Lunch Date

Last week my wife and I celebrated our anniversary, unfortunately our work schedules didn't allow us to get away for a vacation this year so I decided to surprise her with a lunch date.  Nothing fancy just a short walk to an awesome nearby sandwich shop that sits in a secluded little alley downtown.

I've been trying to bring my camera with me more and more lately,  it has advantages and disadvantages. I can take pictures but it's a bit cumbersome and I'm still not sure how to carry it? In a bag, or out in the open? This time I took it in a bag to avoid any problems or accidental spills while eating, and we had a great lunch together alone - if you have kids you'll understand why I included that statement.

I should have taken some pictures in the shop, but I didn't and I'm not sure why, maybe I felt awkward shooting in such a place without permission. I wanted to shoot the wall we were sitting next to as it reached up 2 stories and was bare brick with great light and metal rafters at the top, and I could've taken a great portrait of my wife against it, maybe I didn't because  I wanted instead to just talk with her and enjoy the time together.

I'll shoot it next time!

On the way back to her work as we were walking up the alley (it gently slopes up in that direction) I noticed as we began to come out of the alley that some buildings came into view with a nice contrast of architecture so I pulled out the camera and snapped off a few handheld HDRs.

The Walker Center Building

I usually try to shoot different aspects of a scene so I tried this in Portrait mode as well.  I like this version more than the first, even though it was tougher to handhold a 3 shot HDR in this orientation as I'd taken off my battery grip to make the camera less conspicuous.

A vertical view of the Walker Center

Walking farther out of the alley I turned left and saw the Wells Fargo building looming over us, I zoomed in and made an abstract shot of its windows.

I really liked the tones and shapes of the windows and exaggerated that contrast of tones in Photoshop.

I then turned around and looked across the street to see this beat up relic, what a difference the width of one road can make. I snapped a handheld 3 shot HDR and made some pretty aggressive post processing choices as I wanted to really show the grungy nature of these buildings.

I'm glad I took my camera, and I'm glad that I used it! Also it was nice to be reminded that looking high, low, and behind you can often yield another picture that may even be better than the one you first saw.

Happy shooting! and don't forget to "look everywhere"!

The Best Laid Plans...

Our Lagoon Amusement Park trip started out great, I even got to try out my DIY camera sling strap (aka: Cheap Black Rapid strap).  However as the great  John Steinbeck wrote"the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"  We usually split up and I follow my son and his friends while my wife will take our daughter to the kiddie rides. I had hoped to take a lot of action pictures and while I got in a few it soon turned out that my wife was getting motion sickness this time around, and my daughter needed me to ride with her.  I left the boys alone and spent the next 9 hours riding rides I'd rather have photographed, but here are a few shots I did manage to get. Nothing spectacular, although I did finally try out Continuous Focus 3D tracking and it was amazing to see how well it did given the extreme motion of a roller coaster at 200mm zoom. All shots were in JPEG as I didn't want the hassle of converting RAWs of snapshots.

The ancient "White Roller Coaster" a rickety wooden classic that'll rock n roll you!

The sky coaster goes from the north end to the south end of the park

The "Wicked" pure Terror/Joy AF-C 3D tracking!!

Waiting in a shady spot I snapped off a 3 frame HDR of the line area of "Wicked"

Reminder-Look behind you for a shot, this was at the "shady Spot" near "Wicked" 3 shot HDR handheld

The Cliffhanger - Sometimes you don't get wet, but this time...

3 shot Handheld HDR of Colossus

The drop on Colossus heading into the double loop

Making the Turn into the cyclone spiral near the end of Colossus

The entrance features a great water attraction that's irresistible to kids.

It's not a decoy that duck's real, and quite the poser

Here's your sign...

Apparently Lagoon promotes marriage...well it is Utah.

Some young parents, one of my few "People" shots

My girls!

almost an amazing shot, I should've moved 2 feet to the right and gotten all 3 clearly

The Dragonfly swings - 3 shot HDR handheld!

The "Spider" was closed, a 3 shot handheld HDR again from my "Shady spot"

The massive Ferris Wheel at the north end of the park - 3 shot HDR handheld

Ferris wheel gondolas at 200mm - 3 shot HDR handheld

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel - a little faux tilt shift poorly done

Exit left...

So that's all I have to show you of our fun little trip. I basically had to put the camera down and be a Dad first which I never mind doing.

Speaking of which, Happy Fathers Day to all you Fathers and future fathers out there. Lets keep up the good work making memories with our families and saving them as photos.

Shoot List-Preparing for a Photographic opportunity

Every year my employer pays for all their employees and families to attend the local amusement park (OK, it's the only amusement park in Utah) My kids look forward to this every year because we just don't go that often.  As they get older it's become more fun for my wife and I as they get to ride the "real" rides, and more importantly they bring friends so we don't have to ride with them. I've done them all and I'm old enough now that I don't have the need to feel my stomach in the back of my throat -thank you very much.
This also happens to be the  first year I'll have a "real"camera with me. I've used my trusty Canon Powershot A720IS for the last four years, and this time I've got the D7000 and a desire to really get some fun shots now that I can focus faster, take continuous shots, and have a longer reach with the 18-200mm.
And this  time I want to try something new, not just one thing but a whole bunch of things.  So I'm making a "shoot list", I'm doing this because the last two major photo ops I had I forgot to take panoramas, which is really a shame because they could've been really great shots of some fun subjects. Guess what's on top of the list?  I was also listening to a podcast today that talked about overcoming your fear and shooting tons, knowing that much of what you shoot is going to be crap but you learn from each shot and you have to take the chance and push yourself. It was this episode of  Q&A with Faded and Blurred where they interviewed Ibarionex Perello about this subject and his new book"Chasing the Light" I definitely have a fear of photographing people so that's second on my list and probably the one I'll have the hardest time with, last year I missed a great shot of a man wearing a Walmart shopping bag over his head (It was raining) I had the camera in my hands, it was turned on and I was too scared (of offending him) to lift it and click.I'm hoping the 200mm helps out a bit with this one... If not it's time to "nut up or shut up" Bonus points for knowing what movie that's from.
I'm posting my list so that I have some accountability to get some shots and to share them. No matter how horrible they are I will get at least one example of all these, so here's the list:
Panoramas: Entrance, Midway, Rides, Pioneer Village (a western themed area in the park)
People shots!! ( I know -vague- but I'm leaving it open unless I find myself stuck, then I'll assign a narrowed topic/subject)
HDR: Everything and anything is fair game, although it'll be hard as I'm not sure about tripods in the park (nothing on their website mentions them) or if I want to carry it all day and I haven't gotten a larger gorillapod yet. I might just wing it during the day and carry it in at night.
Time Lapse: rides, night time, midway games area etc. I'll most likely use my P&S for this as it sets up easily, and I can use and carry my mini tripod or gorillapod for this and still be able to shot with the D7000 while waiting. And the smaller images make processing them easier!
Long Exposure: rides, games, night panos hopefully some panning shots and zoom exposures since I haven't been able to try that before.
That's plenty for now I think and most likely much more than I'll be able to do, but it's worth trying, and as long as I don't forget to take the list  I'll have some success.
Wish me luck!

Photography Podcast

Do you listen to Podcasts?

If you are interested in photography, and especially if you want to learn more then you really should be listening to podcasts.
I first started listening to podcasts by accident and it believe it or not it was Harry Potter that got me started. My brother sent me a link to the Pottercast podcast so I could download and listen to some of the Harry Potter news/rumors as the wait for book 7 seemed to last forever. It just so happened that as I was downloading I saw some sidebar link for other podcasts and I ended up at some page that had a listing of a ton of available podcasts. I noticed entries under "photography podcast" on the list and I haven't looked back, in fact I follow so many that it's sometimes a bit overwhelming, and I miss hearing some altogether.
I have the fortune I guess you'd say of being able to listen to my MP3 player for my entire shift at work, it helps cut out the background noise, and I find that it helps time flyby faster. So I load it  up with my favorite tunes and a bunch of podcasts and hit random and away we go for 9 hours a night. My first podcast was Photofocus and even though I only had a point and shoot camera for over 4 years I was able to learn and apply so much just from the answers of that one podcast that it will always be at the top of my list.
So enough of the background lets get to the list:
Photofocus -  Q&A style with special guests and listener questions, this is where I learned so much!! It gets repetitive but it's worth it!
This Week In Photo (TWIP) my 2nd podcast and a personal fav! Great news, tips and discussion along with some Q&A
Digital Photo Experience - Rick Sammon and Juan Pons off shoot of Ricks appearances on Photofocus mostly Q&A with great interviews.
Photography.ca - A podcast I found only recentyl but is quickly becoming a favorite! Short episodes with 1-2 topics only and very nice information and interviews.
Tips From The Top Floor - A german who's the granddaddy of Photo podcasting! interesting format short but fun
The Martin Bailey Podcast - A Brit in Japan, no I'm serious he's a great photographer and his podcasts cover everything from his pics to business and interviews.
Faded and Blurred- a great podcast full of interviews with amazing photographers.
The Digital Story - Derrick Story's podcast covers awide range of topics and is a very stable/regular podcast he has a great web presence that's fun to take part in.
Mostly Photo - Leo LaPorte's new podcast focusing on Photography,  Lisa Bettany is his permanent co-host they have great interviews and contests, has a video component.
About Photography - Ed Verosky is a NY based portrait/boudoir photographer that has great episodes for beginners. (Some web site stuff is NSFW I always scroll cautiously)
That's my top ten!
Here are some others,  they're all great and I don't think any less of them it's just that on any list something's got to be first right?! So if 10 wasn't enough here are a few more:
Lens Flare35, The Lens Wipe, Exif and Beyond,New to Photo, The Candid Frame, Camera Dojo.
There are many, many more and a quick google search will prove it. BTW I don't use itunes but a search in it will show that all these have itune feeds if that's what you use. Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite podcast(s) are.
Now go download, listen, and learn!