Picture Pirates…

The word of the day is Disappointment. This blog entry is brought to by the letter “F”, and by the number “0” zero.

Last night I was reading my on line version of Popular Photography. The article I was reading was about a Flickr user and Photographer from Iceland. The article titled “Flickr Superstar Profiled in Times Magazine” talks briefly about her style of photography and how it is suited for the Flickr user. This article was inspired by another article written in the by VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN titled f l i c k r.

I was intrigued to see more of this so I decided to link over to her Flickr page _rebekka and poke around a little. What I found was an amazing amount of creativity and talent.

I am most impressed with the self-portraits. Rebekka’s self-portraits are not just the ordinary snap shots of her doing nothing. Her self-portraits are master pieces of expression and technical agility. She has perfected the use of multiple exposures to construct interesting self-portraits of herself. In some images she is seen in three different poses. At first you think she is a twin or triplet, but later realize from her comments it just her.

say WHAT??
Originally uploaded by _rebekka

However I do have some disappointing news. As I scrolled down the first page of her Flickr page I noticed that she had a post of a screen shot of iStockPhoto.com. I clicked on the image to reveal a brief story that stated the she had been ripped off. I have heard and been warned about this before, but I just thought it was photographers being paranoid and embellishing a little. This is the first instance where I was shown proof, and as my grandmother always said “the proof is in the pudding”.

Here is the proof and I think it is very funny about what she found on iStockPhoto.com


To see more of Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir work Click on the “MiSsInG lInK”
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir – Website
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir – Flickr
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir – Wikipedia



To be continued…

Steady as she goes…

Last week the sales force in my office had a full day of meetings. When the meetings had concluded they loaded onto a bus and headed down the road to blow off some steam.

The group ended up at Malibu Grand Prix. Fortunately I was invited to attend, and as I was forewarned, I took along my camera to do a little fun shooting. I also took the opportunity to play around with Panning.

Panning is a termed used in photography and video. Panning is described as the horizontal movement or rotation of a film or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device.

In photography, the panning technique is used to suggest fast motion, and bring out foreground from background. In photographic pictures it is usually noted by a foreground subject in action appearing still (i.e. a runner frozen in mid-stride) while the background is streaked and/or skewed in the apparently opposite direction of the subject's travel.


Here is one of my attempts to shoot a pan-action image of one of the cars passing at high speed (35 mph). OK not really high speed, but fast enough.


If you would like to learn more about Panning, dPS (digital Photography School) has a great article online. MiSInG LiNk::


Plus Wikipedia has a nice article on the subject as well. mIsSiNg LiNk::

Hey Taylor... this one is for you...

Hey Taylor this one is for you...

A friend of mine asked me to recommend a DSLR camera for his new business. I imagine he will also be using his camera for other stuff besides work i.e. kids, sports, vacations, family gatherings etc. He mentioned that he would need a fisheye lens for his work. I think he may be better off with an extreme wide angle vs. a fisheye lens. A wide angle lens will have less distortion then a fisheye lens.

This is actually a fairly simple question. The two major manufactures on the market are Canon and Nikon. In 2003 Sony took over the Konica/ Minolta camera division. The Alpha 100 was the first DSLR to hit the market for Sony. To read Digital Photography Review™ follow this link Sony A100. Sony along with other known manufactures continue to make a nice showing in the trade magazines.

Other reviews:
Sony Alpha DSLR-A100*
Sony alpha DSLR-A100 Digital Camera Review**

Cameras:

Nikon has just introduced the third camera in the introductory DSLR lineup the Nikon D60. The other two are the Nikon D40 and the D40x. I would choose the D60 over the other two in the series. The D60 is the latest and will have the most up to date electronics and software.

It was released shortly after the Nikon D300 and the Nikon D3, so you know it will have the latest and greatest for this price point.

Digital Photography Review™:
Nikon D60 (New)
Nikon D40x
Nikon D40

Staying true to form, Canon released in late 2003 a low priced consumer DSLR. Like everything, in the camera market, as time marches forward the prices drop and features are more plentiful.

Canon has the proven Rebel series from the film camera days. They stuck with the name because it was a big marketing hit with Andre Agassi being the ultimate rebel spokesman.

The newest addition in the Canon Rebel series is the release of the Canon's EOS Rebel XSi. This is so new that Digital Photography Review™ doesn’t have a review on it yet. But, I did find a review in the PopPhoto Online mag.

Digital Photography Review™:
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

I chose a Nikon for my personal camera, not because I don’t like Canon cameras, because I do, it was for the fact I already had Nikon lenses I could use with my Nikon DSLR. However, If I didn’t already have Nikon equipment I would have most likely bought a Canon. I like Canons lenses more.

Lens:

Canon has slightly better quality lenses. For years Nikon led the pack in lens technology. However when Nikon switched from glass ground lenses to a poured/molded glass and plastic lenses they slipped off the quality scale. Nikon does use glass optics in the higher end lenses, but to make the lens more price friendly they are using the poured/molded glass instead of ground glass.

In the lower end lenses Nikon uses a hybrid of glass and plastic. This makes it lower priced for the average consumer. Also, the hybrid makes the lens much lighter. This is not to say that Canon and any other manufacture aren’t doing the same with their lenses, they are, and I am just saying that Nikon has slipped off their perch.

Keep in mind with the lower priced DSLR cameras, the digital chip or CMOS sensor are not full size. The DX CMOS chips usually have an image increase factor of 1.4 (Nikon) to 1.5 (Canon). What that means is when you add a 100 mm (non-converted) lens to a Canon camera you will be shooting the equivalent of a 150mm standard lens.

In case you wanted to know a full size CMOS sensor camera prices start at $4,999.99 for the body only. Yeah, I thought so...

Two lenses I would start with, if you don’t get one included in a camera kit (packafe). I would purchase an Ultra Wide Angel Zoom with the fastest speed lenses I could afford. In this case fast doesn’t mean fast focus. It means the lower the f – number the more light passes through the lens and the lower ambient light I can shoot in without the aid of a flash. A f/2.8 lens is twice as fast as a f/3.5. (see: Get the F/Stop)

The other lens would be a telephoto zoom. Nikon has a new extreme wide to telephoto zoom lens 18-200mm for less then $1,000.00

If you want to save money on lenses you can buy a lens from a third market manufacture. Sigma, Tamron and Tokina all make lenses for all the major camera manufactures. Sigma Photo has the greatest selection and verity of lenses. Just so you know I buy the lens made by Nikon. Nikon lenses are designed and built for Nikon cameras. However, sometimes I cannot afford a Nikon lens and I purchase third maket lenses. My 70-200 f2.8 is made by Tokina. It cost me $560.00 used. If I would have bought the same lens from Nikon the price would have been over $1,800.00 new.

Digital Photography Review™:
Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC HSM

Where to purchase?

That is a good question. I am a big fan of buying local. Support your local dealer in your local town, city or pueblo. I like to keep my money in the community where I live. One the other hand I am no fool, if I can purchase the same product with someone else with at least a 10% savings, well sorry local guy, I got to do what I got to do. Also, if I can save and addition percentage from purchasing my equipment on the Internet (sales tax free), I think that is a no brainer.

If I buy online I go to B&H Photo first. B&H are located in New York and they have a real good sales and support staff.

It is a mouth full of information to chew on. If you have any questions please drop me a line and I will answer them the best I can. My knowledge base is primarily Nikon and Sigma. However, it’s not always what you know as much as it is where to go to get the answers.

The Missing Link:

Nikon USA

Canon USA

Sigma Photo

PopPhoto

B&H Photo

Digital Photography Review™

**Digital Camera Reviews

*Photography Review

Get the f/stop…

After I got my new camera in 2006, I went through a series test to get the feel of the new digital SLR camera. One of my test was to test shoot on a cloudy beach day a series of 1/3 f/stop images with the same shutter speed of 1/60th of a second.

What is an f/stop? Here is the simple explanation. Think of the aperture in the lens or camera like the iris in your eye, and it usually is located in your lens. The larger the opening the grater amount of light is allowed through the lens and into the camera. The larger your f/stop numbers the small the opening. The smaller the f/number the larger the opening.

OK, I know that was like a Huh moment. Below are examples of an f/stop number scales you might find on a typical modern camera lens. Typical one-half-stop f-number scale: f/#2.8,3.4,4,4.8,5.6,6.7,8,9.5,11,13,16,19,22. Most of my Nikkor lenses use a typical one-third-stop f-number scale: f/#2.8,3.5,4,4.5,5.6,6.3,8,9,10,11,14,16,18,20,22.

Also when larger or small apertures are used this will affect the focal range and or Depth of Field. Depth of field increases with f-number. This means that photos taken with a low f-number will tend to have one subject in focus, with the rest of the image out of focus. This is frequently useful for nature photography or certain special effects.

The depth of field of an image produced at a given f-number is dependent on other parameters as well, including the focal length, the subject distance, and the format of the film or sensor used to capture the image. Smaller formats will have a deeper field than larger formats at the same f-number for the same distance of focus and same angle of view. Therefore, reduced-depth-of-field effects, like those shown here, will require smaller f-numbers (and thus more complex optics) than do larger format cameras.

If you have a true interest and you really want to get into the technical aspect of f/stops, go to Wikipedia. Wikipedia has a great article on this topic.

Box Lunch...

A few weeks ago I posted some images of the chicks that my wife’s third grade class hatched. The next day I went back to the classroom to see the rest of the hatchlings and to take a few more pictures.

What a difference a day makes. The night before with the fresh hatchlings they were more then content to let me poke and prod, move and pose them exactly how I wanted. 24 hours later they have become less then compliant. I couldn’t keep these chicks still even when I stapled their feet to the table… Just kidding I didn't do that, but the thought did cross my mind.

I finally decided in order to keep these chicks in one place I needed to put them in a box. So here is a photo of four of the chicks in the only box I could find. The little black chick is being suppressed by the rest and is hiding under the lid.

Crack...

Over the weekend it was my birthday. I spent the Saturday with my wife at the Oakland A’s game. It was a home stand against the Cleveland Indians.

Since it was a day game and the sky was clear and sunny, I thought it would be a great opportunity to take some sports action photos.

Here is one of the first pictures I took on Saturday. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky then good. I am more lucky then good all the time. This was a lucky timing high speed shot. In this shot I wasn’t following the ball from the pitcher, I set and focused on the batter anticipating the swing of the bat.

Designated hitter (D.H.) for Cleveland Travis Hafner. You can see why he is the D.H. as this photo captures him cracking his bat. Really it’s more like splintering it. Notice the top of the bat heading towards third base. These are a little dark after I adjusted them in Lightroom. I will readjust and repost.