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Saturday, October 31, 2009
Vol. 1 No. 49
A recent visit to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum was subject rich looking through the viewfinder. As a former sailor and the father of son who recently served his Country at sea, I really appreciated the history this proud ship preserves.
The Intrepid Experience is located at Pier 86, West 46 Street and 12 Avenue in Manhattan.
The flightdeck of this Essex-class carrier is almost 3 football fields long.
Bendix telegraph throttle on the bridge.
Replica of the Gemini 3 space capsule retrieved in 1965.
The British Airways Concorde flew at speeds of 1,350 mph across the Atlantic in its day.
Well worth the visit, the Intrepid Experience offers fantastic photographic opportunities and a very inspiring adventure. You can definitely make it a whole day event with visits to the aircraft carrier, the Concorde and the submarine Growler are all included in the $19.50 adult admission.
Special Note: The USS New York (LPD 21), built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center, pulls into port on November 2. The ship and her crew will render a 21-gun salute as she comes to a standstill across from the World Trade Center site. The USS New York will later dock at Pier 88 adjacent to the Intrepid and allow the public to visit from November 4th through November 11th - Memorial Day.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
Vol. 1 No. 48
Autumn is in full swing and there are several things going on in the realm of photography to report on here.
There's the PDN Photo Expo which I attended this past Thursday to check out the latest gear and products.
Tomorrow, Sunday October 25th, we are visiting the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Weather at meeting time is forecast to be sunny at 60°F. There's still time to join us there for some great photo opportunities. We are meeting at 10:00 am at Pier 86 in Manhattan, 12th Avenue and 46th Street. Tickets are $19.50 at the gate or you can save some time on line and buy them online. So far we have a small group attending but I urge you to join us for an amazing walk aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid (CVS-11). If you would like to sign-up so I know you are joining us, you can register here for the Intrepid Museum Photography Meet. UPDATE - NO TRIPODS.
Adobe Releases Lightroom 3 Public Beta
You can download the latest release of Lightroom 3 beta free. Adobe has made some really nice improvements to, what is already, a great application. The importing feature has been redesigned and is more intuitive. There's professional level noise reduction, and built-in film grain simulation. Drag and drop publishing to the web has been added so you can go directly from Lightroom to Flickr. And you can finally export a slideshow with music embedded. You can try out the beta for free until it expires on April 30, 2010. Get Lightroom 3 Public Beta here. Did I mention it's FREE!
Lexar announces discounts off Adobe Software
In an October 20, 2009 press release Lexar Media, a leading provider of professional memory cards, has teamed with Adobe to offer rebates on popular Adobe photo and video editing tools. More information can be found in Lexar's full press release.
Is it cool - Yeah!
While attending the PDN Photo Expo this past Thursday at the Javits Center in NYC, I visted the Nikon Booth to look over some of the new offerings. One struck me as the coolest gadget out there right now. Doesn't mean I would buy it, but cool none the less. how many times have you shown family and friends images you've captured on the back of your tiny point-and-shoot lcd monitor. Everyone squints to view the tiny 2.5" monitor to make out the tiny little colorful shapes. Well, those days are over with the new Nikon Coolpix S1000pj (street price $429.95). This is the first camera with a built-in projector which can project 40" images up to 5.5 feet away. Most of the other camera features are fairly standard in today's point-and-shoot arena. The S1000pj is a 12.1 megapixel with a 5x (28-140mm equivalent) Nikkor zoom, image stabilization, motion detection, and high ISO (6400) capability. The jury is still out on this one as I expect the reviews will be mixed. The issues I see are projector brightness and contrast along with battery life. But, the Coolpix S1000pj is definitely ground breaking. For more info, visit Nikon's website.
That's it for now. I'll be announcing the next LensCapture photo walk in the coming weeks. So stay tuned!
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Sunday, October 18, 2009
Here are a few tips to help get you out capturing the autumn colors.:
- Best time to photograph - during the last hour before sunset when the reds and oranges really pop.
- Best weather - I find overcast days to be the best when photographing the autumn colors. It's like using a giant diffuser, the clouds soften the light. Rain should not deter your shooting. Just purchase or make a rain drape for your camera and you'll capture some stunning images.
- Use a polarizer - Capturing bright fall colors are dramatically enhanced through the use of a polarizing filter. It will help reduce reflections and make the colors look more intense.
- Use a tripod - Don't make me state the obvious. A steady camera equals sharp images. Makes sense, right?
- Experiment with your white balance - Don't rely on "Auto" white balance or you could lose out on some of the vibrant colors presenting themselves. Try warming thing up a bit by setting your WB to "Cloudy."
- Underexpose - I prefer to shoot at a 1/2 stop or more under to increase the saturation of the scene.
- Color contrast - Look for bright red and orange leaves against evergreens in the background.
- Try shooting macro - Focus on a single leaf or a cluster of colorful leaves and highlight the detail. Macro photography will force you to pay very close attention to your depth of field.
- Focus on more than just leaves - pumpkins and other gourds abound along with bushels of freshly picked apples and the Halloween decorations all qualify as fall season subjects.
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
This past weekend, my wife Roz and I took an impromptu trip to the Finger Lakes region of Western New York State. With very little pre-planning, we packed up the car and headed out on a 5 hour ride to beautiful upstate New York.
Upper Buttermilk FallsThe purpose of this last minute getaway was to photograph the numerous waterfalls in the area surrounding Watkins Glen and Ithaca.
We were fortunate to have our trusty TomTom 430s GPS nav unit along for the trip. This device allowed me to enter a list of the falls we wanted to visit and their coordinates as an itinerary. What a great feature. Here are the coordinates we used:
- Eagle Cliff Falls N42º19.908', W76º49.080'
- She-Qua-Ga Falls N42º20.683', W76º51.083'
- Hector Falls N42º25.066', W76º51.933'
- Watkins Glen State Park N42º22.05', W76º54.04'
- Taughannock Falls N42º32.133', W76º36.666'
- Buttermilk Falls N42º24.66', W76º30.799'
Interesting fact I learned while reading roadside historical signs was that Louis XVIII of France, while in exile, sketched the She-Qua-Ga Falls. The sketch now resides in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
She-Qua-Ga Falls (Montour Falls) photographed with a Nikon 10.5 Fisheye LensTo get that "smooth and silky" look in your waterfall photography, you must conquer the exposure by slowing down your shutter speed to a couple of seconds or more. Start by setting the lowest possible ISO your camera allows. Then stop your aperture down around f/22 to restrict the light even more. Unfortunately, even with an overcast sky, you might still have too much light to slow down the shutter. In this case you will need to use a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce the light by a few more stops. I like using a 0.9 ND which reduces light by 3 stops.
Eagle Cliff Falls in Havana Glen Park
The whole point is to slow down the water so it flows through the exposure. The surrounding stationary surfaces remain sharp. Of course, the only way of achieving this is through the use of a tripod. And don't forget, when utilizing a tripod, to shut off any image stabilization or you could wind up with blurry images.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 10:00 AM
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