A friend of mine started working for Animoto and I decided to give their service a try. Here is a short slideshow video of some photos I took during my recent business trip to Utah.
More photos on my Photoblog.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
I brought home a 30-year old film camera – Praktica MTL3. My father bought it after I was born and used it for years, first shooting black-and-white film and then color slide film. He used to develop all photos himself in a dark room he set up in our washroom. We still have the photos – I scanned most of them last year.
Praktica MTL3 was made in German Democratic Republic. It’s a mechanical camera with a metal curtain shutter. Focus is manual – set with a help of metering wedges and micro-prism screen. Light meter needs a battery and helps to set the correct exposure. The included lens is a multi-coated Pentacon auto 50mm f/1.8. I even found the manual online.
I will be taking it for a spin after I buy a new battery and a few rolls of film.
Few weeks ago I was reading about TheBestCamera iPhone application and I bought it. I like how photographer Chase Jarvis conceptualized taking pictures with the iPhone. I can either snap a new photo or choose one from the library and apply pre-defined filters which can be stacked to achieve different effects. The photos can be uploaded to twitter, facebook, email, and the application’s website. I uploaded few photos already which first show up on the first page and are accessible from my profile. Take a look!
Few weeks ago I created a separate photo-blog to show my photographs without a clutter of a regular blog. I found AutoFocus template that displays photos in an elegant way and simplifies the process of creating posts with photos.
I use the NextGEN Gallery in this blog to organize photos and I like it, but every day posts require too many clicks – I feel that after 60 days of posting photographs. NextGEN provides galleries, albums and nice photo viewer and I already installed in the new photo-blog.
The new blog is here.
I’m known to many to dislike New York City. At the same time the city has a nice side that helps me stay here a bit longer and makes the time less miserable. Today I got an idea of starting a new photography project that will show New York City in two contrasting lights. I will try to photograph things that bother me and things that I like. I will probably create two albums where I will upload hate and love photos of the city. Maybe I’ll give Flickr a try for this purpose.
I took a series of pictures of New York skyline from Jersey City in October 2008 in hope to stitch them into a panorama shot. I just stitched all 8 photos today. This one is much wider view of Manhattan, from Battery Park all the way to Washington Bridge.
Yesterday I was in Jersey City and had a chance to take a photo of New York’s skyline from across Hudson River. I’ve done that before but I never tried to stitch photos together into a panorama shot. The requirement is that the exposure is locked for all photos taken. Photos must be taken from the same spot – a tripod will help, but is not required. Additionally, scenes taken must overlap – I overlap 20% of the scene.
Stitching is done using a specialized software, or Adobe Photoshop if one is skilled enough. I used open-source Hugin. I had to point elements on the pictures that overlap – I chose antennas on the buildings, windows, but not people because they move. I still have to explore all the options of the software.
This one I did very quickly, but the result is great.
I want to challenge myself and start taking one photo a day which will hopefully make me a better photographer. I always complain about not having enough time for photography. Whenever I take pictures I’m rarely satisfied with the results. I often find that I forget about some rules or do not observe before taking a picture. I need practice and this challenge will force me to practice.
I will photograph anything that I find interesting in a single day. I will carry my DSLR or a point-and-shoot camera every day with me. When without a camera I will use my iPhone. When clueless about the object to photograph I will search and try to make something around me interesting.
One photo a day must be taken!
Last week I read an article about photographing water drops with a single remote flash. I recently purchased a Nikon SB-600 flash that can work as a remote unit to my Nikon D90 DSLR and decided to try it in action and make it a weekend project. Here is the result:
The setup included D90 on a tripod with its flash covered, SB-600 as a remote flash placed to the left of the camera pointing on a white background behind a scene. Water dripped from a plastic bag hanging from a lamp into a pan filled with water. By changing depth of water I either got an upwards stream or a crown when the droplet hit the surface. Here is the setup:
My macro shots with Nikon D90 and Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro lens.
