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The Small Things

What make a photo interesting to you? I am not always sure myself. Some photographers think you have to tell a story to make a photo worth anything. Others seem to feel technical proficiency is what is really important, or maybe it is looking at something in just a different way. I was thinking about why I like to photograph things today. Many of my photos are never even seen by anyone but me. Every day for the past week I get the mail I have noticed this small feather in the grass, probably from a tiny songbird, I don’t know. I also do not know why I notice it every day. Today as I passed by I again took notice as it had been weathered and frayed over the rainy days. Tiny drops of water had collected on it. I decided to make it a photo subject, and to be honest, I have no idea why. It makes an interesting question, why we notice what we notice, or like what we like.

Feather

Professional Photographers Provide Insight into Stories as much as Writers

Some interesting news today regarding the ever evolving digital landscape as the Chicago Sun Times lays off its entire award winning photography staff including its photo editors.  As the way in which we consume media changes, traditional news agency struggle to keep up, trying to incorporate social media with their traditional format.  This development is said to be an attempt to move forward and keep up with these changing times.

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Rainy Day Photos

With the past days being somewhat miserable weather wise, I thought it might be interesting to explore some idea for indoor photography. Even if your gear is weather sealed, sometimes it is just not enjoyable to be out taking photos in the wind and the rain. Luckily there are lots of options to enjoy indoors as well, if you think outside the box.

Supplies

A macro lens will certainly help open up your options; however it is definitely not necessary. I have shot many subjects with a 70mm prime lens, but any lens will work. I like a short telephoto to remove my gear a little from things like splashes. You may also want to consider a sturdy tripod, and a remote. These are not essential l but make the process easier in my experience.  Finally a Speedlight will help you freeze action, and experiment with off camera lighting. However if you do not yet own one try your camera's pop up flash, while not as good it can certainly work and try using simple things like desk lamps to experiment with lighting.

 So here are some suggestions that I have enjoyed.

Playing with water

Here I decided to set up a glass of water and photographed dropping a coin into the glass. I set my off camera flash to the side and a placed a white backdrop. It was simple setup although it took many tries to get pictures that I thought were interesting.

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Smoke

IMGP0411 copyBlowing out candles creates interesting effecters as the smoke moves about and dissipates. It can be a little tricky since it always seems to change direction but the patterns can be quite striking. Obviously think about safety if you are using an open flame in your photography and use common sense.

 

Ordinary household items

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Sometimes it can be fun to shoot ordinary items and just experiment with the lighting. Here is my father’s old chess set, it was shot with different lighting and angels to explore and experiment.

 

 

 

IMGP0423 copyDo not be afraid to edit and have fun. Use warming or cooling filters, change colours post processing, and highlight details in Photoshop. This is a great time to experiment and just have fun with some creative ideas.  The most important person to enjoy your photography is yourself, so go nuts.

There are many possibilities and these are just a couple of examples, but there are so many more creative and interesting ideas all you have to do it experiment and enjoy. Think outside the box a little and notice the small things. The options end up being limitless.

The Damselfly

The Damselfly is often mistaken for the normally much larger Dragonfly, however the Damselfly can be easily distinguished by their wings folding upright and parallel to the body when not in flight. They are tiny and easy to miss but can be quite striking in colour, such as this little subject I shot resting this afternoon.  Miniature winged predators they are extremely beneficial to people often eating their entire bodyweight in misquotes during the course of one day.  A myth still persists that Dragonflies and Damselflies can bite or sting, and while they have strong mouthparts for catching small insects, they are incapable of inflicting a bite to a human and are extremely docile. (click photos to enlarge)

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I rarely get the chance to shoot damselflies due to their diminutive nature. Dragonflies tend to be larger and more robust giving themselves away. However you can often be right beside a minute damsel fly and not even realize they are there. I noticed this subject flying into the wind, and managed to track it to a resting spot.  I braced my camera against a post and managed to get a few shots off.

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  • Pentax K-30
  • DA*200mm
  • F5.6
  • 1/400th sec
  • ISO 100

Capturing Bees in Flight

Yesterday proved an interesting exercise trying to capture bees as they flew about in the lavender. I have captured a few insect pictures while in flight although they have always been somewhat of an accidental capture. Many bees are currently endangered and vital to our food supply. Experts say having bee friendly plants in your yard may help. Also the myth that bees are aggressive like wasps is untrue, they are generally gentle animals who only ever sting as a last resort for their life. So approaching them respectfully is not an issue at all.

My K-30 has a 6fps burst, not a monster for speed for such things as sports photography but more than capable for something like this. My lens choice was my DA* 200mmm f2.8, I am hoping to purchase the Pentax 100mm macro lens soon which would be ideal .however the 200mm while not giving me the close 1:1 focus,  does gives me the range, is fast enough, and very sharp edge to edge allowing for some cropping

I decided to go hand held instead of on a tripod, the idea being that for these fast moving subjects I can move what was in focus with my body and be faster than if I was using the manual or auto focus.

I started with about 1/2000 of a second, but soon moved up to 1/2500 shutter speed. I bumped the ISO slightly to 320 and set my f stop down one to 3.2, with the 200mm focal length this left a pretty tight depth of field, however my idea to simply focus by moving my the camera seemed to work well.

1As I shot I began to get a feel for how to attempt to capture a moment in flight. I began by targeting the bees to the back of the bundle of lavender. This was because I knew the only way for them to fly to the next flower was towards me. I then positioned my depth of field slightly in front of the bee, so while it was on the flower it was out of focus. The hard part is guessing when it will take off as by the time you see the bee in the air, press the shutter and capture the moment, you normally only have the tail end of a bee leaving your frame. Shooting a few bursts right after allowing the bee to 2be on the flower for around 10 seconds seemed to yield some results.

This was just my experience in trying to something different and I am sure there are better ways of going about it, but I found this to be a fun and relaxing experience. In total I captured a bee in flight 1 out of every 10 shots. If you enjoy the patience required for photography like this maybe give it a try.

Links:

This is the website I used to help identify some of the bees: http://bugguide.net/node/view/475348

Some more photos on my Facebook site click here

 

Adobe Moving to the Cloud

The cloud for anyone not aware is a system in which your hardware or software is used and stored at a remote location. It does away with having to keep files, programs etc. on a local hard disk and give you the freedom to access your data anywhere and share with anyone. 

IMGP2618 copySome common examples of the cloud for storage are

  •     Dropbox
  •     Apple's ICloud
  •     Google Drive

Adobe recently announced that their future software is going to move away from the traditional hard copy software and instead move to a cloud system. This includes their professional software most recognisable to designers such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premier Pro, etc. This move will also entail users to pay a monthly fee over a lump sum and allow users to have access to the latest and greatest upgrades to Adobe software as it comes in. Currently even with a discount, you have to pay for every incremental upgrade to Adobe should you want it.

There are some serious advantages to this idea, one being the cost. I currently own the Adobe Master Collection CS5 obtained through a student discount. This gave me access to nearly all of Adobes professional software but even with the student discount it came with a rather substantial price tag. Being that Adobes software is geared to professionals over hobbyist in the realms of photo and video editing, vector graphics, page design layouts etc. it  stand to reason that this software can command a price, however it is unfortunate that some starting in the field of freelance may have difficulty in obtaining these industry standard tools due to the initial cost. This may help elevate some of those issues around start-up stresses.

Still there are some significant concerns I have with this decision, namely what happens when the payments stop? Currently my CS5 software is outdated by CS6. However even without upgrading I still own significantly powerful software tools. Going back even farther in the software lineup still yields capable software that is perfectly usable. If an annual plan is implemented, and payments no longer are put forth, you then are left with nothing but a useless program. I liken it to renting or buying property, even if your house depreciates it is still your house, your asset, renting can feel like paying to use as space that never becomes yours. Adobe never really gives you anything for your money, instead they simply allow you "rent" their software.

So if you are not concerned with having every update put out by Adobe, owning your own software seems like a good investment. Other issues such as Adobes compensation to those already invested in the company are also a concern. Currently there are significant discounts for updating your hard copy software, but to my knowledge only a small initial year subscription reduction for those moving to the cloud. That could be interesting to those who are already loyal Adobe users.

To be fair, this is only at its beginning stages, so how Adobe handles this will be interesting and it is perhaps not fleshed out enough to criticize…yet. I defiantly see some significant advantages, but I also have some genuine concerns as well.  It will be interesting to see if Adobes plan is the wave of the future, or they have their head in the clouds.

Completing 3 Years

IMGP3101Ever have one of those days where something comes to mind that does not normally. Today I had a strange inclination to check the mail. I normally have little use for wondering down to that blue metal box; it is always just another bill, or notice, or some ad destined for recycling. However today for some reason I felt the need to go down early and check. Sure enough something more interesting was waiting for me today, my 2 Diplomas and Certificate from my past 3 years of school.

I have to admit I am pretty pleased with completing this last 3rd year. This was not my first time though school, I had previously taken several years of Kinesiology. I lived out of town and although those around me made me feel welcome, the loss of my father half way through caused me to wish to move back. I always slightly regretted that choice, as although I completed what I had wanted to achieve, another year would have given me a diploma over my certificate. I have always felt a little off about never getting everything I could have.

Last year I completed my two year design diploma, and I was very pleased with achieving that goal. However I chose to try to add to my knowledge base by entering school for a 3rd year. After  some rearranging of classes, it worked out that I had moved into full time classes. The combined 3 year total would give me an advanced diploma so I desided to hold my breath and give it a try. Although the advanced delpma intrigued me, the 3rd year combined the web development program including ASP.net, Ruby on Rails, Yii and other concepts that I was to be honest, intimated to try. In entering this last year however it got me to push my comfort zone, try new things, and become I believe a better designer, photographer and programmer.

Looking back the entire program has been a blast. I remember rolling up to the campus 3 years ago on a warm August rainy day to submit my application.

I always take notes of times like those, whether traveling, starting a new job, or anything that I know will impact my life in a significant way. During school I also tried to look past the stress and enjoy where I was as I know I will look back on it fondly. As Andy Bernard said on the finale of the office just last night. “I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days while you were in them”

Throughout this program I have been exposed to technology’s, art, photography, design. Many things I know my father would have loved to be a part of. I think he would have been happy today to see the advanced diploma on my table.

New ND Filter

I decided when school was over to grab myself something fun. I have had my eye on this Cameron neutral density filter to go on my DA star lenses. It is adjustable to block light from 2 to 8 stops, and I have been experimenting with it for the past several weeks.

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I have been using it on both my DA* 200mm and DA* 16-50, here I was trying using it with my 200mm on the local river. I ended up getting some out of focus green leaves in to foreground, and decided I liked the added colour.

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In the following weeks I went to Desolation Sound and experimented with some landscpes. This time using my 16-50 I captured a sunset in progress. I love how the long exposure renders the colours into the smooth water.

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In all as my first foray into ND filters I love the adjustable ability of this. It it great to have an additional minute control of your exposure times. My only main complaint is the lack of being able to put my lens cap back on with the filter.

Pros:

  • Great control
  • Good value
  • Pleasing results

Cons:

  • Cannot put lens cap on while on lens