If guns could talk...

I dabbled in Astrophotography this weekend.. My first shots leave so much to be desired I deleted them off my machine... Hopefully I can figure out what I am doing...

I was able to shoot (photography) a riffle which was given to me by a special friend of my family, John DeMille.  John was a fighter pilot during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Among other things he flew over Normandy on D-Day. After the war, he found this riffle in a tree and brought it home to be used as a hunting riffle. He gave it to me with the stipulation that I would use it. I decided to take some photos of it for the Tracy Camera Club. This month's subject was "old".

I don't know its history before 1945 but from the head stamp it seems it has been around a while.

 

It is a long barrel bolt action riffle which ended up in a tree. Much can be speculated. Perhaps it was never fired during the war? Perhaps it belonged to a sniper who was shot out of the tree? Was it in storage during the first world war, or did it see action then too? Perhaps it was a farmers hunting riffle which got caught up in the war only to end up going home with another farmer who also used it to hunt?

If guns could talk


John passed away this past year. He was 87. He will be missed.

Thanks John, for everything,
Ira

Where am I?

I just read the following post on Digital Photography School entitled "Taking stock of your own photography." It made me think...

I have been working on a few pieces for my optometrist's office.  As I looked through the images I have to offer, I asked myself the same question everyone does, "what makes my photography special?"

I think we can all learn from taking the time to look through our past and see where we have come from. After all, if you don't know where you have come from and where you are; you might just be going in circles... :-) Here are a few of my favorite older images...

Golden Gate bridge (1998):

Interestingly this was taken with a Kodak DC120 camera. It had a whopping 1.2 Mega pixels. I still have a print of this on my desk at work. It is a 5x7 and is a bit grainy but I still get comments on it.

A couple from Arches National Park (2000):

 

 

A rare lighting storm in San Jose (2003):

It was not raining where I was on my front porch. I got really lucky with this and a couple of other shots.

Castle Geyser, Yellowstone National Park (2007):

It's all about the light right! We had been to Geyser basin earlier but I wanted to go back in the evening when the light might be better. It was! You have to stay on the walkways there for your safety as well as to preserve the gysers themselves so your options are often limited.

Finally (2008)...

Looking back through these images I see a progression toward better images, but at the same time I see talent. As we all do I strive to be better each day. My Photography now is light years ahead of what it once. So where are you in your photography?

Until next time,
Light Cipher

Uvas Canyon -- Tracy Camera Club outing

Yesterday we took a trip to Uvas Canyon.  Uvas is a great place and I have been wanting to go there for a while.  Unfortunately, every time I look at going down it is a "bad" time.  Last time was in the fall during the drought.  Uvas is known for it's waterfalls so going when there is no water seemed like a bad idea...

Anyway, luckily we have a new trip coordinator at the Tracy Camera Club who organized a trip.  Frank could not have picked a better day.

It turns out that not only is Uvas Canyon known for it's waterfalls... Apparently this is the best time to see Ladybugs by the thousands!  The Ladybugs hibernate here during the winter (Nov-Feb). These turned out to be some of the best subjects for the day!

Of course the waterfalls were nice as well!

On the way we found some trees which seemed to be missing something...

 

Throwing a flash in the roots seemed like a better idea when we thought that all the holes in there were connected.  It turns out they were not so the effect was a bit lost.  But as Jeff pointed out as he and his wife passed by "You gotta try!"

In the end I had the most fun working with the Ladybugs.  This little lady was very friendly and posed for nearly 20mins for us!  My friend Steggy and wife Lorrie really helped out on this shot.  A bit of flash, and 2 reflectors really got the shot I think.

Early afternoon was spent getting some lunch...  Well breakfast, an omelet, for me...  ;-)

On the way home we looked for some abandoned... (Abandoned is one of the subjects for our club this year.)

This used to be KAZA radio station.  There are all new houses popping up around it.

Once again, I would like to thank Frank from the Tracy Camera Club.  This was a great trip.  Thanks Frank!

Until next time,
Light Cipher

Project 52, 2010 Week 4

Well, does it count as a 52 project if you only post every other week? Well... I guess so. This is not the shot I wanted but I turned around and the world presented this... So I captured it. HDR was required but I think it turned out nice.




I am doing great with taking photos every weekend. But I missed the shot I wanted to take this week (the recent storm took out 2 trees in our yard which had to be taken care of). Another HDR oportunity...




Today the trees did give us an opportunity to do some "Backyard" shots... My backyard lumberjack... ;-)



Till Next time,
Light Cipher

Meetup Fun

Yesterday we met up with 10 other photographers and 3 models for an off camera lighting meetup.

My wife Lorrie and I had a great time. The day started off with a short lecture and I snapped a few shots of the setup which Christine, our leader, was showing us.

After a short lecture we moved quickly into shooting. We split groups into Nikon, Canon, and Canon. How does Nikon stay in business with all these Canon shooters out there? ;-)

[On to the models...]

In the 90's there was a fear that the advent of the internet would turn our society in to a bunch of geeks, never wanting to interact with each other. Nothing could be farther from the truth... Take our first model for the day Lindsay. Besides being cute as a button, she plays World of Warcraft, and is a self proclaimed geek. This spawned the idea of creating something edgy and tough. Not the common portrait of the dainty female but a warlock which would just as soon smash your head in as get roses on the first date!


Unfortunately, we really did not have the time to take this idea through to completion. First the wardrobe was not too tough. Lindsay did have a change of clothes but by the time we were getting the light where we wanted it we ran out of time with her. I took the liberty of editing these in post a bit to get more of the look I was looking for. They are not totally there but I think you get the idea.



Our next model was Laura. We moved outside and found the Muni station shelter made a good prop to pose against. I thought it would be nice to have some Light coming from up top to simulate a light fixture which had long since been broken and painted over... The portable softbox I had and a boom provided a nice "voice activated light stand". (I wonder if I have to pay some royalties to Strobist for that term?) I think these shots are nice but Chris had the right idea by using his telephoto to control the background better. I thought about doing that but I did not really see the potential until seeing his post here. Next time... :-D

My favorite shot of Laura was:



However, I absolutely hate the stop sign in the background. If I was inclined to spend more time on it I would fix it with Photoshop but I left it here to show what makes photography hard. It is all the little details which make the difference between a good photo and a great photo... I make a lot of good photos and the ocasonal great photo. Some day I will make all great photos! :-D

Anyway, I liked some of the others as well. Like this one.


One other "Monday morning quarterback" moment... We should have put a 1/4 or 1/2 CTO on the flash to get it to balance warmer than the cool, cloudy, stormy day we were using as a backdrop. That is another one of those, good vs great photo opportunities.

Finally we moved back inside for our last model Michael. Michael is an avid bike racer. When he first mentioned posing in his "skin suit" thoughts of a boudiour shot came to mind... But then he explained it was his biking outfit. I for one was a bit relieved. :-D

By this time Lorrie, Chris, and I were really starting to mesh. We quickly arrived at a pose and the lighting was coming easier. We had a bit of trouble in lighting the background to get the separation we wanted. At first we also wanted to do a rim light which would give us some highlights on the bike. We all really liked this idea but we were getting some harsh highlights on his side. Here is an example with the side/back light.



I really like how the bare flash in this shot gives hard contrasty light to the bike. Unfortunatly Michael's head was blending into the background too much for us. We wanted to light the background but not too much. A spot grid came to the rescue on the background which really provided separation for his head from the background. I am not sure how I feel about the halo effect but I think it works. I think Michael said it best when he mentioned this pose felt like he was a "king sitting on his throne". I like that. It works... This is my final shot.



This is the only set up which I took the time to shoot the set up... Just in case you are wondering...



Pretty simple 2 light stuff... I wish I had thought to go back with our side/rim light. I would have liked to seen what the bike being just "touched" with a hard bare flash would have done to give the bike some light. It may have been too much and distracted but I would have like to have tried it. Instead we thought it would be nice to try something different. Michael was looking for something tough and domernering. Something which said, "I'm a mean green cycling machine..." We all thought shooting up at him bearing down on the camera would be a good idea. Unfortunately the background was a bit short to really shoot straight up. We still made a decent attempt and I think this shot has that feeling to it.



About this time Christine came back in and was telling us to stop shooting as it was 4:30. I think the hall closed at 5 and so we had to get things cleaned up. About 5 minutes later I thought that it would have been cool to get Michael on the bike out on street... Oh well, next time... :-D

Over all Lorrie and I had a great time. Chris was an excellent partner in our group and all three models were wonderful to work with. I am really glad we went.

Thanks, Christine, Lindsay, Laura, Michael, Chris, and of course to my lovely Wife, Lorrie...

All the photos are here...

And the official meetup photos here...

Till next time,
Light Cipher

Project 52, 2010

This post is coming a bit late in the game but I have the photos to back me up... So I don't feel guilty...

Anyway, upon the new year, like many people, I made a resolution. I don't feel this is to much of a cliche. This is because this is the perfect time to start a project like this one. I plan to take a photo of a very similar scene each week throughout the year. I chose a local landscape which hopefully will give me some feeling of what it is like during all different times of day and times of year. The first 2 weeks the photos are...



And...

We will see as the year goes on how this works out. Basically I want to get a shot every week...

Light Cipher

It's begining to look a lot like xmas!!!

The decorations are coming out at our house.


Merry Christmas!


Light Cipher