Just another lazy night in the ol’ home town. Wandered down to Mass. Street last night to catch the second annual Busker’s Festival and grabbed a few shots of the street performers…
These were all shot on my Nikon D700 at ISO 800. Then I ran into Doug, who goaded me into using ISO 6400 for the first time…
Somehow I don’t think it will be the last time I tread in that high-ISO territory. The results were remarkably good. Thanks, Doug — looking forward to seeing some of your shots!
Yesterday morning I was supposed to photograph an encampment of Civil War re-enactors but it was cancelled. I guess the guys couldn’t make it. So, what do you do when you throw a war and nobody comes? Have a good, hearty breakfast. So — as has become this summer’s tradition — it was off to the farmer’s market and ingredient for a blueberry waffle (thanks for the recommendation, Doug!).
I’m continuing to play around with the Lensbaby Composer. Yesterday I popped on the wide angle attachment and the f/5.6 aperture ring. I’m looking for that sweet spot of enough distortion that it looks purposeful while not so much distortion that it renders the image totally abstract. It’s a little fidgety to change out the aperture rings, especially when you’re using the wide angle attachment, so I want to find the right combo and pretty much leave it. I think this is getting pretty close. One of my main uses for this lens is quick food shots in restaurants where the background can’t be free of clutter. The waffle shot is pretty much what I’m looking for.
Update: Here’s a photo of the setup — a Nikon D300 with a Lensbaby Composer and the wide angle attachment (that weird, flared, trumpet-like bit at the end of the lens).
Today I am officially caught up with my post-processing. The image above is one of the last I shot during June’s trip to the Black Hills. Now I’ll turn my attention back to uploading to stock agencies and keywording my Alamy files. I don’t have long before the travel season picks up for me again so I’ll have to make the most of these last couple of weeks in the office.
Several trips are already lined up for the next few months and I might try and squeeze in some Fall color shooting for my stock files if the season looks good. I have some locations in mind but it will just depend on when the peak color hits and if I’m available. The Black Hills is one of those spots I’d like to return to. We’ll see what happens. I have my leaf spies out and they’ll tell me when things start to look good.
I also spent part of last week preparing my entry into the SATW Bill Muster Photo Showcase (here is a slide show of some previous winners). Time was tight this year and I didn’t get to put as much thought into my entry as I have in the past. Maybe that’s good, though. With competitions it’s easy to over-think things. Afterall, it all comes down to the judges opinions — not mine. It’d be great if it were based on my opinion, wouldn’t it? Heh. Results won’t be announced until October so I have some time to sweat it out. I’ll let you know.
I needed a shot of some cherries for an upcoming episode of our vidcast, Travel by the Pint, today so we made a quick run down to the local grocery store and picked up a bag. Back in the “studio” (more of a spare bedroom, really), I set up a small light table left over from slide sorting days and leaned a large piece of light blue paper up about three feet behind it to give a nice color contrast to the red and yellow fruit.
I placed three cherries on the lightbox and turned it on. A window to the left added a highlight to the upper left side of the cherries but didn’t light the background paper enough to balance the brightness of the lightbox. I popped up the on-board flash on the D700 and used it in commander mode to control my SB600 which I held over the cherries, pointing toward the backdrop. I had a diffusion dome on the flash to help soften and even out the background light and it also added another little highlight to the top of the cherries.
Shooting with a Nikkor 60mm macro lens, I set the aperture to f/8 to ensure the cherries would be in focus but the background would be softly blurred. I also wanted the black edge of the lightbox to be out of focus so that it would become an abstract stripe rather than a recognizable piece of metal edging.
I shot several other versions — and this is actually not the one we’ll use — but I thought I’d share it here as an example of how a few items from around the office can come together for make a quick graphic image. All in all, the whole shoot took maybe 15 minutes. And I end up with some nice stock images and a snack for later.
This weekend we brought home the family furniture (mentioned on this blog before here) that has been being lovingly restored for the past year. That’s it. We’re officially finally all moved in to our new house now. I didn’t say unpacked — just moved in. (And, true to my word, I did get some of the family history wrong in that first post. Oops.)
Many thanks to Dave MacFee and his talented crew for bringing this wood back to life. It was dark and dull when we dropped it off to you and look at it now. There are fireworks in that grain. Thanks also to Chris, Estelle & Jonathan for helping to heft the very heavy top half of this cabinet onto the very heavy bottom half. We couldn’t have done it without you guys.
To make a long story short (ish), this furniture was commissioned by Sally’s grandfather’s grandmother’s grandfather (I think I got that right — but you know my track record) who was instrumental in the building of many of the early canals in Montreal in the early 1800s. Phillips Square in downtown Montreal was named for him and the furniture was made for a large home he had built on Beaver Hall Hill.
Why I need to pay more attention…
When I was in Montreal a couple of years ago, I made a few casual remarks about the family history but didn’t really know enough to ask the right questions. I knew the house had burned down in the mid-1800s but was curious where it had stood. With new research we’ve been doing this past month to try and answer some questions about the furniture, I now know that I was nearly standing on the spot where the old house stood when I took this photo:
If I have my bearings right, the street along the right is Cote du Beaver Hall. I was right there and never knew it. And Phillips Square is probably within a three minute walk from here as well.
We’ll go back, do some family research, and properly visit these sites sometime in the near future. It’s just funny how close I was to a place I’d always wanted to see and didn’t even know it. Glad I at least took some photos.
It’s beginning to look like my days at home are numbered and soon enough I’ll be back on the road, in the air, and all over the place. Time to start warming up those shutters.
I’ve been walking the nearby golf course around sunrise lately and decided that it’s time I start bringing the camera along. I’m going to limit myself to a small amount of gear each time to force myself to use some things that don’t get used that often. Today it was the Nikon D300 with my Lensbaby Composer mounted. I pulled the aperture ring out so that it was wide open and would give me the most distortion. Too much? That’s what I wanted to find out. I haven’t used this lens enough to have favorite apertures so I’ll take advantage of these walks to figure some of this stuff out.
There was a lot of distortion — too much in some cases — but that’s why you use a Lensbaby, right? If it didn’t have that look, you’d use another lens. But for distant shots, it seemed about right. Maybe next time I’ll pop in the next stop down and see how much of a difference it makes.
Okay. So, by now, you’ve probably noticed a change in my posting schedule. Like… I’m hardly posting.
I’ve been off the road for four weeks now. Four weeks. That’s almost unheard of for me. It’s not due to the economy — it’s actually been somewhat purposeful. It was time to recharge. Time to stay home for a bit. Time to pretend to be a normal person.
So what have I been doing? I’m slipping into routines. The above is my Saturday morning; 7:00 a.m. at the farmer’s market, then find some breakfast downtown where there’s sidewalk seating. This is my new life. Not too bad.
I’ve also taken on some affectations that I’m not sure are healthy. Top of the list is that I’ve started mowing the lawn in diagonals. I’ve seen people do this for years but I never thought I’d be one of them. Huh. I’m not shooting many photos other than with my iPhone (like the above) and I haven’t worn a backpack for over a month. Who am I?!?
Have no fear — I haven’t given up the life of the nomad altogether. In fact I’ve just signed on to teach a Photoshop and Lightroom workshop in Guadalajara in October and I have several other domestic assignments between now and then. More will also be added, I’m sure. It will be good to hit the road again. The road is one of my favorite places. Home is good, too. Balancing the two is the best.
Now that I have some time back in the office, I’m hitting the files hard — trying to get caught up on post-processing. I’m not too far behind but it can get out of hand quickly. The last couple of days I’ve been working on images from my trip to New Mexico earlier this year. The one above was taken during a hike at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. I’m using Lightroom for my initial post-processing work now — moving to Photoshop for more detailed work. Even though I know the tools in Lightroom and ACR are pretty much identical, I find that there is a luminous quality to the images I get out of Lightroom. Maybe it’s just psychological due to the darker interface in LR but I like it. This image displays that characteristic in the bounced light coming through the slot canyon at the top.
Well… it was a pretty grey trip to the Black Hills. It was either raining or about to rain for four straight days. I still hold to my previous statement that the area is beautiful even in bad weather but, when you’re selling stock to travel publishers, most people like to see sunshine. Oh well. I did get some shots that I like that I’ll post here soon but I’m starting off with the dino sculpture that I ran across on Saturday while driving the length of South Dakota — just as the skies were beginning to break.
Wouldn’t you know it. Blue skies for the drive home.
Sorry for my recent absence… I’ve been in the penitentiary.
Don’t worry — just touring. After a few days in St. Louis last week, we stopped in Jefferson City, Missouri, to tour the recently decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary with our guide Mark Schreiber (above). Mark was the Deputy Warden when the site closed and has tons of great stories. Tons. The tours are definitely worth checking out but be sure to get reservations as they are sold out weeks in advance.
I’m now in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The weather is currently toying with us but this is one of those places that I think is just as beautiful in the rain. Still, I’d take a little sunshine. Fingers crossed…