Photography

So for those of you that don't know me, haven't seen my flickr feed or haven't seen my Commons account... I take pictures. Some have described my photography as "excessive" in certain cases. What that roughly means is that I tend to take a LOT of pictures. Even from way back in the film days, I tended to take more pictures than the average person. One trip to England in particular I shot 15 rolls of film (on a Nikon N65. I've kept basically all of the photo's or at least negatives, granted some have gotten lost, but I still have as a serious amount of negatives off in a dark drawer.
Continue reading ""Excessive" Photography & Stats" »

Last weekend was the Reno Air Races, which I attended. I wrote up a bit with a bunch of photos for Wikinews. I must admit, it was a lot of work getting all the pictures together and getting the story written. Last year, when I went I took a (personal) record setting 1,500+ pictures in one day. This year I took 3,472 pictures over the course of the weekend (Over 1800 on Sunday alone), setting myself a new all time record. Unfortunately the D300s is much better quality and pictures take up more space. So the pictures for this weekend take up 41.8 gigabytes of space. Which is fairly significant since my previous 5 years of pictures only took up about 80 GB total.

As for the weekend itself, it was a ton of fun. Saturday was cloudy for the morning which was pleasant because Sunday was a roast. Spend 8-10 hours outside, in the sun of the high desert and you bake, very, very quickly. Thankfully for me, I am predisposed to not getting sunburn. So while I'm very red for this week after the races, and a bit tender in some spots, I'm good to go. I call it a "sun singe" because that's about that it was, a singeing. Now I could have worn sunblock, but where is the fun in that?

Both Saturday and Sunday were full of races. The big race being the Unlimited class gold race; that takes place last on Sunday. Strega won this year, again. It was a good race until Voodoo had to pull out. I knew it was going to be either Voodoo or Strega, and anyone that thought different was smoking something funny (I'm not a die hard, nor was I there for the races earlier int he week). Besides the races, there were some demo flights, but from what I hear, it's gone down hill in the last few years. It was still awesome for me because I got to see the Blue Angels again, for the first time in 10-15 years.

I really do suggest you check out the Wikinews article on the races, as I put 48 pictures into it and I think they are some of the best. Maybe if I have the energy I'll make a post with some of them here later... we'll see. (Editor's Note: Just like when your mom says "maybe", that means it ain't happening.)

I wandered outside ::GASP:: for a bit today to take some pictures for Wikipedia. I made it a point of writing down a bunch of articles in the area that needed pictures last year... but I didn't get much of them done. Winter came soon after. I've finally gotten off my be-hind to go take some of those pictures. My primary stop today was a local mall. It's an outdoor mall. In fact you kinda can't even tell where the mall begins and ends because it is in the middle of Downtown.

Anyways - I wandered about for a little bit - 5-10 min tops. Unless I'm doing super artsy stuff I don't take that long. In fact, I generally have the camera trimmed up with a fast enough shutter speed so I can walk and take pictures at the same time. None of that namby pansy tripod stuff. I'm more or less ambling my way back to the car when I'm approached from behind by a rent-a-guard (lets not even dignify these security guards as "rent-a-cops" - that would imply real power). He asked me what I was taking pictures of to which I answered "Buildings". I even offered up the LCD on my Nikon to show him - I've got nothing to hide. He then informed me that "taking pictures is illegal" and that I'll need to talk to the management for permission. I said "OK!" (I'm always cheerful when I deal with stupid people), and he asked me to leave. To which of course, I left.

Giving him points, he didn't do or say anything to terribly stupid other than "taking pictures is illegal". On private property you can post signs requesting pictures not be taken - but of course this mall has none of that. Additionally - seeing as how the mall is outdoors and integrated with the regular sidewalks - I simply needed to stand on the regular sidewalks and I could have continued taking pictures. I didn't even bother arguing with him or trying anything funny. I had all the pictures I needed already - no point in making a scene. For the record - I did have to leave - because he asked me to. The owner (or authorized agent) of private property (read: Malls) can ask you to leave for any reason whatsoever (read: Photography). If you don't, you are trespassing.

This all being said - I don't know why I have so many run ins with security in and around buildings. This is the 3rd time I can remember - not counting all the "close calls" where I left before they got to me. If I've got a big ass camera with large yellow print on the side (Have you ever seen a Nikon camera strap?), I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm taking pictures. What am I doing that could harm you or your businesses? Nothing... now what about a camera phone? Or a small point and shoot camera in video mode? Those can be snuck in anywhere for any sort of nefarious purposes. If I'm planning something bad, I'm going to hide my camera - not advertise it... Jack asses.

All this in the name of improving Wikipedia articles.

First let me say that I don't hate photography outright. Maybe even at all. Maybe I just hate people sometimes. I take pictures, I enjoy taking pictures. Sometimes I do it for myself, but more recently I've been doing it to improve. I've spent alot of time reading strobist, DIYPhotography, etc - trying to learn, trying to broaden my ways. Part of this requires me taking/posting pictures and getting reviews. The first part (post pictures) I've got down. The second part is where the "I hate people" comes into play.

When I post a larger batch of pictures, especially ones I'm trying to do nicely - I email or IM links to my friends. I doubt that I get responses from my friends more than maybe 30% of time. When I do get a response, its something to the effect of "cool" or "nice". I'm glad you appreciate my handy work, but could you say something more constructive. Please. If you say "nice", It doesn't help me. Please, tell me which pictures you like, and why. More importantly, tell me which pictures you dislike and why. This HELPS. I want criticism of my pictures. I need a semi-objective 3rd party reviewing my work.

I realize that some of my friends, like John, aren't particularly artsy. So thats ok. I don't expect every single person to be an art critic. At least John asked for a print of one of my pictures - first time anyone ever asked for a print of any of my work. A number of my other friends are artistically enabled (more specifically they do photography). Of course they don't read my blog - so they'll never get this message. I know this is a rant, but it just terribly frustrates me when I finally do get a response from one of my very good friends and all she says is "I prefer the older black and whites", ignoring the new color ones that I was specifically working on. Ok, Fine, I can accommodate that. So I go and take some B&W shots and email her a link. Nothing. Nada. No response. Not even a reply back saying "cool, thanks". I know she got the email... but... what ever.

Of course, I post my pictures publicly to flickr, but I'm not a "Big name". You really have to gather some friends on flickr before anyone will even look at your photo's let alone comment on them. I'm trying, but I don't blame flickr. Oh well, I guess I'll just stop bothering to tell my friends. If they aren't going to comment (and sometimes I question if they even look), why bother with the aggravation of even trying.

Originally I had a Quantaray 100-300, but on the trip through MSP this past summer my camera bag had an unfortunate run in with the ground. I know that Quantaray aren't the best lenses in the world, but it did the job. The main problem, as I found out, is that its just a brand name (owned by Sigma, I believe) and there is no service behind them. So while only the adapter ring is broken, no way to fix it. Oh well.

Since I'm going on a business trip to NJ shortly, I figured it was about time to get a new telephoto lens. So I went and bought myself a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon SLR Cameras. It arrived today and I proceeded to run outside and go putz around for about an hour. The picture to your left is one of several I took today with the new lens (click for bigger). I have to say I'm very happy with it so far. It has a macro mode (which I don't totally understand what it does - but thats ok), and contrary to what many of the reviews say (on amazon) I have no problem with it focusing at full zoom. I think my main problem is that it has been too long since I've been able to properly macro. I think I need to ease off on the Aperture a little bit. But oh well, today was all in fun anyways.

Also, I found a photography blog that has an interesting twist. It is called Stock Photo Journey. While there isn't a lot there yet, I think it will be interesting to follow. I personally am interested in doing stock photography - but haven't been exactly sure on how to approach it or what sites to use.

This last week I finally broke down and got a Nikon Speedlight, specifically the SB-800. Yes, it is the "pro" level light, but there are a couple reasons why I picked this light over the 400 or 600. First off, the 800 is just more powerful, and has more flexibility. Secondarily, (and importantly for "future" endeavors) it can be a commander for the Nikon Creative Lighting System. In other words, I can have an army of speed lights (like the SB-600's which are slave only) all tied to my camera. Anyways, I've taken a number of photos with it over the last week, and I'm impressed. If you plug in the "5th" battery, it recycles SOOOO damned fast. Plus, with the correct settings you can slave it off of almost any existing camera flash. Below, I've posted some examples of the SB-800 in action (click the pix for bigger versions):

- I set the SB-800 off on its own in this section of bushes. It was on auto/slave mode.

- Here the SB-800 was actually in the crook of a tree, behind a branch. This is on only 1/4 to 1/8 power - 1/1 power was TOO bright. It was AMAZING.

- Leaves in the dark. SB-800 was attached to the camera at full auto.

- My "Artsy" self portrait (pose is stupid, I know - Thanks Lauren). I put the SB-800 behind me in slave mode on 1/16 power.

Since I've been taking alot of pictures, and trying to avoid doing "work" in my free time, I've got a lot less tech stuff going on. Though a friend has convinced me to go play WoW again, so that may steal my soul. In the mean time I thought I'd share some of my pictures I've been taking.

Today's is titled "Stupid Human" because I'm rather sure thats what the birds think of us. Feel free to click on the picture to view a larger copy on Flickr. You can feel free to comment there (or here... I guess)