It’s been a while since I tackled a DIY project, so I figured I was coming due. For a while now I’ve had my eye on a beauty dish, with just the $100 price tag holding me back. In all honesty, that’s pretty good, as photography gear goes. But each time I went to add it to the shopping cart, I stopped and said, “I can make one of those myself.” In fact, I know I can, because I’ve done it before. So with that in mind, I present the DIY Beauty Dish (Mk II):
I’m hardly the inventor of this – a Google search will turn up several folks who have built the same thing. In fact, it was a Strobist post that provided the model back when I built my first one. Unlike a number of DIY projects, you don’t have to be ashamed of the dish afterwards. The component pieces defy casual identification and, when finished, the whole thing looks pretty darn professional. And best of all, it works. Read more »
Nature/landscape photographers tend to become creatures of the twilight. It only makes sense, seeing as the light is best for those few soft hours at the start and end of the day. Mid-day is shunned as shooting time and is instead given over to other necessities – breakfast (pancakes!), editing, and siestas. And for the most part, this is a reasonable setup, since mid-day light does tend to be hard, contrasty, and a bit flat.
But what the hell…sometimes it’s fun to tilt at windmills.
Basically I was bored yesterday afternoon and, being my last Friday off for a while, I felt obligated to do something fun with it. Fun=camera in hand, so gathered up some little used gear and rode out to face the noontime sun. The photo above is one of the better results, and one of the few photos that survived review. Read more »
Another boat image from this morning’s outing, still working with the 7D + 17-35L on the tripod. I liked the scene itself, both because of colors and content. Since I was already setup after the first shot, I fired off a quick 3-shot bracket so I could try it as an HDR later. (Proof that I can actually think ahead without first having coffee in the morning.)
With the processing finished I still like the scene, although I’m a bit on the fence deciding which version I like better. The second image is the HDR; I tried to keep the processing subtle, but I think that it’s still slightly obvious that it’s a composite. (The way you see them here doesn’t do them justice, but even after setting the color space to sRGB, some of the vibrancy vanishes online.)
Been shooting a few landscapes lately – got the urge all of the sudden, and after working at 300mm for several weeks, suddenly stepping back to the 17-35mm range is pretty amazing. The longer you shoot any particular way, the more accustomed you become to seeing the world that way. I think it’s artistically healthy to shake it all up from time to time.
And since I’m shaking things up, I hauled my little-used tripod out of the trunk and worked with it for a while while the light was low. Shot with the 7D + 17-35L @ f/11, ISO 100, in Av mode with a Cokin graduated ND filter. The idea was to get everything from here to way-over-there in focus, and since I was already on the tripod, the extended shutter speeds hardly mattered.
Finally feeling better after a case of the stomach flu and as a “get well” present, Canon has announced it’s newest batch of gear.
Have you seen the list? New super-telephotos, new teleconverters, two new lenses, and the 60D.
Image by Canon USA
I’m underwhelmed. Gee, thanks Canon… Read more »
I often forget that Merli-Sarnoski Park exists, which is shame, since it’s a nice park quite unlike any other in the area. For a county park, it’s actually quite sizable, with the most extensive collection of mountain biking trails around. But my area of interest is the pond, which sits in a hilltop depression, which means that the surrounding environment is a bit more conifer-centric than usual.
So I guess it’s no surprise that the little yellow bird I captured on “film” turned out to be a Pine Warbler. It always feels good to come home knowing that you’ve added another new critter to your life list, and just goes to show the absolute worth of visiting varied environs!
So county fairs are great, there’s no doubt about that. But that doesn’t mean that all fair nights were created equal, because they weren’t. I’m sure that some folks will argue the point, favoring the demo derby or truck pull, but as far as I’m concerned, the best time to go to the fair is on rodeo night.
This is the Wild West, come to town; the fair is filled with Stetsons and jeans, work-shirts and cowboy boots. The sun sets, the grandstands fill, and in the dirt ring, all hell breaks loose in the form of half-wild horses and men determined to ride them. It’s classically American, and even if you don’t like country music, there’s something captivating about the ritual of it. Read more »
It’s that time of year again, the end of summer, with tinges of autumn in the air already. It’s fair season! Of the two county fairs that I look forward to each year, the Harford Fair comes first, and is my favorite. I came as a kid. I’ve come each year that I’ve lived nearby. Heck, my parents went as kids. It’s almost a family fair! And best of all, against all odds it has remained true to itself as a quiet county fair, while some many others have fallen pray to rampant commercialism. Long live the county fair!
Last year I only took the little G10, deciding that I wanted to just have fun and enjoy the fair, and let photos be secondary. It worked out pretty well, although I think I did the same amount of image making as I would have otherwise. I didn’t even bother making decisions this year – just grabbed the 400D + 17-35L and went for it. I figured that the wide-angle was the perfect lens through which to view the evening – if you’re shooting amid general chaos, you might as well take it all in! Read more »
And now it’s gone again. Too many cloudy days lately, with several more coming – although we finally got some much needed rain, so I can’t complain.
Since the sun has been rare, I overcame the temptation to spend Saturday morning in bed, and instead hauled myself out to the county park to meet a photog friend and see who was around. The bird scene is still a bit out of kilter here, with far fewer around than there were a month ago. But I’m seeing signs that the migration is getting started – we’ve had a few uncommon transients pass through, and there’s flocking behavior going on.
The Killdeer are still here, however, and I was finally able to get a shot of one near the water. I mentioned the need for rain – the grass you see sticking up at the bottom is where the water usually is, snug up against the bank. There’s over a nearly 18″ of exposed pond bottom now. Read more »
This was one of the last captures from the Susquehanna Riverlands. I’ve got almost no experience shooting butterflies, but I have seen some particularly nice shots of them. If you’ve ever tried it yourself, however, I imagine you know the frustration that goes with it. While it may be nice to watch a butterfly flit around your garden, it’s nothing short of maddening to try and track those random motions with a telephoto lens.
I gave up on in-flight shots and waited for her to land.
