Take Car Photos While In Motion

Here is a quick post for the car enthusiast and photographer in you. In one of the posts from a favorite blog I follow DIYPhotography.net. James Evins shows us how he makes a Do-it-yourself camera rig. I have looked into getting a camera rig for several projects that I want to do. This seems to be a cheap alternative to a more expensive Rig Kit.

Follow along with his detail DIY project. I would like to get feed back with anyone who actually makes a rig for themselves.

Ref: http://www.diyphotography.net/take-cool-car-photos-with-a-diy-specialized-car-rig

Geo Metro

Geo Metro
Originally uploaded by Kirk Howard

Holiday Message...

Blue Stars Bokeh...

Blue Stars, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

My fist attempt of using a cut out to create bokeh. I think I only needed one star in the center, not the five or six I used. I will get better as time goes on... Blue Christmas light were the target of this image.

Bokeh is an adaptation from a a Japanese word meaning blur. In photography this term is used to describe the quality of the areas in the picture which are not in focus.

When referring to Bokeh, we can distinguish some of it characteristics:

- Is the light/dark gradient smooth or sharp?

- What shape will a small dot of light take what it is in the Bokeh area? (mirror lenses for example, create a bagel like Bokeh)

We can play with those two variants to create a special Bokeh. Click... here.

Good to go…

I found my iLife 08, it was right were I left it. Actually it was with the supplemental install dicks. Remember those two grey disks labeled Disk 1 and Disk 2, well that’s where it was. It was confusing at first because when you install and run Disk 1 it shows you Mac OSX Tiger. Tiger is the old OS, which is why I was confused. You have to run Disk 1 first then Disk 2. Disk 2 is where the iLife 08 lives.

As of 10:00 PM Wednesday night, I completed the install of the last program MAC: Microsoft Office 2004. All I have left is to pick and choose some files to migrate back and some plug-ins for web based programs.

I am really glad I did this clean install and erase. When I purchased his MacBook Pro last year in Dec. I thought it was cool and easy to migrate all my user information that was on Magellan’s MacBook to my new computer. What I didn’t know, was this would migrate everything. Programs, plug-ins, files, folders, music, and anything else I didn’t want.

My notebook has a 120 GB HD, when I was done I had 60GB left and the 40GB of photos I have taken since last December took up of the rest of the hard drive. The is why it became very sluggish.

After the clean install of Mac OSX Leopard and only installing the MS Office 2004, Adobe Lightroom, Toast, iLife 08 and one copy of Photoshop, I still have a ton of room. According to the internal HD info I have used 20.3 GB that leaves almost 97 Gig of free clean space. My computer runs faster and the fan doesn’t run as often.

Time Machine works great on my 1 Terabyte external HD. Once Time Machine is set up, I plug the HD in either with the USB or Firewire connection and Time Machine does the rest for me. It backs up my system every hour.

When you initially set up Time Machine it will take longer then usual to back-up your system. However, every time after that It only backs-up the changed data. All other data is left the same unless it had changed.

If you delete something that you didn't mean to, all you have to do is go back in time on Time Machine and tell it to load from that point. Wow, what a relief that will be, when I delete an entire photo album that I don't have a copy of. I have done that!

My only issue that remains is trying to hook up the 1 TB hard drive up to the Airport Extreme to back up wireless. I can see the drive and download/upload to it, but the Time Machine program will not work through the Airport Express.

Half-on, Half-off... My install is Half Done.

Start - 4:00 PM September 23, 2008
Finish – To Be Determined

After spending a few hours backing-up and doing an “install and erase”, will say “it was a success we have ignition.

As I left my house this morning at 4:30AM the 1 terabyte external HD was still going through its MAC OS Extended Journaled rewrite. When I checked on the process as I walked out the door, it still had three hours left… Whoa!

My only hiccup has been I cannot find my iLife 08’. I checked the Leopard install, I also checked the separate MAC OS install bundle disks.

Once I get the iLife 08 figured out I will finish the migration and software install.

Update to follow…

Magic Lights...

I have to admit I have turned out to be a bit of a blog Junkie. Have been using the Google reader to combine all the blogs I subscribe to into on little readers digest online version. I have my reader set up to only load the newest entry to a subscription blog.

One of the blogs a frequently read is the Strobist. In some incestual way all these blogs are linked together. I first started to read Scott Kelby’s blog Photoshop Insider. I have read most of his books and I am a huge fan of his Business Plan and work ethic, not to mention I enjoy his writing style and photography.

Next is Matt Kloskowski. Matt has the very popular Adobe Lightroom Killer Tips blog that I read. Also, Matt works for NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). Now Scott Kelby is the editor and publisher of Photoshop User and Layers magazines, president and co-founder NAPP and author of many books, and co-author with Matt on a few books. So Scott is Matt’s boss.

Then there is Joe McNally’s blog. I am a new reader to his blog. He has been a photographer for over 30 years and his expertise and experience is educational. He has recently released a book called “The Moment it Clicks…”. Ever since I read this book I have become a fan of his work and a subscriber to his blog.

Joe is a regular contributor to NAPP’s Photoshop User magazine. He also has on-line classes on the new Kelby Training web site. Do you see where I am going with this?

This leads us to David Hobby. Yea that’s right his last name is Hobby. What a great name. Months ago I stumbled across his blog (Strobist) and found it interesting and fascinating. David is a master of off camera lighting. Either he uses a flash or strobe or studio lighting, but his focus is getting the light away from the camera. He is also a big fan of D.I.Y. (Do it Yourself) projects. I am currently working on a D.I.Y. project that I read about on his blog, that he got from another blog.

Back to the incestual part of this post. I read Joe McNally’s blog about his trip to Dubai to teach photography techniques. Also on the trip were Scott Kelby and David Hobby. David went into the desert one evening to help with a photo shot. I say this because he assisted in setting up the Nikon SB-800 Light Tree for off camera lighting.

I imagine it will only be a matter of time before Scott Kelby will Assimilate David Hobby into the NAPP Collective. If it hasn't happen already.

David on his blog this morning has added a link to another blog. This blog talks about the use of rope lighting to show action. Here is a picture and the link to the blog. It is well worth a read. I have some new ideas now.