Father and Son Conversation
Jamison: Is Zoey a Dalmatian?
Joe: No. She’s a French Bulldog.
Jamison: But she has spots?
This is a quick exchange Joe (my son) had with his 4 year old son, Jamison.
Category Archives: camera phone
Havana on the Move
Havana, Cuba is not New York City yet, but it’s streets are busy during the days. Predominately carefully maintained l1950s style cars, many with original motors and others that have been converted to Russian diesel motors with the telltale sounding diesel noise. We rode to a jazz club in a 1956 Chevy Impala with the owner styled and groomed to match his cherry red Chevy.
Delivery trucks, freight trucks, buses and horse drawn carriages are interspersed by the rare modern Mercedes and Toyotas. Road rage a rarity. It will come.
To Tour or not to Tour…
That is the question……
This is the good and bad of being stuck on a tour bus. Patti Zwink and I went to Cuba. We decided we wanted to see Cuba before it was “Americanized” and for a first trip a tour would be the best way to see the country. Over the next few day’s I’ll share what we saw, a mere glimpse. This is from the first day of being in country.
Images shot with an iPhone 6+ and a Nikon D810 with a 24-70 lens.
So What’s your hurry pt2?
One of my regular gigs (hate that word) is shooting commercial real estate. It doesn’t excite me but I’m good at it, my clients appreciate my ability to make their multi-million dollar listing look good. I do hope it helps them sell quicker. But this not about them. It’s about opportunity, photo ops.
Earlier in my career when working out of town I’d do the project and then head back home. Why the hurry? All these locations offered opportunity, the chance to improve my skills, to learn about the area I was in, to go home with a story. So, as one of my mentors preached to me I slowed down. Now after a shoot I like to explore. Maybe I find something, maybe I don’t. Then I look one last time at my project. The change in the light and shadows has often made better images.
I like to shoot, whether for my client or myself.
Techy stuff: all image with the Apple iPhone 6+. Processed in Snapseed.
Above Location: Battery Spencer. From 1897 until 1943, Battery Spencer was a cold, isolated, and vital military outpost protecting the Golden Gate Bridge and SF. Several buildings and placements for the large cannons that used to stand guard on the hill remain. It offers one of the best views of the bridge and SF but when we went it was fogged in….. we’ll just have to go back.
Is it Art, Pt.2?
I wrote this post a little over a year ago on a different site. I have spent a lot of time since then thinking about the topic and then expanding it to what is photography? I’ll let you savor on the post for a couple days and then I’ll share some thoughts.
I was in SF last week on an extensive corporate photo shoot for Swinerton. When I was leaving I decided to take the Treasure Island exit on the way back to the airport. The last time I was on TI was in 1975 when it was a Navy Base and I was a naive young seaman in Electronic Warfare school. So many memories…… I first decided to do a quick photo shoot of the skyline which was etched in my memory. I first shot it with my Nikon D3 and then decided to try my iPhone on Hipstamatic mode. Ugh…… it looked as flat and hazy as the skyline. So then I opened my new favorite app. Snapseed. With a few adjustments and then a frame adjustment the above photo is what I ended up with. I know, it looks grainy and it does. But, the end result is that I’m going to print it on watercolor on my Epson inkjet printer. A few years ago I did a similar series that I printed on the watercolor paper and it looked great. Now, we’ll find out how IPhone photos hold up.
The techy stuff: camera: iPhone 4 (the 5 is on order)
Apps: Hipstamatic and Snapseed by Nik
My real work is at: http://www.zwink.com
How I get a week’s worth of Work!!!!!
GO ON VACATION…… SERIOUSLY!!!
I have a phobia of losing clients by going on vacation. So I try and be the good communicator and notify my clients of upcoming trips and vacations so they don’t (hopefully) schedule or plan anything during that time frame. This way clients know and I have a few days to pack or relax before heading to the airport.
WRONG…. I don’t know if it’s the law of attraction but 90% of the time I end up shooting during the week and finishing the post production just before the early morning trip to the airport. I end up catching up on my sleep on the flight to our destination.
The last time I failed to send out my obligatory email was when my father died and I flew back to Kansas. My primary client at the time called me the day of the funeral and asked if I could do a major rebranding shoot in two days. No, I replied my father just passed away, can we reschedule the shoot for a week later. No they replied. That week I lost two very important parts of my life. One can’t be replaced.
btw, I’m going on vacation next Sat. and I sent “the email”. I’m shooting for four days, doing one day of post production and then off to New Orleans. I hope your thoughts of vacation are as productive.
Some of my vacation photos are at: www:zwink.com
Treasure your Vacation photos
“Get yourself in the picture. Nothing is worse than a vacation with no shots of the family photographer. Get in the picture by using a tripod (or a steady surface such as a wall or a car hood) and the camera’s self-timer to make sure you’re included in the family memories.”
Borrowed quote from a Nikon site…..good advise.
More of my work at: WWW.Zwink.com
On The Road…Again
I’m no expert but it appears the economy is improving. The first two months of 2014 were the busiest I’ve ever had. I know it’s a small sample to base the year on but other photographers have told me they’re off to a good start also. If photographers are working, businesses are marketing and looking to growth. That’s what we do, we help our client market, sell and grow their business.
I spent a lot of the month on the road. Several trips to Orange County surrounded a couple San Diego projects and then I went to the Bay Area for a couple shoots up there. After a quick respite back home and starting a new local project, I went to Alaska for a quick shoot. I know, why send a San Diego photographer there, it’s because my client trusts me to get what they need. Maybe an idea for a future blog.
Well I need to wrap this up. I have another couple projects in Orange County and LA this week. I hope everyone else is busy.
About my image gallery: All images shot with my iPhone while traveling. Post was in Snapseed.
Take 5 and be Alive
Take a five minute break each day and renew your vision and creativity. The only way you’ll get better is if you shoot. The more you shoot, the better you will get. The more you shoot the more your vision and creativity will evolve. Five minutes a day, that’s all you need. So you don’t carry your dslr everywhere everyday with you? Good.
Pull out your Iphone (At&t or Verizion, it doesn’t matter) and start searching. It doesn’t matter if your subject is a landscape, saturated color or a detail item, the important thing is you do the exercise. You can do it at home, on a walk or in the office. The beauty of the Iphone, or Blackberry, is that it’s basically a limited camera with minimal control. The main control becomes your eye. Learn to see with limited resources and watch your vision grow. Learn how to be good with this camera and then watch what happens when you pick up your “real” camera. Watch how you start looking at things different. You will change. Change is good. Have fun, turn your snapshots into art.
More of my work can be seen at www.zwink.com although there aren’t any Iphone photos on it. They will be on a Iphone gallery soon which I will share.
IPHONE 4.0 revisited
Well, I’ve finally had the new Iphone long enough to do a review on the camera portion of the phone. Frankly I love the phone. By no way am I an expert on the phone but I’m a semi-power user. I use it everyday and even in the evenings. I use the text and email functions religiously. I’ve even started playing an app called Flick Fishing since I don’t have time to do the real thing. Right now I’m listening to the Aztec postgame show while writing this post. But I digress.
When I did my first review I was excited about the new camera in 4.0. I’ve definitely used it to come away with a mixed review. One of the exciting new features was the new led flash. Although it’s a great improvement over the previous non-flash version there are mixed results. Red eye is a major problem. If your subject looks straight at you there will be this effect every time. The problem is because of the flash being so close to the lens. So, you either need to run it through a red eye reduction program or have the subject look slightly away so the flash doesn’t hit the back of the retina in the eye.
The image and lens quality are greatly improved. All the images above were made with the new Iphone. There is improved sharpness, image detail and color capture. The color capture is fairly accurate until you use the flash. My images turn to turn warm (slightly yellow) which can be easily adjusted in Photoshop or any other editing software.
The video on the camera is excellent. It give a good capture and the sound quality is excellent. On top of that you can upload your video to your MobileMe account and share with family and friends or….. even a client.
The original Iphone camera was a piece of junk, especially for the price you had to play. The 4.0 is much improved and hopefully Apple won’t be satisfied with it. With a little practice you can make some fun, even creative images. You can share, print and publish them with good results, provided used small. There is even a hdr capability I’ll expand on later. Thank you Apple for the improvement but you have a long way to go. (btw Apple, how about a photo contest to show the awesome Iphone images being created and show your support for photographers by not doing a right grab in the process.)
Tech info: I’m providing very little. the exposures varied but the ISO ranged from 80 – 800 for the night images. The still camera function is aperture priority with a fixed 2.8 lens. I may provide more in my next review but I’m more inclined to show and discuss creative possibilities with this fun phone.
Subjects: l-r Halloween decorations at our home, Lake Wohlford mailboxes, California Screaming at Disneyland, graffiti at Cal Tech, Lake Wohlford Cafe restroom and Casa Bandini entry design.
My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com