New Flash

Posted by dkrashb on April 21, 2013

Tisen looks nicely lit for this quick-and-dirty shot with the flash on camera

I recall working pretty darn had to get a decent exposure with my manual flash

I’ve been doing well on holding steady with the photography equipment I have. I had the small splurge on small accessories for my iPhone along with a few dollars worth of apps for my iPhone, but otherwise, I haven’t bought anything for quite a while.

Then, I got frustrated with my inexpensive manual flash unit when I last pulled it out. First, it doesn’t have an auto-focus assist function for low-light focusing. Second, I have to take about 3 shots to figure out the right power settings on the flash (or buy a light meter). Third, it won’t do high-speed sync (meaning I end up with black bars on my photos if I have too fast a shutter speed and my only option is to choose a slower shutter speed even when that’s not what I want. Finally, I can’t do rear-curtain sync. This is a feature you don’t think about until you try to shoot motion in dim lighting.

So, having these irritations right about tax return time combined with the realization that the price of the Speedlite I’ve been lusting after has dropped significantly since I last fantasized about owning it led to one of those late-night purchases that made me feel a little queasy when I woke up in the morning and realized what I’d done.

I put the card up to create catchlights in the eyes–another feature I was missing–but Tisen refused to look at me and even closed one eye

While it’s not the most expensive piece of equipment I’ve ever purchased, I tend to think of things as being “expensive” or “inexpensive” based on how much use I get out of them. My tripod had a higher price tag, for example, but I use it all the time and it will last the rest of my life. I feel the same way about my lenses. While camera bodies are expensive and quickly out-dated, they last years and the camera body is the one piece of equipment I use for every shot I take. A flash, on the other hand, is an occasional add-on accessory for me, not something I need 80% of the time.

In any case, I decided I should start learning how to use the thing immediately in order to increase the odds that I will be happy with having purchased it. I tried to get Tisen to help me work on using rear-curtain sync, but he was resistant and seemed to think I was mad at him because I kept coaxing him onto one side of the room, making him sit, and then, when he started walking, pointing a big, black machine at him that kept flashing. When he started cowering when I called him, I decided I needed to enlist Pat’s help.

Not quite what I was going for–was working on a trail leading up to a solid Tisen but me-thinks I have some learning to do

Pat was not more cooperative and I didn’t have any better luck getting the image I was looking for. But, I was pleased with how nicely the automatic abilities of the flash unit to choose the exposure worked. I got far better exposures with ¼ of the effort. That’s encouraging.

Pat got a little more solid, but he’s still see-through

Web, Wings, and Walks

Posted by dkrashb on April 18, 2013

Spider web with buildings blurred in the background

I am not obsessed–no matter what my husband claims–with birding. I have only listened to my bird song recordings a few times this season. I have only ordered one new birding-related product (a new version of birding software that let’s you quiz yourself on recognizing birds by sight and/or sound). I have gone on no long-distance trips for the purpose of birding.

spider lace

I even walk outdoors without binoculars. This is a bit foolish–especially during the birdathon when every bird counts. I keep seeing birds I can’t identify without binoculars when I don’t have them on me. But, I often forget to grab the binocs when Tisen is in a particularly big hurry to get outside. Somehow it seems wrong to ask him to cross his legs any longer than necessary while I get myself organized.

Drops reflecting the buildings outside

Today I was determined to make an evening bird walk at a marsh. I haven’t been to this marsh before and I figured there was a good chance I’d pick up a few additional species before the Birdathon ends.

Single strand of water droplets

I took Tisen for a walk before I had to leave. We made it about ¼ of the way through the park when the first clap of thunder sounded. It wasn’t even a clap; it was more of a rumble. It was enough for Tisen–he did an about-face and started pulling on the leash to head back in. Because we lost Tiger during our lunchtime walk, I wanted to continue the walk and look for him. But Tisen wasn’t missing Tiger so much. I got him to turn around and take about 3 more steps, but when the next rumble of thunder came along, he was done. We ended up jogging back up the path from whence we came.

This spider literally ran into the center of the shot as I was shooting and then ran out again

As the sky opened up, lightening bolts struck left and right, and even hail started to bounce of the windowsills, I noticed a large spider web in the window was catching raindrops. I decided to experiment with shooting it for the few minutes I had before I needed to leave. While I had a little trouble because of the background, I got a few images I like.

The Standifer Gap Marsh

By the time I needed to leave, the rain and lightening had moved on. I headed down to the garage and headed out to the other side of town for the walk. Traffic was backed up and visibility was nil. I arrived at the marsh late and then wasn’t sure where the entrance was. No one else was there. Not a big surprise considering on this side of town it was still raining and lightening every few seconds.

I got out of the car and walked about 50 yards from the car and back–just long enough to add 2 birds to my birdathon list and take a few photos with the Camera! app–my iPhone safely protected in a waterproof case while my DSLR remained sheltered in the car.

More marsh

Tisen gives Daddy a bath

More Bloopers

Posted by dkrashb on April 10, 2013

I actually kind of like this one

Who doesn’t love bloopers? I felt like it was time to pull out some of my favorite bloopers again (aka, I didn’t have any new photos for today’s post). As always, there are recurring themes amongst my bloopers.

Let’s start with the “Oops! Did I press the shutter button?” theme. This occurs in two distinct ways, dependent on whether I’m shooting with my iPhone or my DSLR. With my iPhone, different screen-tapping behaviors often get me.

For example, when you double-tap the “viewfinder” in Hipstamatic, it becomes full screen, making it easier to see what you’re shooting. In the Camera! app, if you touch the screen with one finger, it sets the focus and if you touch the screen with a second finger, it sets the exposure. To confound it all, most apps also take a picture when you single-tap the screen.

Nice keyboard

This was the article (on the left side) that got me started with the Hipstamatic app

You can probably guess what happens. Curiously, I seem to be mostly likely to mis-tap when I have my laptop in my lap. I don’t know why I would be tapping my iPhone screen while I’m working at my laptop, but I have a surprising number of random shots of my laptop. My second favorite mis-fire subject seems to be the ground.

I might be able to get away with pretending I took this one on purpose

Carpet

More carpet

By comparison, I have happy shutter finger issues when carrying my DSLR. This results in strange shots of the ground (usually out of focus) or other random objects in the frame when I accidentally depress the shutter button. Of course, these are more fun than when the lens cap is still on.

The next common blooper theme, which I will spare you a deluge of photos of, but I have plenty, is the “Oops, there’s a stranger in my frame!” theme. When we’re at a popular place for tourists, it’s a little hard to manipulate every scene to eliminate all people. But, I get a little frustrated sometimes when I actually forget I’m in a public place and I take so much time getting ready to take my shot that I fail to notice people walking into my shot until the shutter has gone off.

Where did the cyclists come from?

The next theme we’ll call “Oh shoot! The lighting was terrible!” While lighting is often terrible, a lot of time exposing for the thing you most want to be visible will solve at least the major issue of ending up with a too-dark subject that looks like a silhouette. Then there’s the approach of lighting a too-dark subject by using a handy-dandy tool like a flash light. Sometimes this works OK, but probably not when the subject is too far away for the focal length you have to shoot with and the flashlight is donned by a young tour guide who has little photography experience.

I know Pat is in this photo somewhere

With a macro lens and some better lighting, this would have been a cool shot

Finally, we have the “Darn it, hold still!” theme where uncooperative subjects decide to leave at inopportune moments, hide behind less interesting subjects, or move faster than expected and the camera’s autofocus can’t keep up.

Momma goat is not quite as long as her tiny rear legs suggest

Tisen doesn’t really like it when I try to play with his toys

Cody out flew my autofocus

Family Planning

Posted by dkrashb on March 23, 2013

Tisen’s collection of squeaky toys seems to have grown quite a bit since October

This was the majority of the collection in October–the family is getting out of control

There’s a reason people recommend planning your family carefully. I believe it’s because after so many family members, it becomes difficult to fit everyone into a camera frame.

While we successfully kept the human side of the family to plan, the canine side didn’t go quite how we expected. Our plan was not to have any more dogs until we had settled down somewhere. Our goal was all about mobility.

Tisen inspects the family portrait pose

But as things changed and we exercised our mobility less and less, I found myself home alone way too much. Working from home is not the same as actually being around other people, even on days when I’m on conference calls for 10 straight hours.

Black and white Hipstamatic version using the D-Type film

Not wanting a long-term commitment, I decided to foster dogs for a local shelter. Tisen was my 3rd foster dog in Chattanooga. I am what is called a “foster failure.” That’s what it’s called when foster mom and dad adopt the dog they’re fostering. I can live with that kind of failure.

My boy kept stealing family members–Baby Beaver had to be omitted from the group shot to get Tisen to settle down

But, having failed to plan the permanent addition of Tisen to our family, it follows that I would be equally less deliberate about planning the additions Tisen would bring home. It started with the discovery of his love for squeaky toys. For the first year we had Tisen, he had no interest in treats. Only squeaky toys.

Tisen licks his nose after being reunited with Snake makes him sneeze

As a result, we kept getting him more squeaky toys. Soon, it became a tradition every time we went to PetsMart, Tisen gets to pick out a new toy. He carries it so proudly through the store with the tags still hanging off it. Usually, he tries to prance straight out the front door with it. He hasn’t quite gotten the “we have to pay for it” concept down yet. So far the store manager has been very understanding and hasn’t prosecuted Tisen for attempted shop lifting.

A more traditional image of the family yielded a pile of jumbled colors

Today, I decided, was the day to find out just how large the family had grown. I haven’t attempted a family portrait since October, when Cow Ball joined the family. I was a bit shocked when I gathered up all the family members and piled them on the sofa. This actually took two trips!

Tisen isn’t quite sure what he’s supposed to do with the huge pile of toys on the sofa

I got out the last inventory list I’d made and checked off the toys as I found them. Each and every one of them was accounted for, plus about 10 news ones added since October. There was even one extra–White Ball. White ball doesn’t belong to Tisen. He “borrowed” it from Twiggy, his girlfriend. It’s probably some ploy he’s using to try to get her to come over–she likes to play it cool.

Close up of Big Dog, Red Dog, Artie (the Armadillo/’Possum), and Puppy Luv cuddling

I had a little trouble fitting the entire family into the frame. I’m a little worried they’ve started multiplying on their own–how did we end up with 3 bears? Last time I checked, we only had Minnie and Eddie Bear. Now we have Flat Bear, too. This is why family planning is so important.

Had great fun with an overexposed shot–after much adjusting, it ended up reminding me of a crayon drawing

Just Ducky

Posted by dkrashb on March 16, 2013

Sometimes black and white makes an otherwise uninteresting shots better, but not always

When we went to the Nature Center a weekend or two ago, we went to see the Red Wolves. But the only wildlife we saw were these two mallard ducks. Seeing a mallard is not exactly the most exciting birding event in the world. According to several sources (including Cornell), they’re the most abundant duck in the world.

These two really did not want their picture taken. They were paddling along serenely until I pulled my DSLR with the 70-200mm lens on it. It’s as if they knew what a hunter with a gun looked like and were confusing me with one. They made a bee-line for cover. I rushed the shot, trying to get a nice close up before they got out of sight.

This is a “traditionally” adjusted version–just nothing to get excited about

As a result, I didn’t get a chance to change any settings on my camera from the last shot I’d taken. Having been shooting in the treehouse just before this, I had the camera in full manual mode and set for a pretty dark scene. So, of course, my duck images came out pretty darn bright.

So, once again, I found myself playing with adjustments in Aperture to see what I could come up with. Nothing like a bad shot of a ubiquitous subject to make you feel like you can go crazy with the editing.

Playing with the “blur” brush, I applied it to the whole photo and then erased the blur where the ducks were. I’m not really a fan of this look.

An interesting side effect of going crazy with the photo editing was that it really demonstrated the superiority of the female mallard’s plumage. As I adjusted and twisted and played, the biggest challenge was keeping her from disappearing all together. With brown speckled feathers, the female just kept blending into the background.

I would probably like this if the female showed up better

Surprisingly, as I did a little reading on the mallard–a species I have taken for granted since the first time I through them bread crumbs when I was about 4 years old–I learned that sometimes the male is just as well camouflaged. As an “intermediate” birder (on a good day), I was a little embarrassed I didn’t know that the male mallard loses his flight feathers at the end of breeding season at the same time he molts into an “eclipse” plumage. For about 2 weeks, he can’t fly. The brown plumage provides cover while he’s vulnerable.

This was created mostly with the curves feature–but the colors just seem to compete with the ducks

Every time I think I know something, I learn something new about it. And when I’m sure I’ve exhausted all of the current information, usually new information is discovered if I wait long enough. Good thing I like to learn.

Oops–I slipped with the curves adjustment. But look at what happened to the male duck

Tisen is an avid learner, too. He has made more progress in his current hobby of “ground-dogging.” I can’t recall him ever seeing a groundhog, so I’m not sure exactly where he got the idea to burrow under anything, much less blankets, but he’s now added snorkeling to his repertoire of blanket-burrowing techniques. This is a welcome relief–sometimes when he gets himself completely buried, he starts sounding like he can’t breathe. I’m always relieved when we see his nose.

Tisen snorkeling from under the blankets

Loupe-less

Posted by dkrashb on March 15, 2013

Looking through a metal cutout on a treehouse door at an intricately carved post

Do you ever take a photo of something and think, “Oh, that’s really, cool!” only to be sorely disappointed when you look at the image on the big screen later? This happens to me more and more.

I attribute this phenomenon to a combination of 1) improving pickiness and 2) diminishing sight. I see what the image looks like in my head. I look at the relatively small screen on my camera or phone and think it looks pretty good. Then, I get home, look at the same image on my much larger laptop screen with my reading glasses on and think, “Oh, no!”

This is one of those lessons I learned and unlearned. After getting home with too many photos where I had missed focus and didn’t realize it, I invested in a loupe that is contained in a rubber “plunger” that goes over the screen on my DSLR. The loupe magnifies the image and the “plunger” part blocks the sun so I can see the image clearly.

I’d learned to use the loupe religiously. While I don’t bother taking it with me when I’m shooting birds or other wildlife–by the time I figure out how the image looks, the subject is gone–I’d come to depend on it in most situations.

But shooting with the iPhone erased this lesson. After all, am I seriously going to walk around with a loupe looking at my iPhone screen after every shot? Suddenly, I found myself shooting with my DSLR much like I’d shoot with my iPhone–no tripod, casually grabbing shots, and loupe-less.

As a result, I visualized something really cool when I took this shot:

But, when I looked at it with glasses on, I was sorely disappointed.

This made for a good time with the Aperture curves feature. I still don’t have the shot I imagined, but I felt free to modify to my heart’s content since I didn’t like the image. It’s fun to feel like a kid again.

While I wile away the time adjusting photos, Tisen takes cuddling in a blanket to new heights. When we settle down for the evening, my husband and I each take our place on the sofa in front of the TV.

We sit down and Tisen stands on the floor and stares at us. We call him up on the sofa and he blinks. Then, when I pull the blankets out of the closet, as soon as I throw one over my husband, Tisen jumps up on the couch and immediately ducks his head under one edge. Tonight, Tisen burrows his way under the blanket, up onto my husband’s lap and leaves only his tail end visible.

I cannot resist putting the Camera! app to the test. Its flash feature allows you to turn the “flash” on so that it stays on while you frame the shot and shoot–really handy when trying to capture my ground-dog burrowing in the dark.

Tisen is in there somewhere–not sure how he’s breathing though

Photo Fails: Part I

Posted by dkrashb on March 9, 2013

Professional photographers often take hundreds of photos to get the one image that really works. But how often do we get to see the ones they discard?

I, as an amateur, am willing to share my mistakes. For today’s post, I chose problems even the most inexperienced eye can spot–these apply whether you’re shooting with your smart phone or a DSLR. I will have part 2 to this post tomorrow–couldn’t get it down to my 500 word limit.

Clumsy Errors

These occur when I do things like trip over my dog while trying to take a shot. This image falls into the sub-category “improper camera holding while not shooting.” This image happened by mistake when I accidentally put my finger on the shutter button while carrying the camera.

This is what happens when you shoot accidentally

To avoid this, for my DSLR, a cross-shoulder strap holds the camera so I don’t have to. With my iPhone, I end up with pocket shots. To avoid this, I turn off the screen before I put the phone back in my pocket.

Blown Out Sky

This also has “uninteresting subject” and “crap composition” going for it, but let’s focus on the sky. This happens when the shot is exposed for a dark subject and the sky is so bright that the camera cannot handle the difference in the light levels. It’s often hard to avoid. This is particularly challenging if you’re shooting with a smart phone app that doesn’t have exposure control, but sometimes you can get it to expose on something that’s halfway between the darkest and lightest parts of the image by tapping on the screen in the case of the iPhone camera.

Among the many problems with this image, the sky is over exposed (“blown out”)

The other option is to use HDR. It combines multiple exposures into one image. On the iPhone, Pro HDR does this for you automatically. The default camera app also has an HDR setting in the 4S and 5. If you choose this option, it’s imperative to hold the phone as still as possible.

Inappropriate Use of Flash

I see this all the time. ALL the time. This is an iPhone shot of a fortune. It was funny, but you can’t tell because the flash overexposed the subject. Hint: Turn the flash off! When you use it, use it on purpose. Otherwise, it will fire in situations when it will do you no good (like flashes popping in the audience of an arena) and even situations when it will ruin the shot (often seen when people stand squarely in front of an aquarium and try to get a shot of a fish through the glass). If you need the flash, turn it on. If you don’t know if you need it, turn it off.

I wonder what my fortune was?

Learning from Dogs

Posted by dkrashb on May 25, 2012

Having recently restored an old archive of photos, I rediscovered a collection of photos of our mastiffs. I re-lived not only the joys and sorrows of having loved and lost these gentle giants, but also of the things I learned from shooting them.

They were my first high-contrast subjects. Their fawn colored fur and their deep black masks gave me exposure fits. After losing their eyes a thousand times, I learned how the spot meter setting worked. Of course, then I was forever over-exposing their light fur.

They were also the subjects that drove me to want a DSLR instead of my PowerShot G3, which was a pretty awesome point-and-shoot for its time, allowing me to take full manual control of the settings.

But looking at my dogs through the G3 view finder made me miss. The closer they were to me, the bigger the problem. If you couldn’t use the LCD, you were just guessing as to what you were going to get. Since I couldn’t use the LCD during rapid-fire shooting, I often missed.

The photos in this collection were all taken with the PowerShot G3 (except the one of Tisen). During one of these shoots, I did a long series of rapid-fire shots with Katie (the only mastiff I ever heard of who loved to fetch). Going through them rapidly looks like a movie of a giant dog romping on a deck.

I also did a rapid-fire series of Bogart. In his series, he turns his head about 45 degrees and then turns it back. That’s pretty representative of their personalities. Bogart was a mastiff through and through–excellent judge of character, laid back, gentle with children, subtly protective, and excellent at the “down” command. Just don’t ask him to get back up.

Katie was more of a lab trapped in an over-sized body with droopy jowls. She wanted to play ball all the time. She wanted your undivided attention all the time. She was as hyper as hyper can get in a mastiff. Unfortunately, her body betrayed her personality (or maybe it was the other way around) and her knees and elbows could not handle her desire to chase, spin, and retrieve her ball. She spent a depressing amount of time restricted from playing at all.

Tisen often reminds me of both our mastiffs. He has the laid back but protective temperament of Bogart. But he also has the fierce neediness of Katie. I sometimes call him Bogart by accident when he does something Bogart-like. I often tell Tisen he’s the best boy in the whole wide world–something I used to tell Bogart as well. One day, I spontaneously completed what I used to say to Bogart and Katie: “And we’re the luckiest people in the whole wide world because we have you.” I started to tear up. We are the luckiest people to have had three such amazing dogs in our lives.

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