Last post of the Month

a700 Firmware update V4

I missed it when it first came out. So I’ve only just updated to the new firmware. I like they added the option to turn off noise reduction for high ISO’s. If the DRO improvements are significant it will make post processing in Lightroom easier.

Sony eSupport – DSLR-A700 – Software Updates & Drivers.

This utility updates the DSLR-A700 Camera Firmware to version 4 and provides the following benefits:

Benefits over firmware version 3:

* Adds a “2 steps/3 shots” option to the “Bracket: Single” and “Bracket: Cont.” Drive mode settings for auto exposure bracketing.
* Adds an “Off” option to the “High ISO NR” (Noise Reduction) setting.
* Provides improvements in picture quality when using a high ISO setting; color noise is minimized in images captured using an ISO setting of 1600 or higher.
* Provides improvements to the Auto White Balance (WB), especially when taking pictures using the flash.
* Improves performance of the D-range Optimizer (DRO). The ability to discriminate between scenes has been improved, and the scope to which the advanced DRO effect can be applied has been broadened.
* Improves the ability to make a successful connection with the VG-C70AM vertical grip.

Additional benefits over earlier firmware versions:

* Resolves an issue where the Access Lamp remains lit and the camera stops responding when several pictures are taken in rapid succession.
* Resolves an issue where powering the camera off while in “MR” mode may cause some registered settings to carry over to other shooting modes.
* Sharper images for pictures taken under low contrast conditions
* Reduced noise for pictures taken at ISO 3200
* Improved flash control for objects closer than 1 meter with non ADI controlled lenses

“Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away”

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I saw my father spend more than a few winter evenings going thru his slide pictures. He put together several slide shows for the local historical society of pictures he had taken in our community. Trips to Gettysburg, Mystic Seaport and the Cape were preserved on transparencies.

I don’t know what happened to the projector but I still have the carousels of slides. I was once a scrawny kid. I have the slides to prove it. He shot mostly Ektachrome. With the ascendancy of digital photography has come the decline of film. Here’s an AP article on the fading (no pun intended) of Kodachrome.

Is the rich-hued Kodachrome era fading to black? – Boston.com.

I love the advantages of digital but it isn’t film. I grew up holding a slide to the light to see the colors glow on the transparency.

Video Slideshows

Scott Kelby’s guest blogger this week Photoshop Insider » It s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Rod Harlan. Rod advises us to “package your best images into a compelling slideshow, add a little music, save it out as a video file, and then distribute it on the web.”

Under the category of doing more with your images I present a short musical slideshow done at Animoto. If you don’t want to do the slideshow production yourself. This is just 30 seconds long and free. An extended length will cost $3 and how long is a matter of how many photos.

[clearspring_widget title=”Animoto.com” wid=”46928cc51133af17″ pid=”48d4644fcb35b5c2″ width=”432″ height=”260″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]

Wahine Basketball

I’ve been reviewing pictures I took in 2007. The picture you see is from a Wahine Basketball game I attended at the end of February. It happened to be Senior night. The last home game of the year.
It’s the night to honor the Senior class players with enough Lei’s draped on their shoulders to turn them into walking arboretums. The player driving to the basket is Senior Janevia Taylor. Just four months later she was in a car accident on her 22nd birthday and has been in an induced coma since then.
Taylor joined by loved ones on birthday | starbulletin.com | Sports | /2008/06/22/.

UH Wahine Senior Janevia Taylor drives to the basket on Senior Night

With Hope and Prayer perhaps she’ll recover enough to play pickup games in her back yard someday.

Vote for me

My fellow photographers lend me your click. Please vote for me in the latest TWIP Photo contest. 🙂 Mahalo For your Support

Vote for my photo!vote

Sell photos on photrade | By aLohaTim

Portraiture Gone Wrong

On Friday PDN posted an item about the October cover picture of the Atlantic with John McCain.  PDNPulse: How Jill Greenberg Really Feels About John McCain. It revealed how Greenberg sneaked additional pictures for the purpose of creating additional images.  Images she could use to present McCain in a negative light.  No matter what your political leanings. I hope you think using your access to a client for one purpose so you can create an image to put the client in a negative light is wrong. Such an action is a breach of trust.

Some commentors are willing to excuse her because she’s an artist.  As if being an artist gives her licensce to behave in an unethical manner.  One commentor related the story of the late Richard Avedon’s portrait of Richard VIII and Wallace Simpson.  Avedon wanted to get past the typical happy face and present the real them.  He told the couple he’d run over a puppy and got a picture of them showing saddness at the story.  The first time I heard how Avedon got the picture it disturbed me.  He used deception to elicit an emotional response and then presented it as something it wasn’t.

Greenberg got a picture for political propaganda reasons not artistic.

Luau in low light

If you ever visit Hawaii, take an evening and enjoy a luau. It’s a pleasant way to get a quick introduction into cultural icons of Hawaii and Polynesia.

Earlier this week I attended the Paradise Cove Luau – Hawaii’s Best Luau. It’s next to the Ko Olina Resort on the Waianae side of Oahu. I can’t speak to it being the best since the only other Luau I’ve gone to is at the Hale Koa. The food and entertainment was good but it doesn’t have the additional activities of Paradise Cove.

One entertainment item Luau’s have in common is the fire-knife dancer. It’s a challenging subject for low light photos. I shot this hand held at ISO 3200 at 1/25 sec and f/ 7.1 with my AF 28-300 3.5-6.3 IF Sigma lens.

Fire-Kife Dancer

This image caught my eye because if you look closely just below the dancer you can see others working on their low light photography too.

Are you a Purist?

In the latest post on RAW – an amateur photography site, featuring a monthly photo contest and much more -the photography site at Boston.com. The article on the featured photographer begins with this sentence “Arnold Kaplan doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the image you capture in the camera is the image you have to end up with.” Okay!? So who does?

Occasionally I run across this notion that merely reproducing what you see is the start of the photographic process. As if the “merely” is as simple as pressing the shutter button. As Mr. Kaplan put it “just making a copy of what Mother Nature has created.” I didn’t know reproducing the three dimensional world on a two dimensional surface was so easy. Therefore, true artistry is manipulating what you saw into something “more”.

Am I disparaging the person who wants to do more with their images? Beyond adjusting Hue and Saturation,dodging and burning or selective sharpening, for instance. No. It’s a constant source of amazement what people are able to see. And create what they see. Sometimes I like what they create and sometimes I don’t. If I don’t does that make me a “Purist”?

It seems to me the only criteria for a good image is the “wow” factor. Such as when Scott Kelby chose the winning photo for his recent Photowalk. Photoshop Insider » The Challenge of Finding a Winner For My “Worldwide Photowalk” (and the winners are revealed!). How much artistry you apply to an image is of no consequence without that final effect.

Hand Held

Here’s a cropped shot I took yesterday. I’m standing on the ridge above Waimanalo at about 1100 ft. One of the outrigger canoe clubs was practicing out on the bay. They are about a mile from me.

This was with my BIG lens 🙂 an AF Tokina 80-400 1/320 at f/9.0 ISO 200 on my Sony a700. I could’ve gone for a higher shutter speed but I think the larger aperture reduces the sharpness in the higher humidity and distance. Plus the bright light reflecting off white surfaces adds to the diffusion. I didn’t use a polarizer because it reduces the f-stop. Plus I find the filter further reduces the image sharpness at full zoom. I forgot to mention the trades are blowing in my face at about 15 mph.

By the way, this image was processed and outputted with Lightroom.

Outrigger crews working out