After the rain…

A few days before my trip to RI, we had some really heavy rain for a few days here in Phoenix. On one of those days the rain ended a couple of hours after I got home from work and decided to attempt to shoot some flowers with rain drops on them. I’m sure you’ve seen many photos of that before. These came out ok, but I did struggle a bit with a few things.

The optimal lighting conditions outdoors is typically 30 minutes after sunrise or 30 minutes before sunset. These shots were taken about 2 hours before sunset. I have also read that shooting with overcast skies is almost as good. Well, I definitely struggled with the lighting here. I had to really put Lightroom to work here in order to balance the lighting.

  Canon XSi, Tamron 18-270mm lens, 84mm, f/5.0, 1/100 sec, ISO 640

I was hoping to get some really good close-ups of water droplets, but it proved a bit difficult with my lens. I don’t have a macro lens for my Canon XSi, so I ended up using my Tamron 18-270mm. I love the range of this lens because I was able to get some shots of flowers high up in a tree as well as some on bushes without needing to switch lenses. I’m starting to see the limitations in the quality of the lens, but overall it’s a decent lens. I also put my tripod to good use here, hoping to get sharper shots.

  

Canon XSi, Tamron 18-270mm lens, 119mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 800

My girlfriend came home from work while I was out shooting and she told me about a butterfly what was just sitting on a palm leaf along one of the paths. I went over there with her and it was still there. It continued to sit in the same position for the entire 5 or 10 minutes that I stood around it taking photos from all kinds of angles.

 

Canon XSi, Tamron 18-270mm lens, 142mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 800

To see the full album, visit the set on Flickr here or on Facebook here.

Saboten Con This Weekend - Conventions are fun to shoot at!

This weekend I’ll be at the Saboten Con in Phoenix. This is the second year that my girlfriend, Mary, will be selling her handmade goth accessories at this anime convention. Last year, I only attended the last day of the con with her, but I discovered a great way to occupy myself and improve my photography in between customers.

Anime cons are similar to other conventions (i.e. comic book, sci-fi, Star Wars, etc.) in that the attendees tend to dress up as their favorite character, which is also known as cosplaying. I started taking candid photos last year of people dressed up and I had a great time doing so. Since then I went to two other anime conventions in Tucson with Mary and we briefly attended the Phoenix Comicon.

Cosplayer dressed as Harley Quinn at Saboten Con '09

It’s been quite a challenge taking photos at these conventions because the lighting is usually terrible. I’ve been taking my photography seriously now for two years but my main focus has always been nature photography. Lighting is not as much of a challenge outdoors than it is inside the halls and conference rooms of hotels, where the lighting is generally very low and it’s difficult to get the correct exposure.

I’ve been challenging myself at each convention to show improvement in my work. It’s rather difficult to progress when these conventions take place every three or four months, but I think I’ve been doing fairly well. At the first convention I don’t even think I really considered what I was doing and just used the same techniques I used when I was shooting outside. The second convention was a similar experience but I lucked out because the lighting was much better. After that second convention though, I started to think of ways to improve my shots by using a different shooting mode and experimenting with different ISO settings.

Cosplayer dressed as the Joker wearing Arkham Asylum prisoner outfit and handcuffs at Conichwa '10 in Tucson

Most recently, at the last Tucson convention I focused specifically on increasing the ISO, or light sensitivity. I was really afraid to play with it due to the fact that the more you increase the ISO, the more visible noise you will have in the image. The plus side is that you can get a more accurate exposure. I pushed the ISO up anyway and was only partially happy with the results. When I worked on the images in Adobe Lightroom I tried to fix the noise in the images and ended up doing it a bit too much. The photos came out looking kind of flat.

Fortunately I’ve been reading some books by Scott Kelby that have tips on shooting at weddings. Weddings are probably the closest thing in comparison to conventions as far as the lighting situations go. Weddings tend to take place in churches or reception halls with very low light, similar to the hotels that host these conventions.

A wedding photographer is always taking photos of the event and what’s actually taking place. There are of course the formal photos, but there is a lot of walking around the reception and capturing everything.

I’m not a big fan of posed shots of people cosplaying. I prefer to get the candid shots of them chatting with their friends, or cosplaying and interacting with other characters from that specific anime or video game. To me, that’s the connection I make with wedding photography.

Cosplayers at Animeland TuCon '10 in Tucson

So this weekend, I’ll be trying to use as many of the tips from Scott Kelby’s books as possible and I’m hoping to have the best shots yet. Saboten Con is the largest anime convention in Arizona as far as I know, so I’m expecting a very large turnout with a very large pool of subjects. I’ll be sure to post some shots here as well as on my Flickr and Facebook pages.

Time to get this blog moving

Ok, it's been way too long since the last time I posted. I think I really should do it more often. I've been reading quite a few books on photography, mostly on processing in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, but I'm on the third volume of a basics set of books by Scott Kelby, called Digital Photography. Click the name to see the set on Scott's website.

I started reading these because I had previously read he book on Lightroom 2, which I used to learn Lightroom 3. He has a very good way of explaining things very simply and easy to understand. He also has a great sense of humor so reading his books is very enjoyable.

The Digital Photography series of books is just basic photo tips on things like flash photography, portraits, landscapes, sports, etc. Basically everything. I'm more interested of course in the outdoor and macro photography, but I've been reading it all hoping to pick up some good tips. Let me tell you, it has been well worth it.

I've seen a dramatic improvement in my photography all around. Even some of the comments I've received on my facebook page have proven that others have seen it as well. Here are a couple of images I took recently using techniques from volume 2:

Canon XSi, Tamron 18-270mm lens, 39mm, f/4.0, 1/50 sec, ISO 800

I shot this last night at Loving Hut in Central Phoenix, AZ. It's the garlic sensation. I tried to make a very shallow depth of field and have the point of focus close to the front of the dish but not too close. About a third of the way in. I think I should of had it a little be closer, but other wise I think it came out well. I think I need a macro lens to really make this type of shot work.

Canon XSi, Tamron 18-270mm lens, 39mm, f/4.0, 1/30 sec, ISO 800

This is the Hawaiian burger that my girlfriend, Mary, had. For the most part I'm very happy with the result, but I think it would have been better if I had her turn the burger a little to the camera's right and then rotated the plate clockwise so I could get more of the fries in the shot.

Besides for these shots, I've been improving my nature shots and have been taking quite a few shots at anime and comic conventions. Mary has been selling her handmade accessories and makeup at these conventions and I go with her to help out. Of course I have my camera with me and take a lot of candid shots. I prefer them to the posed shots that everyone likes to take. There is a convention coming up next weekend so that will give me quite a bit to work on. We will also be traveling to RI in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping to get a lot of good fall foliage shots.

My plans are to keep this blog going a bit more than I have been. I think it's a great place for me to discuss what I've been working on. I use facebook to display my photos, but it's not the best place for describing my work.

Skull Forest

Today I received a message through my etsy store and was notified that two of my photos are featured in a treasury. Here is the link, but I think they only last for a couple of days. http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=62124

I know that no one will read this because I have no followers, but it's here for my own records. Hopefully I'll make a sale soon!!!

The Frontlines

So my store has been open for more than a week now. Still no sales. :( They'll come.

I've heard that it takes about 5 months for an esty.com shop to actually pick up and start making sales. So for now I have to just keep advertising. I read some good advice in the veganetsy blog about renewing items every few days. It costs $.20 to renew, but by renewing one item, it automatically puts that item near the top when people do searches. It can then lead to other items in my store being viewed. If I renew every three days, it will only cost $2.00 a month. Which isn't all that bad. And I've already seen results from renewing one item today. I have a new heart on one of photos and the item I renewed has more views on it.

I'm also think about posting my watermarked images on various other websites like flikr and such where I can spread the visibility of my work. We'll see how that goes.

This Is No Rehearsal

So I've decided to start titleling my posts the way I used to pick a subject for emails to a friend of mine. I will choose something from whichever album I happen to be listening to like a song title, the album title, band name, lyric, etc... This title comes from Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream.

And now for the important information. For the past few weeks, I have been working hard on preparations to open my own online store for my photography. I posted my first item on 5/19/09 and I am now open for business!!! I haven't had any sales yet, but I've had quite a few people taking a look at it thanks to my girlfriend who had her own craft store on the same site.

My store is located here: tharnphotography.etsy.com

I've put my favorite photos up there. I need to go through my older stuff now that I know how to use the editing software a little better and pick out some others to sell. One of my favorites is a black and white photo of an ironwood tree in the winter. All the leaves are missing and it has a very bleak and desolate look.

I found a place that prints photos with a metallic finish and it really enhances the photo. It sort of brings out the contrast in the shadows and highlights.

I'm also exploring etsy and joining some of the groups. I now belong to Vegan Etsy and have inquired on how to join Photographers of Etsy (POE - what a sweet acronym!!). Hopefully all this networking will generate some sales. Mary has been posting links to my photos in her tweets on twitter. She uses a website called tiny URL that takes any URL and changes it to something shorter and it hides where it leads to until you get there.

Well, that's all I have for now.