The Light Bin - Photos and Stuff

Flower in the Rain

2009-06-20T21:09:00.001-04:00

Flower in the Rain
Originally uploaded by LightBin

This was not an extremely high contrast image, but I did an HDR photo merge and brought out the water drops on the flower.

A small icicle

2009-02-21T21:54:00.001-05:00

A small icicle
Originally uploaded by LightBin

Outdoor macro shots during the winter can be fun. This small icicle was hanging off our shed behind the house. It almost looks like the face of some weird insect.

March's topic is Flash photography. No fancy studio flashes, just shoe mounted on-camera flash, or the built in flash.

Milk Truck Rollover

2009-02-21T20:52:00.001-05:00

Milk Truck Rollover
Originally uploaded by LightBin

We responded to a truck rollover early one morning recently. Nobody was hurt, but it took a while to get this truck back upright and on it's way!

I've never really been bothered by Friday the 13th. I did not ask the guy that was driving this truck how he feels about that day though. Just guessing, but he may not be a fan.

Station Light

2009-02-08T20:55:00.003-05:00

Originally uploaded by LightBin

I'm a little late getting these uploaded, but here are the January photos for the Lightbin Challenge.

The January challenge at lightbin.com was for night or low light photos. I took photos of various lights. Some came out better than others, but this one of the light on the front of our fire station is my favorite.

February's challenge is outdoor macro photography. That will be interesting in the Northeast this time of year, but it will get us OUTSIDE!

Lightbin Photo Assignment

2009-01-16T21:48:00.004-05:00

I have been following various photo challenges, and participating in a few when I can. The problem I have in participating is that some require daily shooting. During the winter months, it's dark when I leave for work, and dark when I get home. That, along with the other activities in my life limits my time shooting to the weekends, or to subjects that I can shoot on my way to or from work. So what happens? I just don't shoot.

So, I'm going to challenge myself, and post the subjects and rules here in advance so that anyone else that would like to participate can follow along. Even if nobody else ever reads this, the fact that it's posted in a public spot gives me some motivation to get going and shoot!!

OK, here are the rules. One topic per month, all year long. Each month, I will attempt to get 5 good shots for that month's topic. The photos need to be taken any time during that month.

Some of the pics will make it here to my blog. The rest will be on Flickr. January's challenge will be tagged lightbinassignment-january2009, February's will be lightbinassignment-february2009, and so on. If anyone else want's to participate, tag them accordingly so they can be found easily.

And here are the first topics so that everyone can start thinking about them (and for January, to start SHOOTING THEM!):

January will be Night or Low Light Photography. No flash. Use a tripod and long shutter speeds.

February will be Macro, Outdoors! For those of us in the north, that will mean putting on the gloves, boots, and snow pants and going out in the snow to see what is available to shoot that isn't buried under the white stuff.

March is Flash photography. This is pretty open. I only ask that you limit this to a shoe mount or built-in flash, not any elaborate studio flash systems.

April's topic is Rust and Decay. This should be self explanitory. I like shooting this type of thing in April. In the northeast, the snow is mostly gone, but the foliage hasn't come out fully yet. Old junk that sits in fields and hedges, hidden for much of the year in the grass/leaves, or under the snow, is out where you can see it, and shoot it.

That should get us started. Leave comments here if you have any topics you would like to see for May through December. Happy Shooting!

Firefighter Training

2008-11-26T21:09:00.001-05:00

Fire Training
Originally uploaded by LightBin

I recently completed NY State's Firefighter 1 course. In 86 hours of training, we learned various skills, from searching a smoke filled building, to ventilating a roof. We ran hoses, hooked up to hydrants, learned to deal with HAZMAT incidents, and learned how to properly handle ladders. And we spent a lot of time using air packs.

In this photo, the class was learning how to ventilate a roof with a chainsaw. I snapped this shot while waiting for my turn on the roof.

The $50 Film Camera

2008-09-01T10:08:00.001-04:00

Epic Edits recently kicked off a photo project, challenging photographers to obtain a film camera for under $50, take photos, and publish them along with a review of the camera. My first thought was, “film, yuck!” For all you who are fans of film, I'm sorry, but I haven't exposed a roll of film since May of 2003 when I bought my first digital SLR.

After I thought about it, though, I remembered how I originally made “the jump” and started learning how to go beyond what I could do with a point and shoot camera. I had a vague notion that there was something called aperture, and shutter speed, and.... well there was “more” to photography than pointing and shooting. I wanted to learn, but I had never taken the next step because I always thought that point and shoot cameras were all I could afford, and SLR's were way too expensive.

So, I asked a photographer friend of mine if there was any way to find something used that would not break the bank, but would let me start along the path of knowledge and enlightenment. He recommended a couple older Minolta SLR models that could usually be found on eBay fairly cheap, and my quest started.

I have now come full circle. I read the particulars of the photo project on Epic Edits, and started trolling on eBay to see what cheap cameras could be found. I was surprised to find some older SLR's on there, and eventually decided that was what I had to do this article on. I hope that this will break the notion in someone else's mind that you have to spend lots of money to learn photography.

I do want to warn you... even though you can get a camera to start out with for very little money, once you are hooked on this hobby it may start to become expensive! Email me about my current inventory of cameras, lenses, and accessories if you have any questions!!!

Where was I? Oh yes, eBay. So there I was trolling on eBay. I was finding Canon AE-1's that were starting under $50, but they kept going over that barrier. To be fair, I was also making sure that the camera stayed under $50 even after adding on the shipping costs. So I tried, and failed to get a couple different AE-1's. They are going just over $50, and would make an awesome camera for someone. But they did not fit this project. I currently shoot with all Canon equipment, and would recommend them highly to someone getting started. I did start finding Minolta's that were staying under the $50 cut-off for the project, and finally picked up a Minolta X-370 for $44 and change, including the shipping charges. This was very similar to the Minolta XG-M that I purchased (and still own) as my very first SLR camera.

The X-370 came with a fixed focal length lens and a flash. A fixed focal length lens, for those of you that don't already know, is one that has no zoom capabilities. These are also sometimes referred to as a prime lens. If you've been using any kind of modern camera, you have probably gotten quite fond of zooming in to get closer to your subjects, and are wondering what good a fixed focal length lens is. Well, first of all, they give you images that are tack sharp. Second of all, they are inexpensive. They are also small and light. The beauty of an SLR, though, is that you can buy additional lenses, including zooms, as you get more interested in the hobby (remember, I warned you about how this can become expensive later!!).

Here's what I got for my money:

So, what photos did I get with my first adventure with traditional film in over 5 years? Here are a sample of images from one roll of film, for which I used Kodak Tri-X. The rest of the photos from this project can be found on flickr.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I haven't shot a roll of film in over 5 years. So, how did I like it? I remembered things that were difficult with film that are easy now. Like using a camera with a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second in daylight with 400 speed film does not allow you to easily shoot with a large aperture of f5.6 or higher to get shallow depth of field. And if you want to change the ISO setting you're shooting at, you need to finish the roll of film you're on and then load something different in the camera. But overall, it was fun. I hope that I've shown people that they can experiment and learn the basics of photography without spending a ton of cash, at least not right away!

Cuil.com Search Engine

2008-07-29T22:45:00.000-04:00

CUIL (pronounced cool) is a new search engine which was launched yesterday (July 28, 2008). It is supposed to be a google killer, having been developed by a group of people that includes former google employees. So, after giving it a few searches, and checking out what it brought back to me, here's my opinion. It's next to useless. I searched on .net programming, and got a message that said there were no results. Hmmm.... OK, I searched on the term Lightbin. That's not to common. On Google, what shows up at or near the top is my Flickr stream, www.flickr.com/photos/lightbin. Also, obviously, is this blog. Makes sense that those should be at the top, because it is not a common term. And the blog has lightbin in the URL. Neither of these results show up on cuil's search. Lastly I searched on the term Canon 40D. Finally, some results that made some sense. Now I can comment on the display. It looks nice, because you have a neat and tidy little paragraph for each result, and each result has a photo. However, when you start scrolling through the results, you see the same photo icons cropping up over and over, even for different sites. So the photos evidently don't directly relate to the site, or the search results. I really don't see how this is better than google. Oh, and did I mention that on day one of cuil's existance, their servers died. Oops!

Pause and Rust - Entropy 20

2008-04-20T09:01:00.002-04:00

Pause and Rust - Entropy 20
Originally uploaded by LightBin

An old sign on an even older store a few miles from home. Many old country stores have been replaced by Walmarts, leaving behind traces like this of their past glory. I'm using this in the April Challenge, and the 2008 weekly challenge, which I haven't added a photo to in a while.

I've been wanting to get a shot of this sign for this challenge. But in the mornings, I'm heading the other direction on my way to work. So I had to wait for a weekend. Today I went over there fairly early, but it looks like I need to wait until closer to the middle of the day to get it lit without shadows. There is an old truck trailer sitting near it, and early in the morning it's putting a shadow on it. Maybe around 10:00-11:00 in the morning it will be lit better. I'll try again, but for now, this is today's photo.

Leftovers - Entropy 19

2008-04-19T21:05:00.001-04:00

Leftovers - Entropy 19
Originally uploaded by LightBin

The wrapping is coming off this hay. Some farmers take the round bales, and wrap them, to create balage, also called big bale haylage, or round bale silage. This is a way to increase the moisture content of the hay, and decrease the losses associated with round bales when the outside layers rot. Whatever it's for, the wrappers didn't stay on this hay all winter, so it's probably no longer usable.

April Challenge # 19.

Remains of a farm wagon - Entropy 18

2008-04-18T23:16:00.001-04:00

Remains of a farm wagon - Entropy 18
Originally uploaded by LightBin

The remains of an old wagon that was used to when filling silos with grass or corn. I used a little bit of a posterizing in Corel's Paintshop Pro X2 after seeing how that look enhances rust.

In the Weeds - Entropy 10

2008-04-10T20:18:00.000-04:00

In the Weeds - Entropy #10
Originally uploaded by LightBin

I wish I could get a little closer to this old car. It's sitting a little way from the road, and it's on private property. Not sure who owns it, but I didn't want to go trekking onto someone's land to get a close-up shot.

This is photo #10 in the April Challenge.

Stop! - Entropy 9

2008-04-09T11:14:00.001-04:00

Stop! - Entropy #9
Originally uploaded by LightBin

This is photo number 9 in the Entropy series for the April Challenge. This old stop sign has been abused, and is a long way from the shiny new red and white that it once was.

Registered Holsteins - Entropy #8

2008-04-08T11:06:00.001-04:00

Registered Holsteins - Entropy #8
Originally uploaded by LightBin

My dad, grandfather, and eventually my brother ran a dairy farm for years. I wasn't old enough to do much by the time we sold out. The sign is faded, but the original dairy barn is still in our family.

Part of the April Challenge and the 2008 Challenge. The sign shows entropy as the years pass. It is also a reminder of the dairy industry that used to be the source of most of the commerce in our community.

Canon Powershot S5 IS Review

2008-04-07T19:14:00.003-04:00

I am finding the Canon Powershot S5 IS to be a very useful camera. It is by no means a replacement for my DSLR (Canon EOS 40D), and it has it's limitations. But it also has some strengths that make it preferable to the larger camera in some cases.

First, the limitations: If you know the cameras limitations, and avoid trying to do what the camera does not do well, you'll be quite happy with it. The Powershot S5 has an 8 megapixel sensor, similar to a Canon EOS 20D. However, that sensor is physically smaller. So it's getting the same number of pixels in an image, but with a smaller area. This causes a slightly degraded image. In most cases, you won't notice it. But, where I do notice it is in a low light situation. Images taken in less than optimal lighting will begin to show some noise in the image. Using the on-camera flash is very likely to produce some very red eyes on your subjects, as well. However, the camera has a hot shoe to use an external flash. That feature may solve much of this trouble, but I have not yet tried an external flash to see how much it improves the results. That has been my only technical problem with the camera. Two hints I can give you to minimize this problem: First, shoot where there is better light. If you only need your flash to fill in the shadows a little you won't have as much trouble. Secondly, don't use the zoom to it's full extent when you need flash. The zoom is 12x, but the flash is not strong enough to reach that far.

I have also noticed that the lens cap pops off very easily. This can be a pain at times. I can't tell you how many times I've reached in the camera bag, and gotten a nice large finger print on the lens because the cap came off. There is a reason, I am told, that this comes off so easily though. When you turn the camera on, the lens automatically extends. The cap snaps on to the part that does not move, and if you forget to remove it the lens pushes it off the camera. If the cap fit snugly, something would get damaged. Overall, I think Canon could think this through a little better, and offer a solution that both protects the lens with a better cap, and prevents damage from mistakingly powering on the camera with the cap in place.

Ok, I'm done harping on the camera's faults, because overall, they don't bother me. Here is what I like about this little camera. It is a lot of camera in a small package. It's convenient to carry, and to keep with you. It takes very good pictures (except as noted above), and it also takes video. The size, and image quality, and video capability make this an excellent travel camera. The LCD screen rotates around letting you store the camera with the screen against the camera body for protection. When shooting, this is very handy. In a crowd, you can hold the camera way over your head, and turn the screen so you can still preview the shot.

It has a 12X image stabilized optical zoom. This is a pretty significant zoom capability, and I use it often. The image stabilization helps keep your images sharp at full zoom. Very nice.

The S5 is also pretty fast. Compared to other Point and Shoots, it is fast enough to give you a fighting chance at getting good action shots. I took some motocross pictures with it that came out quite nicely. Again, it's not a match for the Canon EOS 40D, but that really isn't a fair comparison.

I have kept this camera with me to shoot some pictures for a photo challenge on photochallenge.org. In most cases, I don't think I sacrificed much in the way of image quality. I don't need 20x30 inch poster prints here. What I need is to keep the camera with me at all times, all month long, to get a shot every day for the challenge. You can see the April Challenge photos on my flickr stream and decide for yourself how they came out. The first 18 shots, with the exception of #4 are taken with the S5. Overall, I think the Canon Powershot S5 is a lot of camera in a small package.

Open Air Barn - Entropy #7

2008-04-07T19:03:00.001-04:00

Open Air Barn - Entropy #7
Originally uploaded by LightBin

Here's an old barn that I helped to stack hay in when I was in high school. There was no electricity in it, so no hay elevator. That meant we stacked the bales of hay by hand. Even so, it was in better shape then. You couldn't see all the way through it in those days.

Anyway, this is day 7 of the April Challenge, and this photo once again shows rural NY's entropy.

Rusty Railroad Plow - Entropy #6

2008-04-06T20:59:00.001-04:00

Rusty Railroad Plow - Entropy #6
Originally uploaded by LightBin

Sitting on a siding in Norwich NY, along the NYS&W's line, is this abandoned snow plow. It's seen it's better days.

This is photo #6 in my April Challenge series.

Old Barn - Entropy #5

2008-04-05T18:13:00.001-04:00

Old Barn - Entropy #5
Originally uploaded by LightBin

Another of the old barns in the area that used to be the life blood of the local dairy farming economy. This barn is not far from my home. I hadn't really photographed it much, and it's in pretty good shape, except for this door that didn't to very well over the winter, and a broken window pane near the peak. It used to be part of a thriving dairy farm, though, and now I guess it's used mostly for storage.

This photo is doing double duty, as part of the April challenge of Entropy and Devolution, as well as my entry for the 2008 Challenge of photos taken in my community. See more of my challenge photos in my flickr stream and see more about the challenges at photochallenge.org.

Broken Tractor - Entropy #4

2008-04-04T21:13:00.003-04:00

Broken Tractor
Originally uploaded by LightBin

A broken toy tractor. It was raining today, so I moved inside to take today's April Challenge photo. The fourth entry in the April Challenge from photochallenge.org.

Leonardsville Station - Entropy #3

2008-04-03T20:51:00.000-04:00

Leonardsville Station - Entropy #3
Originally uploaded by LightBin

The old train station, from the Unadilla Valley Railroad in Leonardsville, NY. The third entry in the April Challenge from photochallenge.org.

Entropy #2 - Feed Mill

2008-04-02T20:32:00.003-04:00

Entropy #2
Originally uploaded by LightBin

This is a relic from the days when Edmeston was mainly a farming economy, the old feed mill. Today, many family farms are no longer active. There are still farms, but not like there used to be. This photo is my second entry in the April 2008 challenge. See the rest of the Entropy series in my flickr stream.

Controlled Burn

2008-04-02T20:18:00.001-04:00

Controlled Burn
Originally uploaded by LightBin

This house had been used by the local fire department for training exercises, and was eventually destroyed. I had been taking pictures of the training, and was invited to take pictures of the fire as well. This was a chance to take pics of something that I had never witnessed, and it turned out to be very educational. This house was opened up to allow lots of air flow, and the fire was set in multiple places. So the fire got a faster start than it would in a "real" fire. However, once it got going, it was unbelievable how fast it moved through the structure. My friends on the department said that as soon as a fire finds a source of air, it will take off like this. This image was taken 25 minutes after the fire was started. It is so hot that a heat vortex is forming over this end of the house. At this point, there is no place in the structure that would be safe if someone were trapped inside. 25 minutes. It was actually fully involved way before this picture was taken. Looking at this, it is obvious how important it is to have working smoke detectors in your house. You would not want to wake up and find yourself in the middle of a fire that had already been going for a period of time.

See more photos of this structure fire, and the training exercises that were done before it was burned in my flickr stream.

Entropy #1 - Broken Parking Lot

2008-04-01T20:05:00.001-04:00

Broken Parking Lot
Originally uploaded by LightBin

On photochallenge.org, the challenge for the month of April 2008 is Entropy, or all things Broken. This is my first entry. There is a lot of broken blacktop and pavement in the Northeast this time of year, and this parking lot is no different. There are actually some pretty impressive pot holes in the road that I travel every day to work that would also work in this category, and if I run out of other broken subjects before the end of the month, I'll add one of those as well. See all of my April photos on my flickr account.

South Edmeston Training

2008-03-22T19:35:00.001-04:00

South Edmeston Training
Originally uploaded by LightBin

The Edmeston and New Berlin Volunteer Fire Departments (and a few others) have been training together at an old house that is slated to be demolished. Last Monday evening, they were practicing opening vent holes in the roof. This shot was interesting, because the saw was creating sparks, which made it look like there was really a fire.

NY Says Good Bye to Governor Eliot Spitzer

2008-03-17T20:32:00.001-04:00

10D_IMG_8723
Originally uploaded by LightBin

Who would have thought... Gov. Spitzer outdid Bill Clinton in the sleeze department. Generally, you won't see much political stuff on this blog. But I just had to comment on this. I thought it was really cool last summer when I got this shot of Spitzer at the finish line of the Boilermaker Road Race in Utica NY. I put it on my Flickr stream, and there was never much interest in it. I think it got one hit, but I didn't have it properly tagged, either. Now it's the 3rd most popular photo in my stream, and climbing. So it's being found now.

I was really disappointed. I would have thought that for all the money he was spending, the lady providing his "services" would have been much better looking. So, he obviously wasn't paying for looks. What was he paying this premium price for? Descretion? Do the services he wanted to purchase stray far enough from the mainstream to raise the cost that high?

I made the comparison between Spitzer and Bill Clinton. That really isn't a fair comparison. What Bill did amounted to a little horse play in the White House. Yeah, it caused a scandal for the highest office, and it opened him up by giving someone some potential blackmail material. But other than that, who got hurt? Hillary? Please. Did he do something nobody expected from him? Yeah, right. Spitzer on the other hand paid for sex - illegal, and sent money across state lines - really illegal. And he prosecuted people from his high and mighty pedestal, while all along thinking he was above the law. So, today NY State is getting a new Governor, and I say to Spitzer as he leaves, Good Riddence.