Working on a little project to help with doing a 365 project through the Blogger platform. Will update once I have a few of the details ironed out.

Speaking of My 40d

iOS Photography: My Workflow(s)

My iOS workflow very closely mimics my DSLR workflow.

1. Take several pictures of a given scene or subject
2. Review and delete poorly composed, exposed, focused images
3. Edit photos
4. Share and archive

Spring Sky

Shot with iPhone 5, Processed using Snapspeed

Lost Content: Drinking San Diego

A few years back, a buddy of mine and I hopped around San Diego county to check out the local beverage industry. I took a LOT of pictures. Here's the best ones, without much context or description. Enjoy!

iOS Photography: My Intro

My iPhone

I'm going to be writing a short series of posts on my use of iOS photography. I'll cover the why's, how's, and some personal reviews of the apps and workflows I've used. For this intro post (and re-intro into actually writing blog posts... restarting for, like, the 10th time), I will be discussing why I use my iPhone to take most of my pictures now, a generalized workflow, and what I've learned from doing "iPhoneography."

No Running on the Couch!!

Fidel's Tortilla Soup

Fidel's tortilla soup is by far the best Mexican dish I've ever had. Smoked peppers, cubed cheese, avocado, chicken, and tortilla strips all in a spicy broth.

I've been using a few new apps for photography on my iPhone.

1. camera+ - generally better camera app, allows for selective focus and exposure (set separately), provides some settings for processing the image for white balance, cropping, straightening. Allows you to take multiple rapid pictures without saving them to your iPhone's camera roll.
2. Dynamic Light - good for doing high contrast or high dynamic range processing (HDR). Still working out the kinks there.
3. Instagram - if I want to do any "film" processing

The only thing I can say is that, whatever apps you use, if the original composition is crap, doing a film filter doesn't make it better.

Column K

Just a quick shot with my iPhone. Processed using camera+.

The Alpha and the Omega

Seven months after it ended, I need to reflect on what I accomplished by taking a picture every day for 365 days.

My subject was my son, and I have definitely set a precedent for myself. Our second child will require the same level of photographic evidence, and the exceptions of the amount of pictures I want to take as we all grow as a family are high.

A Reboot

My last blog entry was from ... let's see here... oh? Oh. December, eight months ago.

So, I'm going to try to refocus my original intent on the free, and surprisingly robust, Blogger platform. I have to pay good money to host a WordPress blog, so all of the posts have been migrated here in advance of my service expiring.

When my domain comes up for renewal, I plan on paying the $10 or so, but have it point to Blogger. The WordPress site will languish and die.

Thanksgiving from Above

I spent a week thinking about how to shoot a Thanksgiving meal. After shooting my son for almost a year, I've learned that changing the altitude of the shot changes the perspective so much. I came up with the idea to shoot the Thanksgiving meal from above.

Strobist: Specular Portrait

It's been a VERY long time since I've posted anything to the main site. In keeping with my strobist assignments, here is a specular highlight portrait.

It was much more difficult to do than I thought. I tried with people and things with very little success. As the assignment suggests, the difficulty was finding the right angle and relationship between camera, subject, light source, and background. I took this picture at Toronado down in Normal Heights, San Diego. The subject are two rare beers which are apparently hard to find in the "wild."

Here are two "bonus" pictures from the same bar.

 

Olympus 35RC

I found this guy on Craigslist for $20. Can't go wrong with a solid rangefinder. I have some Kodak Portra 160NC loaded and ready to go. Creamy and warm tones are sure to come back from the lab.

Strobist: Cooking Light

For my "cooking light" assignment, I chose to light up my 8" chef's knife and some cherry tomatoes. This is the same knife that sliced through my finger and partially severed my tendon a year ago. To be fair, I cut myself, the knife just happened to be in my hands.

My Holga

Strobist: Controlling Specular Highlights

It's been, oh... 3 months, since I've done a Strobist 102 assignment. I combined this lesson with making a listing to sell my Canon AE-1 and lenses. This assignment was about specular highlights, and learning to control them. Specular highlights are essentially the reflections of your light sources as seen reflected from your subject.

A Gallery of Backed up Film

I had about 4 rolls of film waiting to be developed. I sent them off to NCPS, and here's a gallery of the results. Not much commentary.

Basking in the Evening Sun

Here's my son, hanging out on the couch, catching some evening sun. The warm glow and angular shadows across his face, as he contemplates the three poops he took.

Actually, he's not basking in an evening sun. The couch is relatively far from the window and doesn't really face the evening sun at all. I actually fixed my stupid Chineese flash triggers by buying a new battery (not that I don't plan on replacing them still), so I used my flash to create some "sun" for my son.

I zoomed my flash head all the way in (105mm) for hard shadows and used a 1/2 CTO gel to warm up the light. Here's basically the same image taken with available light.



I totally stole this idea from Joe McNally, and not ashamed about it. If you're just getting into off-camera flash, I definitely recommend his book Hot Shoe Diaries.

2 Delays, Posting to Resume Soon

I've run into two delays on making new posts.

1. A newborn son


2. My Chineese flash triggers broke. Time to upgrade.