Sue Bryce workshop

I havn't been posting as much as I shoud be this week. I've been watching a workshop by Sue Bryce on glamor and portrate photography at creative live. It's been amazing. But between it and my day job, I havn't had much spare time. 

Why You NEED the Zone System for Digital…

this is an excellent introduction to the zone system by Gavin Seim.

http://f164.com/the-zone-system-for-digital/10/2011/

Simply Beautiful Photographs, Tips on Using Palette and Color, Gallery – National Geographic »

Simply Beautiful Photographs, Tips on Using Palette and Color, Gallery – National Geographic »

Adventures in microstock photography

I recently found this interview on This Week in Photography with a the founders of www.everythingmicrostock.com. After doing some additional research I've decided to give it a try, after all, it's free.

So I've created an account with Fotolia and submitted a few photos. I'm taking it slow to try to get an idea of what they are looking for. It took about two days for them to get reviewed and four our of the five images got rejected. It's a bit of a blow to a persons ego when some of the images you consider your best get rejected. Oddly enough the one photo I thought had the least chance was accepted. I guess my ideas of what makes a good commercial image are a little skewed. This photo...

was rejected because it "did not meet our desired level of aesthetic quality". What ever that means. I liked it enough to have it printed and hung on my wall. Go figure.

I really like the idea of not being an assignment photographer. Of shooting what, where, and when I like. However I am starting to wonder if stock photography offers that much more freedom.

Family Reunion

Today was the anual family reuion (on my mothers side). We had a good time catching up with each other. everyone brought food and there were some fun events like guess the number of jelly beans in the jar, and auction, and sling shotting candy for the kids. However there were a lot of people with a lot of loud voices and being the introvert I am, I took a couple of opportunities to slip away from the general chaos and recharge. Of course I had several cameras with me. I was a good bright day for infrared with lots of green vegetation around and interesting textures. My converted casio worked wonderfully after a late night fix-it session yesterday. I am very happy with it and I don't expect to open it up again. 

Perseids Meteor Shower

I went out to watch the Perseids meteor shower on Saturday. While I tried another set of star trails with considerably more success. Definatly not professional quality yet, but a good start. 

This was made from seven 10 minute exposures at f/8 at 400iso. I believe the purple on the left side is lens flair from passing cars. Long exposure noise reduction was turned off so I need to figure out how to remove the noise in post processing. I am also wondering if shorter exposures would decrease the noise as well.  Unfortunately we havn't had many clear nights since so I havn't had much chance to experiment.

Casio qv-r40 IR fixed

I've fixed the focus on the casio. I was right it was the auto focus. When I removed the hot mirror it threw off the auto focus. Last night I picked up an old frame from a thrift store for a buck and cut the glass roughly to the size of the hot mirror and installed that in my camera. Now everything is very crisp and clear.  Unfortunately  the zoom no longer functions. This isn't a big concern, I intend to use it mostly for landscapes. Another day I may open it up again and try to fix it.

Tonight I plan to head out to the desert to watch the metor showers. I'm going to try the star trails again while I'm out there. I'm better prepared this time hopefully it will work out better then last time.

A new infrared modification

I recently found a casio qv-r40 camera at a local thrift shop for $5. I turns out it's a pretty good camera and I managed an infrared conversion with it. It was very easy to open and replace the hot mirrir with a piece of 35mm unexposed, developed film that works quite well for an infrared filter. Unfortunatly I've found the majority of the photos I've taken turn out blurry while a few look just fine. As far as I can tell from my notes it's pretty random two shots with nearly identacal setting come out diffrently. All I can figure is it must have something to do with the auto focus, except that setting the focus to infinity seems to have no effect nor does manual focus.

See the full gallery on Posterous

My latest attempt at star trails

I made it out to the Knolls last Friday night to attempt a couple of star trail photos. Unfortunately I didn't take into account a nearly full moon. The moon ended up washing out most of the stars in the sky. In addition I had difficulty with my remote shutter release which doesn't seem to work most of the time now. I've ordered a timer remote from amazon. I hope it will make these kind of shoots easier. Aside from the moon there seemed to be very little light pollution in the area. I'm planning to head back there for the Perseids meteor shower. I'll be making sure to test my equipment closer to home beforehand.

I did take a few shots of the moon over the sand dunes with the intention of merging them into a HDR image. I'm pleased with the results,. The experience wasn't a total loss.

Vulture poses

During a trip up American Fork Canyon on my way to Cascade Springs I came across this guy on a old burnt tree next to the road. He was considerate enough to pose for several minutes before flying off.