Nick Carver Photography Blog

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED!

2008-11-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

I have officially moved this blog onto my own servers. Please refer to www.nickcarverphotography.com/blog in the future.

Sedona

2008-10-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

Well I finally got through editing my pictures from Sedona, AZ! I took a little trip there a couple weeks back and it was really awesome! The trip was just 4 days including travel time, so I only had 3 sunsets to work with, but it turned out great anyway. I'm pretty pleased with the results (especially considering the strong winds I had to contend with). Below are the results along with some notes and experiences in getting the shots.

The sunset of the first day was the only day we had clouds - thanks to the strong winds I would guess. I had just arrived in Sedona a few hours before sunset so I wasn't able to get to any prime spots, but I did manage to snap a few shots from outside my hotel and at the Coconino National Forest Visitor Center. I used my 70-200mm to crop out the surrounding buildings and trees so I could focus on the red rock at sunset.

The next day my brother and I drove north a little bit into Oak Creek Canyon to see what kind of fall color was available. There was definitely a lot more color than south of Sedona, or near my home in Southern California for that matter, but it was no East Coast display. I really enjoyed the backlighting of the sun on the yellow and green leaves and tried to take advantage of that. Oak Creek proved to be a great subject. I hadn't photographed any creeks in awhile - been mostly beaches for awhile - so it was real nice to do that again. My Singh-Ray warming circular polarizer was on my lens most of the time.

I went to a scenic spot near my hotel for sunset later that day. Yeah, it was touristy, but it served up some great shots of Courthouse Butte at sunset. This little sunset sesh destroyed my neck for some reason. I was in excruciating pain for the rest of the night. Still worth it, though.

My brother, my dad and I went to the Palatki ruins the next day to check out the old dwellings and petroglyphs. I was pleasantly surprised by this place. I was a little put off at first because the ruins and petroglyphs were heavily protected by ropes and rangers, so I didn't have all the freedom I would have liked. I guess that's the price we all have to pay for jackasses that decide to add their own "petroglyphs" and think it's fun to destroy historical landmarks. But after hearing all the enlightening data the rangers had on these ruins and petroglyphs, I was really glad they were there. Some of the information they offered regarding the petroglyphs was intensely interesting. It really made me appreciate what I was looking at.

The petroglyphs pictured above are estimated to be over 10,000 years old!

After Palatki, we headed over to Red Rock Crossing to photograph Cathedral Rock over Oak Creek. Yeah, this is easily the most photographed scene in all of Sedona, but I still had to check it out. This place was a lot of fun. I took off my boots, rolled up my jeans and spent most of the time photographing knee-deep in Oak Creek. The water was freezing and I really had to fight to keep my balance on the slippery bottom, but it made for a little more unique shots. My Gitzo tripod held up like a champ in these conditions, too. I would have really liked to have had my photo vest and I wished I had worn convertible pants, but live and learn.

On a side note: We rented a Nissan Xterra for the trip and I am officially back in love with that car. I wanted one for awhile and changed my mind to a Subaru for the better mileage, but I don't care anymore. That Xterra was way too sweet. I can't wait until I can afford one...

Sedona Teaser

2008-10-14T22:51:00.001-07:00

Cathedral Rocks over Oak Creek

Took a little 4-day trip to Sedona over the weekend with my dad and brother. Sedona is gorgeous. I think it'd be even more beautiful without all the human development, but the red rock formations, ancient petroglyphs and Indian dwelling ruins still made for amazing photo subjects. I'll be a doing a full-length post with all sorts of details and tidbits about my trip, but I wanted to post one picture up partly as a little teaser but mostly because it's been way too long since I've posted anything on my blog.

Enjoy and keep an eye out for the next Sedona post!

PhotoShelter Collection

2008-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

The PhotoShelter Collection closed its doors on September 11. This date is turning out to be the Friday the 13th of the 21st century.

I was a recent convert to PhotoShelter. I learned about it through Chase Jarvis and finding it was like experiencing a heroic rescue from Batman. I felt like I could finally tell my microstock agencies to (insert f-bomb here) off so I could start supporting a stock agency that was out to make the industry better and actually make it possible for photographers to buy more than half a bag of M&Ms with an image sale. I was so jazzed to shut down my accounts with iStockphoto and Shutterstock and move my portfolio over to this gallant lionheart of stock. I knew it was the best thing for me, for the industry and for photographers everywhere.

Unfortunately, PhotoShelter broke the news on 9/11 that they'd be closing their doors on their Collection. They're still in business and will still be offering their Personal Archive services, but this is such a horrible loss for photographers everywhere.

PhotoShelter Collection, you are a fallen hero. Thank you for your efforts, honesty and integrity. You will be missed.

For more information on this announcement, read their blog about it and check out the FAQ.

Also, please read this blog by Vincent Laforet about the close of the PhotoShelter Collection and his thoughts on microstock. We share similar viewpoints on this matter.

My Thoughts on Microstock

2008-09-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post a blog about microstock agencies for awhile. I have some very strong opinions about microstock, and well, I guess I'll just feel a little better if I know I've put them out on the web for others to read. Maybe some photographer will come across this post and it will help them keep their integrity when deciding whether or not to join up with iStockphoto or Shutterstock. Then again, maybe I'll just piss off a lot of people and sound like a ranting idiot. Either way, I think I'll sleep better tonight.

I am ashamed to admit that I was with iStockphoto and Shutterstock for several months. I joined because I was uneducated on the photography market and what pictures are really worth. I would justify it with things like "there's no way to compete with microstock" and "that's where the industry is headed" and "the number of downloads makes up for the horribly low commissions." I used to liken it to iTunes. "iTunes sells songs for $0.99. I'm sure a lot of musicians aren't happy with that, but that's where the industry is headed. Same thing for stock photography. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," I'd say. I knew deep down that iTunes was selling songs for $0.99, but if you purchased a 12-song CD at Best Buy for $14.99, you were only paying $1.25 per song. So given the lack of CD production costs, selling a song on iTunes is right about on par with what the industry has always been collecting. Not to mention the fact that the songs on iTunes come with very limited rights!

Meanwhile, stock photos that used to sell with limited rights to a buyer for hundreds to thousands of dollars were now selling with unlimited rights for $1.00. I remember getting a raise at Shutterstock from $0.25 commission per download to $0.33! I couldn't believe the enthusiasm in the forums! They were excited about $.08 more per image! I find more than that in my couch cushions.

Shutterstock also offered extended license options to buyers. This is where a buyer can use more of their "credits" (or however the hell their system works) to buy an image that offered them more usage - billboards, multiple ads, anything. Earned me somewhere in the neighborhood of $20. Think about this: That would be like a movie production company purchasing a CD for $20 from Virgin Records and using a song on it, with no further royalties, in a multi-million dollar grossing movie. A musician and a record company wouldn't allow that in a million years - why are we?

I think photographers are doing this for a couple reasons.

The first is that a lot of the people signed on with these microstcok agencies aren't, in fact, photographers. Sure, they have a shiny new DSLR and they took a pretty good picture of their kid for which they will sign the model release, but they don't give a shit about the photographic community, the industry or what's fair. They make their living from a 9-5 and do this microstock stuff on the weekends. They have no reason to demand a fair compensation for their pictures - they're happy to get anything from their snapshots that they would have taken anyway. Their day job (or parents) pay their bills.

The second reason is because so many amateurs are suddenly "pros," the real pros feel like they have to sacrifice their integrity and what they know is fair compensation so they can compete with them. Rights managed agencies have been dropping like flies, so they feel they need to protect themselves by joining up with the microstock agencies. But if no self-respecting pro ever supported microstock, then the micrstock agencies would be flooded with so much crap and nothing of any real value, they'd all go under. People want quality - if the microstock agencies didn't have any quality to offer, they'd burn like the horrible garbage heaps they are.

There is some amazing work on these microstock agencies sprinkled in amongst all the crap. Here's an example search for "Half Dome". Both images are from Shutterstock. Clearly one is a much higher quality image. Why are they both getting the same shitty $0.33 commission?! If you have better work, you should get paid more!

And another example for "sunset."

And another example for "Golden Gate Bridge."

Now I'm not one to blow my own whistle and go around touting my pictures as the best thing since sliced bread. I don't claim to be a veteran or to know the ins and outs of this business. I've been taking pictures for 7 years, but hell, I'm only 21 and I've only been doing this full-time for a year now. I do, however, have the power of observation. I can see when a business model is ruining an industry. I can see when a picture is crap. I can see when something is unfair. And I can see when photographers worldwide are bent over with their pants down around their ankles.

YOU DESERVE MORE THAN $0.33 FOR YOU IMAGES. LET THE AMATUERS COLLECT THE $25 WEEKLY PAYCHECKS.

My Custom Ring Light

2008-09-02T15:50:00.001-07:00

I made myself a DIY ring light over the weekend that I wanted to share with everyone. Its design is inspired by the Ray Flash and its materials are inspired by this DIY ring light tutorial. Truthfully, I'd much rather own a Ray Flash, but $35 and a little elbow grease looked much more appealing than $300.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the building process, I don't have diagrams and this isn't a how-to post. Why? Partly because there are about a billion DIY ring light tutorials on the internet already that are probably easier than mine, but mostly because I am way too impatient to stop and take pictures throughout the building process. If enough people really love this design and need to know how to make it, I'll do another how-to post in the future. But unless I get bombarded with requests, I wouldn't count on it. It's that I'm selfish, it's just that I'm impatient.

But to give you a short description of it's design, I used galvanized rain gutter pipes (the kind that are really shiny) to reflect the light from my on-camera 550ex down into a clamp light reflector diffused with a store-bought cutting board mat. I think the picture of it on my camera is pretty self-explanatory, but let me know if you have any questions.

Here are the results of my first tests on my niece and sister-in-law. Took some time to figure out how to use this thing with good results...never worked with a ring light before. All pictures are shot with a 1/2 CTO on the flash.

Sorry for the poor image quality of the picture showing the ring light attached to my camera. My 5D is my only DSLR, so I had to use my little point and shoot Casio to get that shot.

Custom Filter Case

2008-08-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

As (primarily) a landscape photographer, split neutral density filters are my bread and butter. I have 5 in all plus a solid ND and a polarizer. Split NDs are virtually useless in screw-in ring form, so I opt for the Singh-Ray rectangular filters with Cokin P series holders.

I've gone through several different filter cases from generic to name brand to custom to different custom, etc. There were some specific points I needed in a filter case that none of these fulfilled entirely. I wanted it to be small enough to fit in a camera bag and in a photo vest pocket, I wanted it to be able to attach to my belt or belt loop, I wanted it to be entirely enclosed when shut, I wanted no velcro closure (too loud) and I wanted it to adequately protect my filters without overkill.

Now I'm sure it's no secret among photographers that a CD wallet is a great option for this (if it is news to you - hooray!). The materials used to protect CDs are generally on par with materials used to protect photo equipment so there's no worry there. The sleeves are in a convenient binder-esque arrangement for easy browsing. It's small in width and length and relatively thin. The only problem I kept running into is I couldn't find a blasted CD case that would lay flat when opened. They all had this wrap-around design on the binding that would cause it to shut on itself like a new paperback novel.

Well this post is about a great case I found for this application as well as some of my modifications that make it the ultimate filter case.

First off, the brand of case is Case Logic and it's a 24 CD/DVD CD Wallet. It's great because it lays completely flat when opened - no spring return - and it's covered in this somewhat rubbery outer that has stood up excellently to the elements for me. It features a full zipper that is smooth and has a rubber-tipped zipper pull. It is the smallest CD wallet I have found that will still fit all my filters and its rounded corners and edges make for easy storage. I like it so much, I got two in case they discontinue it. I bought mine at Best Buy - not sure if they still sell them or not.

Now onto the mods to make it even better. I wanted to be able to attach it to my hip belt loop, so I needed to add a carabiner in the upper left corner. I did this by taking some strong string (I used a sunglasses cord I bought at REI), threading it behind the sleeves and wrapping them around the binding pegs (see picture). I then tied it at the top with a slight loop hanging over the edge at the end of the zipper. I recommend melting the ends of the cord with a lighter to avoid fraying. This made it so a small loop of the cord would hang out of the wallet in the upper left corner when the zipper was completely shut. I then attached a small carabiner to this loop and presto, you got yourself a wicked side filter wallet.

To make it even better, I put labels on each sleeve indicating the filter. I did one horizontally on the opposing sleeve for viewing horizontally and a smaller one vertically on the filter's sleeve. The vertical label makes more sense when using the wallet when it's hanging from your side. I then put little squares of thin cardboard on the opposite side of each filter sleeve. This keeps the sleeve rigid when the filter is removed making it much easier to slide it back in later.

I found this setup to work great for me. I just attach it to my right hip belt loop when I get my camera out and start shooting. I have every filter right at my fingertips in a completely sealed wallet (not water PROOF of course, but water resistant nonetheless). I can remove a filter and let the wallet drop to my side with no worries. It has stood up perfectly to many harsh conditions (especially sand and sea spray). I've never had a filter break in this wallet, it's easy to store and transport and it's cheap!

Bodie Ghost Town

2008-08-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

I took a little day trip to Bodie State Park with my brother and his fiance to get some portraits about a week ago. I needed to blog about it because this place is insane with awesomeness. Seriously, it's out of control. There is no other place like it on the planet. It's a ghost town. But not like one of those Knott's Berry Farm going panning for fake gold after eating your funnel cake type of ghost towns - this place is legit. It's tucked away in these gorgeous rolling hills right near the just as insanely gorgeous Mono Lake and the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It's not restored, it doesn't have any novelty gift shops, there are zero modern structures (except the bathrooms) and no paved roads. It's in a state of "arrested decay." Think "There Will be Blood" frozen in time. There's a crazy-looking church, houses, a mill, a saloon - utter craziness. Check out Bodie.com for more information.

So anyway. We went there to get some engagement shots for my bro's wedding coming up in November. Now the thing about my brother and his fiance, they're olde tyme (that's "old time-ee"). In fact, as my brother has so accurately put it, Carver's are built to be olde tyme. Now when I say olde tyme, I don't mean we won't use cell phones or we think camera's steal your soul. We just appreciate the music and the culture of the late 19th century to early 20th century. And let's just say I look smashing in newsie's hat. Hell, my dad can play the banjo like nobody's business! So basically, this was the perfect backdrop for this couple.

I think the pictures turned out pretty great and my bro and his fiance were stoked with them (which is the most important part). Plus, I got an unexpected benefit from this trip. We drove through Bishop (Galen Rowell's stomping ground) and right past Mono Lake on the way to Bodie. I'd never been in this area before. I'd been to Lone Pine to the south and I've backpacked through the Eastern Sierras, but nothing beyond that. I am so glad I drove through Bishop and around Mono Lake that day. I was having eyegasms left and right. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was up there. The scenery is unbelievable. It really rekindled my fire to take a photo trip. I can't wait to go back to Bishop for a few days to shoot Mono Lake, Yosemite and Bodie. Just goes to show how beneficial scouting can be!

Enjoy the pics!

Take a Moment to Enjoy the Sunset

2008-08-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

I've been working hard indoors all day. Been working on some projects, administrative duties, you know, all that boring desk job stuff we as photographers became photographers to avoid doing.

I glimpsed the sunset out my window and decided to head out front to enjoy it for a little break. It's a good idea to focus your eyes on something miles away after focusing it on a computer screen a few feet away all day.

I've seen a lot of sunsets in my day, but this one was stunning. I almost wished I was out taking pictures, but then I relaxed and decided to just enjoy it. I stood in the middle of my street staring up at the delicate curves and soft wisps of orange and pink while the faint music of a violin struggled to make its way to my ears. A neighbor must have been practicing. I imagine I looked a little weird standing barefoot in my street gazing up at the sky like it was going to disappear. I say this based chiefly on the double take of the girl across the street probably wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

I enjoyed this sensory massage for a little bit, snapped some pics with my iPhone and headed inside to get back to the grind. This little experience reminded me how important it is to pause and enjoy the sunset every once in awhile. Luckily for my line of work, that often times goes hand in hand with the job!

Photographer's Tools: Tide Charts

2008-08-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

In this first installment of my "Photographer's Tools" series (wherein I will discuss tools and tips to help photographers make better pictures), I will cover an often overlooked tool for photographers: Tide Charts. Whether you live by the ocean like me or you are planning on taking a trip to the coast, you better make room in your camera bag for tide charts (figuratively of course, who really needs to "make room" for a tide chart? That's just ridiculous).

In my own experience, and I think many photographers would agree, the success of a good image lies in the pre-shoot preparation. Whether you're shooting a scenic or a portrait, it's all about how prepared you are when the time comes to click the shutter. Tide charts can give a little window to the future that will help make your coastal shots that much better.

I personally love to include rocks and tide pools in my coastal pictures. Rock formations along the beach and boulders strewn across the white sand seem to make a regular beach picture so much more unique. They add texture, weight and shadows to otherwise mediocre photos. The mussels and sea life found in tide pools at low tide create even more interesting additions to a landscape and are amazing photo subjects all by themselves. With tide charts, you can find out to the minute when the tide will be at its lowest. You can plan ahead knowing that these rocks at this location will be exposed at this time of day. And by scouting out the location ahead of time, you can even get a mental image picture of your shot before you set foot on the beach.

For example, I know the beach of Crystal Cove State Park in California like the back of my hand. When I looked at the tide charts the other day and saw that low tide would be at 6:57pm, I knew this park would have some interesting rocks and tide pools to play with for some sunset shots. I didn't waste any time looking around other beaches or deciding where to go. Since I knew the tide would be low, I knew Crystal Cove was the place to be.

This brings me to my next point: I only went out and took pictures on this day BECAUSE the tide was low at sunset. Normally I don't bring my camera out for any landscape work if there are no clouds in the sky. I am bored easily by cloudless skies and this day was clear as a summer afternoon (seeing as how it WAS a summer afternoon). But I knew low tide at sunset would be a pretty good bet, even with no clouds, so I packed my gear and headed out. Had I not checked the charts and had I not known what gems low tide could bring me, I would have stayed in and done other work. I'm sure glad I went, because I had a lot of fun and was really pleased with the results.

With amazing devices like the iPhone, tide charts can be at your finger tips at any moment in any place. I don't have to print out a tide chart every month and remember to slip it in my bag, I have all the information at my fingertips. A great site that I have bookmarked on my iPhone is www.tidesonline.com. Its simple interface and logical layout make for a great online tide chart.

These charts are not only valuable for the low tides. If you know of a place, for instance, that would be perfect at high tide at sunrise, use the chart to find a date when the high tide is right when you need it. Or if you know that the waves are biggest at high tide at this particular beach, find a date when the high tide is at the right time and get out and shoot them.

If you do go out at low tide and are navigating across tide pools, please be responsible. Tread lightly and watch where you put your foot. That slimy rock might actually be a sea slug and those mussels latched onto the rocks are not, in fact, indestructible and they are living animals. And be smart. If you know it's mid-tide but the tide is coming IN, don't put your camera bag where the tide will catch up to it and don't get trapped on that rock outcropping as the tide moves in around you (almost happened to me, folks).

Tide charts are your friend. They are incredibly accurate and give some hint at what the future holds along your favorite beach. Use them.

Aperture 2, You Win

2008-07-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Alright, I caved and bought the Aperture 2 upgrade. Was I wrong about the things I said in my previous post? No (for the most part). True, proportional spacing in grid view shouldn't have been dropped in this upgrade and, yes, the jumpy scrolling is annoying as all hell, but there are some pretty awesome changes that actually do outweigh my quibbles.

I will admit that I can understand the advantage of unchecking proportional spacing in grid view in Aperture 2. It's hard to explain without a firsthand demo, but having it unchecked makes things more orderly when organizing pictures, splitting up stacks, creating stacks and all that jazz. It should still be an OPTION, though, not a requirement!

And it seems the "ignore stack groupings" option on smart albums has been replaced by the (surprisingly) more useful "include stack picks only." The way smart albums work in Aperture is a little different than in previous Aperture versions. It's almost like it automatically ignores stack groupings, but still lets you know when an image is part of a stack. It indicates, for example, that both of these images are 5-star, but they are 2 of 5 total images in the stack. It just doesn't show those other 3 images.

As for the jumpy scrolling: That's just straight up stupid. I can't for the life of me figure out why they swapped out the intuitive, logical smooth scrolling of Aperture 1.5 for this jerky ridiculousness. I really hope my dozens of complaints get through for the next update.

Now for the reasons TO upgrade:

- Vignette tool: Incredibly handy
- Smoother straightening: This was a major frustration point for me in 1.5
- Metadata and Projects panels in the HUD: Full-screen mode just got useful
- Retouch tool: Surprisingly effective
- Flip tool: FINALLY
- Interface: I can customize this thing until it's unrecognizable and it makes better use of my screen real estate
- Tether: So easy to do
- Customizable hot keys: I love hot keys even more now
- RAW Processing: WAY better results than in 1.5
- Background export: I can keep working? WHILE images are exporting?! Sweet!
- Faster: Don't ask me how, it just is

Here are some images from my first batch using Aperture 2 - an engagement photo shoot for my awesome friends, Bubba and Lisa. The new adjustment tools made my job much quicker and easier. Thanks Aperture! (queue cheesy 80's high five)

P.S. You may notice the large majority of my recent work is all portraiture stuff. Don't fret, nature is still my main game. It's just that summers in Southern California for the nature photographer, shall we say, leave something to be desired. The weather is boring, the heat is relentless, the crowds are ridiculous and the vegetation is...crispy. I'm not a sell-out and I'm not money-motivated (but I do need to, you know, eat). I wouldn't be doing this portraiture work if I wasn't loving it.

Storm Drain Shoot

2008-07-27T14:30:00.001-07:00

I did a photo shoot with a friend of mine the other day. We went down to a storm drain in Irvine that has some really awesome graffiti. It was a lot of fun and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Here are some of the final products. Click any to see a larger version.

Utah: Land of Huge Trains (and hot chicks)

2008-07-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

I took a little trip to Utah over the weekend for a family reunion. I wish I could say I had some awesome pictures as a result of this little vaca, but nay. It was only a couple days and my agenda for the weekend was spending some quality time with the extended family. Not the kind of trip where I can venture off into the wilderness for a little one on one time with me and the landscape.

I did, however, get to check out Union Station in Ogden. There are some gigantic trains there. I had no idea how big some of these old-timey trains really are. That picture above - that's my brother next to one of them. He's about 6-foot tall. Driving one of these things must feel like you're driving a building. Especially for when they were made, they must...

Alright, enough about the trains. I'm stalling. There are a ton of hot chicks in Utah. That's what this post is really about. In all the places I've been, Ogden, UT has the highest density of smokin' hot ladies I have ever seen! I live in Orange County. You'd think "the OC" would be the hotspot for hot girls. Not so. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying OC girls, or girls in any other part of the country, are less attractive than Utah girls or that there are fewer. I'm just saying that, per capita, the density of beautiful 20-something to 30-something women in Utah is off the charts. Utah must be the mecca for hot chicks. It seemed like every time I turned around, there was a new gorgeous woman standing there, walking by or taking my order. It was mind-boggling! I couldn't tell you why this is - in fact, I don't really care. But it is true. I even confirmed this observation with 3 other guys.

So my point: No point really, just wanted to give everyone a head's up in case you 20-something bachelors out there pass through Utah. Keep your eyes open.

I have a problem...

2008-06-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have few addictions in life - Milano cookies, S'Mores Pop-Tarts, bread. But I'm afraid I just found another: Antique cameras.

As you can read from my previous blog entry, I bought a vintage Kodak camera from an antique shop a few days ago. It's been on display in my room/office and I thought I was satisfied...

Then I saw her. She was sitting so innocently in her display case. A "1-A Kodak Jr." Good condition, excellent price tag. I knew I had to have her. Then I saw her friend. Slightly larger, same era. She even came with her original leather case. Her price tag was just as appealing. I couldn't decide between the two; I had to get both. I forked over the money, got them home, cleaned them up and now all three are on display in my room/office.

Three antique cameras in 2 days. I'm referring to them as sentient females. I think I've just opened a box I don't know how to close. I think I have a problem. I'm scared...so scared.

New (Old) Toy!

2008-06-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting a really old camera for quite some time now to put on display in my room/home office. I've been putting it off because it's not exactly something I "need" to spend money on. But then I was invited to a party this Saturday with a 1920s theme. Yay! An excuse!

Luckily, not far from my home is the quaint center of Old Towne Orange in the City of Orange. It's a historical area - well, about as "historical" as you can get in Orange County. The main point being there are tons of antique shops. I swear there must be a couple dozen antique shops within a 2-minute walk. I went down to one of these stores and found an Eastman Kodak No. 2-A Folding Autographic Brownie camera. This thing is in excellent condition and was a hell of a find. I'd bet I could still get shots with it if only the film size hadn't gone the way of the Dodo. The patent dates say "Jan 18, 1910. Jan 7, 1913." Two words: awe some.

Just wanted to share my excitement over this thing. Enjoy the pictures.

On a side note: If anyone knows how to acquire film for this type of camera (No. A-116), please let me know!

Radiopopper Review

2008-05-10T12:10:00.001-07:00

Alright, so I got to use my brand new Radiopoppers on a shoot yesterday. This was the first true test of these bad boys because I needed to count on them for several hours at a beach that was 224 steep stairs and one hell of a walk away from my car. If they failed on me, I was boned.

I am happy to report that my Radiopoppers performed with flying colors! Yes, I will elaborate. But before I get in to the nitty gritty of how they did, let me just describe my setup for you. I am shooting with a Canon EOS 5D with a 550ex and Radiopopper transmitter as my master flash. This is controlling 2 Canon 430ex slaves each with a Radiopopper receiver attached. I shoot with the master emitting no flash and I control the output of each slave manually. If I'm controlling my slaves manually anyway, why didn't I just get pocket wizards instead of radiopoppers you say? Well, aside from the ability to switch to TTL in the rare event that I need to and aside from the sweet perk of being able to use ANY shutter speed, these radiopoppers allow me to control the output of each slave from the convenience of my camera-mounted 550ex. That's right, no more walking over to each slave to change the output while I chimp my screen. "Oh what's that? A little too much light coming from slave A. BAM! Handled." Don't even have to change my position.

CONCEPT:
The Radiopopper website is the best place to learn what these units are and what they can do, but I will sum up the general concept for you here. Basically, they take your Canon or Nikon TTL wireless flash system and change it from infrared-triggered slaves to radio-triggered slaves. This means you can do EVERYTHING you can normally do with your wireless flash system but at a much greater range and without the colossal drawback of your flashes needing to be in line of sight. And yes, Radiopoppers really are as magical as they sound. Not only in their design and functionality, but in what they do for your photography. They give you the freedom to shoot TTL or manual, below sync speed or above, with your slaves in line of sight or not. Radiopoppers spit in the face of compromise. You don't have to sacrifice FP flash and TTL to get radio-triggering wireless. They truly allow you to have your cake and eat it too. I can't even imagine what possibilities this will open for wedding photographers. Kevin King, you are a god among photographers.

RELIABILITY:
I found my radiopoppers to be incredibly reliable. In my shoot of a little over 300 photos, I experienced misfires 10-15 frames. That's a 97% success rate! And that 3% is most likely from flaws in the E-TTL system itself, not the radiopoppers. One unusual thing I noticed while shooting is one of my slaves would randomly fire while I wasn't shooting. I assume this is just from some sort of radio interference momentarily affecting it. But truthfully, I dunno. I should probably ask the guys at radiopopper (who are incredibly helpful by the way), but it's not enough of a problem for me to write an email. I'd say this only happened 3-5 times in the entire shoot. Never caused any problems, either.

BUILD:
The radiopopper units themselves are delightfully simple in design. The transmitter has 2 buttons, the receiver has 1. Press a button to power them up, the green light turns on, they link automatically, the amber light turns on, you're good to go. The transmitter mounts with velcro on top of your master unit and that's that. The receiver mounts with velcro somewhere on the slave (I recommend the side) and then you secure the fiber optic nylon bead over the slave's IR receiver and you're ready. The units are very small and feel real solid. The single AA battery goes inside the unit by removing 2 screws from the back. I've heard some quibbles about there not being an easily removable battery door, but that would be a poor design. These things sip power so it's unlikely you're going to need to quickly change out a bunch of batteries in the field and having a removable battery door would really sacrifice the solidity of these units. I love how solid they are and that's partly because the casing only has 2 parts-the top half and the bottom half. I'll go through the "hassle" of removing just 2 screws to change the battery every blue moon in exchange for such solid construction. The antennas are sturdy and unobtrusive. But even if you damage the antenna somehow, it is easily removed and replaced (you can also get a longer antenna for the receivers from Radiopopper if you want greater range). Overall, Radiopoppers are professionally built and I'm sure will withstand the abuses of a photographer.

COMPANY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE:
The staff at Radiopopper are great. Even though they really have their hands full with backorders, they are incredibly helpful, friendly and speedy. I've found emails are the best way to get support. They are always answered as quickly as possible with a friendly response. The company is a pleasure to work with and I am happy to support them with my purchases.

COMPLAINTS:
Can't think of any. Sorry. Besides, even if there were something I feel should be improved, this is a brand new product. I'm sure these things will evolve like all products do over the years. But really, I haven't found anything that absolutely needs to be changed. These things are awesome. I did, however, come up with a different way of attaching the nylon fiber optic bead to my flash's IR sensor. Check it out here.

RESULTS:

SUMMARY:
So in summary, these things are badass. They will make you happy. Go buy them. Radiopopper.com

New Toys! - Radiopopper Customization

2008-05-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

Guess what I got today...

...BOO YA!

That's right, I got my transmitter and 2 receivers from Radiopopper! These things are BADASS. If you've never heard of them before, do yourself a favor and visit Radiopopper.com. I haven't had much of a chance to get some test shots using these newfangled contraptions. I did, however, want to share with you a little customization action I did to them.

Radiopopper recommends you use a piece of gaffer's tape to secure the fiber optic bead over the IR sensor of the slave unit. This is definitely the easiest and best way to mount it, but I hate waste and I don't even have any gaffer's tape, so here is my solution-you might like to try it, too.

First thing I did was cut a 2-inch long piece of the loop side of Velcro brand, uh, velcro. Then I cut a piece of craft foam sheet (get it at craft supply stores) 1 inch by 1 inch. I removed the adhesive backing from the velcro strip and folded 1/4" of each end onto itself so that adhesive met adhesive and I had a piece of loop Velcro that wrapped around on each side. This left a square 1"x1" on the adhesive side to fit the foam onto. I placed the foam onto this patch to create essentially a velcro band that was entirely loop on one side and the other side was a square inch of foam bordered by velcro on each side. I then put small strips of hook velcro on either side of the infrared sensor. So this makes it possible for me to velcro this band over the bead on top of the IR sensor for a secure connection.

I tried to describe this as best I could, but after reviewing what I wrote, I could see how I might appear to make about as much sense as a screen door on a battleship ("now make like a tree and get outta here"). A picture is worth a thousand words, so just check out the following shots and they should make more sense of it.

So that's my custom Radiopopper fiber optic bead infrared sensor attachment majigy. It works great and it's easily removable. Mine is for a Canon 430ex, but the principle applies to any flash. I highly recommend slim Velcro brand velcro. It's strong and incredibly thin. I found mine at Home Depot. Here's the velcro piece in live action.

These things are GREAT inventions. Thank you, Kevin King, for creating this magical contraption. I wuzn't smart enuff to think it up. I will definitely be posting a blog soon about the units themselves and how they work in a real, live photo shoot. So stay tuned.

Beach Photo Shoot

2008-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

It was overcast and cold all day today (May gray?). I don't often take landscapes in such weather, but I really wanted to get out and get some new pictures. I went down to Laguna Beach (where I got a parking ticket for being parked 5 minutes while I scouted a location!) and found a really awesome cave. It's the biggest coastal cave I've seen in California and I can't wait to go back at low tide to get some more shots of it. I bet I'll be returning there lots of times before I'm through with it. Anyway, here's one of the shots I got today.

Aperture 2 Quibbles

2008-05-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

I use Aperture for 99% of my digital workflow. I use it to manage, organize, adjust, decode RAW and pretty much everything except resize and sharpen my images (I use Photoshop with Alien Skin Blow-Up to resize and sharpen). I currently use Aperture 1.5 and I really like it. It's a great program that makes my life much easier. So needless to say, I was pretty excited when I heard about the release of Aperture 2. I was mostly excited about the new RAW decoding engine because Aperture 1.5's decoding has some trouble with images that have the sun in the frame (which I shoot a lot). I downloaded the Aperture 2 trial to make sure it was going to be worth the upgrade and I found some disappointing changes in Aperture 2.

First of all, they did away with the preferences option "Use proportional spacing in grid view." This option when toggled on and off changes how thumbnails are spaced.

I always had this option checked "on" because it spaces verticals and horizontals closer together. It saves screen space and makes my editing much easier. Here is the difference between having this option on or off:

On:

Off:

As you can see, when this option is checked on, you can fit more thumbnails into a given space. Might not seem like a big deal to some, but why drop this option? Shouldn't I still be able to choose whether I want to use proportional spacing or not?

Secondly, and this is a deal-breaker for me, scrolling in grid view in Aperture 2 is jumpy. When you use your mouse's scroll wheel, the rows of thumbnails "snap" to the next row. In Aperture 1.5, the scrolling is smooth and fluid, just as if you were on a webpage or the like. This is such a downgrade. I hate how jumpy and disconnected this makes browsing images. This crappy method of scrolling is literally enough for me to forego the upgrade.

Lastly, Apple dropped the "Ignore stack groupings" option on Smart Albums.This is a drag. I use Smart Albums like crazy. They are such a brilliant innovation. On nearly every single one of my Smart Albums, I have this feature turned on. I don't really know how Smart Albums are even that valuable without this option. Why would they even drop this feature?!

So there are my reasons for not upgrading. With the exception of what I stated here, Aperture 2 has so many great new features and changes. If these 3 points were addressed, I'd upgrade in a heartbeat.

I've submitted feedback regarding each one of these points at least twice already. The only reason I'm even posting this blog is so that if you, too, are an Aperture user and you are also disappointed with these changes, please send in feedback about it at Aperture Feedback! The more people complain about it, the more likely they are to change. Apple actually does listen to their customers. Also, if you have any other complaints about the upgrade, let me know in the comments.

New Blog

2008-05-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

Ok everyone, so I have set up this blog through Blogger so that I can update my blogs more easily. As of now, I don't really update my blog because it's a bitch to do it the way I have it now. But this should handle that!

In this blog I will discuss pretty much anything that's on my mind, but mostly it will be centered around photography. I may review a new piece of equipment, I may talk about my most recent photo trip, I may even discuss the latest episode of LOST. Who knows? I don't - I can't see that far into the future.

I hope you enjoy this blog and feel free to drop me a line about it.