Shortest post ever since the sun comes up early and as usual I will beat it to work...
One more day and then the weekend. However never let your work suffer because of short sightedness or being asleep at the wheel!
-ehw
P.S. So,I'll take my nap now!>
My little girl Kellie her was reading like her big sister bookworm, and I just had to capture the smile...so I did.
Now in this little photo I found myself able to teach myself the value of a feature, and to remember an RC (as in Raphael Conception) rule.
I knew the had a high contrast scene, and to use the zone metering would make everything 18% grey (aka blah). So for this photo I slipped into spot metering (my spot metering is aligned with my focus point). This means my focus point will be exposed properly, and everything else will be exposed relative to that value. As a result you get all the blown highlights above my daughter, but I accepted that since I wanted it to be light and airy. Had I used zone metering the camera would attempt to meter different segments of the photo to have as much properly exposed as possible. Normally that is great, but it would take the pop out of this photo and make it flat. So my desired light and airy feel would be gone.
The other rule, RC's rule for kids, is in full force here. I had to take three photos with Mr Fuji to get the combination of smile, head tilt and light I wanted in the final product. RC is right that you can get good photos of kids...you just need to take lots of photos to get the one worth keeping. I can say for sure this is not luck, it is perseverance. (RC is often on the video blog Photography Tips and Ticks, Kelby One and his website www.aboutrc.com)
Just one point here about how lucky I've been so far in my short photography career. Even though I'm just a little guy, sold only a few photos, have so much to learn...I've had the opportunity to meet some of the nicest people in the business. I've met and briefly worked with big industry names like Skip Cohen, Michele Celentano, Bob Coates, Scott Bourne, RC, Bill Fortney, Jim Begley and they all gave me the time of day deep respect as a person. I've also met great photographers I count as friends like Adrian Ciolacu, Fran Ruchalski, Bret Watkins and many others who inspire me and helped me with things like finding a good print shop. I actually I hope I don't insult anyone who I run out of space to mention....
I think the thing that makes them so special is that they know how to approach a crowd with multi zone metering...and when given the chance to meet you one on one switch to spot metering. As a result they speak to you, treat you well and make you want to take care of them as they do to you.
So look them up, and enjoy their work. I'll try to get a link in to each over the next few weeks so you can see the wide range of talents that inspire me...and maybe you too!
-ehw
The last month flew by like a whirlwind. Sorta like that football flying past Manning on the first down...still hurts to see my team get crushed like that...
Well last week we had the second big storm of the season here in Atlanta. I have no illusions about driving on ice...did that before...did not like the results from an ice storm when I was 16, and respected them ever since. So we tucked into the house early, and never had an intention of leaving.
So here is our home covered in snow and about 1/2 to an inch of ice in spots eight days ago. I think I was the only person on my street who owned a shovel...leftovers from living up north. I really don't blame people down here for not owning a snow shovel. You'd use the darn thing once every few years.
While public school kids rejoiced, the homeschoolers here drove on with their lessons. Live continued to go on normally in our house as the worst of the storm went south and messed up the electric service down there. I was tangentially part of their day at school...and it was interesting for all of us.
Well the loss of work for me resulted in longer days since then to catch up, and that is how you pay the bills! So sorry for the absence...but feeding kids comes first.
This photo is from good old Mr. Pentax K-5 with the 16-50mm. I had a lot of snow and water falling all over me, so no lens changes here that's for sure. Since the whole combo was weathersealed, life was easy and fun as long as the front element stayed dry. Pentax RAW files, like most RAW files, are flat. You must process them to get what your mind's eye wants to share with the world. So for this shot I did the edits over in Perfect Effects 8, with a final crop in Aperture...done.
-ehw
Contrary to most textbooks, the dodo bird does show up from time to time in the wild. This one wore a mask to disguise itself amongst the busy downtown Alpharetta Canton Street.
For this photo I did a little bit of work in Capture One 7 Perfect Effects. One thing I've learned is that many, many effects can be done in your primary photo editor. Programs like Perfect Effects and the Nik products (I own both) can make the process of having fun with your image faster. Yes there will be some things you can only do in Photoshop, but reality is that for 95% of your work these tools will do just fine. Yes I did use some one shot HDR work with Perfect Effects for this...as RC Conception says...everything can look better in HDR.
-ehw
PS Fujifilm X-E1 with the old 18-55 again. The darn thing is just so versatile!