Pixel Schmixel

Back to Life

2009-12-19T23:36:00.002-05:00

I have decided to bring this blog back out of hibernation. A lot has happened since my last real post, on September 7th. I've gotten a lot of new camera gear. I've between my JV football and soccer jobs I've taped 14 games this fall and spent almost 30 hours editing together a season long soccer DVD. O yeah, I've also gotten into college. I will be going to Ithaca College next fall as a TV/ Radio major :).

But this is mainly a photography blog, so that's the first order of business. My camera bag has gotten a lot heavier since my last post, not that I'm complaining. At the time of my last post I had 1 camera, 3 lenses and had a monopod on order. That monopod has come, and I've also added another camera body, another lens and an external flash.

I'll give a brief review of each here, in the order that I got them:

I ordered the monopod, a Gitzo GM 3350XL last summer. After over a month long wait it finally came, thanks B&H for that. It was a very expensive model costing $200. Part of that is warranted; I needed something tall, hence the XL. But there were still several cheaper models that would have worked. I spent the extra money to get a lighter weight version. Theres not a whole lot to say about it, but its awesome. Very sturdy, holds my camera with 70-22 f/2.8 lens attached no problem, it doesn't slip at all. The top screws into the bottom of my camera and its snug. The legs telescope smoothly and tighten nicely. I have no complaints and no regrets about spending that amount of money for something that could have cost half as much.

The next thing I got was a Canon 580 exII flash. Again no complaints. This is the best flash that Canon makes and thus it really does everything you'd want. ETTL works as expected. The flash compensation greatly enhances the ability of the flash and makes it much more useful for differing situations. It is pretty big and heavy, but that's the price that you may for the professional model.

And most recently, in the past week, I got a Canon 7D, along with the kit lens, a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6. So far it works great. The 7 FPS still photo mode is amazing! I'm going to get a little bit more use out of it before posting an actual review, but I am thinking about that.

I plan on putting the soccer highlight tape that I made online and will post a link to that when it's available.

2009-09-28T23:13:00.004-04:00

I have decided to put this blog into hibernation. I am way to busy this fall, with photography, TV production and college applications to have time to keep up with this. I plan to pick it up again sometime later in the winter.

Recent Sports Pics

2009-09-12T17:14:00.001-04:00

Here are links to the soccer game I shot this afternoon and the football game I shot last night:

Soccer

Football

Soccer Photos

2009-09-07T22:21:00.004-04:00

Now you finally get to see what I had planned on making one of the key features of this blog: some of my sports photos. Here are the shots from a boys soccer game I shot last weekend.

I'm actually not very happy with the way they turned out. The color varies a lot between the pictures, probably the result of using 2 cameras at the same time. Another thing that made it hard was the time. A 6:00 game start time means that at the beginning of the game it is bright and sunny, but by the end it is 100% night. That means that I have to constantly be monitoring the settings, for 2 cameras, and they don't use equivalent settings. What produces a perfect exposure on the Canon might be over exposed on the Nikon.

I think for the majority of the time I had my ISO set to low. The ISO is the camera setting that sets the sensors sensitivity to light (that's a mouthful). A low ISO, 100-200 means that the sensor isn't very sensitive and a longer exposure is needed to get picture that is exposed properly. That's fine if it is bright outside and the subject isn't moving fast. Add in moving soccer players at night and you have a mess. A higher ISO is needed, but not to high or the camera starts to produce noise on the photos. Noise is the little dots on some pictures. Generally not desired, especially for sports.

So, I had the ISO set to low throughout the night, which leads to longer shutter speeds which means there is going to be blur from the fast moving players. Which leads to a bunch of bad pictures.

An alternative is to use a flash, but I don't think many people would like a flash going off in the middle of a sports game, so that is out of the question in this case. The best solution I have found, I hope, is a monopod. It's kinda like a TRIpod, but unlike the tri part it is mono. It is basically a long metal stick that screw onto the bottom of the camera and sits on the ground. It's supposed to help hold the camera steady.

Hopefully by the next soccer game I have to shoot the monopod that I ordered in mid August will be here, yeah you read that right, over a month. I'll post a review of it as soon as I use it a couple of times.

Here is another photo website that I read on a daily basis. It's much more about gear and shooting techniques, but since pretty much everyone has a camera or sorts it could be useful, or just interesting:

http://photofocus.com/

My Take on Editing Photos

2009-09-07T22:06:00.003-04:00

What is the difference in the pictures above? The short answer is the top one is much, much better. And it didn't take long to change something like the bottom shot into something much better like the top one. Simply spending 30 seconds editing each photo will make them all much better. When I take a picture I not only notice how good or bad what I see on the back of the camera is, I think about how I can edit it; either to be printed in the paper or to be used for personal use.

Anything that is to be printed in the paper or put on stoganews.com must be in good photo journalistic taste. It must be a true representation of what actually happened. This can sometimes be difficult because the human eye can see more contrast then the best cameras can capture, ie. the human eye sees deeper blacks and whiter whites then a camera does. This can make it hard because a picture taken isn't really what happened. Some basic edits can be made to increase the contrast; the main one being a levels adjustment.

Anything that isn't going to be print I am free to do whatever I want with, as I have done many times on this blog. Often times if I get a picture out of the camera that isn't very good, like above, I play around to try to make it more creative. One of the first things I try is making it high contrast black and white, as the one above is. This is super simply to do and is a style that I really like. It takes the emphasis off of the color and puts much more emphasis on what the picture is actually of.

If the black and white doesn't look good next I try adding some color. Like this. If that still doesn't look good, then chances are the photo isn't very good to start with and it get trashed. All of these editing styles are just ways to make a photo go from a limited contrast capture, because a camera can't capture as much as your eye can see, to a basically enhanced photo, like the pictures to be printed, to something much more creative, like the black and white above. Before trashing any picture it is worth trying several different edits on it, they don't have to be complex and don't take very much time at all. As a point of reference the black and white photo wasn't edited in Photoshop, it wasn't even edited in Aperture or Lightroom. I edited it in iPhoto, the free photo organization software that comes with the Mac, that happens to have some basic photo editing tools that are at best not very good and at worst they are probably worse then some editing software on the iPhone.

That just goes to show that to make some basic photo enhancements you don't need Photoshop or something like that. Most editing can be done in something simple. And it is always worth the time to do that editing.

A Photo Website Everyone Should Look At

2009-09-05T14:31:00.002-04:00

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/in_flight.html

No I didn't take that picture. And no its not a crash. They are the Spanish Air Force aerobatic team. I'm guessing similar to the Blue Angels, though they look to be a little bit better. The picture is from The Big Picture Blog. It has some of the coolest pictures I've ever seen, most of them photojournalism shots. I highly recommend checking it out sometime.

From the Vault- The Staredown

2009-09-02T00:32:00.002-04:00

The Staredown
Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

I was cleaning up my room today in preparation for school, I guess, or just because it was in desperate need of it. But in doing so I found quite a few old prints buried on top of my dresser. This is one of them. I like it because not only is it at worst a good picture, but there is a good story behind it:

This is from vacation to Seattle last summer, fun trip. We drove to the top of a ridge to go for a hike. The drive up was beyond white knuckle. There was a drop off over the edge with little to no guardrail most of the time. And oh yeah it was foggy, AND there was major construction going on on the road; they were repairing where the road had pretty much just fallen away. And on top of all of that we were in the gigantic extended length Expedition. So it was edge of your seat all the way up.

Once we got to the top I noticed several things, first off it was cold. Were not talking 60s, were talking 30s, with snow on the ground, strange considering it was August. Second it was still super foggy, like foggy to the point where I couldn't see anything out of the window of the ranger station at the top. Thirdly I noticed a car with an Alaska plate. That drive made our plane ride seem short, despite the major holdups we had.

We started on a short hike along the ridge hoping to see something, or anything for that matter. Expectations were pretty low at that point, though we had survived the drive up, which of course was on the right side of the road, the side touching the side of the mountain, the drive down was the really bad one.

Before we were allowed to leave for the hike we had to be warned of the bears and cliffs and excessive ice on the trail, etc. Standard it's-not-our-fault-if-you-die stuff.

You can judge what the general scenery was like from the background of the picture; pretty standard side of the mountain stuff, but the fog made it kinda bleh. Once I stopped looking for the nice vistas I started to notice that there were a ton of pretty cool looking wildflowers. I took a bunch of pictures, some pretty good, but nothing that hasn't been done before.

At some point I noticed the deer above, and at some point right after that he noticed me and took off. A surprisingly long chase ensued. And this chase didn't necessarily take place on the path. I was running through thigh high bushes chasing a deer, all on the side of a fairly steep mountain. And the deer didn't just take off. He ran ahead and stopped for a bite to eat, but right as I'd catch up he decide that that particular grass wasn't good enough and have to run 30 feet further, always away from me. You must keep in mind that at this point the only lens I had was the standard 18-55mm, this is by no means the lens anyone would want when shooting wildlife of this caliber. 18-55 isn't much more zoom then a cell phone camera. So I had to get pretty close to get anything decent.

Somehow I managed to get close enough and get the shot above, along with a ton of others that I took while running, which were all junk. There was also one of the deer with his tongue out. But it was out of focus, grrr. After getting what I though was a good enough shot of the deer considering the circumstances, which took the better part of 10 minutes, I headed back to the trail to show everyone what I'd gotten. Was it worth it? Yeah of course it was I got a cool shot and didn't fall off the side of the mountain. It's not a super good shot, not super sharp, not great composition, but it works. It works well enough to be printed and hung on my wall for several months until it was replaced by something else and just tossed on my dresser.

The Comments Thing

2009-09-01T01:21:00.003-04:00

Ok I think I know what is wrong with the comments thing, which in this case is bad. When redid the layout I didn't fully customize everything. I just used a new template, then highly tweaked it to change the colors of everything, but the basic layout was predetermined. That layout contained the code for everything and I think somewhere in this layout template the comments thing isn't working. What that means is that I have no idea how to fix it.

For now feel free to email me any comments, my email is on the about this blog section, or send me a facebook message, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to fix this.

From the Vaults- The Shot

2009-09-01T00:55:00.005-04:00

The Shot
Nikon D90

I think that I am going to title posts of older pictures From the Vaults.

This is an image I took at a boys basketball playoff game last winter, March 7th to be exact, against Harrisburg; we won. This game is also the shoot for which I've taken the largest number of pictures, well over 1000. 1200 I think, though I don't remember. This is probably because this was the first time I had the school Nikon D90 in addition to my Canon XSi. My camera can take about 3 frames per second, the D90 can do somewhere between 4 and 5 and that is a massive difference. I have since learned to limit myself. It does take quite a bit of time to go through 1200 shots, especially when 800 of them are below average quality.

From this shoot I have 400 saved permanently and of those I have only 90 tagged as 5 stars, meaning that those are the only ones that got any real attention. And of those 90 exactly 0 got printed in the paper.

But that is sorta the thing with shooting sports: very high quantity of shots, very low success percentage. My success rate is probably about 10%, counting that 10% as only those that I rate as 5 stars. The 5 star images then get sent to the paper editors who pick the one that runs with the story. The rest go online where anyone can see them, though I'm sure very few people do.

This image above is one that I originally took in color, as with everything I do; it's a tad easier to go from color to black and white, actually its just 3 key strokes, then it is to go from black and white to color, kinda impossible.

I originally rated it as 5 stars, because I liked it, not becuase it had any chance of going anywhere. I like it, its an interesting angle, but has no chance of getting printed or being the album cover for the online album. Why, because it isn't very photo journalistic. When you watch basketball that's not at all the angle you see. It's a weird angle. It's not what the average person would associate with a basketball game, which is why it isn't very good, from a photo jouralistic perspective.

But it is awesome as an art piece. It was one of my favorites from that game. As I said above it is interesting, it isn't what you think of when you think of basketball. It is taken from an angle that would be impossible for anyone to get to without a pass. Which is what makes it cool, the tilt also helps.

Today I went back to that black and white picture that has been sitting on my hard drive taking up 2.6 MBs of space because I remembered it from when I took it, one of the few sports pictures I remember individually. I thought it should be looked at again. I still do. It's cool. So I did some photoshopping to it: cropped a little, brightened the floor and the lights and slightly blurred the background, and of course added the yellowish orange tint.

That sort of editing is something that I'm "not allowed" to do for anything taken for the paper. Well it's more that in doing that I'm changing the picture from what happened to what I wanted to happen, ie a prettier scene. Under normal circumstance I have no desire to do that sort of editing to a picture taken for the paper. At this point I would have spent probably about 2 hours sorting through those 1200 photos, pulling the best 90 and doing some basic color correction, which is allowed, and shipping them off to the paper people. After that I would want to be done with this shoot, and onto the next one.

But now that I have a lot of time to kill, which I should probably be spending doing my summer reading, I can go back and look at this image with a new eye. Now I am not tired of it, I haven't just spent 2 hours working on basketball pictures that by the end of that time all look the same to me, I've been reading. I can see some new edits that could be made to take it from a pretty bad piece of photo journalism to a pretty cool art piece, which I think I've done.

As For the Comments

2009-08-31T03:41:00.002-04:00

I am aware that the comments button isn't working. Not sure why, but I'll see if I can fix it.

The New Pixel Schmixel

2009-08-30T21:45:00.004-04:00

Ok...so the first thing you noticed, I hope was the all new color scheme and layout. Take you time to take it all in...good. Almost all of the changes were just reorganizations and a new color scheme. The only major thing I added was the tag cloud on the right side.

Now as for why I pretty much changed everything around. Despite what that box on the right side of the old layout said (now rewritten and on the left side) the main purpose of me making this blog wasn't to take and post a picture every day for a year it was for me to keep up with my photography over the summer when I wasn't taking lots of pictures for the school paper. The year long thing was just an idea I had as I was creating the blog.

Well the first goal I met: I have taken a picture everyday this summer, and I think that most of them are pretty good, with obvious exceptions. As for the second goal, the year long one: summer is pretty much over, well I still have to do summer reading, and I have pretty much the busiest schedule fall ever. In anticipation of that I have decided that in order to keep the quality of this blog at a high level I am going to forfeit the year long project. It was fun in the beginning, then it kinda of became a pain. Then it got to be fun again, then an annoyance. Somewhere in all of that my picture quality started to take a dive.

So...as the new title description says this is now going to be a blog based on media not just photography. I will be posting new pictures as often as I can, but I will not be going out of my way late at night to put up a mediocre picture. Instead if I have the time I will go back through my old ones and find something good to put up, but even that won't be on a daily basis. In addition I will be posting some longer narratives about whatever photo/video topics I am in the mood to write about.

Be sure to check back several times a week because I will be posting, just not as often and hopefully with better quality stuff. I may try to title some of my pictures, just because they will be generally of higher quality.

Here's a picture to get you started:

My Joshua Tree
Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

The actual photo part of this I took last summer at a beach in Seattle. I wanted to change my desktop wallpaper today so I started looking through some old pictures and found this. Because the original image is so wide there was no way to set it as my wallpaper without cutting off the sides or stretching it vertically, neither of which I wanted to do. So I added the black bars. Coincidentally I also happened to have the U2 album The Joshua Tree on my desk, if you know what it looks like you know where this is going. I noticed that it looks pretty much exactly like the cover, without the band obviously. Just to finalize it I added the gold bars in photoshop. I really like it. The image is similar to the cover and it makes a really cool wallpaper.

Please leave comments on the redesign, the colors, the picture, the weather, anything you want.

UNDER CONSTUCTION

2009-08-30T01:00:00.004-04:00

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATE, REVISING, REDOING, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER.

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATE, REVISING, REDOING, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER.

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATE, REVISING, REDOING, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER.

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATE, REVISING, REDOING, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER.

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATE, REVISING, REDOING, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER.

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATE, REVISING, REDOING, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER.

8-26-2009 Rock Band Strat

2009-08-26T23:54:00.001-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

I got out Rock Band today for the first time in a long time. The song list isn't as good as I remember, or maybe I just realized that there is just never going to be a good cover of a Rush song, no one can sing like Geddy Lee. This is a picture of the top of the guitar, a Stratocaster, same color as Eric Clapton's, hence the title.

8-25-2009 Metal Medal

2009-08-25T22:41:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

8-25-2009 Pixar Camera

2009-08-25T00:46:00.003-04:00

I was setting up this shot and the camera reminded me of something from some Pixar movie, probably Toy Story. The lens looked like a big eye, and the flash on top made it look more cartoonish. So after taking the shot I decided to make it as animated as possible. I added a filter to soften it and give it the muted look then I used the Photoshop liquify filter to distort it. I think it does look like something from a Pixar movie, although it looks kinda angry.

8-23-2009 75th Post!!!

2009-08-23T23:11:00.001-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

This is a closeup of a tissue with a gradient layer that I added in photoshop.

This is also my 75th post. Not 75th picture, but 75th post. I think I have about 3 that didn't have a picture.

8-22-2009 Kalee in Another Closet

2009-08-22T23:12:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

Created: 2:41AM. This was taken during the same storm as my post from yesterday; just several hours later.

8-21-2009 Kalee in a Closet

2009-08-21T22:58:00.001-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

Kalee came upstairs during today's rain storm and went in front of the closet.

8-21-2009 An Artifical Picture

2009-08-21T00:37:00.005-04:00

Its more of a design then a picture. It is the press pass template I made for TV club for this fall. The only reason I am posting this instead of a "picture" is that I just spent about an hour making this and I am really happy with the way it looks and I just didn't really want to get out my camera. Plus I doubt I could take anything better then this.

The big empty space near the top is for a picture, which isn't there because this is just the template, and obviously the text can be changed.

It was made entirely in photoshop.

8-19-2009 Retro Paper Text

2009-08-19T23:03:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

I took a basic picture of my schedule for next year, and it was pretty boring. So I did a lot to it in photoshop. Some of the adjustments were:

-Levels

-Sepia Toning

-Color Balance

-Crosshatch Filter

-Radial Blur Filter

-Brightness/ Contrast

-Photo Filter

It looks much better this way then before. Although it's a littler hard to read.

8-18-2009 Soccer Net

2009-08-18T22:30:00.002-04:00

Nikon D90 with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

I was up at school taking some pics for the boy's soccer team, of teamer field. I really like this shot. The text in the background is a nice touch. It shows a lot of depth.

This would have made an awesome HDR, if I'd thought of it at the time and I'd had a tripod.

8-17-2009 Fan

2009-08-17T22:41:00.000-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

No Comment

8-16-2009 Bottle

2009-08-16T22:52:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm g/3.5-5.6 lens

This is the view looking down the top of a beer bottle, well it had soda in it, but it was the size of a beer bottle. I had the lens less then a centimeter from the top rim when I took this. The in focus circle in the middle of the frame is actually the bottom of the bottle. The circle on the very outside of the frame is the top of the bottle. It is a little disconcerting at first, but everything in the shot is the inside of the bottle.

8-15-2009 Going Plaid

2009-08-15T22:58:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (taken at 18mm, f/10, ISO 100, 15 sec)

FYI: the title of this post is in reference to the movie Space Balls

This time I did better then last time, though it's still not as good as I want. This is a combination of 2 images. One of the dashboard lights which I took while sitting still and one of the windshield which I took while moving. I simply put the dashboard shot on top of the other one to get it in focus. But I still don't like how the out the window portion of this looks. It isn't really in focus. I may need to try this a third time, probably not tomorrow.

8-14-2009 Color Overload!!!

2009-08-14T22:12:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (taken at 18mm, f/10, ISO 100, 15 sec)

I took this by attaching a tripod to the passenger seat of the car, using a bungee cord, setting a long exposure, 15 sec, and driving through a fairly busy area. I used a cable release so that I didn't have to reach over to the camera while driving and so that I wasn't as blurry. That didn't work so well. Its still pretty blurry. I have a thought about how to get a much more in focus dashboard, but I'll have to try that some other time.

8-13-2009 Stairs

2009-08-13T22:08:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

I liked my post from yesterday a lot, so I did a similar thing today. It's a similar perspective shot of the stairs. I really like how, because of the f/1.8 lens, only one step is in focus. It gives it a nice sense of depth overall.

8-12-2009 Stair Railing

2009-08-12T23:27:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

A perspective shot looking down the stair railing, not as cool as the past 2 posts, I know. But I can only go out and stand by the side of the road carrying a tripod so many times before someone calls the police.

8-11-2009 Another Long Exposure

2009-08-11T22:24:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

I went out again tonight to take some more long exposure pics, at a different spot. There weren't very many cars so I had to try some other stuff. I just took a long shot of the intersection without any cars. It came out really yellow and looked to bright. So I darkened it, added the red tint and boosted the contrast. It reminds me of an old painting of some deserted intersection. I think that the fact that the stop lights are showing a color really helps show how deserted it is. It makes it seem even stranger that there aren't any cars.

I think to really see the full extent of this you need to click on it to get the full size version. It is a little bit hard to see at this size.

8-10-2009 Bridge Long Exposure

2009-08-10T22:52:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens
-(taken at 55mm, f/10, ISO 100, 30.0s, -0.7 ev)

This is one of 16 long exposure shots I took in an hour and a half of shooting tonight. Here are some of the others, theres not 15 others because some of them were pretty bad; obviously click on each thumbnail to get a larger view.

http://picasaweb.google.com/EvPioch/81009BridgeLongExposure?pli=1&gsessionid=2UMh0Hq8BHwNYIicqvQqDQ#5368533302338403202

8-9-2009 Rain Storm

2009-08-09T19:30:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

We just had the biggest rain storm of the summer, that I can remember, and that is really saying something. We've had several massive storms. I tried to get some lightening shots, but that wasn't meant to be, it was too cloudy. After the rain stopped I took a bunch of pics of water, mostly on plants. This is just one of the better shots I took. This is actually a composite image made up of 3 individual pictures. Because the brightness difference between the white cement and the dark flower was so great there was no way to get all of that exposure into one shot. So I took three, one properly exposed, one over exposed on the cement, but properly exposed on the flower and one under exposed on the flower, but properly exposed on the cement. When they are all combined in photoshop this is the result. Here is a link to some of the other shots I took today:

http://picasaweb.google.com/EvPioch/8909EpicRainStorm#

Please leave comments...

8-8-2009 Texture

2009-08-09T00:23:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

This is the top of one of my external hard drives. It was designed to look like Morse Code. I don't see a pattern so I suppose it could say something. If anyone wants to try to figure it out this is the entire top of the drive enclosure; I didn't crop anything out.

8-7-2009 Kalee

2009-08-07T22:55:00.000-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

Kalee taking an evening snooze. The thing that I like about this is how she sort of melts back into the color of the floor.

8-6-2009 Chinese Checkers

2009-08-07T01:06:00.001-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

Just a simple shot of a Chinese Checkers board.

8-5-2009 Radio Dial

2009-08-06T00:56:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

Well I was going to take a picture of the Sushi I had for dinner, with my cell phone. But once the food came I completely forgot about that idea, of course. So instead I took this. It is a glowing radio dial. I slightly boosted color and blackened the blacks to get the much more high contrast look. I think it sort of looks like a sunset or sunrise.

8-4-2009 Mirror

2009-08-04T23:35:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

This is the result when I put my camera up as close to my mirror as I could and focused on the mirror itself, not on the camera. And of course this was with a flash. Nothing special, but it does look really cool.

8-3-2009 Computer Screen Blur

2009-08-04T00:03:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

In order to get this shot I just took a regular shot, but manually extended the shutter speed. This allows the image that is recorded on the sensor to have the blur. The sensor is exposed for a length of time in which something in real life moves, in this case I moved the camera. I took a bunch of shots, but this was the best one. I like how it is still recognizable as a computer screen and you can almost see whats on it.

A friend and I just finished a video production we've been working on since late May. It was a submission for the Tredyffrin Library teen film festival. It had to relate to doorways and it had to be under 8 minutes long. This is our submission:

here

There were 5 awards given out in the end, we won best directing/acting/screenplay and best editing. It was a very successful project, although we did it for fun not to win.

Also you'll notice that I figured out how to make a URL into a link! It was obvious, there is a link button that I just missed.

8-2-2009 Chess Pieces

2009-08-03T00:30:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

This is my shot from today, August 2nd. I took it and wasn't very happy with how it looked. It was blurry and just didn't look good. So I decided to play around with it a bit before giving up and taking another. To try to improve it, or to change the style completely, I desaturated it, making it black and white then raised the contrast which made the blacks blacker and the whites whiter, effectively removing a large amount of neutral gray and making it either black or white.

This makes this shot look a lot better. To being with it didn't have much saturation and just looked bleak. The way I edited it I took all of the color out, but replaced it with an abnormally high contrast. It grabs your attention and makes you look twice, which is my goal.

I like the orientation of the subject also. It is looking off into the distance and looks regal, because it was taken from a lower angle looking up.

Please leave comments below...

-and yes that is a Guitar Hero box in the background.

8-1-2009 Funny Dice

2009-08-03T00:26:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

This is my shot from yesterday, August 1st. I couldn't post it because Blogger wasn't working, no idea why. It could have had something to do with the insane storm we had messing with the internet connection, but I have no idea.

I like this shot because I think the blue background looks a lot like a professional portrait backdrop.

Blogger Wasn't Working

2009-08-02T16:17:00.000-04:00

I tried to post a picture last night, but it wasn't working. I'm not sure why, it could have been because of the rather extreme rain we had or blogger was down, for whatever reason. But I did take a picture. I'm just going to post it tonight when I post the one from today.

7-31-2009 Closet Hangers

2009-08-01T00:08:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 lens

I really like how my shot from yesterday looked, so I tried another similar shot. This one is looking down the row of hangers in my closet. It is sideways because I tipped the camera when I took it so that I could get the camera closer to the bar. The colors in this really work well together. They are all soft natural colors: greens and reds. This is the exact opposite of yesterday's shot, which had the bright reds and blacks, but they were much harsher and seemed very unnatural. The extreme blur in this shot makes the colors seem to melt together especially in the foreground, making it seem more natural. I took this without a flash in a closet without a light, so there would have been no way to get a sharp picture, even if I had wanted one.

7-30-2009 Artsy CD Tower Shot

2009-07-31T00:49:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

This is a shot of a CD case that I got today. I obviously severely blurred the shot. I think it looks much better that way. Instead of having a super sharp shot were you can read all of the cases, I prefer one where it is all blurred together and you almost can't tell what it is. It reminds me of something that would be used as album art for some old band.

The answer for the money pictures from yesterday was... Pascal's Triangle.

7-29-2009 A Second Post?

2009-07-29T23:56:00.004-04:00

Blackberry Tour

I was driving to the airport, well sitting in the front, because I would never even attempt to take a picture while driving, especially in the hard rain when I got the idea to take a picture for my blog because the rain looked cool as it slid down the windshield, keep in mind that this was after dinner. It was only after I took this shot that I remembered that I'd already posted for today so I sent this photo to myself and forgot about it. I just now got to see the full version of this on my computer screen, its a little hard to determine how good it is on a cell phone screen. When I pulled it up I immediately thought of that scene in the Matrix Reloaded when Morpheus kills the weird white ghosty guys in the Cadillac on the overpass. Well the setting reminded me of that, I didn't see any ghosty guys, but there were a lot of cops out, like in the movie, it looks exactly like the overpass where he blows up the car. There is a shot in the movie that is even this exact angle. It is looking over Morpheus' shoulder and you can see the car coming up over the ridge. And of course that entire movie has a green tint, which this picture did, although I made it a little bit more dramatic.

7-29-2009 Your Math Problem

2009-07-29T17:37:00.005-04:00

Right View

Left View

Top View

This should be a fun post. Instead of me taking a picture for an artistic purpose I decided to make a game out of the one that I took. In the three above shots is something recognizable. It has nothing to do with the money, but it has all to do with the value of the money. Try to figure it out and post a comment or email me, evpioch@gmail.com

Trust me, its not something stupid...

7-28-2009 Charlie(2)

2009-07-28T22:17:00.004-04:00

Nikon D90 with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 105mm, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/13)

One quick note about the title: the (2) is included because I already had a post called Charlie, it was the first post of the blog, so to avoid confusion I added the (2). It is just an organizational thing and has nothing to do with this post.

I am aware that in the past week I haven't been posting my best work. I have been extremely busy; white water rafting last weekend, then 4 hours of health class each day this week. And as for the health project I mentioned yesterday: it was to write a 4 page paper and prepare for an 8 minute presentation, all in one night. Now this is partially my fault; I did volunteer to go on the first day, which, now that it's over, I'm glad I did. But because of that I wasn't able to post anything short of garbage yesterday, but I am aware of that.

I must also mention that the purpose of this blog wasn't for me to showcase my top of the line portfolio quality work. It was for me to take and post a unique image each and every day for a year. In doing that format there are going to be days that aren't very good, then there are going to be days that are terrible: like yesterday. But you must remember that for me to take the time every day to get a quality shot, edit it, write about it and post does take a bit of time. I am doing my best to meet my goal (a picture a day for a year) by posting pictures that are interesting. But I can't always promise that what I post will be super great. That being said; whenever I post a low quality picture I always feel somewhat guilty, and will do my best to get up a much better shot the next day, which I did today.

This is a shot of my dog Charlie, he's a golden retriever. He was laying on the floor in the basement sort of sleeping when I took this shot. I didn't have my camera so I had to sneak up stairs so that he didn't get up, get my camera and come back down. Thankfully he had no intentions of getting up so I was able to get quite a few shots of him. In my opinion this is the best one. I like how he's slightly tilted. I shows that he clearly isn't looking straight into the camera, but off into the distance, which I like in this situation. I also like the composition. His nose draws in your eye, then you move up his nose to his eyes, then down his ears to his paws. This shot has a nice flow to it. The color also works really nicely. The yellow of his fur is a very soft mellow yellow. But his black eyes are the exact opposite; they are deep and seem very sharp.

Please leave comments...

7-28-2009 Self Portrait- Sorta

2009-07-28T02:01:00.001-04:00

-Me after finishing 3.5 hours of health homework, in July! Not fun.

7-26-2009 Soccer Shot

2009-07-26T23:31:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

The first sports shooting I've done in a while; at Abby's soccer game. It was fun, but not as good as a high school game at night, with fans in the background, but it was fun. I only took 30 or so shots so I didn't have many to choose from, but I tried to be more selective about when I took them. Instead of just shooting whenever the ball came near me I tried to wait for something to happen. This method didn't really work. It's much easier just to take several hundred shots and sort through them later then to try to be selective when I'm shooting. I'll keep that in mind next fall when I'm shooting for something that actually gets looked at by a lot of people.

7-25-2009 Water Droplet

2009-07-25T23:30:00.002-04:00

Here's a more normal shot; taken with an actual camera, not my phone.

It is a droplet of water falling from the sink. When I took it it didn't come out so yellow; I did that. I did it because I think it makes the shot look older and more grungy. That wasn't the look I was going for when I took it, but it came out a little bit yellow, so I just boosted it more; and I like it. I cropped it this way so that all of the focus is on the drop. The obvious motion of the drop lets your eye just follow it down. In the orignal shot I had the hot and cold handles viable. They were distracting because they made the shot look awkwardly centered and distracted from the motion of the drop.

7-24-2009 Here's Your Picture

2009-07-24T23:13:00.003-04:00

I just spent all day rafting, with a 4 hour drive on each side. I'm tired and I really didn't want to do this. Taking the picture with my computer is the simplest way to do it. No importing from a card. But just to keep the streak going; here's my picture.

7-23-2009 Keyboard Macro

2009-07-23T23:32:00.002-04:00

Blackberry Tour

I hate to bore you with another closeup of my keyboard. But I am sorta running out of creative ideas. But this is a closeup shot taken using my phone. I have determined that my phone has better macro capability then the 4 lenses that I have. Obviously not including the double lens macro technique.

Tomorrow's post could be really cool, or really boring. Cool if taking the D10 white water rafting happens, boring if not because then I'll get home late and not get around to doing this until really late. But we'll see.

7-22-2009 Picture of a Picture

2009-07-23T01:35:00.003-04:00

Nikon D90 of Canon Rebel XSi

I just had this idea to try something like this, which has obviously been done a million times. And now I am more confused by it then I was before. I tried several configurations of this and couldn't get a clear shot of the LCD. I originally tried taking the shot of the Nikon using the Canon with the 50mm f/1.8 lens. That didn't work. I thought it might have been distorting the LCD because of the screen protector on the back, so I switched the setup; no such luck. It's still way out of focus. I have no idea how to get this to work better. I suppose it could be the type of screen each camera has, but I have no idea.

The result from yesterday's post was: I took the shot by taking 3 mirrors and making a triangle with them, obviously with the reflective sides facing each other and stuck a camera in and took a shot. Pretty cool result from a super simple technique.

7-21-2009 Mystery Picture

2009-07-22T01:39:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi

Here's another post where I am going to say nothing. Try to figure out what this is a shot of and how I took it. Post in the comments.

7-20-2009 The Car Crash Post

2009-07-21T00:48:00.004-04:00

Nikon D90

I was driving around with some people and we saw this car crash. And being the person that I am I had to take as many pictures as I could in the time it took to drive by. Most of them are sideways or of the sky, but this one is good. We didn't see the accident, but must have gotten there right after it happened because most of the road was full of debris and they had everyone slow down to about 10 MPH. It's not fancy set up shot, just a cool shot that I got because I happened to be somewhere when something happened.

7-19-2009 One Month Down, 11 To Go

2009-07-20T00:10:00.003-04:00

Nikon D90

One month ago I started this blog as a summer project, so that I would take more pictures, hopefully on a daily basis. One month later I'm still going. I've had some questionable days, where posts have gone up after midnight, but not a waking day day has gone by where I haven't posted a picture. The first picture I posted was a shot of Charlie, my golden retriever. It had a mere 3 lines of commentary. Now I'm frequently writing multiple paragraphs. And there not just to several family members, I'm writing to many more people now. Since setting up the hit counter on the side of my blog about 2 weeks ago I've already gotten over 1,000 hits. That is something that I thought I'd never get to.

So to everyone reading my blog I say thanks for all of the hits, the comments and the grammar corrections, but please keep reading and forwarding my blog on to other people.

I am officially 1/12 of the way to my goal of taking and posting a unique picture every day for a year.

7-18-2009 The Cool Zoom Blur Photo

2009-07-18T22:27:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

This shot works because of the obvious zoom blur. Without it it is just a mesmerizing shot, but with it is adds a sense of motion. I think that makes it much better. The shot is of a rope bowl from Rwanda.

Sorry this isn't a longer post, but I have something I have to do.

7-17-2009 The I Know This Is Late Post

2009-07-18T01:04:00.004-04:00

Nikon D90

Ok, I know its past 1, in the morning and this is way late, but here's my justification: I got up at 5:45 and left the house at 6:15 to drive 4 hours to spend about 2 hours somewhere then drive back another 4. And let is be said that me getting up around 6 is about 5 hours earlier then usual, so I'm kinda tired right now. But during dinner it started to rain, and I, not wanting to get stuck needing a shot late at night, grabbed my camera and took some basic shots on the porch. Then I got involved in playing with my new Blackberry, which pretty much provides endless entertainment for me. Then it was 11:30 and I started having computer problems, which I had to fix before I wanted to post. But now all of that's taken care of (sigh) so...

This is one of the better ones I took during the storm. I had several looking at the storm through the windows. Some from eye level like this and several from a much lower angle. The lower angle ones had too much of the inside of the porch ceiling and not enough of the clouds and rain. Plus most of them lacked a good focal point; there's not much on a porch ceiling that's interesting. I took several looking out at the water splashing off of the pool and the dog water bowl. These didn't turn out, because I had the camera on F/14 the entire time. That basically means a longer shutter speed which means more blur. I told you I was tired. But once I fixed that I took the one that I'm posting. I think it shows the storm nicely, or at least as nicely as I'd like without having a broken $1500 camera. It shows the actual clouds in the background, the water on the screen in a much shallower background and obviously the water on the wind chimes in the foreground.

Here's my tip of the day/ learning experience: we were at a camp today pretty far away from all of the cars at an awards ceremony, so everyone had cameras. And, of course, it started to POUR!, a lot. Well I was the only one who had trash bags to cover the camera bag. People were frantically running around trying to keep there cameras dry, but not I. So my tip is to bring a large trash bag to put stuff in if it starts to rain, or POUR!.

As always please leave comments.

Update: I forgot to mention: my blog got it's 1000th hit today. Which is kinda cool, even if someone (you know who you are, as do I) did refresh the page about 50 times, just to be the 1000th hit. Still 1000 hits is nice for me. So please keep forwarding my blog onto other people and getting my readership up. :)

7-16-2009 The Reversal of Roles Post

2009-07-16T23:54:00.003-04:00

Blackberry Tour

I just got a new Blackberry Tour this evening and was playing around with the camera, big surprise, and I thought I'd post a shot I took with it. I tried to do this entire post from the Blackberry, but that isn't possible. You can post from it, but you can't add a picture, which pretty much means, in my case, that I can't post. But I did take this shot and email it to myself so I could post it. It is a whole lot better then my old phone camera. It looks good, not great. The Blackberry has a built in flash, I'm not sure why it didn't fire in this situation, it was fairly dark. But even without flash this shot is still good. It is in focus, thanks to the built in autofocus, which rocks. The color is good, not great. My only real issue with this is that there is a lot of noise, from the ISO being bumped way up, because of the lack of flash, which I couldn't figure out how to get to fire. But all in all I'm happy with it, being from a phone that I've just had for a couple of hours.

As for the title of this post: I choose to take a picture of my camera, solely because it is very ironic. Using a phone to take a picture of a camera seems almost as wrong as the first time I dropped the Powershot D10 in the water, although not quite that wrong :).

7-15-2009 Ladder Golf

2009-07-15T21:45:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 70-200mm f/2.8 (taken at 70mm, f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/125, -0.3 ev)

This is a shot of a ladder golf set. If you don't know what it is then google it, it's kinda hard to explain. But in this shot I originally cropped in tight on the golf balls. It looked cool, but I much prefer it this way, so that you can see what the balls are handing from and and you can see that there is another PVC thing off in the distance. It looks like a piece of modern art, with the straight, bold lines.

The answer to the picture from yesterday was....a potato chip. Andrew was the first one to get it, although there was no prize. :(.

Leave comments, as usual...

7-14-2009 Macro

2009-07-14T23:41:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm and 50mm lenses

So how about instead of me telling you what this is a shot of you can guess. All I'm saying is that it is a super macro, done with both lenses. Beyond that you can try to figure out what it is. If you think you know just leave a comment below...

7-13-2009 Delete Macro

2009-07-14T00:06:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi with 18-55mm and 50mm

Yeah, two lenses were used for this. And this is exactly how it came out of the camera, no vignetting. This super macro is achieved by using the 18-55 lens, attached to the camera, then by holding the 50mm lens on the front of the 18-55mm, but backwards. So that the small end of the 50mm, what would usually get attached to the camera is facing out, towards what you are taking a shot of.

It is a really cool thing to try. It's a little hard to focus, but it does work perfectly. I went down to the basement a while to take some pics for my blog. I took quite a few, but got nothing that I was happy with, I just wasn't feeling good about what I'd taken. Then I came upstairs and tried this and, well its much better, trust me.

I like how this is a circular shot of a square object. I don't like pictures that are perfectly framed. I like being able to see around the subject, even if it is just a metal keyboard. If it had been a square shot then just the key would be showing, that would feel to tight. Unless it was really tight and focused on the words, then the rest of the key would be the area outside of the focal point.

While this shot isn't nearly as good as the Ryan Howard one, I think it is cool, and very different.

Please leave comments, seriously.

7-12-2009 Ryan Howard

2009-07-12T23:48:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi, 70-200mm f/2.8 (taken at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/1400, -0.3ev)

Ok so, this is pretty much the coolest shot I've done since starting this blog. But it's actually that hard. Here's the basic formula:

front row seats behind dugout + left handed Ryan Howard + any SLR + fairly long lens= awesome shot.

I took a bunch more shots, several hundred, but I haven't had a chance to go through all of them, I will, hopefully tomorrow and upload them to Picasa and include a link. I think I got a shot of the first inning grand slam mid swing.

While my 70-200 is a long lens, it was far from what most of the pros had, which I took pictures of.

Although the not-completely-sober guy next to me did ask if I was working for "that paper".

Please leave comments...

Update: I have just been informed that the ball is in fact in this shot. I hadn't realized this, I just thought it was a cool shot regardless. But the ball is just above the blue rail. Which means that is the hit that came just short, about 15 feet, of being the grand slam. We had to wait another 2 batters for the grand slam hit.

7-11-2009 Waterfall

2009-07-11T22:12:00.004-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 38mm, f/4.5, ISO 200, 1/80)

Driving back from Valley Forge I saw this waterfall along the side of the road. After finding a parking spot, way up the road I walked back, but the waterfall was in someone's yard, not wanting to walk all the way back to it, and not feeling like knocking on the door I just took some basic ones from the road and left. It wasn't until I got home and imported all of them that I realized that this was such a cool shot. The chairs in this shot take it from good to really awesome. Without them there is no focal point, they also add depth to shot that the waterfall isn't fairly close, not just off in the distance, as do the trees. I only got this shot after spending over an hour at Valley Forge shooting, with my blog in mind, and not getting anything nearly as good as this luck shot from the drive home.

7-10-2009 Garage Rafters

2009-07-11T00:47:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 18mm, f/3.5, ISO 800, 1/40)

Prior to all speculation as to why this post wasn't up by midnight let me say that I was watching a movie, a good one at that; Blood Diamond. It ended after midnight, after which I promptly got to work on this. I took this shot by standing on the car up shooting down from above/ inside the rafters. In my opinion the focus of the shot isn't the shelves, but the rafter on the right. It is the part that is in focus, and the wires draw your eye in. And following the wires leads you down to the light bulb, in onto the shelves. I think this shot looks very creepy. It is an angle that is often associated with something about to jump out of the ceiling and grab you, as we know from just about every B horror movie. And in my shot you can't see the floor, which just adds to the eeriness of the angle and the shot.

7-9-2009 Gazebo Roof

2009-07-09T22:15:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 50mm f/1.8 (taken at 50mm, f/3.5, ISO 400, 1/30)

I was over at Wilson just taking pictures, because I can. This is the inside of the ceiling of the gazebo. I took several other ones, some of the huge flag, but because of where I was standing there was a light in front of the flag. It didn't look bad, just strange. The light post distracted from the flag.

I really like this shot becuase it's not obvious what it is. The color is also interesting, its all red and brown, but it had lots of different shades of brown and they blend together.

Please leave comments...

7-8-2009 Frosty Glass

2009-07-08T23:14:00.002-04:00

Nikon D90 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 32mm, f/4.2, ISO 640, 1/50)

I noticed how the wine glasses were arranged in the cabinet and thought it would make a cool shot. Being as I was significantly below the glasses, and unable to reach up to the required height the shot wasn't very good. I then put in the shot glass and tried again, it was a little better, it gave the viewer something to focus on, but still not a very cool shot, and because of the lighting in the cabinet it was very yellow. So I played around with it in Aperture and came up with this, what I think is a interesting shot. It has the clear glasses, which go nicely with the red IU logo and the blue tint that I added, which I think looks like frost.

7-7-2009 Gummy Worm

2009-07-07T23:08:00.003-04:00

Nikon D90 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 105mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/20)

Basic shot of a gummy worm crawling out of a root beer can, not something you'd expect to see, ever. I like how the red background is similar to the red in the worm. I tried the shot in a red coke can, that was way too much red; between the can and the worm. It looks way better in the root beer can.

7-6-2009 Back to My Normal Posts: Desk Still Life

2009-07-06T23:48:00.004-04:00

Nikon D90 with 18=105 f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 105mm, ISO 1000, f/5.6, 1/25)

This is a more traditional post for me; no big posts with links that aren't actually links. This is just a shot of some stuff that was on my desk that I rearranged into a still life style shot. It's obviously an Xbox controller with stacks of CDs in the background.

I discovered that by clipping a lamp onto my tripod and using that as the only light source I can get some heavy shadows, which I did in this shot. I think it looks very interesting. The obvious white of the controller draws you in, but then you notice the CDs in the background and start to read what they are. It also gives an interesting perspective of both the CDs and the controller. You always look at the front of a CD case, never the side and you always look at the top of a controller, not the back. Showing the alternate view makes the shot a lot more interesting.

7-5-2009 Is This A Picture?

2009-07-06T00:35:00.007-04:00

Photoshop

Is this a picture? I don't know, but as I was making this I started to think about whether or not a picture has to be taken, or if it can be made artificially. In the end I decided I don't care and that it probably doesn't matter.

But I put this piece of junk up because I don't really have a "picture" for today. And this graphic should be a nice attention grabber and hopefully get you to read to this point. So instead of a regular picture of the day I want everyone to look at my 4th of July pictures from yesterday, and no, I haven't figured out how to make these URLs into links. It's a lot harder then you'd think, although I'm probably just missing something really obvious. But here are the fireworks pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/EvPioch/7420094thOfJulyFireworks#

They were linked, too, on my previous post- the 4th of July extravaganza one, but here is some new stuff. These are from the Newtown Square parade, and they are good- some of the best I've ever done.

http://picasaweb.google.com/EvPioch/742009Parade?pli=1#

Hope you enjoy. I'll get back to the regular posting tomorrow

4th of July Extravaganza

2009-07-05T10:31:00.004-04:00

Here are links to the rest of my pictures from yesterday. So far only the fireworks ones, but I'll upload the parade ones later today:

I know the URLs aren't links then just copy and paste them, I'm not entirely sure how to make them link, but I'm working on it.

Fireworks:

http://picasaweb.google.com/EvPioch/7420094thOfJulyFireworks?pli=1&gsessionid=PXOo43tiCdI5O48i6UaK-A#

7-4-2009 Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T23:51:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 18-55mm f/.3.5-5.6 (taken at 20mm, f/8, ISO 100, 4.0s)

I took a ton of pictures at the parade this morning, then a ton more at the fireworks. Still working on processing the parade ones, over 1000 shots takes a while to go through. I'll post a link tomorrow for all of them and the rest of the fireworks ones, and some videos. Happy 4th

7-2-2009 Canon Rebel T1i

2009-07-03T23:51:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 27mm, f/11, ISO 200, 15.0 sec)

Got to play around with the new T1i today, not mine :(. Its quite similar to the XSi, obviously with the bigger sensor and the video. This was my first real long exposure shot. I got a cable release for my camera today and was just playing around with the bulb mode. The cable release was only $25, and should be completely worth it for the fireworks tomorrow. For the shot above I did the 15 sec exposure and then bumped the exposure way up. I was going for the vintage film look. It came out pretty nice- just a straight on shot.

7-2-2009 Walking on Water Self Portrait

2009-07-02T21:45:00.005-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 18-55mm f.3.5-5.6 with a lot of photoshopping

Ok so this is obviously photoshopped, quite heavily I might add. But it still looks ok, not great, much better in high contrast black and white then it did in regular color. I think it's because the black and white and high contrast distracts you from the fact that there's no shadow behind me, and the ripple in the pool was pretty obviously added after I took the photo.

But all in all it looks pretty cool, and just a little bit fake, if you look closely. I have an idea about how to make a much better version of this, but I wanted to try it by just using photoshop first, which worked, sorta.

7-1-2009 Kickball Splash

2009-07-01T17:51:00.005-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 18-55mm f/3.5-6.5 (taken at 47mm, f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/2000)

Ok, I feel like yesterday's post was kind of a letdown. I forgot about it until way too late, luckily I was able to get the shot that I did and post it in time. But today I'll give a little bit more commentary as to the shot:

This was the splash caused by tossing a kick ball into a small pool; the dog pool. You should view the full size version, click on the small version in the post, to see all of the detail. There are some small drops of water that are hard to see in the small version. You probably wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't said anything, but there is a reflection of the ball in the top of the shot, near the upper right corner. It's just a small, faint red circle. I have no idea what caused this; I don't think it's a reflection off of the water, because the water is too stirred up to give such a perfect circle reflection. So I have no idea what caused this, but it looks a little strange. I didn't notice it until I was color correcting the picture and when I changed the color of the ball a small section of the shot was also changing color. It was a little hard to get this shot; I had to toss the ball with one hand and take the shot at the same time with the other hand.

I have several ideas for future posts, shots that will be really cool, if they turn out the way I hope. They're still in the works, and I'm still finalizing how I want to do them and most of them require more then one person. So keep checking back for those, probably later this week.

Please comment below.

7-1-2009 Blog Updates

2009-07-01T17:46:00.004-04:00

You may notice some layout changes on the blog, I went back and moved some things around last night. Changes include:

-Adding a list of links on the right side, if you would like a link placed there just email me

-Added a welcome box, also on the right column; has legal notices and a welcome message

-Redid the title box, it now has different font, and the text is a different color

-Also changed the title from pixelschimxel to Pixel Schimxel.

-Removed the subscribe options from the right column. They didn't look good with the black color scheme and I doubt anyone had used them.

-The main page now displays 7 days worth of posts, instead of just the 5 most recent posts.

6-30-2009 Pool at Night

2009-06-30T23:55:00.005-04:00

Nikon D90 with kit lens

It's now 11:56. I have 4 minutes to post this, no time to put in all of the metadata. But at 11:45 I realized that I still needed a picture. I ran outside, in the rain, saw the cool steam coming off of the pool and ran over to the deck to get this shot. I was laying down on the deck, in the rain, to get this shot. I am very happy, considering I did all of this in less then 15 minutes.

All right I made it before 12!

I like comments, please leave them...

6-29-2009 Flower Shot

2009-06-29T21:06:00.002-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 70-200mm f/2.8 (taken at 70mm, f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/1600, -0.3ev)

Just a quick post: a picture of a flower, from Wilson Farm Park.

Update: this was such a quick post because I was busy for the rest of the day, and night. I was over at Wilson with a friend working on our movie, for a teen film festival. I figured i'd get my blog shot over there. I got some pics, but nothing super great. This was one of the best ones, but because i was unexpectedly busy the rest of the day I was never able to go back and get a better shot.

6-28-2009 Tennis Ball Underwater Shot

2009-06-28T22:21:00.003-04:00

Canon Powershot D10 (taken at 6.2mm, f/8, ISO 80, 1/250)

I had some more time to mess around with the D10 today, in the pool of course. As you can see I was able to get an awesome shot. I did some more video, again nothing super cool, not as cool as yesterday's. I noticed something with the video: when shooting under water, with the lens completely submerged and pointing up you tend to get some really weird reflections in the shot. Its almost like a series of vertical lines through the video, caused, I assume, by the glare of the sun. It really makes the video useless. Everything has to be shot not facing the sun, or on a cloudy day.

I'm working on making an underwater steady cam. Trying to swim, hold your breath, and hold a camera steady, under water is kinda hard. I think if I attach a piece of PVC pipe, about 3-4 feet long and put the camera on the end, but swim holding the middle of the pipe I should be able to hold it fairly steady.

Now for a mini review of the D10:

The design is the first thing you notice: it's big, it's chunky, it's bulky, and it's blue. Then you realize it's waterproof and you only notice the fact that it's blue. Considering what it does, the design makes sense. It's not overly rubberized like some rugged phones, and it's not huge. It's about the size of a point and shoot from a couple of years ago. But I don't understand why the front is blue.

The buttons are nice, considering that they are waterproof. They are rubberized, but again, not as much as you would think, they are easy to push and are responsive. The LCD is absolutely one of the strong points of the camera. It is super bright and easy to see. Even on a bright day, wearing tinted goggles, under the water I could easily see it. It is also really clear. The resolution makes it easy to see the pictures are well as the menus.

Image quality is excellent. Just look at my tennis ball picture. The color pops, out of camera, and much more so with a little bit of levels correction. It has outstanding macro capabilities and an extremely short minimum focus distance. At it's widest point the lens is super wide angle,, as you can see in the picture above. It doesn't have a ton of zoom, but I assume that it is due to the restraints of building a waterproof body: the lens can't extend out the front very far.

Overall this is a very nice camera. The price is a little steep at around $300, but you are getting a waterproof camera, and there aren't many options out there. The image quality is excellent, and does not suffer at all under water. Video is good, not great, no HD video and it does get hard to use when looking at the sun.

6-27-2009 Pool Torch

2009-06-27T22:01:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 50mm f/1.8 (taken at 50mm, f/1.8, ISO 200, 1/60, -2.0ev)

This is a bit of a different shot. I was really surprised with how well this turned out. I was out shooting after dark trying to get a good shot of one of the torches around the pool. I thought that they were all blurry. I ended up taking a shot of a regular outdoor lamp thinking that it would be my best, and thus the one I uploaded, but as it turns out this one was much better.

I really like the way I cropped this, especially with the shape of the flame. It really draws the eye into the flame and leads it across the frame.

I should have a more fun post up tomorrow. I'm working on something with the Canon Powershot D10, the waterproof one. I went out and shot some pics, from inside the pool. The only thing was I wasn't actually in the pool, i was just holding the camera below the water. I got some ok pics, but nothing awesome. Tomorrow I'm gonna play around with that more, and actually get in the pool and play with it. But I did shoot some video, and it is awesome. It was done by putting the camra on the end of a tripod, holding it upside down and running with it just above the water level. Of course this did mean that the video was upside down, which I fixed in Final Cut. Here is the video, and hopefully a preview of tomorrow's photo post:

http://www.vimeo.com/5354538

Please leave comments!

6-26-2009 Backyard Shot

2009-06-26T19:58:00.003-04:00

Nikon D90 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 18mm, f/3.6, ISO 1600, 1/4000)

This was just one of those really weird weather days. It seemed like it was raining everywhere except the yard. I didn't think I could capture how the yard looked in a picture. I took several HDRs, but none of them worked, but this picture is pretty much exactly what it did look like. The sky was super dark and stormy, but that one section of the yard was brightly lit, as if in a sunny day. All I did in post was to adjust levels; this is really what it did look like, no dodging of the trees.

Feel free to comment below.

6-25-2009 Bird Shot

2009-06-26T00:37:00.005-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi 70-200mm f/2.8 (taken at 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/800)

I saw some nice bird shots recently. I wanted to try to get some of my own. I had to wait a while for a bird to land on the fence, but I am very happy with this shot. Not sure what kind of bird it is, but it looks pretty neat; and gotta love that f/2.8 bokeh.

Posting on the actual day is getting harder to do. I know that this post says it was posted on the 26th, but I'm counting it as the 25th.

6-24-2009 Canon Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 Lens

2009-06-24T23:47:00.004-04:00

Nikon D90 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 66mm, f/5.3, ISO 1600, 1/8)

Here's a shot of the the Canon 50mm f/1.8 on my Rebel. Really a small lens, much smaller then the kit, 18-55mm, lens. Its now the general lens that I leave on my camera in my bag, the Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home. Had several old issues of the Spoke on my dresser, had to shoot this pic in front of them. The book in the bottom right corner, which I should have moved out of the picture; its kinda distracting, is Jim Nantz's autobiography.

Feel free to leave comments below.

6-23-2009 Money Macro

2009-06-23T23:40:00.004-04:00

Nikon D90 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 105mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1/50)

I just finished watching the Matrix; awesome movie. I thought the green tint in the movie was an interesting idea, and I wanted to take a shot that had a similar tint, and seeing as I only have 20 min till midnight, by which time I want to have my posts up, I needed something green, and quickly. This shot is not arranged, it is just a shot of some change from several trips to Best Buy over the past few days.

This Nikon lens doesn't do great macro, but it is better then my Canon stuff; so I reluctantly used it. I'm quite happy with the way this shot came out. It has an interesting arrangement; I like how there is a foreground, focal point and background, and who doesn't like that subject matter. I considered doing it in black and white, but that looked really weird. We're just not used to seeing money in anything other then green.

Overall: very happy with shot; given circumstances.

6-22-2009 50mm f/1.8 Flower Test Shot

2009-06-22T23:01:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi, 50mm f/1.8 (taken at 50mm, f/1.8, ISO 100, 1/4000, -0.3ev)

I didn't have much time to play around with my new 50mm. Just went outside and took some flower pics. This one isn't very good, but one of the better ones I got. I still need some more practice with it. But so far is seems like a nice lens. Here's a mini review:

Pros:
-Cheap, about $100, well I didn't pay for it, but still cheap

-It's an f/1.8 lens for $100, its a good deal

-Good lens to have

-Depth of Field is awesome, obviously, considering it's a 1.8

-Small; this lens barely sticks out beyond the end of the built-in flash on my camera

Cons:

-Loud when autofocusing

-Minimum focusing distance is larger then I would have liked, and hoped

Overall it's a good value, not the best lens, but considering it's the cheapest one in Canon's lineup, and you are getting this nice image quality, certainly a lens that everyone should have.

6-21-2009: New Canon Lens

2009-06-21T22:35:00.001-04:00

Nikon D90, 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 105mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1/80)

Just got the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens today. Can't go wrong with a 1.8 prime for $100. Haven't gotten to play with it much, but so far seems worthwhile. It is a little loud when focusing and the minimum focus distance is a little larger than I would like, but I can't complain.

6-20-2009 Bunny Portrait

2009-06-20T16:34:00.003-04:00

Canon Rebel XSi, 70-200mm f/2.8 (taken at 160mm, f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/160)

Got home from the mall and saw this bunny in the driveway, ran inside and grabbed my camera. Came back out and snapped this shot.

6-19-2009: Charlie Portrait

2009-06-20T00:08:00.000-04:00

Nikon D90, 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (taken at 18mm, f/3.5, ISO 200, 1/2000)

This is the first post of this blog. The idea is for me to take and upload a different picture each day for a year. Here is the first one. A picture of Charlie, golden retriever.