The Shy Photographer

Chicago at the Blue Hour

2012-02-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

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Shots made with either a Canon 5D Mark II or a Canon 7D. All shots made with a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Book Review: Kevin Kubota's Lighting Notebook

2012-02-20T23:30:00.000-06:00

There are a lot of photography books out there. There are a lot of books about lighting. But if you really want to know about the lighting set up, not a lot will help you in that department.

Thankfully, there's Kevin Kubota's Lighting Notebook. The book shows the diagrams for the different shots and the budget and number of hands necessary to make each.

I got so inspired that, when I got my Westcott Umbrella, I made these portraits. Of course, in the spirit of the book, I would like to include my diagrams also:

But of course, Kevin's pictures and subjects are prettier. If only the wife were available when I took these shots... :)
I got so inspired by the book that I want to try out the different set ups on my own. Kevin's set ups would be a good starting point for anyone who wants to improve their portrait photography.
So, if you want to improve your photography, as I am, based on your budget and on the number of hands, or stands, available to you, Kevin's book would be a very big help.
So get your copy of the book by clicking on the link below!

Highly Recommended!

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Shots made with a Canon 7D, a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM lens, and Canon 430 EX II speedlite(s). My review of the Westcott Collapsible umbrella can be found here.

Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Luminous Field by Luftwerk at the Millenium Park Chicago

2012-02-15T23:45:00.000-06:00

Details about the show can be found in this link.

Funny thing happened while I was taking my photos. Since I was crouched really low because of the Gorillapod, an elderly couple asked me if I was taking photos of feet. I had to explain to them that I angled my camera upward so I wasn't just taking photos of feet.

A not-so-funny thing also happened. Because I was crouched so low, I almost got trampled on in several occasions...

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Shots made with a Canon 7D, a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM lens and a Joby Gorillapod SLR Zoom and ballhead.

My review of the Gorillapod can be found here.

Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Photography Gadget Review: Joby Gorillapod SLR Zoom Tripod and Head

2012-02-14T23:27:00.001-06:00

Want some form of stability in your photography but do not want to carry the bulk? Then consider the Joby Gorillapod SLR Zoom.

If you are not familiar with the brand, the Gorillapod is a short tripod with flexible legs. You can wrap it around objects, like a tree branch, a chair, anything that can serve as a stable platform for your camera.

You can bend it to your heart's content, though bringing it back to its straight configuration can be quite tricky.

Paired with the ballhead, this is a perfect system if you want to have the option to stabilize your DSLR and yet do not want to risk breaking your back by carrying a full-size tripod.

The tripod-ballhead pair can carry my Canon 7D with a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM lens. However, I cannot put my camera in a portrait orientation - the base is not wide enough so the system tends to topple and the ballhead starts to sag down.

If you're system is heavier than mine, Joby recommends that you upgrade to the Joby Gorillapod Focus.

But, all-in-all, I am very happy with the Joby Gorillapod SLR Zoom. I now have a tripod that I carry with me almost everyday.

Here is a video, taken with an iPhone4, of how I attached the tripod on the back rest of a bar stool.

Highly Recommended.

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Sinulog sa Chicago 2012

2012-02-08T23:30:00.000-06:00

The wife and I attended the Sinulog Festival. (If you are not familiar with this, check out this wikipedia entry about it.) This is an annual event celebrated by the Filipinos near and around Chicago but, for the wife and I, this is the first time we have attended one here in the US.

It was a very colorful event and all of the performances were done gracefully. Of course, I took this as a great opportunity to whip out the camera and capture the drama unfolding before me.

For the rest of my photos, check out the slide show below:

For iOS users:

Chicago Sinulog Festival 2012

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.

Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Review: Westcott 43-inch Collapsible Umbrella

2012-02-06T21:30:00.000-06:00

Want to take your photography to the next level? It requires a minimum of two steps:

Get your flash off camera.
Use a light modifier.

I got lucky I chanced upon this kit. I say kit because it comes with its own stand and speedlite holder. You can either use it as a shoot-trough umbrella or you can use the black cloth that came with it and use the umbrella as a reflector.

Your speedlite and umbrella are attached to the included shoe mount bracket. The black cloth is easily removed and put back.

Now, I said there are a minimum of two steps. Why two?

Well, if you just remove the flash, then this is what you can get:

Ooh! Ouch! That's blinding light! But with the light modifier:

What is produced is a nice, soft, very flattering light. (Now, can you tell which is the shoot-through shot and which is the reflected-light shot?)

So, if you want to improve your photography without having to spend so much, get your umbrella here.

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Shots made with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Chinese New Year Parade in Chicago Chinatown 2012

2012-02-01T23:15:00.000-06:00

On a below-freezing but a quite gorgeous day, I went to Chinatown in the South Loop and participated in the Chinatown centennial and Chinese New Year celebration. The colorful parade and the general happy feeling made the venture outdoors, despite the frigid conditions, very much worth it.

Majority of my photos are in the slideshow below.

For iOS users, you can view the photos here:

Chinese New Year Parade Chicago

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Shots made with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Gadget Review: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens

2012-01-31T00:15:00.000-06:00

Last Christmas, the wife gave me a new gadget: the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. I was thinking of upgrading my 50mm f/1.8 lens and, I guess, she read my mind.

There was nothing wrong with the f/1.8 lens but the USM difference was a great deal for me. And also, the full-time manual feature of the f/1.4 is also a big plus.

But of course, the bigger aperture is what makes this, above all else, much better than the f/1.8.

The lens is heftier than the f/1.8 though it isn't that heavy. And of course, the build quality is much better.

The lens performed admirably! It is quick to focus and the pictures produced are tack sharp. The f/1.4 opening makes this a very good low-light photography companion.

I tried using the lens for street photography and got pretty successful pictures.

However, some may find the lens too limiting in its scope, too narrow. It is a 50mm lens after all.

The lens is a non-image stabilized lens so you should not get much longer than 1/50th of a second (the inverse focal length rule). However, my shot of the ride on the left was taken at 1/5s, so your mileage regarding this might vary also. I guess, so far, I really have steady hands. ;)

But of course, one of the best application for such a lens is for portraiture. It may be too short with a full size sensor like in the Canon 5D Mark II but it's perfect for the Canon 7D because of its 1.6 crop factor.

But, heck, I like it with whatever camera I use. :)

Here are some of the photos of the wife taken with the lens. My picture, in turn, was taken by the wife.

So, all in all, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens is a very good lens. This may now be my favorite lens! Oops! Don't let my 24-105 hear that.... :)

And I thank the wife for it! :)

Highly Recommended!

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Shots of the lens were taken with the Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. All the other photos were taken using a 5DII and the Canon EF 50mm USM f/1.4 lens.

Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

San Francisco Cable Car

2012-01-26T00:00:00.000-06:00

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

A Lesson for New Photographers: Do Not Chimp

2012-01-23T23:28:00.000-06:00

Wikipedia defines chimping as "The habit of checking every photo on the camera display immediately after capture".

Needles to say, this is bad.

See, when you chimp, there is a great chance that you will miss the action happening just in front of you.

So, learn how to use your camera, train your eye, and you will be able to use your camera instinctively without looking at pictures each time you press the shutter. This way, you won't miss the shot. :)

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Shot made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Happy MLK Day

2012-01-15T23:28:00.001-06:00

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Magnificent Mile in Retro

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

A little piece of home...

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM. Post-processing done in Adobe Lightroom 3. Want to know about my favorite backpack, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW? Check out my reviews here and here.

Dilemma in Photography Land

2012-01-10T00:09:00.001-06:00

All things considered, I am still relatively new to photography. Even though I used a film-SLR about a century ago, I only had my first DSLR at the tail end of 2008. As the years progressed, I upgraded my kit lens, replaced my DSLR, won another, got a telephoto zoom lens, got a couple of speedlites and accumulated a plethora of lens filters, camera bags...

But now, there is a dilemma simmering in my head. And it all started with Trey Ratcliff.

In this blog post, Trey said that DSLRs are a dying breed. While in one, Scott Bourne posted his agreement.

As I've said, I am still a newbie when it comes to photography. So, I still need to gather some stuff for the photography that I want to do. For example, I want to do some macro photography but my currents lenses cannot accomodate that. All professional photographers say that you should remove your flash from your camera because off-camera flash is the best for portraiture; and you cannot do that unless there is a way to control your flash units when they are not attached to your DSLR. (It's a good thing that my Canon 7D can control my off-camera speedlites but the infrared remote won't work outdoors...) I've still got to have light modifiers, light stands... The list goes on and on...

I even have my wish list at the ready here.

Now what about what Trey and Scott said? Well, these guys are titans in the world of photography and what they say definitely carry weight. Now, if the DSLR is a dying species, how come camera makers are still churning out the big cameras left and right? Well, companies are like that, it's in their DNA and they would want you to buy their stuff even if they know that the next phase is already here.

Now, here is the real dilemma:

I still want to do macro photography and I still want to get a real macro lens - and at 100mm, it'll also be a great portrait lens. I still want to move my speedlites off camera so that I'll be able to make beautiful portraits. So the question is, do I still want to expand my DSLR collection knowing that, five to ten years from now, DSLRs will just be used by those who absolutely need them, if at all? (Note what Scott said about fast sports and wild life photography.)

If point-and-shoot cameras can shoot something like these now...

...imagine what they can do five years hence?

And the future is here! A point-and-shoot with the size of a sensor almost as big as my 7D?!? Well, if it can be called a "point-and-shoot"...

Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma...

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Both photos shot, yes, with a Canon Powershot SX230 HS.

Unbearable Lightness

2012-01-04T22:30:00.000-06:00

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Shot made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Jelly Fish at the Shedd Aquarium

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000-06:00

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All photos shot by the wife using a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of the camera can be found here. Want a really good case for your point-and-shoot? Check out my review of the Lowepro Dublin 20 here.

Happy New Year from the Windy City

2012-01-01T00:43:00.001-06:00

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Fireworks at the Navy Pier shot with an iPhone4 and post-processed using Instagram.

Holiday Show at the Shedd Aquarium

2011-12-29T00:00:00.000-06:00

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Photos shot with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L. Want the best bag for your DSLR? Check out my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW. My reviews of the bag can be found here and here.

Cheap Alternative for Getting Your White Balance Right

2011-12-27T00:30:00.000-06:00

You just got a DSLR this Christmas... Now what?

Well, one of the things you should know is to learn how to get the white balance of your photos correct. Why is that? Well, you can get some pictures that are more yellow than others, sometimes more blue than what you like, and you should learn how to correct for that. (For a more general discussion of white balance, check out this wikipedia entry.)

Check out my picture below:

Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II

My subject is supposed to be color white but because of the color of the light source, my picture has a really warm tone. So, if I want to produce the white "dress", I would need to have something to correct for the warm tone.

There are a lot of choices out there but I saw this cheap alternative that still gives magnificent results. It's the Polaroid White Balance Lens Cap 77mm. (I got this since the filter size of my "biggest" lens is 77mm.)

So how do you correct your white balance?

First, you have to do a calibration shot. This is done by knowing what the light falling on your subject is like:

If this is how I shoot my subjects...

...then this is how I do a WB calibration shot.

Essentially, "shoot" the location where you would take the picture. That's it!

Well, first, I should mention, you should set your DSLR to the Program (P) or Aperture-Priority (Av) Mode. Then set your camera to manual focus - with the WB cap on your lens, the camera won't be able to focus onto anything. Then, as in a Canon DSLR, take a shot, set that shot as the WB reference, and set your WB mode to Custom. (For shooters with a different brand, please consult your User Guide to change your WB. The important thing is how to get the shot for reference.)

After this, simple process, shoot away!

Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II

Perfect! I got the white balance that I wanted!

And if your point-and-shoot can do custom white balance, then just use the same lens cap to get the proper setting.

These two photos were shot using the Canon Powershot SX230 HS.

And for less than $10, you've got yourself a really good deal!

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Photos made by the Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L lens and a Canon Powershot SX230 HS.

Art on Ice at the Millenium Park Ice Rink

2011-12-22T07:38:00.000-06:00

Art is everywhere and, as the great artists have found out, you only have to look to see it. While I am not a great artist, I was lucky enough to see the reflections of some of the magnificent buildings along North Michigan on the ice. These were the things I saw.

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All photos shot with the Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of the camera can be found here. If you are looking for a great case for your point-and-shoot camera, consider the Lowepro Dublin 20, which I reviewed here.

Famous Marilyn at the Magnificent Mile

2011-12-20T00:00:00.000-06:00

She still gets a lot of attention...

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Ice Skating at Millenium Park

2011-12-14T09:26:00.000-06:00

[N.B. - currently sick... But I have to have at least one blog post for the week...]

It's that time of the year...

Cloud Gate: Shot A Million Times...

The Wife and I... At 14x Zoom!

There were experts...

And there were some who fell down.

The wife...

... and our friend enjoyed the spectacle.

But of course, the kids enjoyed the rink the most...

The "mandatory" fine art shot...

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Shots made with a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of the point-and-shoot can be found here.

Being Sucked Into A Black Hole

2011-12-07T23:42:00.000-06:00

Who would've thought that the best way to demonstrate a black hole is through, or rather underneath, the Cloud Gate.

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Shot made with a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of the camera can be found here. Post processing was done using Adobe Lightroom 3.

Christkindl Market Chicago 2011

2011-12-06T01:02:00.000-06:00

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Christmas Tree Lighting at the Daley Plaza

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

The Wife and I before the ceremony.

The wife made this photo while I was taking photos.

Mayor Emmanuel; photo taken by the wife.

My shot. The 14x zoom with the camera the wife was using made a big difference.

Before the tree was lit.

Kids singing Christmas carols.

Everyone's full of glee!

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Shots made either with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L lens or a Canon Powershot SX230 HS.

Magnificent Mile Lights Festival

2011-11-30T17:50:00.000-06:00

It's our first Holiday Season in Chicago, so, the wife and I decided to partake with as much as we can. Here are some of the pics I took during the Lights Festival at the Magnificent Mile.

I must say that, despite the high ISO, the point-and-shoot camera performed extremely well.

And we love fireworks! So, while watching fireworks in-between buildings, a first for us, I decided to document the event.
First, I took some stills. Imagine hand-holding your camera to make fireworks photos (with the number of people cramped into where we were, a tripod wouldn't have been possible; also, I really do not bring my tripod as much anymore). The shots I have here may not be as tack sharp as the ones I took in our last 4th of July in Princeton, NJ (link), but they are still fairly useable.

Then, I shot some videos. I love it! Image Stabilization of the camera aside, I think I have fairly stable hands. :) Someone just knocked my bag (around the 36s mark) but otherwise, the vid was fairly steady... Here's the video of the fireworks:

As you can see from the video, the noise suppression of the camera is great! And it helps that I can change zoom even while filming not to mention that the camera autofocuses when the perspective is changed.

The SX230 is really a great point-and-shoot. If only it shoots RAW...

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Shots made with a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of this camera can be found here.