Nikon D70

35 MM / DSLR / Digital Photography / Nikon D70 / Technique / Thoughts — No Comments
14
Aug 10

Composites: Some experiments

Push Button for One War

I usually stumble on to lot of the techniques by accident. I never tried doing composites in Photoshop but yesterday I decided to jump in give it a try. I had an opportunity to attend a workshop/photowalk with Kevin Raber, VP of Marketing for PhaseOne – the digital medium format company. The above image is a composite of three different images that I took during the photowalk. I just find it interesting that this composite makes so much sense in the context of drones and satellite guided weaponry. Soldiers don’t have to be in actual combat. Instead one can sit in an air-conditioned cube and remotely fight a war by pushing a joy stick and punching some buttons. Here is another one that I created from a USA Today newspaper box and a sculpture in the Evan Lurie Gallery:

Experiments with Composites

35 MM / Cameras / Nikon D70 / Portraits / Strobist / Technique — 2 Comments
4
Aug 10

Are budget strobes any good?

A collection of head-shots that I did several months ago...
I am an amateur photographer which by definition means that I earn my living by doing something else other than photography. That also means that I don’t really have the budget for expensive lights/strobes that many professionals use in their line of work. The professionals need them for reliability and consistency and I think they should get the best equipment their money can buy. Just like they say the best camera is the one that you currently have with you – the best light is the one that you have. In my case it was a Flashpoint Digipop and a Adorama softbox that my father-in-law handed to me several months ago. Rated at 300 watt sec it is not the best in the world, but it is small enough to carry and set up on location. I had the opportunity to take some head-shots for a childrens theatre company in town and I used this simple setup and the results at least in my view turned out great. I took these head-shots in the gathering area of Madam Walker Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana. The background was put together by covering a rectangular cutout propped against an easel stand with a cloth backdrop that I made myself. The strobe was on Camera Right at 45ยบ shooting down through a Westcott Umbrella. I did not use a reflector to fill in shadows because I wanted to create something more “dramatic”. The strobe was set to 1/3 rd power and exposure was 1/180 sec at f/8.0. Above you can see some head-shots from that set – what do you think?

35 MM / Cameras / DSLR / Digital Photography / Indianapolis / Nikon D70 — No Comments
22
Jul 10

Critters along Central Canal Towpath Indianapolis Indiana

Central Canal Towpath has quite a history and is very popular with folks living in Broad Ripple, Butler-Tarkington, and Meridian Kessler neighborhoods in Indianapolis. It is approximately 5 miles long and provides a great setting for running, jogging, or a brisk walk. You can read more about the Canal Tow Path at the Indy Greenways Website. I usually bike or walk along this path everyday but never until recently took my camera along. What motivated me to do so? Very simple – on many of my walks and bike rides I noticed a rich collections of insects, flowers, birds, and animals that call the canal and the area surrounding it home.

35 MM / Cameras / DSLR / Digital Photography / Nikon D70 / Technique — 2 Comments
6
Jul 10

Using lens bokeh to create abstract art (Blurred Vision)

Blurred Vision 2
Blurred Vision 1
Blurred Vision 3

I like the abstract color patterns created when you zoom into some children’s toys. Any deep life lessons in these pictures ….. not sure but they sure are cool to look at!

Cameras / Nikon D70 / Thoughts — 1 Comment
17
Jun 10

Leave the camera behind on your next vacation…

My wife and I along with our daughter Mira took a vacation, basically a road trip, through the American South. This was the first time that I ventured beyond the KY/TN border in a car. The trip was very interesting and we were glad to have done it. I don’t think think we would have seen as many places as we did if we just flew into Florida. We spent a few days in Savannah, GA and other notable southern towns like Charleston, SC. On this trip I did something that is very unusual of me. I left my camera in the hotel room for the most part. I just did not feel like walking around with a camera around my neck. It felt so liberating just to walk around taking in the scenes and sounds of these historic and culturally rich places. I did not worry about missing something or waste my time thinking about how to creatively capture something that has been photographed a million times before. For once I felt different from the multitudes of camera-totting masses milling around.

I did the same thing a few years ago when we stopped in Paris for a few days on our way back to the US from India. I clearly remember seeing the crowds taking photos of Monalisa at the Louvre Museum and thinking why? Most of these tourists ignored everything else around them and missed seeing some great works of art some of them even more impressive than the Monalisa itself. A post in the NY Times Lens Blog discusses extensively how travel and tourism are being effected by the ever increasing numbers of camera carrying tourists. I did however manage to take a few snaps here and there, took a few photos of Mira enjoying the beach and promptly put the camera away remembering why I was there in the first place.

35 MM / Cameras / DSLR / Digital Photography / Nikon D70 / Strobist / Travel — No Comments
5
Jun 10

Balancing ambient light with a Nikon Speedlight (flash)

Learning to balance ambient light with a Nikon Speedlight (flash)
I still have a lot to learn on how to use Nikon Speedlights. There are some amazing resources out there for anyone wanting to learn and one such resource is the Strobist Website. On a recent trip to Florida we stopped at a beach in the historic St. Augustine area. The sky was pretty ominous and the ocean was rough because of a small Atlantic Storm. As we were walking to the beach from the car I saw this pigeon sitting on the fence against this dark grey sky.

MetadataI took a meter reading of the sky which came to 1/250 sec @ f/11 which would have been too dark for the Pigeon. I set my SB-24 Flash in Manual mode at 70mm Zoom, 1/16th power and f/11 giving me a working distance of roughly 7 feet. I fired off a couple of shots and each time I changed just the distance from the pigeon. I am pleased with the result and the fact that I am getting the hang of Speedlights and using them efficiently.