Thursday, August 27, 2009

countdown...

to the first time my 3 sisters and i will be in the same city all together in almost 2 years.

oh how much has changed since then; it was my nephew's 3rd birthday party in atlanta. now he is 4 and there is a new kid in the family. lea lives in brooklyn, meme is a junior in college, and i'm in chicago.

we all thought it would be a grand idea to recreate our summer vacations to the beach when our parents and a bunch of adults would rent a big house and bring all the kids and food and UNO, except this time we are the adults. a beach trip wouldn't be right if it wasn't on the white sand beaches of the panhandle of florida; our location of choice is the grayton beach area.

see! wouldn't you want to vacation here?


we plan to cook-out, build sandcastles, make margaritas, and of course take lots of pictures!

t-minus 7 days...

Monday, August 24, 2009

who doesn't love chicken?

especially when it's cooked with a brick, served with roasted vegetables, and rolls that my sisters and i hungrily refer to as crack rolls?

elaine served up a mouth-watering meal of just that. head on over to her blog for more info, but here are some pics from me, official blogtographer.


Saturday, August 22, 2009

gray day in the city

i woke up around 8am and decided to go for a run before it got hot. i didn't actually have to get up that early because it didn't even get to 70 degrees today! this city cannot make up it's mind.

after a run, eat, shower, i relax for a little nap and see it is sunny outside. i debated for about an hour, eyes opening and closing, and decided i better take advantage of the light. get ready (jeans, sweater, socks & shoes.. yuck) and made it outsides juuust in time for the clouds to fill the sky.

oh well, here's a few from the day.


Sunday, August 16, 2009

sushi sunday

elaine has done it again: sunday night ritual of food, wine, and blogging. tonight was sushi and it was good. i'm not a chef or a cook or really even an assembler of food, but head on over to her blog to check it out. since i'm her official blogtographer, here's something to wet your appetite.





i see i'm in a collage mode. don't know what's come over me.

:)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

weekend photos

i went out this weekend to get some photos for a colleague and of the chicago air & water show.

first the colleague; his last name is gerber and he named his son max. there is an old building off the california stop of the blue line with a sign that says "max gerber". the guy thought it would be cool to have a picture of the sign for his son's room. what do you think?




i also snuck (is that a word? sneaked?) up on the roof of my building to get some pictures of the air and water show. i also planned to go down to the beach but it looked so crowded and hot, i just didn't want to get into it. my roof is kinda scary; there are no railings (cause people aren't supposed to be up there!) and i was 28 stories up. unfortunately i wasn't very close to the action and this is the only group of pictures i could get.

Friday, August 14, 2009

so mod

one thing i love about chicago is all the free stuff during the summer. every thursday and friday from 5pm-9pm the art institute of chicago is free to everyone. i've been a few times before and adore the impressionists galleries, the photography section and the thorne minature rooms.

the modern wing just opened in may but i hadn't quite made it over there until yesterday.

it was AWEsome! i dislike using that word because it is so cliché. and the funny thing is i went to the tate modern in london and hated it. well, not hate; didn't get. however, the modern wing of the art institute of chicago was beautiful.


first in the building itself (designed by renzo piano): bright, open, airy, free flowing. felt very form follows function. and the pieces collected for this wing, while some were a bit odd, were no less than extraordinary in my opinion.

my favorite exhibit was the cy twombly the natural world paintings. they looked like sponges filled with paint thrown against a canvas or finger painting; but they were beautiful. the colors and movement. they made me feel good. galleries that interested me included works such as the gerhard richter paintings that looked almost like photographs; european contemporary which included works from picasso, matisse, dalĂ­, and kandinsky; and the surrealism pieces.

i won't profess to be an art expert. but i know what i like. and i liked the modern wing.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

photography essays: part 3 - iso & the exposure triangle

i - s - o

means international standards organization. wait, what? this is a post about photography, right? yes; iso sets standards for many things including film speed, which is the film's sensitivity to light. with digital cameras, there is no film, but everyone knows iso so we still call it iso.

the lower the iso, the less sensitive to light; the higher the iso the more sensitive to light. at a lower iso, more exposure to light is required to create the same image density than if the camera was set at a higher iso.

iso is measured using the ISO arithmetic scale (ASA scale): 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400

changing from a normal rating of 100 (used outside on a sunny day) to 200 will get you one more stop of light. why do you care? say you are inside, it's late afternoon and you really want to shoot at a greater DoF (maybe at a f11 aperture). but, with the available light you stop only stop up to f5.6 before your shutter speed is too slow shutter speed that it picks up handshake (unintentional motion). if you increase the iso, you can gain more stops of light and can increase your aperture number without decreasing shutter speed.

if you need stops of light, you get through either:
increasing aperture size (bigger hole to let light through),
decreasing shutter speed (keep shutter open longer to let more light in), or increasing iso (more sensitive to available light).

too complicated? an illustration...



i've tried to find just the image, but this online tutorial has a great moving image of the exposure triangle towards the end. actually the whole video is quite helpful, but it's about an hour and a half, so set aside some time to watch it.

another reason you might want to alter the iso is to introduce grain as an artistic tool. the higher the iso, the higher the grain. gives the photo a nice artsy feel, especially if combined with black & white.


a post wouldn't be right without a photo.

set the iso high on my nikon coolpix point&shoot; shot is grainy, but i like it.

on a cobblestone path in the castle district
budapest, hungary









good articles: cheat sheet, cheat table & pictures, highly recommend! excellent illustrations on relationships in the exposure triangle, inverse square law, exposure definitions, intro to flash

next up - white balance

Monday, August 10, 2009

a dinner party

first, i am not a cook. or a chef. or a wanna be. sometimes i bake, but only at christmastime. second, i saw that movie julie & julia with my friend elaine, but i was only inspired to eat.

i think elaine was inspired by seeing the movie because she invited me over for a small dinner party on sunday. i agreed (who turns down free food?) and used the opportunity to get some food-type photos and practice manual mode on my d80.







first we (and by we, i mean me) had some wine while elaine prepared the dessert - fresh nectarines.


then for the main course, a bed of sliced zucchini, a filet of delicious cod, topped with sauteed red peppers, snap peas, and some kind of buttery sauce.



(p.s. if you see the movie julie & julia, you'll discover the secret to a great recipe is butter...and more butter.) she also served some warm penne pasta complete with my favorite garnish: capers.

i thought the food was delicious; the pictures hardly do the meal justice. but we had fun; might try sushi next dinner party which should make for some tasty photos!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

photography essays: part 2 - shutter speed

shutter speed is the length of time the shutter stays open and determines how much light hits the film or image sensor in digital cameras. some good analogies i've heard are to think of a window in a room: open the window shutters to get more light; close the shutters to get less light. or sun tanning: stay outside longer to get more exposure to the sun; stay out less to get less exposure.

shutter speed can be used in relation to the aperture if that is your priority; or it can be used as a tool to get the motion effects you desire. there are two basic types of motion effects: stop motion and motion blur.

stop motion shows no blur; but because of the subject's orientation, you know it had to be in motion when the picture was taken (think person jumping in mid air or these flags flying). you obtain this effect when the shutter is open for a short period of time.






motion blur is different from just a blurry photo. motion blur shows the subject blurry to indicate motion while the some reference surroundings are in focus (think fast moving car - it's blurry but the street surroundings are in focus). you obtain this effect when the shutter is open for a longer period of time and/or how close you are to the subject (think of driving past a trees right by the street and then trees at the horizon - trees on the street look blurry, trees on the horizon don't seem to move at all). you'll also often see shutter speed manipulation with water shots; a nice blurry white waterfall indicates a slow shutter speed.

a plain old blurry photo is most likely due to the camera shutter being open too long plus small hand shakes. you may not think your hand is shaking, but your camera ain't no fool. a rule of thumb to reduce hand shake for photos taken without a tripod is to keep the shutter speed at least greater than the inverse of the lens focal length (50mm lens = at least 1/50sec shutter speed).

(see the unintentional blur near the top of the buildings?)


this is a good time to get into shutter speed measurements. it is measured in seconds and fraction of seconds. the example above showed the photographer needed at least one-50th of a second shutter speed to reduce hand shake with a 50mm lens. shutters can stay open as much as 30" or as little as 1/1000sec or faster! digital cameras don't use the '1/' notation though; they would just indicate 50, 250, 1000.

another reason to leave the shutter open long enough would be in low-light situations where you need to gather in as much light as possible (think night landscape shots - no motion blur necessary; but it's still dark, so you need to take in as much light as possible).

the more light you need, the slower shutter speed you need. remember: because shutter speed and aperture are related, a change to one is a change to the other!

some good articles: ephotozine, digital photography school, wikipedia

next i'll get into ISO and the completion of the "exposure triangle."

Friday, August 7, 2009

things making me happy today...

friday, coffee, and the homemade toffee (recipe courtesy of erin)

good blogs and killing an hour of time at work reading them

that the beach trip is less than 4 weeks away



and gmail video chat,
for i'm sure to see
my nephew and new niece
this weekend
even though they live hundreds of miles away
:)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

photography essays: part 1 - photography roots & aperture

the latin root photo means "light"
the latin root graph means "write"

to write with light... that sounds quite nice!

so.... the basic elements of photography involve light: how much of it to let in, how long to
let it in, how sensitive to be to it. and it's not one element or the other; they all interact
and affect each other.

this entry focuses on that first element...

how much light to let in: aperture
the best analogy i know is the eye. when it's bright outside, your pupil constricts and becomes a tiny black dot; it doesn't need a lot of light to see its surroundings. when it's dark, the pupil expands and becomes a larger black circle; it needs to take in as much light as available to see its surroundings.

aperture is the "pupil" of the camera lens. the blades in the lens open and close depending on
available light. if it's bright outside, you need a smaller aperture; if it's darker outside,
you need a larger aperture.



unfortunately, the way aperture is quantified is opposite to what you would think. f1.4 = a
large aperture (large hole-lets in more light) where f22 = a small aperture (small hole-lets in less light).



aperture is measured in stops of light. the stops are not incremental
(1,2,3...) and it was decided long ago by the some old dudes, so you basically just have to
memorize it.

"from where you are [whatever stop], you can either have half as much [stop down-less light-higher aperture number] or twice as much light [stop up-more light-smaller aperture number]."
fortunately, the way aperture is quantified is in line with the way you would think of depth of field (DoF). DoF is the amount of the photograph that is in focus (sharp). f1.4 = shallow/small DoF (less in focus - think macro or close-up photography) where f22 = a large DoF (more in focus - think landscape photography).



controlling a photograph's DoF is an artistic tool (think bokeh). you, the photographer, tell everyone else looking at the photograph what is important, what you want them to see. and it makes a difference!

just because it is bright outside, doesn't mean you have to use f22 and sacrifice artistic expression. there are other elements you can control to still get the photograph you want. but, using the available light - choosing to go earlier or later in the day - is also part of planning for a photograph.

some other articles on aperture: pioneer woman, ken rockwell, photoxels

that's all for today!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

my photography essays

alright, i like to take photographs. not a surprise to anyone anymore. chicago has been my muse. it is an absolute delight to wander the streets and turn window bars or a broken window or the animals at lincoln park zoo into my chosen form of artistic expression.

for others who know me, my desire to be creative has only recently starting creeping up to my very left-brained engineering-studied spreadsheet-making corporate-america self.

hence the reason for this post. i'm going to combine both "selfs" and compile short essays on the components of exposure and the functions of my camera. more for myself (to study and really learn the technical side), but also for anyone else who runs across this and wants to know more about photography.

i think i'll accompany the posts with photographs including technical details. any other photographers out there, please feel free to make corrections to any misstatements or misunderstandings.

stay tuned!

Monday, August 3, 2009

my niece, gabrielle lea

on july 17th, we welcomed gabrielle lea to the world! is that not the most beautiful name you've seen?

i went down to atlanta for a week to visit and of course use this as a photo opportunity. my sister, lea, and i collaborated and created a birth announcement. i shot and edited the photo; she created the announcement! head on over to her blog, space bk, for the final product.