I’ve been doing a fair amount of landscape stuff lately, which means I spend a fair amount of time out in the sun. After my last outing with Tiho and our hike to the Staunton River Bridge I resolved to find a good hat.
I believe I have found it. It’s made by Tula and is their “Lifeguard” Model. You can find them online easy enough. I bought mine from an outfit called NRS.
And, no, I’m not Amish.
I’m still planning another post on the Softlighter, but I’ve got to find one more cable before I can get back to that. My intent when I got that modifier was to use my Vivitar 285HV’s in tandem. The only problem is, my triggers use 2.5mm plugs instead of the more normal 3.5mm plugs. Oh… and mono instead of stereo (which makes a difference, believe me). I thought for sure I had another 3.5mm to PC pig tail, but I can’t find it. I’ll order another and get the splitter situation resolved, and I’ll let you know what I think. The real point of this post is to mention a couple of things I picked up recently.
A couple weeks ago I decided that my tripod’s ball head just wasn’t cutting it.
It’s a knockoff I got from Amvona a couple years ago, and it’s served me well, but seeing the ease that Tiho takes to compose a shot in his camera thanks to his grip head showed me that grip heads, when the gear allows for it, is certainly the way to go. I had also noticed the original ball head had gotten sloppy in it’s rotational axis. Once the new grip arrived I took the ball head apart and discovered that it was missing some screws. I found replacements in my computer screw can, and now the ball head is semi-permanently attached to my monopod. Other than a loose screw that presented during our outing on Friday, the grip head is everything I expected it to be. And the price was definitely right: $52 delivered on eBay.
The other thing new toy was a bit of a surprise. Friday Tiho and I came across a small flea market on the way out of town so we stopped thinking we might find some props for still life shots. What I found instead was a hardshell golf bag carrier made by SKB.
Guess what I paid? $10. Obviously (or not so), I’m not using it for golf gear… it’s nearly perfect for light gear though. Right now it holds two big light stands, five umbrellas, a complete backdrop support system, and a few other random things. It’s nearly the perfect solution. Never mind that it looks awesome too.
Today’s all day outing… 360 West to Hailfax County near Staunton River Battlefield State Park.
I’m bushed.
I took a ride this morning to Hanover to get a hair cut, and did some exploring while I was there. Tiho and I drove around in that area few weeks ago.
It seemed every turn I took put me back on 360. At one point I got so turned around I convinced myself I somehow crossed 360 and was coming at it from the other side. I have a horrible sense of direction… but I’m pretty good at not getting completely lost–go figure.
Anyway, I got a few nice shots today.
As I’m looking at the Gateway shot, I’m wishing I would have thought to get up in the back of the truck. I think a couple more feet of elevation might have shown more of the road as it curves to the left in the center of the photograph. Oh well… I’ll remember that next time.
I spent a bit of time this morning looking for softboxes for speedlights and I’m flat out amazed at how much people are willing to spend on these things. There’s really not much at all to a softbox… a lightweight shell with a reflective surface and a diffuser of some sort to soften the light. The materials themselves are hardly expensive, and the engineering can’t be the justification either. Even for the budget-minded products, my guess is that it’s simply a case of charging what the market will bear.
I’ve had the idea before of putting a diffuser over a reflective umbrella. Really, all it’d take is a piece of ripstop nylon, some grommets, maybe a length of bungee to cinch things up… I’ve just never taken the time to do it. And since I’m a little behind the eight ball (does this surprise you?), I ordered an SL-5000 today from B&H so that I can have it in time for a shoot next weekend. Not having a working sewing machine, nor time to do the R&D, the $60 price tag seemed about as good as I was going to get for something larger than the 20″ $40 specials on eBay. Plus, with an actual product in front of me, I figure it’ll be easy enough to reverse engineer the diffusion panel to make my own down the road and save a few bucks.
I’m expecting I’ll need to figure out a mount for the speedlight, but that won’t be a problem. I’ve seen a few methods in my searching this morning, and I’m a resourceful enough guy that I’m sure I can come up with an elegant solution.
Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted.
Geez, why did I wait so friggin’ long to pick up a circular polarizer? Coupled with a graduated ND filter, scenic shots with skies included are infinitely easier to expose correctly (or more correctly at least).
I met up with Dave Parrish from the RPMG this morning for a walk around Pump House Park. After we went our separate ways I rode around Byrd Park and stopped to shoot The Carillon. I’m excited to go back next year when the dogwood trees are blooming.
Meanwhile, here are a couple shots that aren’t quite right for the portfolio, but not too bad either.
The area around the Pump House is pretty cool… lots of rock formations that will be really fun to photograph when some of the greenery dies back. I’ll definitely be heading back in the fall and winter.
I’ve been experimenting with soft focus recently, and this evening I started browsing around for a soft focus filter to add to my kit. Actually, I’m probably going to make my own to fit my Cokin filter holder, but browsing the web is usually a first step for most of my DIY projects.
During my surf, I found a page that featured an action set for Photoshop that included a few example photos of the actions in… er… action. See the page here. I’ve installed the actions and they work well enough… mostly relying on the blurred overlay technique with a few twists for added dimension.
As I continued to surf, I checked ebay for actual filters, figuring that a cheap filter my be a good start to see how this is done in the real world. So, I was a little surprised to see this auction using some very familiar example images to show the results of the real-world filter. (I’m featuring a screen shot since once the auction is over any link to will be dead soon after).
[image title="soft-focus-auction" size="medium" id="511" align="center" linkto="viewer" ]
Um… can we all say “busted”?
The seller is an outfit called Citiwide-Online. I don’t doubt that their filter provides the desired effect, but I wouldn’t expect the example images to be true to the final in-camera result.
I mentioned I’ve been reading and looking at the old masters quite a bit lately. My most recent obsession is with Arnold Newman. Thanks to Joerg Colberg’s post about Five Decades I picked up a used copy on Amazon and I’ve been taking it in by degrees.
Newman’s photograph of Alfried Krupp is the one that drew me in, and as I’m studying his work there are so many iconic images that I’ve seen over the years that I now know are his. Picasso, Stravinsky and a grand piano, even the quintessential image of Ansel Adams adorned in an apron working at his studio… all Newman.
Speaking of Stravinsky and Newman… as awesome as the shot of Igor at the piano is, I like this photograph even more. The tiled floor immediately makes me think of chess, and the way he’s studying the score in front of him is as if he’s working out a move to checkmate his opponent.
I see more books of Newman’s work in my immediate future.
I make all this noise about shuttering BHP and moving that content here so I can consolidate and begin to post more often, and what do I do…? Nothing.
Nothing obvious would be more accurate.
I’ve been doing a lot lately. Lots of shoots, lots of outings, lots of time away from home. The short piece of a day I am home is usually spent processing photos, petting the cat, or sleeping. This boy is not used to all this action. I’m a particularly lazy hermit by nature, so rest assured that it has taken a considerable force of will to stay in motion. Even so, the evenings when I get an opportunity to just veg on the couch are a wonderful treat, and I look forward to one or two of them a week now, almost as much as I look forward to the weekends away from my day job, even if I have to spend a Saturday or Sunday morning in the heat pushing a lawn mower around my yard.
Besides shooting a lot outside of the house (my table top days aren’t over, but they are in the rear-view mirror for the foreseeable future) I’ve been meeting a new photography friend for a couple of hours of decaf coffee and camera talk once a week. We’ve had one photo outing together so far. And he, being the more experience of our pair, has already taught me quite a bit (mostly zone system basics). I think we’re getting together again this coming Sunday for some shooting as well.
I’ve also started to read a lot more and study photographers who’ve always appealed to me as well as those I’m just now becoming aware of. I’m woefully ignorant on past masters, so I’m working to remedy the lack of foundational knowledge that I’m honestly surprised I’ve managed to get by without for this long. Along with anti-social hermit-ism, I tend to be an obsessive when it comes to things I’m interested in. But somehow, I’ve managed to avoid the hording of general photography knowledge that would normally come into play for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing this for eight years already. Whatever the case, I’m reading a lot and studying more when I’m not working or photographing, and I need to make time to talk about that here.
Let me clarify… when I make a statement like the last sentence of the last paragraph, I don’t think I need to write here to inform or share with any of you (if there were any of you to begin with). The act of talking or writing is a means for me (and I imagine most people) to digest and figure out what it is I’ve learned from what I’ve read, seen, heard, or done. By trying to come up with meaningful (in the sense that something’s not utter gibberish) and intelligent (in that it’s not something that an amoeba might have excreted after digesting a particularly tasty bit of bacteria or protozoa) I manage to solidify in my own mind the thing I’m talking or writing about. So, whether there’s an audience here or not, I’ll plug away. If someone finds anything helpful here, wonderful.
A couple of other things I’ve been dabbling in lately… I think I’m going to start doing my own contact printing. I’ve been researching the Cyanotype printing process and it seems like a relatively simple means of getting my feet wet. The world of alternative processes is one that appeals to my tinkering nature (yes, I tinker, and quite successfully too, I might add), and has lead me to think seriously about purchasing a CNC router.
What? How does cyanotype printing lead one to CNC machining? Well, it’s tangential for sure.
My involvement in photography has been solely during the digital age. I know nothing of film. So, a crazy idea that I’ve had is to build a view camera of my own. I know, it’s a big undertaking, but I figure that by designing and building the thing from scratch, by knowing every single piece, screw, or nut, I’ll have a connection to and understanding of that camera that will benefit me forever no matter what I’m using to capture images. Plus, I do like to make things and any excuse to get a CNC machine is okay in my book.* Truthfully, this is probably closer to a 60% probable sort of thing at the moment, but as I get my last camera body paid off, it’s looking more and more likely that I’ll make the leap on a V90 of my very own.
I’m fully aware that people had been building cameras for years well before the age of computer controlled robots and that I could very well (if not very smoothly) build my own in such a manner. I will, however, l refer you to the starred sentence in the above paragraph and leave it at that.
Oh, yeah… I almost forgot… I finally ordered business cards.
[image title="bc-2009.07.29" size="medium" id="488" align="center" linkto="viewer" ]
For quite some time I’ve been wanting a mechanism to support a laptop in my truck. I’ve had a few different concepts in mind, from a wedge of foam to fill the passenger seat to various other not-so-great ideas. A week or two ago I saw a setup that intrigued me so I figured it was about time to get off my butt and do something.
First of all, why? Well, the biggest reason is that I want a comfortable workspace for reviewing photographs in the field. Too often when I’m in a new situation I’m learning on the spot and I don’t really know what’s successful beyond the basic exposure information I can get from a histogram. Things like blown highlights, or soft focus & depth of field issues… I’d like to know right away what works and doesn’t and despite the size of the preview screen on my 50D, I just can’t tell if I’ve blown the focus until I see full size images when I get home. Yeah, I’ve always had my laptop and it would be easy enough to setup on the hood of my truck, but this is better.
Mike’s design is more basic than mine and mounts to the cup holder in his center console. So, Monday I tried that, but just couldn’t make it work. Nothing fit tight enough for my taste. Out of frustration I stuffed the original PVC components under the center armrest and was struck by a bit of inspiration. After a little more brainstorming I ran back up to Lowe’s and picked up a few more fittings, and threw together the basic layout you see here (sans wood).
I called in the cavalry Tuesday night and took a ride to David’s house where we knocked out the wood and final assembly in about two hours.
Features:
I still have a bit of finish work to do. I need to paint the wood (stain & polyurethane is an option too), add a nonskid foam pad, and a ledge of some sort for the front edge of the laptop surface. I’m thinking a very sleek low profile drawer pull might do the trick. I also want to add a Velcro strap to go across the laptop to hold it in place.
I’d do a full write up, but for this to work as well for you as it does for me you’d have to have the same seat package as my truck. Still, I think the concepts and basic ideas here might be useful to others. Feel free to post questions and I’ll do my best to answer them.
UPDATED 2009.07.18 – I’ve finished up the mount and added a few more pictures of he finished unit. I’ll actually have an opportunity to use it tonight during a night time shoot downtown with the RPMG. I used a polyurethane/stain blend on all the wood and decided to finally just glue up all the pieces so it was solid. I opted to use a couple of bolts to hold the tee and 90 to the two mounting flanges instead of glue so I wouldn’t waste the two flanges should any changes need to be made. Everything else is glued except for the connection between the laptop surface flange and the rest of the unit. This way I can pop the laptop surface off (with or without the laptop installed) and stow it in the back seat (see the last photo in the gallery). I had considered painting the PVC, but I’d rather have white, than some other color that’s prone to scratching. I might do a test with the Krylon Fusion paint to see how well it bonds to PVC. If it works well I might reconsider and paint it after all. But for now, I’m considering the project finished.
As you can see, the screen sits up really high and would obstruct the driver’s view if you tried to use this while driving. I’m pretty sure you’d get pulled over and ticketed if you tried, so don’t be dumb. For the record, I’m not responsible if you do something stupid.
I’m pleased with the final result and I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces tonight and tomorrow.