Yesterday, Sept 13, was my birthday. Happy Birthday to me.
I spent the weekend partying with friends, some 3hours north of Toronto. A good time was had by all.
I decided to give the blog a slight revamping and rebranding, as screaming and static are not exactly photography things. Hopefully, I can get used to the idea of posting stuff more often. I've managed quite successfully to do so in the last short while.
So, welcome to "Bringing the Light"
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Tesseractphoto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tesseractphoto. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Updates
Well... as much as I would like to update this more often, I've been busy lately.
Truth be told, the rapid-fire postings that I did in the tail-end of the last year were partly in thanks to a lack of employment. I had time to think things over and write up a few posts.
Sadly, I've been drafting 2 different posts on my laptop for the last month or so, but haven't written enough in either case to allow me to bother with posting. One is a correction to a previous post which I feel that I need a little help with completing properly and the other is a bit of a run-down/top-10 list of sites that I feel need to be made more public... at least, in top-10 list form. All of them, of course, being Photographer's sites.
Nonetheless, I think I may need to heed the advice of a former colleague and develop a schedule for myself. Every monday... write a post. Actually, his advice was every wednesday...but even he abandoned that in favour of a higher frequency, which to my chagrin is something I cannot do, but works fantastically for him. He discusses near-political and transit-based matters, which provide a lot of fodder for him. Give him a read at www.actsofminortreason.com.
[p.s his blog's name is meant to be ironic, but his content is not]
Having said that... I think I'm done for this post. I've said my piece (or is it Peace?)
See you losers in another 2 months. :P :)
Truth be told, the rapid-fire postings that I did in the tail-end of the last year were partly in thanks to a lack of employment. I had time to think things over and write up a few posts.
Sadly, I've been drafting 2 different posts on my laptop for the last month or so, but haven't written enough in either case to allow me to bother with posting. One is a correction to a previous post which I feel that I need a little help with completing properly and the other is a bit of a run-down/top-10 list of sites that I feel need to be made more public... at least, in top-10 list form. All of them, of course, being Photographer's sites.
Nonetheless, I think I may need to heed the advice of a former colleague and develop a schedule for myself. Every monday... write a post. Actually, his advice was every wednesday...but even he abandoned that in favour of a higher frequency, which to my chagrin is something I cannot do, but works fantastically for him. He discusses near-political and transit-based matters, which provide a lot of fodder for him. Give him a read at www.actsofminortreason.com.
[p.s his blog's name is meant to be ironic, but his content is not]
Having said that... I think I'm done for this post. I've said my piece (or is it Peace?)
See you losers in another 2 months. :P :)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Lightroom
I'll make this brief. Lightroom kicks butt in workflow, but it sucks are not allowing me to do what I like to do in Photoshop. It's driving me bonkers trying to learn this program.
Only good came come of this, but when you're ripping your hair out, that's a hard one to believe.
Anyhow, I am slowly working on my next entry, however I'm coming up a bit short on the topic I want to talk about... we'll see how this works out. I set a goal of 10 entries, and i have 3 so far. (It's a 10 best list)
At least, for now, while i have a bit of writer's block, i can revisit my last post and fix the error that Storpotaten pointed out.
Stay Tuned
Only good came come of this, but when you're ripping your hair out, that's a hard one to believe.
Anyhow, I am slowly working on my next entry, however I'm coming up a bit short on the topic I want to talk about... we'll see how this works out. I set a goal of 10 entries, and i have 3 so far. (It's a 10 best list)
At least, for now, while i have a bit of writer's block, i can revisit my last post and fix the error that Storpotaten pointed out.
Stay Tuned
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Working with Macro Tubes
Something that has come up recently on Fred Miranda.com... Shooting Macro via... extension tubes.
While there are many "macro" (or Micro if you're a Nikon shooter) lenses out there, very few are actually Macro lenses. That is... Lenses capable of shooting at minimum focusing distances of less than a foot or so, and are able to produce images that are 1:1. What is 1:1?
1:1 is where the area you are shooting, equals the size of the image on the sensor or meaning the image on the film is the same size as the object being photographed (wiki).
As far as I'm concerned, there's 2 ways to go about doing Macro. One is getting a macro lens. The other is getting a decent lens and attaching it to extension tubes.
Most of the big manufacturers make a 1:1 lens in some way or another. Canon has their 100mm 2.8 Macro. Sigma produces a 105mm 2.8 Macro. Tamron has a 90mm macro 2.8. Nikon has... something. I dunno. Don't really care. :P
Canon also has a 50mm Macro and a 60mm macro, but I don't know much about them except that the 50mm needs the life size converter to do 1:1, and the 60mm is in the EF-S mount, which I have vowed to stay away from in the future (except unless a 10-22 falls into my lap). There's also the MP-E 65mm, but that's a whole new bag of tricks, as it goes above and beyond 1:1 (it can do 5:1)
While I can't tell you much about those lenses more than I already have, I can tell you that Macro Tubes have their pros and cons. If you go for a true 1:1 lens, you can still use a macro tube and potentially gain better than 1:1.
1) Minimum Focusing Distance (MFD) can drop (heavily) in some lenses, it reduces it so much that you pretty much touch the subject
2) If you buy cheap-o tubes, you have no Aperture confirmation. You'll get 00 on your display. Auto-settings tend not to work well. However, if you go with Kenko or Canon's EF25, you do retain Aperture confirmation, as they have connectors to maintain the camera's ability to talk to the lens.
2a) If you have cheapie tubes that have no aperture confirmation you have to work with your lens while wide open or, you have to attempt enforcing stop-down through a bit of a physically complicated method:
Sharpness sometimes isn't much of a problem with macro tubes if the lens you're using is already razor sharp to begin with. I wrote all of this info once before, and they were asking about using tubes in conjuction with either the 24-70 or 70-300 (both by Canon). As i stated then, it won't be much of a problem with the 24-70 because of how sharp it is, but the 70-300 (assuming it's not the DO or an L) will only yield okay-ish results - post processing will be needed on lower-end lenses.
3) Lighting is extremely important... if you're not out and about in full sun, get yourself a macro ring if you can, otherwise, you'll have to play with off-camera flashing, and that can be frustrating if you're learning macro at the same time. at least... it was for me. *shrugs*
An alternative to macro-ring flashing is off-camera flashing with a diffuser, or if you want to do Macro in a "studio" environment, then build (or buy) yourself a lightbox. I did, and one of these days I'll get around to sharing the method and materials required.
Now, there are two other options that Canon has made available. They are the 250D and 500D filters. They provides a little more magnification to your lens, but at a heavy cost and only come in a limited amount of filter sizes.
Now, understanding how to get true macro, we need to understand what's going on with a macro tube. First and foremost, I have never been able to achieve 1:1, at least, not to my knowledge. I may have incidently and not realized it but that's not the point here. What the point is, trying to understand where you stand with your macro tubes and current stock of lenses. Thanks to Pixel Perfect at FredMiranda.com, I have this nice little formula.
Magnification = extension length divided by lens length or
While there are many "macro" (or Micro if you're a Nikon shooter) lenses out there, very few are actually Macro lenses. That is... Lenses capable of shooting at minimum focusing distances of less than a foot or so, and are able to produce images that are 1:1. What is 1:1?
1:1 is where the area you are shooting, equals the size of the image on the sensor or meaning the image on the film is the same size as the object being photographed (wiki).
As far as I'm concerned, there's 2 ways to go about doing Macro. One is getting a macro lens. The other is getting a decent lens and attaching it to extension tubes.
Most of the big manufacturers make a 1:1 lens in some way or another. Canon has their 100mm 2.8 Macro. Sigma produces a 105mm 2.8 Macro. Tamron has a 90mm macro 2.8. Nikon has... something. I dunno. Don't really care. :P
Canon also has a 50mm Macro and a 60mm macro, but I don't know much about them except that the 50mm needs the life size converter to do 1:1, and the 60mm is in the EF-S mount, which I have vowed to stay away from in the future (except unless a 10-22 falls into my lap). There's also the MP-E 65mm, but that's a whole new bag of tricks, as it goes above and beyond 1:1 (it can do 5:1)
While I can't tell you much about those lenses more than I already have, I can tell you that Macro Tubes have their pros and cons. If you go for a true 1:1 lens, you can still use a macro tube and potentially gain better than 1:1.
1) Minimum Focusing Distance (MFD) can drop (heavily) in some lenses, it reduces it so much that you pretty much touch the subject
2) If you buy cheap-o tubes, you have no Aperture confirmation. You'll get 00 on your display. Auto-settings tend not to work well. However, if you go with Kenko or Canon's EF25, you do retain Aperture confirmation, as they have connectors to maintain the camera's ability to talk to the lens.
2a) If you have cheapie tubes that have no aperture confirmation you have to work with your lens while wide open or, you have to attempt enforcing stop-down through a bit of a physically complicated method:
Step 1 - Put your lens on the bodyAs mentioned, Depth of Field (DOF) decreases as you add tubes, so if you're aiming to get a macro shot with a lot of detail, you need to drop the aperture (F/10-16 works for me). But if you want a small amount of detail to show through, go wide-open.
Step 2 - Choose the F stop you want (keep in mind, DOF is narrower with tubes)
Step 3 - Hold the DOF preview button and remove the lens.
Step 4 - Attach lens to macro tube and then lens+tube to Camera
Sharpness sometimes isn't much of a problem with macro tubes if the lens you're using is already razor sharp to begin with. I wrote all of this info once before, and they were asking about using tubes in conjuction with either the 24-70 or 70-300 (both by Canon). As i stated then, it won't be much of a problem with the 24-70 because of how sharp it is, but the 70-300 (assuming it's not the DO or an L) will only yield okay-ish results - post processing will be needed on lower-end lenses.
3) Lighting is extremely important... if you're not out and about in full sun, get yourself a macro ring if you can, otherwise, you'll have to play with off-camera flashing, and that can be frustrating if you're learning macro at the same time. at least... it was for me. *shrugs*
An alternative to macro-ring flashing is off-camera flashing with a diffuser, or if you want to do Macro in a "studio" environment, then build (or buy) yourself a lightbox. I did, and one of these days I'll get around to sharing the method and materials required.
Now, there are two other options that Canon has made available. They are the 250D and 500D filters. They provides a little more magnification to your lens, but at a heavy cost and only come in a limited amount of filter sizes.
Now, understanding how to get true macro, we need to understand what's going on with a macro tube. First and foremost, I have never been able to achieve 1:1, at least, not to my knowledge. I may have incidently and not realized it but that's not the point here. What the point is, trying to understand where you stand with your macro tubes and current stock of lenses. Thanks to Pixel Perfect at FredMiranda.com, I have this nice little formula.
Magnification = extension length divided by lens length or
m' = e/L
So, if you have an extension of 25mm and a lens of 80mm, your magnification will be 0.3125x.
With 55mm or extension and a 70mm lens, you get 0.78x. Which I'm thinking equals to 1:1.24, meaning that i'm close, but not quite. Remember that MP-E lens i mentioned? It gets up to 5:1 (aka 5x magnification). Because I'm at 1.24, I am shooting stuff that is 1.24x smaller than the full frame. Confused yet? good... because so am I.
-edit- This next part is thanks to Kakomu
With 55mm or extension and a 70mm lens, you get 0.78x. Which I'm thinking equals to 1:1.24, meaning that i'm close, but not quite. Remember that MP-E lens i mentioned? It gets up to 5:1 (aka 5x magnification). Because I'm at 1.24, I am shooting stuff that is 1.24x smaller than the full frame. Confused yet? good... because so am I.
-edit- This next part is thanks to Kakomu
The easiest way to figure this out is to photograph a ruler so that you have a measurement of the width of your shot. Compare that to the size of your sensor: Voila, magnification ratio.
For instance. Let's say you have a 50mm lens on 30mm of extension tubes. You point it at a ruler and measure X mm from the left frame to the right. Then, you go to the manufacturer's website, and find that your sensor is Y mm wide. Your Macro ratio is, thus, 1 : (X/Y).
Example: the measurement on the picture is 40mm and the sensor size is 20mm. Thus, the ratio is 1 : (40/20) = 1:2. The object, therefore, is half as large, on the sensor, as it is in real life.
It's also important to note that where the lens is focused makes a big difference. I typically try to focus the lens at Infinity and just move back and forth. I hear all the time that lenses perform best when you focus to infinity compared to the MFD. Then again, the MFD of a lens on a macro tube doesn't seem to make a colossal difference, so I don't even worry about it.
Also, longer lenses on extension tubes can produce some excellent results too. You won't easily get 1:1 macro shots like you would with a 50mm lens or shorter, but you can take pictures of things up close and have greater subject isolation. Flowers and other small objects benefit greatly from this approach, in my opinion.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER
EDITOR'S NOTE: You'll have to forgive the formatting of this post, as BlogSpot's editor was not cooperating with me today. If anyone can suggest a good external editor that i can use to make these posts better, please do. Because Blogspot's editor and Notepad don't seem to be compatible, and this is a source of aggravation for me.
REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER
Popping the Zeiss on, I went out on Remembrance Day for a while. I needed the fresh air and the bright sunlight was providing inspiration, or Vitamin D. Either or. Does it matter?
Suffice to say, the poignant ceremonies were still beautiful, and brought back memories of my days as an Air Cadet. Though, I don't recall ever having such great weather when I was in a Remembrance Day ceremony. My memories were of being in Honour Guard, standing at the unfortunately shaded corner of the cenotaph in Newmarket, on a day that was just above freezing, muttering in my head, asking myself "Why did I volunteer for Honour Guard this time?" I at least, got in the paper... sort of. I was a blur of bokeh in the background of a shot taken of my fellow cadet.
There have been days where I have wondered to myself... Should I go back? Should I become a CI for a local squadron? In this case, the local squadron, just happens to be the one that are in the following pictures: 330 Danforth Tech.
In this picture here, are what I imagine are the co-captains of the squadron. Not sure which was commanding officer, but I have a feeling it was the woman. Supposedly, a memo from above a few years ago decided to do away with the rank of Major in the Air Cadet system. I would venture a guess that thanks to that, there are many squadrons out there now with 2 or more captains. Without the ability to be promoted further, I wonder if some have left the Air Cadet system to further pursue their careers, gunning for that rank of Major.
To those that do, I give nothing but respect. You went in wanting to lead young men and women, and you're setting the example for the next generation.
*salutes* :)
One thing is for sure though... in my Cadet days, we never had cool jackets like those.
We had either our standard tunic, which we wore almost all of the time except in the summer, or the heavy overcoat that was for the winter (still wearing the tunic underneath).
Granted, the overcoat did make marching across the frozen tundra of Base Borden somewhat more bearable, but it was only good for when temps were below freezing.
I only wished that we had something a little more stable for marching in snow with, to go along with the overcoat.
After the Parade ended, I mosied on back to my place and thought, "It's nice a sunny today, I should take advantage of the nice blue sky and strong sunlight". So, as a result I started taking pictures of the trees and leaves along the way back. Honey Locusts provided a nice contrast of yellow to the blue sky. While in other spots, the bright sunlight provided amazing illumination for stuff a little more grounded. Hedges, bushes and fallen leaves all provided excellent fodder for shots.
REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER
Popping the Zeiss on, I went out on Remembrance Day for a while. I needed the fresh air and the bright sunlight was providing inspiration, or Vitamin D. Either or. Does it matter?
Suffice to say, the poignant ceremonies were still beautiful, and brought back memories of my days as an Air Cadet. Though, I don't recall ever having such great weather when I was in a Remembrance Day ceremony. My memories were of being in Honour Guard, standing at the unfortunately shaded corner of the cenotaph in Newmarket, on a day that was just above freezing, muttering in my head, asking myself "Why did I volunteer for Honour Guard this time?" I at least, got in the paper... sort of. I was a blur of bokeh in the background of a shot taken of my fellow cadet.
There have been days where I have wondered to myself... Should I go back? Should I become a CI for a local squadron? In this case, the local squadron, just happens to be the one that are in the following pictures: 330 Danforth Tech.
In this picture here, are what I imagine are the co-captains of the squadron. Not sure which was commanding officer, but I have a feeling it was the woman. Supposedly, a memo from above a few years ago decided to do away with the rank of Major in the Air Cadet system. I would venture a guess that thanks to that, there are many squadrons out there now with 2 or more captains. Without the ability to be promoted further, I wonder if some have left the Air Cadet system to further pursue their careers, gunning for that rank of Major.
To those that do, I give nothing but respect. You went in wanting to lead young men and women, and you're setting the example for the next generation.
*salutes* :)
One thing is for sure though... in my Cadet days, we never had cool jackets like those.
We had either our standard tunic, which we wore almost all of the time except in the summer, or the heavy overcoat that was for the winter (still wearing the tunic underneath).
Granted, the overcoat did make marching across the frozen tundra of Base Borden somewhat more bearable, but it was only good for when temps were below freezing.
I only wished that we had something a little more stable for marching in snow with, to go along with the overcoat.
After the Parade ended, I mosied on back to my place and thought, "It's nice a sunny today, I should take advantage of the nice blue sky and strong sunlight". So, as a result I started taking pictures of the trees and leaves along the way back. Honey Locusts provided a nice contrast of yellow to the blue sky. While in other spots, the bright sunlight provided amazing illumination for stuff a little more grounded. Hedges, bushes and fallen leaves all provided excellent fodder for shots.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Self-Portraiture
Feeling creative, yet bored, I decided that I needed to try my hand at self portraiture. The following are a few of the results. All in all, in 2 sessions, I probably took about 100+ photos. The bulk were from yesterday, with today's numbering a total of 25+. Out of all of them, none from yesterday were worth a damn except the cat head.
The pics from today were a little more technical in approach, with me setting up my camera and measuring out my minimum focusing distance (MFD), and angling my flash and flood for best lighting. It wasn't until I did all of that, that i realized that I would never be able to get results I like without a stand-in. As a result, I used my flash tripod and got my focussing... bang on!
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Lens: Contax Zeiss 135mm 2.8
Fstop = 8 Shutter = 100
Flash = Nikon SB24
Other equipment: Cactus Trigger
Lastolite 45'' reflector
Ikea flex lamp w/ 13w fluorescent
Sateen Flat Sheet from Target... 250 thread count. :P
Adobe Photoshop CS3 with TLR Sharpening
In a weird way, without really trying to, I got a annie-leibowitz/vanity fair type vibe in a few shots. Only 1 was grayscaled, and only so i could make my eye color stand out a little.
After firing a few test shots, I began to use a few props. A Lightbulb, Daha's "straw", my fire extinguisher, a can of lysol... Random things not usually seen in photo shoots... at least, I've never seen them used in a photo shoot. I also changed shirts for different effect and set-up. To see the rest of the pics, you'll have to go to Facebook or Flickr.
The only way I could have possibly improved on these shots is if I opted to slow down the shutter to allow a little blur, to bring out the magic that the Zeiss lens is so good at making.
Of course, I could not, not take a picture with a lightbulb. After all... the whole idea was a bright idea.
At one point, I was trying shots with the raybans on, and thought of the CSI one-liner meme picture and thought... what the hell, let's do one with that too.
YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Please note: the skyline photo is not mine. I googled for an image and photoshopped it accordingly.
The pics from today were a little more technical in approach, with me setting up my camera and measuring out my minimum focusing distance (MFD), and angling my flash and flood for best lighting. It wasn't until I did all of that, that i realized that I would never be able to get results I like without a stand-in. As a result, I used my flash tripod and got my focussing... bang on!
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Lens: Contax Zeiss 135mm 2.8
Fstop = 8 Shutter = 100
Flash = Nikon SB24
Other equipment: Cactus Trigger
Lastolite 45'' reflector
Ikea flex lamp w/ 13w fluorescent
Sateen Flat Sheet from Target... 250 thread count. :P
Adobe Photoshop CS3 with TLR Sharpening
In a weird way, without really trying to, I got a annie-leibowitz/vanity fair type vibe in a few shots. Only 1 was grayscaled, and only so i could make my eye color stand out a little.
After firing a few test shots, I began to use a few props. A Lightbulb, Daha's "straw", my fire extinguisher, a can of lysol... Random things not usually seen in photo shoots... at least, I've never seen them used in a photo shoot. I also changed shirts for different effect and set-up. To see the rest of the pics, you'll have to go to Facebook or Flickr.
The only way I could have possibly improved on these shots is if I opted to slow down the shutter to allow a little blur, to bring out the magic that the Zeiss lens is so good at making.
Of course, I could not, not take a picture with a lightbulb. After all... the whole idea was a bright idea.
At one point, I was trying shots with the raybans on, and thought of the CSI one-liner meme picture and thought... what the hell, let's do one with that too.
YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Please note: the skyline photo is not mine. I googled for an image and photoshopped it accordingly.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Inept...
You know... this whole blogging thing is supposed to be real easy, right?
Well... It's apparently not so. At least, for me, it is not. I can't be bothered to do regular updates.
Hell, I can't even get my act together to keep my apartment clean longer than 2 days. I'm gonna remedy that though, by sticking myself with a schedule. I can't decide if i want to make it every 1st and 15th or Every 2nd wednesday. The former should be easier to keep track of. But, every 2nd wednesday would mean that i'd have my gear together for the weekends, and increase the potential of having a clean place for when my girlfriend spends the weekend here.
In other realms... Since my last update I've acquired a Canon 70-200 F4L and a Yashica YUS 28mm 2.8. Both are fantastic lenses, to say the least. The 70-200 gives me what has been out of my reach for far too long... TELEPHOTO!
The 28mm Yashica was an experimentation (albeit a totally unintentional one) with the world of Manual Focus. The Yashica is as old as I am. Or maybe not. I don't know because info on it is scarce. What i do know is this...
Source: Yashica.org
Another source has this to say...
As you can see, the DJ in this picture is quite sharp and the backdrop is slightly blurry, giving the lens a nice quality. I haven't used it in a way that would reveal its bokeh better, yet... but i will eventually.
As for the 70-200 F4L... there's plenty of stuff on Flickr demo'ing that guy. I don't have much to say that pics taken with it, posted on Flickr can't show. Anyhow... so concludes yet another sporadic posting by yours truly. See you in another month and half. :P
Well... It's apparently not so. At least, for me, it is not. I can't be bothered to do regular updates.
Hell, I can't even get my act together to keep my apartment clean longer than 2 days. I'm gonna remedy that though, by sticking myself with a schedule. I can't decide if i want to make it every 1st and 15th or Every 2nd wednesday. The former should be easier to keep track of. But, every 2nd wednesday would mean that i'd have my gear together for the weekends, and increase the potential of having a clean place for when my girlfriend spends the weekend here.
In other realms... Since my last update I've acquired a Canon 70-200 F4L and a Yashica YUS 28mm 2.8. Both are fantastic lenses, to say the least. The 70-200 gives me what has been out of my reach for far too long... TELEPHOTO!
The 28mm Yashica was an experimentation (albeit a totally unintentional one) with the world of Manual Focus. The Yashica is as old as I am. Or maybe not. I don't know because info on it is scarce. What i do know is this...
| Focal length | : | 28mm | | Nearest focus | : | 35cm |
| Aperture blades | : | 6 | | Aperture stops | : | 2.8 - 4.0 - 5.6 - 8.0 - 11 - 16 |
| Length/diameter | : | | Weight | : | 260g | |
| Lenses/groups | : | | Filter diameter | : | 55mm | |
| Angle of view | : | | Max. magnification | : | ||
| Remarks | : | |||||
Another source has this to say...
4.1. What's the difference between Yashica DSB and Yashica ML lenses?
Yashica DSB lenses are single coated, ML lenses are multi coated (ML
stands for Multi Layer). As usual, a marketing department messed
things thoroughly up by introducing another designator, MC for Multi
Coated, for later multi coated lenses. Contrary to the quality jump
from DSB to ML, there is no distinguishable quality difference between
ML and MC lenses. For quite some time, Yashica offered both DSB and ML
lenses; later on, DSB lenses were sold in package deals with bodies
(like the FX-D Quartz SE and the FX-7).
That not withstanding, with a little off-camera flashing, I've obtained a few amazing shots with it. I can't say that I'm overly pleased with outside of that application, but then again I haven't shot much with it. So, I'm really at a disadvantage. Some non-chalante comments have put this at a fantastically sharp lens, particularly when considering its cost (second hand) which averages around $20CDN Here's an off-camera flash example taken approx a month ago. [Wow... I've just realized that I haven't really shot much in the last month.] As you can see, the DJ in this picture is quite sharp and the backdrop is slightly blurry, giving the lens a nice quality. I haven't used it in a way that would reveal its bokeh better, yet... but i will eventually.
As for the 70-200 F4L... there's plenty of stuff on Flickr demo'ing that guy. I don't have much to say that pics taken with it, posted on Flickr can't show. Anyhow... so concludes yet another sporadic posting by yours truly. See you in another month and half. :P
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Cosplay/Anime North, UNITE! in Buffalo, Luminato, TTC, Goat Cheese and other stuff...
Let's start off, shall we?
Well, I guess I should do this in a chronological order, if only to make some resemblance of sense.
---------------------------------------
-- Anime North/Cosplayers/Otakubaloo --
---------------------------------------
On the Saturday of the long weekend, I made my way across town to hit up the Photo Show. As that ended at 7, I headed over to the Toronto Congress Centre to take photos of the Anime-loving kiddies. To say the least, I was quite impressed with some of the outfits. I know I'm going to draw a little ire by saying the following but... Dressing as characters from Naruto [or Dragonball Z for that matter] is pretty lame. I mean seriously lame. No effort, as far as i could see, from a creativity standpoint, was put into any Naruto costume that I saw at Otakubaloo. I'm sure there was a few kids fully decked out in home-made Naruto costumes, but the greater deal of kids that i did see, were wearing crap they probably bought off Ebay.
Speaking of Buffalo... Let's jump forward a week.
------------
-- Unite! --
------------
Unite! promised to be a great alternative for those less fortunate in the ownership of the cottage type. What it delivered was a bit of a Gong show, with a heavy side of mismanagement. Several clubs went the night practically empty, while others were rammed. Set times were posted only in one location and many of the big acts overlapped each other. So, if you wanted to hear Monk from Rabbit in the Moon, and then Mark Oliver or Skynet... you were SOL.All three played at roughly the same time. The little info booth set up by the organizers wasn't exactly helpful either, as the people manning it were totally clueless.
One particular club, which will remain unnamed here, must have fed its Bouncers some shitfries with extra dicksauce, because they weren't exactly up-to-speed with the whole economy thing happening on this particular night. I barely got into that bar after pointing out that their headlining DJ was a Trance/Techno dj. He begrudgingly let me in, but barred my friend from entering, giving him the same BS excuse. Sorry dude, but you fail at bouncing. When the club is at 1/4 capacity on Sunday night at 1am, for a "festival" LET EVERYONE YOU CAN IN! The Bartender's aren't going to make tips and the club isn't going to make money by not serving drinks. As a result, I had 1 beer, and that club lost a minimum of 3 other sales. By my best math, that's at least $30-40 lost right from the get-go. Probably more towards $100 the way most of us tend to drink...
If they do this again next year, I hope they do a better job because that was just plain awful.
---------------
-- The Break --
---------------
The weekend of following Unite was an off-weekend for me, as I had issues that needed addressing with my Camera. So, i was without a camera for about 2 weeks while it was sent off to Canon for servicing. So we now fast forward to after i got my camera back, which was about 1.5 weeks ago. Receiving my camera before work, I decided to head out on my lunch and test it a little.
As you can see, the picture is quite clear and crisp. My focussing does leave much to be desired, but i'm still a relative newcomer to producing crisp photos.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-- TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION - GREENWOOD MAINTENANCE YARD --
------------------------------------------------------------- Approximately a week ago... say June 3-4ish. I felt like taking a different route home from work. I happened to end up on Jones Avenue, and after being tired of climbing that damn hill, I turned on to a sidestreet and zig-zagged my way home. It was on Chatham street that I saw something that caught my eye and bewildered me... The Greenwood Subway yard.
After passing this, I knew I had to go back and take a photo. So i did. The sheer amount of light pollution in the yard is overwhelming. How overwhelming? I was able to catch the picture above using F/8 @ 1/25th of a second on ISO800. Yes, you read that right. Not quite a Sunny/16, but suffice to say, the light was enough that I was able to stop down to F/8 and use a quarter second shutter.Granted... this was on 800ISO, but still... That's a LOT of light. And if you'll notice, there isn't a soul walking about on the yard. Nope... it was a complete ghost-town. A well-luminated ghost-town, but one nonetheless. This begs the question... why was the yard lit up so much? Don't Subways have headlights? Don't they operate in the dark underground? So... why is the whole area lit up like a football stadium??
------------------------------
-- LUMINATO --
------------------------------
I haven't seen much yet this year for Luminato. Truth be told... With this weekend being the end of it, and me not being in Toronto for it... I doubt i will see more.
So what have i seen? The Luminato Cube and some of the Red Ball Project. The former is a large 20x20 cube set up in Sam Pollock square with different pieces of artwork [i use that term loosely here] for each day. The latter is a more interesting display of large red balls placed randomly through the city. Longwave is what i have photographed above. If you're wondering about the weird blurriness, that's from a special lens I use. If you haven't gotten out to see any of Luminato, do so soon. It's ending THIS SUNDAY.
A lamp post/beam in Sam Pollock Square, next to the Luminato Cube...
Life at 8:00 PM EDT at the corner of King and Bay
Dear lord...it's 2:30 am.... I need to get to sleep. Enough writing.
Well, I guess I should do this in a chronological order, if only to make some resemblance of sense.
-- Anime North/Cosplayers/Otakubaloo --
---------------------------------------
Speaking of Buffalo... Let's jump forward a week.
-- Unite! --
------------
One particular club, which will remain unnamed here, must have fed its Bouncers some shitfries with extra dicksauce, because they weren't exactly up-to-speed with the whole economy thing happening on this particular night. I barely got into that bar after pointing out that their headlining DJ was a Trance/Techno dj. He begrudgingly let me in, but barred my friend from entering, giving him the same BS excuse. Sorry dude, but you fail at bouncing. When the club is at 1/4 capacity on Sunday night at 1am, for a "festival" LET EVERYONE YOU CAN IN! The Bartender's aren't going to make tips and the club isn't going to make money by not serving drinks. As a result, I had 1 beer, and that club lost a minimum of 3 other sales. By my best math, that's at least $30-40 lost right from the get-go. Probably more towards $100 the way most of us tend to drink...
If they do this again next year, I hope they do a better job because that was just plain awful.
-- The Break --
---------------
As you can see, the picture is quite clear and crisp. My focussing does leave much to be desired, but i'm still a relative newcomer to producing crisp photos.
-- TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION - GREENWOOD MAINTENANCE YARD --
-------------------------------------------------------------
After passing this, I knew I had to go back and take a photo. So i did. The sheer amount of light pollution in the yard is overwhelming. How overwhelming? I was able to catch the picture above using F/8 @ 1/25th of a second on ISO800. Yes, you read that right. Not quite a Sunny/16, but suffice to say, the light was enough that I was able to stop down to F/8 and use a quarter second shutter.Granted... this was on 800ISO, but still... That's a LOT of light. And if you'll notice, there isn't a soul walking about on the yard. Nope... it was a complete ghost-town. A well-luminated ghost-town, but one nonetheless. This begs the question... why was the yard lit up so much? Don't Subways have headlights? Don't they operate in the dark underground? So... why is the whole area lit up like a football stadium??
-- LUMINATO --
------------------------------
I haven't seen much yet this year for Luminato. Truth be told... With this weekend being the end of it, and me not being in Toronto for it... I doubt i will see more.
So what have i seen? The Luminato Cube and some of the Red Ball Project. The former is a large 20x20 cube set up in Sam Pollock square with different pieces of artwork [i use that term loosely here] for each day. The latter is a more interesting display of large red balls placed randomly through the city. Longwave is what i have photographed above. If you're wondering about the weird blurriness, that's from a special lens I use. If you haven't gotten out to see any of Luminato, do so soon. It's ending THIS SUNDAY.
A lamp post/beam in Sam Pollock Square, next to the Luminato Cube...
Life at 8:00 PM EDT at the corner of King and Bay
Dear lord...it's 2:30 am.... I need to get to sleep. Enough writing.
Monday, May 18, 2009
East York... at Night
As many of you know, this is Toronto's 175th anniversary after being incorporated. I'm not entirely sure, but it's probably around the 10 year mark after megacity amalgamation as well.
Being a resident of East York, I am privy (although, i don't necessarily engage in) to witnessing the beauty of this multicultural community. We have the Greeks on Danforth, the Pakistani/Indians on Gerrard, and the Chinese on Broadview and Gerrard. And of course, everyone and everything in between along the gaps and such.
Two Things that caught my eye last night were... 1) The statue of Sun Yat-Sen, in Riverdale - poorly lit because the chinese community seems to not give a damn about the man that modernized China. And 2) The fountain at Logan Ave - featuring the bust of Alexander the Great. The juxtaposition is kinda scary when i think about it. The Sun Yat Sen statue has a burnt out lamp, and is all concrete and bronze, surrounded by parkland. The Alexander bust, has benches, a fountain, trees, lights and a conveniently placed Gyro spot next to it.
Anyhow... The following are some of last nights photos.
Click on this one to see the fuller 1024x324 version.
Being a resident of East York, I am privy (although, i don't necessarily engage in) to witnessing the beauty of this multicultural community. We have the Greeks on Danforth, the Pakistani/Indians on Gerrard, and the Chinese on Broadview and Gerrard. And of course, everyone and everything in between along the gaps and such.
Two Things that caught my eye last night were... 1) The statue of Sun Yat-Sen, in Riverdale - poorly lit because the chinese community seems to not give a damn about the man that modernized China. And 2) The fountain at Logan Ave - featuring the bust of Alexander the Great. The juxtaposition is kinda scary when i think about it. The Sun Yat Sen statue has a burnt out lamp, and is all concrete and bronze, surrounded by parkland. The Alexander bust, has benches, a fountain, trees, lights and a conveniently placed Gyro spot next to it.
Anyhow... The following are some of last nights photos.
Click on this one to see the fuller 1024x324 version.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Earth Hour results
Lets start this off with saying... I like living in Toronto, but because of its horrible transition through the years, its become a bit of a travesty in terms of architecture, land planning and what not. Last night I got a glimpse of how sadly true this is when i went out on a photographic adventure.
If you are familiar with Cherry Street, then you are probably aware of some of the buildings down there. The most poignant of which, that demonstrates my point is currently occupied by "Quantex". I am not sure what this building was once used for, but it appears to have been a Bank - built at least in the 30s? I imagine there was good cause for it to be built there (as a bank for longshoreman?)
Now, it stands vigilante, amongst a sad and pathetic industrial backdrop. If anything, this building is definitely a gem amongst boulders and slag. Kudos to Quantex for reappropriating this building for their office. From what I saw in the two windows, it looked extremely modern inside and well appointed. [Note: After reading their website, their choice of location makes a lot of sense given the history of that area (side note: if anyone knows a better link in regards to pollution in the portlands, please let me know!)]
Other examples of forgotten history can be found through out Toronto - two good examples being on Yonge, just north of Queen.
Having said that... The portlands are an interesting area filled with industrial goodies for the urban explorer/modern archaeologist armed with a camera.
The only reason why I was actually down there last night was to take skyline photos. I would've gone down the Leslie Street Spit, except that's a bird sanctuary and it smells bad down there (at least during the day it does, i'm not going to find out if the night is bad too)
Anyhow... here are some of the results of my exploration.
This one was taken at Ashbridges Bay, from the little "lookout point" on the side of the road, opposite the bay to the Sewage Treatment plant (pictured). Sewage is hardly a beautiful thing, but when the plant is lit up at night and you view it from that point, it's gorgeous.
This here, was taken about... 8:40-ish, on Lakeshore Blvd, just west of Leslie. I parked at Cdn. Tire and walked over to the median to catch this one. It's a neat picture because under normal circumstances, you would see the skyscrapers from here. They were all observing Earth Hour, and so, were not lit up like usual. Only the navigation warning lights flickered on the CN Tower.
Sadly... this one was taken at 9:27. YES, 9:27!! I missed my opportunity to catch the downtown core from this angle (Traintracks over Cherry Street)
Actually, truth be told. I was hoping to get a pic of the CN Tower lit, and the other skyscrapers still off. I lucked out that the CN Tower was fired up ahead of schedule.
This is somewhat disappointing if this was done unintentionally. The CN Tower is supposed to be a communications tower and what not. The poor timing of lights-on shows that they aren't communicating very well with the outside world. That, or any report of what the real time is from them... should be ignored.
At the tone, it will be 2:00pm.
beep beep
This freighter was docked at one of the piers just off Cherry Street. I thought the lighting was rather interesting, so i'd grab a few shots.
I was rather unaware that the sky was overcast at the time, so the colour is a bit strange. This is the true colour as far as I can discern, based on the white balance of the Forecastle of this freighter.
That, and other pics are similar.
Interesting note: there is a disturbance in the water to the right in the frame there. That was a duck. Because this was a long exposure (i think 20secs?) the duck turned into a blob.
A Stalwart of the oldways. I dunno if it's modern technology that has done away with them, or if it's a matter of Toronto harbour being relatively easy to navigate large ships into... or even, a matter of modernized replacements, but every now and then, you see a poor creature of the tubboat kind sitting on drydock, rusting the rest of its life away.
It appears that Kenneth A has sat here for a while. How long? I do not know... at least a few months - at least longer than this past winter.
It's been a few weeks since i first spied this guy from the Gardiner, and thought "that'd be a cool pic to take". Last night, i took the chance.
At this point, I was no longer alone... about 50 feet away was a creature that I have seen in the past in rare occasions... however, in the past, I never saw one of this size. A Red Fox. I mean... this guy (or girl) was big. Really big. About the size of a Springer Spaniel or so? Foxes i've seen in the past have been more the size of a Cocker Spaniel or so. Sadly, i could not take a photo of it as it was dark and I don't have a fast telephoto. I was working with my 50mm prime (f/1.8)
This is the external staircase of the Essroc [Italcementi] Elevator-type building/edifice/concrete monolith. I liked how the light played off the support beams, so i snapped this one. It kinda looks blurry which is strange, because i was focussed fairly well - I may've bumped the tripod but i cannot be too sure of that. It's possible that despite being on solid concrete and soil, vibrations from vehicles passing by on Cherry street actually affected this shot in a negative way.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rounding out the night, my last stop was RC Harris Filtration. However, due to construction and what not, I opted not to take any photos of that beautiful example of Art Deco. Perhaps another time, eh?
So... the parting shot. These photos were taken using 3 of my 4 lenses. The shots on Lakeshore were taken with my 35-80mm [a lens that i rarely use cause... it sucks], Skyline was taken using 50mm F/1.8 and 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6.
I did use my Lensbaby, however not for any of these shots. Night-time use is not something i've been able to do with that lens effectively. Given that it is a F2.0, it requires a steady hand for shots longer than say... 1/50th of a second. If i had the Control Freak, this would be a non-issue.
If you are familiar with Cherry Street, then you are probably aware of some of the buildings down there. The most poignant of which, that demonstrates my point is currently occupied by "Quantex". I am not sure what this building was once used for, but it appears to have been a Bank - built at least in the 30s? I imagine there was good cause for it to be built there (as a bank for longshoreman?)
Now, it stands vigilante, amongst a sad and pathetic industrial backdrop. If anything, this building is definitely a gem amongst boulders and slag. Kudos to Quantex for reappropriating this building for their office. From what I saw in the two windows, it looked extremely modern inside and well appointed. [Note: After reading their website, their choice of location makes a lot of sense given the history of that area (side note: if anyone knows a better link in regards to pollution in the portlands, please let me know!)]
Other examples of forgotten history can be found through out Toronto - two good examples being on Yonge, just north of Queen.
Having said that... The portlands are an interesting area filled with industrial goodies for the urban explorer/modern archaeologist armed with a camera.
The only reason why I was actually down there last night was to take skyline photos. I would've gone down the Leslie Street Spit, except that's a bird sanctuary and it smells bad down there (at least during the day it does, i'm not going to find out if the night is bad too)
Anyhow... here are some of the results of my exploration.
This one was taken at Ashbridges Bay, from the little "lookout point" on the side of the road, opposite the bay to the Sewage Treatment plant (pictured). Sewage is hardly a beautiful thing, but when the plant is lit up at night and you view it from that point, it's gorgeous.This here, was taken about... 8:40-ish, on Lakeshore Blvd, just west of Leslie. I parked at Cdn. Tire and walked over to the median to catch this one. It's a neat picture because under normal circumstances, you would see the skyscrapers from here. They were all observing Earth Hour, and so, were not lit up like usual. Only the navigation warning lights flickered on the CN Tower.Sadly... this one was taken at 9:27. YES, 9:27!! I missed my opportunity to catch the downtown core from this angle (Traintracks over Cherry Street)
Actually, truth be told. I was hoping to get a pic of the CN Tower lit, and the other skyscrapers still off. I lucked out that the CN Tower was fired up ahead of schedule.
This is somewhat disappointing if this was done unintentionally. The CN Tower is supposed to be a communications tower and what not. The poor timing of lights-on shows that they aren't communicating very well with the outside world. That, or any report of what the real time is from them... should be ignored.
At the tone, it will be 2:00pm.
beep beep
This freighter was docked at one of the piers just off Cherry Street. I thought the lighting was rather interesting, so i'd grab a few shots.
I was rather unaware that the sky was overcast at the time, so the colour is a bit strange. This is the true colour as far as I can discern, based on the white balance of the Forecastle of this freighter.
That, and other pics are similar.
Interesting note: there is a disturbance in the water to the right in the frame there. That was a duck. Because this was a long exposure (i think 20secs?) the duck turned into a blob.
A Stalwart of the oldways. I dunno if it's modern technology that has done away with them, or if it's a matter of Toronto harbour being relatively easy to navigate large ships into... or even, a matter of modernized replacements, but every now and then, you see a poor creature of the tubboat kind sitting on drydock, rusting the rest of its life away.
It appears that Kenneth A has sat here for a while. How long? I do not know... at least a few months - at least longer than this past winter.
It's been a few weeks since i first spied this guy from the Gardiner, and thought "that'd be a cool pic to take". Last night, i took the chance.
At this point, I was no longer alone... about 50 feet away was a creature that I have seen in the past in rare occasions... however, in the past, I never saw one of this size. A Red Fox. I mean... this guy (or girl) was big. Really big. About the size of a Springer Spaniel or so? Foxes i've seen in the past have been more the size of a Cocker Spaniel or so. Sadly, i could not take a photo of it as it was dark and I don't have a fast telephoto. I was working with my 50mm prime (f/1.8)
This is the external staircase of the Essroc [Italcementi] Elevator-type building/edifice/concrete monolith. I liked how the light played off the support beams, so i snapped this one. It kinda looks blurry which is strange, because i was focussed fairly well - I may've bumped the tripod but i cannot be too sure of that. It's possible that despite being on solid concrete and soil, vibrations from vehicles passing by on Cherry street actually affected this shot in a negative way.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rounding out the night, my last stop was RC Harris Filtration. However, due to construction and what not, I opted not to take any photos of that beautiful example of Art Deco. Perhaps another time, eh?
So... the parting shot. These photos were taken using 3 of my 4 lenses. The shots on Lakeshore were taken with my 35-80mm [a lens that i rarely use cause... it sucks], Skyline was taken using 50mm F/1.8 and 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6.
I did use my Lensbaby, however not for any of these shots. Night-time use is not something i've been able to do with that lens effectively. Given that it is a F2.0, it requires a steady hand for shots longer than say... 1/50th of a second. If i had the Control Freak, this would be a non-issue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
