Apply Directly to the Head

Sure it doesn't look like much, but I was tired after my all too short vacation and I guess this is what was on my mind. Actually I was experimenting with sync speeds. The official high speed sync speed of my camera is 1/250th. It can actually do a 1/3 stop faster (1/320sec) with no problem, when using a flash directly connected to the PC sync on the camera. Going up to 1/400sec puts a very thin black line at the bottom of the frame. At 1/500sec this bar creeps up further, but still seems about 1/4 or less of the frame. That's when syncing directly. When using radio sync via Pocket Wizards, the flash wouldn't sync as fast. This photo shows a PW synced flash with the shutter speed set to 1/320sec. Yet at 1/250th, it's fine.

Echo Lake lake lake

Wednesday I went mountain biking. One of my last stops was scenic Echo Lake State Park. Here's a pretty photo of the lake and surrounding scenery.
Traveling light, I opted to remove the battery grip from my camera. I've gotten used to shooting with it for about a year now and it feels strange not using it. I had to rotate this photo quite a bit in post—just over 5°. That might not sound like much, but it is quite a bit. You would have thought I was drunk! I'm not sure why this one was so off, I shot a bunch of others and they were much better. Anyway, I'd recommend getting a vertical, battery grip for your camera if one is available. They're a little pricey and it may not seem like they'd add anything to your photos. However, it affects the way you shoot, in a number of good, and often subtle ways. Plus you can always take it off for whatever reason.

Picture Picture

Crawford Notch New Hampshire. I took a brief vacation to New Hampshire this week. Got a few good photos. I didn't go to many "pretty" sites like waterfalls and others of that ilk. This photo is of Crawford Notch, and a sign about Crawford Notch.

Oops!

Ah, I forgot to take a photo today :-( Oh well it's not the end of the world. I think I had a pretty good run—nd this isn't the end of it. I'm still shooting. I know my millions of fans will be disappointed, but I'll make it up to you someday.

Now What?!

I graduated today. Again. It probably won't be the last time either. I don't plan on doing it again anytime soon though. Got my MFA in Visual Design-Electronic Imaging from UMASS Dartmouth. I still technically have a little work to do on my thesis, but I'm close enough that I could go to the ceremony. I think I would have enjoyed it a little more if I had gotten my act together and finished up already. I'd probably also enjoy the vacation I'm about to take a little more too. So hard to stay focused! Gotta get this done!
Yes I think the cap may be on backwards, but I assure you, it looks just as bad either way!

Here Comes the... Cake?

My buddy Justin's wedding was Saturday. I had a great time. It was very different from the last wedding I went to, last month. It was pretty much the same basic formula, but very different results. They were both a lot of fun. This wedding had a beach theme. Theme weddings are fun. Plus it helps to narrow down your choices of decor, thereby making it easier. It'll also help make it more memorable and unique.

Home Tweet Home!

Here are some birdhouses, and a bird condo. The condo is for purple martins. Though I believe it's yet to be inhabited.

Zzzzzzzz... Well it's Something

Here's a tree. I enjoy the way the sun—especially when it's at a low angle, shines through leaves. It doesn't seem to translate well into photography though. Not for me, at least. I juiced up the color a bit, but it's still not there. Oh well, I'll keep at it.

POW!!

Brought my camera to Karate today. We did some vigorous sparing. Possibly the most vigorous I've ever done. Here's sensei Jesse and sensei Chris. Sensei Jesse appears to have gotten the better of his opponent in this shot.

I've found that karate has many apparent paradoxes. Keeping your shoulders back and down, while keeping your elbows in, as in sanchin, is one example. These two focus points work against each other, but in so doing create strength, solidity. Working paradox and ambiguity into one's visual art can make it stronger as well.

Behind the Scenes

In this shot I left the flash where it was last night when I shot the cereal bowl—I left the bowl there too—and took a wider shot. I used another strobe on top of the display for the cereal shot, but that's not there in this one. I adjusted the white balance to make it a little less orange, but I think it lost quite a bit when I tried to overcorrect it and give it a more neutral white balance. I'm starting to think it should be even more orange now.

Cereal Flasher!

Here's another late night photoshoot at my desk. Just bounced an off camera flash off a nearby orange wall. This obviously gives it a very warm look, but also a very soft look, because the wall is very close and it creates a large apparent light source. I also bounced a second flash at a lower power setting, a little further away, to fill in some shadows, as the inside of the bowl was completely in shadow—not that you really want to see the dried cereal inside the bowl anyway…

You light up my…Desk!

Got a new desk lamp yesterday. I like it, though it's not very bright. It's cool cause it uses a tiny fluorescent bulb using 7W, it casts the light of a 25W bulb. In a well lit room, it's hard to tell it's on. But it's good for reading, and the light is fairly well diffused, so there's not a lot of glare.

Night Ride

It's been rainy/drizzly all day today, so tonight, I took my off camera flash, à la strobist, and put it in a large, clear plastic bag. Then I aimed the camera at the big shiny red thing in the front yard (in the rain is pretty much the only time it's shiny). For the first shot, the flash was on the ground at the base of the tree, for the second, it was up in the tree, about 7ft up—which was about as high up as I could reach—resting on a branch.

I might put a few more from this shoot up on my flickr page. We'll see.

Rainy Day Jitters

Man, I've been so un-motivated to do anything! This shot reminds me of "night photography" where someone takes a longish exposure in the city at night without a tripod. I was messing with the bulb exposure setting and moving the camera around a bit—until I got too tired to hold the thing anymore.

Hasn't Thrown Two Shoes!

Here's a photo of my shoes, just as I left them after taking them off this evening. Van Gogh painted a whole series of boot/shoe paintings. I wrote a short paper on them. I'll have to see if I can dig it up and post some excerpts. I actually got a prett good grade on it, probably the best grade I got in that class.

The Show Must Come Down (Finally!)

The thesis show ended yesterday, and I took down my stuff today. It came down a lot faster than it went up. This has been a short month and a half. I'm glad it's over with. I feel like I haven't gotten much of anything done while it was up. I have gotten stuff done, but it just doesn't feel like much. This photo shows most of the computer equipment for my show. Not shown is the picture frame computer. See what all this looked like while the show was running.

There's a Chair Over There

This is the only photo I took today—I might have deleted one in camera, but I don't remember.

Crap

Here's my car, covered in (I think) caterpillar droppings. It's pretty gross, but I hate to clean it now, cause I figure it'll only get worse! Also I figured I'd post another photo too, I call this one grass on grass In the background, there's a giant dandelion sculpture made by a student here at UMASS D. I should have looked up the name. I consider this area a simple sort of liminal space. At this campus, a berm surrounds the inner campus area from the surrounding parking lots. Today, the grass had just been mowed, but not on the berms, creating further distinction/boundary. As a bonus, the giant dandelion ironically leans over from the freshly mowed side towards the un-mowed area.

Bug Light

A yellow jacket got into the house today and perched on the pullchain of the ceiling fan. Taking quick action, I grabbed the camera.

On the Knife's Edge

Here's another one I took just to take a photo. I went to the cape today and took my bag of camera gear, but left the camera at home. Oh well, still had fun. This is what remains of a loaf of blueberry bread. If this knife is still out tomorrow, there's at least one other way I'd like to try shooting it, just to see if I can get something better. As athlete has to stay in shape and get warmed up, it's probably not a bad idea to do the same thing as an artist.

Bzzzz

This one's a little late. I took it friday. It's a hovering bumblebee. Shot it looking slightly down from out a second floor window.

Braclet

Nothin spectacular, a bracelet sitting on my desk. Shooting with a fairly long lens seems to make the perspective a little weird. Maybe it's just me.

Spring Leaves

It was pretty warm today. Here's a photo of some fresh new leaves. I took some cool photos of my niece, but you guys are stuck with leaves.

For the Birds

I wasn't thrilled with any of the small handful of photos I took today. That happens. That's not to say there's nothing I like about them. They all have some good, positive qualities. If I made work, especially for this exercise, that I knew would be successful, then what would be the point in doing it? Some would argue that it's not really an artistic pursuit if you're not experimenting, and failing, almost constantly. Still have the long lens on the camera. Why bother adding to my present lovely bouquet of sensor dust? Since I've got the long lens, I thought I'd do a little nature photography—In the school parking lot of course. Here's a photo of a small bird. (a swallow?) No, I know it's not in focus, but that's the way it is. I'd rather it had been, but it lets me see the parking lot surface in a different way. Take a look, what do you think?

Post Modern Road Design

The Shared Space concept does away with traditional signs and barriers separating pedestrians from traffic and integrates them. It sounds counterintuitive, but it reduces accidents and seems to reduce congestion.

Fire in the Sky

Took a few interesting photos today on my way to my car from school. I was in too much of a hurry this morning to change out the long(ish) telephoto lens I had used the day before, but I ended up with a few pretty good images. Is this one of them? Maybe.

Copout

Should have just stayed in bed this morning, I would have gotten more accomplished. Just looked up and made a few exposures of the CFL in my ceiling. Yay. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually do something.

Life's a Beach

Went to Manomet Point in Plymouth on Sat. It's not so much a beach as it is a cliff. But the weather was pleasant, the visibility was very good. I could just make out Provencetown's Pilgrim Monument. There was a large vessel under tow, a good ways off. I took a few photos then turned my attention to some birds on the rocks nearby. Then I took a few more photos of the vessel and tug as they passed through my line of sight to the monument. Checking on Google Earth, Manomet Point looks like the closest point to Provencetown on the main land (not on the Cape)—roughly 20mi away. Looking at the photo I was surprised by how much land is to the left (north) of the monument. This is what drew me to consult with Google Earth, and come to find out, there's a pretty good amount of land to the WNW of the monument. For now…

Weee!!

I know, I know, mixed lighting. I didn't gel the flash. Oh well, what are ya gonna do. Maybe I'll have to put it out of its misery and convert it to grayscale. I've gotten lazy lately. Call it spring fever, call it whatever, but I don't feel like working on my school stuff. I'm pretty close to finishing, but I still have quite a bit of work to do and ever less time to do it. Just let me have one more day of semi-relaxing.

In Studio

Went up to the photo studio at school today with the intention of playing around with the studio strobes. When I got there I just didn't feel like setting everything up. So I grabbed the two fluorescents I'd earlier mounted onto light stands and pulled out my PW triggered speedlight flash. I shot a few photos of Laura, then adjusted the lights to try for a Jill Greenberg look and handed the camera off to Laura to take a few shots of me. Not exactly a home run, but I had fun and played with a few different, simple lighting setups.

Sock

It's getting late and I hadn't taken any suitable photos today. So I did a photoshoot of a sock on the floor of my room. Had a disappointing day in Boston. Went there to look at new media art, and found none. I know there's some in the area, I must have just looked in the wrong place.

Capoeira

Had a brief Capoeira demonstration during my Art of the African Diaspora class. Here's a photo of it.

Water Drop

I've tried this a few other times, but these are the best yet. Always room for improvement though. I think the flash I used has an approximate duration of as high as 1/30,000 sec. If that's true, and since I'm still getting some motion in the tiny droplets, this stuff must move extremely fast.