Soapbox Steve

Avoid those fun little photo contests

2011-04-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

I was going over my Twitter feeds today, and I noticed a familiar post from PennLive (they operate several newspapers across Pennsylvania). It said, "Enter your macro shots into our community photo contest."

Sound like fun?

A while back, when I was but a neophyte in the photographic world, I was interested in putting my work "out there" for fun. I didn't understand the conecpt of intellectual property, copyright infringement, and value for work done. It took a while, but I started to learn and understand how things are done from a legal standpoint. I wondered about the license terms for "contests" like the one that PennLive runs, and I asked them about it, and they pointed me to their User Agreement.

Buried deep down in that User Agreement, you'll find the following:

"Except as expressly provided otherwise in the Privacy Policy or in this Agreement, you agree that by posting messages, uploading text, graphics, photographs, images, video or audio files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication (including your identity and information about you) in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter developed) and for any purpose, including
commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so."

Seems pretty harmless, doesn't it? It's not.

Sure, I understand when a publication wants to protect itself when people send them content. They can't control what happens to photos after they publish them, and they don't want to be caught in the middle of a copyright dispute. So rather than get specific about the subject, they just throw a "we can do whatever we want" clause in there. Unfortunately, such protection often turns into a shameless rights grab, and this is exactly the case here. This statement above allows PennLive to use your works however and whenever they feel like it. No restrictions. No time limit. No remuneration to you.

They can build a nifty little stock photo collection. At some later date, when a story comes around that needs a little extra photographic illustration, they can pull YOUR WORK from that stock. For free. They don't have to hire a photographer, they don't have to pay a microstock company. They don't have to give you a cent. Since you gave them the rights in the "contest," what was yours is now theirs.

If a client wants to place an ad on PennLive, and one of your photos helps sell the product, PennLive can use it and not pay you a dime for your work. What was yours is now theirs.

They can also modify your work however they see fit. Distort it. Change it. If you don't like what they did with your photo...too bad. Tough. What was yours is now theirs, and you willingly gave it up.

Oh...and while they are publishing your photos, they can also use this clause to allow them to send out (hey...and sell!) information about you. That's your identity. For any purpose. Forever. And they can legally authorize others to use your information as well.

Still sound like fun?

Of course, they could modity this agreement. It could just be restricted to the "photo contest" and for things related to it. Basically a small change in the wording would protect both the submitter (you) and PennLive. But then again, it would restrict them from being able to use all of your stuff for free. So don't hold your breath.

Regarding Photographer Competition

2010-06-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

Lately I've seen a lot of whining from professional photographers regarding the state of their business. The "uncle with a camera" factor is causing a lot of stress. The market is shifting, and some of these (admittedly talented) people are failing to understand what they are seeing.

Anyway, Seth Godin posted a little parable that hits this issue square on the head.

The Sugar Cane Machine

Ebay Feedback

2010-02-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

The feedback system on ebay is broken. Buyers and sellers are forced, almost by default, to gush about their transactions, even if they are less than thoroughly pleased.

Okay...first, the back story. A couple of years ago, I was shopping for optical triggers for my off-camera photo flash work. I came across this guy's offering, which was a hotshoe-mounted trigger with a 90-degree swivel built into it. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and it was relatively inexpensive, so I bought two.

After a couple of uses, I noticed that while the triggers worked okay, my heavier Canon flashes were causing a lot of stress on the swivel joint of the trigger, and I worried about their longevity. I figured that other potential users needed to know that it might not be good for heavier flash units, so when it came time to leave feedback, I wrote, "Arrived quickly, but is not great. Swivel doesn't support flash units very well." I gave it a neutral rating, because I felt that if the product wasn't up to par, I shouldn't give it a thumbs up.

The seller's response - along with a neutral rating for me - was "They work fine for everyone else."

Why would he give me a neutral rating? Retaliation because I had the gall to give him less than a glowing review? It wasn't negative, just an attempt to inform other potential buyers.

I figured, "Okay...whatever. Move on with life."

Fast forward two years, to last night.

I found a small item (a diffusion sock for a beauty dish) for sale, and I didn't realize that it was being sold by the very same vendor who I apparently dishonored way back when. When I went to buy it (using the "buy it now" option), I was greeted with a message saying that I was blocked by the seller. I fired off a private message to him, asking why I was blocked. His response: "you gave me neutral feedback."

Seriously? Over two years ago? After I complained, he told me that he would remove the block. If it weren't for the fact that he was the only person selling this item (or at least at this price), I would have told him to go pound sand. But he removed the block, and everything went down as expected. But it gave me some insight into how poorly the Ebay feedback system is designed.

When you make a purchase, and you leave feedback, you are faced with three options: positive, neutral, or negative. I can certainly understand why a vendor would not want negative feedback. It hurts future business. And maybe neutral feedback is almost as bad. If I was a seller, I would want to resolve problems causing such feedback, so that it can be removed. But the system is set up to discourage buyers from leaving anything but glowing, raving positives...which leaves my questioning the validity of any of the feedback I see on Ebay.

Iran reveals some of its rocket technology

2010-02-04T16:43:00.001-08:00

This kind of gives me the chills.

If someone at NASA were to kiss a bible, and all of Congress were to recite the Lord's Prayer after unveiling this kind of technology, I can't help but think that there would be a major uproar.

Saving industries: can it be done?

2010-02-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

Seth Godin has a nice take on the changing paradigms of the print/news industry. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to apply his thinking to other businesses, such as photography.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/who-will-save-us.html

Gotta love spam designers

2009-12-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

Comcast, in it's altruistic glory, just reminded me via a semi-spammish e-mail that I can download a copy of the McAfee anti-virus product for free. The graphic that they used for the e-mail? A photo of a dog, hovering over a MacBook Pro.

I'm wondering if I should remind them that, one, they don't offer the McAfee product for Macs, and two, the MBP running the Apple OS doesn't require said product (unless, of course, the MBP is running a Windoze OS).

This isn't the first time I've noticed the MBP used in an ad to represent the "typical" notebook computer. It's a neat, sexy product, and I don't blame the ad agency designers for using it. But maybe they should have even a little bit of tech savvy, and not make such an obvious goof.

Refining My Photographic Direction

2009-11-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

In an effort to enrich my photographic experience, I signed up for a weekend-long "workshop" put on by one of the local Model Mayhem cronies. I've attended a few other events put on by this guy, and having very little being taught or discussed with regard to technique, they hardly qualified as workshops. But while they haven't been exactly geared toward my needs, I've always been able to cull something useful from the experience.

That all changed this weekend. Or so I thought.

The event took place at a local bed and breakfast, and it drew photographers and models from quite a distance. My idea was to get some nice shots of models (either male or female) in natural situations inside the B&B. Something soft and cozy that might be attractive to show a potential client.

When I arrived on Friday evening, I set up in one room, hoping to get a casual bedroom type of look. I wanted to try some specific looks with some new lighting techniques...but I couldn't find an available model for quite some time. After hanging around with some of the other photographers, it was apparent that my casual shoot wasn't going to happen. My vision simply didn't fit with what the rest of the attendees were looking to accomplish. Frankly, some of the work being done there almost reminded me of a low budget soft core porn shoot. The models put on the sleaziest outfits they had, caked on lots of makeup, and then the photographers proudly placed them in provocative positions in various locations around B&B. Beds? Yep. Bars? Sure. Pool table? Naturally.

To let you know, I'm definitely no prude, and I don't hold it against the attendees for doing what they like to do. I guess I just misunderstood what the weekend was about, and I should have realized that my aspirations don't match up with the folks who normally attend such functions. This activity just wasn't for me. I guess I could have flagged down a model and asked her to take off all the makeup and put on something cozy for a more traditional portrait session...but I didn't. It was clear that the interest level here was in having sexy looking models in unconventional situations, not natural looking everyday beautiful people.

In frustration, I packed up my gear, and drove home.

The next day, I struggled to think about how I could get something useful out of the event. I decided that I should return to take a photojournalistic approach, and walk around the B&B taking candid shots of the other attendees. I didn't take many shots, though, before I once again started feeling like I wasn't fitting in. So like the previous evening, I packed up and left.

I meditated on the whole experience for a while. I was angry that I paid for a "workshop," and came away from it with nothing. No images, no experience.

But then I realized something else. This was an "a-ha!" moment for me. I'm not a glamour photographer. I don't want to shoot nudes, and I don't get much value out of photographing half naked models in bizarre situations. Rather, I get much more satisfaction from creating artful images with normal, every day subjects. I'd rather follow in the footsteps of Henri Cartier-Bresson than Richard Fegley. In that light, I've refined my goals.

So the event helped me realize who I am, and who I want to be. What ended up seeming like a wasted experience actually served to help me define myself. And I culled something out of the weekend by walking away. Twice.

Random, Passing Thoughts

2009-11-13T11:22:00.001-08:00

Style

What's with people tilting so many of their photos? Tilting can be a powerful technique to get a specific feel to an image. But it's getting to be way too common, and it's become trite. It needs to stop. Ditto to that low-contrast, washed-out, baby-shit yellow tinge. And don't even get me started on sepia.

Color

I've been looking through the sRGB versus AdobeRGB versus Profoto RGB debate, and it's rather amusing. I shoot in RAW, process in 16 bit sRGB, and send to my printing vendors in sRGB. Never had a problem. I suppose there is a moral stance to take in favor of the more robust color spaces, but seriously...the difference is only noticeable to somebody who cares about esoteric detail, and only then in a side-by-side comparison. Unless something gets screwed up along the workflow, I don't think anybody can tell me, with any degree of certainty, that an image went through any particular colorspace on its way to the final result.

Help

I've volunteered to help with a community service project this weekend. It will be a Military Family Appreciation Day thing, where a bunch of photographers visit a local base and provide portraits to military service people - and their families - at no cost.

I've never done anything like this before, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Decision

My day job sucks, and I no longer want it to be my day job. I'll keep at it, though, because it pays the bills (and feeds the family). But in the meantime, I'll be working on building opportunities and preparing for the day when I have to make a move. It's a difficult thing, especially after being here for more than 20 years...but it needs to be done. The problem is, the more I think about making the move, the sooner I want it to happen. I need to speed up the preparations.

Time for a little curmudgeonly vent

2009-10-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

On my flickr account, I recently posted a photo that I'm quite happy with. The shot was taken back stage at the Strand-Capitol Theater in York, PA. The rigging area, combined with the dark moodiness of the environment, seemed like an interesting place to try some lighting techniques.

Out of the blue, somebody commented that they would have lighted it differently, using more ambient light. Then they said that they did't like the shadows, and they wished that I would have used a different kind of light. I started to reply to the person that the shadows were intentional for the mood of the image, but then I decided that I didn't want to get into a pissing match in the comments of my photo. I make the image the way I want it, and it is what it is. If you don't agree with my vision or technique, that's fine...but keep it to yourself.

What was meant as a relatively harmless criticism has festered a while in my mind, and now I'm kind of ticked off about the whole thing. What makes things worse is that now when I look that the image I was previously proud of, I think of that comment, and I start second-guessing myself.

There have been other times when people have used the "notes" feature on flickr to suggest different crops of the image. I find that incredibly rude. I don't know about others, but I think about the framing and composition of each image, and I'm not asking others to force their own personal interpretation onto my work.

Anyway...I felt the need to rant. I do think that critique is nice, it should be reserved until it is solicited.

I'm still trying to decide if I should respond, or continue to just let it go.

Tolerance

2009-10-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Dissenting viewpoints are being heaped into the "hate" category. Welcome to the slippery slope.

FBI"s Holder now has the Power to determine any Rightwingers a "Hate Group"

"You have a great camera!"

2009-10-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what to think of this. Yesterday was a big tailgate event for a bunch of my fellow Eagles fans, so I took along my 40D and 24-105 f/4L lens to get some fun shots. Granted, a lot of it was basic snapshot material, but I thought it would be fun to apply some of my own style along the way.

I took a lot of pics, and I spent some time processing them. I posted the results so my friends can see them, and the first two comments I got were:

"That camera takes some money shots, dude."

and

"Dude, you have an awesome camera, great pictures!"

Sigh...I realize that these people aren't photographers, so they don't realize what they're saying, but I can't help but feel a little frustrated. I'm not really looking to have my ego stroked, but surely there was some level of talent behind the camera (and working on the post processing).

Here are a couple of my favorites from the day:

Yeah, I know it's just sour grapes...but come on.

Gotta Love the International Olympic Committee

2009-10-09T06:13:00.001-07:00

More authoritarian crap from Big Brother, this time in the guise of the IOC.

International Olympic Committee Goes Copyright (& Trademark) Crazy

Recommendations

2009-10-06T12:46:00.001-07:00

Lots of Images to Work Out
Originally uploaded by Meester Steve

So I was approached by a coworker today for a recommendation for a laptop. You see, I'm the office alpha geek, and I set up the computers for the other people in my department.

I guess that makes me the de facto expert.

I started asking the guy the usual questions, such as what he wanted to do with the computer, and what his future interests for it might be. His response: e-mail and web, with future use of things like MS Office. Now THAT really narrowed down the choices!

Knowing this guy, he's looking to get by with the cheapest thing he can find. And he doesn't want to invest any of his own time learning about features, prices, or performance.

He asked me to "jot down a few things to look for."

Sorry, no. I sent him to the Best Buy* website to use their decision-making tools.

I seriously think that this is one of those things that each person needs to research and learn about before they make a buying decision. It's worth the time and effort, and sloughing the task off on somebody else is just plain laziness in my book.

* New FTC disclosure: I don't work for Best Buy, and I get nothing from them for this post. :-p

Persistent Practice

2009-10-01T11:46:00.001-07:00

Sword Study 2
Originally uploaded by Meester Steve

For those who don't know, I've been taking tai chi classes for several years now. I attend two nights a week, and in the class, we do a mixture of warm-ups, fundamental exercises, forms, and applications, along with some strength and flexibility work.

The format of class is such that all of the students - regardless of experience - participate in the basic work with the beginners (or first-timers, as the teacher calls them). At the conclusion of the first hour, the beginners depart, and the remaining students (intermediate and advanced) continue with the mid-level forms. About 20 minutes later, the intermediate students leave, and the remaining "advanced" students work on the longer and more complex forms.

As an advanced student, this means that I have the opportunity to practice the beginner steps over and over (and over!) again. You would think that this would be boring or tedious...but surprisingly enough, it isn't.

A beginner at tai chi learns a particular posture (or set of postures) by mimicking the motions of the instructor, and starts to put the movements together so that they look nice. As each posture is repeated, though, there are subtleties that slowly start to emerge. Things that aren't readily apparent to the untrained eye. Like the shifting of weight, the flexing or relaxing of core muscles, and the alignment of the bones and joints. All very important in good tai chi...but doing these things well is something that takes time. Practice. Repetition.

My teacher likens the practice of tai chi to the peeling of an onion. As you begin to work on your technique, repeating the same movements over and over, you slowly peel away the layers, working your way to the core, making your resulting tai chi better and better.

Today I read a blog with a different analogy, which I really like. The author suggests that the practice of tai chi is like creating a sculpture from a block of stone (or wood). You start with a rough shape, and with time, you slowly remove the unwanted bits to reveal something beautiful. Work too quickly, and you miss the beautiful detail.

I'm finding this analogy to be particularly useful. I have been doing tai chi for quite some time, and even though I am an "advanced" student, I am still chipping away at the sculpture. What good is learning advanced things if I haven't done my best to perfect (and retain) the basics? And I'm starting to see how this concept works in other things that I do, such as photography. I can certainly mimic many photographic styles, but unless I take the time to learn the basics, and hone my technique day in and day out, I will be nothing more than a copycat. I need to internalize the nitty-gritty of photography, practice it relentlessly, and learn to use it to create something that I can call my own.

I need to put on my thinking cap to think of more...but if you have other applications, let me know.

Inspired by the dog

2009-09-29T06:59:00.001-07:00

I always feel like somebody's watching me
Originally uploaded by Meester Steve

I was looking to experiment a little with side lighting and color balance. I thought I'd put myself with my living room window in the background, underexpose the ambient, and hit the side of my face with some CTO-colored hard light.

As I was setting up, my dog Rocky came in the room, perched on the back of the sofa, and stared. He's very attached to me, and he usually follows me around, or at least keeps one eye on me.

I kind of liked how he was watching me, so I quickly set up another flash to bring him out a little from the background, then I repositioned myself so that he'd be in the frame.

Lighting details: Canon 580EX II, set at 1/8th power and 105mm zoom, with a 1/2 CTO gel, about 6 feet to my right (and a little forward). Another 580EX II, set at 1/16th power, with a homemade grid, about 3 feet to my left, pointing back at the dog. No gel on the dog spot.

I set the camera's white balance on cloudy (which helps enhance the warmness).

Somebody want to give blood for me?

2009-09-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

So I went in for one of my now-too-frequent blood draws this morning. First, I checked in at the front of the medical center. They took my paperwork, made sure all my insurance was up to date, and photocopied everything, including my driver's license (with photo).

Then they loosely affixed a paper wristband to my arm. The wristband is made of something between paper and cardboard. It has a triangular hole at one end, and a tab (basically a series of triangular-shaped points) at the other end, which "locks" the band in place. Turning the end of the tab releases the band for removal. On the wristband are my name, my birth date, and various other bits of information. Presumably, that's to identify me as a patient, and to make sure that nothing (including me) gets mixed up along the way to the blood lab.

The lab, where they draw blood for testing, is maybe 50 feet down the hall from the reception/registration area of the medical center. After the registration procedure, you walk to the lab, unescorted, with the little wristband happily - and loosely - attached. When you arrive at the lab, you sign in with your first name (presumably to protect your privacy), and wait. When called, you are ushered into the testing room.

Once I was seated on the blood-drawing chair (I'm not sure if it has a name, but it's a specific piece of furniture, with handy little arm rests), the technician began the procedure. As he was looking over his blood-gathering gear and/or paperwork, he asked me to confirm my identity. I they want to make sure that nobody else is giving blood and posing as me.

So how did the tech confirm my identity?

He asked me my name and my birth date. Okay...not too difficult. Of course, I looked at the little wristband, and my name and birth date are CLEARLY printed on it. So I suppose it wasn't so much an identity check as a literacy test.

The rest of the event went without incident. The tech drew my blood, wrapped my arm, removed my wristband (so that I didn't pose as myself somewhere else in the medical center), and sent me on my way.

I'm not sure why it bugs me, but it does. I notice when people do things for no good reason. When they follow procedure blindly, even when the procedure is clearly flawed. The whole wristband thing is supposed to help them be sure that the right person is getting the test done...but there is nothing to insure that I'm not taking the wristband off and handing it to somebody else.

Obviously, I don't know why I would want to fool the blood testers, especially for something like this. But I can imagine that other people, looking to defraud the medical/insurance companies, would easily be able to get around this totally insecure system.

I'm too young for this nonsense

2009-09-22T09:32:00.001-07:00

Wrapped
Originally uploaded by Meester Steve

Okay...so here's the deal.

Last Sunday night I noticed that my heart was racing, thumping, fluttering, and generally feeling strange. I'd had things like this before, and I always associated it with something I ate, a particular stress I was under, or some other transient cause. And always it would go away in a few hours.

This time, it didn't.

After two days of it, I decided to go to my family doctor (actually a family practice, since I haven't needed a regular doctor, and I always just took whoever was available at the time). When I arrived, I explained my symptoms - palpitations, feeling hot, sweating, and generally feeling run down. I was pretty sure it wasn't a heart attack, since I didn't have any of the other classic symptoms. No arm or chest pain, no real feeling of pressure on the chest, and nothing else that seemed to fit anything other than maybe a panic attack, or something of the sort.

The doctor, after 10 seconds of listening to me heart, called for an EKG. And as she suspected, she found that I was experiencing Atrial Fibrillation (AF), or a-fib.

A-fib is basically an abnormal heart rhythm, when the upper chambers of the heart (the atria) beat out of sync with the lower chambers (ventricles). Because of the a-fib, blood doesn't flow properly through the heart, and consequently, through the body.

The most immediate danger with a-fib is the risk of stroke. When the blood doesn't move through the heart properly, it can collect and form clots. When these clots break loose and travel to other parts of the body, they can cause major, life-changing (and life threatening) problems.

If you want to learn more about a-fib, feel free to look it up online. There is a ton of reference information on it, and I don't need to repeat it all here. What I find amusing is that it's not an unusual condition...for somebody in their 70s or 80s.

So now I'm faced with two questions. First, what do I do about my a-fib? There is immediate treatment to lessen the chance of catastrophic damage. I'm currently taking medication to lower my blood pressure, to slow my heart rate, and to thin my blood. But the a-fib persists. Eventually, my cardiologist will probably try something called a cardioversion, which will attempt to reset my heart to the proper rhythm. But that's a ways off, since I need to let the blood-thinning medication work, and get all the potential clotting issues out of the way.

While I'm waiting on that, I'm getting tested. Another EKG, an echo cardiogram, and a nuclear (chemical) stress test. I think some of that will help with my other burning question: What caused my a-fib?

I keep thinking that I've had this condition for some time, and the little transient flare-ups were too minor and short to really get my attention. This current episode was enough to get me in for a real medical look, and I guess it's good that I found it now, rather than later (like after a stroke).

I Guess Nothing Should Surprise Me

2009-09-09T12:10:00.001-07:00

I'd had enough of my leaves and football setup
Originally uploaded by Meester Steve

I created this image almost a year ago, for fun, as part of a "post one self portrait a week" challenge on flickr. I thought it was cute, and something different.

Well, today, I see that some guy "faved" the photo, and when I checked his profile, I was a little freaked out. Turns out the guy is a middle-aged gay man who likes to "play dead." His photostream had all kinds of pictures of him laying in different places, naked, except for the occasional toe tag. Creepy. And totally worthy of blocking.

I'm really no prude...but this guy definitely made me wonder what direction humanity is headed (especially after seeing several drivers cut off an ambulance on a busy highway on the way to work today).

Jimmy and Stephanie

2009-08-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of photographing the proceedings at the wedding of my nephew, Jimmy, and his lovely bride, Stephanie. It was a terrific event, and everybody had a great time...and the happy couple did a great job setting it all up. Congratulations!

Here are a few photos from the day:

Gear for Gear's Sake?

2009-07-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I've noticed a trend over on the Strobist forum on flickr. People asking what gear they should buy for an upgrade to their current toolbox, when they have very little idea what they are doing.

In one case, my suggestion is simple: Invest in a workshop.

Hey, I'll be the first person to say how great it is to have that new piece of hardware. New toys are fun, and they let you do new and different things...if you know what to do with them.

But how many people think it's a good idea to drop $2000 on a super lens, but who also balk at spending $400 to attend a photo workshop? Yeah, the workshop is a one-time event, and yeah, $400 is a lot of cash. But consider that $400 can very well make you a better photographer, and it can help you leverage so much more out of your current tools...and that $400 seems like it could very well be a solid investment in your hobby.

Idiocy Lives

2009-06-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Just a quick rant. I was just gassing up my vehicle at a local filling station - one of those self-serve places with a little bullet-proof booth containing an attendant. So I start pumping gas, and I get out my iPhone to check my e-mail.

Over the intercom, I hear, "Sir, could you please put your cell phone away?"

I reluctantly obliged. But dammit, I should have had to. Cell phones to NOT start fires at gas pumps. All those little warning signs at the gas station were put there by lawyers who believed incorrect, false, and misleading assumptions about electronics and gasoline vapors.

What IS a fire risk is that little "stay on" gizmo on the gas pump nozzle. It encourages people to take their hands off of the nozzle, move around, maybe get back into their car...and potentially generating static electricity. This is an infinitely greater danger than anything my iPhone can generate.

But the flunky at the gas station doesn't care about science, or even about common sense. He does what the little stickers tell him. I can't fight the stickers, so I just shut up and put the phone away.

And continue to wonder if society can get any dumber.

Still Recovering

2009-06-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

We had one heck of a wedding event this weekend. My daughter, Colleen, was married in a terrific ceremony, at a beautiful location, on a perfect summer day. Add in the best family and friends in the world, and you have all the ingredients for one exciting - and tiring - day. But it was all worth the effort.

Some sneak peek pics of the day can be seen on the Kathy Martin Photography blog.

Beating the Sun

2009-06-02T12:32:00.001-07:00

Amy Knows
Originally uploaded by Meester Steve

Okay, long time no blog, I know. But I really want to get back into it, so here I go.

Over the weekend, I drove out to Akron to attend the Lighting Essentials Workshop. I've been to an earlier version of the workshop, and wanted to check out the newer, more robust version (a one-day session before, and now a two-day event). I remembered that the instructor, Don Giannatti, is a great guy with a passion for photographic lighting, and as before, Don did a terrific job explaining concepts and giving practical advice to help budding photographers get the results they want.

Here is a case in point. One of my goals for the workshop was to be more comfortable with shooting in harsh, full-daylight situations. You know... the kind where the sun blasts down, makes ugly shadows on faces, and generally washes out all the goodness in a shot.

Earlier in the day, Don showed us two techniques to get some nice images. One involved putting a model in a shadowed area, in front of a big garage door, and using a couple of speedlites to add interest. The other technique involved dropping the camera exposure down below the ambient, and using a close speedlight flash to "beat the sun."

When my "lab partner," Frank, and I went out for a bit of practical application shooting after lunch, Frank said he wanted to go back to that garage door. When we got there, it was apparent that in the afternoon, what was previously a nice little shady spot was now in full-on sun.

Honestly, I had doubts about it being a good place to shoot. But we set up the lights like we'd learned, combining techniques from both of the previous examples.

The front speedlite was set at 1/2 power, and mounted on it was a small reflector/diffuser gizmo. The whole thing was on a long pole, and Frank and I took turns holding the light just above (and in front of) the model.

The back light was on a stand, and also set at (I think) 1/2 power.

So there you have it - we beat the sun with a couple of battery powered flashes!

Here are a couple of other examples of beating the strong afternoon sun:

Wow...second post in a day!

2008-12-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

I have to get this off my chest, having just returned from a round of lunchtime errands.

Part of my trip involved, if for nothing more than convenience, using the drive-through at one of the local Burger King joints. I admit that I do visit fast food places more than I should...but that's another topic. In this case, I cruised up to the little speaker, looked over the choices, and gave my order. As I had often done in the past, I ordered a "medium" size combo meal. I don't upsize these things, and the smallest they serve is "medium."

Well, not any more. I looked at the menu, decided that my order, with tax, was a little under five dollars. When I finished, the person on the intercom said, "Five fourty...please pull around."

Of course, I thought she had gotten the order wrong. So when I got to the window, I asked her to check it. Indeed, it was correct. Then she explained the source of my confusion: they changed their meal sizes. The old "medium" is now "small," and the old "large" is now "medium."

Rather than argue the point, I sucked it up and just paid the extra money.

Apparently BK is once again contributing to the upsizing of the American diet. It seems like food places, in general, are pushing larger and larger portions on their customers. I don't know the ultimate cause of this trend, whether it's in response to customer demand, or something like that. But what guiles me is that BK relabled their meals to make the larger serving seem smaller. Maybe this is an attempt to help people feel less quilty about buying larger meals. Or maybe it's a way to get some short-term profits by tricking customers into accidentally upsizing their orders (as I did).

I can't see any positive reason for this change, and ultimately, it's turning me off to Burger King. And maybe fast food as well. Perhaps this is a good thing for me, though, becuase it's giving me a little kick in the ass, so that I start thinking about healthier options when I need to buy lunch on the road.

Anyway...rant over. Have a nice day!

I don't know why this amuses me

2008-12-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

Hollywood Casino at Penn National has had its share of screw-ups recently. At the end of November, they mistakenly sent out about 50,000 promotional mail pieces that offered perks (free buffets for two and hundreds of dollars worth of free slot play)...and these offers were supposed to go to only a few hundred "high roller" types.

I visited Hollywood Casino on the first night the offer stated, and despite some cautionary noise, Hollywood honored the offer to all who attended. After standing in line for an hour, the wife and I had a mediocre buffet dinner. Not bad, but not great.

And then I used my $100 of "free" play, and I was able to walk home with $300 that I didn't arrive with. Pretty nice.

In light of that business fiasco, I suppose this next thing isn't very important. But then again, it kind of shows the limited attention to detail that Penn National's marketing people are exhibiting.

Note that Hollywood is promoting the giveaway of Dell laptops. And note that in the picture, they show an Apple MacBook pro. Of course, they have the escape clause there, stating that "depicted images may vary from actual items."

I have to wonder about the marketing people here. Are they being intentionally deceptive by showing a more visually appealing computer? Are they being stupid, just grabbing any old laptop image they can find? Or are they being lazy, getting an image of the only laptop they had sitting around?

I guess we'll never know. But regardless of the reason, I still get a little amusement out of the promotion.

Easy?

2008-12-02T12:23:00.000-08:00

Ever see the Nikon ad with Ashton Kutcher packing to leave on a trip? He's shooting all the dumb crap around the room, and doing a major chimp session with the camera's LCD display. At one point, he puts the camera lens right up against a goldfish bowl, fires off a shot, and then shows the display to the woman in the room (his mother?), saying something like, "Doesn't that just blow your mind?"

Sure blows mine. You took a crappy picture of a goldfish at point blank range. Despite that you took no consideration to the light or the proper focusing distance of your lens, I'm sure it looks wonderful. To you, anyway. And I'm sure that it will be a thrill for others to see.

On one of the forums I frequent, someone asked for a critique of a few pictures, and I was reminded of a Don Giannatti blog post from a few months back. Don made some interesting points, and asked some pointed questions, about the creative process for photographers. How much effort is put forth in our photography, what is the intention toward the audience, and why does it matter?

Ever since I read that blog post back in October, the concept has been gnawing at the back of my mind. What kind of effort does it take (or should it take) to make a photograph?

Lately I've been more and more sensitive to the increasing amount of snapshot-quality images that some people honestly think are works of art. I'm not talking about the ones that are intentionally grungy or gritty. I mean the ones that are obviously commonplace, shoot-from-the-hip snaps, without much consideration to content, composition, or quality.

I'm trying hard to not be a poor critic. I don't want to sound like a photo snob. Hey, I've done my share of snapshots, quick-and-easy photos, and goofy shoot-anything-in-sight pictures. Self portraits of shadows. Reclining legs with feet sticking up in the air. Snaps, with the everpresent built-in flash reflected in a mirror. It's easy (and natural) to capture the world around us, and in general, it's wonderful that technology has given us the means to do things like that.

I realize that people want to take good pictures, and that they might not have the time to learn photography as well as they should. But when I look at someone's photos, especially if they ask for a critique, I have to consider what kind of effort went into the image. The image itself might or might not appeal to me; that is secondary. As long as there is intent and effort in making a strong visual statement, I tend to feel better about a photo. I look at the work of photographers I personally know, and I can see how much forethought has gone into what they are creating. Be it composition, lighting, post processing, or whatever, putting effort into an image tends to yield much more impact to the viewer.

Snapshots are great things. As digital cameras have gotten smaller and easier, snapshots have become the way that civilization is recording itself for posterity. And I have no problem with it. But I want to separate such simple, easy pictures from photographic images that take work to produce. Maybe no longer the kind of work they used to: no darkrooms, developing, handling chemicals, and the like. But the work of building the concept, executing the shot, and procesing the result into a visual statement. Something that actually bears fruit from the tree that is the creative process.

DIY El Cheapo Flash Diffuser

2008-11-20T05:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I figured I should say something. So here is a little DIY project I did with some inexpensive items to create a different kind of light modifier for my portable flashes.

First, I started with a little plastic container that I picked up at the dollar store. Price? One dollar.

To make it fit on my flash, I used a Home Depot gutter/downspout adapter (sorry, I don't have a picture of one just yet). Price? Less than a dollar.

I cut a hole in the container just large enough for the adapter to tightly slide in.

Next, I lined the bottom of the container innards with some foil tape. The tape is also available at Home Depot, somewhere near the heating/cooling/ductwork hardware. Price? I don't know...stop asking!

That's pretty much it. Here's a shot of it on my Canon 430EX flash. Note that it wobbles a bit. I have some (Home Depot again) foam insulation tape to put inside the gutter adapter, which should make it more stable, and prevent some of the light leakage you see here.

And here is a head-on view of the container with the lid on. It has a pretty even dispersion. The container plastic does color the light ever so slightly, toward the warm end of the scale, but it's pretty manageable.

Location Portrait

2008-10-03T05:11:00.000-07:00

Here is another setup from the meet I attended in Frederick. Actually, this was the first setup I thought of, and having arrived early that day, I was able to secure a good spot to make it work.

Basically, this is a one-light, off-camera flash setup. I did use a second flash to add some drama to the background...but that was optional. The thing to remember is that this type of thing is quite portable and easy to do.

Here's the setup shot:

Notice the position of the chair. It's not right up against the wall, because I wanted to create some focal separation between the model and the background. And I wanted to make sure that my main light didn't throw shadows onto the background, as well.

The only real light is coming from a flash pointing into an umbrella. Using an umbrella as a reflector creates a soft edge, right where the light tends to fall off, so I positioned it so that the model was right just inside that area. That way the model's face was lighted, but I didn't get a lot of excess light where I didn't want it.

Notice that the umbrella is relatively high, and not too far off to one side. Because I was shooting females, I wanted to approximate the "beauty" conditions, with no harsh angles and shadows on the model's face.

I was concerned with having too much darkness on the model's left, so I put a white reflector card. I probably could have positioned it up and in a little closer to the model's face, but in this case it worked okay.

Now for the background. The brick wall was pretty cool, but I wanted to add some punch to them, so I decided to light the bricks with some color. I added a small piece of Rosco Cinegel to the front of the flash, which did the trick. I tried other colors, but the red really seemed to work the best for the red bricks.

Oh...one other little trick. I put my background flash on a mini tripod, and positioned it so that on the full-length shots, the whole deal was obscured by the model. It's always good to hide the gear!

Here are some samples from the setup:

(Almost) Natural Light Portraiture

2008-09-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I attended another meetup this weekend, and I had a great time. This was pretty much an "apply what you've learned" type of event, rather than one where one expert would impart his/her knowledge on the group. The day consisted of finding a spot, setting up your shot(s), grabbing a model, and firing away for a while...then tearing down, moving somewhere else, and starting all over.

The location was an old brick-walled factory building in Frederick, MD. the building has these great big windows that were very dirty. In this case, the dirt worked quite well to diffuse the incoming light, and I really wanted to take advantage of it.

So here's the setup shot:

I put a chair about 10 feet in front of the window, and set up a couple of white reflector cards to bounce the window light back into the model's face. In my case, these are 20x30-inch foamcore (available at most hobby of office stores). Because the light isn't especially strong coming off of the reflectors, the trick is to get them as close to the subject as possible.

One extra thing I wanted to do was to use a small flash to add a wink of light to the top of the model's head. The window light was great, and it wrapped around her quite nicely...but that little dash of light on the hair really adds a finishing touch.

So that's pretty much it. Here are some of the resulting shots:

Pet Photos

2008-09-19T06:24:00.001-07:00

Fawn on Tan
Originally uploaded by Shaky Steve

I have to say that my dog, Rocky, is always a semi-willing subject. But I'm not a huge fan of people (including myself) who chase their pets around the house and take snapshots of them.

But then again, when the opportunity becomes available, I take it. In this case, I was testing a Speedlite on a couple of umbrellas, looking at the light fall-off patterns on the wall. Just as I was taking things down, I saw Rocky on the sofa looking at me. So I just had to turn the shoot-through umbrella around to get a quick shot of the little guy.

Think Before You Forward

2008-06-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been fending off a few of those "helpful" e-mail forwards lately. I try soooo hard to be polite about them, giving reasons why the things asserted in the e-mails is wrong, citing sources, such as snopes.com, and generally debunking the "information" contained in the e-mail.

I've long contended that the immediacy of e-mail communication is causing the whole Internet Experience to be one huge chain of unaccountability. People don't feel the need to double-check the information they are handed; they take things at face value - even fairly obviously incorrect things - and just pass them on.

Lately I've also speculated that the amount of worldly savvy a person has is inversely proprtional to the amount of e-mail junk they forward. They make themselves look gullible, and maybe by passing on these little electronic factoids, they are seeking support, or at least validation that they are, in fact, not gullible.

So folks...if you get some interesting e-mail forwarded to you, and you feel the need to pass it on to others, do yourself a favor and spend 2 minutes researching it first. For cying out loud, everybody knows about Google these days. It's now very easy to spend a short time and invest it in protecting your personal image.

More Comcast fun

2008-05-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

After repeatedly failing to get into my Comcast e-mail account this morning, I cruised over to dslreports.com to see if I was alone with the problem...and I'm definitely not.

Click for news item on Comcast being hacked.

Hopefully the outage won't last long. Crossing fingers.

Jim and Camden

2008-05-29T05:06:00.001-07:00

Jim and Camden
Originally uploaded by Shaky Steve

Another in the group of Camden shots. I caught him with his father (my nephew, Jim). Unfortunately, the two were under a hideously red umbrella in the bright sun. So not only did I have the overexposed background problem, I had a terrible red cast on the boys.

I tried separating them from the background in Photoshop, so that I could color correct them without hosing up the surroundings...but I couldn't get a good looking edge. Maybe with more careful cleaning...but I don't have the patience.

So I did the next best thing: take color out of the equation. I converted to black and white in Photoshop, tweaked some of the color-to-mono conversions, brightened them a tad, and applied some softening. Not the absolute best...but much better than the red nightmare the original was.

Photo Contests

2008-05-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

So I'm a regular poster over at the about.com forum on photography. I started there as a digital beginner, mostly as a refresher, and to share and learn with others. The traffic there was light, and the moderator has been pretty good about directing the emphasis of the site toward learning photography and improving our photographs.

When I first joined, the place looked like a good place to share photos, ask for (and give) constructive critique, and generally hang out with like-minded folks.

Then came the contests.

I initially liked the idea of injecting a little competitive spirit into the community, mostly to help spur the members into trying to improve their images. The moderator put limits on the photo entries to discourage people from doing what I call from "portfolio dumping" and Photoshopping their images like crazy. It only made sense - it's a photography assignment, and it should be about going out, getting a news image, and presenting it with very limited manipulation.

As May began, the moderator started a celebration of National Photographer's Month by changing, albeit temporarily, the emphasis of the community to a running "Photo of the Day" contest. No time limit. No processing restrictions. Just post a photo in the forum, and it will be considered for "Photo of the Day."

So over the course of the past month, the place has been crawling with all kinds of cyber-shoobies (props to my South Jersey friends). They show up, dump a bunch of pictures (many of they are pretty mediocre), and leave. I'm sure the original intent was to pull images from ongoing discussions as a reward to the community members. But what it actually did was invite all kinds of fly-by-night types to post images without encouraging them to participate in discussions and or provide useful, helpful content to the community at large.

What really irks me is when I see threads started like, "Entry for photo of the day" and "look at my photos." Yeah, I understand that we all like to show off, but at least have the decency to participate in a little conversation, or at least make an attempt to provide some value to the place. It's a community, not a place to fish for awards.

At least May is almost over. Hopefully we can get back to semi-normal, and the attention seekers will get bored and leave.

Natural Light

2008-05-27T09:29:00.001-07:00

Steph and Camden
Originally uploaded by Shaky Steve

I was visiting family this weekend, and I was looking to get a shot of my new great nephew, Camden. Well, I was slow to get some time with him, and before knew it, his family was leaving the picnic. The sun was pretty bright, and I knew that a really shadowy shot really wouldn't work...so I quickly positioned mom and child under a nearby canopy. The reflected sun provided more than enough light for them, and I was able to fire off a couple of quick shots.

I did do some softening with Photoshop, and I also did some minor adjustments to the background, because it was so bright out. But it's still pretty amazing how good of a shot you can get with just a little attention to the ambient light condition.

My first rant

2008-05-21T04:18:00.001-07:00

Well, okay...maybe this is two rants. But they're both similar in that they deal with the frustration of trying to do business with a company, and how that company makes it difficult on the Customer.

First, Comcast. I am a Comcast high-speed Internet (HSI) subscriber, and while I do have some issues with The Comcast Corporate Machine, overall I appreciate the convenience of my Internet connection. At least until this past weekend, when I started experiencing a connectivity issues.

Apparently some nameless person - either an incompetent Comcast employee or a bumbling customer (other than myself) - managed to have some rogue device attached to my account. The result pretty much lobotomized my cable modem. Sounds like a simple fix, right? Well, apparently it isn't.

Because the technical support reps who answer the phone are expected to run through all of the "duh" scenarios first, each time I called in, I had to run through the same procedures. Unplug the cable modem and plug it back in. Unplug the wireless router and plug it back in. Shut down the computer. Start the computer. Read the MAC address on the cable modem. For crying out loud, I must have read that MAC address 10 times. Don't those reps write anything down?

I totally understand and appreciate what the reps have to do on the phone. Heck, I worked on my company's help desk for almost a year. There is a certain amount of problem solving discipline that you have to follow. But once the problem is diagnosed, you expect a resolution fairly quickly. Or at least an answer that it can or cannot be fixed. I was put off for three days with this problem, and finally on my last call into Comcast, I got somebody named Terry, who seemed to actually know what he was doing.

But not until he went through all the steps. Unplug. Plug. Read the MAC. Boot. Shut down. Start up. More plugging and unplugging.

Eventually the guy decided to take all traces of my cable modem out of the Comcast systems, connect to it remotely, re-flash the thing, and then add it back into the Comcast systems as if it was a new device.

Bingo. Eureka. Hallelujah.

Why did it take so long to get this done? I have no idea. Apparently this was a drastic last-ditch measure, so I applaud Terry for taking the shot. But I don't really believe that this couldn't have been done earlier in that three-day time span.

Okay...where was I? Oh, rant number two: Adorama Camera.

I ordered a lens and a macro extension tube from Adorama last Thursday morning. Per their policy, somebody called my home phone to confirm that the order was actually made by me. It's not a bad policy to try and rule out fraud, but it did add at least a day to my order's turn-around time.

For some reason, though, it took another two days to go from "order confirmed" to "order shipped." I guess they are really busy...but two days?

So now the package is due to arrive at my home. I'm used to having UPS arrive in the late afternoon or early evening hours, so I felt pretty confident that either somebody would be around to receive the package, or at least it wouldn't be sitting on my front porch for long (I live in a pretty low-crime, close-knit, suburban development).

The package arrived on Tuesday (yesterday). Adorama ships all of their packages with a "signature required" option, and since UPS arrived earlier than usual, nobody was home...and I got one of those aborted delivery sticky notes on my door.

No problem. I work fairly close to the UPS hub, so I figured that I would call them, tell them to hold the package, and then run over the next day (today) and pick it up on my lunch break. I've done this many times, and normally it works like a charm.

But lo and behold, Adorama also puts a requirement on the package delivery that prevents UPS from rerouting. Or letting me pick the package up at the hub. The UPS rep on the phone explained that I CAN pick it up after the third failed delivery attempt, before they ship it back to Adorama.

So now I have to either take off from work to be there for the UPS person, or wait for three failed delivery attempts to claim it on Friday. More than a week from when I ordered it.

While a week might not sound like a bad thing, I must say that I'm probably spoiled by places like Newegg and Buy.com, which ship promptly and which don't require procedural nightmare to receive a package.

The security of a secure delivery is great, but frankly, it's not all that comforting to me when I know that the UPS delivery person is schlepping the order back and forth a number of times, delaying my gratification, and just wasting all of our times.

The bottom line is that I don't know where my next camera supply order will go, but I do know that it won't be Adorama who gets it.

And while I've been a faithful Comcast customer for many, many years...other services like Verizon FIOS are looking better and better. And I'm very close to voting with my feet on the issue.

Rant over.

Are Photos Possible?

2008-05-16T20:58:00.001-07:00

Apparently this isn't that difficult. So maybe I should stop struggling.

First Entry

2008-05-16T20:45:00.001-07:00

Well, here we go. I've never been a big blog reader...and I really don't expect to be a big blog writer. But lately I've needed to get some things off my chest, and the usual forums and such just don't cut it anymore.

Anyway...more to come. Hopefully soon.