Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 4

Not much to say about today’s photo—I was going for color and contrast. 

The only tricky thing about today’s photo was the fact that I got the idea as other dancers were “doing their thing” and so I set my camera to take five bracketed shots (-1EV to -6EV) since I was not sure that I knew how dark I wanted the image.  This shot is at -3EV.   

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 125mm, ISO 6400, f/4.8 at 1/500^th of a second on a tripod. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance, cropped image and adjusted the red in the image (saturation and luminance).

Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 3

 

A couple comments about my blog:  I have been hacked.  The last two posting have had lots of comments from a travel site.  I do not know how this happened but it did and to date I have not learned how it can be stopped. 

Next, I was asked if I used any noise reduction for the photo that was taken at ISO 6400.  No.  I did no noise reduction for the posting that I used.  If I were to print that photo, I would probably do a little noise reduction in Lightroom 4. 

Today’s photo to me is about lighting.  I like the way that the stage lighting was selectively on parts of the dancers.  To me, it did a great job showing of the power of the dancer. 

Enjoy 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 125mm, ISO 6400, f/4.8 at 1/125^th of a second on a tripod. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 2

 

It always amazes me the different perspective that people have on photographs.
When I was reviewing all the photos with Amy a few days after the recital, I noticed how she constantly commented on how this girl’s hands were in the wrong place, or her angle was not correct or her spacing was not what it should be. A mother of a girl in today’s photograph just noted how beautiful her daughter look—irrespective of the hands being in the wrong place, etc.

Me, I mainly notice the forms, the color and the contrast within the photo.  I believe that the ladies’ posture adds a dynamic element to the photo and red/black color scheme adds a great deal of contrast and visual impact.  Finally, each of the girls seems to have a different expression on the face that seems to suggest that they each had their own interpretation of what the dance represents.
What do you see when you look at this photograph?
Enjoy 
Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 125mm, ISO 6400, f/5.6 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 1

A few weeks ago, I photographed Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital that was held at San Jacinto Junior Collage.  I was more than blown away by both the quality of the dance and the theatre.

Let me put a plug-in for Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance.  Amy and her instructors are top notch people—the type of people that you want to teach your daughter. 

This was a true learning experience.  At the beginning of the performance, I had my camera set on aperture priority, ISO in auto adjusting mode and auto white balance.  I quickly learned that these setting would produce little more than bad photos.  I played around with the settings and finally settled on ISO 3200-6400, manual mode, f/4, 1/250^th of a second and white balance set to 3850.  These setting generally got me in the ballpark!  I did get too much blur on some of the dancer’s jumps, but that is one of the problems photographing fast moving subjects in low light.

A big problem photographing something like a dance recital is the changing light—both color and intensity.  It took me a while to make sure that I shot when the dancers entered various lighted areas.  This did limit some of the shots that I got, but it did improve my success rate.

Today’s photo is totally about the dancer’s movement.  Overall, there is very little blur—virtually none in her upper body, but some in her lower legs.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 135mm, ISO 5000, f/2.8 at 1/250^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

The Mighty EARTHQUAKES

For today’s post, I am not a photographer; I am a proud grandfather.

Chloe’s team, the Earthquakes, lost a heartbreak first game in the playoff.  They just did not play-up to their abilities.  Luckily the tournament was double-elimination.

They stormed back and won the remaining four games to win the consolation bracket.

Although I was impressed with the softball skills the girls showed in the final four games, I was more impressed with the determination anf focus.

Congratulations, Earthquakes!

Enjoy.

REAL Baseball

Cameron Julio Patrick who will be four in June is a baseball player.  He plays for the New York Yankees.  He is a very proud Yankee.  He wears his baseball hat constantly and on game days he is ready and standing at the door, ready to go at least 30 minutes before it is time to go.

His biggest disappointment so far this season:  he has not caught all the balls hit by the opposing team—even though he will chase down every ball.

Today’s photo is all about how a three/four year old T-ball game looks.  You will note that each player has his own personal coach standing beside him in the infield.  Also, some of the players take a slightly more relaxed stance than the major leaguers. 

As far as I am concerned, this is REAL BASEBALL!

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 200, f/13 at 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

Spring Break—No. 7

Before I leave my “Spring Break” photos, I thought I would show one more photograph of the Library of Congress. In this photograph, I wanted to show off the detail work in the marble staircase along with all the different lines formed by the staircase, pillars and ceiling.
If you go to Washington, D.C. make sure you put the Library of Congress on your “to see list.”
Enjoy 
Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 2000, f/11 at 1/15^th of a second with my camera supported by pillar in the lobby. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and used adjustment brush to increase exposure and decrease shadows on staircase.

Spring Break—No. 6

 

Before I get into today’s photo, I would like to address two questions that I had regarding my last post—is the Nikon 28-300 mm f/3.5~5.6 my favorite lens.  No.  I am not sure I have a favorite lens.  However, for travel, street photography and candid family shots, it is my lens of choice.  Why?  It is remarkable sharp (even thought the lens specs might suggest otherwise).  Next, it is extremely versatile which fits into travel, street photography and candid family shots very well.  On vacation I now travel with only two lenses—this one and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (for extreme low light shots).  I do not think I have ever used this lens for any of my professional work.  Even though I do not use it for my professional work, Jay Maisel and Scott Kelby do and I do not think you can argue with their abilities as photographers.

Most everyone has seen photographs of the Library of Congress, but almost all of those photographs are of the main reading room.  As a result, most people have never seen photographs of the main entrance—which is a shame since it is very impressive.

The building was opened in 1897 and cost about $6.5 million (no idea as to what that would be in 2013 dollars).  Today the library contains more that 145 million items that fill the equivalent of 745 miles of shelves—most impressive!  Today, the library acquires new holdings at rate of 10,000 items per day.  Not sure that there are 10,000 items a day that need to be acquired, but then I am sure that the Library of Congress believes that it must do its part to help spend $3.7 trillion each year.

I wanted this photoraph to be totally about the details of the main lobby. 

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 44mm, ISO 900, f/11 at 1/15^th of a second with my camera supported by pillar in the lobby.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 5

 

I believe that if you are a photographer and go to Washington, D.C., you must photograph a subway station.  I think the boys in D.C. did a good job designing the subway stations.  However, I do not like the subway system in D.C. because it is not  nearly as user-friendly as the New York or Paris systems.

Here, I wanted to show the station and put some movement into the shot so I used a shutter speed of ½ of a second.  I waited until a train was entering the station.  It is my understanding that you cannot use a tripod so I braced my elbows on my knees to help stabilize the camera.

I like the movement of the train, the details of the station and how the light plays on different parts of the station.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 44mm, ISO 1400, f/11 at 1/2 of a second with my camera supported on my knees.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 4

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is unlike any other museum in the world.  It contains probably the greatest collection of air and space vehicles in the world.  To me, there are two things that make it special:  (1) the range of air craft, from the beginning of man flight to outer space; and, (2) large planes hanging light models throughout the museum.

Today’s photos demonstrate the range of aircraft within the museum.  The Sprit of St. Louis that was the first airplane with a single pilot to go from New York to Paris.  As I was looking at the plane, I thought about JD’s and my trip to Paris last November—flight time 10 hours, large comfortable seats, movies (too many), decent movies and lots of wine!   Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight from New York to Paris—31 hours, cramped seats, no restroom, cold sandwiches, no movies and NO wine!

Within 30 feet of the Spirit of St. Louis is one of NASA’s experimental jet that travels at about 2.5 times the speed of sound.  This plane would have allowed Lindberg to make the flight in about two hours.  I could do without the movies, food and even the wine for two hours!

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 at 1/30^th of a second with my camera supported by the railing.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and cropped the second photo.

Spring Break—No. 3

The Smithsonian includes eleven museums on the Mall and another six off the Mall.  It is probably the greatest collections of museums in the world.  And, they are all free admission.

My two favorite museums are:  the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum.  But, I must admit, the American History Museum and the American Indian Museum are also high on my list.

When Monte and I took our “guys-only” trip to Washington, D.C., we visited the National Museum of Natural History every day.  It was Monte’s favorite museum.  At the time, I was also in complete amazement of what was within its walls.  Today, I am not nearly as amazed.  Why?  Because of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which is not as large, but presents its paleontology and gems & minerals so much better than the Smithsonian presents it.  For anyone who has not been to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, I encourage you to go, especially to the Hall of Paleontology.

Today, photo is of the museums rotunda.  I wanted to capture the size, the general architecture and the crowds within the museum.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1000, f/8 at two 1/30^th with my camera supported by the railing.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and used lens correction and cropping to minimize distortion in second photo.

Spring Break—No. 2

Our hotel was a block east and two blocks south of the east side of the capitol.  So, each morning we passed the capitol on our way to other sites on the Mall.

I took this photo on one of those mornings.  The photo is of the east side of the capitol (which, although it faces away from the Mall, is the front of the capitol).  I wanted the photo to show the Capitol’s classical lines.  Some people will be bothered by the distortion of the building—especially the left side.  The distortion does bother me some but not enough to purchase a tilt-shift lens and then learn how to use it.  I think the tools in Lightroom 4 allow you to correction the distortion sufficient for my purposes.  I used these tools (plus cropping) in the second photo to minimize the effect.

Distort or not distort?  Which do you prefer?

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 32mm, ISO 100, f/11 at two 1/180^th.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and used lens correction and cropping to minimize distortion in second photo.

Spring Break—No. 1

Can you guess where the Patricks went on spring break?

Many moons ago, I took Monte (my son, age 7) to Washington D.C.  It was a total “guy trip.”  We had a blast.  We were on the go from sunrise to well past sunset.  We tried to do everything.

I thought that JD and I would do the same with our grandchildren.  A little inside info, a 60+ body just does not have the energy that a 25+ body has.  Yet, a 10- body has the same.  The three little ones wore grandma and me out—and that was despite having Monte and Ana with us!  But, despite being completely exhausted every night and doing virtually nothing for three days after we returned, we loved our trip.  I do not believe there is a greater pleasure in the world than watching your grandchildren have fun learning about the United States of America, the greatest country in the world.

My photographs from the trip were mostly “family” shots, so they will not be shown.  My shots of D.C. are mostly grab shots—I did not go out to take any shots on my own.

I think everyone will recognize today’s photo of the capitol.  The photo was taken from a slightly different location than most photographs of the capitol are taken.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 42mm, ISO 800, f/11 at two 1/250^th.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and cropped image.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 10

I got the idea to turn the side of a building during the day into a dark night club with a singer performing in it.

Emili did a great job acting like a singer.  Unfortunately, I did not have a microphone, so I asked Emili to act-like she was holding one and singing into it. 

The lighting was straight forward—three Nikon SB 800 in SU 4 mode and gelled acting as stage lights and Elincrhom Quadra to light Emili.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/16 at two 1/30^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out the light stands of the Nikon SB 800s in behind Emili and added the microphone in her hand.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 9

Today’s photo is another one demonstrating repeating flash.

In my last post, I showed a photo of the how the master and remote flash was set however I did not explain the various settings.  Everything is controlled on the master flash.  On the master, I set Group A to RPT (repeating), Channel 3, the power setting at 1/8^th, number of flashes 8 and the Hz (the number of flashes per second) at 8.  I then set the remote flash to be on Channel 3 and in Group A.

In today’s photo, I had a dancer moving across the stage with three remote flashes hanging from a rod above the dancer’s path.  Again, the hard part of the photo was timing and making sure that the camera did not pick-up too much of the light build-up on the floor.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/8 at two seconds on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out some of the light build-up on the floor.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 6

I have been fascinated by stroboscopic or repeating flash ever since I saw Joe McNally demonstrate it on video.  You can see the video here.

Overall, sitting-up the flash is relatively easy.  In today’s photo, I used a Nikon SB 800 as the master and two SB 800s as the flashes that provided the light for the photo.

In doing this shot, I soon discovered that the difficult part of getting the shot was timing.  Trying to get the number of flashes over a specific time element was extremely difficult and required many tries before I got what I wanted.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/8 at one second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out a hand in the top left and one in the top right to make the photo more symmetric and cloned-out some places in the photo that showed some light build-up.

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out a hand in the top left and one in the top right to make the photo more symmetric and cloned-out some places in the photo that showed some light build-up.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 5

Last week, I ripped-off Joe McNally, so I thought it would only be fitting that I rip-off a lady this week.   It’s your turn, Lindsay Adler.  Lindsay is a very talented fashion photographer who does some outstanding how-to photography videos.  She recently took place in the GPP Shootout with John Keatley and Zack Arias.  You can watch a video of the shootout here.

Lindsay’s idea is to create flare by placing a plastic decoration very close to your lens and shoot through it.  You must set your lens to a relatively wide opening such as f/2.8 or wider.  This technique can produce some spectacular results, however, it is a hit-and-miss proposition because you are never really sure what you are going to get.

In this photo, I placed half of a clear Christmas ball in front of my lens.  I had a Nikon SB 800 behind and slightly to the side of Emili and an Elinchrom Quadra in front of her.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/2.8 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod with a Nikon SB 800 behind her and an Elinchrom Quadra in front of her.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Portrait preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 4

 

I must admit two things right from the start:  (1) this is a rip-off of a Joe McNally idea; and, (2) Joe did it better.  You can see Joe’s photo on page 234 of his book “The Hot Shoe Diaries.”  Joe, if you read this, I hope that by me giving you credit for the idea and promotion of your book is sufficient payment for me ripping off your idea.

Why is Joe’s better?  First, he picked a better time of day (night) and a better location to shoot the photo.  Both added to creating a real “Greepy-Guy-in-the-Alley Shot.”  The lighting of Joe’s heron was to make her look “normal” while I wanted to tie the two elements of the shot together—heron and ax murder—by the introduction of a Steve King novel and eerie green light coming from the novel.

My photograph was taken at about 3:30 PM (before we went to day-light-saving time) so there was a lot of ambient light even in the shade of the building.  The ambient light reduced the greepy effect of the shadow.  It also reduced the effect of the light coming from the book.

I also made a mistake of where I placed my camera.  I purposely selected a Steven King book that had a scary cover, but then, I placed my camera on the side that would not show the scary cover.  Very rookie mistake.

Final score:  Joe 10, Larry 5.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 44mm, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod with a Nikon SB 800 with a green gel in Emili’s book and an Elinchrom Quadra with a green gel at 5.4 power setting and pointed at Ax Murder to create shadow on wall.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, added vibrance and clarity and adjusted white balance.