Socializing is a good thing – we are social creatures, and this is even more true with photographers.  You need to be able to communicate and engage with others.  Even if you are a still life artist, or a landscape buff, eventually, the goal isn’t just to take the shot (or make the shot if you prefer), it’s also to share it with others, and you can’t do that without engaging others.

It’s sometimes seen as an obligation to “get together”.  Our grocery bill this week was certainly painful ($164 of ouch).  And we also had some things to do to get the house ready to entertain.  But, herein lies another benefit of company – getting you off your duff.  The office upstairs had been getting more and more cluttered with “projects” that I have been meaning to get to.  The problem is that projects started to pile on top of each other.  It had gotten to the point that I didn’t know where any project began and another ended.  So, the company forced me to clean!

I know, it’s not the best photographic image, as that was not the intent today – totally a throw away hand held, with very high noise, and probably off white balance, blurred, etc.  But the office is now in a much cleaner space!  I am finding new creative inspiration for things so much more easily now that the clutter is gone.  As the old saying goes, “a cluttered space is the sign of a cluttered mind.”  While the corollary is true about an empty desk, a happy medium exists there, and for some reason, after cleaning and organizing things up…the “projects” that I had in the hopper seem less important or meaningful now.

So, new ideas that are likely better ones are starting to form!  A long-awaited prequel to the DIY Legal kit is forthcoming very soon, as a few other nuggets (think books, contests, and more!)  For now, the suggestion of the week is to regularly clean, organize, and prioritize.  My rule for a lot was “if I’ve not touched it in 6 months, what are the odds I’ll do it ever?”.  If the numbers stacked against me doing it, the project got tossed!

What are your rules for cleaning, organization, and prioritization?  As photogs, we can always use suggestions from every corner, so sound off with your own tips and ideas!  Until next time…

You see, traditional wisdom in saving for web is to follow three steps:

1.  Re-size your images to no larger than 600px on the longest side – this is to make them more presentable in traditional screen resolutions.  Keeping in mind though that as technology has advanced, screen resolutions have increased to include capacities such as 1600×900, I would suggest that if you want people to see your images large (as they are always best viewed), consider changing that to 1000px.

2.  The second step is to adjust the resolution on your images from their default of 240-300 ppi (straight out of camera) to a more web-friendly setting of 72ppi.  I would actually recommend that this practice continue, as it  still is able to retain the detail needed for monitors while reducing the possible risk of having others take images off your website and print them without your permission.

3.  Last but not least, and the point of the post today is that of color space.  Traditionally, the wisdom has said to convert images to sRGB (standard RGB) because most browsers are not color-aware.  Yet recent articles and tutorials I’ve read through several communities have suggested that you can tell shifts in color between sRGB and Adobe RGB.  The test was to output images to both color spaces, and view natively inside a browser (just drag and drop in your own browser without the need to go to any web page).  I did this, but could not tell a difference.  So, the conventional wisdom I am not sure has been entirely eschewed as of yet.  In the interests of gaining some thoughts and perspectives from a wider audience – I have two images that I’ve exported to both sRGB and Adobe RGB below.  I’m not revealing which is which, and would like people to take a look at these on their own monitors?  Which image looks better in each scenario?  Let me know what browser/OS combination you are using and sound off in the comments or in the included poll.  The results will be interesting to read – and I’ll likely follow up later with some more information on color spaces.

Check out the following results:

Scenario One – Hot Air Balloon Ride

Scenario Two:  Botanical Gardens

Can you see a difference?  Can you tell (without cheating on the filenames)?  What are your own thoughts on the sRGB versus Adobe RGB color spaces?  Do you save out to one or the other for web?  What browsers and experiences do you have with these various formats?  For me, the results are in the display, and since I want my images to be displayed with rich and full colors – coming as close as possible to what I remember with my camera eye – I’m starting to choose Adobe RGB for my output format of choice.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Okay okay, I didn’t really fly the balloon – but I certainly rode in it, and while the experience of a balloon ride is always something worth doing – this was unique in that I was in the heart of the Rocky Mountains!  As it was in December, we had a decent amount of snow, so the Rockies were flush with powder!  It wasn’t so snowed in that we couldn’t navigate, as you’ll be able to see in a minute, but was merely the perfect amount to make for some amazing scenery!  This was done courtesy of the folks at Camelot Balloons.

The experience started early one Saturday morning when I trekked 45 minutes west of Vail to the launch site.  Some warm sips of coffee and a fascinating observation of what it takes to get one of these things off the ground was in and of itself an education and experience!  But then I got to ride in it too!  The pilot – named Merlin – was quite the experience as well – both before and during the flight he was a fountain of informatino – during which I learned he is the only man to cross the Continental Divide on one balloon flight twice!  Additionally, I learned that hot air balloons are registered aircraft with the FAA – they even get their own tail number!  Afterward, he waxed on with more, saying the Ballooner’s Prayer, and toasting with champagne while we nibbled on cheese, crackers and fruit!  (All very tasty too!)

I’d try to say more, but the photos really speak for themselves, so without further ado:

A couple people I’d also like to single out from this trip that were also just a pleasure to share the experience with.  First off, the gal running the photography side of the operation – Amy Boggs offers her photography skills so if you want to put your own camera away and just enjoy – she has a great selection of shots when all was said and done.  If anyone is interested in contacting her, let me know and I can share an email address.  She was totally cool with me taking my own shots, and even sent me a gratis copy of one she shot of me while I was doing my own thing:

A nice touch of black and white to offset the colorful day (plus you can almost not even tell it’s me – which I always like!   )

The other to thank is the couple I shared my ride with – Buzz and Laurie McDonald from Oregon!  They were in the area for Buzz who was on a business trip and they were just a joy to share the ride with.  Of course, we traded a few shots from while we were in the air, so to thank him appropriately, I guess I need to share the shot he took of me!

In my defense, I was thinking mountains+winter+extra altitude = freezing cold air, so I really didn’t care what I looked like!

It wasn’t the most cost effective use of funds, but sometimes, to check items off your bucket list – you just gotta pony up, and this is one where you’ll be glad you did!  Now, I gotta tackle the next item on my bucket list in 2012 – a kayaking trip in the UP/Boundary waters area.  Not sure I will find the time off work or the resources to get a guide and needed gear, but it’s on my bucket list for 2012!  Sometimes, it takes the onus of actually sharing such goals with others to make you really take the resolution seriously!  So, consider this a chance to share your own goals, bucket list items, or things you are shooting for in 2012 – sound off in the comments as I’d love to hear others goals for the year!

Tip #1.  Positioning the Umbrella

You’ll notice on a standard light stand that the umbrella will have to be inserted at an angle…you can either angle it upward or downward.  I see so many folks that are totally confused by this and I’ve got a great mnemonic to help you remember the right way:  I call it “Up For Luck!”  Take a look at the following side-by-side shots:

See how there is so much more light missing the umbrella from my strobe in the first shot? It’s falling out of the top and not really being controlled all that much.   Compare that to the second shot, where the umbrella is nicely filled out with light…a great softening effect for sure!  This is just one of five tips I am going to share with you this week on lighting your shoots from an off-camera flash with nothing more than a single light stand and shoot through umbrella!  Ready for more?  Got your own ideas and tips/tricks to share?  Sound off in the comments, or tune back in tomorrow for another tip to help soften and diffuse things even more!

First of all, let me say that it’s an honor to be a guest blogger for  Jason  – when he asked me to write a guest blog post, it was a no brainer – I’d do it! Then it sunk in that I’m going to be writing a post that actual people will be reading, as opposed to my usual audience – research scientists. I guess this means I better make it interesting. Well, here goes …

I’m not a professional photographer, far from that – I’m a professional student. To be more specific, I’m a PhD student/researcher studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. In the most general sense, I focus on enhancing the performance of aerodynamic bodies (airplanes, cars, submarines) by modifying the way that the flow (air or water) moves around the specific body.

When I started conducting experiments five years ago, I knew that in order to efficiently control any flow, it was first in my best interest to understand the natural flow around the aerodynamic body of interest. This is when I decided that the lab needed a digital camera. After a couple of months of reading books and internet articles, I started getting the hang of what it took to digitally capture what my eyes were seeing.

Below are some images that I have taken since I started my journey into photography over the past three years. Some of them were taken for my own research, while others were taken to benefit the research of my colleagues.

This was one of my first successful images that I took with a dSLR. It’s a three second exposure capturing the phenomena of flow separation over an airfoil at a high angle of attack. Using a fog machine I was able to inject micron sized particles into the flow. Then, to illuminate the particles, I created a light sheet passing a laser beam through a spherical and then a cylindrical lens. To me, the beauty of this photo is that it captures a phenomenon we all experience daily – but never get to see.

A colleague of mine asked me if it was possible to take an image of the alignment of six laser beams intersecting at a single location in space. Once aligned, they moved the set-up into a wind tunnel and used it to measure the velocity behind an aircraft landing gear. To capture this image, I used a flashlight during a three second exposure to illuminate the laser sources while keeping the contrast between the lasers and the background.

Using a mixture of highly viscous motor oil and fluorescent dye, I highlighted some of the flow features around a submerged sphere. I captured images at 15 second intervals and created a time lapse movie of the event. This image alone shows some of the complications that arise when trying to control a three-dimensional flow. I hope to also use this flow visualization technique to understand flow around the tips of wings (where highly three dimensional effects are prominent) in an effort to make wing-tip designs more efficient.

Sometimes my colleagues ask me to take images that will be used in conference presentations. For these, I usually have a little more leeway and can clean the image up in post – something that I cannot do with any image that will be published in a journal paper. In a nutshell, their research objective is to create low cost micro sensors to measure shear stress, something that can’t be directly measured at the time. To show the size of the sensor, I decided to place one sensor next to the tip of a pencil and another one on top of a popular snack around the lab.

Using photography in the lab setting has allowed me to get comfortable with a camera. In the last few years my passion for photography has spread from a work-related necessity to a hobby I do in my spare time. Many thanks to Jason for letting me share with you a slightly different perspective on photography.

*****

Editor Note: 

One thing I always keep saying to myself is that Canon Blogger really needs more guest writers.  There are so many knowledgeable people out there that likely can run circles around me mentally, from whom I could learn a thing or two.  To that end, when I can learn, everyone can, so I am hopefully going to make this a more common practice.  To that end, if you are interested in writing any guest posts here on the blog, I am happy to entertain the idea, provided that you can:

If you can do that (or know someone who can – please feel free to contact me and we can get the ball rolling.  As for the guest post today, I’d like to thank Miguel for sharing his insights, experiences and photography here on the blog – I was riveted!  Please do stop by his own website for more of the same at:  www.miguelpalaviccini.com  He is now a good friend, having met originally through the Monthly Contest Series!  His was the winning image a few months back and in exchanging information, I learned that he was using photography and photographs during his studies!  Being a devotee of education, I was intrigued.  One thing led to another and here we are today, so please be sure you offer thanks to him both here and on his website!

In being playful with your work, it’s often even more helpful to put down the tripods, and SLR’s.  Put down the lenses and filters. Put down the soft boxes and fill flashes.  Being playful means letting go of the “rules” of photography.  I’m reading David DuChemin’s book, The Inspired Eye (available now on his website – use EYE3Free for 20% off through Sat.), and in it, he speaks to this idea that that inspiration can come from play.

Some ideas from David include taking a day and try taking pictures whenever the mood hits.  Even if you are shooting through wet glass, or in a moving car.  Take a picture with your focus ring taped down.  The softness from the out of focus shot can force you to look at something more generic like the lines and energy of a scene.  It really is inspired capture that David is going for here, and that can definitely come from play.

One of my favorite images from my own library is a niece – I was literally playing.  I wasn’t expecting anything great, or show-stopper quality.  Just goofing around.  I was laughing and being silly, and so was she.  I took the camera to ridiculous angles, knowing it wouldn’t work (or so I thought).  Just goes to show you the power of play in photography:

The upshot?  Take time to play – only good things can come from it!

We all have Circadian rhythms or body cycles that are tuned specifically to us…whether you identify that as being a morning person or a night owl.  This also applies to your creative rituals too though.  Because our body clocks all operate on a unique pattern of restfulness and alertness, we have different times when we are the most creative.  Our mind is able to focus on creative ideas and energies, and the distractions of the rest of the world aren’t nearly as distracting.  The windmills are out there and we tilt away at them with every fiber of energy!  Do you know when your creative zone occurs?

For me, that time often comes right around midnight.  If I am not too sleepy, or I power through the initial desire to just go to bed, my mind suddenly becomes much clearer, my vision focuses, and I get so much done from my creative space, it’s kind of eerie.  Tracy woke up once to find my literally typing a million miles a minute…the thoughts couldn’t get out of my brain fast enough.  After about 3-4 hours of it though, my entire body just shuts down.  The exciting thing though, is that I’ve been able to identify this creative zone.  I know if I need to get some writing done, or some post production work on photos, or anything creative – those are the hours when I get the most accomplished.

We’re all different though, some people have this rush of creativity in the morning, or in the middle of meals or other activities.  I’ve talked to so many people who still are unsure of when they really are at their creative best.  When people attend workshops and get immersed in a creative world, the ideas flow much more naturally.  The same holds for conferences, seminars, and any type of learning environment.  It’s like the mind knows that other creatives are around and the energy for learning and expression is much higher than what we are normally exposed to.  The trick comes in being able to identify when your creative zone normally happens when you are in that daily routine.  Is it right when you wake up?  After that first cup of coffee?  Right before you go to bed at night?  Or is it on those sleepless nights at 2am when your creative juices just start flowing?

When is your creative zone?

Since we weren’t shooting in any sort of “official” capacity, i figured it’d be a good time to kick the tires on this new lens (sorry, can’t reveal it just yet).  Suffice to say, I was not thrilled with the shots.  As luck would have it, I had swapped out between my 70-200 Canon and this lens right before the race, and inadvertently left my 1.4 TC on.  The end result was that the shots were just “off”.  The entire ten second scene was exciting to watch, and a few great shots presented themselves to me, but because of the gear selection and conditions – I got nuthin’!

However, always with education in my mind, this was a great story for two reasons.  First and foremost – it’s a reminder that if you are shooting an important event, always shoot with tried and true gear you know, and have had positive results with before.  Second, it’s always a good idea when testing new gear to try it in various configurations to make sure you know what you are getting before your return period expires.  Imagine if you purchased a lens, had enjoyed it, then past the return window, you decided to then test it with accessory items like a TC, only to get less performance than you expected. Oh well, chalk it up to an expensive mistake (glass is never cheap, and even good glass can not work for your particular style of shooting!).

As sort of a bonus tip, I also learned that when shooting sports, always keep your aperture above the minimum for a couple reasons.  First, a deeper depth of field will give a better sense of place, and second, if your focus is even slightly off and you happen to be shooting at a higher number, the chances of getting at least part of the scene in focus is better than if you shoot like I did – at 1.4!  While I normally don’t share bad shots – in this case, it’s helping to serve as an example of what not to do:

As you can see, nothing is really in focus, and my suspicion is that it was due to the presence of the TC as further studio testing produced results consistent with what I would normally expect without the TC.  And with the TC, the oof results also continued in studio – with a lot of difficulty in even achieving focus on objects unless the contrast was especially evident.  Even then, it jiggled a lot betwenn two focusing points, so the lesson I got in all of this is that when using a __________ (thought I was gonna say it, didn’t ya?_, don’t use the TC!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too.  What did you shoot and what were your lessons learned?  Sound off in the comments with your own thoughts, ideas, tips, and tricks!  Until tomorrow – happy shooting!

Suffice to say, there is something special about black and white photography.  There always seems to be some powerful emotional draw about it.  I’m not sure if it’s the contrast between the bright and dark parts of the imagery, or some other intangible, but many people have tried black and white with varying effects.  I’ve even seen some people take it to a very powerful extreme in the form of IR photography, modifying cameras to achieve the look or going for it in their post production.  For that reason, I’d encourage you to consider adding some black and white to your portfolio, just for a sense of counterpoint from time to time.

I was dabbling a little with it over the weekend, and came out with several striking images myself – just going through various post production techniques.  Here’s a sampling of those images:

The back story behind this most comes from one of the more common questions I get these days about Lightroom.  It comes in the Develop Module and confusion about the difference between the Exposure slider, the Fill Light slider, and the Brightness slider.

It’s easy to see how there could be confusion when you start pushing sliders to their extremes, because at the higher levels, the impact does seem the same.  However, when kept within their intended parameters, these adjustment sliders all impact different areas.  Specifically:

• The Exposure Slider adjusts the brighter tonal portions of an image
• The Fill Light Slider adjusts the shadows or darker tones in an image
• The Brightness adjusts the mid-tones of the image.

To better illustrate, take a look at the images below.  First up is the default in camera settings:

See how the shadow detail is completely lost?  Having exposed for the sky, the camera was unable to capture the shadow detail sufficiently to reveal anything.  When you see this, often the natural inclination is to increase the exposure to try and bring back the detail in the shadows.  So, let’s see what happens…

See how the only area really affected is the part by the setting sun?  I’ve increased the exposure by one half stop.  Since that’s not much of an adjustment let’s take a look when we dial things up a bit more.  Here’s the next image, with the exposure increased by a full stop:

Now it’s just starting to look a little garish, and the appeal of the image is nowhere near even what the defaults were.  I could further prove the point by showing another half stop increase in exposure, but I think you probably get the gist.  So, let’s take a look at the Fill Light slider and how adjustments there affect the image.

Here I’ve increased the Fill Light to +25.  See how the area around the setting sun hasn’t been affected?  We don’t see much of a change yet, but watch what happens when we increase the slider some more.  Here’s the same image at +50.

If you look at the mountain, see how we’re starting to see some separation from the lower one in front and the one behind it?  You can see the tree line now!  This actually (I think) adds some depth to the image that wasn’t there in the original.  This is a great example of how the Fill Light slider is bringing back shadow detail in the image.

So, now that we see difference in the shadow detail, let’s take a look at what the Brightness Slider does.  As I said above, it doesn’t address the lightest tones or the darkest tones in the image, but rather tries to pull out detail from the middle tonal parts of the image.  Let’s take a quick look at that too, just to illustrate the differences here.

It’s worth noting here that by default, Lightroom puts an image at +50 on the Brightness slider, so an increase to 75 here isn’t that much of a change, but we are still seeing some subtle changes in the cloudy part of the sky.  That makes sense as this is where the mid tones are for this image.  It’s even more evident though when we adjust the brightness up another notch to +100.

That sky is starting to look just about perfect for my tastes.  I could take it a notch further but again, hopefully by now you get the gist.  What’s important here to note though, is that there is no single slider adjustment for any given photo that will make it “perfect”.  Instead, it’s almost always a combination of post processing adjustments in not only the exposure, fill light, brightness, and even others that will take your snapshots and make them great shots.  For me, the end result here, is a combination of all three of these sliders, and a dash of some other adjustments to make it what you see below:

Here, I’ve done some adjustments to various sliders.  Can you tell which ones I’ve used and to what degree?  Hopefully after today’s post, it’ll be easier to tell in the final image – and in your own images!  Take some time and play with your own images inside of Lightroom and see what it can do for you!  Have a great weekend, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

I get this question a lot too.  The problem with any ultimatum, is that it’s going to invite bias and subjectivity.  Whether it’s lenses, cameras, computers, software or even media cards, there is no objective and universal vendor or manufacturer of media cards that is head and shoulders above the others in the field.  What I can tell you is that there are some who are notably superior.  I’ve not ranked these in any specific sort of order, but from my own experiences, these are the vendors that deliver a stable, high quality product with a good focus on QA:

• Lexar
• Sandisk
• Hoodman
• Ridata

If you get your media from them, by and large, you will probably be happy with the results.  I’ve heard stories of amazing success and durability anecdotes ranging from going through the clothes washer, to getting pounded by a 2000 pound vehicle.  One of the most amazing ones I read was someone who took a swim in the ocean, sweated in a sauna, and cooled off at a pool bar before realizing the media card wallet was in his swim trunks pocket – and all survived!  So, you can really pick and choose from the above and likely get quality results.  For my own tastes, I have used all of the above, but will say that I’ve noticed Lexar cards can be found for slightly less, either through promotions or sales for equivalent capacities.  Of course in the interests of full disclosure, they have also contributed to the contest giveaway series here, so that in and of itself could introduce some subjective bias on my part again.

So, there you have it!  On On Monday I looked at capacity considerations in Megabytes vs Megapixels, then later an article looked at speed transfer rates in How Fast Can You Shoot, and today, the last in this series of articles – the vendor portion of the equation.  There are, of course, other factors that could go into any buying decision, but this wasn’t about being exhaustive, rather being informative and sharing my own thoughts, insights, and experiences with media cards in photography.

Just a couple final reminders as we go into the weekend:

First up, the LDP Contest Series is underway, and I’ve added a 70-200 Special Edition from the folks at Photojojo to the giveaway.  Expect a review forthcoming shortly!  Make sure you enter for your chance to win.  Already in the prize list is a license for Photo Rescue software.  Enter here!

A new newsletter is forthcoming shortly, as is a new eBook!  This time it’s free, but only going to subscribers, so be sure to get signed up before that is released!  Special promos and discounts may also be in the newsletter for other products too, so if not signed up, you can get in on the action here.

Have a great weekend everyone, happy shooting, and we’ll catch up again next week….”on the flip side”!

His image, clearly thinking “outside the box” of a taxicab in NYC just jumped off the page for me:

So, Miguel, drop me a line via the blog or Flickr to claim your Streetwalker Pro and I’ll get this shipped out to you in short order!  Congrats to Miguel, and thanks to everyone who participated – this was an excellent month with lots of great ideas, creativity, and inspirational types of imagery!

With July in the books, I’ve got a really cool product up that saved my bacon more than I’d care to remember.  it came to me from none other than David Ziser when I attended his workshop here in Denver.  He had mentioned a little product called PhotoRescue and it does exactly what you’d think – recovers photos off a card that were deleted accidentally!  Sheer brilliance in design, and even affordable to the tune of $30 if you end up not winning the giveaway!  Here’s the nuts and bolts:

1.  Two images per person

2.  Work/family safe

3.  Shared via the Flickr thread here

4.  Downloadable by me (so I can announce you as the winner on the blog)

5.  Deadline is August 31st (this is a Wednesday too, so not a weekend as is the norm)!

6.  This is a software product so the key is distributable globally which means – no country border limit!

7.  And the theme is…”SAVE!“

So, enjoy it, embrace it, and win!  Some extra goodies may be added depending on how sponsorships and such pan out in the next week or so! Hint hint – more coming than what meets the eye!   Thanks to the folks at DataRescue for the sponsorship, support, etc.

So, for today, I am happy to bring to you the latest gear review – from none other than the folks at Sigma, with their 85mm f1.4 lens.  Let’s just jump right in:

1.  Focal Length – I’ve talked at length on the blog before about fixed focal length versus variable length zooms.  Their differences, both pros and cons of each are duly noted, and for the most part, I think we can skip the formalities of the technical explanations.  It’s an 85mm lens.  This means you are not going to be able to zoom with the lens, rather with your feet.  It also means that you will gain pros in IQ (See #8 below).  Normally I am shooting with either a 10-22 for wide angle landscapes or a 70-200 for portrait work, so this took a bit of adjusting.

When I did shoot portrait work, I kept on having to step further back to bring more of the subjects face into the scene, and with landscapes, I found myself rotating into portrait position (vertical) and instead of trying to get everything in one shot, rather capturing several shots, with the acceptance that I would have to stitch together in post production.

It’s not perfect for either, but a good compromise in focal length to try and meet the needs of both ends as much as possible.  If I had to choose my favorite focal length, it probably would not be an 85mm, but there are very subjective reasons for that, which probably aren’t as relevant here, so I will defer that for another post.  The focal length is what it is.  You either like the length or you do not.  I was middle of the road on it – sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t.

In the end, I think the focal length was fine for most purposes.  Even

2.  F-Stop Range – This is the reason I want this lens.  Stopping all the way open to an f1.4 gives you amazing results from two key perspectives:

• Depth of Field – When you shoot with a low depth of field, the subject is very easily separated from the background.  This also brings up the subject of bokeh quality, and here I was quite impressed as I didn’t see any evidence of jagged lines or aperture opening sizes, which is often characteristic of cheaper lens builds.
• Low Light photography – Low light photography to me means shooting at or near dusk, or in an incandescent environment where you don’t want to introduce flash.  You don’t want to be a part of the scene.  The photographer wants to blend into the background and be as unobtrusive as possible.  Lenses with low f-stop ranges allow you to do this, and the Sigma 85mm f1.4 is no exception!

3.  Noise – The motor on this lens is as quiet as one would expect for current technology – whisper!  I never heard anything that would cause a distraction, and at this point I am actually considering upgrading the Sigma Macro for this reason – the quieter the operation, the easier it is to concentrate on what you are shooting!

4.  Size/weight – About what would would expect for this focal length and aperture.  Remember, the lower the aperture (f1.4) the beefier a lens will have to be, because elements will need to be thicker in order to have any sort of stability.  It made for near perfect balance in conjunction with the 40D.  On a larger camera like the 5D or 1Ds Mark IV, I could see where you might not have as much a balance, but for my purposes, it works!

5.  Build – Patented and as expected, the water resistant housing, and non-slip grip that is now almost a trademark feature of Sigma was present so no surprises there.  I always enjoy shooting with Sigma gear because the heft of it just feels solid in my hands.

6.  OS/IS/VR – There is no built in motion correction here, which is what I collectively use to refer to the proprietary features of Sigma, Canon’s and Nikon’s camera shake correction technologies.  ALthough I should probably share that OS = Optical Stabilization (Sigma), IS = Image Stabilization (Canon), and VR = Vibration Reduction (Nikon).  Since this lens doesn’t have this motion correction feature, there’s really not much to discuss here.

The one note I would have is that when shooting with this lens, the benefit is primarily in that you can shoot at f1.4 which lets in a lot of light.  To that end, the need for motion correction is probably not as needed, except for the most exceeding low light scenarios, but you’ll see in a minute, that’d have to be pretty darn low!

7.  Cost – For the benefit of shooting at f1.4, the price of admission is hefty indeed.  B&H Photo prices it out at $969.  Since this is a new lens in their lineup, you likely will not find it for much less than this, as there is no aftermarket yet to speak of.

8.  Image Quality – Here, as always, I like to let the images speak for themselves.  I’ve tried to include a few samples that demonstrate both the depth of field capabilities and the low light performance.  Keep in mind – every image here was shot hand held!

The meta data tells me this trip happened back in 2007, so it’s about 3 years overdue – but here’s some fun architecture shots from a trip to St. Augustine back then (and for @AmieDM17  – thanks for the blog post topic! – here’s your photo montage!)

And given the gallery portfolio from yesterday, I seem to be having something of a penchant for 1:1 aspect ratio crops lately.  The other interesting thing is that whenever I visit a city, the doors and windows seem to capture my attention in the architecture the most.

Since I always tend toward the educational side of things, here’s my educational take on this archival portfolio:

Point #1 – Always be open to publishing archives!

Sorting through old shots can bring new inspiration and re-invigorate you.  It did for me as an extra post came about as a result!  It also reminded me of a fabulous trip I took with my wife three years ago.

Point #2 – Listen to your inner voice! 

For me, I’ve always been drawn to the windows and doors in a city.  It’s as if the windows are the eyes of the city’s soul – that’s where all the stories are told for me.  What about you?  What from a city tells its story to you?  Is it the people, the cultures, the architecture, or something else.  We all have a vision that draws us…do you know your voice?

1.  I am moving hosting companies!  The timeouts here on the website have gotten pretty bad, and I hear you all loud and clear.  To those ends, the confidence in my current provider has waned pretty substantially to the point where I am laying the groundwork to leave for a VPS solution that can accommodate my budget.  So, the blogging may be spotty for the next couple days while I prep the behind-the-scenes stuff.

2.  I’m updating the photography website.  Yup, aside from the blog (which generates the greater of the traffic), I am also giving my photography website a serious makeover.  Truth be told, I’ve never really given it the attention it deserves, since most of my work has been through word-of-mouth, and not through my online presence (do as I say, not as I do!   )

3.  And last but not least, I am updating my portfolio.  We all have our favorite designed and layouts, so will be tinkering with a few to present on both the blog and the other domain.  But, since you all like pictures the best (at least Google Anayltics tells me that’s the case), here’s some selects from the latest upgrade to the portfolio:

And since any portfolio also needs a gallery to really give it the full semblence of appeal, here’s the entire collection assembled.  Ideas, thoughts, comments, suggestions and critiques, are always welcome!

Before I go, just two quick reminders for you today too:

1.  The Live Learning Lab Webinar is coming up this Wednesday – where Kerry Garrison and I will be tackling the topic of “Mastering Exposure”.  All about the essentials of getting your exposure spot on each and every time.  Tag a reminder to join us now, and we’ll see you Wednesday!  http://tinyurl.com/6aexmnm

2.  Nations Photo Lab is also in the final two weeks of their scorching hot Sizzling Summer Super Size Sal (say that 10x fast)!  Get 50% off all enlargements up to 16×20.  And if you don’t have an account, open one and use promo code “Jason” to get $50 free in prints when you sign up!  Can’t beat that pricing, eh?

3.  We’re also in the final two weeks of the monthly Flickr Contest – submit your own photo to win a free StreetWalker Pro bag courtesy of yours truly and Think Tank Photo!  Click the link in the upper right corner of the blog to submit your best “Street” themed photo before it’s too late!

Another added benefit of using the aperture instead of a layer of glass is the optical quality of your images is retained instead of losing sharpness, or even adding distortion on the edges of your shots.  Someone once said to me “Why would you add a $20 filter to the end of a $500 lens?”  At that point, I decided never to add cheap filters in order to produce a desired effect, and the star effect is a great example of this scenario.

Here’s a few sample shots I took with the Sigma 85mm f1.2 lens recently where dialing things down produced this star effect:

By comparison, take a look at a shot of the same sunset, but without the star effect.  Sure, it’s a nice shot too (I like the branches in the upper part that bring a sense of balance to the image), but the missing star effect makes it somehow less magical for me.  What about you?  Do you like the magical stars from shooting at f16?  Sound off in the comments with your thoughts on shooting at f16 for stars, or any other photo tips you’d care to share.  Have a great weekend, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

For today, July 4th, 2011 – be happy and celebrate our freedom to take pictures!  Were it not for the events that bring us to celebrate this holiday, that may not be a right we enjoy!  The best way to celebrate?  Stop reading this blog (or any blog for that matter), go out and take a picture!  Be proud!

Nevertheless, since photos have not been at the forefront, I wanted to dedicate an entire post to sharing some photos from the trip here with you.  So, without further ado, some selects from the trip!

To finish things off, a quick reminder that today is Webinar Wednesday!  Kerry Garrison (Camera Dojo) and I go live tonight at 7pm Mountain Time, 6pm Pacific.  If you’ve got time to stop in and check out the show, or even want to share the info with friends, it’s always free to join!  Here’s the sign-up page…see you tonight!

Step two was to set up the lighting, the tripod, and the “wood art” in a scene where i could adjust the aperture and keep everything else constant.  With my own little studio set here in the house, that was accomplished easily enough.  I set the focal point on the nearest nail, and dialed in the exposure I wanted.  Then, I switched to manual focus so as to not bump or have the camera try to shift it for me and dialed through the various f-stops.

Step three – simple post production:  camera calibration, white balance, and lens correction.  I also applied a 75 value to the sharpening slider from the detail panel, but did so universally.  So, with everything but aperture constant, here’s the results:

So, at this point you should have enlarged the photos above, and scrolled through the entire gallery so you can see exactly what is sharp at f2.8 all the way through f16.  By the time you get to the end, so much has changed and often gradually, it’s hard to see the difference.  But if you look at the f2.8 and f16 shots side-by-side – they are worlds apart compositionally speaking.  Now I grant you, nails hammered into a 2×4 piece of lumber 2″ apart is not the most artistic piece ever shot, but it hopefully illustrates what can happen to a photo simply by changing the aperture and keeping everything else constant!

WHere do you think creatively adjusting your depth of field would work?  Try to think outside the box here too.  A few ideas for starters:

• A flower from close up…
• A portrait shot, with background blurred
• Macro photography – bugs and insects, computer chips and parts

There’s a whole world out there with plenty of opportunities to create gorgeous photos with only your creativity to limit you.  Where do you want to go today?

1.  Slow down! – Your shutter speed is the best way to blur water…taking things down to at least 1/4 of a second, if not longer.

2.  Steady as she goes – Use your tripod!  When shooting at slower shutter speeds, it helps immensely to be solidly mounted on a good set of legs.  Without getting into the pros and cons of various features and qualities of various tripods, if you are shooting a 10 second exposure of a beach at sunrise, you need legs!

3.  Control the light – What a lot of people run into when slowing their shutter is an invariably brighter exposure…to combat extra ambient light in the scene use ND filters to prevent those extra rays of light from hitting your sensor.  Polarizers can work too, but they are less effective as they can have some downsides to them including elimination of reflections, casting a specific tone on your entire image, and more.  When in doubt, always use ND filters.

As always, there’s more than one way to skin a can (or blur water)!  More involve shutter dragging with fill flash, and lots of others.  What ways do you use to blur and control waters’ appearance in your images?  Sound off in the comments with tips and tricks of your own! Happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again next time with more photo goodness!

Comment Contest

I just got word last night from Nicole that a copy of both her 60D and 7D books will be donated to the comment contest – so there’s gonna be two winners!  All you have do to is comment on the podcast post from Monday!  Yup, that’s it – no fuss, no muss – just comment and win!  Pretty generous of her and Peachpit to donate like that!  Oh yeah, and be sure to listen to the podcast, we have a great conversation about how to strike a balance in your photographic life!  All that’s available from here.

Photoshop Cs5 Webinar

The folks over at Nations Photo Lab just keep on giving!  In addition to the monthly Flickr contest (where you get $50 certificates just for playing), they’re also the sponsors of the Live Learning Lab – a free live webinar served up on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, hosted by myself and Kerry Garrison of Camera Dojo.  We just had the February one last night, and it was quite the hit!  You can watch the archived shows for free too if you can’t be in attendance – just can’t ask questions in real time.  Anyway, the archive is here

If you’d like to participate in the March webinar – be sure to sign up in advance as we can only take 100 people.  More details are forthcoming on that shortly.

And more…

Okay, there really isn’t much in the way of “more”, but since I like to have images for every post, here’s a quickie from my own archives just for a dose of inspiration (in hopes of a Spring thaw soon!).  Happy Shooting!

I wish the birds eyes were more viewable, and the ISO was pretty high so took some serious slider dragging in LR to make presentable here.  Not sure the second is close enough to be worth it, but then again there is something to be said for negative space!  Consider it a photo critique day – so do thy worst fair readers, critique the author!

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again soon!

A while back I teased about a forthcoming lens review (nearly 3 months ago actually, in the Teaser Alert), and after several project shoots, the holidays, and scheduling delays, I am finally getting my act together to bring you the latest gear review…that of the Sigma 50-500mm.  As a word of caution, you should be forewarned that the Sigma line-up of lenses that I have reviewed has become quite extensive.  Right away this should tell you two things:

• Sigma has been quite generous with me in terms of making a variety of lenses available.  They likely are doing this for a number of reasons, but primarily because they know that I will give a fair, honest, and 9 times of out 10, a positive review of their equipment.
• I like Sigma lenses!  It should be no secret by now that I do like their lenses.  They are optically on par with what one would expect from lens manufacturers by todays standards.  Heck, sometimes I think the optical quality even exceeds that of the main brands out there (of course here I mean Canon and Nikon).  The price is almost always right on – sometimes the price tag is a little high for my taste, but the advantage that Sigma has is that they are what is considered a “third party lens”, and because of that designation, their pricing is a notch below comparable lenses made by either Canon or Nikon for equivalent glass.

So, when Sigma came calling (actually I called Sigma), with the 50-500, the game face was put on.  Right off the bat, here Sigma has been more than generous because I have now had this lens in my possession for nearly 3 months!  I’ve posted a few photos from this lens over the past three months, so you may see some repeated images here, but they serve the purpose of demonstrating the various settings that I have used to shoot and test this glass.  Having set the stage, let’s get started with the review.  In the past, I’ve talked about things in terms of Pros and Cons, listing first the things I like, then the things I was not as much a fan of.  While it has worked to a degree, I am trying to make things more uniform in the review section, so will start adhering to some more concise points and then indicating whether it is a pro or a con.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the

Sigma 50-500mm f4.5-6.3 Review

1.  Focal Range: The focal range is how lenses are most commonly identified, and this is the measure of how much “zoom” there is in the lens.  Here, the description says it all.  This lens ranges from a widest point of 50mm to an impressive “zoom” of 500mm.  On a crop sensor camera, that means you are looking at a range of 80 to 800mm!  By any standard, this is a pretty wide range, encompassing a difference of nearly 700mm in focal adjustments.  I am going to call this one a Pro.

2.  F-Stop Range: The f-stop range is the measure of the minimum (or maximum depending on your way of thinking) aperture the lens can handle at various lengths.  When dealing with a zoom lens, as you move further out, the elements have to compensate for the change in the length by increasing the size of the opening of the aperture, so you will see adjustments as the lens “zoom” increases.  The Sigma 50-500mm is dialed in to a minimum aperture opening of f4.5 to f6.3.  So, at the widest zoom of 50mm, the lowest aperture setting you can get is f4.5.  Likewise, if you zoom this all the way out to 500, the minimum aperture is f6.3.  So, don’t be misled by the numbers, shooting this lens at 500mm will not afford you the f4.5 that is capable at the widest setting any more than the f2.8 is available on a 70-200 at the longest zoom.  When you have zoom lenses, there is a compromise in aperture capabilities that must be met when zooming out, and such is the case here.  I did some experimenting at various focal lengths, and here are some apparent limits at different zooms:

Given the technology of aperture limitations in zooms, I would say that the Sigma is on par with what the expectations would be for this range. To build this lens for any lower aperture settings would make the lens both heavier and longer.  I don’t even want to think about what it would do to the price either!  It’s not the greatest in aperture abilities, but it’s no slouch either.  I’m going to have to thrown an “Even” flag on this.

3.  Noise: I brought in the noise consideration based on my first Sigma lens I ever purchased, the 70mm Macro (f2.8) which did not have HSM.  The inclusion of HSM in almost every lens since has been a Godsend.  This holds true for the 50-500mm as well.  It’s super quiet and has convinced me that I will never stray off the Hyper Sonic Motor (or USM on Canon glass, ever gain!  ‘Nuff said.  Pro

4.  Size/Weight: My last big lens I reviewed here was the 18-250.  It was a respectable weight, but this is by far the heaviest lens I’ve ever tested.  Weighing in at a shade upder 4.5 lbs (that’s 1970 grams for you Metric folks), it can cause some serious arm strain after extensive shooting.  I would recommend using either a monopod or a tripod for this lens whenever possible.  It also bears mentioning here that due to the weight of the lens, you want to support it in the provided collar.  Supporting the rig by the camera can result in some serious shear force, which can rip the lens right off the camera.  Other size considerations involve the length of the lens both fully closed and fully extended.  This will draw some eyes at either end…whether it be the short side (8.5″) or the long side (12″)!  Here’s a comparison shot with it next to several other lenses so you can get an idea of its relative size:

Another consideration to take into account about this size is the filter required.  For those interested in using the ND filters to protect front elements, you will need a 95mm filter to cover this – not a cheap thing to purchase by any means.  Ultimately the size/weight considerations really will depend on your personal ability to handle it effectively.  For me, most of the time it was not a factor, so I’ll acquiesce and call it a Pro.

5.  Build Quality: In line with expectations, the Sigma quality showed here.  Their now easily recognizable textured exterior exudes professionalism, and just feels good in your hands.  Given the weight of the lens, you don’t want to hold this gingerly, but at the same time, if the body took a slight bump from another lens in your bag, the “other lens” would likely bear the brunt of it.  No questions here.  It’s a Pro.

6.  OS/IS/VR: Due to the limited aperture range, and the weight, the presence of OS is invaluable.  Using the OS allows you to keep your aperture value low, allowing for bother faster manipulation and shorter shutter speeds, as well as some nice bokeh in the background when your distances are good.  What was extra nice about this is the ability to toggle between the vertical and horizontal planes to control vibration in different circumstances.  When I was on a monopod, I switched to OS 2 to help control vertical (or up and down) vibration.  When shooting handheld, I was on OS 1 most of the time, under the premise that my own face, body and camera holding helped to minimize the vertical and thus needed more help with horizontal.  When I was on a tripod, I turned it off per normal procedures for when using OS/IS/VR.  In my book, having versus not having OS/IS/VR is definitely a Pro.

7.  Cost: The average retail market for this lens is approximately $1500.  Given the focal range, the aperture range, and other considerations thus far, it seems to be pretty competitive.  The Canon lens with the longest zoom range is their 100-400 and that factors in at $1800.  Nikonians can salivate over their 80-400 for $1850.  Both price in over the Sigma lens, and it still gives an extra 110-150mm of variable range.  For my own personal budget, that’s a tougher call because while I would love to own this lens – I would have to sell something else to do so, and am not sure I want to dispose of anything else in my camera bag at the moment…the jury is out on this for me personally, but for those interested in purchasing any time soon:  Pro

8.  Image Quality: Image quality is always subjective to the viewer/shooter, so here I will just let everyone defer to their own tastes by sharing a few sample images taken over the last few months:

Kissing Squirrels

Chopper Series

Miscellany:

Other features that bear mentioning here include the locking mechanism and the focusing rings.  I thought about including the latter in the build quality, but decided to bring it in here for discussion.  First, the locking mechanism is a handy feature to have for keeping the lens locked in place to prevent lens creep.  The idea is a good one, but for this particular lens, it would not lock in the “zoomed” position, where I would have thought lens creep would be more of an impact, than in the “closed” position.  Having said that, from the lunar shots I did (as shown above), the fully extended lens did not experience much, if any, creep.  This could be because the lens was recently brought back from a service stop where knobs and buttons and toggles were all tightened and such.

This brings me to the focusing rings.  The rear focusing ring is the one used for fine tuning and the front ring is for zoom.  This was an adjustment for me as my other zoom lenses have these rings reversed (where the zoom is on the back ring and the focus is on the front ring).  it forced me to change my style of shooting a little, but since I was working off a lens-mounted setup most of the time rather than a camera-mounted setup, my shooting habits were already being adjusted anyway.  The last part is that the zoom ring did seem a bit tight to move.  Whether this is by design or because of the recent factory adjustments, I am not sure, but it was just a tad stiff to adjust.

Summary:

All in all, the Sigma 50-500mm is a great lens.  It stood up for the challenges of both wildlife and aerial photography, as well as lunar and even a portrait shot of the canine companion.  The compression it exhibits at the far end (which is characteristic of these long zooms) is to be expected, but I would probably not be using this for landscapes unless I was in a pinch and had no other lens with me.  Still, it could be done, depending on what kind of landscape you are trying to capture.  The zoom really had no noticable effect on image quality without going into some serious pixel peeping, and thus, meets or exceeds all criteria that I can think of.  I would definitely make a positive recommendation on this lens for either a wildlife or sports shooter where distance from subjects is often greater than 10-15 feet.  (The minimum focusing distance at 500mm is something like 6 feet!)

That does it for today – I hope you enjoyed the review and photo gallery from the Sigma 50-500.  Here’s the final results/scores I give the lens:

Have you shot with this lens?  Share your own thoughts in the comments or with me via email.  Likewise, if you have a lens you would be interested in having me review, feel free to drop me a line or share your requests through the comment area as well.  Special thanks to Sigma for giving me such an extended testing period to review the lens, and we’ll see you here again soon!  Happy shooting!

What is this a great day for?  You guessed it – a snowmobile ride!  Seriously, I went on just such an excursion the morning of the 1st!  I layered up in my best winter gear:

• Layer 1 – Thermals (long underwear)
• Layer 2 – Lounge pants
• Layer 3 – Blue Jeans
• Layer 4 – Snow suit

It worked quite well as I never really got all that cold!  I took off from the house in Keystone CO where we gathered for the holidays with family, and drove the 45 minutes from 9900 feet to the 11,000 foot mark.  Nearly two miles above sea level now where the air is downright thin!

Snow and Ice in the Air

It was a nice tour, led by the well-regarded folks of Summit Concierge and their services across the Colorado Rockies. The tour guides were friendly, we got some handling time in a track loop to familiarize ourselves with the equipment, then they split us into two groups of six for some pretty exciting scenic views.  One group was a family or two, then the other was mostly adults (myself included, although I felt like a kid – adrenaline surging as we whipped around at about 30-45mph on our Polaris snowmobiles!).

The Whole Gang!

As we crossed the mountains, with snow-covered pines, and gorgeous mountain-scapes.  Of course once we rode above the timber line, the scenery was just the white snow against the slightly paler misty sky.  It wasn’t snowing as at that temp, it’s just too cold.  Instead tiny bits of ice dusted the sky with hints of bluer skies behind the flakes of snow and ice.

At the summit!

I did imagine that we would get a bit cold in our extremities, as we whipped along.  After all, with a -20 gauge on the thermometer, 20mph winds and us tooling around with another 30mph of wind, it was likely very nearly around 50 below zero! But the handles of the Polaris were heated!  As you moved, the heat increased to snuff out the effects of the wind.  When we stopped I even took my gloves off to pull out the camera for some photography!  No gloves!  in 40 below temps!

Heated Handlebars Below...

The camera though, did not have the pleasure of heat, so it didn’t last too long, even inside my external snowsuit to shield it from the bitter cold.  I got perhaps 45 minutes of shoot time from the two batteries I packed.  The point and shoot fared better as it was inside my own snow jacket pocket, closer to the warmth of my own core heat. But it even capitulated to the cold after being taken out for a mere 20 minutes!  I found this out at one of the rally points…

Rally Point Break

Regardless, it was a great ride, with half pipes, remarkable scenery and even a stop for hot chocolate halfway through (the tour guide started the heaters as we began the trek)! For the adventurous – this is definitely one to consider when  you go to book your next adrenaline tour!  It was a great way to usher in the New Year!  How did you celebrate the start of 2011?  Share your thoughts, shots, and feedback in the comments below or via email.  Don’t forget to share socially too!

And finally, for those that read all the way through the journal article, here’s a short video I took from my Flip HD Video (Christmas Present):

While the effort and idea are splendid – they are vague by definition and thus, difficult to define success in achievement.  How would you define “better” or “improve”?  There is also no accountability when these statements are made.  So, when making resolutions from a photographers point of view, it helps to define your resolutions clearly, and to share those resolves with others, so as to make yourself accountable.

My goals?  Funny you should ask, because I have the same goal I made last year – to shoot at least one project each and every month.  And I did it!  Here’s the project I did for each month:

• January – All About Brighton, Baby!
• February – Meetup Group – Downtown Denver
• March -Sun, Wind, and Frost
• April -CHDK is Cool
• May -Beautiful Bokeh
• June -Nothin’ But the Tail Lights
• July -Launch of “49 Photo Tips – The Sequel“
• August -Raquette Lake Rendezvous
• September -Colorado isn’t Just for Sunsets
• October -Visiting the Pumpkin Patch
• November -Sigma 70-200 f2.8 Review
• December -Helicopter Shoot

The goal for the year was to shoot more and write less.  While I still plodded away at the blog in an effort to provide continued content for the readers here (and I hope you enjoyed 2010)…more effort went into advancing my own photography library in 2010.  The stakes are raised for 2011 though.  As you may have noticed, some of the “shoots” weren’t as planned or dedicated photo shoots as others.  The Pumpkin Patch outing was definitely a multi-functioned event!

So, for 2011 – my goal is to go on an outing with photography as the primary focus! And, here I am happy to report that the month of January for 2011 has already been covered with a snowmobile outing on January 1st!

It was indeed quite the outing, and I learned quite a bit about shooting in extreme cold weather.  More to come on that as I put together the assembly for publication later this week.  Another shoot might be forthcoming on the same vein, so more is also pending there as well.

Pretty exciting (although my wallet is nervous!) for 2011.  Sort of a photo/travel/expedition blog post will be something to look for each month during the upcoming year!  If you have any places in the area (i.e. Colorado/Wyoming/etc.) that you would like to see me capture, say the word so I can take it into consideration sooner rather than later.  I’ve got some irons in the fire already scheduled for certain points during the year, but nothing affirmative as of yet.

What about everyone else?  Have you made any concrete resolutions?  Do share them in the comments or via email – an upcoming podcast will likely take some of your thoughts, comments, and feedback into consideration!  Happy New Year all and keep on shooting!