Portrait Session With My Beautiful Wife
Saturday night I took another shot photographing Miranda with off camera lighting. I used the same set-up that I have used before when making these photographs (SB-600 diffused with a white shoot through umbrella) and I have to say, it went a lot smoother than it did the first time.
The time that I have invested playing with the flash has really paid off. Knowing the shutter speed and the aperture that I wanted to use made it very easy to make some test photographs to dial in the power on the flash. After that, only minor aperture and shutter speed tweaks were made.
Here are a few of my favorite photographs from the evening:
* All of these photographs were made with the D90 and the SB-600 in full manual mode. The flash was fired with Cactus Triggers.
DSLR Shopping? Skip The Nikon D5000 And Buy The D90
A colleague of mine recently came to me expressing his interest in moving into the world of digital photography by purchasing his first DSLR. As a lifelong Nikon point and shoot owner, he started digging into the current line of Nikon DSLR cameras. As a Nikon user myself, I was happy to help him out.
Quickly he narrowed his decision between the D5000 and the D90 originally leaning toward the D5000 from a price standpoint but after comparing the bodies side by side my recommendation to him was to get the D90.
Here are my four reasons that I would spend the extra $150-200 on the D90 over the D5000 and why you should too:
- The lack of a selector wheel on the front of the D5000.
This was a missing feature that drove me nuts when I first learned what I was doing on my D40x. It prompted me to step up to the D80 within only a few months after my original purchase.
- The D5000 does not have a top mounted display.
I know that with both camera bodies you have the option of viewing this data on the LCD monitor on the back of the camera but personally, I don’t like using the LCD to display the information.
- The D90 has a built in motor for non AF-S.
Autofocus lenses that are not AF-S will only work in manual focus mode with the D5000.
- The D5000 feels cheap.
Simply put, the D90 feels much more substantial and sturdy in your hand.
These reasons may not seem as important to a buyer as saving a few bucks but if you are anything like me (I replaced a D40x for a D80 after 5 months), you will long for these features once you get to know the camera and wish you would have purchased the D90 from the start.
Photographs From The 2009 Long Beach Marathon
Saturday morning I invited you to join me on a challenge of taking 1000 photographs over the weekend.
I got off to a fast start on Saturday morning by taking over 150 photographs of our puppies playing on the local dog beach. I was soon sidetracked as the remainder of the day was spent buying new furniture and painting our home (the place looks great!) followed by dinner with friends in Hollywood leaving me behind on where I wanted to be with this exercise by the end of the day.
Sunday started anew with the 2009 Long Beach Marathon taking place right in front of our house. I started out still in my pajamas photographing the runners as they passed by for at least twenty minutes before I realized that it might be a good idea to go back inside and get dressed before going any further. I popped back out with my bag and moved around the parts of the course around my house as well as on the paved path on the beach taking over 600 photographs in the process.
While photographing a marathon that was happening right outside of my door was not exactly what I had in mind for the challenge that I had issued myself, it was a wonderful opportunity to photograph an event that I probably would have skipped over. It was also nice because I am still a little phobic of photographing people.
Here are the photographs from the event. They can also be viewed here
As I said before, this was not exactly what I had in mind for the challenge but I was able to spend some time with my camera nonetheless. I will definitely be giving this challenge a go next weekend.
If you took a “shot” at this yourself, please comment below with a link to your gallery.
An Idea to Break From a Creative Drought
It is no lie that I have been slacking lately in taking new photographs. While I have been spending a decent amount of time making some refinements to this site as well as placing a lot of focus on my Etsy shop, I have been at a creative standstill and I am not to sure why. It seems as if I go through cycles where I am either photographing a ton, or not at all.
Seeing as how I am in that “none at all” part of the cycle, it is time for some action. It it is my goal to take my camera everywhere I can with me this weekend and to take at least 1000 photographs by sunday night. For some of you, this may be a very easy task to accomplish. For others, like myself, this could be an opportunity to spend some long overdue quality time with your camera.
So, if you are in the same boat as me, sign on and take this little challenge. Dust off your camera, blow the dust of your sensor, and clean your favorite lenses. Take as many photographs as you can by Sunday night. Tomorrow evening I will share the favorites that I took this weekend here in a new post. I invite you to comment with a link to where we can see your galleries online.
Ok, no more typing. Time to grab my gear and to get to work!
Bailey’s First Trip to the Beach
Out little buddy had his last round of shots yesterday and was cleared by his Veterinarian to make his way onto the Dog Beach in our neighborhood. Here are two clips of the fun:
This was shot using the video setting on my Nikon D90 set to the highest resolution. I have not played around woo much with the Video Mode but after seeing how nice the results are, I will be doing so more often in the future.
Flower Macro Shots
It has been a while since I have taken any floral macro shots and seeing as how I picked up some beautiful Dahlias and Gerbera Daisies for the Mrs. while I was at the farmers market on Sunday morning, I figured it was time to break the hiatus.
I hope you like them:
You can see more shots like this here
