January 12th, 2010
Classy Kitty
Whenever I pull my camera out, Kitty is ready to strike a pose. She definitely loves the camera!
Tag Archives: Photography
November 5th, 2009
How did I create this?
In another effort to show you, my billions and billions of fans, the way I go about creating works, I bring you the dissection of my creation “Henrik Lundqvist – All Alone”.
The main ingredients were a photograph that I took of Henrik Lundqvist that I took during warm-ups when the Rangers faced off against the Bruins on November 1st, and the background setting that I put him into.
This piece was an update to an image I created about two years ago, which also featured Henrik Lundqvist in a dark foggy setting (Check out the original). I wanted to make something that captured the feel of the original, but also improved upon it.
Now that we’re ready, lets get to the start of things!
First, I grabbed a suitable photo to work with, which features Henrik Lundqvist in his “crouched focus” pose, as he does before he takes shots in warm-ups.
November 4th, 2009
Canon 7D
As I sit and look above my monitor at the Canon 7D Product photos that I printed and put on my wall (You could call it my dream board), I have been pondering the possibilities that will be realized the day that I have one in my hands. There are constants that I am aware of; the still-photo-taking improvements over my current 20D will certainly be a joy to experience, and all of the late and great features in that respect will be nice, but expected. The one realm of uncertainty is in relation to the HD Video capabilities, which is an area I have not exactly dabbled in before.
I have had a bit of experience when it comes to video, but I’ve never had a camera to myself to try to complete a project of my own. In the past, the equipment available to me to perform such tasks would either be too expensive, or of lower quality than my vision demanded. Now that SLR cameras pack the punch that not only satisfies my inner photographer, I can think about endeavors of the video graphic kind.
While looking at example work that people have been sharing on the internet, I realize my first priority. Sound. It’s to be expected that the camera will deliver good results as far as looks go, as long as the person behind the equipment has an idea what they want to do. However, it seems like many of the nice looking visuals are matched by very poor sound, which in turn gives the overall product an incomplete feeling. Another issue is relying on audio that is not copyrighted by the creator, but that is a separate debate that plenty of other people can have for me. (See here.)
I understand that not everyone will spring for an external microphone, and that most people, including myself, won’t get a super duper video rig to attach their camera to. I do think that some kind of editing attention should go into the audio though, whether it be managing background noise or balancing levels. I’m not exactly an audio professional, but I plan to reach higher when it comes to audio, which I think is something that all of the photographers-turned-videographers should try to do.
As far as the visuals go, I think most would agree that the photographic eye lends itself well to video, as framing and composition in photography is a good skill set to have with video. One thing I’ll want to stray from, just because I see it so much, is close up shallow depth of field rack focusing. Yes, I think that focusing in or out on various subjects at close range to show off the way a photo lens can make anything look amazing has a place, but already I have seen it so much that I don’t want it to be a crutch for me.
The other big deal visually, which is something that is equally important in photography, is color correcting. Yes, raw video captures will have nice accurate color, but having more control over it will add on to the look and feel of what I want to create. This will most likely require learning a new work flow, which is always exciting yet tedious at the same time. There are ways in my head I think things should work, then there is the actual way they work, so it should be interesting to see how I can transfer my method of creation into other tools.
I say this all without the camera in my hand, so I can only imagine what it will be like when I actually have one!
October 30th, 2009
How did I create this?
In this little look into how I approach and execute my work, I’m going to show how I created the photo manipulation you see to the side here.
First off, the goal. I wanted an image of me sporting the uniforms of the Gem City Aviators that I designed. There were three things in the real world holding me back. I am rarely photographed, especially while playing hockey, I needed something high res, and I had no physical version of the uniforms (no jersey, matching gloves, matching pants, and socks). So, I had to think about how I could manipulate an existing photo to be a photo of me. Most people would just slap their face on a player photo and edit the uniform to look like whatever they wanted, but I wanted it to match very closely to me by having the same equipment that I used in real life.
The first order of business would be finding a suitable photo to work with. I figured that the New York Islanders uniforms had a somewhat similar design scheme to the one I made for the Aviators, so I started looking for photos of Islanders players (don’t start fellow Ranger fans :p) that I thought had good poses for me to work with.
October 29th, 2009
The camera of my dreams?
Now that I’ve got a bit settled in, I can get back to the original matter at hand that was in my forefront before all of my site issues.
I have had a Canon 20D dSLR for a little over four years now, and it has certainly served me well. It was the first generation immigrant from the land of digital to grace my country of film photography, and it was definitely a good ambassador. To keep the theme going, you could say that I operated with a dual citizenship to both the digital and film nations for a time. However, it became difficult for me to afford film and the processes that film required, so I ended up becoming a full citizen in the domain of digital photography. After so many tens of thousands of exposures later, here I am today.
The camera that did everything I asked is now a great-grandparent in the line of Canon ##d cameras, and it has started to fade. The shutter has been failing, as a shot will be framed and focused yet a pushed button will result in no action. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I surprised? No. I’ve put the camera through a lot so I expected it to start to act this way. However, the timing is terrible, given my financial situation.
Without the means to replace the camera, all I can do is remain in the dreaming state. Now, originally the camera of my somewhat attainable dreams was the Canon 5D Mark II. I had interest in using a full frame camera once again, and the video features definitely intrigued me. The high ISO capabilities were probably the biggest draw to me though, as a number like 25600 made for a lot of potential experimentation. The large boost in megapixels would also be a nice bonus, even though I have managed with 8.
Then, must to the delight of my dreaming mind, Canon released the 7D, which was much more on my level of wishful thinking, as it is $1000 cheaper than the 5D Mark ((. It was a crop lens, which is something I can certainly live with given the time I’ve used the 20D, it had a few less mega-pixels than the 5D, which honestly makes no difference to me, and the it can only go up to ISO 12500. Sure, it would be nice to do some stuff with 25600, but I’ll live. The fact that I’ll be able to get pictures at ISO 6400 that rival if not outmatch the shots I was used to taking at 800 will help me sleep better at night.
Being able to shoot 8 frames per second is a feature to look forward to, the 19 point cross type auto focus and improved AI Servo II sound and look good, and the wireless flash sync is another thing I would like to try out. The video features of the 7D are nice as well, with the ability to shoot 24p/25p/30p full HD and 60p at 720p. I would definitely like to explore the video features, and do more with it than a bunch of rack focus shots. It would be a good way to mix my visual art with my aural creations.
So there we have it, the camera of my somewhat attainable dreams. I just hope that my 20D doesn’t completely die on me before those dreams are realized.
Now that I’ve got a bit settled in, I can get back to the original matter at hand that was in my forefront before all of my site issues.
I have had a Canon 20D dSLR for a little over four years now, and it has certainly served me well. It was the first generation immigrant from the land of digital to grace my country of film photography, and it was definitely a good ambassador. To keep the theme going, you could say that I operated with a dual citizenship to both the digital and film nations for a time. However, it became difficult for me to afford film and the processes that film required, so I ended up becoming a full citizen in the domain of digital photography. After so many tens of thousands of exposures later, here I am today.
The camera that did everything I asked is now a great-grandparent in the line of Canon ##d cameras, and it has started to fade. The shutter has been failing, as a shot will be framed and focused yet a pushed button will result in no action. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I surprised? No. I’ve put the camera through a lot so I expected it to start to act this way. However, the timing is terrible, given my financial situation.
Without the means to replace the camera, all I can do is remain in the dreaming state. Now, originally the camera of my somewhat attainable dreams was the Canon 5D Mark II. I had interest in using a full frame camera once again, and the video features definitely intrigued me. The high ISO capabilities were probably the biggest draw to me though, as a number like 25600 made for a lot of potential experimentation. The large boost in megapixels would also be a nice bonus, even though I have managed with 8.
Then, must to the delight of my dreaming mind, Canon released the 7D, which was much more on my level of wishful thinking. It was a crop lens, which is something I can certainly live with given the time I’ve used the 20D, it had a few less megapixels than the 5D Mark II, which honestly makes no difference to me, and the it can only go up to ISO 12500. Sure, it would be nice to do some stuff with 25600, but I’ll live. Just the fact that I’ll be able to get pictures at ISO 6400 that rival if not outmatch the shots I was used to taking at 800 will help me sleep better at night. Being able to shoot 8 frames per second is a feature to look forward to, the 19 point cross type auto focus and improved AI Servo II sound and look good, and the wireless flash sync is another thing I would like to try out. The video features of the 7D are nice as well, with the ability to shoot 24p/25p/30p full HD and 60p at 720p. I would definitely like to explore the video features, and do more with it than a bunch of rack focus shots. It would be a good way to mix my visual art with my aural creations.
So there we have it, the camera of my somewhat attainable dreams. I just hope that my 20D doesn’t completely die on me before those dreams are realized.
