Dobson Central Photography

It’s been a while since my last update.  I haven’t had much time to get out and take some photos.  Truthfully, I haven’t been inspired in the new year yet.  I have taken photos at several family events.  Anyone who knows me, however, knows that I dislike taking snapshots and people photos, so that could be part of the lack of inspiration.

On a positive note, I did receive some money from Christmas gifts.  I turned around and purchased Gary Fong’s lightsphere.  I’ve heard great things about this, both online and from someone who actually owns two of them.  The truth is, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this product.  Of course, it sounds all great on Gary’s web site, but if it didn’t, he wouldn’t be selling any of them.  Now that I own one, I’m still on the fence about it.  I own a 580EX II strobe and I love it.  Like all flashes, it can be harsh if shot directly on a subject.  If you pull out the built in white card and angle the flash so you can bounce the strobe off of the ceiling or wall, it gives you a much natural light without the harsh lighting on your subject.  Now, here comes the lightsphere.  Built to diffuse even the harshest flash.  It does just that.  It diffuses the light and gives your subject a more natural light.  However, there are only slight differences to either using the white card and angling the flash versus using the lightsphere. 

In all honesty, I haven’t shot with the lightsphere all that much yet.  I’ve only used it indoors a few times.  I haven’t tried it outdoors in an evening or low light setting yet, but I’m guessing the end results will be pretty much the same.  If you have a decent flash with a built in white card, you can save $45 dollars and put it towards something else in my opinion, or build yourself a home-made diffuser for a couple of dollars.  The home-made version isn’t near as bulky and fits nicely in anyone’s camera bag.  Personally, I’m leaning towards returning the lightsphere and doing this myself (if it hasn’t been 30 days since my purchase).  Not because I like having a MacGyver diffuser or anything, but because it’s definitely cheaper, gives the same results and it isn’t bulky and will fit in my bag easily.

It’s not often that a photography book comes along and entices me to read it right off the bat.  Most times, I’ll purchase a book simply because I’m in the mood to read something new or get a new twist on photography, which by itself, is no easy task, since there’s only so much you can read before it all begins to repeat.  Some of my favorite photography books that I have ever read, has been an equal mix of photos and some sort of story behind each photo.  I’ve gained more knowledge from the story that went along with the photo than say, here’s how I did this scene and what equipment I used type of “how-to” books. 

A new book, “The Moment it Clicks” by Joe McNally, will be released in just a few short weeks that I’m already itching to get.  Check out the video and if you find yourself wanting it as well, you can pre-order it on Amazon.

It’s a shame that it won’t be under my Christmas tree and I’m not one of the lucky ones to have got to read it already.

For those that are interested in Canons latest 1Ds Mark III camera, this is worth watching, even with the cheesy porno music.  I’m still drooling over the excellent features. 

Now here’s a cool new service.  Borrowlenses.com  You can rent all sorts of lenses by day, week or longer if you like.  They have all sorts of lenses for Nikon and Canon.  It doesn’t stop there though.  You can rent camera bodies, tripods, heads, teleconverters/extenders and flashes.

I can think of several reasons this could come in handy.  Want to test something out before buying?  Need an extra camera body for a photo shoot?  Your camera is in the shop?   Borrowlenses.com should be able to fill some of these voids.

Last Friday I went out to my sons tae kwon do dojang to take some night photography of them doing their nunchuck training camp. Every so often, they hold different camps and whenever they’ve done the nunchucks at night, I’ve wanted to get in there and take some photos. It wasn’t until this past Friday that I was able to schedule some time to go down there and do just that.

The first 10 minutes of shooting, I was getting what I had envisioned, yet the results weren’t satisfying to me. I had envisioned lots of different colored streaks throughout the photo, which was simple enough to do. It just wasn’t enough. So, I ended up using a strobe light to capture the students just prior to them starting their forms. The flash enabled me to freeze the students at the time I started the elapsed photo and then continue capturing the streaks for the remainder of the exposure. The end result is what is posted above (click on photos to see a larger version).

The setup:

1. Exposure: 30 seconds
2. Aperture: f/5.6
3. ISO: 100
4. Mirror Lockup on
5. Noise reduction on
6. Cable release
7. Tripod
8. Strobe: 580EX II at +0 with diffuser, bounced off of ceiling

I came across an interesting blog post today about where a photographer was harassed by a security officer for taking pictures of a building.  A few weeks ago I stumbled across another posting where a photographer was being harassed at a local soccer event for kids by some parents.  In both cases, the police can’t do anything about this, as long as they were not on private property or there was no reason or expectation of privacy (aka public place).

While I personally have never been harassed in a public place (in a government facility is another story), I have found some of these stories intriguing at what could happen.  In any case, while reading todays story, I came across a few interesting sites that had documentation from their research and state laws.  I thought a reprint of these here might benefit those that might be interested.   It might just come in handy to keep a copy of these with your gear, just in case you encounter some of these ignorant people saying it’s “illegal to photograph” (insert location here).

 Legal Rights of Photographers  The Photographers Right

The Legal Rights of Photographers was published by Andrew Kantor on his web site.  His posting on this, along with a LOT of interested comments, can be found at Andrew Kantor’s Place. The Photographers Rights was posted by Bert P. Krages. He has also written a couple of books pertaining to this subject.  You can find more info on Mr. Krages’ site.

You have to admire the dedication and talent of this artist, who uses a typewriter to create some amazing artwork.

Last week, I happened to be looking at some of the older entries in the news on this site, when I realized that I had never processed my Out of Africa Wildlife park photos. So, I went through them this past weekend and found a couple that were worth processing and posting in the gallery.

The folks over at Think Tank Photo are having a contest from November 16th through December 15th where they will be giving away a free photo bag, every day during the contest. You only need to enter once and you could be selected during the contest time frame.

You can enter the contest here.

After entering the contest, be sure to check out their article on Fear for Your Gear While Running Through the Airport, Part 1. I found it to be an informative and interesting read. It’s filled with all sorts of insight from many photographers who have travelled all over the world.