Possibilities

I was thinking the other day... if I had my own photography company- I would want a dedicated piece of transportation for all the gear I would take on various locations. So, what would I use for all that? Of course I would have all sorts of options on site. Better to take it and not use it than go and not have a piece you need.

I would think I would want some sort of roof rack so I could setup on the roof for shots. I would want lots of secure storage in the back... some sort of way of charging batteries on the road too. Inverters off a dedicated battery maybe.
But I think the vehicle for me would be the Sprinter van probably... maybe I just want it to be. More likely I would wind up getting some junker minivan.

Ah... dreams of what might be. I think I am more excited about the possibility of doing than the actual doing. Thats geek right there.

Links:


- Canon 5D Mark II used to shoot entire House season finale, director says it's 'the future'- Engadget; Cool beans... quiet the change from the big cameras they normally use.

- Turn Off the Flash for Better Food Photos- LifeHacker; If you use on-camera flash I would agree... however, if you are a Strobist, then you can figure it out better to light the item.

- DSLR Concept Redesign Makes More Room For Your Face- Gizmodo; Cool idea. How ergonomic can they push it?


- Photographing Children – Know When to Leave your Camera- DPS; Good points... I often leave my camera when going with my kid. Though there are a few times I regret it. The times I do take it, I find that I am paying more attention to locating the shot than I ought to.

- The Most Powerful Light In Your Bag- Strobist; Great article. I often don't take my tripod because it is too balky... but in low light I try to take it with me.

Photo-gathering

This coming weekend, I signed up for a group of folks to get together and do some photography. Nice, good. It will be my first venture out to try things out in a while. Cool beans.
The question is now- what do I attempt to do? Short of possible bad weather, lack of models, and other issues... I want to at least have a game plan.

I think such gatherings would be good to talk shop, show off technique, and generally learn some new ways of doing things. I am usually pretty interested in finding out how/why others shoot the way they do. It is one thing to see the end result, but 'seeing' the thought process has always been very helpful to my learning. (monkey see- monkey do might be another way of looking at it.)

I am gonna bring most of my gear along just in case, you never know what you might need. (short of the backdrop that is)

But the question is, what do I want to try? My normal photography is fly on the wall stuff, but I have been getting in to more people stuff. Outdoors would be a nice practice for people. With the warm weather, trees blooming, there is more opportunity to photograph people outside. I do love open shade, but what happens when that isn't possible? I guess that is something to think about and work for... and if it is only me- then what? Things I don't want to run in to and tackle when I have a rare paying gig without some information!

Hopefully the weather holds up and we have some people to photograph other than each other... nothing worse than a photographer trying to photograph another one. Seriously... overall, I think most photographers like being behind the camera instead of in front of it.

Links

It has been a while, just been busy. Here is a slew of new links!

• High-speed, medium-format DM40 DSLR puts Mamiya back in the money again- Engadget; Medium format is very cool- but WAY too expensive for my budget.
  
• Get the Most from Your Point-and-Shoot Camera- LifeHacker; Wish I had something like this when I first got my Canon S45 about 7-8 years ago.
  
• Sony's Ultra Compact DSLR Camera Concept May Have Powerful Touchscreen Menus- Gizmodo; Would this sort of touch screen come to other manufacturers? Maybe... I don't know how I feel about it. Literally. When I am shooting I can adjust everything on the fly by touch. No clue how they configure that with a touchscreen.
  
• Understand Your Camera's Histogram to Take More Balanced Pictures- LifeHacker; Very important that histogram. I didn't care about it for years- now it make much more sense in the quality of the image.
  
• Take Better Interior Photos by Kneeling- LifeHacker; Changing your prospective is great way to get interesting photos. I also do this by holding the camera above my head and shooting 'blindly' and seeing what I get sometimes.
  
• 44% of those who own a Digital Camera with Video Never Use it- DPS; I don't know if I would be part of that 44% or not. I think with some messing around I would use it from time to time, but to make home videos- naa.
  
• GigaPan Epic Pro robotic camera mount shipping in April- Endgaget; Ya know, for those EPIC scenes.
  
• Learn to Use Depth of Field to Focus Attention, Take Better Photos- LifeHacker; DOF is where it is at.
  
• Reason #92,417 Why We Should Be Grateful- Gizmodo; I love batteries... just love them. And this is a great example of advances.
  
• Photoshop's Upcoming Content-Aware Fill Feature Looks Like Magic- Gizmodo; Wow and wow. If they brought this little bit to Lightroom, I might pee my pants.
  
• A War Photographer's Storage Casualties- Gizmodo; Sounds about right.
  
• Print a Lens Hood for On-The-Cheap Sun Blocking- LifeHacker; I've never needed this, but I am glad something like this exists.
  
• 26 Gigapixel of Paris. 

I so love What the Duck