A new site has recently appeared on the web: Alltop. The site is being promoted as ‘an online magazine rack’ of popular topics. There are many forums, covering a broad range of subjects, but the one of interest to readers of this blog will be All the Top Photography News. Links to some of the coolest photographically-oriented sites on the web appear there, including already popular sites such as dpreview.com, Luminous Landscape, Nikonians, Strobists; the sites of individuals such as Galbraith, Kelby, McNally, etc., as well the compelling sites of some lesser-known photographers and bloggers – they even found room for Mostly On Matters of Photography (<cntl>f, search for ‘Mostly’). Pretty egalitarian.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Mar
23
2009
Liberated!
As a break from the recent, relatively intense, technical discussions, I thought I’d liberate a few images from the photon-dungeon. The shot below, of Mt. Hood in Oregon (obviously, obviously) was recorded on July 23, 2008 at 12:00 PST, using the D300 and AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED at 24mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/250s, ISO 200.
The shot was made hand-held while crossing this snowfield on the trail from Timberline Lodge westward towards Paradise Park. And yeah, some of those boulders are large – the one at right front was about 5 ft in diameter. These boulders get dislodged during the melt and can get deposited in an unstable resting place – notice that the rocks are resting on *top* of the snow. One is advised to keep 0.5 of an eye on the them whilst passing their downhill side.
There was an unusual amount of snow at Mt. Hood – a lot more than normal. The High Priestess and I had to travel first on snow, and then, when that became impractical, we had to ascend above the timberline and travel cross-country on the sandy soil above the timberline.
The image above, of a bed of arnica and a weathered old branch, was recorded at about 13:30 PST using the Nikon D300 and the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR at 45mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/200s, ISO 200. Hand-held.
The image above, of a small meadow, was recorded at 14:00 PST using the Nikon D300 and the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR at 26mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/160s, ISO 200. The shot was made hand-held, ’cause I didn’t think I would be able to do much with the image given the time of day.
Mar
19
2009
A Discursive Wonder
I learned a new word yesterday: Discursive. A great one, it kindalike suggests the act of moving from one subject to other subjects in what seems like a random pattern. Sound like anyone you know? Anyway, anyone who has followed modern photography has heard of Joe McNally. A proven and inspired shooter, McNally has recently become one of our most knowledgeable and entertaining teachers. His new book, The Hot Shoe Diaries, confirms the importance of his role as sensei of portable lighting. McNally’s lighting kit; containing about a dozen Speedlights, is laid out on pages 6 and 7 of the book – right up front – confirming that this is a technically oriented piece on practical lighting using small hand held flashes. In his signature self-deprecating way, McNally points out that his book is not a manual, and instead *discursive* is the word he uses to define his approach. High energy, boundless enthusiasm, indulging instanteous inspiration: check, check, and check – it’s all in there – but a textbook? – not so much. Rather, McNally shares a series of vignettes; which are here brief, technical accounts of a particular lighting challenge, each one adding either a unique new perspective or reinforcing an earlier lesson. Although the book is structured around the use of the Nikon Creative Lighting System, the vast majority of the lessons are completely general, and will be of central interest to anyone interested in learning how to use artificial light in the real world. Highly recommended.
