I really wish you couldn't see my shadow and that I had taken my garbage cans in, but really, when else do you get to capture something so amazingly beautiful?
(also, click the photo to see if larger!)
(or you could View On Black)
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sometimes you just get lucky...
I really wish you couldn't see my shadow and that I had taken my garbage cans in, but really, when else do you get to capture something so amazingly beautiful?
(also, click the photo to see if larger!)
(or you could View On Black)
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lensbaby Composer
I turned 30 last weekend and my lovely wife gave me a Lensbaby Composer, I finally had a chance earlier this week to take it out for a test run. Those of you who may or may not know what this particular lens is, I suggest you check out the website and watch the video, read about it a bit. I don't think the lens is for everyone, but I am excited by the creative possibilities it offers me.
The lens itself is about 1 1/2 times the size of the 50mm 1.8 I often shoot with, the lower half connected the the camera, the top half rotating freely on a ball. Showing it to some friends this weekend it was interesting that their first impression was that it would "tilt" around a corner or something. My impression of the lens is that is selectively chooses the focus point, depending on where you rotate the lens. Example:
I started this shot with the lens on center, the focus on the upper / middle of the Temple, then I tilted the lens up to make the point of focus be the Angel Moroni. Notice how he is in perfect focus and the rest of the temple is more and more out of focus the further you get away from the focal point.
Depending on what camera you shoot with (they currently only offer Nikon and Canon) you will probably have to shoot in full manual mode(luckily you can also shoot in Aperture priority mode with canons). You actually change the aperture in the camera by putting inserts (included with the lens) on top of the glass itself, I have yet to shoot with anything but the 2.8 insert, so I can't offer much in the way that it changed the photo. It is also 100% manual focus, this is a lens where you do all the work!
Obviously the lens is going to have its limitations, you wont be pulling out super crisp landscape or action shots. But what you will get it a creative lens with a bunch of different options to continually enhance your creativity, they offer everything from a maro kit, wide angle kits and even different optic kits to change the clarity of the image (plastic and pinhole optics). I have even seen shots where people have used scrapbook punched to make shaped aperture kits that leave star shaped lights in the picture (they have some examples on the website). The lens seems to be a natural fit to flower photography and I am beyond excited to see what horizons it opens up for me with vintage type photography. I am sure I will be writing more and more about this lens in the future, but these are just a few first impressions, and now for a few sample pictures.
The lens itself is about 1 1/2 times the size of the 50mm 1.8 I often shoot with, the lower half connected the the camera, the top half rotating freely on a ball. Showing it to some friends this weekend it was interesting that their first impression was that it would "tilt" around a corner or something. My impression of the lens is that is selectively chooses the focus point, depending on where you rotate the lens. Example:
I started this shot with the lens on center, the focus on the upper / middle of the Temple, then I tilted the lens up to make the point of focus be the Angel Moroni. Notice how he is in perfect focus and the rest of the temple is more and more out of focus the further you get away from the focal point.
Depending on what camera you shoot with (they currently only offer Nikon and Canon) you will probably have to shoot in full manual mode(luckily you can also shoot in Aperture priority mode with canons). You actually change the aperture in the camera by putting inserts (included with the lens) on top of the glass itself, I have yet to shoot with anything but the 2.8 insert, so I can't offer much in the way that it changed the photo. It is also 100% manual focus, this is a lens where you do all the work!
Obviously the lens is going to have its limitations, you wont be pulling out super crisp landscape or action shots. But what you will get it a creative lens with a bunch of different options to continually enhance your creativity, they offer everything from a maro kit, wide angle kits and even different optic kits to change the clarity of the image (plastic and pinhole optics). I have even seen shots where people have used scrapbook punched to make shaped aperture kits that leave star shaped lights in the picture (they have some examples on the website). The lens seems to be a natural fit to flower photography and I am beyond excited to see what horizons it opens up for me with vintage type photography. I am sure I will be writing more and more about this lens in the future, but these are just a few first impressions, and now for a few sample pictures.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Updates
It's a wonder I ever get anything done, it seems like the thing I am best at is procrastination... or trying too many things at once. I am going to try and simplify things and shutter my personal blog (one update in 6 months) and move it onto this blog (two updates in 4 months) along with the photography stuff. A little consolidation can't hurt anyone, right? I will also be (finally) getting my retail website up and running in the next months and hopefully offering a selection of my pictures for sale. That website will be strictly for business, this blog for personal and photography (hobby) related works. See, I have it all in a game plan, how can I fail now? (really, I will find a way)
So I am sitting in this photography seminar tonight, and this feeling of almost despair comes over me, this feeling of self doubt and self loathing, very strange, right? My mind begins to wander, what is my creative place in this world? How and when I am going to leave my mark? I don't photograph people... I mean, I guess I could, and maybe someday I will, I don't have any desire for stock photography, and really I wonder if I even KNOW what I want out of photography... or what I want at this moment of crisis, out of my life, creatively. So I am driving home, wondering if maybe I am just a hopeless romantic of photography, just me and my camera moving from one crush to another and ultimately failing to find our one true love, wow... how NOT manly does that sound, eeek! (I have no point here, those of you reading and waiting for my AH HA! moment totally aren't getting one, sorry to let you down.)
So here I am at this crossroad, trying to decide where I ultimately want to go and what do I want to do. I think maybe I will write more again, pair that with my deep love of capturing the world through my eyes. See where that leads, see if that satisfies my desire to express myself creatively, and hopefully find some sort of happy medium. If that doesn't work, I am going to start playing the guitar again and write very, very depressing singer songwriter songs that make all the girls swooooon. Told you I was feeling wordy today.
So I am sitting in this photography seminar tonight, and this feeling of almost despair comes over me, this feeling of self doubt and self loathing, very strange, right? My mind begins to wander, what is my creative place in this world? How and when I am going to leave my mark? I don't photograph people... I mean, I guess I could, and maybe someday I will, I don't have any desire for stock photography, and really I wonder if I even KNOW what I want out of photography... or what I want at this moment of crisis, out of my life, creatively. So I am driving home, wondering if maybe I am just a hopeless romantic of photography, just me and my camera moving from one crush to another and ultimately failing to find our one true love, wow... how NOT manly does that sound, eeek! (I have no point here, those of you reading and waiting for my AH HA! moment totally aren't getting one, sorry to let you down.)
So here I am at this crossroad, trying to decide where I ultimately want to go and what do I want to do. I think maybe I will write more again, pair that with my deep love of capturing the world through my eyes. See where that leads, see if that satisfies my desire to express myself creatively, and hopefully find some sort of happy medium. If that doesn't work, I am going to start playing the guitar again and write very, very depressing singer songwriter songs that make all the girls swooooon. Told you I was feeling wordy today.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
HDR
In my previous post I blogged about a some photos I had taken of the Draper, Utah LDS Temple. Both posted images were HDR, both triple exposed and tonemapped in photomatix. My friend Jon asked me if I would post the original images so he could see the difference, this morning I finally got around to getting the pictures up on flickr. You will probably want to view in large, the photo collage I did is a bit small.
So lets talk about HDR as a form of photography. I hear often about people's distaste for HDR and honestly I tend to agree with them. As you browse around flickr you see so many images of ordinary things that people think HDR will make extraordinary, I tend to feel this is the type of imagery that turns people off to HDR. But look at the three images and then look at the original:
I was able show building with the sun setting behind is and even bring out the detail in the brick. No matter how hard I tried with any of the images I had would I have been able to accomplish this, they were basically lost images for me. I ended up toning (over the top look) the shot a little more than normal, but I loved the dramatic sunset and thought it was the perfect scene against what I consider to be an amazing and spiritual place. As I progress as a photographer I find myself relying on HDR a little less than I used to but I still consider it a valuable tool and a very interesting form of photography (I consider it no different than B&W, infrared, etc). Obviously this is just the ramblings of a complete photography amateur, but if you have even the slightest interest in HDR just give it a shot.
***PS: It wont make ordinary scenes look anything but... overprocessed ordinary***
So lets talk about HDR as a form of photography. I hear often about people's distaste for HDR and honestly I tend to agree with them. As you browse around flickr you see so many images of ordinary things that people think HDR will make extraordinary, I tend to feel this is the type of imagery that turns people off to HDR. But look at the three images and then look at the original:
I was able show building with the sun setting behind is and even bring out the detail in the brick. No matter how hard I tried with any of the images I had would I have been able to accomplish this, they were basically lost images for me. I ended up toning (over the top look) the shot a little more than normal, but I loved the dramatic sunset and thought it was the perfect scene against what I consider to be an amazing and spiritual place. As I progress as a photographer I find myself relying on HDR a little less than I used to but I still consider it a valuable tool and a very interesting form of photography (I consider it no different than B&W, infrared, etc). Obviously this is just the ramblings of a complete photography amateur, but if you have even the slightest interest in HDR just give it a shot.
***PS: It wont make ordinary scenes look anything but... overprocessed ordinary***
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