The moon and his buddies

It's been a few years since I last watched the moon disappear behind the shadow of the earth. The last time was in the fall of 2004 - I think. While I'm having a little trouble remembering the date, I recall perfectly sitting outside in parking lot of the Dunkin Donuts watching the moon turn red.

There's something very cool about watching the moon change shape before my very eyes. I think the reason it appeals to me is that it's almost like watching a time-lapse event.



The dim red light illuminating the moon makes it a far less formidable photographic subject as well. Under normal circumstances, when photographing a full moon, I need to dial my camera's sensitivity way down in order to expose any lunar detail. However, with the fainter moon, the surrounding celestial bodies pop out of the night sky. Last night we were treated to the planetary glow of Saturn to the left of the moon and Regulus above it.

So why am I writing about this? Well, I'm afraid I don't have a very good answer. There's something about freezing my butt off trying to get a shot that makes me want to talk about it.

More Beach

As the weather gets a bit better, expect to see more beach photos... at least until they start requiring a sticker. Then they'll probably fall off.



Kate, Dylan, Max and I went on a rather impromptu trip to the beach with Sasha. I was shooting with my new lens - I got some pretty cool shots, while shooting wide-open. I had to strap on the CPL just to reduce the incoming light. Here's Sasha being a dog. To be honest, I don't think this is my favorite picture from the day, but I has a neat style (that it acquired in post).

See the other pictures.

My New Toy

Well, I've just acquired a new toy. A Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens! I bought this lens to fill a need that my D50's kit lens couldn't fill. The kit lens is a 18-55mm but it's aperture at 55mm is a pretty-small 5.6. This makes shooting in low-light a bit of a pain. The new lens is, by comparison, a gaping f/1.8 at 50mm and its built like a truck.



So, will this be my new lens of choice? Well, only time will tell - at the moment it's taking a bit of an adjustment. I'd say with the kit lens I take a lot of wide-angle shots, with this lens that's not even an option. If I want to get more in the picture I have to back up, which certainly isn't the same thing. Never the less, the new lens is very sharp and pretty fun to use so far, so I'm going to withhold judgment till I've got a bit more time on it. One thing's for sure: I love shooting wide-open. The shallow depth of field is chocked full of goodness.

More Shiftyness

Sunday morning, after a rough night, Kate, Dylan and I drove up to Hamden to see the house they're trying to buy - a nice place, but not without its quirks. Afterwards we went to the Milford mall, and then to downtown Westport. I had my camera in tow - F5.6 Lensbaby attached. I actually managed to get a few good pictures!


This is a photo of Kate walking towards Starbucks in downtown Westport. I'm very happy with the light focus on her hair, as well as the texture in her shirt. I think the trick to using this lens is going to be: Have lots of natural light. Lensbaby works well with the on-camera flash as well, but it's a less "genuine" look.

Don't Smoke

Sunday morning, after the Wii fiasco, I headed into Manhattan to take some pictures. Because I had family plans in the afternoon I parked my car uptown (where we'd be ending the night). I then walked from 85th on the east side down to the 30s and over to B&H to buy a new tripod.

My old tripod was a Sunpak and made with an almost supernatural-cheapness. On Thursday night when I went out to take pictures it was a bigger hindrance than a help. So now it's been replaced with the bottom of a good line. A low end light-weight Manfroto with an integrated ball head. The ball joint seems a bit cheap, but it's cast aluminum and it has a long warantee so I'm giving it a shot. It's only 2.5 lbs, but its significantly bigger than my old tripod. I think it'll need to travel in it's own case.

Also took some time to talk to one of the sales people at B&H about the elusive Nikon 18-200mm lens. This lens is by all accounts amazing: Not only is it incredibly versatile (IE: you only need one lens) is ridiculously affordable. Well, the salesman , using similar superlatives, confirmed that it's so rare he didn't expect to see one for a while. He said he expected to see some next year. I'm excited to see if he's right. While we were talking I happened to catch a glimpse of an inexpensive piece of photographic equipment that I've wanted to buy for a while: The Lensbaby.

The Lensbaby is a soft-focus lens which allows you to manually move the focus-point of the lens around by compressing a bellows. Much the same way you would with a large-format box camera. So far this lens has been trying my patience. As soon as I get a shot that I like, I'll post it.



My long walk down the East Side led me to the 59th street bridge. I took some time photographing the cars and the bridge and the cable-cars. But eventually I got fixated on the smokestack immediately South of the bridge. I took quite a few shots of it. This is one of them. Morning light, Polarizer, Rust. Sweet.

An Underexposed Firetruck

Well, my title may be a bit on-the-nose, but that's no reason to down on my dimly lit composition. Err. Something.


The story behind this photo is rather boring. But, since you've scrolled past the pretty picture I'll tell it anyways. This time of year the sunlight at 5pm is very low and comes shooting up the Post Road. This of course happens to be about the same time I'm walking home from work and some days I get inspired. On the day I shot this I was walking around Fairfield shooting all manner of things when a firetruck came roaring down the road. I was just barely quick enough to pull my camera up to my head and pull the trigger. What I got was an image of inconceivable darkness. After a little bit of post, what I was left with was an image of mostly darkness.
So why post the image? Low light. Long shadows.

-Sigh-

I do love a long shadow.

Composition and Contrast

I took a couple of shots inside the pavilion at Sherwood Island. The pavilion itself is quite a piece of architecture. That is to say it is utterly dated in its outward appearance, but kind of charming in its own way. Looking at it the pavilion through the CPL was a bit like looking back in time.


Two things I really like about this shot. The contrast and the composition. The depth of the black makes the window seem to fade away. The black on top and bottom makes the window "pop" a bit more. I took a number of shots like this one. I may post another.

I did a bit in post to this shot. I raised the shadow levels tremendously - this is pretty obvious. I also bumped down the exposure and increased the saturation. It was very difficult to get any color showing through.

Update: This photo made it to number 82 on flickr's most interesting on February 25! Its my first time!

Lincoln Park Conservatory

With Sam prepping a final project I took to the streets with my camera. I happened across the Lincoln Park Conservatory where I took some pictures of the foliage. This was my first day with a circular polarizer filter. So I used it.


The conservatory is a beautiful green house - built like an old trainyard. This is a photo of the giant ferns I encountered on my way through the front door. I was blown away. Too Cool. I burned the statue by accident a little bit, but the color and depth of the image was too much to pass up.

We'll see if I stick with this.

Well, to start with I should mention that I'm a huge fan of flickr it's photostream concept. In fact, all of the pictures that you will see on this blog will come from my flickr account. The purpose of this blog is to pull, from my photostream, the pictures that I want to talk about - and to give me a place to do so.

So, should this little experiment succeed, expect to see the following:

1. Photos of things I see
2. Comentary on said photos
3. Random crap that I think of
   

The following content is not allowed:

1. Meaningful self-analysis.
2. Petty bitching.
3. Passive aggressive bullshit.

These are my editorial rules. Please feel free to scold me if you think I've strayed from the path.

I'm starting out slow. Posting a picture that I took at thanksgiving in the Manhattan. Charles and I went for a walk to escape the family. There was no traffic. I was able to take my time setting up the shot.

-Dave