CalevPhoto

A hike at Twin Falls State Park

As those of you who have kids will know, a chance to get out and take some shots around town is a real treat.  Therefore, when a coworker asked if I would like to go hiking at Twin Falls State Park and my wife said OK, I jumped on the opportunity.

The park is not very far from Seattle and is one of the many nice waterfalls we have around here.  This is one of the great benefits of living here.  While back East we had Niagara Falls (which I have seen perhaps a hundred times but never photographed) after that the waterfalls taped off a bit.  Not that case here - as we have a good number of waterfalls over a hundred feet tall.

Ironically, I feel that the best shots from the trip were not of the waterfalls itself.  They are nice waterfalls, but I believe it is necessary to get down to the waterfall level for a truly nice shot.  Unfortunately conditions were not favorable that day towards doing that. Continue Reading…

A so so photograph, but interesting story

As some of you know, each Friday I organize a small photography shoot by three ponds that are next to the building where I work.  Although small, there is a good deal of wildlife here and it is interesting to see how the area changes as the seasons go by.

This isn’t a particularly interesting picture of a millipede.  I have much better millipede shots and it was one of a handful of shots I got that day.  This particular millipede is quite small and I had placed it on some moss nearby for a more interesting shot.

However, the story behind the shot is a bit more interesting.

Continue Reading…

Another trip to the zoo

Now that I have my 100-400 lens, going to the zoo is all the more a pleasure.  I enjoy taking pictures of whatever animals happen to be photogenic that day and of course the kids don’t mind it either.

This shot I got of a male gorilla that did not seem to be in a good mood.  The gorillas at the zoo almost always provide some interesting shots.  I have to admit that this is one of my favorite shots from the recent trips to the zoo.  The following shot is from a different profile. Continue Reading…

Congrats to Canon on the TS-E 17!

Recently it has been a bit of a bummer being a Canon user.  Granted, the 5D Mark II is a great camera and competes very well with the D700, but every other camera in their SLR line seems to take a back seat these days.

Therefore it was nice to see Canon still has a bit of ingenuity up their sleaves in the TS-E 17 F4 lens.  One area where Canon still has an advantage over Nikon is in their lenses.  Canon simply has far more lenses and far more good primes specifically.  Nikon has a few lenses Canon doesn’t - such as the 14-24 and the 200-400, but the Canon lenses I use most often - the 70-200/4 IS and the MP-E 65 - have no equivalents in Nikon.

Still, Canon has the tendency lately to sit back on their laurels and let Nikon catch up.  That is what happened with high ISO capabilities and I expected the same to occur for lenses - where Canon’s strategy lately has been to upgrade existing lenses.

This is not the case with the TS-E 17 - which is the ultimate interior photography lens.  Already I am salivating at the thought of taking real estate pictures with this lens - though I’m having more than a little trouble convincing my wife that it is worth it!

I had planned to buy the TS-E 24 at some time, but I wasn’t crazy about it.  I had heard that the lens was not great optically and 24mm is a great distance from my 16-35 that I normally use.  I did use a friend’s TS-E 24 briefly in a house I photographed, but I put the lens away because I needed something much wider.  The TS-E 17 fits the bill exactly.

I hope that this is a sign for the future - that Canon will keep innovating.  They now have another lens with no equivalent in other systems and I suspect a good number of interior photographers will buy a Canon camera if they are not using one just to be able to use this lens.

Now if I can just figure out where to get $2500.

I’m alive!

Yes, I know this blog has been rather bare lately.  Things have been extremely busy between work and home and I haven’t had much time to get to this blog.

Still, I have had time to take a good number of pictures lately.  I hope to have the chance to display many of them soon.

To the Zoo, with the 100-400

For a birthday gift at the end of last year, I bought the Canon 100-400 lens.  It has been rather cheap lately, so I couldn’t resist getting a zoom longer than my 70-200 4L IS.  Of course, my luck will be that they do wind up upgrading it later this year, but if that is the case I should be able to get a good price for mine since I bought it at a good price.

I also bought a Gitzo monopod together with the RRS tilt head.  I will review these at a later time, but from experience I knew that if I wanted a sharp picture, I needed some kind of stabilization.

I’m not much for taking shots of teddy bears and diagrams in the house to test a lens.  I prefer to take it in the field and give it a try.

The following are the shots I got.  At the end I will give my impressions of the lens.

Continue Reading…

Using flash above 1/200

Recently while taking some drop photos, I wondered whether I could increase the shutter speed past 1/200.  With high speed sync, I often took pictures at 1/250 and 1/300 - but I wanted to see if I could exceed it.

I had thought a bit about using a PocketWizard MultiMAX, but after reading through the manual and reading about others’ experiences, it doesn’t seem that it can get me much past 1/300.  Therefore I came up with a rather simple idea that amazingly worked.

I setup my MT-24EX on my 180L and used it to trigger to 580EX flashes.  The MT-24EX was set as the master and both 580EX flashes (actually one 580EX and one 580EX II) were set as slaves.  I placed both 580EX flashes on the end of Wimberley macro brackets - which held the weight fine.  I then set the MT-24EX to high speed sync.

The entire camera loaded thus was quite heavy and large.  I suspect in the field it wouldn’t be too practical - though a monopod may help things.  My goal was basically to blast the subject with light.  Since I was watching the kids at home that day, I couldn’t go outside to try with a live drop so I hooked up the hose on the faucet with a rubber band.

Continue Reading…

So you want to get started in photography

I am a very biased and opinionated person on all subjects I care about - so it is especially true for photography.  I really have not published a ‘beginners photography’ blog because there are so many of them out there already.  However, after seeing a number that I sharply disagree with, I thought I would post my own.

I will not talk about specific camera models or Nikon vs. Canon here.  This is for those who want to become photographers - not equipment collectors.  Therefore, the following are my recommendations for people who want to get into photography.

What should I do first?

This is simple, do not buy anything? Huh!? Before buying any equipment, I strongly recommend you go to the bookstore/library and get one or two books on the type of photography you are interested in.  I do not recommend the general photography books as those aren’t very helpful.  Get books from photographers known for their work.  The book I started out with is John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide - though if you’re into portrait photography you’ll probably want a different book.

The point is you need to understand some things before you buy.  Unless you understand what an SLR does for you and what the differences are between different lenses, you’ll be unlikely to make an informed decision.

Continue Reading…

New Year’s Resolutions 2009

Well, it’s time again.  Before discussing my photography resolutions for 2009, I thought I would review how well I did on my resolutions for 2008.  The ones in red I missed completely, blue I hit somewhat, and green I met completely.

Vision

1. Start keeping a photography notebook (Bought the notebook, never filled it in)
2. Take a new type of photograph at least once a month (I took several new types of photographs, but not a dozen)
3. Take at least five landscape groups (I took three)
4. Participate in at least six photo outings (participated in 3)

Online

1. Continue with this blog, posting at least five times a week  (I didn’t post once a week, but I’m happy with my rate of posting)
2. Over half of all photos on blog are taken in the last week  (true, the majority of the photos posted here were taken recently)
3. Join at least two online photography communities and contribute regularly (I did - DPReview and Smugmug, but I am happy contributing to the communities I am already on)

Knowledge

1. Sign up for video courses on Photoshop and go through several courses (missed completely)
2. Start using printer profiles when printing
3. Print at least one extra large image good enough to display in the home (I printed it, but we never hung it
4. Lead at least one class on macro photography at my work

Equipment

1. Purchase the Canon 180L and take more pictures of bees and dragonflies (almost, bought the 180L, took pictures of bees but no dragonflies)
2. Purchase a neutral density filter and take more pictures of moving water (only so much money…)

Microstock

1. Double my Shutterstock portfolio to at least 700 images (at around 500 right now) 
2. Double my sales by the end of the year (I honestly don’t remember what my sales were, but I don’t think I doubled them)

Given that, it’s time to go through my goals for 2009.

Continue Reading…

5D Mark II Auto Focus is awesome!

OK, I now have to say that the AF in the 5D Mark II is definitely a step up from the 5D.  Given that hardware-wise they have the exact same AF, the difference must be the Digic IV processor.

This weekend we took the kids to a birthday party at a jumping house.  I had been to this identical location several months earlier with my old 5D and I was keen to see what the true difference would be.

Continue Reading…