Hey there loyal reader. Just need your help for a quick second. I look at this blog all the time and you collectively look at it… well… at least sometimes. In any case, I’m futzing around with things back here which will hopefully make things better. You might have noticed the EXIF Info (the stuff about how the camera took the picture like shutter speed, etc.) looks different. I did that. Here’s where you come in: it’s quite likely that in doing this, I’m gonna break something. Will you let me know if I do? blog at aribrownest dot com, or a comment here should do it!
Archive for February, 2009
Feb
20
2009
Angles and Sunshine
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 50.0 mm | Shutter: | 1/800 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2009:02:18 14:43:29 | Aperture: | f/22.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Aperture priority | Focal Length: | 50 mm |
I went out to see what I could see the other day. I have this big photo-collecting problem: I’m always ready to go after lunch, which is about as bad of a time as one could pick for most pictures. The only thing left at that time are bugs and flowers (macro stuff) or super high-contrast stuff, like the side of the Group Health office up the street. I usually find it pretty darn ugly, but in the late day winter sun, the lines and reflection caught my eye. This was shot with my little 50mm cheapo lens. I sure do love how sharp it is and the colors always look great too.
Feb
19
2009
Pseudo-HDR: Half-Assing Your Way To Fame And Fortune
We talked about HDRs before – they’re great, right? The problem is you need three (or more pictures), you need to have your camera set up right, you need to bracket your shots (which might not happen automatically) and you need to take them all pretty quickly without anything moving between shots. That’s hard, or at least inconvenient. Well the good news is there is a way to fake an HDR from just one RAW file – something you might already have a stack of if you’ve got a DSLR. Alright – let’s get going.
This morning I jumped out on the balcony all bright and early, just for you. Yes you. First, let’s go whole hog: Camera set to Av (aperture priority), I cranked out three bracketed shots (-2, 0, +2) of the sunrise. I then use Photomatix Pro (which I said I don’t use) to combine them into a Tone Mapped HDR. I’m using Photomatix here because Photoshop kinda chokes on this kind of thing and I wanted a comparable image. Behold the magic picture below, in all its funny HDR glory.
You wanna hear the rest of the story? Hit the jump.
Feb
18
2009
Food-tography: The Digital Capture Of Edible Things
Food Photography is a whole discipline unto itself. There are sites devoted to it, Flickr pools for it, and a whole lot more. As much as I like taking pictures, I only got interested in food photography by visiting cooking websites who employed it well. Having an idea about how beautifully a recipe can turn out before I start really helps me know what I’m going for and I feel a lot more interest in trying things out. Unlike taking pictures of most things, food-tography seems to have it’s own set of rules. If you’re interested, keep reading, and I’ll pretend to know what I’m talking about.
Feb
16
2009
Butterflies; Artificial Habitat Makes Good Pictures
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/160 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2009:02:08 11:53:50 | Aperture: | f/4.0 | |||
| Artist: | N/A | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 105 mm |
Butterflies are great – beautiful, non-dangerous, and not too fast to escape the camera. The problem is that they don’t often live in Seattle, especially mid-winter. Coming to my rescue is the Pacific Science Center and their butterfly habitat. I was there for something else and didn’t have long, but I loved spending a few minutes here. The butterflies are huge, released twice a day, and aren’t too far away to take pictures of. I might go back with the right equipment in tow – knowing that they’re there rain or shine is just too enticing to pass up when the temperature is in the mid 30′s.
Feb
15
2009
The Natural Alphabet
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/320 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2009:02:12 14:33:08 | Aperture: | f/5.0 | |||
| Artist: | N/A | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 100 mm |
Walking through the Arboretum, I came across this. In the middle of the path in the reed marsh, a letter A, spelled out of broken reeds. I’m thinking it’s probably a creation of human hands, but there were lots of reedy bits… who knows – maybe a natural coincidence? Either way, between the setting and material, I liked it. I guess lots of other people do too – Flickr has a whole pool of photos of just one letter, and it definitely beats some of the other things I found in the marsh.
Feb
14
2009
Happy Valentine's Day
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/400 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2009:02:12 14:31:12 | Aperture: | f/5.6 | |||
| Artist: | N/A | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 100 mm |
I used to really hate Valentine’s Day. Now I just kinda dislike it. Only on this day is a romantic gesture seen as compulsory instead of… well… romantic. Even so, it’s a good reminder – do something nice for yourself or someone else. You can do it tomorrow too, if you wanna rebel against the system. Happy Valentine’s Day everybody.
Feb
12
2009
Long Live (the Emulation of) Old Things
I was one of the people that lamented the obvious death of film when it became clear years ago that digital would eat its lunch. Don’t get me wrong – I got on the digital bandwagon as soon as I could afford it, but it makes me a little sad to not visit the darkroom here and there.
I’ve gotta say it though – an unused film camera doesn’t do anyone any good. Having taken pictures with the Rollei and TtV with my digital camera, I know which one I’m more likely to pick up again in the future. I guess I’m not the only one who enjoys simulations of old tech.
Wanna fake your own Polaroid prints for (some amount of) fun and (absolutely no) profit? Hit the jump for more.
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