I just could not pass this one up. This is only a few feet away from where I park the truck. So, I got the family all strapped in, popped off the lens cap, and went back for the shot.
Author: Cooper Strange
How many of us have looked at the numbers that represent our aperture and wonder what in the world they mean? Why those numbers? Why not something more simple?
Yes, the numbers given to aperture size can be a little confusing, so I will explain, because I do not want you ignoring your aperture just because the awkwardness of the numbers.
Chase Jarvis mentioned the “creative gap” in an interview the other day, “creative gap” being the “difference between what you want your pictures to look like, and what they actually look like.” It is the gap we need to jump to take that next step in the development of our creative muscle. Basically, we have to be out there shooting a lot, trying new things, chasing down that story, creating that photo in our heads, or doing whatever needs to be done to actually create the photos we are trying to create.
I guess there is a lot more to it than just “shoot a lot”, though that is a huge component. In that interview, Chase even said that (taking a lot of pictures) is the most under discussed aspect of our development. We have to know what works, and for the most part, that is learned through looking at hundreds of your own photos that just did not accomplish what you wanted and then going back out and figuring out how to make it work.
One of the first questions I had after thinking that through for a few minutes was this: “if we need to be shooting a lot, are we prepared with the tools necessary to actually go through those photos?”
It has been quite a hassle to figure out how to set up my website so it was both well-organized and appealing to the eye. I previously used MovableType blogging software for my blog, and that was easily woven into my overall website organization and look. Well, fairly easily, anyway.
The trouble started when I decided to move to WordPress blogging software, a move mainly for all the easy little extensions and add-ons that MovableType just does not have…or are much harder to integrate. After going through all the trouble of moving over, I then realized I had given up way too much of the original reason I chose to use MovableType: organization and look.
You know how we all have thousands of digital photos and cannot seem to ever find the ones we want? Well, keywording (or tagging) is a great way to organize those photos so you can actually find the ones you want later.
I have been looking for software that could do this for me, and though finding software is easy, finding open source or free software was proving a bit more difficult. Of course, Adobe Lightroom is on top of this game, but I am not paying hundreds of dollars…rephrase: I cannot pay hundreds of dollars, even though it would be spectacularly convenient. Plus, I am a Linux guy, but before you tune out, the solution I found works in Windows and Mac as well.
I have a quote to share today. Not only is this a quote from a famous dude (the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson), and not only is it about photography, but it really gives us a lot of context in which to put photography. I like to think outside of the digital box sometimes, and going back to daguerrotypes is certainly a way to do it, being the first method to record an image in a camera (…because cameras existed long before a method to capture that image, besides painting it).
There are folks who still use daguerrotypes today. Chuck Close is one hitting the photo world headlines lately with his groovy daguerrotype of Brad Pitt. As he says, in explanation to why he uses a 150 year old photographic method, photography never got better than it was at the beginning. Daguerrotypes are actually extremely high quality, higher than we can attain in paper or digital methods today (they are polished metal…silver coated copper, if I remember correctly).
So, with that wordy context, here is what it was like to sit for a daguerrotype photo.
It all starts with that new camera in your hands. You got sick of your point and shoot and wanted something faster and better, or maybe you wanted to rekindle that long lost desire to be a photographer that the cost of film and developing had extinguished out of your junior high budget.
Now, you have your new camera and the sky is the limit…until you start taking photos. You just cannot get it right somehow. They are still blurred, out of focus, too dark, too bright, boring, and everything but what you had imagined. Fear not. There is hope.
This is an e-mail from a friend of mine and I could not help but put a couple of my comments to it here online so that more people could benefit from it.
[My wife] got the D40, it was an eBay buy. I wish that we had a better lens, it came with a lower end model. We are saving up and hoping to get a better one soon, they are all just so stinking expensive. It has been great, though, being able to catch those moments with [our kid] that you normally wouldn’t because of the slow shutter speed on the point and shoot digital. I know there are some ways to tweaking the camera so you can get a little better shot out of it, but I haven’t had the chance to play with it enough.
What new lens should my friend buy? Are there some not so expensive lenses out there for amateur photographers on a limited budget? I have just the answer.
My wife is from Thailand. Thailand has a king. And the king likes photography. I saw a gallery with his shots…very nice. Think about it, though, how many world rulers can you think of who carry a camera around their neck on a regular basis? I can think of only one, the king of Thailand. That is awesome.
Another interesting thing about Thailand is the love Thai people have for their king. If you have been through Thailand at all in the past three years, you probably would have noticed the inordinate number of yellow-shirted citizens walking around. Do they just like yellow or what? And what in the world does this all have to do with photography. Stick with me, I will pull it all together in a minute.