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February 28, 2005

Show Off

Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/200 at f/13 | Focal Length: 90mm

Posted by slewis at 7:59 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

More Page Changes

I made a few more changes to the main page so that when there is more than an image in an entry, the text will be excerpted and provide a continuation page. My hope was to keep the main page as uncluttered as possible.

Posted by slewis at 7:56 PM | Comments (0)

Solitude

Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/100 at f/10 | Focal Length: 90mm

Posted by slewis at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2005

Natural Patterns

Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/100 at f/6.3 | Focal Length: 90mm

Posted by slewis at 3:55 PM | Comments (0)

Comments

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the photographs. It is always nice to receive feedback.

Posted by slewis at 3:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

Roughhousing

Details: ISO: 400 | Exposure: Not Recorded | Focal Length: 400mm

Posted by slewis at 7:44 AM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2005

Life Imitating Art?

Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/250 at f/7.1 | Focal Length: 18mm

Posted by slewis at 7:50 AM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

Central Park In Winter

Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/200 at f/5.6 | Focal Length: 75mm

Posted by slewis at 10:24 AM | Comments (1)

February 21, 2005

Spirit

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: Not Recorded | Focal Length: 600mm

Posted by slewis at 10:37 AM | Comments (1)

February 19, 2005

Fearlessness

Details: ISO: 400 | Exposure: Not recorded | Focal Length: 400mm

Posted by slewis at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Obligations

We all have obligations. Whether they are to our families, our jobs, our communities, or even ourselves, we all have them. Photographers, professional and amateur alike, have the added obligation of sharing the knowledge they’ve amassed with others who share an interest in photography. Perhaps it is something about technique, perhaps it is something about understanding light, or film, or the noise associated with digital sensors that cause noise; no matter the specifics, we have an obligation to share information.

Such obligations exist for several reasons. First, helping others learn about and share a love for the art of photography helps ensure that the art form will continue even after we’ve all stopped creating images. Second, it is an opportunity to give something back, and to repay the kindness of the more experienced photographers who shared their vast knowledge with us and helped us become the photographers we are. Third, sharing photographic knowledge with another photographer may give us the opportunity to learn something new. When we impart our knowledge to others, we may achieve an understanding of that knowledge that enables us to do something never before considered. Likewise, when we share information with others, we encourage them to take our ideas, develop them with a new viewpoint, and share them with us. Either way, we are likely to learn something more and add to the base of knowledge we previously had.

I was fortunate enough to be able to share some information this week. An English teacher who also serves as the yearbook advisor for a high school posted a message on a message board seeking advice for lighting a basketball court. He was looking for advice so that his students could use what equipment they had to shoot a basketball game the way that the professionals would. Once you’ve learned how to light a basketball court with strobe lights, there’s no real magic to it. I am still somewhat disappointed that more people didn’t take the time to respond, or to lend some suggestions. At least I was able to spend a few minutes with the advisor on the phone, and give his students some suggestions for working with the equipment they had.

The photographic masters shared their insight, technique, and tools with us, whether directly or indirectly. The least we can do as photographers is attempt to emulate the people who made us want to be photographers.

Posted by slewis at 7:51 PM | Comments (0)

Enjoying The Moment

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: Not Recorded | Focal Length: 300mm

Posted by slewis at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Juxtaposition

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: 1/50 at f/4 | Focal Length: 35mm

Posted by slewis at 7:01 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

Perspective Control

One of the more amazing aspects of digital photography is the ability to manipulate an image. I'm not talking about anything extreme, like duplicating subjects in the photograph (which, as one major newspaper discovered, will inevitably be discovered when a subject is recognized). Instead, what amazes me are the more subtle changes that can be made, particularly the changes that would be more difficult, if not impossible, to detect.

Perspective control (PC) is one such subtle change. I remember the first time I played with a PC lens. It was amazing how adjusting the lens allowed me to adjust the perspective. However, it quickly became clear that finding the correct adjustment was not a trivial matter, and even that was more a matter of guess-work than precision.

Now with Photoshop, you can throw a grid over the image to find out how skewed the perspective is, and then you can alter the perspective of the image until it lines up with the grid. Easy as one, two, three. If the guesswork is off a bit, you can use the undo option to go back to the original.

The following images illustrate this. The first was a "portrait" of the Freedom Tower in Miami (as reflected off one of the more modern buildings in downtown Miami). The second image is the same "portrait" with the perspective corrected digitally.

The Original Image


Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/250 at f/3.5 | Focal Length: 300mm

The Adjusted Image


Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/250 at f/3.5 | Focal Length: 300mm
Perspective adjusted in Photoshop.

Without seeing the images side-by-side, and without being told, would you know whether the adjusted image was altered?

Posted by slewis at 7:10 AM | Comments (3)

February 15, 2005

Listed on Photoblogs.org

After enough testing to know that this blog is running, I finally listed the gallery on photoblogs.org. I've also attempted to optimize the images for faster loading.

If this is your first visit, please be sure to look at the archives as I've been posting images since I started testing...

Posted by slewis at 1:17 PM | Comments (2)

Timing (Take Two)

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: 1/15 at f/7.1 | Focal Length: 35mm

Timing is more than determining when to catch the precise moment. While snapping the picture is more than mere dénouement, decided how much light to catch is equally important, if not more so. While using a very short exposure--1/500 sec. or less--may enable a sports photographer to freeze a baseball in flight, the opposite is often true for other subjects.

Posted by slewis at 7:24 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

Timing

Chris Perez pitching against USF in Miami's 9-4 win on Sunday.
Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/1600 at f/5.6 | Focal Length: 450mm


Jon McLean pitching in relief against USF on Sunday.
Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/1600 at f/5.6 | Focal Length: 450mm

According to the old adage, "timing is everything." Few things continually prove that adage as much as photography. Indeed, not only is the amount of light captured dependent upon a measurement of time--more often than not, a fraction of a second--but the timing of the shutter release--when the light is captured--is equally critical. If one or the other is off, the moment and image is lost.

All sports photographers know this all too well. Take, for example, a baseball pitcher's motion. The pitcher follows roughly the same motion again and again, inning after inning. A sports photographer trying to catch the ball as it comes off the pitcher's hand can shoot the same movement twenty times and catch twenty different poses. Digital photography--and the ability to review an image immediately after it has been made--provides immediate feedback of how well the photographer has timed the picture.

When everything is timed out property, the ordinary can be transformed into something more.

Posted by slewis at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2005

First Mobile Entry

In a fit of random curiosity, sparked in part by a conversation that I had with a friend today, I decided to try posting an entry using my BlackBerry.

Of course, there's really nothing new about this. For quite some time now, photographers armed with notebook computers and wireless internet have been able to transmit images in near-real time (with the delay being the time it takes to copy the image from the camera and edit it).

It would appear that we are rapidly approaching the point where time and distance become meaningless, thanks in part to those who chase light around the globe.

Posted by slewis at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

More Changes

A few minutes of playing with Photoshop resulted in the new, stylized banner above. With a little luck, it has been optimized to the point where it will look sharp and not take forever to load in a browser.

Posted by slewis at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

Progress With Stupid Database Tricks

After a fair amount of frustration over the last several days, the MovableType software and the mysql database have been configured to allow for dynamic page loading. What this means in practical terms is that I no longer need to generate the web pages for this site every time I make a change. Now, web pages are generated on the fly as they are requested.

Please let me know if you notice any delays as pages are loaded.

Posted by slewis at 5:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2005

Gallery Technology Advancing

I've managed to move the Gallery database into a SQL database. The next step is to switch from static to dynamic pages. This is proving to be somewhat more challenging than originally anticipated. Please let me know if you see any problems. Thanks.

Posted by slewis at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

February 7, 2005

Classic Views

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: 1/30 at f/8 | Focal Length:140mm

Posted by slewis at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2005

City Of Lights

Details: ISO: 400 | Exposure: 1/8 at f/2.2 | Focal Length: 35mm

Posted by slewis at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

February 4, 2005

Juxtaposition

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: 1/320 at f/4 | Focal Length:122mm
Image converted to black and white using Convert To B&W Pro v2.0

Posted by slewis at 2:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2005

Balance

Details: ISO: 1600 | Exposure: 1/500 at f/2.8 | Focal Length: 400mm
Original slide scanned and noise reduced with Noise Ninja

Posted by slewis at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)

The Digital Revolution?

Much of the photography-related literature these days speaks of the "digital revolution" we are currently experiencing. While there is no question that digital photography has finally moved into the mainstream, I find it difficult to believe that what we are experiencing is the revolution.

For me, the "digital revolution" started on January 20, 1989. Like other news reporting organizations, the Associated Press had started experimenting with digital photography, first by scanning negatives for transmission (replacing the old process of making a print which would be placed on a transmitter) and then with digital cameras. On January 20, the Associated Press used a digital camera to photograph President-elect George Bush immediately after he raised his hand to take the oath of office. According to the reports--which filtered through to all AP offices--the image of Bush taking the oath was transmitted around the world before he finished the oath and put his hand down. After years of having to process film, make prints, attach type-written captions and then transmit the result, being able to eliminate all of that work and transmit the image quickly was revolutionary.

Posted by slewis at 1:02 PM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2005

Freedom Tower, Miami

Details: ISO: 200 | Exposure: 1/250 at f/3.5 | Focal Length:300mm

Posted by slewis at 7:27 AM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2005

Humor

Details: ISO: 100 | Exposure: not recorded | Focal Length: 180mm
Original slide scanned and noise reduced with Noise Ninja

Posted by slewis at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)

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