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.