I recently had the opportunity to talk to a meetup group about the basics of composition, albeit on short notice. As long as my presentation is still (relatively) fresh in my mind, I thought I’d try to capture a bit of this material in a short series of posts. This, then, is the first in […]
It’s a journey
Some people buy cameras to take snapshots, and they’re probably going to be fine with whatever their camera turns out on “auto”. You’re not one of those people, though. You’re trying to make images that make an impact on people, and you’ve probably experienced some disappointment along the way. You’ve doubtless had photos come out […]
So close…
I saw an announcement yesterday about a new strobe that uses a Lithium-Ion battery pack. This, in itself, isn’t ground-breaking: I know there are at least a couple other strobes like this out there. As I read the announcement, though, the benefits of Li-On technology included (1) longer-lasting charges (great), and (2) no more need […]
Intro to Winter Hiking
We’re now well into winter 2013-14, complete with polar vortexes, snow rollers, and assorted other crazy weather phenomenon. While these conditions can be truly dangerous if you’re not dressed for them, they can also produce some great winter scenes and some magnificent icy sculptures for those prepared to go out and capture them. If you’re […]
PC Build, addendum
This summer, I put together a write-up on a PC I built for photo editing and software development. That article has been really helpful any number of times in documenting what I put together, but after a few months of living with this build and explaining why I chose each of the components, I think […]
Lowepro Nova 17L Preview
About a week and a half ago, I got an email from Lowepro telling me I won a Lowepro Nova Sport 17L AW bag — very cool. It showed up promptly this week, and I can’t wait to start using it. I’ll post a full review once I’ve put a few miles on it, but […]
Budget tripod shootout, Part 3
In Part 1 of this shootout, I previewed the three tripods I’m comparing and discussed some things I’ll be looking at in all three. Part 1 also covered the Velbon CX-300 — a typical “big box” store tripod that’s better than nothing, but just barely. Part 2 of the shootout looked at Dolica’s AX620B100, which turned out […]
Cherish the flaws
I love music. I’ve got a pretty extensive collection, and some of the performances I like best are from live albums. I’m sure that to some extent, this is because I haven’t heard the live versions of songs as many times as the studio cuts, but I think there’s another reason, too — the live […]
A harsh reality
Photography in all its professional forms, has been massively disrupted by technology over the last ten years or so. The swift succession of the internet, digital sensors, and camera phones has quite literally turned every other person you meet into a photographer, and as the price of “good” cameras has declined, we’ve seen a great […]
A PC for photo editing
From time to time, I’ve seen “what kind of PC should I get” threads on various message boards, so hopefully there’s some interest in this. I’m currently in the middle of building a replacement for my old Core 2 Quad system — pretty much from the ground up. Here’s the shopping list, along with a […]