Guess what? this girl can kick your ass.
I have just spent the last four months working for a small production company in the motion picture business. I took the job because I wanted to learn more about lighting and film production. But now I’m back, with a new vision which has finally (finally!) evolved beyond the 85mm focal length.
I love taking pictures in the Fall*, you just can’t beat the the romanticism, melancholy and beauty of fading autumn leaf. Sort of like the swan song of the current year before it departs. Totally poetic – totally doods!
At the beginning of this year, I made it a goal to learn how to shoot video and become proficient with it by next Christmas. I wrote a little post that for some reason disappeared in the nether of the web. Basically, I needed a system that I could learn on: it has to be small and uncomplicated.
Since the much-loved Olympus E-P1 came out, I’ve been a fervent fan of the Micro Four Thirds system. The E-P1 (and EP2/GF1) struck the perfect balance between capability and portability. In fact, there’s very little a full-sized DSLR (5D-caliber) can do that an u43 can’t: mainly sport and extreme low-light/high ISO photography. That said, even the E-P1 was a bit heavy for me on extended summer hikes* so when Santa (me) found the Panasonic DMC GF3 /w 14mm f2.5 on sale for a mere $350, I was ecstatic! Continue reading
Available at your local hardware store.
Like many self-taught “artists”, I do not have a ton of college books with nicely put together palettes and inspirational material to draw from. Also, I’m not quite “rolling in it” yet so I have to learn to make do with what I have. Continue reading
I have to say, I had a lot of fun shooting with Anna last weekend. We were going for the dreamy, fantasy look and I think we managed to hit the mark but what really surprised me is that the pictures we got lend themselves quite well to post-processing. I had a heck of a time deciding what to do with this particular shot. Here were the options… Continue reading
This technique is hardly original and I have seen quite lot of bad examples of it online. Maybe it is because it is so easy to accomplish and looks really interesting to the untrained eye. A beginner could achieve it in no time and get great feedback just because it looks…. neat. If you’re into empty, useless feedback, this is for you. But if you’re not, the secret is to remember the basics of what a good portrait is and not let the neat factor clouds your judgement during the editing phase.
Alright, so we all have that folder on our computer filled with pictures we like and are inspired by. I know I do, it has over 1,078 images and they are spread across multiple machines (grrr) Not only is it a pain in the butt to keep track of them all, that mess is also a detrimental to the artistic process. Continue reading
First I would like to say that I’m not a big fan of tripods. In my early days as a photographer, I was told by teachers and books that tripods were the solution to good and sharp pictures. Well, it didn’t work. I move too much, frame too loose and in general don’t aim too straight. The last time I used a tripod, my pictures felt super static…
That said, I do find myself in need of a tripod once in a while but not enough to warrant the investment in a top of the line and oh-so-sexy Gitzo Continue reading
Symphony
I learned a few lessons doing this one: Using a fill-flash may create some really flat results in the RAW… but you can improve it during the processing somewhat. And of course, as predicted and vouched many times over: a pretty woman always improve a picture :P
