MkIIshooter

My choice for a photographer's tablet.

2011-12-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

So no more than a few days after posting my thoughts on the Kindle fire, here I am giving my initial thoughts on another tablet, the Samsung Slate 7. If you haven't heard of this device, it's a 11.6" tablet powered by a Intel core i5 processor with 4gb of ram and a 128gb SSD running (what?!) Windows7. The display is both touch sensitive and capable of pressure sensitive pen input via wacom technology.

So before I give you my initial thoughts on the device, it'd be useful to know what drew me to this purchase. l wasn't looking for another tablet , the kindle fire is performing that limited use case well. Rather, it was the promise of a full-blown PC capable of running REAL apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, a real browser and doing REAL productive work in a super small form factor that got me interested. But as a photographer, It was the allure of the wacom powered pen input that would allow me to draw right on the screen just like the Cintiq's I've been lusting after for years that actually made me hit the 'buy' button.

So what are my thoughts so far? Let's see.

Pen vs. Touch: Well everything you may have heard about Windows7 being terrible with touch is absolutely true, and while the hardware is very responsive the OS just doesn't know what to do with it. And while Samsung makes an attempt at putting a touch enabled launcher on top of Windows with a couple of touch enabled apps, it's a futile attempt at making this tablet something it's not; which is, anything remotely competitive to the Ipad. All this being said, its pen interface is mature- and it's winning me over. The handwriting recognition , even without training it, is amazingly accurate with my writing style. In fact I wrote this whole post using it and found it much better than pecking at a virtual keyboard. The accuracy & precision of a stylus just can't be matched by one's finger and the added expression enabled with pressure sensitivity is just awesome when using Photoshop or Painter. Steve Jobs may have been right that 'people' don't want to use a stylus, but as a photographer / artist, I've 'seen the light' and couldn't imagine going back to finger painting.

Screen: While not the gorgeous IPS display of the Ipad, the display is bright, vibrant, and has sufficient viewing angles for typical single user close up tasks like writing & painting where you are typically working at a consistent distance and angle to the display. Since this is a Windows box, I can use my Eyeone display to properly calibrate the screen and get some consistent results when editing my photos (+1 for the Windows tablet) The ultra-wide aspect ratio of the screen sort of forces you to use a landscape orientation, which works out perfectly in Photoshop allowing your panels to dock on either side and still allow enough room for an adequate canvas. For some reason the screen rotation is obnoxiously slow sot usually leave it locked. I have to believe this is a software driver issue because there's no way hardware Sensors could be this slow.

Performance: I heard the Core i5-2674 processor was throttled for thermal envelope reasons and may never reach its full Clock rate of 1.6GHz or 2.3GHz in Turbo mode yet the system is very responsive and has enough horsepower to smoothly track the artist brushes in Photoshop without any appreciable lag between pen & stroke. If you put any value in the Microsoft experience index, this system scores a 4.2, but this low score is due to its Aero Performance score, all other values are in the mid 5's, and the SSD scores a blistering 7.5 which may account for the system's sub 30 second boot times. Photoshop start up times are also much quicker than on my SSD equipped desktop.

Conclusions: I was originally skeptical and ready to pack this thing back in the box to send back but as I used it, even with all the touch unfriendly aspects of Windows7,it has really won me over. I truly feel this is a powerful media creation tool, not just another neat gadget as I view the Ipad as - and I'm positive the release of Windows8 will just make things better. I know this thing isn't for most, but when I consider that this has all the power of a laptop packed into a sleek tablet, for me, it's a keeper.

Quick Tip: Minimizing Time in Post

2011-08-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

So here's a little situation I found myself in after a shoot at the local high school - all my headshots had visible wrinkles and seams in the background. Looking at the LCD on the back of my camera, I thought I had the background far enough away from the main to be properly underexposed, but after pulling up the images at home I saw that this wasn't the case. They were pretty bad, in the original image to the left, you can see wrinkles in the background and the edge is visible on the left side of the image as well as a seam under the subjects arm.

No biggy right? just clone it out? Well not, if I want to make more than minimum wage on this job. I had to think smart and come up with a way that I could quickly correct the days shoot in the minimum amount of time. The technique I found worked quite well and, more importantly it was fast. Round trip from Lightroom to Photoshop and back was less than 2 minutes - I think the results (right) were believable and I know It would have took me at least 4 times as long if I were to try and clone or paint my way out of this mess. While the main take away from this job could have been 'get it right in camera' I think it really stressed the importance of taking a second look at how you approach a problem in photoshop and consider alternative solutions rather than jump to the first technique you know, cause it could save you a whole bunch of time.

I put a little screencast together showing the technique I used and while the video compression really makes it tough to see the defects in the shadows, you can still get the gist of what I'm doing...

Lazyleg Clamp

2011-04-12T12:07:00.001-07:00

Close up of the LL Clamp a video by photogeek21 on Flickr.

So here's my 3D printed part in action. It basically makes one of the three legs of my lightstand adjustable so you can use them on uneven ground.

3D printing - prototyping on the cheap

2011-04-12T12:04:00.001-07:00

Lazy Leg Clamp, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

I had an idea for a modification to my lightstands to make them have the same adjustability as some of the more expensive models. All I needed was a simple split collar clamp with a mount for the struts of the stand.
In years past I had access to the machine shop at work and could have whipped something like this up in a couple hours but now I'd have to look at paying a machine shop $60-70/hr to make it for me - I might as well just buy new lightstands.
I found a on-line service that takes your solid model and uses a 3d printer to turn it into a real world object. They are typically some sort of thermal plastic which would be fine in my case. So using Google's sketchup, I created the solid model of my idea and sent it off - 10 days later I got my part in the mail, tested it out, and by golly it worked the first time - you'd think I was some kind of engineer or something...
I didn't gage the part to see how accurate it was but my slip fit diameters were good. I thought the whole process was pretty cool and I think you'd be able to make some pretty complicated parts that may not be possible in a machine shop - like a hollow bodied part for example.
Cost is based on volume of the part rather than machine time so depending on the part it could work out to be much cheaper than machining. My part here was $26 which is probably expensive for what it is but I couldn't of had a machine shop make that for me at that price.

Shoot of another sort

2011-02-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

My best finish yet at the Western States Single Stack Championship. 31st overall, and 3rd in class.

Mediaconverter.org to the rescue

2011-02-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

While I think this site has been around for a while, I discovered it only after HOURS of frustration trying to convert a the video files from my 5Dmkii to a format that ANIMOTO could work with. No luck with windows live movie maker or even with the king of open source vid players, VLC. Mediaconverter.org is freemium cloud based service that you upload your vid file, the server will crunch that into just about format you can think of and provide the output for you to download. While granted all that uploading and downloading can take some time and it's not for someone who needs to do a lot of trans-coding but for those situations like the one I found myself in, it's just the thing I needed and did what I needed to do without the need to download and install anything on my computer.

What's with me and keyboards?

2010-12-23T10:44:00.001-08:00

It seems that all my android posts are keyboard related, from my FITALY keyboard dev project to Swype beta to Palm's Graffiti, and the improved Froyo stock offering. So with the latest release of gingerbread here I am playing with a new keyboard again.

Up to now I've been using the latest Swype beta that fixed the gripes I had with its initial release. The biggest improvements in the latest swype were the double tap word correction and the addition of the voice command key which I use daily.

With Google's latest Android release, Gingerbread, they took another stab at improving the keyboard. So how'd they do? Well the layout and spacing is much improved, it actually loose like a ripoff of the iphone's keyboard, which is a good thing as I still think it's one of the best on screen keyboards out there. Where the Gingerbread keyboard excels is in it's word prediction and with my big thumbs it's important for my keyboard to make sense of my many typos. But so far it doesn't seem any better than the Froyo keyboard, in fact there are some things that worked better before. For instance, when you hit the spacebar, the keyboard suggests common punctuation which it will place approximately right behind the word you just typed but it seems like this doesn 't work for the apostrophe which it places after the space. (See what happened to the word "doesn't") so still not perfect here.

So is it back to Swype for me? Maybe, but that is What makes Android great, you can change it to make it perfect for you and until I find that perfect, mind-reading keyboard, you can bet I’ll be doing just that.

Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 Lesson Learned: 001

2010-11-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

Flex TT5 and the Canon 550ex

While this flash is supposed to work better (at longer ranges) with the Flex TT5 compared to the new 580exII. I found it to be quite a bit more finicky than the 580exIIs. At least with my flash, the Flex can lock up the flash so bad, it stops functioning all together even pressing the pilot button won't fire the flash. The only way to get it to work again is to remove the batteries from the flash. I have a theory that it may be due to interruption in communication between the flex and the flash. As the lock up condition is pretty consistent if I don't follow the specific power sequence as follows:

Turn on the camera mounted TT5

Turn on the remote TT5

Turn on the camera

Turn on the flash

This sequence (which is in the owner's manual - go figure RTFM) seems to produce consistent results with the 550ex. My 580exIIs don't seem to care how I turn of the equipment.

My Pocket Wizard Saga Continues...

2010-11-25T18:53:00.001-08:00

Aly at sunset, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Well I've mentioned that I picked up a set of PW Flex TT5 triggers before and now that I've had a couple weeks with them and done about 5 shoots my opinion is quickly solidifying, unfortunately it's not very positive.
Fist off, while the build quality is good, the Flex units do not appear to be very robust in design compared to the PWIIs I've used. In particular the antenna design appears to be quite fragile, I know I'm gonna rip one completely off someday, in fact I've already bent one after just my second location shoot with them.
My biggest gripe though is their functionality - They are just not reliable. I had high hopes for the units based the reputation of the PWIIs I've used in the past which were rock solid. I knew there were issues with the range of the units when used with the 580exII that I use but I would still expect them to work reliably at closer range. Well that just hasn't been the case - No matter what configuration I've used, ETTL, Manual, with or without the AC3 controller or which flash 580exII, 550 ex, or even my Photogenic 600W studio strobes - These things just won't fire 100% of the time. Of the 5 shoots I've done since getting these, only one has been done without a misfire - the other 4 had between 10 and 40% of the shots where the strobes didn't trigger. It's quite embarrassing to be fighting with your gear on a gig.

I love the idea of using TTL remotely outdoors at range, In fact, when they're working, they're awesome - so much so that I kept these past the 30 day return policy with the hopes that PocketWizard will figure out how to fix these problems. And to that effect the have been publishing regular firmware updates (which was another reason for me choosing the PWs)

So I'm sure to be posting my woes and wins with this things from time time here - I'm hoping for the best.

Focal Length and compression

2010-11-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

On a recent location shoot of some family portraits, I played with varying focal length to control the background of the image. Increasing focal length compresses the apparent distance between subject and background, this I knew, but never before had I actually studied the effect in a single shoot.

In the shots I varied the distance between camera and subject according to focal length to keep the size of the subject in image constant. You can see how different the feel of each of the images below are. You can use this technique to control how dominant an object or landmark is in the background - or even compress it further with longer focal lengths to push it into abstraction.

Image 1

Focal Length =40mm Camera to subject distance=15ft

Image 2

Focal Length =150mm Camera to subject distance=75ft

Google skymap as a phototool

2010-11-21T10:32:00.001-08:00

Google's recent update to their Android app, Skymap, includes a new 'time-machine' function which allows you to see the constellations at any point in time. I must admit I wondered why you'd ever need to do something like this. Well, this week when I was scouting out a location for an upcoming family portrait session that was planned for sunrise it hit me. While there are multiple apps that will tell you when the sun will rise, my favorite being Sundroid, but they don't tell you where it will rise. Here's where Google Skymap comes to the rescue. Just pull up the time machine, enter the date and time of your shoot and just like that you have a map of the sky for that day. Hold your phone to the horizon and see exactly where the Sun will rise. The location I was in was surrounded by hills so I could adjust the time and find out exactly when the Sun would crest the hill and fill my background with glorious golden light. With this knowledge I was able to pick my exact shoot location that would place the sun right were I wanted it, I also knew how much time I had to work setup and the talent before the light would come. It all made for a well planned shoot with no surprises - Thanks Gooqle.

DIY Pocket wizard Pre-trigger cable - Saved $70

2010-11-11T20:58:00.001-08:00

DYI CM-N3-ACC, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Been playing with a set of Flex TT5's and wanted to explore using the PW to remotely trigger the shutter but when I went to buy one, I found the $95 price tag just to much to swallow.
Well, internet to the rescue, I found a great writeup on the Canon NC3 connector which my 5dmkII uses for remote shutter here.
All I needed to do is figure out the right pins for the 1/8" stereo plug on the PW side. A little time with PW and an ohm meter I eventually figured it out.
The donor for the NC3 connector was a cheap Ebay remote trigger. A trip to radio shack and a couple bucks got me the 1/8" plug. All in, about $20. Works like a charm. Below is the pinout for anyone that feels handy with a soldering iron or if not, I did eventually find them for about $26 at Flashzebra.com.

1/8" Stereo plug pinout for Flex TT5

Wireless TTL

2010-11-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

_MG_9569, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

So I gave into my gadget weakness again and broke down and bought a set of Pocket Wizard Flex TT5s to wirelessly sync my speedlights in E-TTL mode.
This image was taken at 10 pm on my front porch the TTL let me play with my ISO - I needed to push it to 6400 inorder to get the landscape lights to show up in the exposure - the TTL automatically adjusted my flash output as I upped the ISO to prevent Aly from being over exposed. Sorta nice to work this way especially when the speedlight is mounted somewhere out of reach.
Now, I did hear how unreliable these TT5s were before I bought them and I'm sadden to say all the reports were true, I was getting about 25% no fires - even with my 550 ex which is NOT suppose to have the RF noise problem my 580exIIs have. But the promise of HSS and Wireless ETTL is keeping me here hoping someone finds a solution....

Retro Camera

2010-10-22T21:09:00.001-07:00

Found an Interesting app for my Android Phone. I usually don't like heavily processed photos that are canned but this adds some dimension to the typical cell phone photo. It has several effects which are suppose to replicate several toy cameras I never really heard. I can't comment on how representative the final picture is to the camera it's supposed to be replicating but who cares as long as you like the effect and the border it creates. In typical mobile app fashion you can pay for the app or get an ad supported one for free.

Posted via Android and Posterous.com (http://barryshaffer.posterous.com)

Another reason for RAW

2010-10-03T19:12:00.001-07:00

Morning's first light, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Just found another plus for shooting raw. I recently upgraded to Lightroom 3 which has a couple new twists in it's raw processing engine one of my favorites recently has been it's noise reduction. The above image was shot at ISO1600 on my 1DmkII which left it quite noisy. I felt the noise distracted from the peaceful mood I was trying to set with the image and it was cast aside in my original culling. But after seeing what LR3 could do I pulled this image up and turned that noise into a silky smooth tones, added a nice under exposure gradient at the top of the image and now I have the image that sets the mood I was going for but couldn't execute back then. Nice. Software is always advancing and it's neat to take old images and breath new light into them.

Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk 2010

2010-08-07T18:55:00.001-07:00

Ride like the wind, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Weather in Arizona during the month of July isn't exactly what you want to be in while shooting photos outside. But for some reason I signed up again after taking a couple years off. This year I headed up to Cave Creek to shoot the sights around Frontier town. The old west motif was all over this quaint little tourist spot and I found it quite challenging to take a unique angle on the statues and wagon wheels that were all over the place. But I gave it a shot, and the weather cooperated as well. I wont say it was cool but we were fortunate enough to get a bit of cloud cover that morning which 'cooled' things off to just around 98 degrees, compared to the 112 degree weather I shot in on the last photowalk I did in tempe several years ago, it was heaven.
Once again, I had a great time and met some really great fellow photogs.

Time to check my focus

2010-07-18T13:20:00.001-07:00

Found a really good article on several techniques on setting the microfocus adjustment on my 5d.

AF microadjustment for the 1Ds mark III, 1D Mk3, 5D Mk2, 7D

Nordic Components NC22 First Impression

2010-07-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last November I picked up a certificate for an NC22 rifle off the prize table of the Area 2 Desert Classic. I didn't really know what it was but I thought it'd be fun for my Son to shoot since my real AR is still a bit big and heavy for him.

Well the rifle arrived last week and I was extremely pleased to find how well made this rifle is. It appears that Nordic components fits a custom upper, specifically designed and optimized for running 22lr rounds to a standard AR lower. The upper to lower fit was nice and tight without a bit of slop or rattle.

The rifle came with one BlackDog 10 round magazine. I fitted it with a spare CMore sight (that I also picked up off the prize table) and went to the range to sight it in.

While I didn't shoot any groups as with a CMore, I wasn't setting this up to be a target rifle. But what this rifle is is FUN. A well balance AR platform shooting .22lr rounds just doesn't recoil and makes double taps and rapid fire strings a blast to pull off.

I shot about 700 rounds of a mixture of Federal and Winchester 36gr. copper plated bulk ammo through it and it never skipped a beat.

Ryan and I shot it this week in a local tactical rife match that was half close range rapid fire targets and half long range work - I took fifth which I thought was pretty good considering I didn't know what I was doing and a 12MOA red dot CMORE isn't the right tool to be pulling off long range work.

The one down side of the rifle is that the trigger leaves MUCH to be desired, but that could just be that I haven't shot a stock trigger in years. It does appear that they're just standard GI parts so I may have a go with some polishing compound and some spring cutting to see what happens.

So my bottom line on the Nordic Components NC22 Rifle? One hellova fun gun that's built right.

Android goes old skool...

2010-07-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 12 years since I used Graffiti on my Palm X, but when I saw it land in the Android marketplace, I loaded up and all the gestures came back to me. It's very true to the original graffiti but it seems a bit faster and more accurate than I remember.

It is quite a bit more motion than just typing on a standard keyboard or using something like SWYPE but I find it much more accurate. I recently gave up on SWYPE and went back to the standard Android keyboard which I found much improved in the latest Froyo update. One of thing that I find great about the new Android keyboard is that its predictive text is excellent I usually only have to type a few letters and the correct work pops up for selection so I usually find myself only needing 3 or 4 characters per word which really lessens the strokes. SWYPE requires that you trace the entire word out before it can predict the your intent (and it gets VERY aggravating when its wrong). Graffiti doesn't have any predictive text so you don't get any annoying corrections but the downside is you have to type the entire word. I think if they can add predictive text as good as the stock keyboard - this will be my new full time keyboard.

Amazing story of a hiker, his camera and the power of the web..

2010-06-23T12:22:00.001-07:00

Saw this in a twitter post from Davidu Hobby:

D300 found in the Grampians - Talk Photography

How to do a Backflip

2010-06-04T19:30:00.001-07:00

Backflip, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

As much as I think my son is awesome at everything he does, he can't do a backflip on his bike - but that's not going to stop me from making an over-the-top portrait of him doing one. With some imagination, careful planning and two scoops of Photoshop thrown in for good measure, almost anyone can look like an 'X'games gold medal winner. So here's my deconstruction of the shot.

First, I started with a visit to the local skate park to get some shots I could use for the background.
15mm fisheye used for the shot, I stood in the same position I would if he were actually doing a backflip over my head. the 180 degree coverage of the lens gets the ramp and the late afternoon sun in the same frame.

Next, for the second shot of the composite, we strapped his bike down in the garage so that he could do all the moves he wanted and not have to worry about falling.
For lighting I used two photogenic 600s to 'sandwich' him in light ( I like the shadow it forms down his neck) and placed one 580exII at full power right behind him to act as the Sun that was captured at the park.
Using the same lens, I place him in roughly area of the frame I want him in the final shot so that the fisheye distortion will match in the final composite, and since he's on the ground that meant I had to have the camera in the air over him - thus the ladder.

With both the shots complete, I pulled the background shot into Photoshop. Since the sun was a little too high for my liking, I cloned it out.

Putting Ryan on another layer, I did some masking to get him out of the garage. I used the trial version of CS5 for this because of the really great edge detection demos I saw all over the web but it turns out they aren't as magical as some of the demos made it out to be - so this was still pretty tedious.

Turn both layers on, and BAM, kid floating in the air.

Throw the Sun back in there -- I really liked this behind the ear placement which would be hell to try and get in a real-life shot, but hey, I was going for 'over-the-top' for this shot.

Draw in a couple polygons on a new layer in screen mode for some artificial lens flare and run a high pass filter on the playground to give it a little HDR glow effect....

Finally, I brought it back into Lightroom for final cropping and toning which I think is a little easier to do in.

I really liked the way this one came out, it's rare for me to have the final image come out so close to what I envisioned in my pre-production sketches. What's funny is I was sorta in a slump about what to shoot lately, but the idea for this whole shoot was sparked by, of all things, my son wanting to get a mohawk for the last day of school. Maybe I go see if my youngest will shave his head for some inspiration....

Using a Reflector

2010-06-02T21:01:00.001-07:00

In the weeds, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Every photog knows the about the 'golden hour' for the gorgeous quality of light that is produced just after sunrise and just before sunset each day, but what most don't do (including me 'til now) is get enough fill on the subject to balance out the extreme side lighting that a low sun will create. I've usually been using a flash for this work but that can cause some variations in color temperature across the frame unless you gel your flash. A reflector is a easy (and cheap) way of doing roughly the same thing.
Above is a picture of Ryan where I placed the 5pm sun behind him to act as a hair light, then used the reflector to bounce the sun and create the main light for his face. I placed him in the edge of a shadow created by a near by house to throw the background tone into a lower exposure value and let his face stand out against it but kept the foreground lit to keep the interesting shape of the weeds. And, my favorite part of a portrait, catch lights in the eyes. With the sun behind him the reflector is the only way short of a fill flash to get those eyes to sparkle.
Contrast that with the following with out the reflector.

While I still get a nice side light, but the catch lights are gone, his face is flat without any shadows, his face falls into the same exposure levels as the background and even if I bump the exposure a bit, the side light would probably clip and his face would still blend with the background.

I'm pretty convinced that a reflector is a 'must have' item for any portrait photog - they don't break the bank either, but if you're really cheap like I am you can use a Car Sunshade, I got mine at target for $5.99 and its even silver on one side and gold on the other - almost like it was designed to double as a photo reflector!

85 F1.2 Love this Lens

2010-05-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well I seem to be posting more about my Android diversions than photography lately, so here's a little return to my main subject, shooting the 85 1.2 - I passed on the 70 - 200 2.8 last year in favor of the 85 prime. I wondered if it was the right decision, but after shooting with it for a while, I'm glad I chose it, the images taken with this lens are very unique and you can usually spot them fairly quickly.

Shooting with this lens takes a lot of patience (because it's a slow focusing lens) and even more practice. Shooting wide open produces EXTREMELY shallow depth of field - like in millimeters! Look at the sample above, 3/4 pose you would usually think one eye in focus and the other soft, but here you can see the the DOF is so shallow the focus softens with the span of a single eye - probably less than an eighth of an inch. Shooting this shallow means I need to change the way I shoot - No more using the center focus sensor, locking focus, then recomposing - that slight change in position will throw the it out of focus. You really need to use the focus point selection function here and use the sensor that falls on the area you want in focus - this does put some boundaries on you composition. My usual technique of prefocusing and waiting for the right expression doesn't work either, lock too early and your subjects subtle movements can throw you out of focus again.

But even with all this hassle, I just can't get over the unique nature of the images produced, and in my opinion, well worth the work.

Froyo up and running on my nexus one

2010-05-24T02:45:00.001-07:00

Yea, Google's next version of their android operating system, Froyo, wasn't supposed to be out for a couple of weeks. But it does appear that they pushed it out to their nexus one dev phones last week so of course its out there on the web... and now on my phone. :-).
The official Google file only works for stock, non-rooted, T-mobile Nexus ones, but thanks to Paul's hard work over at MoDaCo, we now have a way for all of us that rooted our N1s to get our 'Frozen Dessert' - Thanks Paul!
So What Do I Think?
Well, I was running Cyanogen's latest rom with Pershoot's UV/OC kernel - so how's Froyo Compare?

Dalvik VM with JIT compiler: I did not notice any performance gains in my apps (although my rooted setup was much more responsive than stock)
New Browser rocks! Much improvement here. Notice Google reader and docs to render MUCH faster - definate improvement.
Tethering - Both USB and WiFi tethering are enabled on this build, Awesome! Love the support in the OS, this was the biggest reason for me the root 2.1 on my N1, now there's no need. The NexusOne is still Google's favorite Son and they're showing it lots of love, here. I doubt any updates pushed to the other Android phones by the carriers will have this option.
The new camera is nicer and more responsive but I miss the desire camera I had on before, touch to focus and face detection should have made it's way into Google's native camera...
My problems with loosing WiFi during sleep seemed to have all but disappeared.
So far I'm loving all the little enhancements as well (like next and previous buttons in GMAIL and the permanent phone and browser buttons on the home screen.

I'll need a little more time with it to see how battery life is but overall, I think it's worth keeping over the custom roms I was running. Although, I can't wait to see what the ROM cookers have instore for 2.2....

Rooted my Nexus One

2010-05-08T08:27:00.001-07:00

I'll have to admit, I've put off rooting my N1 for lack of a good reason and the possibility of ending up with a $500 brick.
But after reading all the walk thrus on theclockr.com I got the confidence up to finally do it with the sole intent to run the Andriod-WiFi-Tether app.
The one thing that was lacking was detailed instructions on rooting under Linux, but hobo14 saved me there with his post which provided the critical initial usb settings I needed to have the computer see the phone during fastboot (seems that the Vendor id changes when the phone is in fastboot)

$ sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

- Save these two lines into the file:
Code:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"

$ sudo chmod a+rx /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

After that, all went well. I used the latest Cyanogen mod, as it was noted to be the most stable.

So how's it work?

The phone is really snappy but that could be cause I wiped the 30 or so apps off the phone but I'd be nice if it stays that way after I load it back up.
Wifi tether works great.
So far my Wifi Sleep issues have gone away - but it's still too early to tell.
A bit more bling on the phone (multi color trackball, new wallpaper, and ringtones)
Also seems that I have 150M free now verses less than 90 with the stock roms.

I'll revisit this post as I find out more.

Brad Presents

2010-04-23T11:06:00.001-07:00

Enjoyed a great post over at Scott Kelby's blog today that relates points made in the reality show Kitchen Nightmares to your photography business. While it provided a bit of humor the points are well made and I found the article timely as I have been contemplating where I want to go with my photography...
Here's a link to the full post.
Brad Presents “Lessons From Kitchen Nightmares”

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Might as well post everything....

2010-04-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of times a shoot an event for my own enjoyment without anybody acutally hiring me to photograph, which was the case a couple weeks ago when I shot the 3 gun nation shootoff. In cases like this I usually just post the shots to flickr and put a slide show of the coverage on my site with no intentions of selling any images. But in this case, my images caught the eye of one of the competitors (who also happens to be a photographer)and he contacted me about the photos in my gallery, said he really admired several of them and I ended up making a sale. Now he could have just downloaded the images off of flickr, but I guess the fact that he was also a photographer kept him from doing that or he was just an honest guy. Anyway, image protection isn't what prompted me to write this post, sales is. The fact is I should be posting all my favorite images from these personal events in my sales gallery - who knows how many sales I've lost by not giving viewers the opportunity to purchase, most won't be inclined to take the initiative to inquire about a purchase like my fellow photographer/shooter. While I always like it when people get enjoyment from my images even when they don't buy, that's no reason to not offer all my images for sale. Besides, it's a business and businesses are created to make money... Sometimes I forget that.

Protecting Images with Lightroom 3 Video

2010-04-16T14:40:00.001-07:00

Tapia Shoot 1, originally uploaded by 10framesasecond.com.

One of the things I found out using the new Lightroom 3 beta 2 was the new option of exporting a slideshow to video. Previously you could output to a pdf file which is okay for sending clients but probably not what you want to imbed in a site or a blog.
I used the slideshow module for a recent shoot as a way to show my clients the proofs from the shoot and exported to video to make a self contained file that I could host on flickr and embed on my site quite easily. The encoding options up to 1080P High Definition are avaliable but I kepted mine to 720P HD to keep file size reasonable.
A nice side benefit of the video format is that you can post a number of images as a single file that isn't too easily printed which those that are worried about the stealing of images may find attractive.

Remote Location Shooting - several firsts (for me).

2010-04-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Had my first location shoot with a paying client this past weekend. When they came to me and asked me to shoot their family portrait, they didn't have anything special in mind but said they trusted me and would let me decide - no pressure right?
Well, I love the outdoors and decided to do a outdoor shoot in the middle of the Arizona desert using the unique profile of the Superstition Mountains as the back drop.

Even though I was planning a 'golden-hour' shoot I knew we would get out there earlier and would shoot individuals in harsher light, I need fill light and my Speedlites weren't going to have the muscle to fight the bright Arizona Sun, So the 600ws studio strobes would be the key to this shoot and they would be powered by a newly built DIY pure-sine pack on loan from a Friend and my 725VA UPS as backup. I used a polarizing filter to cut through the haze and deepen the blue in the sky and it's 2 stop density also help to get the shutter speeds down to the 1/200 I needed for the strobe sync (I packed an additional 2 stop ND filter just in case though). I rented some pocket wizards to trigger the strobes - no way was I going to be at the mercy of my Cacuts V2s and their less than reliable performance on this shoot.

I used a second body for my 85 F1.2 lens so that I wouldn't have to change lenses and risk getting dessert dust on my sensor. I used this lens to close to wide open exploit it's wonderful boken, this put the shutter speeds way up in the 1/4000 + range while I could have used my 580exII for fill, I instead used a diffuser to soften the light (another first for me)and when I got it right, the light is magical. To really get the best effect you really need to get the diffuser as close to the subject as possible.

Lastly, the one thing that made this shoot go off so smoothly besides the prep was my assistant, Alma, who also happens to me my wife. She helped me by modeling while we were out scouting locations, manned the GPS to find our spot later, but what was invaluable was her people handling skills, she built a repore with the little ones while I was shooting individuals with other family members and made them comfortable when I was shooting them. I know I wouldn't have been able to make a 3 year old act natural chasing her around with a 52" diffuser and sticking a big lens in her face, but with Alma, it was just playtime...

The only big mistake I made on this shoot was that I forgot to set my second camera back to RAW after shooting jpgs when I was cleaning it's sensor earlier that week. Not a total blunder as all the shots were nicely exposed and I didn't need any tweaking.

This was one of the smoothest sessions I've had in a long time, and had allot of fun shooting it. One last first, I used the slideshow module in the Lightroom 3 beta to make a quick video of proofs for client and was able to deliver that by the next day which really hit a home run with them.

So, a recap:
Strobes on location - Rock.
Pocket wizards - Rock harder must add to the shopping list.
Diffusers / Reflectors - Sweet, add to wish list.
Awesome Assistant - Never shoot again without one!

Studio strobes on location

2010-03-14T22:22:00.001-07:00

Well after the little test I did at home I figured I'd do a little field testing of my UPS powered Studio strobes. So I packed up the family for a portrait in the park. While I didn't get the shot I wanted, it wasn't due to the strobes or the power supply. Using a 45" shoot through umbrella, I was able to keep up with the sun at 3/4 power and below @ anywhere from 10 to 15 feet from the subject, I never ran out of juice on this rather quick session (50-60 shots).
What didn't work were my crappy Cactus II triggers - they failed to fire about 30% of the time and my camera was never more 6' from the strobe at any time. I'm getting real sick of these things - gonna have to buy me some REAL triggers when money isn't so tight.
The faulty triggers lead to a lot of frustration in the family portrait (see Matthew, my youngest) since I was taking each shot on a timer, I'd have to run around the pond for each shot. Needless to say, running over there and then having the trigger fail really sucked. (you can see me in the picture about to through my hands up because I thought the strobe didn't fire) One thing I am going to order right after I finish this post is a remote trigger for my camera, this self-timer approach is for the birds....

Running Studio Strobes on a UPS for Location Shooting

2010-03-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Well, before spending the $170 in parts for the DYI Vagabond posted on myJTP.com's youtube channel. I always wondered why I couldn't just use my computer's UPS. It's 725VA, self contained, built in charger, really cheap (<$100) why wouldn't this work? Well I got some time to do some testing and found out the following. Using my Photogenic 600ws monolights I was able to get 125 full power pops off of my fully charged UPS (battery in the UPS was about 2years old) til it cut power when the battery reached about 19% charge. Recharge time on the strobe was about 3.5 seconds, so not really as fast as pluging into a good 'ol AC outlet. Not really enough for a full shoot but I could do in a pinch. The battery in the unit is about 1/3 the size as the one in the Vagabond, so that explains why it didn't last that long.
So it worked but there is alot of chatter on the flickr groups about the need for a pure sine inverter to power strobes. I believe my strobes have a transformer rectified front end that charges the capacitor bank which is the worst ones to run off a approximate-sine inverter like my UPS - I didn't fry anything in the process, and nothing even got too hot in the process, but I think to be safe, I'll build the DYI kit with a pure sine.

FITALY for Andriod Code.

2010-03-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have asked, and aren't totally won over by Swype (my personal favorite keyboard on Android), I've posted the xml file for the my version of the FITALY layout. You can use this to compile a version of the keyboard for your phone. Or if you wish, I've posted my apk here. It should work for Android 1.5 but I've only tested with the emulator and not on a real phone. Once installed you set it up like any other alternative keyboard in phone settings. You'll need to run the anysoft setup to choose the FITALY layout.
Again, just another reason to love the open-ness of Android in it's ability to be able to pull apps from non-market place sources.
Enjoy.

DYI Vagabond

2010-03-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

Was planning on doing this for a long time, nice to see someone proved it out - and doesn't need as big a batter as I was going to use. Still want to see if a simple UPS would work as well. They can be had for cheap and have a built in charger. But this DYI has a nice look to it as well.

Fitaly Keyboard running on Nexus One

2010-02-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

Well I couldn't wait til my next lunch hour to work on this, so when I got home I did a little search and found an open source project called softkeyboard which is a really nice soft keyboard with multi-language support and lots of great functionality including the predictive text function and user defined dictionary support I was looking for. Since it's quite a bit more complicated than Google's little sample keyboard it took me a bit to figure out how to get my FITALY layout integrated into it but I got it going in about an hour (while watching 24). Here it is running on my Nexus One:

Yea, I was pretty proud of my first hack of an Android app. But now that I got it on my phone how's it work? Well, to be honest, not as great as I thought it'd be. First, as you can see, the 6 row format takes quite a bit of screen real estate and the keys are already too small to 'thumbtype' like I wanted so making them any smaller is out. I'll give it a try for a week and see how I like it.

DYI - Fitaly Keyboard for Android

2010-02-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

A little departure from photography in this post to get a little 'geeky'. I've had my Android Nexus One phone for about a month now and I'm still loving it. One thing that I had to get use to coming from the blackberry is the N1's virtual keyboard. I'd like to be able to type quick messages out one handed using just my thumb to peck at the keyboard but a QWERTY keyboard is not suited for this. Back in my Palm OS days, I used a keyboard layout that was designed for a stylus, and transfers well to one finger typing. The layout is called FITALY and is based on grouping the most common keys in the center of the layout and the least used at the edges with the intent of minimizing the distance your finger has to travel to type out a message.

In looking at the Android marketplace, I found all sorts of alternative keyboards but no FITALY. The original makers of fitaly for the palm still have a webpage but no signs of plans for porting it to Android - So I decided to see how tough it'd be to write my own. After all, Android is supposed to be and open platform and Google gives you all the tools you need to get started writing apps - so let see...

As it turns out, it was amazingly simple, Google even had an example of a virtual QWERTY keyboard in their SDK. The keyboard layout is defined by a simple XML file. So without any programming, I got fitaly running over a lunch break. Now it's pretty basic, but after seeing what's involved I think I'll adapt the layout to one of the more elaborate soft keyboards that are open source projects to take advantage of the predictive text and user dictionary functions they provide. Maybe done by next lunch break?

Anyway, this little exercise cemented my love for the Android OS - I think its going to take over the small device market over the next couple years.

Step away from the delete key...

2010-02-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Was doing a shoot this afternoon experimenting with fill flash and when I was back at the computer culling the images I came across this one were the flash didn't fire leaving the subject under exposed. Usually I'd hit the old 'x' on lightroom to mark for deletion but I really liked the lines created by the headband. When I started to play with some levels, I got struck with some inspiration (or copycatitus) and pulled the image into photoshop for some channel work, masking and....

bam! instant poster. Moral of the story is it doesn't always have to be a great photograph to be a keeper - with a little creativity you can save those bits from the delete key...

My hiking rig

2010-02-15T21:57:00.001-08:00

Here's my light weight rig I use while hiking. G9, super pod, and a ex580. Yes, the flash is grotesquely large, it does an excellent job fighting the Arizona sun. Using its high speed mode, I can still use fast shutter speeds and wider apertures with fill flash performance the built in can't touch.

I know I've knocked the G9 before but it's got its place. The rig is light weight and easy to carry - the folded tripod makes a good carry handle.

The best camera in the world

2010-01-24T16:55:00.001-08:00

To qoute Chase Jarvis, "the best camera in the world is the one you have with you..." and to continue from my previous post, the camera I have with me most often is the one on my new Nexus one. While it most certainly won't make me hang up my MkII, the 5megapixel camera ain't to shabby. The shot here was taken with the aid of a polarizing filter I just happened to have with me(really). While not used in this image, the android app, picsay pro, has all the post processing power you could ask for in a phone. Think I'll be doing a lot more shooting with this combo

Happy New Gear!!

2010-01-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

My favorite new peice of gear for the new year is my new Phone. I know, it's not exactly photographic but I got a new Nexus One Android powered phone and it is one hot piece of gear. I'm sure I'll be using it in to support photographic assignments like geocacheing locatings of outdoor settings when I scout for places to shoot so it isn't totally out of place here.

The Nexus one is a nice piece of hardware, very solid in construction, elegant in design and feels very good in the hand - a far cry from the orignial Android phone, the G1. In fact both my wife and I agree it makes her iphone 3Gs look a bit long in the tooth. For me, coming from a Blackberry Curve it pure heaven.

The Highs:
The screen is absolutely gorgeous. The higher resolution really makes everything very crisp and readable. Again, compared to the Iphone, this screen is a winner.
If there is one area where the Iphone's screen is better, its color. I have noticed the color is off with over saturation of Red and orange making pictures of people look a like they got a little too much sun.
'Snapdragon' is an appropriate name for the 1GHz beast that powers this phone. and from a UI standpoint, I honestly can't feel a significant difference between it and the Iphone. But, I think it allows the Android OS to really shine in the amount of apps that can be running in the background. Now, I can feel the UI slow a bit when I get crazy and have too many running but I had no problems streaming a podcast over 3G while doing turn by turn navigation AND still had my usual host of Twitter and mail clients loaded.
Andriod 2.1 added voice to the basic keyboard allowing voice entry in practically any field you type. The recognition is pretty accurate - if you've used the google voice search on your phone, I think there the same. It's pretty useful for constructing SMS of entering short phrases. I haven't found that it can take longer passages like writing an email.
I mention Turn-by-Turn voice navigation and it's a pretty sweet implementation on the Nexus one. I think it finally puts true PND functionality in a phone and has killed my desire to get a stand-alone device. Nothing like it on the Iphone unless you want to spend $80.
When it comes to Apps on the Android, I think the Marketplace is well stocked with good versions of ever popular app out there - The Iphone wins when it comes to some niche applications and for the shear number of apps on their store. I look at it this way; what's the difference between 20,000 apps and 100,000 when I only use 10?

The Lows:
One gripe I have is with the use of the virtual keyboard. It's not that is hard to use, actually I like the keyboard itself, its the touch sensitive keys at the bottom of the phone that I unintentionally hit far too often. Seem my fat thumb hits 'home' when I'm wanting the spacebar - argh! that's agravating!
The only other thing I'd hesitate to call a Low is that T-mobile's 3G does seem slower than my wife's ATT 3G's. Her's is noticably faster (when she actually has a signal) But I think it's a wash since in our area I usually have a connection when she doesn't and again, compared to my Blackberry's EDGE connection, this thing smokes!
My final low is one that both the Iphone and the Nexus share and where my old blackberry kicks both their asses - GRMS(?). One of my buildings at work is a huge deadzone for cell coverage, but with my blackberry, once it lost the cell signal, it would automatically connect to the company's WiFi and keep the ability to make and recieve voice calls. Why the Iphone and Nexus can't do this, I have no Idea - but I think that was one if the best features of that blackberry and can't image a modern phone not having this ability.

Wit Whiz - for free

2010-01-13T22:03:00.001-08:00

Wit Whiz, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Ha! Here's a shot I took of my lunch while on travel in Philadelphia. No great work of art, just wanted to document my first REAL cheesesteak sandwich. Well, it was selected as one of the shots representing the restaurant, Jim's Steaks, in an online travel guide. No compensation, just attribution (as per my creative commons license).
I imagine Flickr has become such a resource for sites like this, heck once Geotagging of images becomes more prevalent their job is even easier.

I used to think giving away images cheapens the art, but lets face it, photography has changed forever, equipment is more accessible, people are taking more images, and good images at that. Those that complain about it need to put less effort into complaining and more into improving on their art to separate themselves from the pack and give one a reason to pay for their work.

S90 Out in the wild

2009-11-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

One of my longest followed blogs, Luminous-Landscapes, reviewed the S90. Now, the S90 is one camera I've been waiting for. It's not a large sensor in small camera but it is a small sensor in a really small camera. So far, the big sensor, small cameras out there - EP1, GF-1, GH-1, etc. etc. are still too big in my mind. If you can't put it in your shirt pocket and have to carry on a strap like a normal camera, then, you should pack a normal camera...
Now the S90 is really a shirt pocket-able camera, but is it the one I've been waiting for? Well, the review really was positive on the size, user interface and IQ(sort of) - it appears that IQ , even with that great G11 sensor with improved high ISO noise, still acts like a small camera sensor - and starts getting noisy at ISO 400 and above.
Disappointing. If it were cheaper I might still go for it but at $500 I think I'm sticking with my G9 as my travel cam and keep waiting....

Halloween Horror

2009-11-04T14:48:00.001-08:00

Not so fast., originally uploaded by photogeek21.

A little outdoor off camera flash work for Halloween shots of the kids. Got to use my shoot through umbrella for the first time. Think it worked out pretty well, I like that I was able to capture a bit of the sunset color in the backround as the kids are at the age where they've put up with alot of posing for Dad over the years and aren't too patient with me anymore so it teaches me be quick with the setup and shoot.

Great Site for laughs

2009-10-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

While I'm always looking for sites to learn from and try new things in Photoshop or lightroom, I stumbled across this one that is going to be a regular visit for me - learn what NOT to do in photoshop. Hilarious - http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com

I got mine...

2009-10-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bloggers and Mentors, David Hobby at the Strobist.com put out some corny magnets for us Off Camera Flash users. I just had to have one, since I didn't have the patience to do the world wide scavenger hunt for them, I did the logical thing - bought some strobist gear at Mpex, 2 shoot through umbrellas and some sync cords for my cactus triggers (it pained me every time I put a flash into those flimsy hot shoes.

Oh and for the pic, I cheated and used an Off Camera FLASHLIGHT in lieu of a flash, it was a quick and dirty setup....

One I Like...

2009-09-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

As I've said in several of my previous posts, I'm less than impressed with my Canon G9. I've been looking for a camera that's small and compact but doesn't make me compromise in image quality. Well, the G9 is just a bit too bulky, it's really not that much smaller than my SLR.
Well with the recent announcement of the Canon S90, I may have what I'm looking for. Canon took the sensor from the new G11 that was optimized for high sensitivity and low noise instead of Megapixel count and stuffed it into a shirt pocket sized camera.
Things I like:

bright F2.0 - 3.9 IS lens with a really useful range of 28-105mm.
M/AV/TV exposure modes for photographic exposure control.
High ISO, low noise sensor - so far samples look better than my G9.
Shoots RAW - I don't think I'll ever go back to a camera that doesn't shoot raw.

No prices yet, but I'd guess with the G11 at $499 this would be somewhere South of $300. If so, this may make my X-mas list.

The Warrior

2009-09-18T19:05:00.001-07:00

The Warrior, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

This is a shot from a recent game, which at the time I didn't think much of it, but with a little cropping and PP, I think it makes a good capture of this 'Warrior' just moments before the snap.

Tough guy Setup

2009-09-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

scale: 1 sq. = 1 sq. ft.
Found a cool lighting diagram maker on the web so I thought I include my diagram of the setup I used for 'Tough Guy'. Pretty cool tool. May start doing this for all my shots.

Tough guy

2009-09-12T21:32:00.001-07:00

Tough guy, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Combined a little 'Strobist' technique and some heavy PS work Dave Hill Style to come up with my 'Tough Guy' shot of Ryan. Thinking of offering these style portraits at 10frames. I know the DH look is way over done in the photo world but I think it could still be a fresh look for youth sports portraits - at least around here, I haven't seen it much.

And in case you're wondering about the pre production version:

Combining interests...

2009-09-11T18:11:00.001-07:00

New Toy, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Well, as you can probably guest from this picture my other interest involves firearms. Yea, I'm totally hooked on Action Pistol shooting. (one of the reasons my blogging dropped off this year is I upped attention on practice and range time and so when I acquired my new 'toy' here, I had to immortalize it in a 'strobist' style photo while it was still all new and pretty.
The shot turned out to be harder that I thought. As cool looking as I think my blaster looks, it's really hard to get it 'posed' right and to get a dramatic perspective. Man, all those gun magazines make it look so easy. In the end, it took a couple gels on the a strobe to give it the cold blue steel look that I liked, also set it for some extreme side lighting to enhance the contours of the pistols.
And for those interested, it's a custom built, competition 6" STI 2011 built by Benny Hill of Triangle Shooting Sports. Buying it is one of the main reasons this blog isn't called 'mkIIIshooter'....

Dirty G9? - Have screwdriver, will clean...or brick

2009-09-11T11:42:00.001-07:00

From MkIIshooter

Ain't this pretty? My G9 seems to have a major spot on the sensor. And of course not in a inconspicuous corner, but right smack in my 'Rule of Thirds' line. I'd know how to handle this on my DSLRs but things like this aren't supposed to PS cameras, right? Isn't one of the design advantages of a fixed lens camera supposed to be the isolation of the sensor from the elements? I've never had this happen to any of my other (cheaper) PS cameras. So with less than 2,000 images of use I got a camera not worth using. I checked with Canon and of course my unit is out of warranty but they'll gladly clean it for $150...I don't think so.

Apparently, from the traffic on the Flickr G9 groups, this is a pretty common problem that comes from a poorly sealed lens that sucks in dust every time it extends and retracts. Some have reported sending their cameras to Canon for a cleaning only to have the spots show up a couple months later.

So armed with some small screw driver, pec pads, sensor brush and some eclipse, I gathered up the nerve to tear this sucker apart. - what could go wrong? It's basically useless now anyway right? Anyway here's video evidence it survived the surgery (warning- even though I sped up the video, it's still extremely boring!):

Post operation thoughts? Well, with these small sensors, this really should be done in a clean room the slightest dust is visible - It took two tries to get the image spot free (or at least usable). There are some really small components in there that could easily get lost or broken which may result in a $500 brick but with all that said, would I do it again? - heck yea, I'm not giving Canon another $150 for something that is a result of some poor engineering on their part.

Dream Camera...Revisited

2009-09-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today, I looked up the very first post I put up on this blog almost 3 years ago. In it, I said I had finally reached the end of my DSLR upgrade path with the acquisition of a Canon 1DmkII (the namesake of this blog). Reading it, I haven't change my mind...much. See my original post here.
Well 3 years later, I'm still shooting with my 1DmkII and still loving it. I almost pulled the trigger on the 1DmkIII last year but with all the issues with it's auto-focus, I stayed away. But not from buying a new cameras...
Canon G9 - so was my quest for the compact, high IQ camera fulfilled with the G9? Sadly no, not even close. While it's a really nice camera, it's one of the few camera purchases that I regret the most. The camera is not really that small, and the sensor is just too noisy at anything above about 200ISO. I thought I'd use it as a travel camera but most of the time I still bring my DSLRs - so the G9 has seen limited use as a video camera at the kids school and sporting events and some light macro work from time to time.
Canon 5DmkII - I decided to go full frame for the next camera. I figured the 1D is my sports camera, and the 5D would be everything else. And boy is it! Again, I wasn't looking for more Megapixels, 21megapixel raw files turned computer, which was blistering fast on the 1D files into a slug, My 500GB hard drives run for cover every time I come home with full CF cards. But boy are the files gorgeous - the resolution is so high, I feel like I don't need a macro lens - just zoom in 1:1 and see all the detail.
The full frame also gave me the wide angle coverage I'd been missing, my fisheye is a fisheye again, and I love the coverage of my 17-40 now. One downside is that one of my favorite lenses, the 70-200F4, vignettes on the FF! That sucks.
The low noise I get at high ISO's still amazes me after months of shooting with it.
So now is my upgrade path over? Naw, I know better now, a 1DmkIII may still be in the future. My quest for the pocket camera with a DSLR quality sensor is still far from over. Even with the camera makers getting closer, the Olympus Pen, Panasonic GF1, Sigma DP2, Leica X1 are cramming some real nice sensors into small packages - but each one has it's flaws. I thought we'd be there by now but maybe in another 3 years when this market segment gets as mature as the current DSLR market, I'll finally get my Dream Camera....

Boy this is getting too easy...

2009-09-08T14:13:00.001-07:00

2009241_STYFL_35 Pano 2, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

One simple image? Maybe, but it chock full of technologies that made it so.
First off, I shot this at ISO 800 and while that's not considered extreme by today's standards, I wouldn't have dared shoot above ISO 400 on my old D30 for fear of noise. Todays sensors are just amazing, I never bothered installing any of the noise cancelling software when I last upgraded my computer - there just isn't a need anymore.
Next, my image stabilized (IS) lens let me shoot this at 1/20th of a second, handheld. The ability of IS to increase the range of handheld shots is reaching 4 stops, letting my F4 lens shoot in conditions that would have required an F1.0 lens without IS.
Finally, the panorama was autostitched from 3 images using Photoshop CS4 in about 5mins without any interaction from me. Gone are the days of using PTGui and picking control points, blending exposures by hand and cloning seams where the images overlapped. CS4s tool is the first automatic tool I've used that really works.
People who are getting into photography today probably don't reallize how good they got it. I still remember having to FOCUS a camera and use a manual light meter - abilities not needed today. I don't think that makes me any better as a photographer - on the contrary, I think getting all that technical hinderance out of the way lets more people 'get the shot' and concentrate on the art not the science.

Runner up? I'll take that!

2009-08-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Scott Kelby announced the winner of his "Shoot the sidelines with Scott and Mike" sports photo contest today, and while I didn't win (darn it - it was a damn nice prize) my strobist inspired shot of Ryan, Skaterboy was in the final group of runner ups. To end up in that final group of shots out of the over 800 entries is really quite mindblowing - and it was way cool to see my work on one of the top photobloggers out there.
Sweetness.

Shooting the dogs

2009-08-11T22:21:00.001-07:00

Shooting the dogs, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

A couple firsts for me on this recent family portrait shoot with the Green Family. It was my first time setting up remotely. Which is pretty nerve racking because I didn't know how much room I had to work with and the time pressure is there - I didn't want to spend all day setting up and taking test exposures while everybody's waiting. So I kept the lighting pretty simple and adjusted on the fly which did two things - It got the family a bit more comfortable in front of the camera and it gave the impression I knew what I was doing. By the time my exposure was dialed in everybody shook their shyness and we started having fun.
And speaking of fun, after getting a couple shots of this family of 5, they brought in their dogs for some shots - All 5 of them!. Now this was first for me as well - I though getting 5 people comfortable in front of a camera was tough - adding 5 dogs certainly up'ed the excitement...and the difficultly. Needless to say it was a shoot early and shoot often session with the dogs as they don't stay still for very long.

Just one take, CSLR Challenge 143

2009-04-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

2009095_Spring Studio_141, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Sometimes you only get one chance to get the shot. This was a fun shot I did just before packing up the 'studio'. It took a bit of planning - and an assistant. Lighting was provided with a single off camera strobe fired into a styro-foam igloo soft box. I bumped the iso up a bit to lower the strobe power down to 1/32. At this power I the strobe could cycle fast enough to keep up with the frame rate of my camera.
So once it was all set up, prefocused, and pre exposed, I shook the bottle really hard and started the cork, as soon as I saw it start to move, I put it down on the table and had my assistant hold the shutter down to fire off a series of shots. This was my favorite. I like the shot just hated the clean up afterwards.... BTW the shot took third in the CSLR challenge #43

CSLR Challenge 139: Results

2009-02-20T19:51:00.001-08:00

Head n Hands, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Well 'Shadow Detail' came in 10th. But the follow up shots I took for the challenge where I was just playing around with my fisheye lens did much better. 'Head n Hands' placed 3rd and got some traction on flickr as well. Surprising since it had my ugly mug in the shot...

Technology is awsome.

2009-02-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Still getting to know my 5DMkii, took a couple of shots around the house. Here's a shot of Matthew shot at night in the bedroom with a single light on in the other corner of the room at ISO3200. Man, this just blows my mind. With my 10D I wouldn't think of going over ISO800, My 1DMkii, I'd go ISO1600 if I had to but this shot blows those out of the water.
Like I said, I'm still getting to know this camera, but the more I shoot with it, the more I love it.

Flash+Fisheye+Full Frame = Fun

2009-02-08T11:01:00.001-08:00

Playing with this combination for a recent CSLR challenge and got some cool results. Going full frame was like getting a whole new bag of lenses! Never realized how wide 17mm was and now my fisheye properly covers 180 degrees!
Never thought of using a fisheye for a portrait but I figured since I was shooting a picture of me, I might as well make it as distorted as possible to distract from subject :)
Stopping down the 15mm fisheye really creates some extreme DOF - from my toes which are just inches from the lens to the clouds behind me - cool.

CSLR Challenge 139: Making of a Creative Self Portrait

2009-02-06T20:15:00.001-08:00

2008 was a great year for my photography, I learned alot off the web and really tried to be consistent in getting out and shooting and doing the CSLR challenges - Even won a few. But starting a new job at the end of the year really put my camera back in the bag - Even a new 5Dmkii wasn't enough to get me going - man work sucks!
After a long hiatus, I finally get my first CSLR entry of 2009 with a composite black and white image, which, after finishing and posting it, I admit seems to rip off of the Debeer's Commercial. Oh well, it was fun getting back into the creative process. And just in case anyone is curious as how this shot is done...

First Video

2008-12-16T16:57:00.001-08:00

First Video
Originally uploaded by photogeek21

New toy in the house. Yep my 5d mkII came this week and I've been too busy to really put it to the test (what? how could I possibly be too busy to play with a new toy?)
Anyway, I am totally blown away with its low light performance and the amazing detail a 21megapixel image can contain. So far, none of the issues of the black spots that's all over the message boards have been seen. Then again, I'm not going to go looking for either.
Can't wait to get shooting with this thing.

A couple of Changes at 10framesasecond.com

2008-10-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well, a blown out motherboard on my main box shutdown any work on the website for a couple weeks. But now, after many a box from Newegg.com, I'm rockin a killer Intel dual with 8G of ram (my first ever Intel build - but that's another story)
To celebrate the new box's power I'm tinkering with putting some video on the site. Alma usually films each game from the stands and this week the camcorder's battery was dead so I gave her my G9 and showed her how to take video with it - you know what? That G9 blew away our camcorder in terms of video quality and ease of getting out of the cam and into the box - think the Camcorder's going to start gathering dust. (Good, cause before this the G9 was gathering dust - but that's also another story)
Video was converted to .FLV using the Flash encoder in the CS3 suite and it was surprisingly snappy. Uploaded to my site, used the Shadowbox plugin to do the fancy video rolls in my Wordpress blog. - May just take off the wrapper and embed the JW FLV player which works pretty good.

Don't know where I'll take this right now, Thinking I may host the latest week's game. maybe market a DVD for a couple bucks with photo orders or wrap the whole thing up with some stills and make some flash based slideshow/screensavers for download...

Pulled the 'pre' trigger

2008-10-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to go full frame for a long time but couldn't bear to spring for the cash for the 5D when a new one was right around the corner. So when my .rss feeds started to light up with all the 5d mkii announcements I read all the early reports, got all pumped up and went right over to Amazon and pre-ordered the body. Can't wait, This time November I should be rockin' 21Megapixels, gonna have to buy a couple 1TB HDs to go with it!

CSLR Challenge 128 - A knock out!

2008-09-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

My entry 'Lights Outs' got the top vote in CSLR Challenge 128. I was very surprised since it was up against some very good entries. Now normally this image would have been part of my effort in getting the TaW series back up since it took a quite a bit to get my flabby, boney 40year old body to look like a boxer but I'm afraid the 'before' pictures are just too embarasing! So just know there was liberal use of the Liquify tool....

A Pleasant Surprise...

2008-09-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Seems like my shot from the Phoenix Photowalk wasn't that bad after all. I entered it in the CSLR challenge #127:Arcs and it was voted into the top spot! Now, excuse me I need to think of the next challenge topic....

What Fun..

2008-08-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

twisted, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Wrapped up the Phoenix location photowalk. Thought it was a very enjoyable afternoon, Met alot a cool local photographers, got some marketing ideas from some, tips from others. I think the only down side was the heat we had to shoot in. The dinner afterward was my favorite part, think I could have just skipped the shooting and just talked 'shop' with everybody.
Don't think I got too many unique shots - this one is about the only one that I think was different from the others submitted by the group but I enjoyed it none the less and I can check photowalk off my list of things to do in 2008... but you bet I'm going to do another.

World Photowalk.

2008-08-23T13:26:00.002-07:00

Well, today's the day is the day of the World wide photowalk. Over 200 countries, 8000 photographers, this photowalk was started by Scott Kelby to celebrate his photoshop Lightroom 2 book release. I signed up for the Phoenix walk as soon as I heard about it on Scott's video podcast 'Photoshop TV'.
Never having been on a photowalk before, I'm realy looking forward to this new experience, which really surprises me since I'm not much of a sociable person and that's exactly what a photowalk is - a social event where photographers get together, take pictures and talk gear, technique, etc. Okay, we'll see what happens.
What am I going to take?
Well they say "travel light" which means the 10D should be my choice but I think I want more wide angle so the 1.3 crop of my mkII is going to win over the lighter 10D. Just 2 lenses on coming with me - the 24-105F4L and the 17-40F4L, I may drop the 17-40 for the 15mm fisheye. One 580 exII and it will all be around my waist on a Think Tank speed belt - yah - major geek factor with the belt but I'll be among photogs, so I'll blend.
Okay, time to see what this is all about.

#2: CSLR Challenge 126: Tool - Entry

2008-08-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

#2, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

My try at being a hand model - for this entry for the latest CSLR Challenge. Basically, a little sandwiched strobe work. - 2 580ex II @ 1/8th power to each side and slightly to the rear. Background is an color burned layer of a rusty shovel. Its my first try at using backgrounds. I recently went around shooting rocks, gravel, stucco, etc. Anything with texture to build up some stock for Photoshop work.

TaW#7:3 apples

2008-08-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

3 apples, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Been a long time since i did a Technique post. But in hosting the 'Old Skool' Challenge that prevented the use of any computerized post processing I came up with this entry. It's basically a composite of one image taken three times with different positions and light sources - all in one exposure.
To achieve this, I setup the camera on a tripod and set an long shutter speed of 5 seconds. Then hand triggered a strobe to light the apple and moved it to a new position, firing the strobe at each position.
Volla, an old school composite without photoshop...

What do ya know,

2008-07-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Seems everyone liked my last minute entry and I got first place! Cool, Since it was a self portrait that means my 'mug' has be immortalized in the CSLR challange site. That makes just Matt and Mama that are not in a winning image.
Time to think of a challenge

Trying

2008-07-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

With less than 24hours left, I submit my entry into the 124th CSLR Challenge. Wanted to keep my misses to a minimum. (Think I missed 2 so far) Anyway, had a bit of fun with this one, since the topic was 'Many Me' and composites were encouraged, I did a little parody of 'the evolution of man' with 'D' Evolution - Rise of the 'Chimp' - I guess the 'D' could be the D series camera I shot with or just the digital camera in general. I was fun getting back into the photoshop stuff again.
Now if I can kick start myself back into posting more often.

Work Really gets in the way of all this.

2008-06-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

Ouch! No posts in a while I even missed a CSLR challenge and if I don't get off my butt, I miss another. I know its all just excuses but I've been traveling a lot for work, Canada for a week then off to Germany for another week and when I got back - took some time off with the family at the river. While I was taking snaps, I did no serious shooting in over a month! However, I did pick up a Canon G9 for the trip to Germany... More on that in my next post.

Everest Base Camp Trek 2009

2008-05-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about doing some photo seminars for quite a while but never found the right one. This one sounds waaaay cool - but how can I talk Alma into letting me out for 3 weeks?

Everest Base Camp Trek 2009

Shooting Food

2008-04-27T21:46:00.003-07:00

"He's in there taking pictures of onions..." I could hear Aly telling her Mom in the other room. Maybe I have lost it - These challenges are harder all the time and I can't seem to take a 'striking' image anymore. I like the image of the onion but it's still just a picutre of an onion. It fits the assignment, Layered composition (ie forground, midground, and background.) but its still just a picture of an onion - I even chose a onion because, just as ogres, onions have layers and I thought it'd be a clever play on the assignment - but in the end, It's still just a picutre of an onion...

body Snatcher

2008-04-27T21:46:00.001-07:00

body Snatcher, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

CSLR Challenge #117, "Grounded". Had to try and make a senoran desert mushroom look interesting. Ended up taking this shot at night with 3 strobes to try and encircle the shroom with light. Also used a fish eye to get some interesting perspective. I like the way the mushroom broke through the hard gravel. But in the end I don't think it was enough as It didn't make the top 10 in the challenge....

Going Out

2008-04-13T14:12:00.001-07:00

Going Out, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Don't know why but I love this shot. Just a bit of vignette and desaturation of all colors but red. I like the soft focus of the shot as well as the highlights off the silver nail polish. All this from just a shot of Alma getting ready for a night on the town.

Flickr Plugin for Lightroom

2008-04-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

While I was researching my flickr problem with lightroom, I ran across Jeffery Fried's Photography Blog where he has several plugin he created for lightroom. I installed his flickr plugin and so far it works great. It offers many more options for posting than the original one included with the SDK. I especially like the naming and description options as well as the 'post to set' option. The only thing I wish would be available is to be able to create a new set during posting. But so far, so good. Thanks Jeffery!

TAW #9: Studio Lighting

2008-04-12T18:57:00.001-07:00

Aly-6, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Got a little more practice in 'the Studio' this month setting up for a Senior Portrait session. It was also the first time using a new grey background I got of Ebay. (I was really getting bored with my typical low key and high key portaits)
This was a 3 light setup, Using my big photogenic studio strobes as the main and hair light. The main light shot through a 24x36" softbox placed about 3 ft from the subject. The hairlight (which is missing her hair and hitting her back in this shot) was about 10' back. for the 3rd and final light, I used my old vivitar 283 flash, put it on a stand with a bout a 6" white snoot to selectively light the background. the white snoot helped soften the edges of the light. While this is a very basic technique, It's my first time trying it and I'm satisfied with the results I got. I think it really adds variety to any background by changing the distance between the flash and the background you can vary the size of the 'halo' also adding gels would add a variety of color to your shots - all with a single background.

The final formula thats been working in my studio is putting background about 12-15' behind the subject to prevent too much light from the main spilling on the background - that way I have control of how the background looks, I'm getting about a 3 stop difference between the background and the subject in this setup which will let me shoot low key or blast it with a big strobe for high key. Another important thing with the distance, is that it lets you throw it out of focus to hide any wrinkles you may have, although with my current 85mm portrait lens this limits me to about F5.6 more than that and I better get the Iron out....

Lightroom 1.4.1 upgrade broke my flickr plugin

2008-04-12T15:40:00.001-07:00

Soon after upgrading to Lightroom 1.4.1 I noticed I couldn't export directly to my flickr account anymore. Did lightroom change their plugin structure with 1.4? Well after a little digging on the web I found the problem, seems when I was playing with to original SDK files from Adobe with version 1.3 I put the plugin 'MODULES' directory in \program files\Adobe\Lightroom 1.3 where it was soon abandoned when I upgraded to 1.4 (due to the directory name change)
Moving the directory to \Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\ allowed the new version to find just fine on restart. And now everything is right again in my Lightroom world.

TAW:#8 - less is more.

2008-04-06T09:25:00.001-07:00

originally uploaded by photogeek21.

"Floating in a Sea of bokeh" was shot for CSLR challenge 116. My other two entrys were full of colored lighting effects and photoshop work to make them spectacular.But this shot leaped out at me and I entered it just as is -(and it place highest out of all my entries). It was my first entry that didn't make a to photoshop. No cropping, tint, exposure adjustments - nothing. It was liberating - and very satisfying to have a shot like this straight out of the camera. Being a geek with all the computer tricks sometimes makes me forget that I'm supposed to be a photographer. And as such, I should 'TAKE' striking images, not 'MAKE' them....

CSLR Challenge 116: Spring Training

2008-04-06T09:15:00.001-07:00

Spring Training, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Keeping the challenges going with this entry of a Angels Spring training edition of a bud light can. Shot in my favorite 'kitchen studio' with 3 strobes, the main from camera right bounced off an umbrella, and the other two behind the subject equal distance apart and at about 20 deg behind the centerline of the subject. This 'wraps light around the ball and bottle to get them to stand out against the black background. And of course I had some fun with the reflection - it was a logo challenge afterall

Taw:#8 - Cheap Smoke

2008-03-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm cheating by doing two techniques from one shoot, but I trying to prevent renaming all these posts 'Technique a Month'!
- So How did I get that smoke in the Flash in the Can Entry? Well I don't have a smoke machine and you can only really find them around here during Halloween (and I'm too cheap to buy one) so with small objects like this, I used my ultrasonic humidifier which produces a good thick white vapor into my 'Set'.

That's it!

Taw:#7 - Flash in a Can

2008-03-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a little how to on my latest CSLR entry entitled Just a flash in the can. It's basically, well, a flash placed in a can.
First I took a can of coke, cut the back off of it and used a thumb tack to poke holes along the lines I wanted the lights to show through.
A piece of Aluminum foil was used as a baffle so that I wouldn't have a 'hot spot' right in the center of the can where the flash would have a direct path out the holes - This diffused the light and evened out the 'power' of each hole.
Put the can on the flash and 'Wa-La' you have instant Las Vegas effect on your can!

A win for Aly.

2008-03-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hey Aly's pic, Streetlight, ended up taking first place! That just leaves Matthew to make a complete set. (although he did get a second place finish on his first and only entry so far. We'll have to wait for the right topic.

What a difference a background makes.

2008-03-05T17:43:00.001-08:00

Had an interesting thing happen in my CSLR entry, Streetlight. I wanted a diagonal crop to emphasize the centered-ness of the photo but of course you can't post diagonal crops on the typical web page so I put it on a grey background that was close to the CSLR background color. Initial I got a few comments that didn't like the crop, saying it was awkward. After showing it to Alma she said it was because the backgrounds didn't match so it looks like some dorky frame around the pic. So I set out to match the background, digging into the page's .css file to find the background RGB values (38,38,38) but photoshop skewed the colors when I converted the image to SRGB so I had to revert to the tweak and test method and eventually found 42,42,42 were the right values - reposting the comments all change on how nice the crop was. You can see the difference in just these two blog entries. - and the pic is currently in 1st place in the 1st day of voting - thanks Mama!

CSLR Challenge 114 Entry

2008-03-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

Streetlight

So again I'm squeezing in a last minute entry in the CSLR Challange. This time around the Challenge is 'Centered Composition' - which I think I got here, but I don't think this diamond framing is working for me. Thought it'd be clever to tilt the composition but guess not. Not a whole lot new going in in this one as far as technique goes. - Well, I did use a ladder to take the shot. Exposed ambient for 2 stops under exposure and used a tight flash to light Aly's face and hands and make it 'glow' (I did apply some 'soft-focus' PP).

I clamped the flash on the ladder and triggered it with a set of Cactus V2s. Need to hack them I did'nt notice any false fires but I had about 20% no-fires! And I was only 3ft away! Gonna try the antenna hack and see if that helps.

A 'Shout out' from the Digital Photography Show

2008-02-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, I got a big surprise today while driving Matthew to school. I was listening to The Digital Photography Show and they commented on my entry in their Photo Contest #7. They talked about it quite a bit and it was a blast to hear my name and work mentioned on such a popular podcast. And while I didn't win the contest due to my interpretation of the theme, they did call me a 'Photoshop Master' :-) The picture that sparked their comments was Giving me a headache which was the subject of TaW 4 & 5 some weeks ago. Sweet!

The Turning Gate

2008-02-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

The Turning Gate

Found this site when looking into hosting my own web galleries to sell from - basically looking at dumping Expoosuremanager and doing my own printing and shipping to increase the profits on my sports photography site : 10framesasecond.com .

This site has several templates that integrate into Adobe Lightroom's web module to make 'useable' galleries that can be indexed and tied together.

This may be the route to go vs. trying to code something from scratch. I gotta see how well a paypal account can be integrated in.

CSLR Challege 113 - a side less seen

2008-02-21T17:53:00.001-08:00

Open Wide, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Keeping with my commitment to continually challenge my photography, I just barely made the cut off date for Challenge 113.
I'm not too proud of my entry - it was soo much better in my mind than when I actually executed it.
I think the light and the perspective mismatch makes it 'not work' for me. I used a small mirror in my mouth to capture my teeth and took a separate pic of the cake and composited the whole thing.
I think the bigger challenge was trying to take a picture through a mirror while sitting in front of the camera without being able to see through the viewfinder!
The pic just made it to 9th place keeping up my record so far at staying in the top ten for all my entries.... so I still getting lucky :)

TaW: #6 Correcting Blooming in CS3

2008-02-14T20:21:00.001-08:00

Here's one I learned from Antonie_K on the Canon SLR Group on Flickr.

Here's a shot with the worst case of blooming I've ever taken. Blooming is basically a problem only found in digital photography and occurs when very bright areas are adjacent to dark ones I has to do with the way the image sensor elements get 'overloaded' with too much light and basically 'bleed' onto adjacent elements. If the situation is right it can happen on almost any digital camera. This shot was taken with the Canon 85 1.2L on an MkII so it's definately not a lens quality issue.

Anyway, to rid ourselves of this nasty purple mess - Open the image in CS3 and apply a HSL layer to the image, change its mode from Master to Blue, using the color picker tool select the offending color (magenta in this case) then turn down the saturation to taste (about -80 worked for this image). Thats it! No muss, no fuss. I imagine that if there was a lot of Magenta color in other areas of the image, that this technique could effect them but it would be nothing a little Layer Mask couldn't fix.

Better description of CA and Blooming can be found here.

Just a thought: End of the Sports Shooter?

2008-02-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

We watched the Superbowl this year in HD and I couldn't help but notice how sharp the freeze frame replays were, I could see blades of grass kicking up off the cleats of the players - It was really that sharp!

This got me thinking, I know HD cameras are only about 2 Megapixels in resolution (for now). But consider the following:

Network TV 'blankets the field with cameras (Pop SI had an article on the 2007 Superbowl and they had 48 cameras covering the field) Look at how many different angles they show a replay from.
Network TV will aways get the best camera positions - They even have that cool floating camera that can capture overhead shots or the 'Quarterback view' of the field - No Sports shooter could ever get this angle.
New stadium lighting is excellent - allowing for the Video Camera's High Speed Shutter modes to capture pure stop action on a single frame - no more motion blur. A friend told me how he saw a game at the new Phoenix Stadium and walked around the entire field and couldn't find a shadow - it was very evenly and brightly lit.
Progressive scan tech in HD cameras eliminates the old interlacing issues.
Technology is always advancing - CES had some 4 & 8 Megapixel displays - some day this could be the norm. How long before HD video is capturing 4-8Mp images?
DSLR sports shooters are almost 'filming' now - The first time I fired off 8.5fps on my mkII, it put a smile on my face. Now we have 10-11fps DSLRs but this still pales in comparison to Video. Video frame rates are almost guaranteed to capture that 'magic' split second.

Media Outlets are getting gobbled up by conglomerates more and more lately - when will they start to exercise their synergies by just grabbing video frames from their TV feeds for their newspapers and magazines?

....so are the days of the sports shooter numbered?

Taw#6: Dynamic Menus in Wordpress

2008-02-05T00:23:00.001-08:00

Okay, its not a photographic technique but it is something I learned this week that was used for my photographic website, 10framesasecond.com - dynamic menus. Initially I was going to build a website from scratch, and I started out doing that but then I found out how easy wordpress is to use, and the blog format suited routine updates to the site without any further coding. However, one thing I didn't know how to hack into wordpress was how to highlight the current location the user was at in the navigation menu. In HTML code I just would have the change the appropriate menu item's class when the page loaded. But in wordpress, you don't really work in HTML directly and my menu was in the static header and doesn't change with each new page load. I notice one of my templates using an is_home function and I dug a little deeper and found the is_page function which would let me do exactly what I wanted - here's my code:

if(is_page('products')){echo 'class="here"';}

just place this little bit of php in the opening 'a' tag and if the page your user is on is called 'products' it will insert the 'class="here" into the HTML which will cause the browser to used the css info to highlight the item.
pretty simple once ya get the right function. A more comprehensive explanation is here.

CSLR Challenge: 10x4

2008-02-03T22:45:00.001-08:00

mark, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Had to laugh on this one - I'm forever striving for tack sharp images, pouring money into L glass, high pixel count bodys - so what images am I finding myself liking enough to enter in photo contests? Yea, blurry out of focus ones! Go figure...

Loving this lens

2008-02-03T22:32:00.001-08:00

Aly oof, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

Just finished my first shoot with a new 85F1.2L and I am in love. I read alot about this lens so I knew what to expect, great bokeh, razor thin dof, yada, yada - but man I was still floored looking at the my shots. Yes, the micro dof is tough to work with - even in a studio setting but the blur of the out of focus areas is just dreamlike. It may be hard to tell on this low rez image but the contrast between the razor sharp strands of hair and the blur of Aly's face which fell out of focus in less than a 1/4" - It used to be standard practice for me to go through all my shots after a session and delete all the out of focus shots, but with this lens I'm finding that hard to do sometimes.
I debated getting the 70-200 2.8L IS instead but now I have no regrets. There is a down side though - I think I'm seriously hooked on primes now...

Be Prepared.

2008-02-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

I did it again... all excited about a shot I had seen on the way home, storm clouds forming around a small set of hills south of our neighborhood. I got home, dropped the family off, grabbed my gear bag and sped back down the road to a small hill that would give me a great vantage point. I whipped out the tripod, whipped out the lens of choice and whipped out the camera... Argh! I left the damn battery in the charger back at home! No worries, it's just a 2 min drive, I'll go get it... well, in the few minutes that it took to grab the battery and come back, that majestic storm cloud dropped right down on the mountain and started raining. The scene was gone, nothing left to do but pack up and learn my lesson.

CSLR Challenge #111 Results

2008-01-23T16:46:00.001-08:00

20080120-Water Wheel-127.jpg, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

So 'lil monsters' from Taw#5 came in Second place in this month's CSLR Challenge. My second entries from the 'Water Wheel' shoot didn't do as well but this one here still came in the top 10 at 8th place. I curious how long I'll be able to keep this up, I imagine it's easy for a 'noob' as myself to do well in the begining, but I can see it being tough to not get into a certain style that just gets stale after a while.

Okay, I gotta remember to charge my batteries.

2008-01-20T14:12:00.000-08:00

I aways drive by these farms every morning on my way to work. During the Winter when the temp drops below freezing, their irrigation equipment gets all these Icicles that form and they catch the rising Sun so beautifully. For years I've been telling myself to stop and take some shot but never did. But with my new focus this year I decided to freeze my butt off and get out there and get some shots.
I arrived before dawn and set up the 'big gun' 300mm on the tripod and waited for the light.
As the sun came up I started the shoot, changing positions, lenses, etc. I set up the camera for 1 stop bracketing with the intent of doing some HDR work. But just as the Sun rose high enough to really make the icicles glisten, my camera shut down! I've been spoiled with my mkII battery life that I rarely charge it - unfortunately it burned me this time! On a long shot I turned on my trucks heater and tried to heat up the battery thinking that it was the freezing temp causing it to go flat a little early. It worked! I was able to take about another 20 or so shots and my favorite was the last one!
Here's some of my favorites from the shoot:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

My Photographic New Year's resolution

2008-01-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Digital ProTalk: 12 Ways to Really Improve Your Photography for 2008

Found this article in my Google reader and I'm using it as a check list for my Photographic New Years resolution. 2007 was the year I started 10framesasecond.com, a youth sports photography site where I started selling my work, 2008 is going to be the year I really look to expand my creative side of photography and really challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone, do more portrait work, and try my hand at some fine art photography.

As far as the 12 ways, I already have several of them down:
#3 Experiment: Check - TaW's are the results of my 'lab experiments.
#7 Start a blog: Check
#8 Aggregate your favorite sites: Check - thanks google reader
#9 Flickr your favorite subject:Check - on several flickr groups.
#11 Enter competitions: Check - Started with CSLR Challenges and DPS contest looking for more to do REGULARLY.
#12 Read DititalProTalk every day: Check - yea David your in my reader subscription base..

Gonna nail the rest of them soon and come out the otherside of 2008 a better photographer!

Taw:#5 - '300' Effect

2008-01-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

Well after making the composite in TaW#4, I thought there just wasn't enough punch in it. So I applied the '300' look (from the movie 300) that I learned over on Matt Kloskowski's blog.
I did end up pumping up the blacks a bit and using the recovery slider to bring back some of the highlights - and of course I made one last stop to photoshop for some strong vignetting and burning in the shadows deeper.
Here are the resluts and my entry to the CSLR Challenge:

TaW:#4 - Composite

2008-01-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

This week's Taw is a composite, I know everybody does corny composites of themselves and it's one of the first thing a noob tries in photoshop. Well I've never done one before and I was working on an image for this week's CSLR challenge which was a 'Free Study', So I thought I'd give it a try.
Here are the beginning images:

I thought to make the composite more interesting, I'd make Matthew interact with 'himself' in the photo. I drew a picture of what I wanted in the final shot and had Aly fill in the interacting positions so that mathew would have something to grab or a shirt to pull etc. She would be masked out in the final image.
CS3 has a cool new function that makes compositing a breeze now - 'photomerge' which automatically loads each image on a new layer then anaylzes each image and perfectly aligns them with one another. I did use a tripod so the alignment was already done but just the automation of putting each image on a separate layer and putting a mask on each layer is a big time saver.
After that it's just a matter of using the mask of each layer to reveal what you want to show on the final image - so here's the final composite:
I used my big studio strobes bounced off the back wall to create ALOT of diffused lighting but more importantly to have even lighting across the whole area - Lately I've been taking the 'Strobist' approach and using my 580exII but this called for a bit more power.

Good showing in CSLR

2008-01-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

I was surprised to find that both pics I entered in the CSLR challenge placed neck and neck at 4th and 5th place. Stop, from TaW#3 placed 4th, and Sweetheart, sweetheart did much better than I expected as I thought it was just way to heavily photoshopped, it doesn't even look like a photograph and alot of photographers hate that. I'm sorta jazzed that both placed so high, I just know my 'censored' pic would have taken first, oh well, at least I don't have the burden of running the next challenge.
See the contest results here:
Eligible Photo Gallery by CSLR Challenge at pbase.com