reflections

reflections, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Make for interesting filters. I've lately been experimenting with
shooting things reflected in glass/etc, mostly in order to superimpose
subjects into different scenes. This one came through as more of a
filter effect (if you overlook the mirroring of the easy button).

never delete

I should make a policy of just copying over every shot onto my hard drive (plus external) since storage is abysmally cheap. Alas, I killed accidentally killed the best shot I had of this little puppy. Also, I should make a policy of charging the battery before any trip... this was the ONLY shot I got from my excursion to Delaware for karting.


This was an interesting problem... I wanted to bokeh the background out as much as possible, but at wider apertures, I couldn't get enough DOF to get the whole puppy in focus. The puppy's orientation--to my eyes, at least--makes the shot, so I had to give up some background bokehing. That said, the surviving shot here was done in shutter priority, so the computer figured out a pretty good balance on its own...

been awhile, sunrise

After 5 weeks of late mornings...

back to the grind

Settling into a routine with the new job, so...let's make another attempt at _this_ routine. My shots-per-day haven't really done much climbing out of the nov-dec hole, but at least I have a small backlog I can go through here.

And of course I have to see how fast a shutter I can get...


I will also have you know it's really, really difficult to hold a coffee strainer in one hand whilst pinning a camera to my face with the other, using a free finger to adjust focus.

finally, daylight suffices indoors

finally, daylight suffices indoors, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

At ISO 200.

50mm f/1.8D AF (but not on my D40...MF FTW again...)

okay so i probably _should_ go up to ISO 400 so I don't shoot wide open and get a slightly faster shutter...

Filler

Assorted smattering of autox shots from the last event of the season...










Definitely need to get faster to catch the unexpected shots.

Choking on the big stage

I imagine having a nationally-televised camera literally hovering over your shoulder while you work is a _bit_ stressful.



Empty backfield against a blitz-happy 3-4... riiight. That sure worked out well.



Play is already over... ugh.


Anyway, re:photography... Light was, as always, a big issue. I needed _very_ fast shutter compared to photographing cars/bikes/etc. A car body is a single, uniform subject that you can very easily freeze by tracking it as you fire off shots. A human body, with it's various flailing limbs, affords none of that. I had to crank ISO up to get the necessary speeds (at least 1/320 sec), but at ISO 3200, my shot-to-shot times rocketed to 1+ seconds.

Escapism as language

Escapism as language, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

So I _did_ have photos queued up for a few posts to the blog last week, but
Fallout 3 came on Tuesday.

And so went most waking moments from that point on. This is, however, not a
videogame-as-art blog, so I'll leave it at that.

As for the shot, I was initially displeased with this, since the lighting
from the back cast Vault Boy in nasty shadows. Since I was too lazy to
rearrange the scene, I took another shot, overexposing to blow out Vault
Boy's face (I was stupid and deleted it, so no comparo here). This shot
grew on me a bit. the shadows add a bit of a sinister vibe to it, which is
fitting. What I did want to try (but will have to wait until the next
morning sunlight) was cranking ISO to get a grainy texture to it. Maybe
that and overexposing for a surreal effect.

Sometimes not so

Sometimes not so, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Guess it settled in a bit as I finally got around to unpacking my admittedly
small box of personal effects from my cube at WxBug. I should've taken some
pics before leaving.

OK I lied...

Forgot to post up possibly my favorite photo from the whole trip:



In conclusion, a person can't move out of the focal plane as fast as a car.

Last post on focus, I promise

These head-on shots were by far the toughest...constantly changing focus to match the cars' rate of closure, exacerbated by needing wider apertures (and thus shallower depth of field) to accommodate faster shutters etc etc.


Here, the nose is just beginning to enter the focal plane, but I fired the shot a little early (insert your own predictable joke here). Given the length of the hood (feel free again), I'm not actually sure I _could_ get both the tip of the nose and the head of the driver in focus without cranking the ISO to get smaller apertures.


I'm pretty pleased with the following two, actually... lucked into them whilst laying down a continuous barrage of shots and feebly pawing at the focus ring in the hope that one might be worth keeping (success!).




Okay, three days' milkage is probably enough (and hey, you got quantity each day!) until the next time I need some filler... so last of the autocross cars for a while.

Who needs autofocus...

And this is where we drop down a few notches as, on day two, I spend some more time practicing tracking subjects while focusing. Results were mixed--some terrible, some merely painful.

I found limited success when the subject was moving across my field of view and staying within(...ish, and a big ish..) the focal plane, and it did help me get a number of exciting moments:



Was a tough day for the BMWs...



A 'vette...actually in the natural habitat of its namesake, I suppose:



I really like this... were it not underexposed, out of focus, and slightly too fast--thereby freezing and taking the drama out of that spinning rear wheel.



It does bring a new low to the threshold of success required to feel that sense of accomplishment.

Missing Autofocus...

Losing autoexposure and metering hasn't been as bad as anticipation. In all my shooting so far, it's taken a few shots to get into the ballpark for a given environment, and getting the exposure right for a specific shot after that doesn't take more than one or two extra attempts. Fewer, if I settle for 'close enough'.

What really hurts is losing autofocus, _particularly_ for shooting action. This weekend, I primarily shot by focusing on a point in the course, tracking a car as it enters the area, and firing off the shot as it passes near the focus point.

examples:










Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot of great shots because of the whole pick-a-spot-and-only-one-spot, case in point:


Was only able to get it into good (ok steph, 'web-worthy') focus after the deed was done:

Would've made for a much shorter trip home

Would've made for a much shorter trip home, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

This was begging for a wide-angle shot from down low with the ramp in view
behind my car. Alas, I had my zoom lens on, and the wind was blasting sand.

VAC 2008

VAC 2008, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Can only post one pic at a time (via phone) since my netbook can't get on wifi anymore.

In summary, I looove how close I can get with this new lens. Manual focus on moving targets is quite the challenge, but when I happen to nail it, the results are fantastic. This lens is _sharp_.

Home

Home, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

is wherever there's wifi.

Compressing perspective

There's a bit of serves-me-right with this new lens in that just as I was getting interested in wide-angle shots, my new lens only goes down to 80mm. This 1) finds me backpedaling quite a bit for many shots that don't require zo[ooooo]ming, and 2) takes away the wide angle option. I did find today one situation where the compressed perspective of a narrow-angle lens actually did do something interesting:



I know, I know, it's the textbook example used in every tutorial/explanation of perspective and wide-vs-narrow-angle focal lengths where they line up a row of trees/posts/tall, uniform objects. It just took finding an instantiated example to convince me. It'd be more difficult to get that sense of uniformity and linearity with a wider angle.

Also, I've not been living up to this blog's title, so bokeh test:


Turns out you can get quite a good deal of it at f4.5 when you take a few steps back, zoom in, and let distance work its magic.

Compressing distances, pt 2

Now for the obligatory "look how far I can zo[ooooooo]om[mmmm]" comparison shots... (no crop on these)

Below, shot I took last week at 55mm:


...and now from the same spot (give or take 10ft) at 200mm:


I like.

Compressing distances

Compressing distances, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

It's magic. I took this in my parking lot approx 150-200ft away (according
to me eyeballing google maps. note to self: look into geotagging on the
cheap). Nifty.

Though seriously, this manual-everything is like a complete reset of all my
skill development (however little of it). It took about 8 or 9 attempts to
get this shot. Getting the right exposure via trial-and-error, getting the
right focus, compensating for the MUCH greater camera/hand shake at max
zoom, etc. I still haven't decided whether I feel more fulfilled having to
work for what would otherwise be a straightforward shot or more frustrated
at how painfully slow I am.

Said pain is very much mitigated by the awesome, clicky aperture ring. It's
so chunky and solid and makes simultaneous aperture and shutter adjustments
feasible (normally my D40 adjusts shutter and aperture with the same dial
and a shift key) and deliciously tactile. Did I mention it was chunky and
clicky?

I feel dirty.

I feel dirty., originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Because I (a) bought new gear far surpassing--and wholly inappropriate
for--my current skill level, and (b) am clearly compensating for something.

I'll have to take this puppy out somewhere to get some quality playtime in, but a few first impressions of my circa 1980s-1990s Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5:



Manual everything....is a challenge. That said, there is something inherently pleasurable of directly interfacing with a machine--the smoothness of sliding and twisting the barrel, the satisfying, weighted click of the aperture ring.... There's a solid tactility to it all, and the thing just feels tight and precise. Some of you might know I'm a sucker for build quality and subjective feel, and I'm already in love with this baby (yes, rationalizing real hard). It's built like a tank. I feel like I could club a man half to death and after wiping the blood off, snap some incriminating evidence with no problems. From 100 ft away.

Of course, this lens also makes blindingly obvious how far we've come in the last two decades. Where AF can lock-on in fractions of a second, it takes me several to get the focus in the ballpark (with the wobbling of my hands causing the focal plane to sweep all over the subject). Without realtime metering, I have to resort to review mode for trial-and-error exposure tuning (imagine doing this on _film_). Even things like flash sync are easy to take for granted.

It's like modern dual-clutch gearboxes (or the theoretical CVT) versus rowing your own gears. I can't imagine getting anywhere near the speed and versatility of modern lens even after extensive practice. For now, though, it's kinda fun, and I can't argue with the price.

about the season for foliage shots

about the season for foliage shots, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Why is decay so pretty?

I took this around noon Friday, and the high angle of the sun added a nice
glow to many of the leaves. It also made the shadow on the underside of the
branches extremely dark, but I'm not sure if I actually like this effect.
Puts a bit of a hostile vibe amongst the otherwise light, cheerful colors of
the leaves.

If I weren't so lazy, I'd crop out that lone leaf jutting out the left edge

Deep breath...

Deep breath..., originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Soon I'll be able to take one of those again in one literal and several
figurative senses. What a lovely texture the air is starting to have around
this time.

As for the shot, I'd forgotten that I set my lens to manual focus.
Naturally.

I, too, still (sometimes) take pictures of stuff

I, too, still (sometimes) take pictures of stuff, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

when not tired/sick/working/sleeping, etc.

tired, sick, etc

tired, sick, etc, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

blah.

Also (if you've not noticed by now), I like shots where distinct
scenes/settings spill into each other.

worst performance of the season.

Granted I only had two runs in the dry, but I also didn't have the "complete n00b at this" excuse...

Oh right, _photo_blog. Disappointment on that front as well... first that I didn't have much time (but that couldn't have been helped, thank you rain) and second... I definitely got a lot better at the technical aspects of shooting cars on course. My keep-to-throwaway ratio was possibly an order of magnitude better than the last event. As I started to find at the last event, however, I still need to figure out how to take exciting/interesting photos over merely technically competent shots.

Example the first. I spent most of my time at two spots that were quite close to the course, which really helps the lack of a bazooka zoom lens. After reviewing some of the shots, they were just too bland... a car moving perpendicular across your field of view just doesn't have a lot of punch to it. You don't get a lot of context, and you don't see the car in a very dynamic state. I moved to another spot, and while I only had time to shoot a few cars, it was definitely a lot more interesting.



I also like this crop a lot, focusing on that line of slalom cones that comes down diagonally from the horizon. The first crop feels like it has better context, though...I think the additional space gives it a little more something.




If I weren't running/working an event, I definitely need to find a chance to shoot from one of the worker stations on course. I really like these wider angle shots that make the cars have such _depth_, and I imagine an action shot with that angle would be sweet...

a fitting conclusion

a fitting conclusion, originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Wow, did not realize it's been 5 days since I posted.

The DC SCCA autocross season ended as it began, with periodic downpours,
long delays, and exhausting run heats. This time, though, I actually got to
run--twice dry, twice wet, once very very lost.

Unfortunately, between losing one heat due to poor attendance and constantly
dodging showers, the day's chaos also took away some prime photographing
opportunities.

More later, but I'm exhausted.

36-Hour Mondays

It's remarkable how quickly the novelty of gadgets wear off when it's part of your job.





It's more remarkable, then, how quickly a light dose of shiny LEDs fills me will delight.