Designers' Darkroom | Your Ticket to the Art and Design World

Lens Flare – Woodsy Sunrise

Posted on January 31, 2012 // Leave a Comment

I usually try to keep lens flare to a minimum by using a lens hood, but sometimes there’s no avoiding it. Certain lighting angles can bounce sunlight around inside your lens causing crazy looking aberrations. You will know it’s lens flare if you see large circles of light that progressively get smaller (or vice versa).

Those little artifacts can add polish to your photo, though.

Woodsy Sunrise

I have a hard time waking up early and this causes me to miss the spectacular sunrises we have around here. Older folks with sunrise driven internal body clocks constantly remind me that the sunrise from today was beautiful. Swirls of red, orange, and golden tones poked through a cloud and created a beam to the ground. Thanks for that. Now I’m jealous.

I mustered up whatever energy I had to get out of bed early and beat the sun to my location. I got lucky and set up as the sun was poking at the horizon.

This is Woodsy Sunrise.

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Nature, Sunrise

Sunkissed Strawlike Grass

Posted on January 29, 2012 // Leave a Comment

It has been a crazy week and I haven’t had enough time with a camera in my hand. You know how it goes… lots to do and not enough time to do it so it’s just a picture for today of sunkissed strawlike grass.

I took this photo without paying much attention to "textbook" rules… it’s blown out and a bit soft, but that intent is exactly what makes it airy and ethereal and that is what I love about it. Heck, it’s even pretty much straight out of the camera.

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Nature

Macro Photography – Lichen Branch

Posted on January 26, 2012 // Leave a Comment

They say the devil is in the details, and those details can be captured with macro photography. Macro photography allows you to capture a world that goes otherwise unnoticed in a place where bigger usually equates to better. Getting closer to a subject can open your eyes to a hidden world populated with new colors, textures, and forms, which in my humble opinion is a photographer’s dream; we’re always looking to be different and to explore the unknown.

I’m always searching for new perspectives, and looking through a camera lens allows me to see the world in a completely new way. Our vision is approximately the same as a 50mm lens mounted on a full-frame camera, so we can replicate what we see with the naked eye using this lens, or we can completely alter our field of view by introducing wide angle or telephoto lenses.

Macro photography holds a special place in my heart because it allows you to literally see your subject from inches away – I sometimes feel as if I’m looking through a microscope, but I’m reminded that it’s just a 1:1 representation of the subject after looking at the focus ring on the lens.

You’ll need some photography equipment to do this right. For starters, a macro lens is a necessity. Then, you’ll want to invest in a tripod and a remote trigger release. You should also be familiar with how to focus your camera manually because the autofocus system is going to hunt for a focus point when you’re this close. You want absolute control of this, so manual it is.

Another recommendation, if you can swing it, is a macro focusing slide for your tripod; this allows you to make very small adjustments in both x and y coordinates to get the best focus. You can find phenomenal tripods and accessories over at Really Right Stuff; a little warning though… this stuff is expensive, but the quality is top of the line and it will last a lifetime.

Lichen Branch

Lichen is a really unique type of fungus that comes in different shapes and colors; it primarily grows on tree branches, limbs, rocks, and soil. It’s interesting that some lichen are used to assess regional air pollution as a few of the lichen species are sensitive to pollution and may die if exposed to it.

This particular lichen species is white and was found on a dead tree branch at the park. I love how macro photography blows the background completely out of focus here.

Filed Under: 365 Project, Photography Tips // Tagged: Nature

Photography Websites – Behind the Scenes

Posted on January 24, 2012 // Leave a Comment

Updated for 2013

I decided to change it up a little today and share my knowledge with you on a vitally important piece of the photography puzzle (or any online business presence for that matter).

I’m talking about photography websites and I’m going to share with you why you need to be smart and choose the best solution for your online photography portfolio.

Photography websites are important for a few reasons:

A well designed site will define your brand.
It’ll showcase your best work.
Customers can find you.
It’s your 24/7 marketing machine

That means more customers knocking on your door looking for your services.

You Need To Avoid Flash

With so many different and emerging web technologies, finding the correct solution could be like searching for a needle in a haystack. You want photography websites to look professional, beautiful, and they have to be able to showcase your work well. I’ll say this up front – don’t use Flash!

Use WordPress Instead!

Search engines have a hard time indexing Adobe Flash sites because they’re bundled inside a container that cannot be crawled by the major search engines; yes, the engines are getting better and they can handle Flash to a certain degree, but not like pure HTML.

My advice here is to feed the search engines the language they understand and that’s HTML & CSS. The W3C is moving in the right direction by providing a lot of the pretty Flash functionality into HTML 5 and CSS 3 so it’s only a matter of time before it becomes mainstream. Technologies like jQuery can assist with pretty presentation features such as photograph fades and shadowboxes. I won’t get into too much detail here because this topic is way out of scope for this article, but you have options and most of the heavy lifting is already done for you.

There are technologies out there that will help you build beautiful photography websites. Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal are all extensible and easy to understand content management frameworks that will run circles around any Flash based site. Stick to the basics and don’t reinvent the wheel. Beautiful photography websites are attainable; you just have to be in the know, or at least in the know with the tech savvy. 🙂

Behind the Scenes

Diving into a 365 project has been exciting! It’s been more than just a project, but a way of life. I eat, breathe, and sleep photography and I love every minute of it! I may miss a day or two here and there and that’s okay; the instant this becomes a job is the same time it’s no longer fun. There’s more to this photo-a-day project than meets the eye – at least for me. Let me elaborate and give you a behind the scenes look…

See, I know there are books, tutorials, DVD’s, photography websites, even similar blogs that publish photography tips. The difference is, these publications don’t have my mark on them. It hasn’t been taught with my own unique spin. Maybe you relate to me better than someone else teaching the same subject. If you don’t, that’s okay too – I just hope that in the end, I help a few people along the way.

That’s why I am working on a formal photography tutorial section for this website. My illustrations, my storyboards, my tutorial skeletons, and all the little sticky notes with pointers, insights, and raw material will become your foundation for comprehensive photography lessons. Time consuming, yes, but think of it as my way of giving back.

This is long enough for tonight… I leave you with a photo of some raindrops on a windshield; I tend to do my best work alone in silence while the rain pelts my office window.

Filed Under: 365 Project, Photography Tips // Tagged: Abstract, Nature, Website Technologies

A Food Photography Taste – Cake Pops

Posted on January 22, 2012 // Leave a Comment

Food photography may be a natural extension for those that enjoy savoring every bite.

We all need food to sustain our body and live each day, but that necessity can become a way of life for some. They’re known as foodies and will critique, review, and make a point to frequent new restaurants for the experience, taste, and satisfaction.

Speaking of foodies, my good friend Vin does a fantastic job of writing up food reviews for NYC hot spots in his free time over at the Uber Eater blog. If you’re a foodie, you may want to explore the world of food photography if not just to document your delectable experiences.

A few rules apply when photographing food and they are: fill the frame, explore multiple angles, and find the light that allows the subject to really show its textures and dimension. I think it’s helpful to have a tripod and a stable surface to get your shots; you may even want to invest in a table sweep with off camera flash to really get creative.

Cake Pops

The misses picked up a cake pop book book a while back and it finally saw its first bit of frosting this weekend. I have to say, I am impressed with the baking world and would have never thought this sort of dessert was possible. And, it’s so simple that even I can bake some of these tasty little morsels… well maybe with a little help.

Anyway, the book is great. It’s called Cake Pops: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes for More Than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats. Some designs use sticks, others look like replicas of classic desserts. We opted to make mini muffin lookalikes this weekend. Yum.

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Baking, Cooking

Expose in Photography – First Snow of 2012

Posted on January 22, 2012 // Leave a Comment

Achieving proper exposure in photography is a fundamental skill needed if you want to stop taking snapshots and start making real photographs. You have to break away from "program mode," but fear not, calculating proper exposure is simple to learn!

Your camera sees the proper exposure at 18% grey; this means your camera will take a meter reading (a calculation) over the focus point in your viewfinder and set what it feels are the best values for this. Ah, but there’s a catch… cameras are dumb. Since the camera sees proper exposure at 18% grey, what if your subject isn’t actually 18% grey? Well, your photo is either going to be under or over exposed!

Manually setting your camera exposure comes into play in scenes where the majority of your subject is white or black – it’s also beneficial to do this 100% of the time, but let’s take baby steps for now.

Here’s what happens… say for example you wish to photograph snow; the camera will see your snow as 18% grey and under expose the shot making your beautiful, fluffy, white snow murky and grey. The exact opposite happens when shooting dark or black scenes. The 18% grey camera reading will overcompensate and blow out all those deep, intense shadows.

A solution which I rely on time and time again to get proper exposure is called the PhotoVision Digital Target. As an added bonus, this target will also set your white balance! I use the 14" version because it fits nicely in my bag.

I promise… my little photography blog tips will soon flourish into a fully-blown dedicated learning section on my website; more to come on that…

First Snow of 2012

There is a method to my madness. Getting the correct exposure ties in nicely with my next picture.

We have been blessed with our first snowfall of 2012 this past Saturday! I love the look of pristine untouched snow on roads, pathways, trees, rocks, and anything else for that matter.

Everything looks so pure and clean. Any bit of color in the drab winter months comes to life with snow. Blue US Postal Service mailboxes, red street signs, orange construction cones, and green pine needles pop out of the frame. Oooh, I just made up some new photography ideas! I must update my 365 project ideas list.

Filed Under: 365 Project, Photography Tips // Tagged: Nature

Subtle Variations – The Calling

Posted on January 20, 2012 // Leave a Comment

I posted a landscape shot of a local park covered in fog titled Weeping Dream a few days ago. It’s those subtle variations in camera location that can drastically change a photograph; I mean, I must have moved my tripod three to four inches to the right to get this starburst light. It doesn’t sound like much, but it really does create a different mood by moving just one step over.

Ok so this example is relatively far away from our subject matter and four inches makes a pretty substantial difference – imagine getting close up to something and moving four inches… chances are, you wouldn’t even be photographing the same subject anymore! So, a general rule is that the closer you get to your subject (think macro photography), the more your composition will change by making subtle variations in camera location.

The Calling

These two photographs are similar in so many ways, but to me, they’re also very different. I honestly cannot even choose between the two and pick a winner so The Calling deserves its place in my portfolio as well.

I love how the light starbursts through the tree limbs and calls out for attention. It’s dreamy and euphoric almost as if you’ve sniffed some fairy dust and drifted to this dreamscape. Everything flows and you feel The Calling from a higher power…

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Fog, Landscape

Minimize and Simplify – Frosty Yin Yang

Posted on January 19, 2012 // Leave a Comment

Simplify, simplify, simplify! I find that it is more pleasing to fill the frame with your subject and to minimize and simplify everything else. Doing this will help your subject jump out at the viewer.

Giving your viewer just enough information to distinguish the focal point can add interest to a photograph. Lead them, but let their imagination fill in the blanks.

You should also always pay close attention to contrast in your shot because the eye is led to the brightest or most contrasty area of the picture.

Rules are meant to be broken, but understanding the fundamentals and why you chose to break them is even more important.

Frosty Yin Yang

It’s cold out there and frost is forming everywhere! Today’s photo is about frost, and the underlying concepts are to emphasize contrast, simplification, and dynamics.

Diagonal lines usually create tension, but I think that this example is harmonious because it’s evenly black & white; each "wedge" complements the other just like a yin yang balances its own energies.

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Abstract, Nature

Fog Blankets – Weeping Dream

Posted on January 18, 2012 // Leave a Comment

The weather has been unusually erratic the past few days and its drastic changes have helped shape my creativity and really let my imagination run wild. First it’s ice, now fog blankets. I love fog – it’s like natures natural light diffusor. Now, try to say that five times fast.

Lately, it’s almost as if I have a sixth sense for these weather shifts and will know before it changes – only by an hour or two; that little bit of time is still more than enough to shape my vision so as long as this keeps up, we’re in for an epic year of landscape shots.

Weeping Dream

105mm focal length compression, check. Tripod, check. It’s dark outside, of course. Mirror up, yes. Remote trigger…definitely. I scouted this quiet park with my trusty Mag Light for at least an hour and got acquainted with my favorite vantage points. Subtle nuances in location can make for an extremely different photograph so I’m working every angle.

Did I mention it’s pretty much black outside and I can’t see but a few feet in front of me at any given moment; I’m lost in the fog, but I can see Weeping Willow branches in a dream like state dangling in the not-too-far-out distance collecting moisture from this dense blanket of fog. Diffused light sweeps through the trees and makes it as if they’re glowing. I’ve got it. It’s a Weeping Dream.

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Fog

Pioneer Woman Style – Pasta With Pancetta and Leeks

Posted on January 17, 2012 // Leave a Comment

In case you were wondering, Pioneer Woman is a fantastic chef by the name of Ree Drummond. Her recipes are delicious and her humor is off the wall. Each recipe usually has its own backstory with hysterical ingredient references to butter, bacon fat, or wine; I feel like I’m already on a first name basis with Ree and I have never even had the pleasure of meeting her.

I am a little out of The Food Network loop, but I’m pretty sure Pioneer Woman even has her own cooking show now. A side note… I don’t really own any recipe books, but if there were one book I’d purchase, it would have to be The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I’d be even more grateful if I happen to find a signed copy.

Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks

I mean, who doesn’t love salty, creamy, cheesy goodness over pasta?! I have been making Pioneer Woman’s Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks for almost two years now. The flavor is absolutely divine and the meal works well if you’re in a pinch for time because it is pretty simple to prepare and cook.

Now, I don’t know if its my inability to move quickly in the kitchen or slice like a ninja (I’m not a chef), but Ree’s prep times seem to be impossible to replicate. This particular recipe calls for five minutes prep, but in my reality, it is more like fifteen. I’m attributing my slowness to uncut Boar’s Head Pancetta and inferior kitchen swiftness.

Do yourself a favor and check out Ree’s cooking site. Dinner is waiting…

Filed Under: 365 Project // Tagged: Cooking