I love riding trains and subways. There are always neat shapes all around the stations. I took this picture at a BART station in Oakland over the weekend. The diagonal "bar" is actually the forward edge of a well-worn wooden bench. The top left corner is the ground. It's fun to experiment with composition, because with a simple camera phone there aren't many parameters to play with.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was turning my nephew into stamps with the help of photo.stamps.com. A week or so later, I got them and I think they turned out great! I gave them to my sister for her birthday and she turned to me and asked in a serious tone, "Do I have to use them?" I think she likes the gift! Awesome.
I snapped this pic with my phone while walking to the train station. I'm really digging the Retro Camera app for my Android phone!
Last Saturday I complained about the camera on my Droid X phone. But maybe it's not the camera itself, but the standard Droid X camera app that is the reason behind my crappy photos. (I tend to blame myself before my gear, but in the Droid X's case, I think it deserves more of the blame).
While waiting for the train in Santa Clara yesterday, I was bored, so I perused my forgotten list of Android apps and "rediscovered" Retro Camera. I chose the Polaroid camera setting and shot the underpass adjacent to the station. I was surprised at the high quality of the image and loved the added effects! Stay tuned for more Retro shots from my phone!
As the sun started to fall in Half Moon Bay during Sendy and Bryan's engagement session, Brian and I busted out the flash + monopod. By closing down the aperture, I could capture the beautiful sky and ocean without blowing out the photo. But if I did that, then their faces would go dark, so to compensate, Brian pointed the flash at them. He attached the flash to the monopod, because it allowed him to easily light from above or below without needing to use a ladder or grow longer arms! I used a remote system to tell the flash to fire whenever I snapped a picture.
As we walked down to the beach, I mainly kept my eyes on the rocks, so that I could find sure footing. For an instant I glanced up and saw Brian holding the flash + monopod and Bryan's guitar and in that moment, I thought that he had attached the flash to the guitar directly! It looked like a guitar light stand! The notion cracked me up, so I had to snap a picture of it!
The concept might be simple, but it can be deceptively difficult to pull off. First off, we were in Half Moon Bay where the wind is world famous! Brian's a strong guy, but even he had to struggle to keep the reflector from flying loose.
Then there's the challenge of reflecting enough light to illuminate their faces without blinding them.
Because Brian did a great job, I didn't have to set up my off-camera flashes (which would have blown down) which simplified things greatly for me. Thanks Brian!
For more photos from the shoot, check out my other blog!
I was watching Chase Jarvis's Holiday Mailer video when I heard him mention something about customized postage stamps. Customized postage stamps? (Gollum voice) What's that precious?!!!
Turns out he was talking about photo.stamps.com. What a great concept! I wanted to test it out with one of my favorite photos of my nephew. Since his mom's birthday was coming up, I thought why not turn this experiment into a gift? The price is pretty steep, about $18 before shipping and taxes for 20 first class stamps. But seeing my nephew on a stamp is pretty darn priceless!
I will write a follow up post when they arrive.
I recently took my sister and her little boy to the Oakland Zoo. Every time the zoo train rolled by, Jakey would announce "choo choo!" So of course we HAD to let him ride the train. I had no interest in the train experience, I just wanted to capture my sister and Jakey's excitement. So I had them sit as far back in the train as possible while I sat in the row just ahead of them. Once the train started moving, I got down on the floor and started shooting. Happily there was no one in my row, so I was able to shoot with complete freedom. When the train came back to the station, I got the weirdest looks from people, but I didn't care because I got some really cool shots of the little bugger riding his first train!
I really don't like the camera on my Droid X phone. 8 mega pixels you say? Bah! My old iPhone had far less, but took far better pictures. I don't know if it's the lens, or the software, or what, but the Droid X just doesn't take great pictures.
So the other day I was at the Amtrak station in Emeryville waiting for the train to San Jose. I saw some interesting patterns in the area near the rear entrance, so I pulled out my Droid X to snap some pics. I press and hold the camera button/shutter release to activate the camera. Wait, wait, wait, okay cool, camera is on. I compose the shot then look for an onscreen virtual shutter release, but can't find one. I recompose then press the shutter release. Nothing happens. Oops, gotta HOLD the shutter release button again. Wait, wait, wait... I give up, mutter curses under my breath as I start to put the camera away. SNAP! The phone finally takes a shot. More cursing. Then I glance down at the screen, hey, that's an interesting shot I think. I take a closer look and though the focus is off, the shot is actually a lot neater than what I had planned to shoot. Moral of the story? Just shoot. Yeah your camera might suck, but just keep shooting, it might surprise you once in awhile.
P.S. I still want the iPhone 4 for Verizon :-)
I recently upgraded to Lightroom 3. The noise reduction has greatly improved, but I wasn't too impressed with the overall package, especially since LR3 seemed more sluggish than its predecessor. But then my buddy Brian told me matter-of-factly that LR3 supported tethered shooting. "No freaking way!" I responded, except I didn't say "freaking". So I fired up Lightroom and lo and behold, under the File menu was an option for Tethered Capture!
All this time I thought I had to buy additional expensive software and cables to achieve this, when all I needed was LR3 and the USB cable that came with my camera. If Lightroom doesn't recognize your camera, first make sure that it's compatible with LR3, if it is, then go into your camera's menu and switch it away from USB mass storage mode.
I'm looking forward to trying it out for real, but I better be careful about not pulling my laptop onto the ground as I move my camera around!
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