Clouds as Art
Over the past couple of days I’ve been chasing a Spot-breasted Oriole thought he neighborhood in an epic game of telephoto cat and mouse. Mostly with the mouse, er bird, winning. In the mean time I’ve also been working on continuing the two open series, A Brief History of Focusing and Photographing Flowers as well […]
Canon EOS 1D Next, Rumors and a Rant
I hate reading the rumors and rumor sites, they’re like a train wreck, horrible but so very hard to to look away from. The rumor mill seems pretty consistent on the perspective that the next EOS 1D will be an APS-H camera, and why not Canon’s own Chuck Westfall mentioned that Canon is committed to […]
South Florida Sunset
Some sunsets have amazing clouds, some amazing foregrounds, this one had amazing color.
Nikon Patents the Future of Autofocus?
An post on Nikon Rumors lead me to a couple of interesting patents Nikon has received. One in particular that has the potential to bring SLR level autofocus performance to point and shoot cameras or pave the way for a mirror-less SLR.
Photographing Flowers: Introduction
I don’t pretend to be an expert in flower photography but I’ve made a few flower images that I like and I’m going to try and figure out how to make more. This is the first article in a series following my attempt to figure out what does and doesn’t work in flower photography and how I went about making the images. This time we look at a general overview of some conventional wisdom for flower photography as well as some of the basics needed.
Clouds
I’ve always liked clouds, not normal clouds but big cumulonimbus clouds. Especially when they’re back-lit in the morning or late afternoon. Abstract in nature, often with interesting lighting and tonalities and always impressive in scale. On that note, I shot these of a brewing storm a couple of weeks ago.
Cameras: Set White Balance with Live View
It’s possible to set an approximate, but fairly accurate, custom white balance using live view in liue of a custom white balance target. Though doing so will be be less accurate than a properly calibrated white balance card. For most dual-dial Canon bodies, you cycle though the preset white balance modes using the rear dial, and change […]
Custom White Balances: Why Not to Use Printer Paper
When creating a custom white balance, it may be tempting to use any sheet of white paper as the target. Find out why this doesn’t work as well as you might expect.
Autofocus Testing and Microadjustments, Round 2
Today concluded round 2 of serious focus testing. What’s different this time from the last? A new target, a new alignment strategy, and some new results. Last time I looked at autofocus, I had enough problems focusing fast lenses that I was growing concerned that there was either a systematic design flaw or similar error […]
Adventures in Color Calibration
I just finished up helping a fellow photographer and friend setup and calibrate his new Dell 2407WFP LCD display and yet again I am reminded how much I really hate dealing with color and color profiling. What settings should you use to calibrate your display? In Michael Reichmann’s From Camera to Print, Jeff Schewe comments […]