Small Camera Big Results

in

I was lucky enough to pick up a used Olympus XZ-1 yesterday.  I wanted to get a little camera I can keep on my belt all the time.  Since I got it used, I picked up something with higher quality than if I bought new at the same price.

One little thing I learned a while ago about point and shoots is not to disrespect them!  Especially for macro shooting.  Due to the size of the sensor and lens they can obtain magnifications and high quality output that surprises many. I read a lot about this in Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Close Up Photography."  He showed how you can make great images with point and shoots, close up lenses and dedicated gear.

It is not the gear, it is the creativity and technical knowledge of the photographer that will make the keeper. So no matter who we are, we all have no excuse if we have something to capture an image in our hands. Grab a tool and make an image happen!

ehw

To fll or not to fill

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[slideshow] Last week I took lots of photos around the yard.  Got out the tripod, put the top shelf macro on, grabbed the 5-in-1 reflector....but left the flashes in the house. Learned a ton from the shoot.  Here is a one of the highlights of my learning:

Backlight of a flower or plant can be quite fun.  Dark parts get lighter in color, translucent areas show up with unusual details revealed while the thinnest areas have highlights getting clipped.  In addition the bokeh around the plant blurs out of existance with fewer round circles.

Using the pop up flash and reflector was hard.  I dialed the pop up all the way down, and lowered the ISO as well.  The resulting shots showed great detail around the focus point, the dark areas showed great contrast, and then the image gets dark fast as it moves away from the focus point.

It is a great example of why the use of flash is so important, but also the power of selective lighting techniques.  It shows the power one can have over their images when they match the effects they want, with the knowledge of techniques and tools required to get the shot.

Ok so that means it is back to the books memorization room for me!

ehw

Photo Evolution

in

[slideshow] Today we went to the Train Museum.  We had a very hard day to shoot anything.  Overcast with lots of blinding haze.  To get decent shots I tried the overpower with flash technique.  It worked some of the time.  I also dreadfully over exposed two photos (well more than two).

Since I shot RAW files I was able to make it useable.  Still not satisfied I took the photo first into Nik Veveza 2.  Using the selective edit feature I darkened the horrible sky to bring focus to the people and train.  Then I took the photo into Color Efex 4 where I applied two filters, and a few negative control points.  Once done I finished by repairing a few points in the sky, and sharpened up the faces for a 10x12 screen shot.

The point of these photos shows that tools can help you improve a shot, but never replaces getting the conditions right before you close the shutter.  A little negative compensation, exposure lock, and tight flash work would make a better photo in my opinion.  That is my 20/20 hind sight talking.

But if you make a mistake like this....you can use powerful tools to help make something out of not much.

 

ehw

 

Special Ordinary

in

[slideshow] In the midst of a family move time flies with a little extra emphasis on speed.  So the last few weeks saw precious little time to shooting,  So when I got the precious second I had to find some way of making ordinary life timeless in the lens.  These two captures used two different methods of doing that.  In the first I made a black and white.  The second was a capture of Kellie in a mirror.  It was special since it was her first time on the floor with the mirror.  What a surprise she had when a cute baby cooed back!  The mirror helped in two ways.  It helped frame up the image in the viewfinder, and it also made you part of the moment.  Just like you were there observing from nearby.

Oh well back to boxes and prep for real work.

ehw

Monster Racers!

in

[slideshow] Two days ago I got a chance to give some of my gear a heavy workout shooting model race cars.  I know you are thinking, "Model cars would never be a challenge!"  Well if they go 0-40mph in the blink of an eye they are a challenge.  If driven by wild and crazy friends you have a challenge.  If the sun is setting you have a triple challenge.

Challenge #1 is to get the tracking techniques down.  I was able to use AF-C and either center point or auto select focus point to get an acceptable success rate.  Framing the photo was problematic, but became more successful as I got to know what the drivers were doing with their cars.  Just like sports, anticipating the desired shot was vital to success.

Challenge #2 was accepting the use of jpegs.  My preferred method of capture is with RAW (PEF format) photos.  Problem is the buffer would fill up and slow down too much if I used RAW, so I needed to do something I don't normally enjoy doing. I did succeed in keeping my bursts down to two or three shots at a time before I recomposed.  In the past the RAW files may have kept me from shooting again while they were processed for longer periods of time than what I experienced that day.

Challenge #3 was getting a safe position and then getting my three kiddos (age 4, 8 and 10) to be safe as well.  Trucks flying off the ramp could easily go 30ft in the "wrong" or unexpected direction on the ramp.  So safety conscience Dads needed to be a shepherd as well.

Over all I had a blast.  The captures were great practice.  I processed the photos in Aperture with a mix of presets (from Aperture Expert and MacCreate) and selected photos in the Nik Collection.

Here is a movie I made with the photos!  Enjoy!

Monster Racers!

Bokeh

in

[slideshow] Today I had a short opportunity to get outside and work with my gear.  I wanted to practice a few techniques with my camera body, and check out how my new Pentax DA* 60-250 F4 will work.  I used these four photos to demonstrate (to me because I because I may be the only one who reads this) the effect of aperture on the bokeh, or out of focus areas, in a photograph.

I shot this birdhouse at F14, F11, F5 and F4.  The smaller the aperture the more depth of field you have in your photo.  This means more will be in focus at F14 than F4.  In this series you can see also how the larger aperture allows you to focus more on what you may want to be the focal point of the photo.  In this case it is a simple photo with no artistic intent other than to demonstrate how being able to open up your lens aperture can be a powerful tool to a photographer.

So when you hear people lament that they "need" expensive fast glass...you can see what they should be using it for when the situation arises.  You can isolate a model, a bird or bolt on a bridge if your tools will allow it in the space you have to work.

Color

in

This photo utilized a lovely afternoon sunset to brilliantly display the stained glass windows of a baptismal font.  When you add in the symmetry and converging lines it gave the photo a rather lovely cast.  It is convergence of several photographic principles that made the photo successful.  It recently was accepted to the Pentax Photo Gallery and became my highest grossing photo at the recent charity art auction I donated a 16x10 to. I know it worked when I heard several people come up and gasp the words "wow" or "Lovely".  I highly suggest just displaying your best work, and getting some real world feedback from someone other than your Mom and Dad...it will inspire you to work harder and give you focus.

Magic

in

When Kellie was born I was able to capture some really nice moments. I caught her first breath, her bath and the reactions of siblings to seeing her for the first time. It was amazing, and reminded me why i love photography. Catching the moment that comes once is such an incredible opportunity. You can't stage moments like this, your have to live them and just execute the creation of lifelong memories. I guess as a mentor says, know your gear and don't worry about what you don't have available. If you know what you can do, you'll watch, anticipate and execute inside those limits without thinking. You'll be forced to compose a photo and that makes you a better photographer. I know it worked for me that day one month ago![slideshow]

Raising Spirits!

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[slideshow] Well my poor boys caught one bug after another for the last 10 days, and today they needed a break from feeling sick.  So when the temperature hit 65 degrees I took them outside and let them race their little Tonka race car.  Kalen got excited as well when I told him I was taking pictures.  So excited that he grabbed his camera to join in the fun of taking photos!

We caught the cars flipping, jumping, and getting stuck in the grass.  I saw boys get excited, laugh and smile in ways they just have not been able to do for a while.  We were sad to come in, but the setting sun dictated we just had to go on to our next set of chores.

On the happy side for me, I was capturing on memory card what I love best...my family.

On the techie side all are shot with my new DA*60-250mm lens.  It did a great job of isolating the subject, focusing quickly and rendering good contrast even at an iso of 1600. Bravo!  Baseball season should be fun!

ehw

Frames and Lines

in

[slideshow] I went out with the family and my brother's family to the park with the children.  We had just enjoyed several displays (with live examples) about our local reptiles, and I memorized the colors on the Copperhead trapped nicely in the display in front of me.  I just do not like those Copperheads since they come too close to the house for their own good health.

The kids were extremely excited when we turned them loose not the park outside the nature exhibit.  I need to get some practice in on technique.  So today I decided to hone my skills of framing a picture with the environment I'm shooting in with the lines around my subjects.

As Kevin climbed up a slide I knew I could use the slide to aim you up at his face and mischievious grin.  Then he switched to the cargo net.  I quickly crouched down to use the wood and ropes to frame him in.  Kalen tried to do the money rings, and I found converging lines to use in framing his actions.  JuliaRose was jumping on the bridge.  I used the posts to framer her in mid jump.  With her feet bent up she shows there is no floor to box in the shot.  I also wanted to see how Julia's hair would dance around as she jumped.  So there were two goals in the shot.  As with all shots with competing goals...they usually don't completely satisfy both objectives.

Well it felt good to get a little creative today, and practice skills rather than just dream about it!

"Don't take pictures, Make Pictures"...Scott Bourne

ehw

Race Cars

in

[slideshow] Racing cars come in all shapes and sizes.  This one is my buddy Rich's.  It is fast.  He had it running up to 30-40 mph in bursts of speed.  To shoot the photos in the setting sun and overcast skies I used his Nikon D7000 rig with the 105mm F2.8 Micro.  I pre-focused some of the shots, but the AF is really pretty fast.  I kept the Aperture at F3.3 and let it rip using ISOs anywhere from 1600 to 2200 just because I had to.  Rich did the post processing in Lightroom.

The D7000 is an excellent camera.  It focuses fast and has terrific metering.  The Micro focused far faster than my macro ever would.  It is also amazing.  I could live very well with it if I had too!

Only thing I did not like was the size of the hand grip and the heavy weight.  Small gripes to tell you the truth for what it can do.  My K5 is lighter, and I really don't think it could have focused in the light that I was dealing with here.

Oh well, both excellent pieces of machinery.  The important thing is that it caught some worthwhile memories!

ehw

Light and Lens

in

[slideshow] I came home Saturday a little frustrated from a shoot with my knowledge of lighting with flash.  I think I've got the shot visualized, do the math about the light in my head, and bam...something was too strong or too weak.  Back the books!

I came home to find the kids and their friends having a blast making Gingerbread Houses and role playing their favorite adventure shows.  I look up and the light is pretty nice.  I visualize happy child, good light...and what if I slipped on my favorite lens...a Pentax 77mm Limited Prime.  I knew I could catch these shots and make a golden memory.

If you want to succeed in flash photography you have to keep working.  Learn, relearn, practice and then practice some more.  When you get frustrated stop for a minute and breathe.

The moral of the story is that light is light.  There is good light and rotten light to photographers.  If you find yourself making bad light and getting frustrated, take a minute to shoot what you can see.  Shoot the seen well, and enjoy the moment you caught something beautiful.  Then start to learn again how to capture that magic when the God given light is not there by using the tools he gave us brains to make (or buy).

Oh and for the record...a lovely prime makes feeling better a lot easier too!

ehw

Farm Days

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[slideshow] My Dad acquired a great deal of equipment this year to make his work more efficient.  Since he is being thrifty he picked up a great deal of used equipment, and I find it so darn interesting!  Gears, chains, tires, grease are all just fascinating objects to photograph. These "ancient" pieces of equipment soldier on for generations under good caregiving hands.   I know some of the pieces are at least as old as I am.

Well here is to another day of getting interesting subjects with good light on the farm!

The Power of Parts

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[slideshow] I do a lot of photo-journalistic type work.  That is what you get when you cover events that your children do.  I find telling a story with photos and then placing them into a slideshow is an effective method of sharing images and providing context for the whole sequence.

These three photos helped me illustrate our Scouting for Food event.  The words Boy Scouts of America provide context to the event.  Scouting for Food was written on the opening screen.  When that is followed by "Boy Scouts of America" the average person usually conjures up the image of young boys doing good deeds.  The Pack Number on the shoulder was in my opening sequence, and showed off who specifically the photos were about.   The photo of an adult hand recording numbers lets you know we are tracking a number of collections over the course of the event.

By using only parts of uniforms or hands I made the focus not on an individual, but rather on the event, the group and its results.  I told a story not just of my children, but one that many people involved would be desiring to dive into.  It is funny to me, in retrospect, that using parts of a whole person or event can be a very effective way of telling a much larger story.

I guess I should not be surprised.  The trick is as old as time itself.  It is just the first time I created photos during my story collection phase where I was entirely conscious of what my intended results would be.  One more baby step towards being a real photographer.  Now if I can do it two more times it won't be called beginners luck anymore.

Here is the video I made

Scouting for Food 2011

ehw

Software Power

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[slideshow] I am currently evaluating software for editing photos.  Selecting a suite is hard because each one displays strengths and weaknesses.  So like everything you have to make the best decision based on logical analysis and your gut reaction.

I put a few fun photos in here to show some before and after effects you can do with digital photography and these nice programs.  The one I used to night is from On One Software can is called Perfect Photo Suite.  This suite offers you the ability to create photoshop layers, and then stack the effects across all the sub programs.  After testing three different software packages this one is the best at integration by far.  Its integration of tools makes it very fast.

On the negative side I think Nik software does better in detailed results.  The problem there remains you have to use each program individually to get the type of effects On One gets in one pass.

So here is a quick conversion of each of my children in their Halloween costumes in to B&W, a vintage film effect and a special effect which removes backgrounds.  Snapshots get a second shot at the keeper bin if given the right effect!

Enjoy!

ehw

Fall Colors

in

[slideshow] Short days with lovely golden sunlight is the only reason I love the fall.  Problem with working inside all day is that you do not get a chance to capture those lovely rays when they are looking their best.  Instead you grab your camera and shoot a bit while your child is playing baseball...and that gives you twelve minutes of light from 5:45PM to 5:57PM!

Some of my favorite colors are popping now the reds and yellows.  Here are some reds trying to peek out of the shadows at the boys playing ball...and the yellows...well those are for another day!

ehw

Get in a photo

in

There comes a time when you have to put the camera down and be part of the story.  I really want to capture my children's growth and make it art.  However after being with Kalen for the last four months while he worked on his Wolf badge for Cub Scouts, there was no way I could be outside of this moment in his life. I put the camera on a monopod, program mode and handed it to another nice dad as I walked away.  It was a hard thing to hand over my camera and join the event, but the result was a tremendous capture.  Kalen and a proud Dad in the shadows.  It is a photo story that I am finally part of.  It is a moment I do not want to forget.

Thanks Rodney!

ehw