2009 Seattle Solstice Parade and 50mm in 50 Days

I am notorious for taking long breaks between blog posts (and Tweeting for that matter). This has more to do with the amount of time I'm spending away from the computer rather than what I'm actually working on. Case in point: I currently have ~10 Lightroom galleries in my "to be processed" workflow queue. I'm religious about uploading, archiving, and backing up my shots, just not so much when it comes to actually developing them. :)

But a few things recently have kicked me back into Lightroom gear:

1. I'm back from a lengthy family vacation that included driving up and down the West Coast: Oregon, Napa Valley, Pebble Beach, Sonoma, more Oregon, etc.
2. During that trip I was shooting for the relatively new 50mm in 50 Days contest over at Flickr. My goal is to post one picture/day to that group and the road trip provided me ample shooting inspiration.
3. I just started my year-long University of Washington Photography program; more on that later as I settle into that process.

So I'm going way back to my galleries from June and starting with the 2009 Seattle Solstice Parade, posted here (CAUTION: There are some nudes in this gallery). I shot the entire parade from the sidelines with my 50mm and wasn't as happy with the results from the fixed focal length. I did end up with some excellent shots, just not as many as from the 2008 parade. I'm chalking this up to getting used to fixed composition, which I've become much more comfortable with since buying this lens earlier this year. I also would have liked to have shot the parade from within, one of my goals for next year (using the same 50mm).

Now time to grab a cup of coffee and keep churning through the developing. :)

Seattle Skyline and Fireworks

Let’s just get this part out of the way: I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. You’d be hard-pressed to come up with a list of international cities that even come close to our spectacular terrain and vistas.

Photographing my surrounding is a common theme when I’m out and about, and as you may expect I have a tremendous number of pictures in and around Seattle (and Bellingham as well). Although I only sell ones that stand out for some reason or another, the Seattle keyword in Lightroom is second only to my dog for pure volume of pictures.

For the second year in a row I shot the Fourth of July fireworks over Gasworks park from a very nice location just north of the park, from a height and distance that gives an excellent perspective of the fireworks, city, and boats that line up to watch the show (and line up to leave after the usually short display).

The entire 2009 fireworks gallery is posted here, but my favorite picture from the set is the last one I took: a view of Seattle as the firework smoke was dissipating and local revelers were shooting of their own smaller fireworks. I've posted that picture in a new gallery I've created featuring some of my favorite shots. As you can imagine I expect this gallery to grow rapidly. :)

Seattle: What an amazing city, rain and all.

Seattle at Night: Nikon D90, 50mm f/1.4, 10s at f/8 ISO 200

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Public Markets: Seattle and Portland Market Representatives

I recently posted a series one the site on one of my favorite themes, Public Markets. In particular the people who work at public markets. I’ve recently shot two very large, city-wide markets: Pike Place Market in Seattle and the Saturday Market in Portland. Pike Market pictures are a dime a dozen (for good reason) but this series focuses on the people of the market, the employees that make the market what it is and the people that visit them.

The characters that work in the public markets vary depending on location and the point of the market. The people who work at these larger markets are almost extensions of the local tourism boards. While most markets in the Seattle area are truly local (and typically organic) vendors from farms and shops around the area, Pike and Portland’s Saturday market are slightly different: they represent an entire city -- an example of community that spans the entire city. When people come visit Seattle they say they want to go to “The Market” but we know they mean Pike. 

When I go to Portland I always head straight for Pearl Bakery, and if it’s a Saturday I head to the market to see them there along with Pinestate Biscuits. On those market Saturdays I always see the same people, and they’re what I’ve come to associate with Portland, even more than the beer.

 

Technorati Tags: sealed glass photo,photography,portland,seattle,portland saturday market,saturday market,pike place,pike place market,farmers markets,people

My Favorite Picture? Easy: Maui

A friend asked me the other day: “What’s your favorite picture you’ve taken?” My immediate response, without even thinking about it, was “Maui.” I hadn’t really thought about it in those terms before and my immediate response was even a surprise to me.

I’m sure every pro photographer has their favorites, but this question got me thinking. I was honestly surprised that my answer wasn’t a family picture, maybe one of the dog or his Mom. I have quite a few of those that I think of routinely or are displayed around the house and those are definitely way up there. And my response wasn’t a picture that’s technically one of my best and took a lot of planning and work to achieve, and turned out exactly or better than expected.

There are so many pictures I’ve taken over the years that are great pictures, and so many I’ve taken that have personal significance, but only a few of those overlap. My trip to Maui at the end of 2007 did overlap for many reasons, and the pictures that I shot on that trip are still my favorites of anything I’ve ever shot. The two favorites – a remote beach looking towards Lanai and sunset over Molokini – are the ones that immediately stand out. That evening after the conversation about favorites, while going to sleep, I realized that these two pictures are also the two pictures that I see every night before going to sleep; they’re mounted in my bedroom.

Maybe I chose these two pictures for my bedroom because of their significance, of how they calm me as pictures and as memories; and maybe these are the first two that I responded with simply because they’re the last thing I see every night and the first thing I see in the morning. Either way, these two pictures will remain my favorites for as long as I can imagine because they mean so much more to me than just great pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: photography,photog,sealed glass photo,hawaii,maui,lanai,molokini

Hiking with Gear: Backcountry Packing Field Test

This past weekend I went out for a 2-night backpacking trip along Ingalls Creek near Leavenworth, WA. The goal of this trip was to find out what photo gear I could comfortably pack in and out for ~15 miles (round trip) of hiking and how to safely get it in and out. I spent the first part of summer testing packs for both my camping gear as well as the camera, and my first tests didn’t go as well as planned; you can read about that on my posts at Dgrin.

Ultimately I took the following setup out to Ingalls:

• Gregory Palisade 80 pack: Used for the standard camping requirements (tent, sleeping bag, pad, stove, food, water, etc). It weighed about 30lbs when full.
• Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home camera bag: It was packed with my D90, 16-85mm zoom, 50mm, extra battery, filters, GP-1 GPS, and rain bag. I was originally planning on taking my battery pack for stability of shooting slow shutter speeds without a tripod, but that turned out to be too much for the Crumpler $5M (thankfully). The Crumpler was 7lbs when packed.

I packed my Gregory and Crumpler packs separately and then strapped the Crumpler on the outside of the Gregory through the lid straps before heading out on the trail (the Crumpler has perfectly placed side cloth loops to mount it to another bag, props to them).

This system worked extremely well with a few gotchas:

• The Crumpler $5M isn’t quite large enough for everything I was bringing in. I had to take extra steps to make sure the GP-1 didn’t fall into the water when I was getting into the bag because everything was so tight. I lost a lens hood to the river gods while shooting in the river for that same reason; thankfully it wasn’t anything more. With this much gear I should have had the $7M Home bag or something larger, however…
• I only used the 50mm for a few shots and most of those were borderline macro shots. I brought it thinking I would shoot fast in low light, or to get those great candid “sitting around the fire” shots at night, neither of which actually happened. I would prefer to bring in the wide zoom and maybe a fisheye next time, but the zoom would be enough if necessary for weight and size in the $5M.
• The Crumpler was great for day hikes once I was able to drop the pack at the campsite. While hiking in and out and it was strapped to my pack it wasn’t accessible for quick shots, though.
• On the way out we went through some major rain so I had to cover the Crumpler with my parka to keep it dry, but that worked like a champ.

I wouldn’t use the Crumpler for non-backpacking day hike because it doesn’t have a good carrying system, just a shoulder strap. For day hikes I’ll stick to my Lowepro Slingshot 200. But for an overnight shooting trip, the above setup worked like a champ.

The pictures from this trip are currently third in line for processing (behind the Seattle Solstice Parade and July 4th Fireworks), but I came back with some excellent shots. I hope to have them up on the site within a week or two. But until then:

Milk Thistle: Nikon D90, 50mm f/1.4, 1/60 at f/1.8 ISO 160, lit from left with red light (portable headlamp)

Technorati Tags: photography,photog,hiking,backpacking,nikon,digital photography,flowers,camping,crumpler,gregory,sealed glass photo

Dog Candids: Canine Portrait Shots

Although it’s not my primary focus in photography I do spend a good bit of time photographing dogs. The obvious reason is that I have one – one that literally falls into the Man’s Best Friend category – and he’s my go-to test subject. Get a new lens, trying a new technique, setting up a small studio shoot in the house, he’s always around. In fact he’s gotten so used to the camera that he now poses, I kid you not.

But over the past year while doing non-profit photo work for Brigadoon, a dog assistance training school, I’ve realized that my dog isn’t the only one that likes to pose. Once you have a personal connection with a dog, they all like to pose. And more specifically, they all like to pose for personality portraits: shots where the look into the camera and show emotion. If you’ve got a dog you know there’s a lot going on behind those eyes and they’re not afraid to show it. At first I thought it was just my dog responding to his owner’s obsession with the camera, but I soon learned that once you connect with a dog, they all want to pose. Who knew they had it in them? :) And now I get requests to shoot dog portraits from all my friends, and almost all BBQ’s with dogs now include a series of impromptu portraits of people and their dogs.

I’m a dog person at heart, so connecting with them is second nature to me. Giving them respect and understanding how to relate to them is paramount. Once that’s done and they know where they stand and where you stand (figuratively and literally) they’ll open right up.

I’ve compiled a gallery of my favorite dog candids at Sealed Glass Photo, both portraits as well as the more traditional dog shots. While you’re enjoying them, remember that all proceeds from the Brigadoon galleries go to support that excellent organization.

Nikon GP-1 GPS Unit Field Test: Success!

I’ve always been extremely interested in all things mapping and GPS related and I’ve spent more time than I probably should have playing with geotagging my photos. The primary problem I’ve run into is with workflow: finding a good way to add GPS location to pictures and then using tools, like Google Maps via my Sealed Glass Photo galleries, to display shoot locations.

Last year I purchased a very nice backcountry GPS, a Garmin Colorado 400t, intending to use that as both a functioning GPS as well as a location tracking tool to sync up with pictures from the shoot back in the studio. As a GPS, this thing rocks; I highly recommend it as a hiking tool. As a geotagging tool, though, unfortunately not so much. The workflow involved in properly syncing tracking data from the Colorado to pictures was too laborious and unreliable. Even with making sure the clocks were in sync, shooting the time stamp on the GPS before and after the shoot, matching tracking points on the GPS to pictures proved to be too unreliable.

So I decided to splurge on Nikon’s GP-1, a tiny GPS device that mounts on the hot shoe or the strap and encodes GPS data directly into the picture when it’s taken. I set out on a hike with decent canopy coverage and an open lake to test the GP-1. Overall it worked really well, as long as I had a clear view of the sky. Here’s a quick rundown of the good and the not so good:

Good:

• Extremely convenient and portable: sits on the hot shoe or clips onto the strap and connects to the camera body by a short flexible cable.
• Records GPS data in real time for each picture, and that data can be verified while shooting by clicking up on the playback viewscreen (one click past the histogram on the D90).
• When it has a clear view of the sky it’s relatively reliable.
• Easy to read status via a status light on the GP-1 and via the body display.

Not so good:

• Any canopy coverage seems to render the GP-1 virtually unusable. Same for shooting indoors. It’s not WAAS enabled so its sensitivity isn’t as good as the Colorado.
• There’s a lag when shooting in bursts (no shots for a minute or so and then a series of shots). The first few shots in a series didn’t include GPS data but later shots in the same series did. This isn’t a huge issue since GPS data can be copied from one shot to the next in post but it does impact my workflow.
• Battery drain can be an issue. I shoot with an MB-D80 battery pack and two batteries and had no problems over a 3-hour shoot in the field, even with the GP-1 spending a good bit of time trying to re-sync, but your mileage may vary.

Overall I’d definitely give the GP-1 a thumbs up recommendation. At ~$200 (Amazon) it’s a bit expensive for casual usage but if you’re an outdoor photographer (or even an enthusiastic travel snapshot shooter) it’s definitely worth the money even with the minor drawbacks. The amount of time I’ve already saved in my post-processing workflow has well paid for the GP-1.

Technorati Tags: photography,nikon,d90,gps,gp-1,garmin,outdoor photography,nature photography,travel photography

Pinball: My Kind of Sport Shooting

Some people shoot professional sporting events, some shoot fans, some shoot local little league teams. Me, I shoot pinball. Well I don’t do it on a regular basis simply because there’s not that much going on with pinball these days, or as luck would have it there’s a convention in Seattle when I’m out of town. Such was the case on the weekend of June 13th, 2009 when the NW Pinball Show had a full weekend of pinball and arcade action at Seattle Center – I was in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest shooting Heather Lake (snow in June!). Expect those pictures soon.

Until then, let’s revisit one of my favorite photo shoots: the Pinball Hall of Fame (aka the Pinball Museum) in Las Vegas, NV. I try to visit at least once every time I’m in Vegas and last year I set up late one evening for a shoot around the pins. The result turned out really well. This was one of my favorite technical shoots because I was using nothing but natural light from the pins: no overhead lighting, definitely no flash, and a lot of movement. To make matters more interesting I was shooting with a relatively slow lens for that environment, f3.5-5.6 (brought the zoom because I didn’t know how close I could get to the playfields). There was a lot of tweaking the ISO and shutter speed to capture a nice mix of lights, playfield action, and play speed. I’m extremely happy with the result and it’s one of my favorite galleries. Check it out on the Sealed Glass Photo site and let me know what you think.

I’ve been tempted to go back and re-shoot with my 50mm f1.4 but I don’t know that I could capture the dark, slightly grainy feeling with a faster lens. Sometimes working with what we have produces a result that just nails the mood.

 

Technorati Tags: pinball,arcade,sealed glass photo,photography,natural light

New Site, New Location, New Focus

It’s been a while -- and yes, I realize that I start a lot of posts with “It’s been a while…” The reason for this delay is legit, I promise.

Last year was great for Sealed Glass Photo. First and foremost it was officially launched. Second, it was nurtured in the great city of Bellingham, WA, for a full year. Bellingham was an excellent environment to get the business up off the ground and give it legs. So for SGP, last year was a busy and productive year.

This year (so far) has involved moving the business back to Seattle and hunkering down on growing the business. Weeks were spent on designing the new site, the field gear was all replaced (finally upgraded to Nikon body and lenses, some of which have been on the procurement list for years), business cards were designed (courtesy of Moo), and contacts were made. Thus is the life of a small business owner, especially when that business doesn’t yet pay the bills. But so far this year has been right in line with my plans for SGP, and I’m extremely happy with the progress I’ve made.

And on that note, the new Sealed Glass Photo website is officially launched! So head on over and check out all the work that’s gone into the site (and feedback is always appreciated).

Now that the back-end stuff is done, time to head out and start adding content. Expect additions in the near future from Brigadoon Assistance Dogs, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Netarts, OR, and the Portland Saturday Farmer’s Market. Oh yes, I’ve been shooting on a normal schedule while working on the infrastructure, just been waiting to display and sell the new shots until everything else was in place.

Hope to see you on the site or out and about.

Technorati Tags: photography,nature photography,travel photography,sealed glass photo,nikon,bellingham,seattle,portland