Today’s picture comes from the grounds at Vintage Virginia, one of the largest wine festivals on the East Coast. What an absolutely gorgeous day for a festival. Really the only down sides to the day were the warm sun and the wet and muddy grounds from last night’s thunderstorms. But it was nothing a little wine tasting couldn’t help us quickly forget.
I was not concentrating on practicing good photography skills and I certainly wasn’t going for any type of technique or theme for today. I just wanted to capture the festival, the sights and smells, and the good time that my friends and I were having. This picture was taken in the food court area. The barbecue pit was pumping out some great “smoke signals” and smells. It’s just too bad that the food wasn’t as tasty as it was last year.
On more of a Project365 maintenance note, I’m going to be increasing the size of the posted photos over at Flickr starting tomorrow. I will keep the images in the postings the same size, but over at Flickr you will have the option to view it twice as large. Just click on a photo that you’d like to see enlarged and you will be taken to Flickr where you should see a “More Sizes” button to press. At this time, I don’t plan to repost the large format of past photos, but if someone were to ask, I certainly would.
I saw this same type of bird snacking at my next door neighbor’s bird feeder yesterday. I made the mistake of trying to shoot her through the french doors leading onto my deck. Let me just say, that even with the 70-200mm L IS lens zoomed at 200mm, those panes of glass really ruined the clarity of the shots.
This morning, I woke up and saw it was a gorgeous day. So I decided to have my coffee and cereal on the deck. Once again, I saw my friend at the bird feeder. I decided that if I sat outside quietly with camera and strobe in the ready, she would eventually come back and I could take her picture. Sure enough, she came back, not once, but several times. I was able to get a few good pictures and chose this one for today’s entry into my project.
I processed this photo earlier in the day. As I’m typing up this post though, I now notice the perch that appears to be sticking out of the bird’s neck. What a bummer. I also don’t really like the flash reflection running along the plastic in the bird feeder. I’m not sure if there is anything I could have done to prevent this. I was using the flash to create a catch-light into the birds’ eyes. It might be difficult to see in this resized image, but in the full size version, the attempt was quite successful.
The bird who was nice enough to sit for this morning’s shoot is a Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). I am almost certain the photo is color correct as this orange is the same color I see with my own eyes. Could it be that I’m colorblind, or was it the scientist who made the name official?
I have two confessions to make about today’s picture. First, the picture was actually taken on 5-30, but at 12:00:05 am! So I’m bending the rules, but only slightly. You see, I did start this session well before midnight. It just happens that the best picture came towards the end of the session and on the wrong side of midnight. The reason it took me so long to get the shot that I liked leads me to my second confession.
On the way home from work I dropped by Ace Photo. I had intended to pick up two hot shoe to PC sync adaptors and a long PC cord so that I could begin working with off camera flash. Let’s just say it didn’t take long for the owner of the store to convince me that the setup I had intended on purchasing today was more or less a gum and tape solution for the Xsi and 430EXII Speedlite I intended to use it on. To make a long story short, I walked out of Ace Photo with the PocketWizard rig I have been lusting over.
Being that I haven’t used off camera flash before, never mind manual flash and manual mode on the Xsi (I almost onlys shoot in aperature priority mode and switch to shutter priority mode when I need the speed), it took me a while to find the best positioning for the flash and power of the strobe to achieve the picture I desired. Although I was unable to remove the shadow of the candle and its holder from the areas behind it, I do think it created a neat effect. It’s almost as if the buddha is sitting in a cave or dark room with a single light source.
By the way, the owner of Ace Photo said they are very close to opening up their ecommerce web site. They are taking a final in-store inventory and making sure the web site and in-store computers are both in sync with available stock. Apparently, Adorama and B&H don’t have the inventories of their brick and mortar stores tied to their in-store inventories. Anyways, if you’re in the Loudoun County, VA area, be sure to look up Ace Photo and drop by. Not only are they EXTREMELY helpful, they have just about every gizmo and do-dad I’ve read about on various blogs over the past few months.
Tonight I went over to my future in-laws’ house and checked on their dogs. I decided to pack Mela and Leila along for the ride so they could burn some energy and have some fun running around with their “friends”. Naturally, I brought my DSLR with me. Getting used to shooting with my 70-200mm f4 again after having the 17-55mm f2.8 zoom rental last week was a bit strange. I wound up getting a few good pictures of all the dogs, except for Mela. I guess she was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, unfortunately, my picture for today is of Leila again. I promise I will try not to use the subject multiple days in a row going forward.
On another note, I’ve really taken a liking to the Strobist blog and lessons. I’ve already added a bunch more gear to my wish list to get me going with small flash photography. I may even drop by Ace Photo Friday afternoon to pick up the two parts I need for a cabled setup. Tell you what though, it is going to be TOUGH for me not to just order the new PocketWizards. I am hoping my personal finance good sense kicks in so that I just use the cabled flash until I’m sure I can justify the cost of the PocketWizards. Time will tell.
You guessed it, another DIY snoot picture for today. This picture was taken at 5:30AM. The girls (dogs), Mela and Leila were a bit off their routine since we were only up this early to get my finance and her family to the airport for their two week vacation. Things are going to be a bit hectic the next two weeks as I am taking care of our girls and my future in-laws’ dogs as well.
I really wanted to get the “You’re a star” spotlight look on Leila in this picture. I took a similar one last night, but the focus was not so great. So I tried again this morning. I find the two distinct light sources in the picture quite interesting. I will certainly have to take into account the different temperatures of light in future shots if I do not want to see this effect. Especially if I’m taking some portrait shots. Perhaps I should add some color correction gels onto my wish list.
The weather was no help again today. The little bit of creativity that I had tonight helped me decide to make a snoot out of a cereal box. After cutting off the wide side of the box and wrapping it around a small soup can, I was able to staple the snoot seam together and fit it over my Speedlite. Since I’m still shooting with the flash on top of my XSi camera body, it took me a few shots to figure out the framing and exposure compensation which would best give me the spotlight effect I was going after.
On a side note, these flowers have been a great subject for me. They have lasted a week so far and are finally beginning to lose their petals tonight. I have to say they are quite fun to take pictures of, especially macro pictures. Maybe I can use the excuse of more flowers, more often, for my finance so that I can justify the purchase of a macro lens. Although, I am going to be adding the new PocketWizard’s (MiniTT1 and FlexTT5)to my wish list in the day or two so I can get more creative with my lighting. Maybe I’ll even become a Strobist one of these days. We’ll see which new toy(s) sound better over the next few weeks.
The title of this image is inspired by the animated film Over the Hedge. You might remember the dog in the yard panting this exclamation/question before all heck breaks loose.
This image was taken while I was playing with my two dogs, Mela and Leila. This is Mela in the photograph running back to where I’m laying on the floor throwing the miniature tennis ball for her and her “sister”. Mela is a Schnorkie, half yorkie half miniature schnauzer. She just turned 3 on Saturday while I was away at Lake Anna. You can only imagine how excited she was to get to play ball with me after not seeing me for four days.
Hence, my excuse for the not-so-spectacular image for my 5-25 photo. The subject is spectacular, but the overall image is just blah in my mind. Outdoor shooting was out of the question due to the downpours. For this shot I popped on my Speedlite and bounced the light off the white ceiling. I didn’t get a chance to take the time and clean up the flash effect in Mela’s eyes or on the door hinge. As I’m posting this, the image even appears a bit cooler than it should.
The forecast is calling for even more rain for the next few days here on the east coast. I will have to brainstorm some indoor shooting ideas in case inspiration doesn’t strike me before elsewhere before bedtime.
Here’s one for all those wine lovers out there. Lake Anna Winery was on the list of places visited this Memorial Day Weekend. My group stopped by for a few hours to do some wine tasting and purchase a few bottles. Unfortunately, they had nothing new since last year’s visit and my favorite limited-run had long sold out. But, we did purchase a few bottles and sat out back shooting the breeze, enjoying the sights and sipping the good stuff.
In this picture I was trying to achieve a few objectives I have read about across the web. The first objective was DOF. I wanted to blur the background a decent amount without entirely removing all the details. I wanted the viewer to still see the dimensions of this grape field. Secondly, I tried to have the dominent straight line in the photo travel into the corner of the frame. However, my favorite aspect in this photo is the lack of need for words. The MERLOT sign on the fence post says it all. This was one of a kind at this vineyard. I didn’t see any other fields labeled in such a way. Maybe they only grow Merlot grapes? I should have listened closer during last year’s tour.
The one thing I would have liked to capture better on this picture is the focus of the bottom left vine. Actually, I would have like for it to be a bit more out of focus. A Lensbaby Composer surely would have worked in this situation to accomplish this goal. But for now, that bit of gear still sits on my wish list. There is probably a post processing technique I could use as well, but I’ll have to save that challenge for another time. I have plenty of backlogged photo projects to bring up to date first.
Photo365-20090523 by HokiePerogi, on FlickrI have to admit, this picture was never meant to be considered for my Photo365 project. But low and behold, while taking it just to test out the lens I was renting for the week and to see if I could spot any sensor dust from all the lens swapping I had been doing over the past few days, I came up with this beautiful shot.
I barely even touched this photo in post-processing either. It was just one of those luck of the draw shots. The blues and whites came out exceptionally rich and with only the slightest of slight increases in vibrance, I was able to export the image at right. Almost as exciting as the above, I wasn’t able to find any sensor dust yet!
Now, I’m not very happy with myself with the lack of photos I took which are Photo365-geared. BUT, I did shot over 200 shots today. It just happens that the very large majority of those shots are of my friends and I playing cards and dice games while throwing some drinks back. Let’s just say those belong in the private collection for now.
Photo365-20090522 by HokiePerogi, on FlickrThis picture comes from the one and only pit stop I made on my way down to Lake Anna this past Memorial Day Weekend. After parking and scoping out the marina a bit, I found some signage saying I needed to pay $8 just to use the park in which I was standing. So instead of asking for any trouble, I headed back to my car empty-camera’ed. However, right over the roof of my car was the vantage point needed to take this picture.
My goal was to capture the battered and waving flag along with the other essential elements of a functional marina (ie. docks, gas, etc.). “Fueling the Dream” is my expression of the American Dream for some to own a fancy boat and the symbolically tattered but still waving flag reminding us of those who have fought for that dream.
Taking this picture made me think a bit about how I want to approach my 365 project. I am currently planning on sticking to a theme for each week. As you’ll see, this won’t be the case for the first week, but I do plan to become weekly theme-oriented in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
A self-proclaimed tech-geek, I enjoy anything powered by batteries or electricity. I'm not happy until I understand the full potential of any new gadget I get my hands on....
