Wow… it’s been 4 years since this shoot. Was just cataloging my backup drive, and browsing the import. Don’t think I ever highlighted this image before. Despite MANY, MANY issues with that shoot, I still like this image.
(OHMYGAWDITSSHANNONAGAINWHATDOESTHATMEAN?!?!?!)
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Wow… it’s been almost a month since I posted anything.
Oopsie.
Plenty of things to write about, but I’m not in the mood. Thought I would just leave you with a photo.
Great Falls National Park. Dave and I went out there easter sunday. The picture doesn’t really do justice to the scale. Those rocks out in the river — the smaller ones — are the size of a house. No Niagara Falls, but still beautiful, and unlike Niagara, it’s not surrounded by a dirty, depressing city.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I was in the mood to write something. But it’s getting late, so I think I will just share a photo from one of last year’s shoots. This girl was wonderful. Very mature, and a natural in front of the camera.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I just posted my annual collection of photos, for 2009. (Yes… a little late). Same as always: It’s a collection of photos I took last year. The criteria for inclusion is subjective. Some I liked for technical reasons. Some for aesthetic reasons. Some were important events or people, (or cats). Some… I just felt should be in there. They’re not the best of the best… they’re just 2009.
In past years, I’ve felt like I didn’t do much. But towards the end of last year, going through my archives, I was reminded of how much had gone on, and with who. Flipping through these photos made me very happy.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Reworking some photos from the shannon shoot from a year or so back. Learning new things all the time, and realizing how questionable the old shots look. Some revamped images, and a couple new ones.
(Click for the whole set, duh)
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
New Year’s Eve with friends, at friends’. Plenty of party pictures. Click any image for the full set.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Considering it was dark and I don’t like flashy-thingying people at parties, they came out fairly good. (click for more, obviously).
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
12 weeks.
I took Jenny’s advice and called the head of repair at Penn. He returned my call within about half an hour, after checking with the factory. They apparently had been waiting on backordered parts. But given the length of time so far, he says they’re trying to replace it instead, at the same price as the repair.
On one hand… nice. On the other, it makes me nervous. The quality difference between one lens and the next, even of the exact same model, can vary. And I loved the quality I got out of the original. Tack sharp with saturated colors.
We’ll see. Nothing certain yet, anyway.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
by Lung S. Liu
In no particular order… There’s a wide range of tones here, from deep black to not-quite-blown-out-whites. And the overall tones are evenly distributed. The depth of field is very nicely handled. The subjects are sharp, and really pop out against a silky background. The stairs not only provide a nice place to watch the progression of the DOF, but the diminishing perspective on them leads my eye up to the faces. While they both bend at most of their joints (see past reviews), you have one more solid and upright, while the other folds in on herself and relies on her partner for balance. It’s a casual photo, in everything from the body postures, to the tree-diffused lighting, to the open door in the background. The poses do compliment each-other. The light on the main subjects is so perfect, I wonder if a reflector or flash was used. It’s a posed photo, but you get the feeling that it’s a very authentic moment. And as always, I like that the situation feels lived in. Leaves and dirt on the stairs. It’s not all pristine and new. And the people are reasonably framed — with the heads near the top of the image. And the stairs are given space to finish up. They’re such a strong directional line, that it would have been awkward if they had been cut off any sooner.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
A good general rule of thumb for photography in DC:
“Get Closer”
It appears to be an almost universal impulse for tourists to stop when they see a famous building in DC, and take a picture or have their picture taken in front of it. And by in front of it, I mean 5 blocks away. So many people stop halfway down the mall, to take pictures of the Capitol building.
Stop it.
Get closer.
On an average camera with an average lens, you can literally be on the grass in front of the capitol before you fill the frame. And no one is going to be impressed by a photo of the White House taken from Scott Circle, 6 blocks away.
Get closer.
Combine this with the whole “stop centering people’s heads in your photos”, and you can actually get quite a lot in your pictures.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
So…
after recently discovering that no one really knew what they were doing with my camera lens, I got a call yesterday about my other big toy that’s been in for repairs — the laptop. While replacing the case which had been cracking all to hell, they apparently damaged my screen. And since they’re doing all the repairs locally, they have to order in the part and take another 3 days.
Breaking stuff seems to be the easy part. Getting it fixed… not so much.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
We’re going on 7 weeks since I dropped off my broken lens at Penn Camera to be fixed. So I thought I would bug them again since I was out running errands. The promised me a week ago they would call Tamron and check on it, and call me. Never happened.
“oh… yes… let me call them… I’ll call you later when I hear back. Really.”
They did call this time. “Tamron sent us an estimate. But we didn’t get it. But now we know. So…”
So it can be repaired. But really… how fucking hard is it to remember to follow up on something you’re getting paid for? Either company. “We asked for an estimate a month and a half ago… I wonder where it is?” Or… “We got this lens sitting here. Not sure what to do with it ‘cuz we asked these guys what they wanted, like… a month ago!”
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Often when I’m walking the streets at night, after being out with friends, (or while still in the act), I really have this urge to just wander and take pictures. Cities take on this whole new life at 2 or 3 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. Crowds fill the street like it was rush hour. And cars line up from corner to corner.People are loud and boisterous. Instant connections are made that last 30 seconds. The police can be seen around the edges, not so much strictly enforcing the law as encouraging people to keep the mal-drama to a minimum.
Sounds to me like the perfect place to take pictures.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
FWIW – this came from that last photoshoot I did that didn’t go so well. Obviously, my definition of “not so well” was pretty selective.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
It’s come up in several discussions with friends that they don’t always bring their cameras into questionable areas, or places they could get damaged. It’s reasonable. But for myself, my choice was always to bring the camera just about anywhere. I’d rather run the risk — especially since these are often the more interesting situations — and get some great shots. Cameras can be repaired, but moments can’t be relived.
Though honestly I wasn’t too worried about having my camera out in a nice hotel room in downtown Atlanta. But even so, while at Dragon*Con, a rather large, solid, intoxicated man landed on me, and knocked my camera to the ground.
A 3 month old lens. Ultra-wide angle, so not exactly cheap. By the next morning, when I went to pick up the camera, I noticed the lens body separating into two pieces. And it’s been getting slowly worse ever since. As of this afternoon, the auto-anything was dead. I couldn’t zoom, and it was still sagging.
Took it into Penn. $150 estimated repair, though that’s just their average for this kind of lens. 4 to 6 weeks wait. And even then, I won’t be surprised if it’s not salvageable.
Eh. I’m not really too upset. I did get plenty of wonderful shots that night with the lens. And none of the damage was intentional. Even in his drunken state, the first thing the guy worried about was wether he’d damaged the camera. It sucks, but life goes on.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Okay… so I’ve now had my camera strap from My Funky Camera for about a month now. (See previous post on this topic). I’ve had one photo shoot, and a long weekend trip that is probably my most intensive camera use each year. And to give it the highest possible praise, I can just say that during those events and most other times, I never really thought about the strap.
I never worried that it would break. I never worried that it would damage the camera. I never worried that it would slip. I never worried that it would get in the way.
I never had to think about it.
Don’t get me wrong, it still looks good. And given the construction, I expect that will last for quite a while. At the absolute least, I don’t look like a walking billboard for a camera company. And it stores well in my camera bag.
My only thought now is that I wish I had the wrist strap as well, since I so often simply wrap my neck strap around my wrist to secure it. Will have to give this serious consideration.
I do wish there were a couple less girly imprint options. It doesn’t need to be guns or bikinis or beer bottles or anything. But maybe a few without lovebirds or pink polka dots on them? That, plus a little more detail on their website, and I’d be happy.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
So I was in a fairly bad mood by the end of the photoshoot this weekend. Normally on these shoots I worry about many things, and they always turn out much better than I expected. But in this case, to one extent or another, every concern I had expressed in the previous months came true. And that’s about as specific as I’ll get about that. So I went home and fell asleep on the couch because I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized I had spent the day taking pictures like the one below. And no matter what was bad, it still beats sitting at home, playing video games or something.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Several people have asked me how I block various people from seeing some parts of my facebook feed, so…
1 – Go to your full contacts list. “Friends” -> “All Friends”
2 – Create a new list and name it whatever you want
3 – Add the people you wish to hide things from to this list
4 – Now go to “settings” -> “privacy settings” -> “profile”
5 – Take any section you wish to filter from this list, and choose “customize” from the pull-down menu
6 – at the bottom of the resultant window, under the “except these people”, type in the name of the ‘bad people’ list you created earlier.
That’s it. I just mostly filter out potentially offensive stuff from my work contacts.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!