Tag Archives: photography

Jan 31 2010
Technology

A Month of Shooting

It’s getting close to a month.  So.  What have I learned?

Specifically, with my D70 I’ve learned a couple of things.

  1. My filter tends to create green ghosts of light on the frame directly opposite the location of the light source.  If I remove the filter for indoor shooting, the ghosts do not show up.
  2. At 1600 ISO all of my low light shots tend to look like I’ve shot them and then post processed them as sepia toned images.  (Too “warm.”)  Correcting the white balance in post can sometimes fix this.
  3. The battery I have can keep the camera on for an average of eight hours a day for about three weeks, shooting an average of six or seven shots a day.
  4. I’ve used the on camera flash to illuminate a subject a total of zero times.  On the other hand, I’ve used it as a flash commander for the self portrait juggling shots indoors.
  5. The remote timer setting only lasts five seconds, regardless of whether or not I’ve set it to twenty seconds in the menu.
  6. Walking creates the opportunities I need to take photographs.  Staying at home and working in my office do not.
  7. No pictures of people, surprisingly.
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Jan 19 2010
Uncategorized

My Other, Other Eye

My camera, well, maybe I should clarify, my serious camera, is the Nikon D70. It’s pretty old and secondhand.  By old, I mean It’s about six years old, and that in camera years is about one hundred and fifty.  Although I got a good deal on it at the time, I almost weep when I look at the capabilities of the entry level DSLR cameras today.  Ah, those young whipper snappers don’t know how good they’ve got it with their Active Dynamic Ranges and their ISOs above 1600.  But I make do.

It’s a heavy thing, a black polycarbonate brick that one hefts to eye level.  I both appreciate and curse that weight, depending on the situation.  The solid feel of the camera lends a credence to its existence in the real world, that it can somehow interact with light and make it permanent.  It can’t though.

All it does is take measurements and shift bits.  A lot of them.  In thousandths of a second.

There’s no chemical process that results in a physical object.  No negative, no paper, no developer, no fixative, no finished product.  Just more bits that get displayed on a screen, dependent on that screen’s size, and color depth and brightness to try to convey the moment through electric impulses.

It’s all an ephemeral stream of data.  Like the very moment it’s trying to capture.

In fact, the data is so ephemeral that it can’t even last a day on the compact flash card.  I am well aware of the fact that there are adult mayflies that have longer lives than some of the image data I’ve tried to acquire recently.  Looking up some open source tools, I guess that hope springs eternal in the human breast.

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Jan 18 2010
Uncategorized

More Difficult Than You Would Think

When I was shooting film, I don’t remember self portraits being this difficult to do.  I’ve been doing a round of self portraits lately, where I’m juggling and then taking the picture.  The difficult thing is my need to tweak settings after each shot.

I guess that’s the whole point of the exercise though.   I’m getting a little bit better at looking at the lighting conditions and then making a judgment about aperture and shutter speed.  Ideally, I’d have the laptop out there connected to the camera so that I could see results right away, but that’s too much equipment so I eyeball it most of the time on the small screen.

I guess juggling isn’t really a good summary type activity for self portraits, although it does give me a chance to look like I’m focusing on not dropping things.

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Apr 05 2009
Uncategorized

Cherry Blossom Portraits

These were shot with the D70 and the 50mm, usually wide open with the aperture priority program and an off camera SB-600.  It was a group effort, consisting of great models, eBay, a cooperative sunset, and a very talented lighting assistant.

Full disclosure: These were taken with a construction site in the background.  It’s American University, in the tiny clump of cherry trees just to the side of the School of International Service.  I had to get creative with the framing, but if you look carefully, you can see Nebraska Avenue in the background and the trailers for the construction company.

This photo shoot just makes me want to get a second SB-600.  I’ll have to cruise the Ritz Camera closings and see if one shows up for a decent price.

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Apr 04 2009
Technology

An Important Reminder

Today was productive, mainly because I got to take nearly 300 pics.  The new compact flash card seems to be working in the D70.  I was getting image corruption errors with the old 1GB card occasionally, and the new 2GB card seems to be fine so far.

I got some great pictures of people in their kimono as well as some street action.  I enjoy working with people to get portrait although I’m still working on my framing.  I really want a second flash now, I think I’m at the point where I could really use another one for creative lighting.  I did get some great shots during the magic minute yesterday and they look great.

While I have other hobbies, I have a special love for photography because it’s rewarding.

Hearing, “Oh wow,” after I show someone their picture always makes me smile.

That’s why there’s nothing so unnerving to me as the thought of losing pictures, the tiny slices of time and light that I worked so hard to get.  Or alternately, paid zero attention to craftsmanship and took anyway.  Either way they’re still important.

Which reminds me it’s time to do a backup of this machine.

And everyone, please do a back up of your computer.

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