technical stuff

Getting Better All The Time

No Comments

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi (L) argues with home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman in the eighth inning of their American League East MLB baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, 06 June 2010.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

When a photo job doesn’t work out the way you wanted, who do you blame?

If you blame your tools then the solution is to get better tools.

If you blame your customers then the solution is to get better customers.

But if the blame rests on you then the solution is to get better.
Continue reading →

On Photography – 50 Years Later

1 Comment
If you don’t like what you see in front of your camera, you can often wait a few minutes and a better picture might come along. These two skyline pictures were shot less than 20 minutes apart. In those few minutes, the wind blew in the clouds and the automatic lights in many buildings turned on.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

It’s the 50th anniversary of the publication of US author Susan Sontag‘s essay Photography (link to PDF) which was later re-edited and renamed “In Plato’s Cave.” This renamed essay became the first of six essays in her book, “On Photography.” In Plato’s Cave is probably the most well known of the six essays.
Continue reading →

Washrooms and Photographers

1 Comment

A big, clean washroom in a sports stadium an hour before the public arrives. A baby changing table, like the one on the far left wall, can be useful to photographers.

This is something they definitely did not teach you in photography school. How do you go to the washroom when you’re doing event photography?
Continue reading →

Camera Bag Security

No Comments

A photographer friend recently had their camera gear stolen while shooting a corporate event at a hotel. They put their fully loaded camera bag down for just a couple minutes . . .

We all know to never leave our gear unattended when in public. But that’s often easier said than done.

I use a wheeled case as much as possible not only because it takes the weight off my shoulders but also because it’s easier to secure a wheeled case than an over-the-shoulder bag. A Pelican case or similar is best because there are no zippers and you can lock the lid. Zippers are relatively easy to poke open with a screwdriver, a fork or even a ballpoint pen. Some zippers are made more puncture-resistant than others.

I have several homemade, plastic-coated steel cables of various lengths and matching padlocks. These cables are used on location, in my car trunk and in hotel rooms.
Continue reading →

Sky High Photography

No Comments

Cameras have a changed a lot over the past hundred years. They got smaller and lighter, became more electronic, film gave way to digital sensors, and we now have flying cameras commonly called “drones.”

Aerial photography started at least as early as 1858 by Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (aka Nadar) who photographed from a hot air balloon in France. But most photographers didn’t have a hot air balloon handy so they had to find other ways to get a high camera angle:

Circa 1909. (US Library of Congress)

Continue reading →

Photo Gear Purchases 2021

No Comments

I’ve always wanted a panoramic tripod head to do real estate photography. A stitched panorama will have much less lens distortion than a single image shot with a very wide-angle lens.

High-quality panoramic heads are priced from about $400 to $900 and they have many features. But I only need to occasionally shoot a horizontal row of photos which can be stitched together.

Before buying an expensive panoramic head, I bought a 240mm nodal rail with a sliding camera mount for $35. There are shorter rails but a longer nodal rail can work with a wider range of lenses.

It turned out that this cheap, little attachment works perfectly for what I wanted to do. Did I mention it was cheap?

A $35 nodal rail purchased from Amazon. This 240mm rail is sold under a few different brand names and there are other nodal rails as low as $20. A nodal rail is easy to carry in a camera bag or even a coat pocket.

Continue reading →

css.php