Tim Limón

The Way Into the Light

2011-11-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

Each day,
as I drive by, my head instinctively turns toward the light. I pass this one spot just before the freeway on ramp. Something draws me to look as I cross the bridge. If I blink, I would miss it.

The shimmering steel
polished by the train passing over. Its heavy wheels grind off the rust that forms so easily when things are not taken care of. Persistence....

My eyes
are led onward around the bend, toward the unknown.

Thankfulness

2011-11-23T19:36:00.001-08:00

I once heard a discourse on gratitude that delved deeply into everyday items which I feel particularly apropos this season:

Take something simple like a paper napkin.
might not think much of this object; they're literally a dime a dozen. But look again. Imagine what it took to bring this napkin to your table. You probably bought it but someone at the market had to place it on the shelf.

Someone had to drive it
from the where house to the store. Many people designed and built the truck in which in came. Thousands of parts had to be assembled right down to the smallest nut. Those thousand parts had to be designed, and fabricated from materials mined from this earth by hundreds more.

The road on which the truck traveled had to be planned, and built from material which were made by hundreds more.

The napkin itself
is made from paper which was milled by many people. Before it was paper it was a tree, living rooted deep in this earth, soaking up rain and sun. Many people had to harvest that tree and load it onto the truck to to mill. Someone had to plant the tree to start it all off.

All told there are thousands of people involved in that little insignificant napkin you place on your lap at dinner and will throw away.

Be thankful
to all of those people who chose that line of work on that particular day so that you can enjoy your meal tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Late Afternoon

2011-11-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

In Paris, in the summertime, the sun doesn't set until almost 10 pm. The light echos through the tall buildings and makes things just glow. Many shops were closing and people were on their way out for another evening. A man makes plans on the phone while another walks past. Both are lit from the setting sun and have that halo effect I do so enjoy.

I like the way his foot was caught just before landing. The flare from the lens just happen to land there which draws attention to this and gives the shot a feeling of liveliness. His shadow draws me in as well.

Cycles of Life

2011-11-12T22:41:00.001-08:00

Wandering the streets of Paris
at night the mood shifts from the busy aliveness of the day to a more mystical feel. Almost as if the carnival had come to town while we were eating. Gone were the crowds of shoppers of the day and out came the spectators to watch the city transform. Musicians, skaters, performers all out to share the night with passers' by

We came upon this young lady
on our way back to our hotel. Music blaring and her fire dance reminded me of the gypsies of old. She spun her chains with bails of cotton soaked in kerosene to capture the crowds as they passed. Many of us stood to watch as she moved into danger then out again. Flirting with the fire and charming a few coins from the pockets of the crowd.

Image Use

2011-08-28T23:02:00.005-07:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted. I've been going through a reassessment of my priorities in life, and shooting and blogging aren't near the top any more. My apologies to both of my readers ;)

I've been focusing on building myself up from the inside instead of relying on so many external things to keep me happy. Simple life, simple joy...

Meanwhile,

Google launched a new "Image Search" engine that I've recently found a great use for. As a microstock photographer, I often have no idea who buys my images or where they end up ultimately. I've taken to using image search seeded with a small sample image from iStock and found many of my images in the wild. Here are some of the results below:

This first image is by far the most popular to date. You may remember the fire station shoot I did in July of 2009. This one image has sold 51 times! Here are a few that I've found:

http://www.interdynamicgroup.com/government.php

http://www.cellulardatasolutions.net/emergencyservices.html

I found a few others from around the globe as well:

http://www.itforum.it/newsletter/2011-54/non-comprare-il-coltello-che-cade.html

http://www.braintrack.com/college-and-work-news/articles/most-americans-check-work-e-mail-over-thanksgiving-10112602

http://www.ecohomeassessments.com.au/

http://www.agroserver.sk/news/tyzdennik-farmar-40-2009/

http://www.greenfudge.org/2009/11/05/the-pollution-on-the-bus-goes-round-and-round/

I even found one in print on a book cover available at amazon.com!

It is nice to know that the work is useful for some.

All in all,

my foray into stock photography has been a lesson in learning. I had such high hopes for the business to take off, but there is so much competition out there that I'd need to devote many more hours to this were it to become a career. Perhaps its something to fall back on should my employment situation change, or possibly when I retire.

Right now,

I am committed to enjoying life from the "inside-out" which has become one of the most profound realizations. Stock photography (and blogging for that matter) will probably remain little more than a hobby as opposed to a passion.

Until next time....

The Mystery of Black and White

2011-03-30T20:59:00.010-07:00

There's something mysterious

about black and white photography. Perhaps it's because we are so conditioned to seeing the ancient imagery from the early days of the art, or perhaps its because the absence of color leaves a bit to the imagination.

These days, digital cameras, color corrected monitors, and photo printers make color imagery saturate our daily lives. We see in color, we shoot in color, we print in color. Perhaps this too contributes to the added interest in the black and white realm.

The opening image

is one I see almost daily on my morning commute. This particular day, the soggy winter's rains had finally ceased and the glorious golden sun peaked through and made the landscape surreal. This lone tree stood bathed in warmth still drying out as marked by the moist dark streak of bark along the trunk.

Editing this image in Adobe's LightRoom gave me a great deal of control over the image. I was able to darken the spring grass and sky for a more striking contrast for the subject.

Enjoy!

Finding the Time

2011-01-18T19:14:00.008-08:00

On my way

to work today, the first day after a holiday weekend, the traffic was heavy. I was hoping to get to work early to photograph the lake before the fog lifted, but by now the sun was already shining through, burning off the novelty and soft light.

As I drove slowly, bumper-to-bumper, I looked to my right at saw the wetlands along side the freeway. The sun was low in the sky and the reeds and cattails glowed in the yellow morning light. I saw a few ducks paddling in the water. The scene was just what I needed to pause and say: "Ahhhhh..."

I felt my shoulders relax and I thought to myself: "Why not? The traffic will still be here..."

I took the next exit and found my way to the frontage road just beside the wetlands. I scouted for the best place to park and explore.

Camera in hand,

I saw this scene almost immediately when I got out of the car. The small pond was still and reflected the bright morning sky. A few ducks paddled by feeding and bathing in the cold shallows.

I walked for just a bit before I realized that the bush was too high for me to get a clear shot of the marsh. I peeped through the reeds to get the opening shot. As I walked back to my car I noticed how the hard morning sun made the footbridge stand out.

I felt pretty good

about my little escape from traffic. The morning light and the spontaneity made for a calming excursion. Perhaps this may inspire you to take the next exit and spend a few moments noticing how special your life really is!

Enjoy

Good Light

2010-07-08T21:30:00.007-07:00

Early in the morning
or in the evening, when the sky is clear and the sun is low, the world takes on a different glow. Light streams in from the side and illuminates everyday things in spectacular ways. Shadows deepen, colors brighten and the world just feels right.

Maybe its that most others are just waking up, or just having dinner, it does seem like the world slows down a bit.

In another case,
an overcast day can make for some nice images. Gone are the bright reflections and harsh shadows. Skin looks better and textures soften making this type of light flattering to the subject.

Often times
professional photographers will place a subject beneath a tree to shield her from the hot sun and harsh edgy shadows. An overcast day makes the light really soft. It lights your subject from all directions making it an ideal time for portraits.

So the next time
you see the sun low in the sky, or have overcast weather, take out your camera, find a willing subject, and experiment. You'll be glad you did!

Changes

2010-06-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes,
our lives take an unexpected turn. Some small decision we make turns out badly and the repercussions echo though our lives. We get upset on the freeway and end up in the hospital, we wink at a waitress and end up in divorce court, or we hurt someone deeply by failing to notice how your lives have been on auto pilot for so many years.

When we make
these seemingly small decisions, a chain of events is set in motion that runs out of control thorough our once happy lives, and we are left in devastation. Its as if our lives hang in this delicate balance and spin perfectly, but, once disturbed, our lives can spin violently out of control.

Only if
we could go back in time, Only if we could change that one thing....But we can't. Whats done is done, and now we move forward. Often we need guidance.

This photo
to me, is a reminder of lost dreams. A small shop glimmers in the early morning light beckoning those who are in need of guidance to help them through times like these.

I stopped in,
one day, to see If I could interview the owner about her life and the business she was in. I wanted to know her story, how she got started, and how she helps her clients. I thought it would be interesting to readers of the blog. I rang the bell.

I was greeted
by a small, caring woman with short brown hair, she'd said her name was Mary. We sat and talked a while but she seemed uneasy about something.

She told me
a little about her self but seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. I asked for an appointment to return for her portrait and to finish the interview. She said: "Maybe not today..." So I gave her my card and said good bye. I returned alone early the next morning to take the location photos before the shop was open.

The week passed,
and I noticed the shop hadn't been open at all, No Mary, no owner, no signs of activity. Then I saw the "For Sale" sign in the window. No wonder Mary hadn't returned my call.

I wonder
what happened to Mary that would cause her to close the shop. I wondered if, in some way, Mary's life had spun out of control forcing her to close up. For now, the shop stands as a reminder for me to pay attention to the things I take for granted. For me to have the courage and conviction in everything I do, because, somehow, it all comes back to in the end.

Keep smiling...

The People You Love

2010-04-21T06:47:00.006-07:00

I've become quite close to my in-laws. My wife's family is very tightly knit and shares much of their lives together. We usually meet every other weekend at her mom's house nearby. Its a place where she cooks for us, we talk and laugh while our children play together.

When
we found out last year, that she had stage 4 lung cancer, it was a difficult time. All of us pulled together to provide support. One became the "medical director" of sorts researching the disease and helping her to make the proper treatment choices. Another suggested we all fold paper cranes hoping that there was some glimmer of hope in that Japanese legend. Three of us became photographers of her, bring our cameras almost every time, sneaking candids of her bravely living her life as normally as she could, not knowing what the future would bring. Each image took on a different, more profound, meaning.

She passed away last week surrounded by her family, all six of her children, and some of her 10 grandchildren. They all watched as she took her last breath and left this earth.

Now
she is alive only in our memories. Her influence lives on in each of us. She taught us all what joy the comfort of a big family brings. She taught us to keep going, no matter what life brings you, keep moving forward.

She will be missed.

Unsettled Weather

2010-02-23T19:15:00.001-08:00

This time of year
makes you feel like staying inside. Icy temperatures and wet weather are not really good for photographic equipment (and wimpy photographers like us!) so we often opt to stay indoors where its warm and dry. You can't blame us right?

One thing about storms that is usually true is that, as they approach, the cloud formations will make for some nice imagery provided there is enough light to see by. I live in Northern California where the skies are relatively blue most days, so when a storm rolls in during the Fall or early Spring, the skies take on a whole new depth. Dark clouds add contrast that makes the whiter portions stand out.

In the opening photograph,
I attempted to use the contrasty clouds as the backdrop for this multi-layered image. The shed in the foreground also helps to add depth to the expanse of yellow blossoms in this old orchard in Morgan Hill. Had the sky been clear, the image wouldn't have been nearly as interesting to me.

As the storms pass over us,
they wet the streets and buildings making the light bounce around in wonderful ways. Often times, on movie sets, the producer will ask for a water truck to come by and wet the pavement (its called a "wet down") to take advantage of the reflectivity. Actors and Models take on a more pleasing appearance as the light bounces off the wet surface and into their faces.

As the ground dries out we have another benefit: Puddles! Puddles serve as little reflectors which can really add a great deal of interest.

In the photograph above, the dark roadway beneath the puddle really helps to cast a blue hue on the reflected sky that make this shot interesting to me. Had it not recently rained, I would have just kept on walking.

Don't be afraid
to go outside when the storms are approaching. You may end up with some fascinating photographs. Oh, yes, remember: Lightning loves tripods, so be careful out there!

Golden Light

2010-02-16T02:45:00.007-08:00

What is "The Golden Hour"?
In the early days, I'd often heard of the phrase but wondered what it meant. Basically, the term refers to the time of day when the sun is low in the sky, where the color of light is stained by the atmosphere and the shadows are deep.

Think of it it like this:
Because we live on a spherical planet covered by a thin transparent atmosphere, the sun's rays penetrate and pick up the color of whatever the air contains. Water droplets, dust, even smog serve to color the light. When the sun is high above, say between 10 AM and 2 PM, the suns rays pass through the thinnest portion of the air. They pick up the least amount of color and make the light ordinary and mundane.

When the sun is low,
the light passes through a greater amount of air which colors the light either yellow or red. That's why sunrises and sunsets are often so beautiful. Generally the "Golden Hour" is considered to be the time early in the morning about an hour after sunrise, or in the evening about an hour before sunset.

During this time,
Light hits objects from the side giving us a broader view and letting us see into the depths. When shot from behind, this low angle light, wraps the subject and highlights the edges. Did you ever hear of a cloud's "silver lining"? Also, shadows elongate and darken, adding depth to the scene.

In the opening shot,
The model stands in the doorway looking out at some children playing in the yard outside. The light wraps her sweater and highlights the edges. Her hair glistens as it's bathed in the golden evening light. In the background, almost too subtle to notice, spring blossoms float on a gentle breeze.

Photography can change the way you see the world.
When you become interested in the art for the first time, you begin to appreciate light and its qualities. Each of us knows, that at a certain time in your home, the light will take on a golden glow and reach in through the window making the room come alive!

Enjoy!

Your Own Worst Enemy

2010-02-06T18:25:00.006-08:00

Have you ever wondered how people get so good?
What is it about them that allows their imagery to reach out and nourish another human soul? Then, when we look at our own work, we say to ourselves: "That shot could be better; The lighting is all wrong; The subject is in the wrong place..." Its as if we have our own little critic that speaks to us inside our heads. We begin tearing ourselves down, whispering to ourselves "Your not good enough..." ...sigh...

I think that good artists are those who know how to turn off the critic within; They know how to have fun being creative and experience the shear joy of it in a childlike way.

I remember the first shot I took that sent a chill down my spine. My wife and her sister were walking far ahead of me on a snowy path that curved out of the frame. I was just playing with the camera and I snapped the shutter. When I saw the image on the LCD, my heart skipped a beat. The image I'd just made touched my soul. That shot was THE one that showed me that, even I, could be creative.

After that,
I bought all the right gear, began listening to several podcasts, and began re-learning all the teachings of the masters that surround us. I got to the point where I thought I was good. But there are so many others who are so far beyond me that lately, I find myself not willing to pick up the camera as often; I listen to my inner-critic: "I am not good enough."

I heard
an excellent interview today where a photographer, Ibarionex R. Perello, spoke with an accomplished musician, Stephan Oberhoff. Stephan had a way of articulating how we grapple with our own self-doubt, and how it stops us from moving forward. He also spoke about allowing yourself the time of day to work on your art. The parallels from photographer to musician are many. Perhaps our own self-doubt is a quality all too human and thus difficult to recognize and deal with.

I was inspired by the interview.
It was as if I got a chance to know that even the most accomplished still have within themselves, that little voice that whispers.

I know now
that I have to keep trying. I have to give myself the time of day to just play, and create, then, I have to separate the "creative process" from the "critical process". I need to stop listening to the whispers

We all do!

Yellow iMac

2010-01-31T17:02:00.010-08:00

Being an early adopter has its benefits....

and its issues. Normally, being a tech geek, I don't mind putting up with the little glitches that I find along the way to a mature product; at least it gives me stories to tell about the experience, and a sense of pride paving the way for the general public (you can thank me now ;) ).

I recently switched to the Macintosh platform for photography after years of sitting on the fence. I purchased a brand new 27" iMac back in November only to be surprised that the unit I purchased was a DOA. You can read about that experience here.

A few days ago,

I was reading Gizmodo and took note of a post about continuing screen issues. Of particular interest to me was the issue about a yellow tint toward the bottom of the screen. As a photographer, color accuracy is really, REALLY important. At the time I was reading the post on my Win7 laptop, but quickly woke up the iMac to run the test they suggested.

Sure enough,

the replacement unit I now own is affected. Here's what it looks like using the blue and white stripes in iTunes:

I'll agree, that its hard to see, but the images below show how drastic this issue is when you compare from top to bottom. The top of the screen is on the left, the bottom is in the right. Notice the conspicuous "Absence of Blue" on the left.

Apple's tech support process starts on the website: I entered my serial number, described my issue, and entered a phone number. Within a minute the phone rang and I was put into the support queue. After about 3 minutes on hold I spoke with a nice young lady by the name of Phoebe, from Niagra falls, Canada. After apologizing several times, she informed me that Apple is aware of the issue and will either:

Refund my money ...or...
Put me on the list for a new internal display panel which will be available at the local Apple Store in 3 weeks

The refund didn't sound like a good option; I'd be without a main computer for a while and then have to configure and reload all of my software. I opted for option 2.

Overall I was impressed with Apple's response to the manufacturing (or shipping?) flaw and how forthright they are about it. I'm also impressed with Gizmodo's excellent coverage of the issue complete with a leaked internal memo about it. I fully knew what to expect.

So for now,

I'll keep using my yellow iMac, and anxiously await the arrival of the new panel. I'll update the post when the issue has been resolved. I think I'll wait a few months before buying an iPad :/

Focus attention with a Vignette

2010-01-24T21:20:00.006-08:00

"Great images rarely come straight from a great camera."

What you say? How can that be?

Well,
as most photographers will agree, there are certain techniques they've learned over the years to compose, light, frame, and edit that make their shots even better. Using a vignette is one such technique.

A vignette,
as defined by Wikipedia, is a "loss of clarity toward the corners of an image". Looking at the images above, you can see how the one on the right looks darker as you move away from the center. I needed to make the shot a little more interesting and draw the eye toward the center. The yellow vases behind compete with the blossom, so using a vignette is one way to do bring the eye to the subject.

Adobe Lightroom 3
makes this very easy to do; there's a slider for it called "Post-crop vignetting". Move it to the left and the corners go dark, to the right, and they go light. Because it's "post-crop" the image can be cropped in any way before the vignette is applied. Right now the Lightroom 3 beta is a free download and definitely worth checking out.

Adobe Camera Raw
within Photoshop CS4 has the same feature, but since you'll most likely edit the image inside CS4, its tough to go back into Camera Raw and change the slider after editing in Photoshop. A better way is to control it with layer from within CS4. There's a great tutorial listed below.

So, give it a try, but go lightly with it. The images here were overdone for illustration purposes. Subtlety is better for starters.

Enjoy!

Further reading:
Lightroom 3 beta (Mac or Windows)
Photoshop Vignette Tutorial
Flickr Vignetting Group

Sound Triggers

2010-01-18T20:20:00.006-08:00

As a kid,
I loved pictures of things that happened too fast for the human eye to see. The beating of a hummingbirds wings frozen in time or the classic bullet slicing through a playing card photo always fascinated me.

When I started looking around...
at how to make such images, I found enough information to build something called a "sound trigger" This is a little electronic circuit that can fire a camera flash in a dark room when triggered by a sharp sound. Snap your fingers and the flash fires. Pretty neat!

Building the kit was fairly straight forward, but hooking it to the flash was not. I jury-rigged a hot shoe, of sorts, with some aluminum and speaker wire. It was crude, but it worked.

Now for the set up:
In order for this to work, you need a dark room and a remote shutter release. I set up in the garage with my camera on a tripod pointed at a board about 3 feet away. The camera was set to a 3-second exposure at f/4.5 and ISO 200 (manual focus of course). I turned off the lights and made my way back to the board where the camera was aiming using a flashlight. Here's the sequence of events:

Grab an object to be broken (a CD, a light bulb etc...)
Turn off the flashlight
Remote trigger the shutter
Break the object
Wait for the shutter to close
See what you got!
Repeat

Because the flash...
fires so fast (about 1/10,000 of a second!) and the room is dark, the camera's sensor is able to capture the action at that speed. Its a pretty simple concept that can work with any camera with manual mode and a remote trigger.

It took a while to catch the action at just the right moment to make an interesting photo. To adjust when the flash fires, I needed to move the sound trigger either closer or farther from the breaking object. Sound take time to travel.

Another issue...
is that sometimes the falling pieces are loud enough to re-trip the flash and give you a double exposure. I found I had to time it so the shutter would close right after the object broke.

In the end I learned a great deal about this type of photography *and* got some pretty good images too! These are among my most popular on Flickr.

Give it a try! You might find its like being a kid again!

Further reading:

Sound Triggers
Flickr High Speed Group
Some Awesome Shots

Film Never Dies

2010-01-04T21:00:00.006-08:00

Do you remember film?
In the years before digital cameras became so prevalent, the *only* way to capture an image was to shoot it on film. The canister was sold for a few bucks and held enough to expose a maximum of 36 exposures. Once shot, the film was rewound back into the metal canister and dropped off at the local store for developing. Wolf Camera, Costco, and Longs Drugs were among the many who offered 1-hour processing for standard 4x6" prints.

As digital imaging became affordable and the quality increased, film began to disappear. The LCD screen on the back of the camera gave us instant gratification. It also showed us that we had the right exposure, lighting and composition. Film began to fade away. Now the thought of waiting a hour to "see your shots" seems silly!

The other day,
I saw something that made me smile once again. I was shopping with my daughters at one of these kitchy clothing stores and noticed a display of Holga and Lomo film cameras. The boxes touted the surreal effect offered by the plastic lenses. These cameras actually looked *cool* I was impressed, very impressed.

There are many Flickr groups dedicated to film imagery. Among those worth checking out are the following:

So,
If you are looking for a new direction to take your art, or wish to revisit the depth that this old media offers, try film. Its worth a shot ;)

Street Shooting (in a restarant?)

2010-01-03T02:46:00.004-08:00

Normally, we define street shooting as candid photography out on the busy street. Either you, as the photographer move, or people, as the subjects, move. In general, longer lenses work best, as you can get candid shots of your subject from afar without being noticed. This assignment was a bit different; It involved shooting in close quarters at a local Dim Sum restaurant. We had invited my wife's parents along to enjoy the meal.

Dim Sum, for those of you who've not had the pleasure, consists of many small dishes served from carts that pass by each table. Each server asks if there is anything that you'd like, and then gives your the dish and adds it to your bill. Its like a moving parade of delectable Asian food. All you have to do is point and eat!

I stripped down my camera by removing the battery grip and using the shortest lens I have (Nikon 50mm f/1.4). I didn't bring a camera bag so as not to attract attention. I sat with the camera strap over my lap so the camera was hidden from view.

Luckily we were seated near a window and the overcast winter's day made the light wonderfully soft as it streamed in to the second story window.

I noticed that some of the servers were middle aged, their faces showed the character that the years of life brings. Carefully I raised my camera to my eye and began shooting.

No one seemed to mind as sat and pointed the lens in their general direction. It was refreshing for a change. Some of the servers even stopped to pose graciously as I snapped a few images and calmly put the camera back under the table.

I ended up with a few nice pictures that captured the whole experience. Imagine what else you could capture if you dare to bring your camera along. Don't be afraid to try something new. You may end up being surprised!

Imaging with High Dynamic Range (HDR)

2009-12-30T19:12:00.031-08:00

What is HDR?
In order to compensate for image sensor limitations, photographers often combine several images to create a more realistic looking image. In the shot below, I combined 5 images to produce something close to what my eye sees when I look at this house at night.

Why Do it?
The human eye can see about 24 "stops" of dynamic range. Think of each "stop" as a doubling of the amount of light that our brain registers. When you look our the window on a sunny day, you can see the detail in the brightest objects as well as the detail in the darkest of shadows. 35 mm Film is able to capture about 14 stops of dynamic range. Even the best digital cameras can only capture about 11 stops which means that your fancy new DSLR is still lacking. Fear not, technology is constantly improving, and low light sensitivity is one area in which manufacturers can compete. In-camera HDR processing is already making its way to the market!

An Example
In the following picture, I exposed the sensor using 2 stops under the metered reading so as not to blow out the highlights in the image. As you can see, the shadows are completely void of detail.

In this next image, I exposed the sensor 2 stops over the metered value to capture as much detail in the shadows as possible. Notice that the highlights are completely blown out, lacking any detail.

Using Photoshop CS4, I was able to merge the 5 images (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2 stops) into one 32-bit image, which captured all the detail in both the highlights and the shadows.

So...?
Most images we see on the web have a bit depth of only 8 bits. Converting the 32 bit HDR down to an 8 bit image gives us some control over the relative brightness of highlights and shadows. This is where the magic happens. In the screen shot below, you see the histogram (a graphical way of showing how many pixels are in which brightness ranges) Clicking and dragging on the line over the histogram allows you to adjust the brightness of each particular range.

The goal here
is to get the final image to show detail in the shadows without loosing the detail in the highlights. I want to see the sky, the street, and the Christmas lights, just like what my eye sees. Like most things in Photoshop, just grab the handle and drag it until it looks bad, then back off until it looks good.

The final image shows enough detail to look realistic without being over done. For more reading on this subject, see Trey Ratcliff's excellent tutorial.
A couple of final notes here: This image was created completely inside of Photoshop using the 32 to 8 bit conversion. The technique is the same in CS3 and CS4.

Timing

2009-12-18T19:12:00.007-08:00

Oftentimes, timing is everything...
in making a good image. You've seen shots where the artist captured the moment just at the right instant to tell a particular story. Such is the case with this image crafted by my wife on a beach trip a few years back.

In this shot,
we see a young child, my daughter, about to hit a beach ball into the ocean; Her wet hand reflects the sunlight drawing attention and explaining her stance. Her sister looks away adding a bit of mystery to the image.

My wife has a good eye,
and often just looks through the viewfinder, waiting for the precise moment to press the shutter. This time it payed off!

So the next time
you see your child doing something fun, or the light is just right as your cat lounges, try viewing the scene through your viewfinder for a while. Anticipate the actions and press the shutter. If your timing is right, you may just be surprised at what you capture!

Make a Good Shot Even Better with a Model

2009-12-14T07:31:00.015-08:00

When you look at this shot what do you see?
The rustic fence's strong lines draw the viewer naturally down the path. The bright patch in the clearing serves as a destination for the eye that makes this photo somewhat pleasing. Overall its not a bad journey. It evokes a calm and peaceful feeling as well.

Now, What would make this a better shot?
Placing a model at the end of the road would certainly help, but there are a few considerations first.

What she's wearing can either make her stand out or loose her to the background. A tan coat would be a poor choice with the colors in the clearing.
Stance goes a long way in creating a feeling. Should she be coming to greet you or walking away? Should she stand stable and confident, or a bit tentative and unsure?
Using a prop can help tell the story. In this example, a brightly colored umbrella would serve to attract the viewers attention. The way in which the umbrella can say a great deal as well. If she holds it askew it evokes a tentative feel. Imagine a tightrope walker with an umbrella in one hand and an out stretched arm to keep balance.

With these in mind, have a good look at the image below:

You can see...
In this simple example how adding a model adds so much more to an image. It tells a story for the viewer and evokes feelings not present in the original image.

So...
The next time you raise the camera to your eye, think of how adding the human element could tell yet another story.

Enjoy!

The TWiP Two Model Shoot

2009-12-03T21:14:00.012-08:00

One event,
two stunning models, three wardrobe changes, six professional lights and... 100 Bay Area photographers... made for a great way to spend a Monday evening!

The event was sponsored by SmugMug, Peachpit publishing, BorrowLenses.com, and Eye-Fi, each donating time, personnel, and products that made for a successful shoot.

Arriving early,
gave me a chance to meet the sponsors, greet the models and make-up artist, and help set up some of the lighting. Little by little the group began trickling in and, when it reached "critical mass", our TWiP (This Week in Photography Podcast) host Frederick Van Johnson, began the introductions.

Each model took her place and started taking direction from photographers one by one. One of the studio sets used a Pro-photo lighting trigger similar to the pocket wizard, but with the ability to adjust the intensity from the hot-shoe mounted transmitter. Pretty convenient and so easy to dial it in. The only way to go with all the various camera brands in the room!

Continuous tungsten lighting
on the other set made for an excellent way to see how the lighting would look on each model without firing test shots. True WYSIWYG at its best. The soft boxes did a good job at keeping the talent cool.

Overall, the participants were cordial
and respectful of the subjects. Few took the time to actually direct: "Turn away slightly, chin forward, half smile, look up okay...". Later on the models stated they liked being directed. It gave them a chance to see what the photographer was after.

It must have been daunting
for the models: posing for two hours in front of a hundred photographers. (I wished they would have played "Paparazzi" by Lady GaGa.) One commented that her cheeks began to hurt from smiling so much. Poor thing!

The mood was electrifying:
Flashes popping every second, hundreds of cameras, and really good talent in the room made for some exquisite imagery. Passers-by asked what all the commotion was. One even thought that there were movie stars in the room!

It all ended too soon. Before I knew it, we switched off the lights, folded up the backdrops, and said goodbye to our new friends. Not bad for a Monday night!

Wow, what a surprise!

2009-11-18T21:55:00.007-08:00

See 11/19/2009 update below...

Many of my friends
and family members know me as a computer geek. I've built PC's for years, constantly upgrading and tweaking, overclocking, etc... I know my way around the PC world pretty well. I've even dabbled in Linux and have built up servers for all my music.

Lately, since photography has "captured" my interest,
I've been noticing the limitations of PC monitors. I can really tell the difference now that I sell licenses on iStock. I spend hours tweaking things on the photo to increase the chances of having it accepted for sale. Now I notice the corners of the screen are a bit darker than the center. The upper left has a green tinge, while the lower right has a purple one. You can imagine how difficult it is to edit on something like this.

So...I decided to get a Mac,
The Macintosh screens are known for their quality and precision. Most photographers I know use macs exclusively. This would be my first one. The new iMacs just came out and I fell in love with the 27" version: the quad-core. I agonized for weeks over the decision and finally made it two nights ago.

The purchase experience was awesome; Whoever designed that should get a big pat on the back. No registers, staff handling the transaction form anywhere in the store are nice touches. I was in and out in no time; albeit a few thousand bucks poorer. Carrying the heavy box to the car was a bit of a chore. The box was pretty...pretty heavy!

Once I got home,
one of my daughters helped with the ceremonial "un-boxing" It was a hoot setting it all up. I plugged in the power, turned on the wireless keyboard and the "magic mouse". I reached behind the smooth round rear of this gorgeous piece of hardware, found the subtle power button and pressed it ever so gently. I felt giddy with excitement! I heard the drive whir and the glorious chime that macs make when they start up. My daughter and I jumped back and rubbed our hands together.....

Then????
Nothing... I heard the start-up routing asking me to choose a language, but no lights, no signs video at all??? Bbbut this is a Mac! this isn't supposed to happen, ever!

I saw John Hodgeman smirking at me.

A quick call
to the Apple Store and I was invited to bring it back for a quick exchange. "Has this ever happened before?" I asked. "Not to the quad-core's the salesman answered" Hmmm Some of the Mac forums say otherwise. Maybe this is a first production run quality issue. I just hope they have a replacement in stock, one that works!

So tomorrow,
I'll schlep the pretty and heavy box back to get an exchange from the cheerful folks at the Apple store. I'll post again with the experience and hopefully it will be a *nice* surprise this time!

Update 11/19/2009
On my lunch hour today, I paid a visit to the apple store. I met a lovely sales associate there who brought a cart out to my car to gingerly transport my DOA mac into the store. After verifying that the screen was in-fact dead, she returned with a brand new machine. I was in and out in about 30 minutes. I'm writing this post from the replacement machine now. The whole experience was pretty nice. I'll give Apple credit for their customer service!

Macro Shots -- On the Cheap

2009-11-10T21:06:00.007-08:00

Lately
I've been inspired by some of the macro photography seen on Flickr. Years ago I had a Minolta X700 SLR. Being a college student at the time, I had little money for gear. One thing I did have that was relatively cheap was something called a "Reversing Ring"

This little gem threaded onto the front of my 50 mm lens (my *only* lens) and allowed it to be mounted backwards. Flipping the lens around moves the focal point further in front of the film plane of camera which does two things:

It increases the magnification
It decreases the minimum focal distance (allowing you to get really close to your subject)

Essentially, using a reversing ring converts your 50 mm "portrait lens" into a really nice "macro lens" and it does so for less that 20 bucks! There are no additional optics involved. There are some drawbacks to the reversing ring however, is that neither the aperture or the auto-focus works.

Getting a bonafide macro lens will set you back about 500 dollars, but you get full aperture and auto-focus control. Still, the limited utility make this route hard to fathom for the average hobbyist. I mean, with a macro lens, you can only shoot macros, right?

There is another low-cost solution.
Something called an "extension tube" can accomplish the same task as the spendy macro prime lens, but only costs about 90 bucks. Kenko offers a set of three for about $170. An extension tube mounts onto the back of your lens and then onto the front of your camera. They have electrical and mechanical pass-through connections that operate both the aperture and the auto-focus system on some cameras. Tubes come in various lengths (measured in mm) the longer the length, the higher the magnification.

In use,
these tubes expose a whole new world of wonder. In the lead photo at the top, for example, a simple chrome handle becomes something magical, reflecting the entire room. If you look closely, you can see the blades of lens's aperture showing that it was stopped way down to get the maximum depth of field.

So consider
getting a reversing ring or an extension tube to get a new perspective on everyday objects. You'll be glad you did!

Further Reading:

Flickr Group "Closer and Closer"

Reversing Rings

Extension Tubes

Frames Within Frames

2009-11-05T20:51:00.004-08:00

As a photographer,
I've learned a great deal about composition. Making an image that captures the viewers interest is something we all strive for in this crowded world. Its a way we can stand out among thousands of others.

One of the ways
to compose an interesting image is to look for frames within frames. Our eyes are naturally drawn into the frame. Is it because we humans are natural-born explorers? Perhaps its because there is symmetry: the photo frame mimicks the subject frame.

Whatever it is,
composing an image like this is pretty easy to do and the results can make your image really pop. The next time your out with your camera, look for ways to frame your shot within a frame; you'll be surprised at how it turns out!

Eliminating Distractions

2009-10-12T21:22:00.013-07:00

One of the most important aspects of good composition is how the subject relates to the background. This can be important in conveying a feeling.

In this picture
we see two snow egrets flying low across the glassy water. The background is completely void of any distractions. Your eye is drawn to the subject and then down to the reflection. If I did my job right, you feel the serenity and quietness of the scene. Maybe you even feel a bit lonely.

Half the battle of being a photographer is knowing how to post process the image. This can be as simple as fixing a blemish on an otherwise perfect portrait, dodging (lightening) the subject to draw attention, or as drastic as compositing (combining multiple images) to create a something that never actually happened. It all depends on what you, the artist, are trying to convey.

If your goal is
to be as realistic as possible, as in photojournalism, then post processing has to be light. Maybe only adjusting the contrast, reducing the digital noise, or tweaking the brightness is all that's allowed.

For this image, I cropped vertical, and used Photoshop to clone out the background leaving only the two birds. The original image below shows quite a different scene. Shot by the side of the busy road, these two birds were not alone at all.

When I first looked at the image, I almost threw it out. There was so much going on, and my low ISO/slow shutter speed made for some motion blur. But, in post, I was able to clean it up quite a bit.

We, as photographers,
should always try to get it right in the camera, but sometimes things happen way too fast for us to think. These "grab shots" don't often turn out well, but, before you press that "delete button", ask yourself, could I fix this in Photoshop? Many times the answer is Yes!

Contests and Critiques

2009-10-06T21:26:00.013-07:00

Sometimes
I look at a published photo and say to myself: "I could shoot that!" We have all said that from time to time, but could you really? How do you know how your work would stack up?

There are two ways that I know of to find out: Contests and Critiques

Entering photo contests can be a bit scary, but rewarding if you can keep at it. The other day I was talking to one of my photographer friends who'd won a photography contest for his school. He was excited at receiving the notoriety and earning the respect of others. We are all a bit insecure on the inside, especially as artists, so winning a contest is like a validation.

As we spoke,
I remembered a contest I'd won back when digital images were far less known. In 2000, our local paper, the San Jose Mercury News was running a digital photo contest.

Entrants were asked to email their best shot to be judged among others. I'd taken this photo four years prior on a Winter's day with my SLR and Kodak ASA 200 film. I have to credit my wife, Lilia, for suggesting the shot after my daughter fell asleep on the baby scale. The image came out a little too blue for my taste; the kitchen skylight was the culprit, so I scanned the print and adjusted the color balance to warm things up a bit.

I remember finding out that I'd won a week or so before the story ran. One of the editors requested the file in TIFF format for printing. The image barely fit on a floppy disk.

The day the paper came out was pretty cool. Phone calls from local family members and a few kind-hearted strangers made that day very special to me. I was published!

Another way is through critiques.
Its so easy for us to share our images these days. Sites like Flickr and Picassa make it simple to expose your art to the public eye. Anyone can comment on your image, but if you are trying to improve, these comments are generally only positive.

What's missing is the critique. There are groups within Flickr that will provide feedback on your images; Try searching for "critique" and join. Keep in mind that you'll get many differing opinions and be ready to get slammed once in a while. Remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

So enter a contest the next time you see one. Be wary of those with an entry fee. (See the link below for further reading.) Join Flickr and then a "critique" group. Remember only upload your best work, and don't be afraid of the negative comments Each one adds a little clarity to your vision!

Further reading:

Scott Bourne's take on contest legitimacy.
Flicker critique groups

Exchanging Camera Gear

2009-09-28T12:47:00.004-07:00

Back in February,
I purchased a 50 mm f/1.4D Nikorr lens from a local camera shop. Several months later, I noticed a small chip in the middle of the glass behind the rear element. I need the lens as it's my main indoor glass, but know that the store has a 30-day exchange policy. I was able to get a new lens exchange the next day. Here's 9 steps to consider if you need to do the same:

Try to arrive on a weekday, before the lunchtime rush. This way, If negotiations don’t go so well, you’ll have an audience that may play in your favor in case you have to raise your voice.
Be courteous and understanding. Listen to the policy and ask clarifying questions so that they know they’ve been heard.
Follow the procedures. If they want you to talk to a repair person, do so, but don’t loose sight of your goal.
Ask for a manager. Many times, associate level employees have no power to bend the rules.
Point out that you are a "good customer" and you want to “remain a good customer”. You also want to “continue to support local businesses”
Ask the all important question: “Under what circumstances could the product be exchanged” This gets them to think of creative ways of helping you out.
Point out that you were “sold a defective product” and that the store has been “enjoying your money” since the purchase date. Pause, don't speak. Let the pressure build.
Be flexible. Understand that they still may not be able to grant you a replacement, but ask for a loaner while yours is being repaired.
Be appreciative of their time and effort. If things play out to your advantage, buy something to show that you were serious about point #5 above.

I hope these are helpful suggestions for you. Please comment and add to the list If you have experience with other tips.

Strong Lines

2009-09-22T06:39:00.002-07:00

When you look at a photograph, what makes it special to you? Have you ever stopped to figure out why the image is pleasing?

One element
of composition that works well in photographs is strong lines. We humans like to see things in straight lines. Our eyes naturally follow those lines and take our minds along with them. We take a little trip to see where the lines end up. If there's something of interest at the end of those lines, we get a little reward for our journey.

In the photo above,
the wooded fence, with its pattern of dark and light, work well to create strong lines. The small easel at the end of the pathway is bathed in bright light, which illustrates the point.

Lines can come from your subject as well. A well placed arm extending toward the camera lens will naturally take the viewer right to her face. With proper lighting (e.g. off camera flash) the composition will pop.

The next time
you are out and about, try looking for strong lines. Arms, legs, fences, and pathways all can work toward building a well composed image. Try placing your subject as a reward where the lines converge for an added bonus.

Give it a try, Pixels are free!

Where are you going with all of this?

2009-09-17T19:00:00.009-07:00

Lately I've been pushing really hard to try and carve out a name for myself as a Photographer. I see the amazing work done by others in the field and aspire to be that good. I'm finding that it doesn't come easy.

I've racked
over 10,000 images in less than 9 months on my Nikon D90. I listen to podcasts, attend workshops, blog, and tweet. I have so far to go, and there are so many directions to turn. Its like Ive been driving in a hurry down a dark road and have no idea where I'm going. Some days, I think I know; Others, I have no idea....

A while ago I'd gotten in over my head. I had just finished a location shoot and an outdoor model shoot and spent way too many hours in Photoshop, neglecting my family. I was tired and excited all the same. My wife stopped me and asked a question that made me slam on the brakes hard:

"Where are you going with all of this?"

The question
took a few days to sink in. I felt the blackness of self doubt creeping up from below. Where am I going? Is this a phase? What do I want? Who do I want to be? Why?

I looked at the garage,
I have light stands, diffusers, reflectors, gaff tape on the floor. Hell, I even have a 9 foot long roll of white paper. Where am I going with all of this?

I look at the images
I've uploaded on iStock and Shutterstock. To date I've made $15.57. I had dreams of making enough to buy a new lens; to have a hobby that pays for itself. Wouldn't that be cool? New lens, new camera body, maybe even a Mac some day! But $15.57? Sheesh!??!!

I exchanged emails
with a Photographer who makes a living selling microstock images. She was very gracious in telling me that very few make what I make at my "day job". Photography is hard work, it would take years to reach that level because of the competition, and I'm kinda used to living in a nice neighborhood in the Bay Area. The voice inside of me whispers:

"Don't quit your day job"...

So this entry
is about readjustment. Its about a realization that its a hobby for me, not a vocation. Reflecting on what makes me happy leads me back home, to my lovely wife and great kids. I won't quit my day job. I like what I do!

I like taking pictures too. I like watching people when they see an image that touches them. I feel great inside. I'm slowly earning respect and admiration. I also like the way that the camera brings me closer to people; the way an image can make a friend.

For now,
I'm at peace with myself. I've realized that I'll never be the next McNally, DuChemin or even Arias. I'll never make a million selling my images, but....

I enjoy the learning! I know how to take a good picture now, how to compose, how an f/stop can say so much. I know how to approach a stranger for a photo, I know how to sell a microstock license, hell, I might even see one of my pictures in print someday.

I'll keep shooting. I'll keep pushing and driving. I still have no idea where I'm going, but...

I'll slow down and enjoy the journey and keep my family in focus too!

Smile!

Timing

2009-09-04T06:45:00.009-07:00

Patience and timing
are important elements in photography. My drive home from work usually takes me past rolling hills in the afternoon sun. One day, in early summer, I took a detour mainly to look for a nice sweeping vista to photograph. As I crested the hill, I saw this small neighborhood grape vineyard covered by bird netting. The glimmering leaves on the vines caught my eye so I slowed down and parked.

I scouted out the vines to see if there was a shot or two I could compose. There was this little pocket where the light was just right. Framed by branches and spiderwebs these lovely globes of light seemed to call to me.

I walked back
to my car to get the camera and made a few images. I was surprised that the bird netting wasn't all that detrimental to the shot. There is something to be said for having good glass in your lens. One thing to keep in mind is that sunlight changes quickly near the end of the day. If you take too long, you may end up with a nasty shadow in the way. Work fast!

Back at home, I spent some time in Photoshop cleaning up the image, removing some of the distracting elements. The "healing tool" works wonders for spiderwebs! I dodged (brightened) the center of the grapes to add interest; The eye is always drawn to the brightest thing in the frame.

Given that
it was early spring, these grapes are young and green. I was happy with the image, but wondered what it would be like as they ripened. I stopped by several times throughout the summer to have a look at how they were progressing.

In late August,
the time had come. Some of the bunches had already begun to turn to raisins. Harvest time was near. In this shot the grapes are translucent and glow yellow as they bask in the afternoon sun. This one makes my mouth water!

I'll close this entry by asking you to look around; Try a different road. See what you can see at that time, but imagine how things would change at different times of day, or at different time of the year. You'll often be surprised at what you find!

Help-Portrait

2009-08-28T06:38:00.002-07:00

An awesome idea to help connect with people in need

Are you in?

Follow the link if you want to help....

http://www.help-portrait.com/

The Lemonade Stand

2009-08-24T21:31:00.008-07:00

One hot day...
I was driving down a residential street on my way home from the gym. The weather was clear with temps in the low 90's.

As I rounded the corner, I saw a bright pink sign with a little girl shouting to "Lemonade!" to passers by. Something told me to slow down. I was thirsty, after all, and the thought of a lemonade sounded good.

I parked
and saw these four kids, two girls and two boys, happy and smiling; I could sense their excitement: "They had a customer! And he's reaching for his wallet!"

Their stand consisted of a folding table and a few garden chairs nestled beneath the shade of a blue patio umbrella. Not far from them sat a few of the parents in conversation, enjoying the warm day.

I asked
the young entrepreneurs what the would do with "all the money they were making today". "We're gonna split it!" they responded. I paid for my Dixie cup full of the cold sweet concoction and left them a generous tip.

The thought occurred to me to ask for a photograph, I'm not sure why, I never am... So I introduced myself to the parents and asked casually. Being a parent myself, I completely understand any hesitation to grant such a request. The world is just a different place than it was when I was growing up. Luckily, I got the approval and walked back to my car to get my camera.

I shoot with a Nikon D90 SLR with a 50mm f/1.4, which isn't all that big of a camera, but still can be a bit intimidating. Its not the average point-and-shoot, so it took a while before the kids started to loosen up.

In this shot
...you can see the differences among them; One is smiling brightly, while another is almost hiding under the table. I really enjoy the way that the camera is able to stop time. To freeze that moment with the push of a button.

I feel like I've made some new friends that day. Since then, I've sent the retouched images to their parents, and every time I drive by, I'll look for the Lemonade Stand and the young entrepreneurs that brought it to life on that hot day.... and I'll smile!

Fire Station Photo Shoot

2009-08-18T06:37:00.002-07:00

On Saturday, July 25th, I had the honor of being allowed to photograph inside of a local fire station. It took some time to get permission, but once I finally reached the right person, things seem to move along swiftly.

My motivation
for this self-assignment was to show the viewers a glimpse of what life is like for these brave men who risk their lives to protect us. Most of us only see these guys when its an emergency, and by then, its too late to exchange the pleasantries of introduction.

I wasn't sure what to expect
when I arrived. I had most of my lighting gear packed into the back of my little hatchback. As it turned out, I only needed one light stand some gels and two CLS speedlights. I was greeted at the door by the three-man crew and felt immediately at home. These guys went out of their way to help me create these images. I showed them the sketches of what I was trying to capture and they were more than willing to help.

In this shot, the Captain holds up an adapter for framing. He's lit from a straight speedlight at camera right (set to TTL). I like the hard light and the way it adds drama to this shot. His blue eyes add so much to this capture.

I asked this man
if he could tell me a story about when he felt fear in the course of his duty. He recounted a time when he was at an apartment fire with his partner. The floor was getting soft and some spots had already burned through. His partner was advancing and he was close behind. The call came in for them fall back because it was getting too dangerous, but his partner wanted to press on and try to put it out. He had to coax his partner out just before the place collapsed. "Most fire fighters that die in structure fires are killed by falling though something, or from having something fall on them"

This fire engine
is basically a pump on wheels and a very large tool box. The pump is capable of 1500 gallons per minute. That's an entire swimming pool every 9 minutes! Each of those aluminum roll up doors houses a compartment with hose adapters, hydrant wrenches, tools for getting access into burning building quickly, and paramedic gear for keeping victims alive until the ambulance arrives. Inside there are 6 seats. Where the men sit, is at the discretion of the captain. Near each seat it each man's own custom designed jacket and pants (or "turn-outs" as they're called because of the way they are stored) The men get dressed en-route to save time. Everything they need in in the engine so they don't forget anything.

All in all it was a great experience to meet these modern-day heroes. I have the ultimate respect for these guys and the difficult job they do so well.

A Week Off!

2009-08-16T18:35:00.012-07:00

I spent a wonderful week off
on Oahu with my family and am still basking in the "tropical glow" of maitais, sun, sand, and the pleasant natives we met along the way. I brought along my camera most days and captured as much of the experience as I could.

On one rainy
day, I traveled to the northern part of the island to an enchanted place called Waimea Valley (on Oahu, not to be confused with Waimea Canyon, on Kauai). Here there is a botanical garden sheltered by high cliff walls. The feeling in primeval with strange plants and flowers adorned with small droplets.

The light rain kept most of the other tourists away making this an experience that was very personal and profound. The garden path beckoned us to move onward up hill to the falls, strongly flowing. There will be no swimming today.

On the way down,
we were greeted by a pleasant native woman who offered to teach us how to make a small fish form the leaves of a coconut tree. My wife and I followed her careful instructions and were pleasantly surprised at how well our fish turned out.

The valley will remain one of the outstanding memories for us. the peaceful and serene surroundings along with the gentle rain and bright native smiles will be some of our fond memories from this trip.

Opportunity

2009-08-05T21:05:00.001-07:00

I drive by
this place on my way home from work each day and love how the afternoon sun plays on the sides of these train cars. They've been there for months and I've had my camera with me but had never made the image, until today.

There is a point
along the road where you cant turn back, without a lot of hassle that is. I see the ore cars but by the time I think of making the shot, I've already past that point, so I drive on. But today was different.

I parked as close as I could which still meant a long walk in the coarse gravel alongside the tracks. Camera on my shoulder, risking the puzzled looks from passers by, some of them co-workers, no doubt, I walked in the dust. I am a photographer.

As I neared
the ore cars, their sheer size was daunting. The factory was closed for the day, the workers had all gone home, but still I obeyed the "No Trespassing" signs because I have yet to see the inside of a police car.

I started shooting. It was really windy and I had to brace myself against the train to steady the shot. I stood, I crouched, I knelt, I zoomed, framed and composed, and I shot. Twenty five images captured and I chose this one to share.

I love the way the cars arc off into the distance. The dirt road and tire tracks strengthen the lines in this image. The silo in the distance give your eye a destination.

Some one once told me
that all the anticipation an nervousness you feel before a shoot goes away the moment you take the first picture. This time I felt it. It was nice being present, tuning out all else, and just making images.

Many times in life, routine keeps us from opportunity. We get so used to doing the same things over and over again and don't bother with that which removes us from our comfort zone. When we take the time to stop it can be quite rewarding. We have an image, and a story to tell. To quote David duChemin: "Carry your camera and don't bemoan missed opportunities. Just chase new ones"

Street Shooting

2009-08-02T16:14:00.007-07:00

Street shooting refers to one of the most challenging types of photography I've dealt with. It involves placing yourself and your camera in a public place and then...gasp...trying to get a stranger to pose for a portrait.

This Weekend...
my assignment involved shooting at a popular shopping mall with a 50mm lens. This meant that I needed to get in close to people, so I'd definitely have to build rapport. I saw several interesting subjects walking around the indoor mall. I finally gathered up enough courage to ask: "Would you mind If I shot a photo?" My first few attempts went fairly well. I was able to take photos of a small dog, and a toddler. I snapped a couple of quick shots and thanked them for their time. Still, this didn't feel like I pushed myself far enough.

Women and Children
The most difficulty came with asking mothers if I could take photos of their children. Twice, I was promptly rebuffed in the way a mother bear protects it cubs. I apologized for the intrusions and scampered away with my tail between my legs. I felt a little ashamed of my self; I'm not sure why....

Then I met Roy
I noticed this guy hair. Its not something that you see very often, so I was intrigued. I walked by once, but didn't ask. I was still a bit shy from my last rejections. Still something inside told me to try again. I thought his hair looked really cool and I told him so. He said he'd had it cut in Vancouver where he's from. I asked him if he wouldn't mind as I pointed to my small camera bag and he said:"Sure! Go for it!"

He didn't seem to mind as I made a few images. Actually I think he enjoyed the impromptu attention. I handed him a card with my Flickr account, this blog, and my email address. He smiled and said He'd look it up when he got back. Roy's a nice guy!

I truly admire
those photographers like David DuChemin, who grapple with language and cultural barriers to produce some of the world's most stunning street portraits in far off lands. Having put myself through this exercise, I now realize how far I have to go!

Why Photography?

2009-07-24T19:11:00.011-07:00

A Realization:
This weekend, during the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk, I had some interesting conversations with other photographers. One in particular was with Frederick Van Johnson. As we walked down the shaded street I asked him a simple question, but his answer was quite compelling. The question was: “Why do you like photography?” His answer came quickly; I’m quite sure he’d been asked this question many times before. His answer was:

"To be a good photographer I think you have to have some mastery over at least these three things: 1) An Artist - you have to know and understand the concepts of photography. 2) A Psychologist - when shooting (photographing) people, one has to have the ability to connect, build trust, and relax the subject in order to show them at their best. And 3) A Geek - You just HAVE to love computers, and gadgets to be in this field. Things change so quickly, if you didn't lust for the next "shiny object", then it would quickly become tiresome."

Making connections:
What resonated with me was the part about making the connection with people. I think the camera is a tool we use to get closer to each other. I'm often amazed at the places I've been able into get to just by asking if I can take a picture. People seem genuinely willing to show me around, to share a little bit of their world with me. I often feel their pride as I listen to their story. Perhaps they use my camera as a tool to connect with me as well. Perhaps they appreciate being noticed. Perhaps we all just want to be recognized, to be liked, and to belong!

White Seamless Shooting

2009-07-19T21:15:00.019-07:00

I've always wondered how images like this were made.
Thanks to Zack Arias' Blog, now I know how. The key to this shot is to light the background using separate flashes from the subject.

This weekend...
I set up my garage studio with a 9-foot wide roll of paper as a background. I used two tile boards as a white floor so that the model (in this case, my daughter) could stand surrounded by white. The set up is shown below:

Starting from the back...

we have two ProMaster LS3 light stands (~80.00) with a Manfrotto telescoping crossbar holding a roll of the Savage white paper. (BTW- You've gotta love the B&H catalog picture of white paper; just a white square!)) I have two 15 LB sandbags keeping the whole thing stable. There is an "A" clamp On the paper to keep it from unrolling. The paper gets pretty heavy once 6 feet or so is unrolled, so keep a firm hand on it or the whole thing will unroll and you'll lose the 40-dollar roll on the floor of your garage. Keep an A-clamp in your pocket and clamp it so it won't spin.

In front of the paper...

we have two speedlight flashes that are able to be tripped as slaves from the main flash. I had to play with the power on the SB900 to evenly light the paper. I ended up with it set at about 1/10 power. The Vivitar 3600 is fixed at 1/4 power. Normally You'd use a light meter to dial in the flash power to get an even spray across the paper. I didn't have a light meter, so I used the camera's histogram function to try to push it as far right as I could. Too much light and it will start to wrap around the subject. You'll lose contrast, so dial it back just a bit.

The subject stands about the same distance from the background as the two speedlights. You don't want the background light to hit her. She stood on two Home Depot tile boards (vinyl sheets used in cheap apartments as a shower wall) These provide a nice bright floor on which to stand. Make sure to clean shoes with Windex or you'll be photoshopping footprints.

In front of the subject...

is another light stand with my home-made diffuser and the grip head. You can see the 10 lb counter balance hanging from a bungee cord. The main light is the SB600. I'd much rather use the SB900 here, but the 600 only has one IR sensor meaning I had to keep it close to the camera or it wouldn't fire.Straight out of the camera, the image wasn't perfect. There were some shadows and grey spots that needed to be taken out. Luckily, Zack's PhotoShop tutorial helped a lot in post processing.

I think the final result came out nice!

iStock Update

2009-07-14T12:54:00.002-07:00

So when do the gold coins start falling from the sky?

I think we all tend to believe that selling your photos online will be easy. We think that once we post, the gold coins will start falling from the sky.

Last week, iStock accepted my application and I began uploading photos to their site. Oh by the way, they limit me to 15 images a week. The upload process is not quite as easy as Flickr, there are no automated tools for Windows users, yet, so the files must go one by one. For each file, I filled in key words relevant to the image, categorized it and clicked the submit button. Ah yes, now I just sit back, rub my hands together and wait for the mail man.

So where's my check?

Immediately after upload, I checked the database to find the files, to see the result of my half-year-long pursuit. Wha,,, where are they? What does "Pending" mean? I checked the next day, and the next with still no results. Okay, I'm not excited anymore... I asked another photographer, Nicole Young, what to expect.

The Scouts

iStock uses a team of inspectors called Scouts who evaluate each image for composition, lighting, shadows, sharpness and a bunch of other things. Apparently the process takes 5 to 8 days. When they did get to my files, they sent me emails along the way. I got either:

Hello timlimon,

Your file "School Buses" has been accepted into to the iStockphoto collection.

Thank you for submitting your art to iStockphoto. You can view your file here:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=9912743

Dear timlimon,

We regret to inform you that we cannot accept your submission, entitled Apple for the teacher ( http://www2.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/9915834/2/istockphoto_9915834-apple-for-the-teacher.jpg) for addition to the iStockphoto library for the following reasons:

We could not find a clear center focal point for this file.

For more information about iStock Focus Standards, please see:
http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_2.1_focus.php

:( :)

Its funny, but rejection spurs me onward. I get a little fire under my butt to go out and make a better image. I looked at each rejection and agreed with the inspector. This one is a tiny bit blurry (if I zoom waaay in), this one has dark shadows etc... Hey I'm getting free photo critique, cool!

So a week has gone by and here's my stats: 15 submissions, 6 accepts, 6 rejects, 3 still pending. I must say the rejections have got me to up my game considerably. Now I check the lighting very carefully, I look at the sharpness while zoomed waaaay in, I spend a lot more time planning, and thinking and evaluating each exposure, cause after all, we all hate rejection, right?

Inspiration

2009-07-13T06:55:00.006-07:00

This Sunday,

I listened to an excellent interview with Anne Day. Anne is a world renowned photographer who spoke about photographing in your own home. You know when the light is right, When the color is golden and when the shadows fall just so. Her boys were being... well... boys and running around indoors. She snapped the picture at just the right moment and froze that instant to share with the world. Being a father, some of her images struck me. I felt my chin begin to quiver.

Photography is an art. Its as if we are all walking around in a painting that changes as we move through it. The light in the morning is colder, bluer and the evening is warmer, and more golden. the shadows play with the wind. All we need to do is frame it and release the shutter to capture that fleeting moment in time.

Happy Friday

2009-07-10T06:10:00.002-07:00

This week's post is brought to you by a couple of talented students at Kingston University. Enjoy!

HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

The Bus Yard

2009-07-09T19:12:00.004-07:00

When was the last time you stood next to a school bus?

On certain weekdays in the summer I drop my kids off at a day camp. Right across the street is the county’s transit yard. I've driven by this yard many times. This particular time, I had my DSLR with me. I stood outside the fence and shot a few pictures, but it felt funny. I didn’t have permission and there was a big "No Trespassing" sign posted. Still I felt compelled to get in closer. After quite a bit of mental deliberation, I decided to go around and see if there was someone in the office I could talk to.

Two Ladies
There were two nice ladies there who referred me to their supervisor. After a few questions, he agreed and let me walk around and take some shots. Being the Friday afternoon before the 4th of July, the place was pretty empty.

Shiny and Clean!
Many of these busses were recently detailed. One in particular, Number 9, caught my eye. All of the rivets stood out and the clean black lines made for some interesting photos. Since it was midday, the side lighting was sparse and I had to rely on the reflected light from the adjacent bus.

Nice People
I spent about 40 minutes walking around, kneeling, checking exposure and sharpness of each capture. As I left, I passed back by the office where those two nice ladies took a genuine interest in what I was doing. “Will you post them?” “Where can I see them?” and “Do you have a card?” We talked for a while then I said “Goodbye and Thank You!”

Returning the kindness…
A few days later, I returned and dropped off a few 8x10 prints of the best 3 shots along with a business card. Neither of the two ladies was there at the time, so I handed the envelope to someone else and then disappeared around the corner to look at one of the workers in the wash bay.

Linda…
I wasn’t there two minutes, when someone approached me and said “You took a wonderful picture of my bus! Its Number 9 and my name is Linda”. Speaking with her for a while, I could sense the pride she had in what she does and how important it is. She pointed out how there are steel reinforcements that form a cage to protect the children in the event of a crash. Linda has been responsible for the safety of thousands of children, moving them from point A to point B, day after day, with out incident. She should feel proud!

Accepted!

2009-07-07T06:10:00.006-07:00

This morning I received some excellent news from the folks at iStock photo:

Dear Timothy (timlimon),
Welcome to iStockphoto.com, the
designer's dirty little secret. Congratulations, the iStockphoto administrators
have determined that your files are commercially and technically ready for
iStockphoto.com. Please begin uploading at your convenience. ....

WhooooHoooo!

As many of you know, I have been trying for many months now to make images worthy enough to be used as stock photos. This post was one of many rejections received. Stock photos are those that you see on websites, billboards, or the side of a bus. You know, like this:

So What...
...does this mean? Well it meant that I can start selling images and, hopefully, make a little money too. It also means that I have a small chance at seeing one of my shots on a billboard someday. I have to temper the excitement with a dose of reality; There are many, many photographers contributing to iStock, so the chances are still slim, but at least I've cleared the first hurdle.

I'm happy with that!

What's A Clamshell?

2009-07-05T21:01:00.014-07:00

Recently,
I was fortunate enough to purchase a Nikon SB900 Speedlight (a camera flash). I have been eyeing this one for several months now and finally got up enough nerve to make the purchase. Joe McNallys book, "The Hot Shoe Diaries" has been instrumental helping my understanding.

One of the reasons that this flash is so useful is that it works using the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS). This system enables the flash and the camera to "have a conversation" about how much light should be used to properly expose the subject. The Canon equivalent is "eTTL" which does pretty much the same thing. The amazing thing about both of these systems is that this conversation happens in a few milliseconds and yields some pretty impressive results!

In this shot...
The Nikon D90 camera acted as the master unit, controlling the output of the new SB900 (camera left at 7 feet high and aiming downward) and the SB600 (camera left at 2 feet high and aiming upward). Each flash was softened using a translucent "shoot through" umbrella. I used a white bounce card (camera right) to light her left side. The background was illuminated using my old Vivitar flash with the hot shoe slave. Because the studio is shallow, I had a tough time getting the background lit evenly. Here is the set up shot for reference:

Because ...
The umbrellas are facing one another, the setup is referred to as a "clam shell". One nice thing about this type of a set up is that both flashes are on one lightstand making it very easy to adjust. The lower flash is held in place on the stand using a Justin clamp.

As you may have noticed by now, I tend to gravitate toward inexpensive (don't say cheap...) studio equipment. One reason for this is that I see the real value in the high tech electronics (flashes, camera bodies, slaves and the like). A simple satin umbrella, or tubular steel lightstand is relatively low-tech and should be priced accordingly.

One thing
That I notice now, is that I tend to look at magazines, websites, and billboards differently. I'm looking for how the lighting was done. And now I'm starting to understand!

Get Up and Shoot Down

2009-06-30T20:54:00.008-07:00

Would you like to add some interest to your shots?
One sure way to do this is to change your point of view. As humans we are used to seeing the world from our own two eyes. Whether standing or sitting, we generally look forward and outward making pictures from this vantage a bit on the ordinary side. Try getting up high and looking downward at your subject. This technique can be especially flattering in portraiture.

Try This:
Look at yourself in the mirror and tilt your head down. Notice how the skin on your jaw broadens? Now tilt your head up and watch as the skin on the lower part of your face gets narrow and tightened.

In Practice...
Look for opportunities to photograph your subject from above. When they are seated, stand. When they are standing, get up on a step stool and shoot downward. Try shooting so that the subjects shoulders are at an angle to the camera to add a bit of warmth to the shot.

"Real" Darkroom Photography (Part One)

2009-06-22T17:21:00.028-07:00

When I was a kid, I used to watch a TV show called Mission Impossible. Inevitably, one of the main characters would spend time in the darkroom developing film to incriminate the criminal-du-jour. Have you ever wondered how that process works? Well, in this first segment, I'll explain how a latent image is captured on film and how the developing process works.

Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a class in darkroom photography when I was in school. After that, I set up my own darkroom in a spare room that used to be the garage. The process was so fascinating to me. Now, in the age of digital cameras, that knowledge is getting a bit scarce.

There's Jello inside?
Inside the metal canister is a roll of plastic which is coated with various layers. One of these layers is a special form of gelatin (the exact same chemical you can eat at desert!) Suspended in this dry gelatin are microscopic with silver-halide crystals. These crystals act as light detectors and change chemically when hit by photons. Areas of the film that were hit by bright light will contain large numbers of activated silver halide coating. Other areas which have not been exposed to bright light will not contain many activated crystals. Its important to note that the film contains only a latent image at this point. That is to say that the activated areas look exactly the same as the un-activated areas but their chemically different. The silver-halide crystals are amazingly stable and can hold their state (activated or not) for a long time. To render the image, we need the next step.

The Developer
The developer is a fluid that replaces the exposed silver halide crystals with pure silver. This chemical reaction takes place in a light-tight canister in which the film has been placed on a spiral spool. The spool is needed to keep the film surfaces separated to the developing agent can do its work. The film sits in the tank for about 12 minutes depending on the temperature. The higher the amount of activated crystals, the more silver you get in that spot, and the darker the spot will appear in the end.

Whoa! Stop
If left in the developer for too long, the remaining unexposed silver-halide crystals would start to be affected. To prevent this you add something called the "Stop Bath". This chemical would stop the developing process before it began to eat up the rest of the latent image on the film. 30 seconds is all the time it takes for the stop bath to do its job.

The Fixer:
In order to make the image light durable, we need to remove the unexposed crystals using something called fixer. Generally this liquid dissolves away those crystals that have not become silver metal so that subsequent exposure to light doesn't activate them. The film soaks in the fixer for about 3 minutes. Now the image can be viewed. The image on film will appear as a negative of the image that was shot because bright spots = lots of exposed crystals = lots of silver = a dark area on the developed film.

Sticky Stuff
Remember that the film has coating of gelatin on it? This stuff is pretty sticky when it's wet and needs to be dried thoroughly before it can be handled. I used to have a clothes line strung out with a clothes pin on the top and bottom to keep the film from curling back up. Once dry, the film can be handled, but can still be scratched fairly easily.

There's some great further reading from Illford on the whole process

That's it for now. In the next segment we'll take a look at how the negative gets printed.

Water Heater Rocket

2009-06-19T05:21:00.002-07:00

Happy Friday Everyone!
Living in the Bay Area, its kind of a treat knowing that the Mythbusters are right here in my backyard. This clip is definitely one of my favorites. Thank God for safety valves!

Denied

2009-06-14T19:09:00.001-07:00

Last night I tried my hand again at being accepted to iStock Photo. This morning I got the sad news:

"At this time we regret to inform you that we did not feel the overall composition of your photography or subject matter is at the minimum level of standard for iStockphoto. Please take some time to review training materials, resources and articles provided through iStockphoto. The photographs provided in your application should be your best work. Try and impress us, we want to see how you stand out from the crowd."

I guess I shouldn't be discouraged. I'll try again in a week with a new set of images. In the meantime, I'll keep looking up!

Kids say the darndest things....

2009-06-12T05:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I received the cutest story from my brother-in-law. His daughter Caitlin is a 9-year-old. Her mom had just finished making one of her favorite soups: split-pea with ham. After tasting the first spoon, Caitlin said, "Wow, this soup is good! What is it, mom?". Her mother responded: "It's pea soup". Caitlin paused for a moment and the replied with a little smirk on her face, "Mmmm, this is number one soup, mom!"

I'm International?

2009-06-11T19:02:00.010-07:00

I want to say a big "Thank You" to my international visitors. According to the site statistics, I've had some page views from Indonesia, Peru, Cyprus, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Philippines, Greece, and Canada. I'm surprised at the great diversity. I'll try to keep the interesting photographs coming, because imagery crosses the language barriers.

Thanks Again!

Cold Shoes?

2009-06-08T20:28:00.005-07:00

Setting up a One Light Studio

A while ago, I set up a studio in my garage. Part of the fun of it was figuring out what to buy and how it would fit together. I knew that I needed to mount a flash onto a light stand, but how does that work? The light stand has a stud or a post, and the flash is meant to be mounted onto the camera's hot shoe?

Luckily, Adorama has pretty good pictures of what the items look like. I ended up buying a "Universal Swivel Holder" which attaches to the stud at the top of the light stand and allows you to mount a flash onto its "cold shoe".

Oops!
There was one small problem though. The cold shoe is made of aluminum and would likely short out my flash. See all those little pins on the bottom of the SB600? I'm sure that mounting the shoe onto a metal surface would fry my $300.00 flash. No Thanks!

Necessity is a mother...
I had to come up with a solution. Here's what I did: I have some plastic (PET) packaging material from one of the recent gadgets I've acquired. I cut it into an "H" shape and slipped it into the cold shoe. I cut it so that it would be nice and snug and wouldn't fall out when I loaded the equipment into my bag for on-location shoots.

Onward!
Now it was just a matter of attaching the flash to the swivel, then attaching the swivel to the light stand, then adding the shoot through umbrella, and a white bounce card, I was all set for a One Light Portrait.

Available Light

2009-06-08T07:20:00.005-07:00

Summer is travel season, and, if you travel, you most certainly will see a photo like this in one of those brochures in your hotel.

Have you ever wondered how something like this was done? Here's a few pointers on getting this type of shot.

Use a Tripod
Traveling with a tripod is getting more difficult. With weight restrictions and the large size of a tripod you may be dissuaded. Have a look at the Gorillapod by Joby or other light weight tripods. They are really worth the effort for getting in the group shot as well.

Shoot at a Low Angle
For this type of shot, set your tripod down low to add a bit of interest. Most of the time we see things at eye level, so photographs from this height won't really be all *that* special. Lowering the tripod can add a surreal effect, as if the viewer were a small child looking up.

Use the Self Timer
Pressing the shutter button can start the camera vibrating and make the shot look blurry even though its focused. If you're using a full size tripod and a heavier DSLR, this isn't so much of a concern. With smaller "Point and Shoot" cameras on a light-weight tripod, you should definitely use the self timer to trigger the shutter.

Check the White Balance
Your photos may have a yellow or blue cast if the white balance is set wrong. Most outdoor lighting is either tungsten, mercury vapor or sodium vapor. Your camera has a setting for tungsten, but not the other two. Experiment a bit to get the color cast you like.

Play with the exposure
Use the +/- function to over/under expose the shot for different effects. Often times, the default metering won't produce the desired effect. Try over exposing by one stop (+1) to see what happens.

Now that you have the basic tools. Go out and give it a try. Practice makes perfect. Don't wait for the vacation to experiment with your camera settings. Now is as good a time as any. Try these in your own backyard and see what you come up with. Enjoy!

Have a good weekend!

2009-06-05T06:09:00.002-07:00

What happens when you play soccer wearing binoculars? Take a look and see for yourself

Windows 7 Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

2009-06-03T07:05:00.008-07:00

Last night I needed to install a driver onto my Win7 laptop. So, as any normal (albeit geeky) user would do, I grabbed the install disk for my hardware, which in this case was a Pronto Remote, and went to town installing the application, driver, and tools from the OEM disk. I started configuring the TV remote, adding macros and channels for the new cable box. I saved the file and now was ready to download it to the remote.

Do you I know You?
Next I plugged in the USB cable on the remote to the laptop and waited for the two devices to acknowledge on another. And I waited... and waited.... No luck. the driver failed because of a "incorrectly configured INF file" Great... so let's go get the updated river from Philips, no problem, I've done this before. But here's what was strange: The Pronto remote has no updated driver, not for XP, Vista let alone Win7. Am I hosed?

So now what?
Luckily, when I installed Win7, I had enough forethought to keep my XP installation intact on a separate drive. Hard drives are so cheap these days, that it made sense to keep the old system, just in case. I popped open the panel on the bottom of the laptop and made the drive switch.

Hello, my old friend
Booting back into XP was a relief at this point. I had left the drive in hibernation mode so it came back to life right where I'd left off, as if nothing had happened. Now I needed to get the file for the remote from the Win7 drive. I used an external USB drive case to mount the drive and pull the file over into the XP world. I did the download and the remote was rockin'

Seven's Sins
After the file transfer, I re-installed the Win7 drive, thinking I could play with it a bit more, but NoooOOOoo, nothing is ever that simple with computers..... Now instead of the happy colorful swirling fireflies, I'm greeted with a black and grey screen telling me there's been a hardware malfunction. It mentioned something about the boot loader and the recovery disk. I think, perhaps when the Win7 boot drive was mounted in the XP operating system, XP did something to the root directory. Maybe it left one of its bird-poopy hidden files on it some where.

So whats next?
Now I'm in sort of a holding pattern. I need to Google a solution plan and sort through the myriad of solutions for problems that I don't have. Perhaps there's a simple fix, but knowing computers.... that's pretty rare.

UPDATE 06/03/09 7:52 pm:
Actually the recovery process was pretty easy. I booted from the CD image and chose recover. The whole process took 5 minutes. Not Bad. Now if they only had the right driver for the remote.....

Hot Shoe Slave

2009-06-01T06:14:00.003-07:00

No, this post has nothing to do with footwear...

I have an old Vivitar 3600 flash that I'd forgotten about. I used to use it on my film SLR back in the day... Of course when I got my digital SLR, I thought I would just slap it on the hot shoe and I'd be golden.

Not So Fast....
Apparently, the voltage for TTL flashes have changed over the years. I know this to be true for Nikon, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true for Canon, Olympus, and other brands as well. So what now? Shell out 300 bucks for a shiny new SB600? Oh wait a minute, I'm cheap!

Hot Shoe Salvation!
There is a company called Wein that makes a hot shoe slave. I got mine from Keeble and Shuchat in Palo Alto for about 60 USD. It was actually cheaper than Amazon, and I got to take it home and play with it that same day.

What this device did for me was pretty neat: It turned that functionally-useless 15-year-old Vivitar 3600 into a slave flash. It uses the available flash pulse from my camera's built in (pop-up) flash and triggers the slave. Most digital cameras have several pre-flash pulses to meter the light before they pop off the real deal with the shutter open. The Wein HSD ignores these pulses, firing only when the shutter is open. The coolest thing about this gadget is that it uses no external power.

No TTL?
Why did that exposure come out way to bright? Unfortunately I have to run the slave flash in manual mode

I only use this one indoors. I've read complaints about using it outdoors and that makes sense to me; That light sensor on the HSD might not be able to notice that your wimpy pop-up flash went off when it's looking at the sun.

So for about 1/5th the cost of a new flash, I was able to re-purpose my old one. What's in your old camera bag? as there is no provision for the flash and the camera to negotiate the exposure (unlike E-TTL or CLS flashes) For me, I have two choices: Full Blast, and -4. Full bast is really REALLY bright and it takes a long time for those poor little batteries to recharge the unit for the next shot. I run mine at -4 most of the time. There are occasions when even -4 is too bright. For those days, I use a neutral density (gray) filter (gel) that brings the flash down about 2 more stops.

My Digital Conversion

2009-05-30T16:00:00.001-07:00

I used to really be into photography when I was in school. I took a photo 101 class at San Jose State taught by Max Crumley. He's a funny guy who told stories of shooting a locomotive at night by hand firing the flash and "painting" each section of the massive dark beast with his SLR set to the bulb mode. I remember spending hours in the darkroom and coming home smelling like fixer.

My first real camera was a Minolta x700 film SLR. I was fortunate enough to live with a room mate who had most of the darkroom equipment just sitting in boxes in the garage. One day I asked him If I could set it all up. I turned pantry closet into a makeshift dark room complete with Bessler enlarger, safe light, dark bag and a print washer. I took portraits of neighbors and gave them away as gifts. I was having the time of my life!

After graduation, I got married and my Minolta disappeared one day from the trunk of my car. My second camera was a Nikon N8008 complete with a 50mm lens and a Vivitar 3600 TTL flash. Wooo Boy! I was all set!

Funny how free time slips away from you once you get married and have children. Priorities change and you grow in a different direction. I had a friend once, named Ed Jensen, who said: "You never realize how selfish you are until you get married, Then you never realize how selfish you both are, until you have children." He was sure right!

I'd kinda forgotten about photography for about 15 years. Just long enough for digital SLRs to become affordable. Sure I've had a bunch of point-and-shoots over the years, but these were relegated to "happy snaps" for the family and vacations. I'd rarely go out just to shoot pictures.

Now it seems I've rediscovered photography all over again. The kids are old enough to not want their parents around all that much. I seem to have more free time now than I have in years. I've taught myself Photoshop from watching tutorials on YouTube, I joined Flickr and started listening to TWiP. I bought a D90 a month after it came out.

I find myself looking at the world in a whole new way. I started to notice how the light hits things; How different morning is, from evening, I keep saying to myself; "Now that would make a good picture..."

I love learning it all over again. Sure, the basics still apply, "good light" is still "good light", bad light still sucks. I've enrolled in classes and signed up for "photo walks" and bought books. I guess its safe to say "I'm Hooked (again)" But this time its for keeps!

Happy Friday: Modeling at its best

2009-05-29T05:48:00.003-07:00

Happy Friday! Here's a video of high class models wearing the latest creations and showing us all that they're only human. Enjoy!

Justin Clamp

2009-05-28T19:14:00.014-07:00

A few weeks ago, I purchased a new strange-looking but oh-so-useful item called a "Justin Clamp" Its actually a "Manfrotto 175F Spring Clamp w/shoe flash" and it costs about 50 USD but its well worth it.

Lets take a look at it shall we?
First off you'll notice that it resembles a "chip clip" and functions the same way but with a really beefy spring. The flat gripping surface has 4 stiff rubber inserts on each side that allow it to clamp securely on cylindrical objects (think-- light stands, pipes, tree branches, dining room chairs, etc...)

Sticking out of the top is a nice cold shoe on which to place your flash. The flash is held securely by rotating a lock ring up against the base of the flash. The shoe is attached to a ball and socket that allows the flash to tilt and swivel in any direction. Tighten the clamp to lock it down and prevent movement.

Just below the swivel and in the center of the spring is a standard light stand post allowing you to attach it or other parts of your lighting gear.

On the very bottom is a female post clamp, if that's the proper term, with a thumb screw to lock it securely to the male post on your light stand.

Overall the design is really functional. Now you can hang a flash securely just about anywhere.

Here I have it mounted to the top of a light stand allowing me to aim the old Vivitar 3600 flash at the back of a diffuser. I use this as the main light for portraits because it gives me a 3-foot square of soft light that looks great for head and shoulders shots. Starting at the top, the flash is connected to the cold shoe and lock ring. The female post clamp is firmly attached to the post at the top of the light stand. I'm not using the spring clamping feature here, but its just an example of how versatile the "Justin Clamp" really is.

This is definitely one of my favorite pieces of photo-geek-gear!

Shooting into Darkness

2009-05-27T06:50:00.001-07:00

This weekend, we all went to the Academy of Science Museum in San Francisco. It was really crowded, but we all had our expectations set accordingly, so we were ready for it. I brought along the Nikon D90, my SB600, and a snoot in case I needed to throw light at a subject far away.

Controlling the flash off camera
Both Nikon and Canon offer a wireless system whereby the camera body and flash negotiate the amount of light to output while you press the shutter button. The whole conversation takes about 10 milliseconds. In the Nikon World this is called the "CLS" or Creative Lighting System. For Canon, its called the E-TTL system. What these systems do is pretty amazing, allowing you to place the flash many feet away form the camera and really control the direction of the light to add more interest to the Image.

The Albino Alligator
In the main hall there is a pit about 15 feet deep with an albino alligator in the swampy bottom. The pit was fairly dark and the alligator was laying motionless. It made for an interesting challenge to photograph, so I wrapped the snoot around the flash and asked my wife to aim it into the pit. I stood a few feet to her right and zoomed in on the gator. The snoot really helped blast the light down into that dark pit. The result looked pretty cool.

Shooting Through Glass

2009-05-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been disappointed at photos taken through a glass display case? Perhaps you were at a museum or the zoo trying to capture the memory of that animal on the other side. How about shooting through a tour bus window? Was there a lot of distracting glare? Here's a few tricks that photographers use to avoid this situation:

Wear black - Many times the glare comes from what you are wearing. A black jacket or shirt can do a lot to shield stray light.
Shoot off angle - If your using a flash, it will certainly bounce off the glass and ruin the shot. Try moving off axis by 30 degrees or so.
Shoot head on - Crank up the ISO on your camera to use the available light in the display case. Turn off your flash and get as close to the glass as you can. You can even lightly rest the lens on the surface of the glass, provided the optics in your lens don't touch and cause a scratch. The glass will help steady the camera so you don't get any motion blur.
Use your hands - Cup your hand around the lens to block out the stray light. You might even try asking your spouse, child significant other to cup his or her hands around the lens.
Lay something dark on the floor - If the room has a light colored floor causing the glare, lay your dark jacket on the floor to block it out.
Hold smomething dark near the camera - Move the camera out of the way and look at where the reflection is coming from. Use a dark jacket spread over your hand to see if you can get rid of the reflection. Then replace the camera and take your shot

Try these out next time you know that there will be a piece of glass between you and a great photo.

Model Shoot!

2009-05-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I had the honor of being requested to do a "Head Shot" for Adam, a young actor/model auditioning on Saturday. This would be the first time that I'd been asked to do something like this.

Last night was the shoot. I have to admit that I was a little nervous, even though this was done for free. The model was nervous too. We both talked a while and did some test shots and began to relax. It was nice knowing how to use the lights thanks to Zack Arias' blog and Joe McNallies The Hot Shoe Diaries. I felt totally comfortable tweaking the flash output, moving the lights around, climbing up on ladders and shooting. The shoot lasted about a hour, with another hour in post (bridge and photoshop) rating 91 images, sorting and doing minor adjustments. I think we got some nice shots.

Happy Friday

2009-05-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

This remains one of my all time favorite stories. Paul Potts on Brittan's Got Talent makes me smile every time. Enjoy

Using a "Snoot" for emphasis

2009-05-19T20:57:00.003-07:00

What's A Snoot?

Imagine you're taking an indoor picture but want to use lighting draw attention to just the subject. You reach for your flash and attach it to your camera. What do you expect that you'll see?

Probably very even lighting. Manufacturers go to great lengths to balance the spread of the light coming from the flash so that it illuminates the whole frame. Hmmm, That not really what we want in this case, so what do we do?

Enter one of the most elegantly simple device to modify your flash, The "Snoot". Its basically a tube that you place on your flash to focus the beam where you want it. The one I have , by Honlphoto, wraps around your camera flash and attaches with velcro.

This model costs about 30 bucks, has a shiny inside and a flat black outside and is very well made. You could probably make your own for much cheaper, but this one looks like something a professional would use. Below is a test shot I made to illustrate the shape of the light beam as it hits the flat wall. Pretty cool!

Now lets put it to use: In this shot, I'm trying to get the effect of a glow coming from this young boy's new phone. I used the snoot and the off camera flash, handheld by an assistant. The eerie blue glow comes from another off camera flash with a blue filter on it, and bouncing off the cieling. Have a look and tell me what you think?

One thing I'll mention is that the size of the spot is related to the aspect ratio, or the diameter to length ratio. A smaller diameter on a longer length will give you a smaller spot and allow you to keep your distance away from your subject. This is also true for grids or home-made "black straw snoots. More on that later. For now, get out your camera and go take some pictures!

The Big Guy at the Airport

2009-05-19T20:53:00.002-07:00

A number of years ago, My wife and I were traveling back from a vacation in Mexico. Waiting at the almost empty gate for the plane to arrive were just a few passengers. I was seated in one of those monotonous rows of seats; You know, the ones with two metal bars sticking out horizontal and a leather "seat" strung between them? So my wife steps away for a few moments, and this guy, huge, say 350-400 lbs sits in one of these seats in the row in front of me. He's maybe 6 feet in front of me.

I hear a creak, and as I look up from my book, I see one of those metal bars slipping downwards where this guy is sitting. These bars are sort of clamped onto a support beam that spans between two concrete trash can/ash trays. So this guy stands up, reaches down and pulls the bar up, back into its original position. He walks to the cocktail stand immediately behind me. I'm thinking to myself; "Now that something you don't see every day... A guy break an industrial strength airport chair!"

So my wife comes back from the bathroom and sits next to me completely unaware of what just happened. I'd like to tell her, but the Big Guy is pretty much right behind me and would certainly hear the conversation. I keep quiet, until....

A few moments later, a bookish looking lady walks along that same row of seats. As luck would have it, she sits down in the exact same seat that the Big Guy just broke (and fixed). She opens her book, puts on her reading glasses and starts to read.

Within a second or two of her settling in, the seat begins to give way. She must weigh all of 100 lbs, but its enough to start the bar slipping again. Instead of moving to another seat, she just slides over to the high side. The bar slips again, but this time really fast, surprising her into letting out a high pitched shriek.

By this time, I can hardly contain myself. I'm biting my knuckle to keep from laughing; Remember, the Big Guy is *right* behind me. My wife thinks I'm having a fit of epilepsy or something and can't figure out why I'm trying so hard not to laugh.

Finally the big guy hears the shriek, sees me convulsing trying not to laugh out loud, and sees my wife trying to make sense of it all. He lets out the jolliest laugh I've ever heard. I can no longer contain myself and join him in uncontrollable laughter.

Life is full of awkward situations. They all don't end in laughter, but those that do remain the most memorable!

Wine Fridays

2009-05-18T12:46:00.001-07:00

Thanks Dan!
I used to work with a man who was all about wine. On Friday's he would bring in a bottle of something we'd never heard of and we'd share it after work at the little park across the way. He'd introduced me to what are now some of my favorite wines: Garnacha, Tempranillo, Primitivo, Rhones, and many others. I began to experiment by buying bottles from the same regions as those I liked. I discovered many of the Australian and other "New World" wines and their forward fruity flavor. I also enjoyed the french wines and the complexities they offer. Soon I began bringing wines to the "Wine Friday" tastings.

Expensive?
Most of the wines we had were in the 10 to 20 USD range. We'd get on mailing lists for the wine club, and K&L and bargain hunt for the real values.

It it hard to know what to buy?
One of the tools I've used over the years is the vintage chart for general wine quality trends from Robert Parker. Beyond this, I would suggest going to a real wine store, not BevMo. I've found the people there really willing to help. If you start by telling them what you like, oftentimes they can lead you in new directions. I've not found them to be snobby, just be honest with them, and They'll be honest with you!

So raise your glass and try something new!

Seven's up

2009-05-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

I loaded windows 7 on my laptop. I actually went to Microsoft's site and signed up for the "Release Candidate" I got a legitimate license key, good until June 2010, for free; Whats the catch?

So far, I like it! I loaded Photoshop CS3, my Nikon drivers all without a hitch. There was a bit of a hiccup with the Bamboo tablet from Wacom; The install program bombed on the last step. I had to search through the CD and run that setup program alone. It seems to be working well now.

No Hibernation?
Apparently there's a glitch with some of the power drivers that wont allow the sleeping laptop to "wake up and hibernate" so it just sleeps until your battery dies. Hmmm... Now I have to remember to make it hibernate before I close the lid. No Biggie..

Where's My Old Drive?
I'm such a chicken that I just pulled out the old drive and will keep it so I can go back to XP if needed. I wanted to get some data off the old drive so I put it into a drive case with a USB interface. For some reason, the Toshiba laptop won't see the drive. Googling led me to this fix: "Remove the driver in the Device Manager and then reinstall by scanning for hardware changes." Guess what? It works now.

Now I understand what the catch is: I'm basically finding some of the bugs so that the rest of the world can have a better experience.

I think its a fair trade.

What's a Grip Head?

2009-05-17T18:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I stopped by Keeble and Shuchat to look for something that would let me hang the home-made screen flash diffuser. I needed to get the diffuser much closer to the subject and mounting it directly to a light stand wasn't working out well.

At the store, there were several other customers renting studio gear. I have to admit I was kind of intimidated looking at all the stuff there. Being new at this, I had no idea what most of those items were. I ended up buying a "grip head" by Manfrotto, that fits on the top of a light stand and allows a boom (a steel rod) to extend horizontally. The grip head cost about 39.00 USD and is very well made. In this photo, you see a lightstand at the left, with the grip head holding a boom. The skylight panel is attached to the end of the boom close to the model. Notice how even the lighting is on her left side. The flash is softened quite a bit.

Feel Good Friday

2009-05-15T06:06:00.001-07:00

Its another Friday and I can feel the anticipation in the air. Why is it that on Friday's we go to the same place of work (or school), are surrounded by the same people, doing the same things, but it's somehow different? "Hooray, It's Monday" just doesn't sound the same.

Enjoy the video.

What lies beyond the frame

2009-05-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our minds make up stories about images in order to put them in a context in which we relate. What lies beyond the frame? Is it a vast field of green? Or an english garden? Actually this picture was shot in 2 feet from the curb on a busy street.

Welcome

2009-05-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

I've been reading so many great blogs over the past few months, I thought I would give it a try. Welcome to my blog where I intend to share bits of my life, funny stories, and things I think you'll find interesting. Sit back and enjoy!