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Photography as a hobby

December 20, 2008

Taking on photography as a hobby has been quite interesting. On one hand, it’s incredibly rewarding personally. I enjoy the final results, I love sharing the photos online and receiving comments about the photos, and I am constantly challenged by the technical aspects of photography (lighting + camera settings + post processing). On the other hand, I’m finding that other people (including friends and family) don’t necessarily see the attraction and therefore have a tendency to give you sideways looks when you pack a photography bag to go to any function.

You have to be ready to take on some ridicule in order to get serious about photography. I have found this especially true when I bring out Bertha. Bertha is 3.5 pounds of awesome. Bertha is my 70-200mm lens that definitely stands out when you attach it to the camera. If I had my way, Bertha would be with me all the time. But, I’ve found that when I go bowling with friends, Bertha isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. People tend to notice and stare when you have a foot long lens at a bowling alley set up on a tripod so you can take pictures of the ball hitting the pins. But to me, this seems like a lot of fun and a challenge that could help me grow as a photographer.

I’m sticking with it. I don’t know where I want my photography to go in the future. I don’t plan on making it in to a career, but I certainly want to advance my knowledge and talent. Trust me, I’m used to having people stare at me. Need I remind you of this shot of me?

Filed Under: Photography, Ranting Tagged With:

2009 Project: Photo-a-Day

December 14, 2008

I enjoy a good challenge. Currently I’m in the middle of my second “30 Day Challenge” with a group of friends who all wanted to push themselves to post to their blog once per day for an entire month. There’s no money on the line and there’s no penalty for missing a day. There’s just the shame and humiliation piled on you from your friends when you miss a day (you know who you are). So far, so good for me. I’m about half way through and going strong. But with the holiday coming up, I fear the tough part is still ahead.

I’m not one to be slowed by merely having too much on my plate. I tend to thrive in these conditions. That could be the only reason why I have decided to create a project that is far larger than simply blogging once a day. That’s child’s play compared to what I plan to try. My goal is to post one new photo every day for the entire year on my photo website, SlackerPhotos.com.

In the past I tried a photo-a-day project and failed after just one month. The reason it failed is because I was going about it the wrong way. I was trying to take a new photo each day. This quickly turned in to a rush at the end of the day to take a photo that wasn’t horrible. Each time I posted one of the photos I felt worse about the project, so finally I just stopped. This project should be easier to accomplish as my goal is to POST a photo-a-day. I’ve taken several thousand photos over the past year and I’ll be able to pre-schedule photos to post on the site each day. I believe this will give me the leeway I need to be able to succeed with this project.

I recently gave SlackerPhotos.com a make-over with a new template. I removed some of the photos that I had posted before and it’s all set for it’s re-launch on January 1st. Subscribe to the RSS feed to receive a new photo each day. And, if I miss a day, feel free to mock me in whichever way you deem appropriate.

Do you have any project plans for 2009?

Filed Under: Blogging, Photography Tagged With: , ,

Alien Bees vs. Cactus V2 trigger & receivers

November 6, 2008
Alien Bee 100 Feet

You may remember the crazybooth project I wrote about last month. While at that photo shoot, I learned a very valuable lesson; You get what you pay for. I know what you are saying, that’s not exactly a new lesson. True as that may be, when it comes to wireless flash triggers, I had no idea how apparent it would be.

During the crazybooth shoot, I’d say we had an optimal shooting setup to allow the Cactus V2 remote trigger & receivers to work perfectly. The trigger and receivers were no more than 7 feet away from each other and they were in direct line-of-sight. Unfortunately, we learned quickly that they were going to fire the flash roughly 1 out of every 3 or 4 times we clicked a shot. If we were doing product photography with a stationary, unchanging item, this wouldn’t have been a big deal. But, in a crazybooth setting, missing a shot with real emotion, a funny face, a great smile, etc… well, it can ruin your whole shoot.

After the crazybooth incident, I went out and purchased a set of Alien Bees triggers (1) & receivers (2). When they first arrived we did a very non-scientific test to test their range. I sat in one office with the receiver while a friend walked around snapping photos around the other offices, even going inside and shutting the doors. No matter what elements we threw at it, they performed more than 95% of the time. This brought up it’s own questions, though. Exactly how far away can you be from the remote and still have it flash? I had to find out for myself.

This evening I grabbed a tripod, flash and umbrella and set them up on the sidewalk in front of my house. I then grabbed a tape measure and some chalk. I started off by making 13 chalk marks, 10 feet apart, starting 10 feet away from the flash. I then put on the Cactus V2 trigger and receiver and started snapping.

I’m using a prime 20mm lens at f/4.0 with a 1/60 shutter speed.

The first 5 shots (50 feet away on the last one) worked fine, as I expected they would. At 60 feet away, my first shot showed a dark umbrella. I thought it didn’t fire. I then held the camera away from my eye and fired the trigger. I saw the flash go off, but chimping showed a dark umbrella again. A few more tests and at 1/60, I was not able to get the flash to sync with the trigger. However, it was still firing. I moved back to 70 and 80 feet and it took 3 tries at each location to get a flash. At 90 feet, I was officially out of range.

Next came the Alien Bees. The first 5 shots were fine, as expected. When I moved to shot 6 (60 feet), I was curious to see if I was going to run in to the syncing issue I had with the Cactus V2s. As I had hoped, there was no sync issue. I made may with rough the next few shots until I was standing on #13, 130 feet away. The flash went off as expected and still, no sync issues. Back, back, back I went. 150, 180, 200, 240, 260, 280 feet away. Every shot was perfect. No sync issue and the flash fired on the first try time and time again. At 290 feet was the first miss-fire. It took 3 shots for the flash to go off. Still I moved back. In my final shot, I was 325 feet away from the flash. It fired on the first try and still had no sync issues. I could have tried moving back further, but I would have been trespassing on a neighbor’s lawn.

To sum up, as far as I can tell, the Alien Bees are completely worth the investment. Each shot taken within a “normal” distance fired the flash every time. I didn’t have a miss-fire until I was almost 300 feet away. The fact that I don’t have a lens that would make shooting from 300 feet away all that useful anyway leads me to believe this isn’t going to be a problem I’m going to run in to any time soon.

Here are a couple shots to give you an idea of the Alien Bee’s range.

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Building a Crazybooth

October 19, 2008
Crazyboot Setup

The idea is fairly simple. The execution is a different story. Todd and I wanted to build a crazybooth to set up at the 5th annual Halloween party we were set to attend last night. What is a crazybooth you ask? It’s a photo booth large enough to fit a few people inside and secluded enough to let people get crazy once they get inside.

The week leading up to the party, we went to lunch with a pad of paper and worked on the design for how we wanted to build it. The goal is to make it big enough to handle a small group, but small enough that we could set it up inside a normal size house without too much trouble. We also wanted to make sure that it was fairly portable so that we could take it to events without it being a major pain in the rump.

All our initial designs called for large amounts of PVC pipe. We’d build it in pieces that could break down fairly easily and be stored in a canvas bag. We were pretty happy with our “final” sketch and we were planning to hit up Home Depot after work on Wednesday to buy the parts. And then, before we had a chance, an idea floated to the top. We hit the sporting goods store in search of a picnic canopy. We then picked up some flat sheets, some clamps and we were in business.

We took all our goodies back to the house and set it up in our living room. We clamped white sheets around all sides leaving an opening for people to enter/exit and also for the tripod to sit mostly outside the booth but shoot between two sheets. We were fairly pleased with the results and we packed up and waited for the party.

Here’s a shot of the basic setup (before all the sheets were hung) and a resulting shot of my son:

The day of the party came and we headed over a little early to get set up. The area we had to set up the 10×10 canopy fit PERFECTLY in the space provided by the host. Our host had a few soft box lights that she let us borrow. This was mistake #1. We set them up along with a flash and an awesome crazy green backdrop. As the guests started to trickle in, we’d grab them as they passed and threw them in to the crazybooth. This was mistake #2.

As the night rolled on, the booth became a popular spot. At one time we had a dozen people in line waiting to go in as groups. Between Todd and I, I’m guessing we took 500 photos. I’ve yet to see his results, but I can already tell you that the booth was a big success. The host thanked us SEVERAL times and we were asked for copies of the shots by at least 20 people. Even though it was a success, it was our first time trying the crazybooth and I can tell you that there are several bad choices made along the way.

Here are some things I’ll keep in mind before our next outing with the crazybooth:

  • Do not use equipment you’ve never used before. While the softboxes were nice, they introduced some issues with flash syncing. I would like to have run in to that problem BEFORE I had people in the booth wanting their photos taken.
  • Do not use a bed sheet as the background. In the sample photo above, the sheet in the background shows all the creases where the sheet was folded. In the future I’ll either use seamless paper or a crazy background like the one in the shots below.
  • Make sure there is enough light to allow your camera to auto-focus. While this wasn’t a problem thanks to the softboxes, it’s something to be aware of.
  • Do not use cheap wireless triggers and receivers for your flashes. I can’t tell you how many shots were missed because the flashes didn’t fire thanks to the wireless triggers. I’m either going to purchase Pocket Wizards to ensure they fire remotely every time, or I’m going to hook them up with a sync cable. The cheap triggers we used are fine for setting up stationary shots that we have all day to snap, snap, snap away. But, for “in the moment” shots they just won’t do.
  • Don’t forget the props. We were planning on hitting up the $0.99 cent store to pick up things like silly glasses, hats and other random items that people could use for inspiration to be silly. Even though we were going to a Halloween party where everybody would be wearing a costume, it still would have been nice to have some items that people could have used for inspiration.
  • Do not drag people in to the crazybooth. This could also be categorized as, don’t open the crazybooth until half-way through the party. At any party that is going to include alcohol, it’s important to remember that when people put it in their system, they tend to loosen up and get a little crazier. Unless you are looking to take photos that can be used in a school yearbook, let people acclimate, loosen up and seek out the crazybooth on their own. The resulting photos will be worth the wait.
  • Have extra everything. Batteries for your flashes and camera, memory cards, even an extra camera if possible. You won’t always be close enough to home to run back once you get to an event. Make sure you have everything you need in case something fails on you.

For our shoot, we started off using my camera and then switched to Todd’s once we started running in to the sync issues. Luckily, his camera didn’t have the same problems. I took a few dozen shots with my camera at the beginning of the night. The shots from Todd’s camera are going to be way more exciting (They were taken AFTER the alcohol was flowing freely). Regardless, I’m thrilled with the results and can’t wait for our next opportunity to drag out the crazybooth.

Here are a few photos taken with my camera before switching to Todd’s. A link to more will be added in the comments in a day or two when we process the rest of the shots.

Many thanks to Nate and Jaclyn over at TheBlogIsFound.com. I absolutely love their photography and their blog was where we found the idea of the crazybooth.

Filed Under: General, Photography Tagged With: , , ,

Ren Faire 2008

October 11, 2008
try_on_the_kilt

This morning I got up fairly early and went for a nice bike ride with my wife. It was windy outside making it rather chilly. I should have taken that in to account a few hours later when getting ready to go to the Age of Chivalry – Las Vegas Renaissance Festival. However, I’m not that smart so I headed out without a jacket. That would prove to be a mistake.

Our goal was to make it to Ren Faire by 11:00 so that we could take part in a photography meetup group. Unfortunately, the organizer didn’t include a specific location for where we were going to meet, and if you’ve ever been to the Ren Faire, you know that it’s big, has 2 entrances, and may take more than a couple minutes to find somebody you are looking for. I wasn’t too worried about meeting up with the group as I had made plans to meet Jeff and Todd there for some photo fun. We ran in to Jeff as we were parking, and met up with Todd 5 minutes after entering the venue, so we were all set. With cameras in hand, we set forth to conquer Ren Faire. My set of photos can be seen here.

After stopping at a couple jewelry stands, we came across the Kilt Connection. I have wanted to purchase a kilt for a long time, and at last year’s Ren Faire I nearly pulled the trigger. Since then I have visited utilikilts.com several times and have measured myself for a kilt 2 or 3 times using their instructions. And yet I still haven’t bought one. Well, that changed today. This shot is of me trying on the kilt. No, they don’t have dressing rooms. They just have you drop your jeans right in the middle of the walk way. After trying on 2 kilts, I bought the second one I tried on. I went ahead and put my jeans in my bag and wore the kilt for the remainder of the day. Just as everybody I’ve ever talked to about kilts has told me, they really are amazingly comfortable to wear. And, to satisfy your curiosity, no, I did not go commando under the kilt. I realized later why I went ahead and purchased a kilt today after so long. Being able to try one on rather than ordering from the website really made the difference for me. And, to confirm my concern, the first one I tried on didn’t fit me all that well and it was the size I would have ordered from the website. So basically, I’m stoked.

The sun made brief appearances from behind the clouds, but for the most part it was fairly gloomy. Add to that some wind and you have your self a down right chilly day. We walked around for about 4 hours, checked out all the vendors, had some (overpriced) lunch, took some photos and then called it a day. My wife pointed out that last year on the morning that we went to Ren Faire, we had run 11
miles as part of our training for the LV Marathon. As soon as she said it, my legs remembered the pain from that day. Though my legs weren’t in pain today, the rest of my body was from being so cold. I’m such a wuss.

If you’ve never been to a Ren Faire, you should definitely check it out. You’ll find people dressed up in some amazing outfits. Some people go with medieval outfits, others dress in pirate attire and many dress in fantasy outfits (think Girls with Wings). There are dozens of vendors selling everything from hand made clothing & jewelry to armor, knives and swords. The people there are as nice as they come. We all had a great time and we’ll definitely be back again next year.

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Review: Lomo ColorSplash 35mm Camera

October 7, 2008
lomo_colorsplash

After having so much fun with the Fisheye Lomo camera, I picked up another lomo camera. This time I got the Lomography 35mm Colorsplash camera. From the second I saw the photos taken with other colorsplash cameras, I was pretty sure I was going to love it. After getting my first roll of film developed, I can honestly say I’m hooked.

The camera is very light weight. It has a bit of an odd shape thanks to the flash sticking out the side. I can’t really call the camera “pocket-sized”, but for you ladies, this would easily fit in a purse. It does have a hook for a strap on the side, so hanging it around your wrist would be pretty simple, too. I’ve just thrown mine in my camera bag and keep it with me all the time. I hold off on winding the film until I’m ready to shoot to avoid the shutting being fired while inside my camera bag. That’s not a big deal with digital, but an expensive habit for film cameras.

The fun part about the colorsplash is, well, the colors. The flash has a dial on it that lets you change the color of the flash. Clear, Yellow, Red and Blue are your four choices. I’ve found the red to be quite overpowering, the yellow is subtle when used outside and the blue adds an amazing “1970s” effect to the shots. The camera also comes with a collection of gels that you can hold in front of the lens to further alter the colors of the shots. I have yet to play with this aspect of it, but I’ve seen many shots on flickr and it seems that the possibilities are endless.

As you can see from the pictures below, the flash is pretty powerful, so it seems I need to back up a bit from my subjects. However, the shots taken on the beach have an amazing feel to them.

The Colorsplash has definitely earned a permanent spot in my camera bag. It’s light weight, inexpensive and a lot of fun. Pick one up and color your world wild.

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I hate being late

September 19, 2008

Tomorrow is the first day of the main Blog World Expo. I’ve been looking forward to this event since the close of Blog World last year. The show last year was amazing and given the list of speakers that are going to be at this year’s event, there’s no doubt this year is going to be even better.

Darren Rowse from problogger.net and Digital Photography School had set up a photo walk to take place earlier this evening. I got off work, went home and packed my camera bag and we headed over to meet up with the group. I knew we were cutting it just a little bit too close, but throw in some extra traffic and we were going to be 10 minutes late. As we arrived and were walking to the meeting spot, we were already a few minutes late, but I thought I had seen the group just a minute before. Then, a guy and gal asked if I could take their photo in front of the casino. Of course I couldn’t refuse. I took their photo and then we set out to find the group. I was pretty certain that I saw the group walking in to the casino. We hurried in and had to luck finding them.

Since we had made the trip, we went ahead and had our own photo walk through Caesar’s Palace. I took only a few photos with my digital but took several with my film cameras. I’ll get them processed early next week and will upload them as part of the follow up to Blog World Expo.

Hopefully I won’t need to wait until Blog World 09 before I get the opportunity for another large scale Photo Walk. No matter what, for the next one, I’ll be the first guy to show up.

Filed Under: Photography, Ranting Tagged With: , , ,

Review: Fisheye Lomography Camera

September 11, 2008
Lomography Fisheye Camera

I recently purchased the Lomography Fisheye Fixed Focus camera after a introduced me to the Lomo group on flickr.com. I was really intrigued by the many different styles of Lomo cameras, but have always been a fan of fisheye photos. When I found out the camera was less than $40, it was a no brainer. I had to have it.

It arrived a few days later and I opened the box like a kid on Christmas. For a unique camera like the Fisheye, it was little surprise that the box it came in was also unique. When you open the square box, the first and only thing you see is your new camera staring up at you like the boy in the plastic bubble through the plastic dome cover. A nice touch, if you ask me.

The fisheye camera is very light. It takes a single AA battery (not included) to charge the flash. The wrist strap and lens cover are both made of rubber and are quite stretchy. There aren’t a lot of buttons or gadgets to mess with on the camera, so from the time you get it to the time you are ready to take your first shot is no more than a minute or two. For a guy as impatient as me, perfect!

The camera comes with a full-color booklet of sample photos that is really cool. One of the things that I liked most about the booklet was that they didn’t include only “perfect” shots. It really captures the essence of Lomography by being a collection of “from the hip” photos. That’s not to say they aren’t good, they just don’t feel like staged shots. They look like I expect my shots to look after walking around with the camera and taking interesting/silly shots.

With camera in hand I headed out to shoot my first roll of film. I had a goal of taking all the shots on this first roll of film without once looking through the view finder. I’m happy to say that I was able to reach that goal and surpass it. I have yet to look through the view finder, but my wife tells me that if you do, you’ll see about 25% of the view finder is taken up by the lens. The view finder does not show you what the shots are going to look like once they have been “fisheyed.” I believe I’ve read that the fisheye 2 camera has a fisheye view through the viewfinder, but don’t quote me on that… I’m not reviewing that camera, yet.

The front of the camera has an on/off switch for the flash. It takes only a few seconds for it to be up to speed and ready to go. This is a film camera, so there’s no LCD screen for chimping your shots once you’ve taken them. Once you hit the shutter button, it’s going to be a few days before you see what you’ve taken. I already told you I’m impatient, so this is a feature that I’m going to have to get used to all over again after having nothing but digital cameras for the past 10 years.

One drawback to the camera is the fact that once you wind the film forward, accidentally pressing the shutter button seems like it would be very easy to do. If you put the camera in a backpack or purse, you are definitely going to have a shot of the lens cover when you go to develop your film. To remedy that situation, get in to the habit of taking the shot and NOT winding the film forward until you are ready to take another shot.

I carried the camera with me for 2 days in order to take the first roll of film. The best thing I can tell you is that I’ve learned a lot about the camera after just 1 roll of film. For example:

  • Shots with the flash taken up close tend to blow out the subject (see shots 1-3 below)
  • Shots taken inside without the flash tend to turn out really dark (see shots 11-12)
  • Shots taken outside in daylight look great! (see shots 22-27)

To sum it up, the fisheye lens camera has no chance of becoming my everyday camera. But, I can definitely see carrying it along to take some “flavor” shots while out and about. I’m quite pleased with the camera and can’t wait to start shooting roll number 2.

As a secondary incentive for purchasing the camera, I’m also entering the $50 Film Camera contest over at EpicEdits.com. Wish me luck!

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What is Lomography?

September 3, 2008

One of the designers at my office is in to all sorts of quirky types of art. I think as a designer, that’s about par for the course, right? He knows that I have been getting in to photography quite a bit lately so he started telling me about something called Lomography. No, I’m not making that word up, if that’s what you are wondering. I won’t bog you down with a technical explanation of it here. I’ll leave that to Wikipedia. But basically, Lomography is the practice of taking casual snapshots that have over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposures, blurring and (my favorite term) “happy accidents.” One of the characteristics of lomo-photos, displayed in the photo to the left, is called “Vignetting”. This is where the edges of the photo have a dark ring almost giving it the look like you’ve shot it through a tube. It gives the photos such a cool look. These photos aren’t meant to be overly serious. It’s more about having fun and capturing slices of your day to day life. That doesn’t mean the results can’t be visually stunning (again, like the shot on the left.)

As luck would have it, and timing being what it is, I received a paypal payment notice via email at the exact same time I was checking out B&H Photos. I always consider the money in my paypal account to be my “Fun Money” and I try not to spend it on anything important. This Lomography Fisheye (170-degree lens) fixed focus 35mm camera seemed like a perfect thing to spend my fun money on. At only $39.95, I sorta felt like I was getting away with something. But, I had to take in to account that this camera is NOT digital and would require me to purchase film (standard 35mm film) and then have the photos processed once I take the shots. At least the camera was inexpensive, right? I’ll just keep telling myself that.

After I placed my order, I spent the next 3 hours checking out the LOMO group on flickr. That’s when I realized that I may need more than 1 Lomo camera. I haven’t even received my first one in the mail yet and I’m ready to purchase 2 more. One is called the “Action Sampler” and it has 4 lenses. Each time you take a shot, it fires 4 individual shots all on to the same negative.This will give a result that looks something like this shot. Another steal at only $30.00. The second camera is called the “ColorSplash“. It has 12 color gels that go over the flash. This can produce results like this yellow gulls shot. This camera is a little more pricey at $75.00. But still, it seems like so much fun, I must have it!!!

Once my camera shows up I’ll rush out and shoot a roll or two of film and get the results uploaded shortly thereafter. I can’t wait.

Do you have a Lomo camera? Leave me a comment with a link to some shots you’ve taken and let me know what kind of Lomo you have.

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