ago Flickr turned on Creative Commons (wikipedia) licensing for photos uploaded there. I jumped in and made my Flickr photos all photos Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. What that means is, you can use it as long as it is not for commercial use, but don't alter the image and give me credit. Because of this posting, I reviewed my license and updated it! (go me)

I have had plenty of my images used in various articles, comments, blogs, etc. I don't mind at all, but give me credit and don't make money off it unless you give me a chance too. I am starting to realize that my images are my hard work. I created them, I edited, uploaded, paid for the hosting, and share them with others. If you want to use them to promote you item for cash, I want in if we can come to a deal. I am done with the days of giving away my work, unless it is for a worthwhile charity.

A quick search on Google and Bing turned up these examples of people using my imagery for their site:

• Charbroiling- Foodista
• The Internet doesn’t give a damn about the recession- pigdom
• Steve McNair found shot dead in Nashville- Inside Charm City
• 250,000 Gallon Oil Slick Spreads Toward Ireland- Twilight Earth
• The Saturday Strangeness- Londonist
• $31 Billion In Alternative Energy Tax Credits Approved by Senate Finance Committee- TreeHuger
• Attractions & Things to Do in Hawaii- eHow
• Why are you leaving money on the table?- Business is Personal
  
• Shorty Goes Swimming-And Almost Doesnt Come Back- Happy Pet Blog- Dog
• The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies- Rates to Go
• Rosh Hashanah Spicy Beef Brisket (+ Shepherds Pie Leftovers)- chowmama
• Where To Find Free Gambling Lessons- Vegas Chatter
• Irish artists lash out at plans to cut tax breaks- Euranet

I could keep going, but hopefully you get the point...

I have also found myself not posting as many publically accessible photos on Flickr. I have moved my family photos to a privately accessible site. I remove the images after a short time. So while the quality of my images improve, the quantity that is publicly available has gone down.

Links

Thought today would be a good day to supply a fresh set of photo-links.

- Canon announced their new 1D Mark IV. It is a beast of a camera. The video example is sick, just sick.

- Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition- LifeHacker; I suppose if I was doing more group/friends/social fun shooting this would be helpful. (like uploads for Facebook) But otherwise, not so much. Still- Picasa is a great free tool!

- Giz Explains: When (Not) To Use Your Camera's Flash- Gizmodo; Great information. Most folks just do not know. Prime example is at U2 concerts. Tons of flashes, and the great view of the guys hand in front of you and not so much of Bono on stage.

- Polaroid Pulls an About-Face, Decides to Re-Launch Instant Film Next Year- Gizmodo; I wish I cared, I really do. I know there is something really arty to the Polaroid, but I just am not in to that aspect.

- Custom Folding Umbrella- Artscow; When I think umbrella, I think shoot-through or bounce. Not a REAL umbrella for the rain. Even weirder is that they put photos of stuff on it. Who the heck is gonna see it? Seriously... if it is open it is pointed up... if it is closed, it is put away. Ugh. 

- “I’ll Light Ya For It….”- Joe McNally; The inner photography geek in me loved this little take off. Fantastic. (Strobist take)

- QnA: Big Group in a Big, Dark Room- Strobist; Really good description of how to light a large group. If I get the chance, I will need to buy/borrow a third light to sync. Though I don't know anyone else who uses CyberSyncs. Hopefully it would be a paying job so I can get one. Thankfully the receivers are not that pricey.


- 10 Ways to Improve Your Photography Without Buying Gear- PhotoFocus; Very good list of material.  I think #7 is a problem I have right now. I have no clue what I want to photograph- generally. Though I am narrowing it down slowly.

Fun with long exposures

Fun with long exposures
Originally uploaded by Phil Romans

So it has been raining here for about four days straight. A classic Nor'easter. It stopped raining finally this morning. Perfect time to head out for some waterfall photos along the Gunpowder. I knew the side streams would be raging and the overcast clouds would provide perfect shading for longer exposures.
At last second, I grabbed my strobe- thinking I could practice some 'painting' of objects with strobing on it. I really wasn't sure what I could do, but better to have it than not.

I tried the one idea and it failed horribly, painting a rock with strobe light. Then I got this idea to light my face with the strobe. I set the exposure at 2.5 seconds, time delayed trigger. The shutter opened and I popped the strobe two/three times at 1/4 power- hence the blur of my hands.

The long exposure allowed the stream flow to even out... and the strobe light on my face highlighted me. Kind of cool.

New DIY grid spot

About a year ago I had made a grid spot based on a David Hobby suggestion- black straws are free. I spent a couple weeks collecting free clean black straws based on this theory... Cutting all the straws up was a pain but I finally glued it all up, and had at it. It worked great. I even used the existing half side of Velcro on my strobe to help keep the grid spot on. (also used to help keep gels on for common lighting conditions)

Then about two months ago, the straws started to drop out. Seems the glue I had used was not consistently applied.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

I had liked the used of this device and wanted to NOT spend a bucket load on other devices like the Honl line. Good products but not good for my wallet. I tried to find coroplast at local hobby stores, no luck, and at office supply stores, also no luck. Yikes.

Then I located a store on line via Amazon. However my buddy John pointed me to a cheaper option from Beacon Graphics. Alright! I could get several sheets of coroplast for less than the cost of one Honl grid spot. I can get more cardboard for free and the gaffers tape I have will last forever.

I got the shipment Monday and had some time this evening to whip up the new version.

Great!

I even used an old FedEx express shipping box to surround the new grids. It was WAY much easier to put together. I followed, roughly, the instructions I found at the DIY Photography site. The resulting test shots were telling.


My old straw based grid spot:

My new coroplast based grid spot:

Seems the channels of the coroplast are more squared and the resulting pattern is a reflection of that. No HUGE problem, but something to be aware of when snapping.

I think I am also going to make a shorter grid spot. The current one is 2 inches deep from front of the grid to the back. The next one is either going to be 1 inch or less. Maybe... lets see how much use this one gets first. Any longer and it just becomes a snoot.

New Challenges

I haven't had nearly the free time to explore new photography ideas and concepts as I used to. And by extension I haven't had to practice anything new and different. So I am pretty much locked in to the 'same old same old.'

I feel motivated by a couple different things, they include but are not limited to:

• Seeing other work
• Travel and associated research
• Chatting with other photographers
• Passing by something and seeing in a different way
• Trying to relay everyday things differently

So my challenge recently is finding time to become motivated and finding time to shoot. I don't always feel motivated, or have the right conditions to do so. Most of my free time is after baby goes to sleep at night, which is limited.

One thing that I found interesting is try to duplicate something like this example. I see that and I want to be able to duplicate the effect. I should go back and watch the Strobist DVD se t to get new examples of things to think about. There are plenty of points of inspiration. I just need to get the resources in place to be ready to shoot that next great photo. 

While I find myself at a point that I am pretty happy with results, I also know I don't want to just stop at this level. (probably more like a plateau) I want to get better... some of that involves research, some of that involves inspiration... and maybe some of those limits are due to the gear I currently have. So now I need to figure out if it is my motivation, vision, or gear that is limiting me. Where do I find the time and inspiration to reach out?

I honestly don't know... but here is to finding out. Wish me luck.

Links

Here is a list of photo related links I have collected in the past week:

- Video: elaborate multi-camera rig elegantly captures giant redwood tree- Engadget; Impressive setup, and SIX Pocket Wizards in use.  The resulting image is damn impressive.

- Breathe Like a Sniper to Take Better Photos in Low Light- LifeHacker; 'Shooting' is a generic term in photography and guns. Stands to reason some of the same physics would apply to each.

- PhotoLapse Makes Time-Lapse Movie Creation a Snap- LifeHacker; I thought about applying this to my horde of U2 Chicago photos... however, it can't handle vertical vs horizontal display of images. Oh well.


- China celebrates 60 years- The Big Picture; I love this site... but the link mention is because my reaction to the images were, "I get it already, they have A LOT of people who can march in step... good grief."

- New SNL title sequence and segments shot using Canon EOS 7D, 5D Mark II- Engadget; Thats a HUGE win for Canon DSLR world. I am still not a fan of the video function on a DSLR, but to get that sort of result from a show like SNL- nicely done Canon! (yes, I am a Canon fan-boy)

One in ten, if I am lucky

Just the other day, someone saw my photos and said, "I really like your camera- it takes such good photos." At first I was miffed because they were bypassing all the work that goes in to a photo. What about complementing me and my hard work? Then I thought back to when I was just using a point and shoot. All my photos were 'ok' enough. As long as they were not blurry, they were pretty darn good. Don't mind the 57 other things that lead up to the photograph and the 52 things that had to happen after the photograph was taken. Point and shoot means, you are happy with what you go because it is automatic and everything is equal.

In this post, I am going to focus on the after part of the image taking- editing.

I equate photography to painting a wall- no one sees all the extra effort it takes to get everything done. They only see the end result- a nicely painted wall. Same with photography- no one sees all the work it took to get that one photo, they only see that one resulting photo.

Locating information

This is a biggie for me.

Photography is a never ending process of learning.

I took a beginners class in photography in college. Digital photography wasn't even out yet, well, in a consumer form at that time. So it was all film, dark room work, and developing your own prints. I was highly interested in the end result, but I hated all the work/time it took. Just hated it. It was costly in money too. But importantly, I learned some basics. I felt a little more intelligent when people talked images, or I saw a print that was interesting to me. But photography as a hobby was too far away because of the dollar and time cost to me.

So moving quickly forward to now- I get my photography information from various sources. I read books, magazines, talk to other photographers, look on websites, read photography forums, and investigate. I honestly feel like I will never come up with an original idea ever. Seriously. It is daunting!

The one marriage of tech and photography that has worked out nicely for me are RSS feeds. I currently have 28 different directly related to photography in my Bloglines account. (I don't count techie sites that post about photography) If you can wade through the muck and find some gems, it is more than worth it to use this form to stay on top of your reading. Think of it as getting mail to your computer and having it keep sorted which information you have read and which ones you haven't.

Some sites updates frequently like Patrick Smith. Some update as an event is coming like Photo Nights for Charity. I also subscribe to my own Flickr account to keep tabs on comments that pop in, and a group conversation in the area. So there is power in that as well.

I encourage each photography to figure out new ways of staying informed and challenged. Of course it doesn't help I am a geek at heart, and now digital photography hits my wheelhouse. If I can't feel challenged with just these three blogs, then I need to get paid for photography.

- Strobist
- Digital Photography School
- Zach Arias

Until then, I have another 25 other blogs or so keep informed with. And if those get boring, I can find a huge load more. Sites that cover just filters, or ones on DIY photography... I could keep going.

Speedlite

When I finally decided to get a flash for photography, I broke a barrier I had set for myself. I was very happy with just available light. I didn't have to do much else other than checking to see the image was bright enough. Even that could have been tweaked slightly. I was trying to get away with not doing much with as little as possible. Often that meant cranking up the ISO to a high, and usually unacceptable, level.

The break through was seeing what people were able to do with their lighting. Photos with additional light was entirely different. With and without photos of extra light made me a believer. Even short movie clips of people showing what they could do with extra light finally convinced me. Available light was not enough, and most likely would never be. I had to come to that conclusion.

Leftover links

Here are a listing of interesting photo related links I have found since the last leftover links posting.

• Entire City Rendered In 3D Using Nothing But Flickr Photos- Gizmodo; That is pretty damn impressive. But to have thousands of photos posted of a single place in a single location like Flickr is very impressive as well.
  
  
• Hang Perfectly Level and Centered Artwork- LifeHacker; I know I don't print much of my work for myself... but knowing how to hang prints is important.
  
  
• Stanford's open-source camera could revolutionize photography, you'll still use 'Auto' mode- Engadget; Thats pretty darn impressive. Would keep older working cameras around and on a level playing field with all the rest of the older working cameras. Interesting concept.
  
  
• I Coulda Been a Contendah…..- Joe McNally; I feel like I have no clue and a bit nervous all the time when I shoot. And if Joe is admitting he feels the same, I feel like at least we all need to keep learning and figuring out new things. It is a never ending field.
  
  
• Use a Vacuum to Clean Dust Particles Caught Inside a Camera Lens- LifeHacker; I have no clue if this would work... but I see a lot of people cringing at the thought of violating their $1,000 plus camera body to their shopvac. And yes, this is a LAST resort... personally, I would just send my camera body off to the shop for a professional cleaning. (and have)
  
  
• Canon EOS 7D 24p footage tries to make indie filmmakers / chain smokers out of us all- Engadget; I still don't know if I would do much video on my DSLR... I know thats all the rage, but I would rather have photos than video. Video is still a major pain to get right and edit in my book. Oh, and why smoking Canon?
  

Photography review of U2 in Chicago on September 12th

I am a huge U2 fan, no doubt about it. As I attended more and more shows, I found myself watching the side stage and other inner workings as much as the band. Then I found photography and concert photography and wanted to take on the biggest band in the world. I had a chance during the Vertigo tour to photograph the band with a photo-pass. I was nervous as hell, over-matched, and clearly only had a slight clue about what I was doing.

A photo-pass for U2 only allows media to photograph the band for the first three songs of the concert. After such time, the photographers are escorted out and sent on their merry way. Most photographers sent to do their work to photograph the band are full time photographs, AP, local newspaper, etc. They have a job and this is ‘just another show’ for them. They usually are not vested in the band, the music, or finding out the deeper information meaning of the music. They are there to do what they have to, which is to find one or two photos to go with a review for a newspaper or website. They have about 15-20 minutes to do this. I was there representing www.atu2.com , a fan site around since 1995. I have been on staff since about 2001 or so in various roles. I was not getting paid, it was more of a dream assignment than anything.

Preparing for U2 in Chicago

As I prepare to travel to Chicago for the US leg of U2’s world tour- I need to get my camera gear together. What all am I going to take? Here is a brief checklist of gear and explanation if needed.

Leftover links

Here are a few links that I can't find a reason to post full write-ups about.

Seven Samurai chipmakers set to take on Intel- Engadget; I find it interesting that Canon is joining in. No Nikon though. Not surprising.

Video: Canon EOS 7D gatling gun shooting 8 FPS of awesome- Engadget; Wow, that is all sorts of awesome.

Ask a Pro: How to Shoot (and Not Get Shot) In a War Zone- Gizmodo; While I have seen a bunch of photos from various sources about different wars, I really don't want/need advice on photographing a war. Still, some good information in there.

AP Photographer Loses Foot in Bomb Blast, Never Stops Taking Pictures- Gizmodo; Ok, thats a bit nuts. At least he has the sense to use a Canon. Ha.

Anything for the perfect shot- Dark Roasted Blend; A collection of interesting poses people put themselves in to shoot a photo.

Leaving It Out

A man's hand drips blood as he stands in front of riot policemen during a demonstration in Athens December 9, 2008. Hundreds of protesters threw stones and bottles at lines of riot police outside the Greek parliament on Tuesday, in a fourth day of anti-government clashes triggered by police killing a teenager. REUTERS/John Kolesidis (GREECE)

There are times when a photo just grabs me for some reason or another, and this was one of those photos.

I was browsing a series of photos on Rueters that all had a technique called 'Leaving it Out.' The style is to only show part of the total image. From the lack of information, the viewer has to extrapolate the rest of the image and what is happening. For me, it is all drawn to that one little stream of blood going down the man's hand. Add that he is holding a folder, and the police shields. Each piece separately is rather boring photography. Perhaps if you had the man with his folder after the protest holding his bloody hand up to his face might make something... but add the lack of rest of the information and I am left somewhat spellbound with this image.

It is easy to take a photo, it is easy to share the result, it is easy to have the right gear, it is somewhat easy to know how to use the gear and edit the photos. It is VERY hard to make that image compelling and interesting to the viewer. And I am very certain that many other people will think the opposite of it than I. I am also sure this photo could have been bigger and contained more facts in it, but with a little crop it becomes something else. For this photo it is called 'Leaving It Out.' Capturing a scene through a camera lens is sometimes more about telling the viewer about events that are happening outside of the frame. This selection of images hints at the context that surrounds them. - Rueters

As I find more photos that just hit me right, I will try to add them here as a running commentary on things that interest me. I know one of the keys to me thinking about a possible photo is part of my brain going, "huh, thats interesting." I wish I had a better description of what makes part of my go, but that is as close as I have ever gotten. I am not very knowledgable in the different pantheon of photographers in history, styles, edits, cameras, shows, etc. Though I am learning, slowly, oh so slowly.

The Killers at Merriweather Post

I had done some research before the show, and from most reports I would have 'issues' with taking my Canon 30D in to Merriweather Post Pavilion. I was warned that the security didn't mind going in to the pit for something. I didn't think I would if I stick out with my 50mm lens and nothing else. Got it all in no problem, however the problem became quiet evident when I got to the top of the seating bowl and looked down. The pit area was pretty darn full.
I had gotten to Merriweather Post a little late- 8:40pm or so. I had missed the opening act without too much issue. The problem occurred when everyone was pretty set in their location and I am not a pushy person to get closer. I get a bit self conscience being as tall as I am and blocking other fans views because I shoved my way in to a spot. If I had gotten there earlier and laid claim- I would not have a problem.
Once the music started up, I broke out my camera rig. No problems. With the short 50mm lens, it was easily hidden among everyone. The biggest problem, besides the distance, was the number of fans. This would include heads, arms, and me bumping in to the people in front of me as I raised and lowered the camera.
Initially I had the ISO at 800 because I didn't know how easy or tough the lighting would be. However when I spotted the three lighting rig guys above us, I was fairly confident the lighting would be better than the last time I saw them- which also meant it would change a lot quicker.
As the lighting changed, and the band moved around a bit- I found myself sticking with the settings of ISO 640, shutter of 1/100, and dialing up and down the F/ range from 1.8 to 8. Yes, upwards of f/8 because of some of the really bright conditions. I also had the camera set to hi-speed mode because of the chance at catching something in a burst that a single shot would most likely miss. (that was a big goal of mine, shoot 2-3 burst shots at every opportunity)
As it turned out, my location and short lens really did not provide me with much opportunity to get some of the better expressions of the band. I turned to the chance to capture the lighting and other broader visuals that had going. I think I did a decent job nailing down a few key visuals to express the mood of the concert. At the end I attempted to just hold the camera up above the crowd and shoot blind. I got zero usable shots from that experiment.
When I got home, I got a count over slightly over 550 shots from the entire night. I quickly discounted many, and after a first pass I had about 70 shots I thought were ok. After editing and pre-processing those 70, I narrowed it down further to about 50 shots that were better. I sent those results shots through the processing in Lightroom. Most of the editing involved cropping. The white balance on most were pretty dead on. Once detached from all the shots, I whacked more and came out with 38 that were usable and shareable. While I might have shot a crap load, it was very easy to remove most of them for being blurry, out of focus, hands/heads in the way, etc.
Concert photography is something I enjoy doing but I don't think I could make a profession out of it. The Killers have a full time photographer on staff, and I spied him on the side of the stage- for the entire show. I hope he had an assignment for that night to get a certain shot, otherwise I would be a little disappointed with his lack of movement. Even if he was trying for one shot, he didn't even try to get down low for a different angle. At least I never saw him move.

Here is the resulting 38 photos I uploaded to Flickr to share.

It's official- Canon 7D

Color me confused! I was honestly thinking this was a clever ruse. I was wrong!

The only thing I can think of is that it is the tweener body- between the Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 50D- which means it is targeted at me.
Not sure if I would use the Wireless file transmission, but it is an expensive option- $700.

I do like the artificial horizon overlay. That does rock.
Dual processors for wicked fast processing.
Still has the 1.6x cropped sensor.
ISO up to 3200, or a possible 128000 in H mode.
Still uses CF cards, no SD dual slots.
19 points of AF
weather-sealing
oh, and HD video.
It is something I will be seriously considering when I am going to replace my aging 30D. Now, can a brother spare $1600 for the body- please? I'd be willing to give up my 30D in trade!

(update: one thing I am not sure I like- it uses a new vertical battery grip. Another $300 investment. Grrrrrrr)


Read a hands on review from DPreview.
Read the official Canon press release here.

Killers tonight

I am planning on seeing the Killers tonight at Merriweather Post. I am not terribly excited about their latest album- Day and Age. However, I am more interested in photographing the show.
Orginally I was going to go with the wife to the show. We had some nice seats, but she decided it would be too much on the first night of school. Understandable. So I hocked those and still had two GA pit tickets. Perfect for photographing. However there is a downside to this, or rather a potential downside.
Security at the shows is now run by the 9:30 club, that changed a couple years ago. I had no clue. They are a bit tougher and no nonsense than the old security. On the Merriweather web site they state- no detachable lenses for cameras. That does present an interesting challenge.

Counter point- I went to a show for Death Cab for Cutie last year and took in my camera with the big lens. No one stopped me from shooting from seats. So there is a chance either I got lucky, was cautious enough, or they didn't care.

I don't think I will have a problem taking my Canon 30D body in. (No, I am not going to explain how I am going to get my gear in, thats not the point!) I am only going to use the 50mm f/1.8 lens. From the orershtra pit, any other lens will draw too much attention. Would have LOVED to take my 70-200mm f/2.8 IS in, but that would have been obscene and surely gotten me busted. I think the 30D body without the battery grip and a small lens is very non obivious. I think security is trained to look for big lenses. However, I have no direct information to back that up.

Lastly, being as tall as I am has it's advantages for PIT photography. I can easily see over heads of most everyone. The only problem I have encountered is when people throw their hands up. The downside is, I am somewhat more easily spotted.

Canon 7D?

I am thinking this is fake. The 5D Mark II was announced on September 2008. Canon has an 18 month new product cycle, which means the next one for the 5D replacement should be announced in February of 2010. WAY too early for any sort of production information like this in poster format.

The reported stats of this 'new' body really don't jive with the current format. 6400 ISO on the 7D where as the 5D II has the same plus higher as options.

I could do more with the poster from the translations in the forums... but that is not the crux of my post.

My opinion is that this is a fake. There is just no way a Chinese poster version of a new Canon camera comes out months before it should be announced. Just doesn't happen.

This one part of the digital camera age I do like- geeking out about things.

UPDATE:
Found this posted on Engadget this morning... maybe it isn't as fake as I had thought. Still confusing on how it would be placed in the lineup if it is real.
Not a full frame sensor, but 8 frames per second. *ponder*

Dark-sphere

I got this idea from combing two amazing photographers' ideas- David Hobby and Zach Arias.
First, David Hobby never understood why you would buy a Lightsphere when you could replicate it with a plastic soup container from sweet and sour soup.
Then Zach Arias showed off what he called a Darksphere, a Gary Fong Lightsphere painted black on the outside and silver on the inside.
DING!
While I like to re-task devices, I am not quiet willing to splurge on messing up my Lightsphere yet- not that rich. I can still use it for other things. (For the record, I would not buy it again... the soup container thing has convinced me.)

I took a soup container- traced the top of the strobe to the bottom of the soup container, carefully cut the slot for the strobe- Fits.
Paint the outside with black spray paint (plastic friendly paint), and the inside with white.

What it looks like fitted on a strobe:


Super easy, and I can make them until the cows come home.


Test shots:

Test, bare strobe at 1/4 power:

Test without diffuser (aka lid to soup), strobe at 1/4 power:

Test with diffuser (aka lid to soup), strobe at 1/4 power:

It is a great little extra when trying to get something different on a portrait or other shots. Easy to make, great option. Great to tell people you got the free with a dinner.

Camera go click?

I do love this cartoon, What the Duck. It hits a lot of the points I see pop up in my experience in photography. This strip covers a point that was made to me even last night!

A buddy said to me, "Dude, I bought a Nikon D60... what do you think?"
Well, I can't tell them exactly what to do. I believe discovering what you enjoy with photography needs to be an effort. By that I mean, you need to discover the fun or the results of taking photos through education, trail, result, self discovery, and a combination of these factors.

I know personally I was inspirited by other people's photos. From Ansel Adams to some images in various magazines. I found that my photos were not getting any bit close, nor would I. The images we know and love are not something just shot and printed. Oh no, there is a ton of other work that has to go in to seeing that end image.

I was discouraged to find out that photography is not naturally born skill. (or for that matter most well honed and used skills) Though you can have an eye for these things, which helps. I still snapped, but I realized these amounts of effort and knowledge is why professional photographers make money. I kept at it- that was the key. I learned little bits at a time. If I enjoyed the results and kept curious, I could do more.

To those who want to know how to take better photos- stick with that idea. If you stay curious, want to learn, and learn the results can be amazing.

Examples of my progression:

September 2003:

I was doing basic stuff with a point and shoot. I got low, that was interesting. However the background was too busy. The image could be cropped, and the setting was very shooting from the hip.

March 2004:

A bit better in my opinion. Good lines, a little bit more editing after the fact... interesting subject.

Nov 2005:

I moved on to a Rebel XT. The colors are deeper, the subject is more along the lines of "this is interesting..." A bit cleaner lines and content. A bit of light editing in Picasa. Still, slowly getting better images.

August 2006:

Starting to take more action shots. I found that people are more interesting than just objects. I've started to edit some more, using Digital Photo Professional.

May 2007:

I moved on to the Canon 30D body. Great difference in controlling the elements of the image- shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Basically I went full Manual for all my shots. Things like Spot Metering are common place in my photography.

June 2008:

Figuring out various concepts when I have time- like getting lighting. A nice tripod has entered the line-up. Also using Adobe Lightroom for my editing and output.

April 2009:

Using off camera strobes for lighting help. Also making some of my own gear to assist with the shaping of light. Using a watermark for all my images that are uploaded to Flickr. The content is bland because it is a test shot, but still it is much more vibrant than the 2003 shot.


Over all you can see how my shots improved year by year. Little elements being added as I expand what I knew. New gear coming along after study and need.
So check out what others are doing. Try to duplicate what you- experiment. One of the best things about digital is that you can see the results right away and adjust as needed. But keep trying!

Camera influence

My buddy Matt wrote to me asking:

Tell me why I should or shouldn't buy the Canon EOS T1i kit for $800 from Costco. The HD video is captivating.

(I also was curious to see how the attached image would be handled by Blogger via an email post- not bad- not bad at all!)

I will be the first to admit, I am a Canon user. I like their products. Why though? It was the make of the first point and shoot I bought, and have stuck with them ever since. I am invested in time, money, and interest now. I like what they produce- simple as that. I am not technical enough to tell you why Nikon or Sony or any other manufacturers as better or worse. I just don't have the time or energy!

Lets get the big elephant out of the room shall we?

HD video.

Canon introduced HD video recording in their digital SLR cameras with the Canon 5D Mark II. (they were the first if I recall) The 5D line is the only Canon which has a full frame sensor, which is fantastic for a more true 35mm film photo taking.

Phil's take: The HD video can be a wonderful thing. However, I am not one for spending a ton of time editing video. That is another beast to me entirely. It took me a long while to understand the value of editing images afterward. (I do love Adobe Lightroom)
If you like taking video, and don't mind the tasks involved in processing it- then I say this is a great feature. I am not patient enough yet to tackle this beast.

Otherwise, the camera itself is a great introduction level camera. I don't know why anyone would need more than 10MP images, but Canon has bumped up the size to 15MP in this version. It has the similar sensor as the 50D. I am going to default to people who review these things full time for a much better in-dept analysis of the camera that I could ever provide. See DPreview's review.

Phil's take: I've found the Rebel line body to be a bit small in my hands. The navigation on the back is a bit hampered by the button layout in my opinion, which hasn't changed since I had my Rebel XT.
It takes SD memory now, which is a switch from what I am used to in the XT days of CF cards. However more and more cameras are going that way. However, memory is so darn cheap I don't think most people care. It is an almost after thought!


So Matt, to answer your question- yes, I could recommend it. It is small enough to pack in a bag and not worry about it. However, you could learn and buy a lens or two and go from there. It is a slippery slope once you start on the DSLR level... The response between button pushed and image taken is highly addicting- and at that price it is a gateway drug.

Why I wouldn't buy it- the time it would take to handle the video on top of the images. I also would want to do more with it- more lenses, more gear. It gets expensive and time consuming. If all you want is video of your kids at holidays I would stick with a purposed video device.

So the question is- do you want to take photography to the next level past just tourist snaps? Or are you challenged by the limitations of your current setup? Or do you just want to do HD video? I throw it back to you- what do you want?

Welcome

Gotta post that first entry...

I started this blog in the attempts to explain, expand, understand, share, explore, and basically tout all things that I dis/like about photography.

I started out with a goal list like this:

- photography related- somehow
- not an super advanced blog
- a bit nerdy
- lessons learned, showing why my old photos suck now
- interesting photo bits found on the web
- general photo information found on the web
- lists of my favorite things (websites, etc)

I realized a month ago, with my daughter being around, that I wasn't really paying too much attention to photography. So to make an effort to share what I know, pay more attention to it, develop a central repository of just photography information, and if I can explain it and someone understands it- then I know it.
It has taken me several slow years to get all the gear I have. This came from need and the desire to do better. I love to know, to explore, to try things out, and to learn. The best thing about photography it is mostly see and do. Which is great because that is how I learn best...

So far most photographers I have talked with, either causal ones or fairly serious ones have been very helpful and informative about their small slice of it. So maybe with this blog I can share some back.

I am no Ansel Adams, and I am no point and shoot tourist either... I am somewhere in between and I am trying to get better. I am amazed at photos I look at a year prior and realize how bad they were... I am hoping that is making me a better photographer on several levels. Time will tell.

I've got too many ideas floating in my head right now- lots of posts to come. Hopefully I can get a bunch in to this blog to share with others.

Enjoy.

ps I am a horrible self editor of my writing. If you see bad grammar, feel free to point it out to me. I don't have a paid editor on staff to correct such things.