Geo Metro

Geo Metro
Originally uploaded by Kirk Howard

BLACK FRIDAY…

I dreaded the holiday shopping season as a retail employee. In celebration of “Black Friday”, and that I haven’t worked retail for over 150 full moons, here are some shopping ideas for the photographer in your life.

1. Books are always a good idea. How to’s: for better technique. Amazon.com com has a great selection of photography books. Some great authors are Scott Kelby, Joe McNally, and Annie Leibovitz. Also, some other books are the Photo Workshop series.

2. Magazines are another gift that keeps giving for at least 12 months. There are a plethora of Photography or Photoshop magazines. Most of these can be purchased or ordered from the websites directly. Popular Photography (PopPhoto) is a great general magazine.

More specific are magazines like Photoshop User or Layers magazines. National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) puts out these magazines. NAPP also has a membership that will not only get all the Photoshop User issues for the year you also get discounts to buy gear and on-line tools and training.

2. Glass Blow Ornaments are always a good stocking stuffer. Here are some VINTAGE CAMERA ORNAMENTS.

Another great gift resource comes from the guys at NAPP and Layers Magazine. It’s the Gonzo Holiday Gear Guide. You will have to navigate to different pages to see the entire gift guild, but it worth the looks. This is the 2007 Gonzo Holiday Gear Guide. The 2008 Gonzo Holiday Gear Guide version has been released, but you will need to purchase the Layers magazine to see this years toys. Stay tuned for an update.

Now if you haven’t noticed already, everything I posted can be had over the internet. I try to do most of my shopping this way. I hate having to deal with holiday shoppers and the nastiness it brings out in the average Joe.

If you know what you are looking for and have a good idea what retail is for items, you can score some good deals on-line. Warning, be smart and wise and make sure the product and company is reputable.

That’s if for me. I will be braving the crowds at the Apple Store today. Apple usually has a one day sale on “Black Friday”. Apple is notorious for never selling anything under MSRP, except for “Black Friday”.


Good Luck and may the shopping be with you…

Lets Bokeh...

In the world of Depth of Field lives the little town of Bokeh… No just kidding. The term bokeh used in photography comes from the Japanese word boke a noun form of bokeru.

Bokeh - is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

I use a couple different lenses to achieve Bokeh. The lens that works the best is the Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8. The 50mm lens allows me to have the greatest versatility with a great range of aperture range. Te other two lenses are the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 and my 80-200mm f/2.8. All these lenses achieve a great depth of field and much defined bokeh. But the best is still my inexpensive 50mm f1.8.

Another way I create bokeh is artificially in CS3. Sometime if I want to have a subject pop out of the background or my depth of field isn’t shallow for the effect I create the same effect using lens blur or Gaussian blur in layers.

Here are three examples.

Shot with shallow depth of field f/6.3.

The same image with an artificial lens blur layered over the image.

This is also the same image with layer mask, to allow the center of the picture to be clear.

To be Continued...

Morning Quickie...

Good Morning,

Just a quick post today. I am tired and don’t feel like putting much effort into this post today.

However I did run into a funny mock portrait photo shoot online. It is an ad campaign for the Subaru Forester. If you get a chance check it out. Link: Photo Shoot. If that link doesn’t work try this link, Click… Here, you may have to root around the web site for the gallery.

That’s it for me today, short and sweet. Have a great weekend; keep your lens clean and your focus sharp.

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.

Chicks...

What is that “FOWL” smell? I now know what that means, and where that phrase came from Domesticated Fowl…

Over the past month my wife has been conducting a 3rd grade classroom experiment. Part of their science class they had to hatch something. They had a choice of Butterflies or Chickens. They chose the latter.

She and her classs for the last 21 days have been brooding over their 30 something chicken eggs and one duck egg.

On March 12, 2008 she and her 3rd grade class became proud parents of two baby chicks. Just in time for Easter. First came Root beer, and then came Boots. Root beer is a brown color and Boots has feathers on his feet, fuzzy like Ugg Boots. They should have named Root beer, Sarsaparilla instead.

By the time I showed up at the school that day, another chick had hatched. Another little brown chick. This little chick was still in the drying phase of the ordeal, and couldn’t be picked up. This one we named Grace. Grace isn’t very sturdy on its feet.

We set up a video camera and my wife was able to get some video of the hatchings. Before my wife left from school that evening, three more chicks had hatched. I guess when they say 21 days they really mean 21 days.

When she arrived at school the next day, she greated by the peeps of 11 more hatchlings in the incubatior. The duck will need to cook for a few more days before it hatches. They are cute but noisy, peep, peep, peep. Even at only a few hours old they stink. Here are a few pictures I took yesterday of Root beer and Boots.

Makeshift...

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Definitions of makeshift on the Web:
something contrived to meet an urgent need or emergency
improvised: done or made using whatever is available; "crossed the river on improvised bridges"; "the survivors used jury-rigged fishing gear"; "the rock served as a makeshift hammer"

This would describe the small studio I set up in my attic. This would be located next to all the broken-down moving boxes and the boxes that still haven’t been unpacked.

The attic is actually a cool little space, small but cool. A 6’0” man would not be able to stand straight up without cracking the scalp. It’s “A” framed shape, open beam with hard planked wood flooring. Did I mention I share the space with field mice? Yes, I do. When it rains they come in from the cold and run up the interiors of the walls to the warm attic. At least it’s warmer then outside. I know that they have come for a visit, because I find little rice shaped black scat on the floor.

The attic has no insulation. I have to dress for winter just to go into the studio. A few entries back I took some pictures of my new MacBook Pro. I shot those in the “Studio”. The studio needs a little more refining but it will eventually work out.

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

view images from the earlier post "It's Here"