Are there any colors more gorgeous than those which are found in nature? This peacock knows it's beautiful!
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Wildlife Colors
Are there any colors more gorgeous than those which are found in nature? This peacock knows it's beautiful!
Nighttime Photography
One of the benefits of living in Southern Arizona is that there are many cloudless nights. If you look up on many of those nights you can see many wonderful things. To get a shot like this I needed a tripod and a remote shutter release, but the rest was pretty easy. Set it on manual mode, shutter at 1/125, f-stop 7.8 and a 215 mm lens. You end up with results like this with little enhancement needed, though I did brighten it a little afterward. Get out there and look up at the night sky!
Friday, June 3, 2016
Flower Macros and Other Outdoor Photos
Very early on I discovered the beauty in things we otherwise ignore, like the sun shining through the leaves of a tree; closeup shots of a rose in a floral arrangement, or flowers on plants in my yard. Grabbing a camera I think helps us to appreciate the little things in life that we should not miss. Here are a few of many photos that I have taken on such subjects:
Photographing and viewing these subjects is also a way to work off stress, a win-win in my book!
Photographing and viewing these subjects is also a way to work off stress, a win-win in my book!
Light Box Photography
If you have an Ebay account and put items up for auction from time to time I'm sure you can appreciate the problem that I have had in finding the right lighting conditions to accurately photograph sale items. You have to deal with glare, shadows, and other factors which can inaccurately depict the product. Obviously a poorly photographed product might not move very quickly, if at all.
There is also the problem with camera equipment. Not everyone has a DSLR with multiple lenses, filters, tripods, remote shutter releases and all the other things that camera buffs collect for their expensive hobbies. I would would venture to guess that a good percentage of folks have probably even ditched their old digital point and shoot cameras, mostly because smartphone camera technology has become so reliable. For many people, their phone, or perhaps their tablet comes equipped probably the best camera they'll likely ever need for taking snapshots.
I've been taking community college courses and online classes on photography for a few years now and was aware that people who photograph food, art, jewelry and other types of items for publication in magazines, blogs and other web sources all use the light box technique. It's the best way to capture a subject with defused light, that is, light which is even scattered over the subject with little or no unintended shadows.
There are professional studio kits that can be purchased for such shooting, but they can be very pricey, in the $80-150 range. If I were a big-time seller of products on Ebay it might be worth the expense. I am not, however. I do like to tinker though with hobby-type projects, particularly in the summer when I am decompressing a little from the long school teaching year. So I came upon this type of photography in my discoveries with my cameras.
Making a light box requires a box, a box cutter, tape, poster board, glue, tape, and some white muslin cloth. If you don't have muslin, an old clean tee shirt will do, or even gift wrap tissue paper. There are short videos available which are very helpful. I'll post one in this blog as a follow-up.
As for lighting, as the video suggests, LED lighting is probably the best, as they mostly give off white light. Two desk lamps with LED bulbs work just fine. I shot this Asian soup bowl subject in the light box that I constructed with two battery-powered LED auto hazard lamps and my cellphone camera:
There are camera light kits which may be purchased online for stronger lighting, but they don't have to break the bank either. I found a pair of desktop photography lamps on Amazon for about twenty bucks. For less than $50 you can have a miniature studio for product or hobby photography that will produce great results. If you are into photography and looking for some new ideas to explore I invite you to give this a try!
There is also the problem with camera equipment. Not everyone has a DSLR with multiple lenses, filters, tripods, remote shutter releases and all the other things that camera buffs collect for their expensive hobbies. I would would venture to guess that a good percentage of folks have probably even ditched their old digital point and shoot cameras, mostly because smartphone camera technology has become so reliable. For many people, their phone, or perhaps their tablet comes equipped probably the best camera they'll likely ever need for taking snapshots.
I've been taking community college courses and online classes on photography for a few years now and was aware that people who photograph food, art, jewelry and other types of items for publication in magazines, blogs and other web sources all use the light box technique. It's the best way to capture a subject with defused light, that is, light which is even scattered over the subject with little or no unintended shadows.
There are professional studio kits that can be purchased for such shooting, but they can be very pricey, in the $80-150 range. If I were a big-time seller of products on Ebay it might be worth the expense. I am not, however. I do like to tinker though with hobby-type projects, particularly in the summer when I am decompressing a little from the long school teaching year. So I came upon this type of photography in my discoveries with my cameras.
Making a light box requires a box, a box cutter, tape, poster board, glue, tape, and some white muslin cloth. If you don't have muslin, an old clean tee shirt will do, or even gift wrap tissue paper. There are short videos available which are very helpful. I'll post one in this blog as a follow-up.
As for lighting, as the video suggests, LED lighting is probably the best, as they mostly give off white light. Two desk lamps with LED bulbs work just fine. I shot this Asian soup bowl subject in the light box that I constructed with two battery-powered LED auto hazard lamps and my cellphone camera:
There are camera light kits which may be purchased online for stronger lighting, but they don't have to break the bank either. I found a pair of desktop photography lamps on Amazon for about twenty bucks. For less than $50 you can have a miniature studio for product or hobby photography that will produce great results. If you are into photography and looking for some new ideas to explore I invite you to give this a try!
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Photography Projects
One of my "newest" hobbies is photography, though I have actually had an interest for many years. I've always been a bit of an experimenter and found that photographing animals, landscapes and food in natural and artificial light has real appeal for me. Perhaps one day I'll also want to learn more about people portrait photography but right now non-people portraits hold my attention most.
For example, a simple trip to Reid Park Zoo in Tucson recently yielded these interesting animal portraits:
The secret to getting these shots really is patience (except for the camel, who seemed eager to pose!). You end up shooting dozens of shots before find the right one. Hooray for digital cameras!
I've also been working with diffused lighting, as food photographers use to highlight food subjects in mouthwatering ways. For shots like this I built a simple light box by taking an 18x18 box and cutting out 16 inch windows on three sides and covering two opposing windows with white muslin cloth. Camera lighting is fairly cheap; you can buy a couple of 600 lumen LED table lights for about $20.
Fill the back interior of the box with the non-glossy side of a poster board and you have a white infinity. For this shot of a rather ordinary slice of Pizza Hut pizza, a couple of boneless chicken wings and two cheese sticks I bought a wooden wall plaque from Michael's to suggest a table, set a small plate of the food on it and placed a fork nearby, shooting from the top window of my light box. The effect is that of a gourmet meal and a pretty cool shot!
I'll post some Youtube videos of people building light boxes in the near future. It's not hard at all to do, inexpensive and the results are pretty awesome. The really good news is that you don't even need fancy cameras to do a project like this, which is very effective if you are a seller of small products on Ebay for example. A cell phone camera can be equally effective!
For example, a simple trip to Reid Park Zoo in Tucson recently yielded these interesting animal portraits:
The secret to getting these shots really is patience (except for the camel, who seemed eager to pose!). You end up shooting dozens of shots before find the right one. Hooray for digital cameras!
I've also been working with diffused lighting, as food photographers use to highlight food subjects in mouthwatering ways. For shots like this I built a simple light box by taking an 18x18 box and cutting out 16 inch windows on three sides and covering two opposing windows with white muslin cloth. Camera lighting is fairly cheap; you can buy a couple of 600 lumen LED table lights for about $20.
Fill the back interior of the box with the non-glossy side of a poster board and you have a white infinity. For this shot of a rather ordinary slice of Pizza Hut pizza, a couple of boneless chicken wings and two cheese sticks I bought a wooden wall plaque from Michael's to suggest a table, set a small plate of the food on it and placed a fork nearby, shooting from the top window of my light box. The effect is that of a gourmet meal and a pretty cool shot!
I'll post some Youtube videos of people building light boxes in the near future. It's not hard at all to do, inexpensive and the results are pretty awesome. The really good news is that you don't even need fancy cameras to do a project like this, which is very effective if you are a seller of small products on Ebay for example. A cell phone camera can be equally effective!
Monday, December 28, 2015
Star Wars The Force Awakens Thoughts (Caution - Contains Spoilers)
I saw the original Star Wars in 1977 and remember it being unlike anything that I had ever seen before. Apart from the special effects, lightsaber fights, dogfights between X-Wing Fighters and Tie Fighter the thing that most impressed me was more pedestrian - the chemistry between the three main characters. So despite all of the wonders of film technology on display in 1977 I was more hooked by the strength of the casting than anything else. Moviegoers cared for Luke, Leia and Han and identified with them in a significant way.
That feeling was reinforced in the subsequent films, but especially in the best of the three original films, The Empire Strikes Back. That film was Harrison Ford's show and he delivered big time. So in the world of Star Wars, for me at least, the central character was Han Solo, and the charisma that Ford brought to that role.
Character development was the missing element in the three prequels which followed. Those films were marred beyond repair by boring political backstory, lifeless characters and often wooden dialogue. The insertion of the stupid Jar Jar Binks role in The Phantom Menace felt more vaguely offensive than comic. The lack of any real action simply reinforced the reality that there was no spark at all between any of the main characters. Furthermore the performances of both of the youthful Anakin Skywalkers were often nearly unwatchable. They surely would and probably did cause the most devoted Star Wars aficionado to throw his toy lightsaber at the screen! There definitely was no Han Solo-like character to save the day.
So that brings us to the new film by director J.J Abrams. I saw it this past weekend and certainly felt the excitement others report in seeing action finally returning to the series. Yes we have seen most of this before in the original productions, but it was done with obvious care and respect for those films. Actually this may also be viewed as a weakness of the film as well - we have seen this all before - but it works if the characters and their interactions are compelling. Indeed those character interactions were quite engaging, at least to me. But once again Han Solo is a central figure, and Harrison Ford frankly stole the show for me.
Therein lies the real weakness of the film and the planned series. Han Solo is murdered by his son, Rylo Ken. The actors playing Rey, Fin and Rylo Ken are certainly not wooden, but can they sustain a whole film on their own? If Han Solo and the edginess he brings to the role are not present would this film have received the number of positive views that it has? We can't answer that, but we will find out because now Solo has been killed off. Obviously the filmmakers are counting on the return of Luke Skywalker to be the most compelling factor in the next film, but that's hard to measure when you consider the very odd ending of this film. Abrams used almost the entire film to build up Luke's exile and mysterious whereabouts on an incomplete star map, but the final scene felt tacked on. A wordless meeting between Luke and Rey, who holds out his long lost lightsaber for him as the credits begin to roll just doesn't quite have the cinematic or emotional payoff that the scene demands, in my mind, but then I am no filmmaker. I'll eagerly await to see what they do with this story.
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