milesphotography-wa.com

Ok – so I’m a bit behind.

On April 21st the MG car club held their annual Tulip Ralleye – which is a gimmick style ralley.  They were great hosts who provided a great event.  The weather couldn’t be more beautiful.  Kristin and I are part of Chuckanut Sports Car Club, Bellingham, and were of the roughly ten representing CSCC.  There was a total count of around 300 cars participating – these cars varied from a 1930′s Bentley, rare Brittish sports cars, and much much newer vehicles.

The purpose of the ralley was to answer questions regarding things you passed as you followed the instructions provided.  This led us all through Skagit and south-west Whatcom counties.  Although we didn’t win – we had a great day.

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We are lucky to live where we do.  Unlike many places we get to experience all of the seasons in their splendor.  While the snow and ice can be difficult to maneuver in – when you can drive to a beautiful and unique mountain for some snowboarding or skiing – you should feel lucky.

Although I haven’t been up with my board in over 5 years I managed to slide down the mountain, many times, without too much time spent falling.  I also managed to carry the D300 and a few lenses all day without any negative impacts!  The day was beautiful – warm (for being on top of a mountain), sunny, very little breeze, and only slight cloud cover.  With Mt Bakers near record annual snowfall below us, it really was a great day for us all.

I’d like to think that I can find my way back up several times in the near future (read: next season) but with how busy life can get you never know.  Soon you should, too, be able to see some other seasons as time goes on and the landscape around us begins to blossom.  In the meantime, enjoy the attached photos!

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So if you’ve perused our galleries or blog much you might have seem some auto-x (racing) photos we’ve posted.  Today I got a chance to go off road with some other friends – something I haven’t done in over 10 years.  As expected it was cold, wet, a bit dirty, and a lot of fun.  Hopefully next time I’ll bring something other than just the Tokina 11-16mm…

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So back in October or November one of our vehicles had part of the exhaust break due to poor workmanship from a specific product.  The vehicle sat through busy times of work, photography and (ongoing) website updates.

This weekend I finally found some time to dedicate towards fixing the car.  A good friend of mine is an exceptional welder who drives around in his creations that tend to get jaw dropping results.  Needless to say – my simple exhaust fix wouldn’t be subject to an issue of poor workmanship anymore.

I thought to myself that trying to capture some of the welding being performed could be interesting.  As anyone knows – photography is about light and finding the right balance.  I continued to think – how am I going to meter this?  I cannot look through the camera during the welding process or I would subject myself to literally burning my retinas (of which I actually came very close one time).  I also couldn’t use the current readings of the exposure meter as the welding process gives of an amazing amount of light.

I decided I would set the camera up as I wanted, let the camera AF when no welding took place, switch to manual focus, then use settings close to the current meter but “underexposed” quite a bit.  No filters were used and I am quite happy with the results.  Unfortunately the person performing the welding was so good that I wasn’t able to capture as many images as I wanted.  I hope to capture more in the near future as it’s a challenging subject!

I called this “Man and Machine” for a number of reasons.  Welding is just about the basic foundation upon which modern society is built.  It’s an incredibly basic foundation and yet in order to be performed properly requires quite a bit of skill.  Almost everything we touch on a daily basis has some type of welding in it – either done by an individual or now done by machine.  However most welders use as many means to protect themselves during the process my friend, which I agree when I (attempt to) weld, loses essential ‘feel’ needed for precise welding.  These photos depict a minimal amount of personal coverage (a helmet) while performing a very mechanical and pseudo-explosive task.  (First image is only inserted for the header)

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So if you saw yesterdays post then you can see that this is just a progression.

This time around I took a cardboard box, cut one of the sides off completely, reinforced the remaining sides, and taped the box to the stool (for stability).  The “empty” side was facing away so that the background would be visible through the glass.  Lots of glass cleaning, sweating (those lights give of some heat!) and editing resulted in the following images:

There actually was a reflection of the bottle as it was poured, but looked a bit off so it was removed.

This shot… ice was being dropped.  Actually hit the edge of the glass & the small bits you see are pieces of the ice that broke off:

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As previously mentioned… I was hoping to have some time and work on my “product” type photos.  Yesterday Kristin asked me to photograph some of her amazing hand-made Christmas cards… I quickly realized that our 15x15x15 de-shadow box, though works for small items, does not work great for larger items.  I started to look around for “DIY” type of deshadow/product setups and I came across something called “Light up the Floor”.

Now – I do have something else in mind and today was more practice than anything.  I thought to myself… well since my flash will fire through our white polycarbonate sheet maybe I can make a different type of light from below.  I picked up a foam project backboard (to be the backdrop) and went for it.  Some glasses, water, and food coloring was all I used.  The attempts were far from stellar.  In fact as the light came from the bottom it actually completely blew out the reflection.

OK…. next up is to remove the flash from underneath and bring it from above.. using an extendable boom-arm we have.  The photos were OK… but I was disappointed to see how different the whites of the polycarbonate and the ‘background’ were.  There was a distinct horizon. 

Got some time to think and took out the garbage and recycling.  “Hmm….” I thought to myself, “this recycling bin could work as a ‘black box’…. except it’s really dirty inside.”  So I went in and looked at the identical garbage container, now without a bag in it, and decided with a little cleaning it could suffice.  Stole a piece of glass from a 16×20 frame and tried again.

Although it could use a better “black box” and some adjustments I thought they came out much better.  All setups were using a strobe (to varying levels) with monolights on each side of the subject(s).  The monolights at times were only set to “model” to give light but no flash and others were flashing from 1/32nd to 1/2 power.

 Included is the first attempt at shooting the “setup” in which all I did was step back and snap a pic…. I forgot to turn the lights on but thought it came out interesting.  Also included is a much better setup shot.

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I would like to start off by saying this is not an advertisement for our services — rather a tool you can use to help in choosing your photographer! 

It’s that time of the year again (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and even Valentines day isn’t too far off) where the men get creative and the women say “YES!”.  The instant gratification then begins to wear a tad as the stress of planning your wedding comes to mind.  Choosing the best options for you, within your budget, is being prepared to ask the questions and make informed decisions.  Hopefully this can help you understand who or how to choose a photographer/photography company that best suits your needs.  These are in no particular order but tend to all be important.

What type of equipment do they use?  Do they have backup cameras?  Do they have flashes AND lenses that work in low light situations (For instance.. a church that doesn’t allow flash will require fast lenses… kit lenses just won’t do)?  It’s important that the photographer you choose has an array of equipment.  One camera and one lens can take a lot of photos — but it also might miss a lot of photos as well due to the limitations of the minimal equipment used.

How long have they been in business as a photographer?  Are they a licensed business?  Do they have works that have been entered into competition, and if so, how did they do?  You want to make sure those you hire are competent, running a legal business, and able to serve your needs.

Do they shoot in RAW, JPEG, TIFF (etc)?  There actually is not a correct answer here… however a photographer understanding the differences between them and being able to tell you why they shoot in that specific mode is more important.  It’s a simple question that can give you a sense that they understand their equipment more than just the basics.

What is the turn-around time on receiving the photos?  Will you receive prints, credits, a disc with copyrights?   Make sure you understand what you will, and won’t, get.

Remember – paying more doesn’t always get you more.  Find the best photographer within your budget (not necessarily the photographer who advertises at the top of your budget).

Ask to view an entire wedding in some sort of larger format.  Photographers will usually only post a small percentage of any wedding or event as an example gallery.  These will always be, what they believe, the best from the group.  So what do the rest of the photos look like?  Were there 15 lucky shots and 600 bad ones or after viewing the entire album can you see that it would be difficult to pick only a small number?  If photos are viewed as small prints, on a small monitor (or something the size of an iPad) then they are being viewed at a very small percentage of the photo itself.  You won’t usually make enlargements over 11×14… but what if you do want to?  Viewing photos in a smaller print/viewable size just might hide problems in the photos.  You also want to ensure that after seeing an entire wedding, in a larger format, that if you decide to print large you have the confidence to do so.

Is there more than 1 photographer?  You might hear the craze of friends having more than 1 photographer and ask yourself — why would I ever need more than 1 photographer?  1 has worked in the past for many people without problems!  However… having only 1 photographer means shots will be missed.  Having more than one allows much more freedom in the day — more choices are available on how the day will go and the portrait sessions can go quicker.

So remember…. when you decide to review and choose photographers that understanding who they are and the type of photography they do is extremely important.

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So attached are 6 images shot through a Nikon 60mm Micro on the new Nikon D7000.  Half were shot at ISO 200 with an assisting speedlight.  The other half were shot at ISO 3200 with no flash assist.  Can you tell which are which? (The 7th is just a modified version for the header)

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So for the past several months I have been looking into another camera body.  The D300 was picked up used over 2 years ago.  I love that camera — it has done everything I’ve needed it to.  Bad weather shoots, low-light weddings, incredible night shots, and more.

The likely replacement would obviously be a Nikon D700 or D3 variant…. right?  Well, not so fast.  The D700 was a desired front-runner for a long time.  The D700 is essentially the same camera as a D300 but with the D3 (“pro” body) full frame sensor.  Without getting overly wordy/in depth — Nikon fans have been waiting several years for the replacement ot the D3 (the next best “pro” body).  The D3/variants, although still quite stunning, are built with technology a few years old.

The D7000 made it’s debut last year — it was the replacement of the prosumer Nikon D90.  (The D90 is a smaller body DSLR with the D300 sensor).  The D7000 has a partial magnesium body and weatherization (found previously only in the D300 and higher cameras).  It boasted all new sensor technology — allowing greater color and also extremely high ISO capabilities. 

In fact reviews of the resulting D7000 photos in color and ISO are compared to the D700 (which, again, utilizes the same sensor as Nikons full-professional body D3).  So image comparisons of the D7000 are at par with the D3 and D700… and currently at 1/2 the price of the D700 and 1/3-1/4 the price of the D3.

Ok… so the price is lower… what’s lost?  Well… when the price is lower something has to give.  The body is a bit smaller and the button layout is more similar to the prosumer D90.. IE less easily accessed funcationality than the D300/D700/D3 bodies.  This was my biggest concern regarding the D7000 and if it weren’t for such the price gap the D700 would have been the body choice.

The D7000 – first clicks.  ISO capabilities are amazing.  The D300 has excellent high ISO capabilities comparing to older DSLR’s (D200, D2 “pro” variants, D80, etc).  I had no problems shooting at ISO 1000 (although I ABSOLUTELY prefer ISO 200) when needed and the resulting images were still fantastic.  ISO-capability… the D300/D90 don’t compare.  I shot a dimly lit room with the Tokina 11-16 2.8 at ISO 3200, hand held, and the resulting image is on par or better than ISO 800 on the D300!  I’m blown away. 

Now for some other input — It’s quiet.  Not even using the “quiet” mode… it’s quiet and feels fast.  (Yes, the FPS and continuous shooting is less capable than the D300/D700/D3).. By fast I mean the shutter appears to actuate faster and the sound of the shutter is different.  For most average users this isn’t a concern – but when you’re photographing a wedding and it’s a quiet moment… that shutter noise can be quite obvious.

Video Mode – No idea.  Won’t use it, don’t want to, don’t care — so don’t ask.

AF seems to be pretty darn intelligent.  Nikon “hid” a button on the front AF/M switch… this button allows quick changes to the various AF modes.

Look forward to seeing photos posted with this camera!  Will hopefully do a follow up regarding use of this camera within the next few weeks.

 (Photo taken on D300, 60mm; 4 second exposure, F16, no flash, tripod mounted.  Lens on D7000 is Tokina 28-80 2.8 ATX PRO)

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So it would appear that posing in-studio photos is very similar to posing ‘on location’ photos.  Today we offered a select few the chance for some free in-studio sessions… this was mainly as a test for us as the ‘in-studio’ portion is new to us.  We are now confident to offer this type of service to future clients!  No longer will ‘weather permitting’ be a determining factor!

If you are interested in this type of service we are offering a ‘through-2011′ discount.  Please contact us for pricing and availability!

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