All images are from Italy and Barcelona.
Tag Archives: Iphone
It’s All-Star Time
Summer for a lot of parents mean a lot of time spent at the ballpark practicing and on the weekend All-Star tournaments. Payton, one of my granddaughters fits into that category. But this isn’t about her story. As they used to say these are “Kodak Moments”. If you spend all that time you need good memories. And not just the team or posed photo. So I’m going to share a couple tips to improve your chance to get good photos.
This is not the big leagues. Every where you look there are fences you have to shoot through. Most of the photos above were taken through fences. If you have a dslr first put your shutter speed on a high setting, 1/320 or higher. The longer your lens the faster your shutter should be to minimize vibration and movement in the photos. Your aperture (f4.0, 5.6, 8.0) on the lens should be at the smallest setting. The ASA should be set as low as possible to get a quality image. But if you need go up to asa 400 or 640 to get the proper settings. These combinations when shooting through the fence will start to give you good results. To improve on that go to the side of the fence where the sun is behind you or totally in the shade. Move the lens as close to the fence as possible. What you want to do is avoid the sun bouncing off the fence into your lens. Remember your pictures that look foggy? That’s what happened. The light bounced into the lens creating flare (photo term). This won’t work all the time but most.
What if you have a iPhone or Android? Same concept. Get close to the fence. Make sure you know where the lens is and carefully place it in-between the wire so you have a clear shot. And don’t forget to use the zoom. As our editors always said, “fill the frame”. Lastly, do you use one hand when holding your smartphone? Unless you’re blessed with ultra steady hands don’t. Two hands will make you steadier and your photos sharper. Below are a couple tips that will give you your “Kodak Moment”.
• Move around. Don’t always shoot from the same place.
• Don’t just shoot the action. Look for reactions. Sports is about emotion, the kids having fun.
• If you have a long (large 200 or longer) lens go to the end of the fence to get different looks. Even if they look small in the frame you can crop in. If your camera has a lot of megapixels use it.
• Learn your camera. Don’t wait till you get to the ballpark to figure out how to use it. You don’t want to miss the action.
• Have fun. Capture the action but always remember, it about the kids. They won’t always be young.
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.
Image taker or maker
Which are you? I am a Image Maker. Even with my iPhone (yes I admit I have and use one) I think before I hit the shutter. I think that is the difference. Good Image Makers, aka photographers and videographers think and don’t just react to a scene, situation or event. Another good qualifier is to look at a body of images and see if they make sense. Yes, make sense, do they tell the story or stimulate a response? So…… even if you’re an amateur next time, look and compose before you take that picture. Happy shooting…
Techy stuff: All images shot at Sunset at Mission Beach, Ca. with a Nikon D3 and processed in LightRoom3.
Is it Hip anyMore?
I love my iPhone (did I say that before?). I just saw a post on another forum questioning whether the Hipstamatic look is relevant any more. Has its extreme popularity diluted it’s value as art? It was a pretty good argument. One side led by my good friend Pat Downs argued that it’s style, similar to the Diana (a cheap plastic camera), has become so prevasive and overused that there is so much trash being posted/published by the Histamatic app. that its now becoming boring (my words). Then Pat added a great analogy that the popularity is similar to certain forms of music (techno to name one) that had their day and then people gravitated back to “normal” sounds.
Will people with cell phones start shooting “normal” photos again? It is a good argument but I think it comes down to the argument about digital photography in general. There is a lot out there, but it’s not all boring. It a great way for a lazy person to make a photo or a creative person to just play and stimulate their senses when they hit on a good one. As someone famous once said, “I’m not an artist but I know art when I see it”. I think the “hip” look is here to stay till the next great app shows up. The crowd in general is trendy……… follow the leader.
btw, I use Hipstamatic…… Thanks to Kevin Lock and Patrick Downs for the inspiration for this post.
my other blog: http://poppaz.wordpress.com, website: www.zwink.com (no there’s no iPhones photos there)
The Replacement Dog
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Meet Zoey. I admit. For the first time in my life I’m really entranced by a dog. Zoey is our second french bulldog my wife, Patti wanted to replace Dixie. Dixie, our fawn boxer, lost her battle to cancer last year. Louie, our first frenchy, was supposed to be a replacement for Dixie but he had a birth defect and we had him less than three months. Now Zoey…… she’s a character, we love her and she’s already a part of our family. Enjoy her portraits as we go along.
I C U……..
What a stupid title…… This is my first post in this blog. I have another cool blog (at least I think it is) that is a little more serious look at how photography interacts with my life. I have used my Iphone regularly since they first came out.
I love to shoot, to capture life around me. Everywhere I turn I see photos ready to be shot or created (a big difference). I want to use this to showcase some of my more interesting images shot in different situations. Some I’ll explain and some will have to speak for themselves. Hope you enjoy.
My other work: website, www.zwink.com blog: poppaz.wordpress.com
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
Eye on the Iphone4
I finally ordered my Iphone4. It should be here early next week. I can’t wait. Finally it appears it has a camera that is actually useful. I have not actually tested it but I have used each generation’s camera and cried…… For a high end phone there was never anything high end about the camera. Can you believe not one version had a flash? My wife’s cheap $99 camera phone had one, but not the Iphone, until now. The new Iphone4 will have a 5 megapixel camera, digital zoom capability and a led flash. Can’t wait to play.
I’m not convinced there is any professional use for the phone except for scouting photos and creative fine art. Don’t get me wrong. There has been some great “art” produce and posted on the web. One of the top photogs creatively using the Iphone is Chase Jarvis who not only has shot jobs with the Iphone but has written a book and App about the Iphone. Here’s a link to his blog: /blog/2009/09/the-best-camera-iphone-app-book-community/ If you like to shoot photos with your phone check it out.
I’ve been trying to do more personal shooting, but I can’t take my D3 with me all the time, I want to stay married. So the Iphone is the choice for me. Because it’s really limiting it make you use your imagination and creativity more. I don’t think that I would ever use one on a job, I’m not that crazy, but it sure is fun when there’s no motivation to shoot other than to have fun.
Hopefully with the Iphone4 I won’t have to take a separate pocket camera or separate video camera. Less, is definitely better. I can’t wait for it to arrive. Maybe eventually there will be an Iphone photo on Zwink.com.
The lead photo is of a maniquin photographed in a store display window in Kauai, Hawaii with a Apple Iphone 3G
My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com