Sep
15
2010
John Jacobsen
There’s a saying around my house that I hear altogether too many times – “My husband is a moron!”. I guess you could say I’m at it again. In a photography rut, I ponied up some cash for a 1983 Nikon FE2 35mm film camera and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I am seriously starting to wonder if my wife is right about me…
First, what the hell was I thinking?!? Well, my thought process was as follows: I eventually want to graduate up to a large format camera – probably a 4×5 but maybe even an 8×10. Living in Colorado there is no end to the beautiful nature just waiting to be captured in super high resolution. Sure, I could make the jump straight from digital to large format, but it’s been a LONG time since I’ve had to rely on my brain to make a great photo. I like many you have become a slave to the LCD and Histogram on the back of my camera. I take a bunch of shots, see what they look like, adjust settings, rinse and repeat.
The biggest draw to getting back to film for me was twofold: Resolution and dynamic range. With a 35mm negative strip (or slide), I am guessing that I will be able to see up to a 50% increase in resolution and one to two stops of additional dynamic range – possibly more if I’m shooting monochrome. That’s a big deal. What the heck is this dynamic resolution that I mention? Slight diversion – the human eye can see something like 20 “stops” of light. The typical digital camera can only represent about 6 or 7 “stops” of light. All that detail in the shadows and highlights gets lost when using a digital camera unless you are either a) really know what your are doing, b) shoot a lot of HDR or c) are really good with photoshop. Film traditionally lends itself to capturing more “stops” of light. More light = more detail = one happy photographer!
The last thing that sucked me in to this great experiment was the challenge. Do I take good photos because I know what I’m doing or is it a by-product of machine gun shooting through a scene and picking the one good image out of 100. There’s a time and a place for filling up the buffer and in this time and this place, I want to take my time, enjoy the scenery and still be able to take some damn good photos.
So, here I am with a new (old) 35mm film camera, 8 rolls of film (4 of which are the uber saturated Velvia color slide and 4 of which are the Acros black & white). I’m itching to get out to get some shots taken this weekend and then I wait for the postal carrier to return the fruits of my labor. Will this be successful? Who knows. I surely don’t. I suspect it will be a fun adventure with plenty of ups and downs along the way, of which I will be sure to document in this blog.
no comments | posted in 2010, Film, Gear, Nikon FE2
Apr
3
2010
John Jacobsen
So, my iPad showed up today – my initial thoughts are this is an amazing consumption device. The jury is still out if this will be a great production device. The keyboard is relatively easy to use (I’m creating this post with it), but many of the characters that I use are extended characters on some obscure keypad that isn’t visible by default. Other than that, I haven’t found anything that I haven’t been able to work through. True Apple – stuff just works. More to come after I’ve played with it for awhile…
[UPDATE: after having spent another five or six hours on the device...]
First things first, the iPad is blazing fast. Compared to my iPhone 3G it seems at least twice as fast, probably three times as fast. The apps spring to action when you touch them, scrolling through a web page with a flick of a finger might be TOO fast!
The built-in apps have all been updated to take advantage of the larger screen. Email, calendar and contacts are all much easier to use – but why no iDisk upgrade? I was really interested in the iPad for the new iBookstore. I’ve seen differing reviews about that – my take? It’s pretty darn good. As someone who reads several books a month, I won’t have any problem keeping up that pace on the iPad (and it certainly feels more like reading that trying to trudge through ebooks on my iPhone).
Kudos to Apple for getting the developers on board early – the selection of apps for the iPad in the App Store wasn’t huge, but I have downloaded twenty or so and the developers have come up with some great ideas. I really like the Weather Channel app.
That being said, the media companies need to get a grip. Aside from the free ABC app (which allows you to watch television shows streamed to your iPad for free), everyone else seems to be charging way too much. $4.99/month for Popular Science – when I already receive the print edition at home? $17.99/mo for Thea Wall Street Journal? Thanks but no thanks. One can hope the media companies will realize the err of their ways and start charging a reasonable amount for their content – if not, I probably won’t be purchasing (as I’m sure many others will follow the same path). The lack of Adobe Flash has not been a hinderance – at all.
In this geek’s opinion, Apple hit another home run with the iPad. Time will tell if it will be as big of a hit as the iPod or iPhone, but after using the iPad for a mere day, I can’t envision not having one.
no comments | posted in Gear
Mar
21
2010
John Jacobsen
One of my friends recently asked me to photograph his upcoming wedding. Needless to say, a humbling proposition. Normally when I go out and take photos I know what I wish to accomplish in mind and through perseverance, I can usually come home with something worthwhile. A wedding is completely different. These people have entrusted me with providing them with the lasting memories of their wedding day. One take. No screw-ups.
I knew I had to take some “practice” shots before the big day and I also knew that I would probably need some kind of diffuser for my flash. I talked to my friend Amy and she suggested a Gary Fong diffuser. I ordered one up and it arrive via UPS a couple of days ago.
Now granted, our family pet Sammy isn’t like photographing the bride and groom. In many ways, she might be more difficult because her coat is jet black and she is kind of – no, scratch that – she’s really hyper. Using Sammy as a test subject I knew I wouldn’t be able to stage a shot and exposure would be a challenge because of her fur color. I loaded up the Gary Fong on my SB-600 and started ripping off shots.
While the photo above isn’t going to win any awards, it did give me an opportunity to work with the LightSphere II and after a couple of minutes, I really like it. I have a feeling that I’m going to be chasing the pets around the house more over the next few days to try to get up-to-speed quickly so I’m ready for the wedding – which is now only six days away!.
no comments | posted in Flash, Gear
Jan
6
2010
John Jacobsen
With apologies to American Express, this is one item I don’t leave home without – a bubble level! I’ve viewed thousands upon thousands of photos over my lifetime and one of the first things I notice is whether or not the horizon is straight when it should be. It’s easily one of the biggest distractions of photos. I always carry my bubble level with me and if I’m in a situation where I have to get the horizon straight, I’m good to go. Simply attach the level to your camera’s hotshoe and you have instant straight horizons.
Yeah, I know. I could straighten the horizon in post processing. Sometimes I do just that. However I’d rather spend time in the field with my camera in hand taking photos than sitting on the computer cleaning up straight lines. If you can get it right in camera, that is where it should be done.
You can grab a bubble level from B&H Photo for less than $40 in most cases. Here is the model that I use. B&H has several different models to choose from though.
In the end, it doesn’t matter which one you select as they all work about the same. Pick one up when you can afford to and start getting those horizons straight in camera!
no comments | posted in Gear, How-To, Tips
