I setup my camera and big lens, hoping to get a few photos of the Lunar Eclipse.
Unfortunately high clouds obscured the event, causing a fuzzing of the Moon during the limit time it was actually visible.
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Tag Archives: photography
Northern Lights Photography Mission – failure to success
Tonight, the Northern Lights were visible at latitudes low enough, to be seen in the Puget Sound.
Armed with my trusty Bogen carbon fiber tripod, my 17mm F/2.8 lens and a heart full of hope, I headed out to part of the county with a Northern facing beach. A few others were there to try to take in the spectical.
Sadly fires burning in Canada to the north, provided enough haze and smoke to obscure any chance of seeing this great sight. But that doesn’t mean I might not catch it on the camera (stranger things have happened).
Tonight, wasn’t one of them, BUT I did goof around with long exposures, lighting and moving objects.
This is what I captured:
Last shot. Reduced the time and waited for some departing traffic to pass me. A car came over the road in the opposing direction, but did not have it’s high-beams on, so shot was no totally washed out.
This has given me some ideas for other night photography projects. One I’d like to try is a set of long-exposure time lapse pics of the helicopters. So far, the opportunity has not yet presented itself.
More Night Photography – ALNW EC-135 EuroCopter
A few nights back, I had the opportunity to try my hand again, at some night photography of the helicopters.
This time the subject is an EC-135 EuroCopter Air Ambulance.
Photography at Harrison’s Hospital during lift-off.
Wine bottle photography – harsh lessons in relectivity
After my series of Easter Egg Photos, earlier this week, I decided to clear out my ‘collection’ of wine bottles. I keep them, to remind me which wines I liked. Some are quality, some are just a good value (consumable on the cheap).
Combining my desire to clear out a corner of my kitchen, and learn a little more about lighting, reflection and studio product photography, I put together this little experiment.
I quickly learned that shooting objects with high reflectivity, such as glass, is much more difficult to manage than other images. You’ll notice the lighting umbrellas, the wall colors, even a few have reflections of myself in the wine glass.
Some have a large bright reflection on the bottom of the glass. It turns out the white floor in the shop really reflects light well, and shows up on the glass. Putting down an extra black backdrop on the floor took care of that. But the sides and background beyond the camera remained an issue. I have white and yellow curtains there. I guess I need to get black for that as well. Just another set of lessons learned.
The photos are also uploaded to my Flickr account with additional comments on each wine. I’ll copy those comments, and add more info later. For how, I’ll just provide the pics.
McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Wine 2
Wine 3
Wine 4
Wine 6
Wine 7
Wine 8
Wine 9
Wine 10
Wine 11
Wine 12
Wine 13
As you can see in the photos, having a totally solid color, or black studio would produce a better image. That and adjusting the camera to a deeper field of focus. But, this why I’m doing this. To learn those lessons, hone my craft, and have a little fun at the same time.
Going old-school, so I can do some more cutting edge photography
Going retro to go modern. Sometimes old-tech really helps with a new concept.
Now, I know that I’m not the first person to do this sort of work. I know this, because I was inspired by the works of other, better photographers that have done this already. But, I still think the effect is modern, fresh and can produce some really interesting imagery. At least according to those that tell me so, and I trust most of them to be brutally honest (as they have been in the past).
A great many years ago, I sold all my Canon A-1 and AE-1 bodies, lenses and accessories to move into the digital SLR age. The first camera I purchased was the 6.3 Mega-Pixel Canon Digital Rebel. At the time, it cost almost $1000. By today’s standards, it’s specifications are quite unimpressive:
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It worked well enough for long enough. But more resolution and more f/s speed was required. It was not long after the release of the Digital Rebel, that the Canon 10D was released.
Following that was the Canon 20D, with a little larger sensor and a decent f/s speed (5.0 fps!). This was my next Canon digital camera purchase.
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Specs:
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Canon released the 30D seemingly a few months later, meaning the price of the 20D had dropped. During my annual trek to Laguna Seca, I purchased another 20D in Portland Oregon. This started my affair with multiple camera bodies. Having a pair of 20D cameras, each with a different type of lens, opened up a whole new world of shooting opportunity. Instead of having to expose sensors to dust every time I needed a new lens, I simply setup the cameras the night before, and headed on location. Switching from one shooting capability to the next, was as simple as grabbing another camera.
I worked with the 20D camera for many years, until this past month, then I added another body to the camera bag. With the release of the new Canon 7D, prices on the preceding models dropped. This also meant that a number of store demos could be picked up for significant savings. In the case of the Canon 50D, I picked up a demo model for almost $400 of the price of new. It was an opportunity that I could just not pass up.
The upgrade bumped me from 8.3 to 15.1 megapixels of resolution (almost double!). The biggest benefit though, is the new parallel Digic image processors. And of course the dramatic increase in frames per second speed (20% boost) and the big buffer, allowing extensive rapid-fire shooting before having to wait for card writes to finish. There is also the benefit of Ultra DMA support in the 50D, that I did not have in the 20D‘s I’ve been using for a long time.
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For a great many years I was very satisfied with my move to digital. I no longer had to pay for expensive film (I only used Pro transparency film which can be pricey), the processing, wait a week for the slides to be developed and mounted, dealing with dust, etc. etc. etc.
That was true until I started working on my Human Canvas Projects. Suddenly I needed slides. A wide variety of slides. The only slides I had available to me were 5-8 years old, and I didn’t have any way to create more.
Because of this I have been exploring a wide variety of slide creating methods. I even have two rolls of 120 slide film in case I stumble across a good deal on a 120 medium format camera kit (good luck with that, right?!). I checked all the Pawn shops across town, the Craig’s list postings, you name it. Now, I did find some 35mm camera bodies, but all of them were either non-Canon or non EF systems. The best I found was $100 for a very old and very basic Canon AE-1, circa 1980 something. I sold one of these bodies many years ago.
Yesterday, that problem was solved! I was at Glazer’s photo in Seattle to pick up some 60×60 (120 frame size) transparency mounts for the alternative slide creation method I came up with (I might write that up in the coming week). Turns out Glazer’s in-store price was 30% LOWER than the best on-line price I could find, then I had to pay for shipping too. I bought every full box they had.
After dropping the slide mounts off in my car, I wandered across the street to the Camera store (film and lighting is in one store, cameras in another across the street), and looked for any deals on a used 120 body. Nothing was in sight, but as I rounded the back of the store, where I found the 50D I bought from them, a month ago, I saw some new inventory. A nice Canon EOS-1 with auto-winder drive.
The Canon EOS-1, was the Professional body released for the new (at the time in 1989) EOS lens system. I was very excited about the find!
And, best of all, its was only $149 (plus Seattle/WA taxes…). It was already loaded with batteries, ready to go! A couple of other people were hovering around the case, looking over the EOS-1, so I had to decided quickly. Keep looking around, maybe find a good ‘deal’ on an EOS camera at a pawn shop, or pull the trigger on this baby, and head straight to the ferry and back home. So, that’s exactly what I did.
Here is the very camera body I purchased, with one of my Canon macro zoom lenses mounted:
Now, maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t obvious in this photo, but the camera is a beast! Here is a comparison shot of my three current camera bodies (photos taken with my backup 20D body and consumer 18-55 lens).
A shot of the rears of the Cameras. Digital cameras have the display screens turned on to illustrate one of the nice improvements in on-board display capabilities between the 20D and 50D cameras. It’s pretty easy to see how massive the Pro body EOS-1 is, compared to my consumer and prosumer Digital equipment.
I’m looking forward to seeing the quality of slides I can produce with the EOS-1. I’m used to manual focus film equipment, so the auto-focus capabilities of the EOS-1 are a nice thing to have. I’m not sure I fully understand how to use the new body, and the store was not able to locate a matching owner’s manual. I’ll be playing it by ear. The first roll should be going to the processing company tomorrow, weather and shooting opportunity permitting.
Easter Eggs – a study in light and egg art
Happy Easter!
It is that time again. When we (well, some people) celebrate the Rising of the Christ. And along with that, goes what I guess is the pagan tradition of the Easter Egg. No matter. It’s a time for the family to goof around and explore some artistic expression.
These are the results. Each of the thumbnails will bring up a larger image.
Some eggs are ‘interesting’, some are messy, some are pretty standard fare. All photos taken in my home studio, using a Canon 50D + Canon 70-200 f/2.8L lens and 600 watts of color-corrected 5600k light, bounced off two Profoto reflectors. Subjects are placed 8′ in front of a black drop.
Now, I hope the Easter Bunny can find a place to hide them all!
Saturday trip around Puget Sound with kids and cameras.
One of the things I did today, was sign up for ‘foursquare‘, an app that lets you ‘check-in’ to places, and those with participating incentives will send coupons to your phone. It’s and interesting experiment. I’ll see how that works out today.
Landshark!
Lego… much to my amusement has a new series of LEGO’s called ‘Atlantis’. 
One of the kits (a relatively inexpensive one luckily.. at under $12.00) named “Wreck Raider” has this cool little character in it! I’m not sure what the official name is, but to me it reminds me of the ‘Land Shark‘ of SNL fame.
I just had to buy it! And so, a new journey begins, with a new FaceBook page, Pacific Landshark!
Spurred on by and idea from my friend Kelly, ‘Land Shark’ will be traveling with me. Together, we’ll create a photo travelogue, filled with adventure, science and barely passable photography.
Here are a few photos from our first outing, this afternoon:
A few Photos around Bremerton.
I took the 50D out for a little photography at lunch today. Geared up with my 70-200 f/2.8L glass (arguably one of the best Canon ever made), and a Hoya 77mm polarizer, I took a drive across the two bridges, picking up a sandwich along the way.
Olympic mountains can be seen all around town.
The ‘iconic’ Manette Bridge. Soon to be replaced with a rather boring cement version, has served the community of Bremerton, connecting East (Manette) and West (downtown) for over 80 years.
The Boat Shed – one my favorite lunch spots on a sunny day. During the warm moths, the deck is packed, and getting a spot on the dock has more to do with luck than anything else. Sometimes during the spring grey whales can be seen in passage.
Olympic Mountains from the Warren Ave. / Hwy 303 Bridge. Looking West over Port Washington Narrows and the Bremerton Yacht Club (left). Silverdale is far right and the Hood Canal just over the first set of green hills.
One of the massive rain forest valleys that head into the Olympic National Park.
AirLift Northwest photos – Canon 20D + 400mmL IS lens
The last couple of days have been pretty nice. I had my older 20D camera body loaded with the 100-400L Zoom and next to my desk. More than a few times a week, the AirLift Northwest helicopters bring people into the trauma center at Harrisons. So, I decided to snap a few pics.
They have a number of helicopters, and at least two different models currently in use. This one, photographed on two separate days. I believe this to be an Agusta a109.
Note about these photos. These are re-sized by the blog software, and they loose a little bit of their quality. The originals are tack-sharp. I’ll have to look into adjusting the blog software to not mangle my photos. Not sure if it’s possible but worth a try.