General photography natter — gear, thoughts, ideas, and the odd photo.
Photojojo made mention of a piece called The Ones We Love. (Click on the “photographers” button at the top of that page, if you follow the link.) This is a fascinating exhibit of photos by folks half my age (and that hurts!), exhibiting a few photos centered on someone they love.
What a great concept!
In fact, it’s such a great concept, that I think I might just borrow it, and put some links on the side of just that concept. Simple, easy, and meaningful. That’s what photography’s for, isn’t it?
OK, color me gullible, color me masochistic, color me with rose-tinted glasses, but when a software update is released, I kinda expect it to work reasonably well. I don’t expect the update to be pulled, and I don’t expect me to have to uninstall an app and re-install just to recover.
On the 13th, Adobe released a new version of Camera Raw and an update to Lightroom. Neither of these had earth-shattering implications for me, but I try to stay pretty current on things, just in case. In my world at work, the first question the dude in support asks you is if you have the latest versions of everything, so that flavors my judgement to trust the vendors when they release patches and fixes. So, swallowing the Kool-Aid, I pounced on the upgrades, and loaded them on both Doc Oc and the Little MacBook That Could.
Fast forward to today, and there’s word all over the place about both packages being pulled, and how it’s necessary to uninstall Lightroom to downgrade to the previous version. Now admittedly, that’s not a tough thing, but that ain’t right!
So tonight, it’s the uninstall-o-rama, along with the downgrade-o-rama, and a little bit trepedation of whether I’ve hurt anything by using the new version, and whether I’m gonna lose anything by performing the surgery necessary to fix the fumble by Adobe.
In their defense, Adobe usually does a good job of keeping things on the right side of the error-line. Why two packages released together would be withdrawn so quickly is beyond me, but I’ve gotta hope that the next update will go a little better!
The company I work for and a law firm in town each sponsor a band for competition annually in a “battle of the bands”, designed to be a fund-raiser for Our Little Haven, which provides care for children who’ve been abused, neglected or affected by drugs. It’s a great cause, and these two bands have been duking it out for a few years now.
The bands canvass their workplaces and friends for weeks leading up to the event, and on the night of the event, each band encourages folks to vote for their favorite band by stuffing boxes with cash and checks. I’m proud to say that the E-Rockers won the battle last night by almost a two-to-one margin. The big winner was Our Little Haven though, and that’s the important piece to the night.
So since we knew the lead singer of the band real well, I started asking around about doing a little shooting of the show. I’ve never shot a concert before, and knew it would be a neat opportunity to play, and maybe to learn something along the way. For just shy of three hours, I shot, enjoyed some really good live music, and was hoarse and deaf by the time the thing was over. I had a great time! 🙂
So what did I learn from the shoot? Well, faster lenses are a must. I shot most of the show with the 50/1.8, although I tried the 28-135 once or twice, but it’s just too slow for a barely lit stage. The other thing I had problems with was the lights on the stage. Most things showed up in this funky yellow glow, although some of the purples showed through nicely. I’m sure there’s a filter solution to help with this — of course, a big ol’ flash would’ve helped too!
It was a great time, and I feel pretty confident I’ll be back again next year, and once again trying to shoot, enjoy the music, and help out a great cause.
Last night, I spoke before the O’Fallon Photo Club. What a fine group of folks! And I’m not saying that just because some of them might be looking at this blog. 🙂
I really get a charge out of talking with folks about my photography. I come from a self-taught, humble photographic background, and I fully believe that if I can do this, anyone can, given some pointing in the right direction. And frankly, the stories I can tell about how I shot an image are just as important as the story the image tells, and just as important to share. Passing on whatever little bit I’ve learned is part of my charge as a photographer, and I get the added bonus of getting energized about going and shooting more.
During the times when I haven’t had the opportunity to talk shop, I notice that my creative juices dry up a bit. The more I get the chance to engage other photographers — no matter what level — the more excited I am to get out in the field and fire off some frames. Last night was no different, so I feel confident I’ll be out shooting this weekend!
Tonight is the night I’m to speak before the O’Fallon Photo Club. Since the day job ends hours ahead of when tonight’s fun begins, it’s a 35-mile round trip home and back to St. Charles, and the gas price rose to above three bucks today, I’ve been at the mercy of McDonald’s and Starbucks, landing for dinner and dessert.
As I’ve sat in between work and play, I’ve finished reading Joe McNally’s When It Clicks. This book has had a huge amount of press and buzz, selling out the first printing in about a second-and-a-half, and selling well through its surprise second printing. I’ve never met Joe, but I feel like I just sat down with him, and talked shop for hours. This book is that good, and written just that way.
Sometimes I have problems with technical books. The reference side of them is obvious, but I have a tough time sitting through them, reading them cover to cover, looking for the nuggets o’ goodness. Face it, most of them are designed to favor you having your keyboard in front of you to try launching the pearls of wisdom into the ether. Generally, those are a tough read when you’re sitting at the day job, without access to the machines that house all your photographic life and tools. This book ain’t that.
That’s not to say that there’s not a lot to learn, and plenty of excuses to put post-it notes on pages (my way of flagging something as a “big deal”), but the manner is different. This book is conversational, like Joe McNally was sitting right in front of you, swapping stories with you across a pint or three. And in that is the value. It’s learning without even realizing you’re doing it. It’s engrossing, and it’s fun. I cackled out loud innumerable times as I plowed through this tome of practical wisdom and wit.
This one’s good, gang. Find it if you can, read it for the fun. Read it again to figure out what you missed. And then read it once more to just flat breathe in the life this book has. There’s touching material, hilarious material, a little technical material, and plenty of things running the gamut between. In truth, had Mark Twain been in this age and a photographer, I could see him having written something like this.
And so a little Colin time was spent with one of the best photographers, and I was entertrained (entertained and trained, a word similar to edutainment or infomercials). And I was inspired, and that alone is probably the greatest gift a book and author can bestow.
A week or two ago, I mentioned picking up a couple of recent photography-related books — The Moment it Clicks and Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System. These are really still getting a lot of buzz, and I’m almost through with The Moment It Clicks. What a fun read!
Well, this weekend, I found the last tome in the 2008 Photoshop trifecta — Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature by Matt Kloskowski. This book has also been getting a lot of buzz lately, and I’m looking forward to getting into that one. Just flipping though it, it looks like it’ll be a good read.
I don’t usually shoot portraiture. I’m just not comfortable with it, and don’t generally have a good enough grasp of unnatural light to pull it off.
However, Sio’s new look warranted an attempt at doing some shooting. With Karen’s lights and backdrop, I tried to photograph Sio in three different outfits. Now, being fourteen, she wasn’t always the smiling kid for each of the photos — she’s got an image to uphold after all! 🙂 — but I think there are some really nice photos of her out there.
Take a look, and let me know what you think!
It seems like this year is gonna be the year for photography books. Last year, everything was all about Lightroom. This year, it seems Photoshop CS3 techniques and general photography are the places to land. In the last two weeks, I’ve stuffed some authors’ pockets.
The first acquisition I wanted to mention was Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 by (wait for it….) Scott Kelby. Scott is the head of NAPP, and is one of the best Photoshop resources out there. And he’s a prolific writer, consistently at the top in technical book sales yearly. And he’s a Christian, and seems to be a nice guy. Scott released this book recently, and its been getting a ton of press. My understanding is that this book details a seven-step program for taking somewhat average photos and turning them into stunning works of art. Of course, you’ve gotta have good subject matter to start with! Can’t wait to get into this one.
The other book is The Moment It Clicks by Joe McNally. Joe is one of the best photographers out there, and has been spotted at some of the DLWS events. This book got huge raves before it was even released, and sold out its first printing in just a week or so. The second printing is in progress, but I was lucky enough to find a copy at Barnes & Noble the other day. This book is described to be about shooting… mindsets, lighting, and other things at the time of the shot. I’ve read that this book is very conversational in its approach, and I think I’m gonna enjoy reading it!
Tonight’s sky offered a total lunar eclipse, and I thought I’d go out and shoot it. This was the first total lunar eclipse I’d watched like this since I was a kid. I can remember sitting outside with Mom and Dad, sometime in the ’70s, watching a total lunar eclipse on a nice summer night.
Tonight was not summer-like! The temperature was 15°, with a windchill easily down near zero. It was coooold. I braved it through to totality, and enjoyed watching the show.
For shooting, I set up two cameras. I set the 20D up for a timelapse shot. I expected I would take a frame every five minutes, and then stitch ’em all together at the end, and make this great image. Well…… I sorta shot myself in the foot on that one. Midway through the shoot, I thought I had the lens on autofocus, and changed it to what I thought was manual focus. Bad move, as I had it exactly backwards, and once the lens was on autofocus, the camera wouldn’t shoot because it could get a focus lock on the very dark sky. Bummer.
The second camera was the 40D, and I put the Celestron 750mm/f6 lens on it for shooting near-fullframe images of the moon as it descended into darkness. I’d say that the biggest majority of those images were not very good. I had this set up on my Bogen trike, but even that didn’t appear to be stable enough for this big combination of lens and camera, especially in the light wind. Essentially, I got a log of blurring. I also shot some exposures, especially during totality, that were too long, causing the moon to drift in the frame…. blurring again.
So what are the lessons? Well, the first is to set manual focus on the lens while still in the house! 🙂 I’d also recommend a heavier tripod, and frankly, a motor drive would’ve been peachy. Having a drive would’ve eliminated some of the drift problems, and would’ve make the shoot much easier. I have that kind of mount on my Celestron C8, but I didn’t pull it out. That was a big mistake.
The last thing would be practice. I need to work with my equipment more for this kind of shoot, perhaps shooting the moon through its phases. That’d be a good training ground, since the shooting conditions are similar, at least up until totality. Since the next total lunar eclipse visible from North America isn’t until late 2010, I think I have some time to hone my skills!
A few weeks ago, I alluded to some photography news outta me. Well, now I can talk about it.
A representative from the O’Fallon Photo Club reached out to me a few weeks ago to see if I’d be interested in speaking at their club meeting. We’ve worked out the details, and I can now announce that I’ll be speaking at their March meeting, on Wednesday, March 12th at 7pm. They meet at the Renaud Spirit Center in O’Fallon MO.
This is the first time I’ve been asked to speak about my photography, and I’m both thrilled and petrified! 🙂 I think it’ll be a hoot, and like my father, I can usually find more than enough to talk about to keep folks edutained for the duration of my talk. I’ve got to put together a slideshow, and if I can figure out a way to put it up here, I’ll post it on the ol’ deauxmayne.