Swarm
Originally uploaded by drive by shooter.

Does this image remind you of anything? If it does, what? Why?

Can you figure out what it is? What do you think it I think it is? Rather, what do you think I think it looks like?

Was the previous question badly phrased? Did it confuse you? Heck, were all the previous questions badly phrased? While we’re at it, is this confusing you?

Should I just stop? I should end this torture now, shouldn’t I?

Though I probably know more about photography than the average person, I don’t claim to be an expert on the matter. In fact, I consider myself a student of photography. That statement, implies that I have a teacher - and I do. I have several, in fact. Anybody I get to work with is a teacher - even those I don’t get to talk with. It’s amazing what one can pick up simply from watching somebody operate, or even viewing somebody’s work. Of course, it helps if somebody actually makes an effort to share some of what they know.

A certain Baltimore Sun photographer has been doing just that, and I’m one of his students - well, one of his thousands of students. His site isn’t exactly strobist.com as the image on the left says, but the exact URL isn’t important. If you really want to check out his site, just click here.

Anyway, he wrote that “all photographers experience a fairly similar series of growth phases as they strive to improve at lighting.” Though we all go on different paths, he saw enough similarities to come up with the Seven Levels of Lighting. These levels are, in order: Available Light is Best; Competent On-Camera Flash; Overdone Off-Camera Flash; Experimentation; The Bag of Tricks; Personal and Unique Lighting Style; and Subject-Driven Light.

I’m hoping the titles are self-explanatory, at least to those who actually shoot. If not, I suggest you read go straight to his post - I doubt my paraphrasing and quoting will do his lessons justice. If you get lost somewhere, then maybe you should see his Lighting 101 Lessons first. After you do that, get back to me - that way, I’ll have somebody to discuss my experiments with. Enjoy!

Introducing the Asahi Pentax LX Gold, the world’s first waterproof and dust-resistant SLR. It’s a fully manual film SLR. Yes, you read that right, it’s a film camera.

More importantly, however, it’s decked out in gold and alligator trim. Yes, I know I’m stating the obvious, but I can’t help it. It’s gold and alligator!

Why in the world would Pentax come up with this now? Well, they’re celebrating their 60th anniversary, so I guess that justifies coming up with a golden fossil.

One of the most common problems we encounter when shooting is light, or more accurately, the lack of it. The picture on the right illustrates that point pretty well. Who’s in it? Right now it looks like a black box, but if you set your monitor to maximum brightness, squint your eyes, you’ll see… well… a black box. Fine, it’s not a black box, but it looks like one.

Whatever it looks like, something was supposed to show up in that frame. What was it?

[more…]

Admit it, you bought your camera so you could take pictures of yourself. Those of you with digital SLRs should ‘fess up too - you got your babies so you could take better pictures of yourself. Is that true? Good. If that’s true, and you know it is, you’re going to love this.

Taking your camera off your hand will allow you to take better pictures of yourself. I’m not kidding. No, I’m not talking about resting your camera on the floor, on a table, or some other surface. I’m not even talking about mounting it on a tripod. I’m talking about letting your camera go wild - letting it latch on to a chair, doorknob, post, or some other fixture.

How in the world do you do that?

[more…]

I accidentally deleted all my saved passwords in Firefox. I know most of them, but I’m pretty sure trying to remember some others will give me a headache. Oh well…

There should be a dialog box confirming whether you want to delete your saved passwords, right?

In any case, this was all caused by my own stupidity, I still think IE sucks, so I’ll say it again, get Firefox.

I’ve got a bunch of random thoughts on blogging lately. How do I do this? When can I do that? What the heck should I do? Who in the world is reading this?

Care to really find out what I’m thinking?

[more…]

Unlike last time, I didn’t even have time to do a round by round account. In the dying seconds of the third round, Manny Pacquiao sent Erik Morales to the canvas and left Morales shaking his head in disbelief.

Even before the opening bell, the Pac Man looked ready to eat up his opponent. He looked bigger than he was in the previous bouts and for once, was the bigger dog in the fight. Once the punches started flying, Manny showed that the fight in him was bigger too. The first round was Manny’s and Morales could do nothing about it.

The opener belonged to Pacquiao, but Morales wasn’t about to let him take another round. Morales let loose on the Pac Man and the two traded blow after blow after blow. It looked to me like Morales was going to take the round - that is, until Manny landed a jarring left. Based on Morales’ reaction after the count, one might believe that Morales had slipped, but the replay made it clear - Manny had scored the first knock down.

In the third, Pacquiao simply let his fists fly. A Pac Man combination sent Morales to the mat a second time two minutes into the round - and the fight looked like it was over. Morales fought back though, and for a few moments, looked like he was going to survive. His problem was with seconds left in the round, another left from Manny sent him collapsing on the ropes a third time. Morales sat up, shook his head, and winked - the fight was over.