Sara J. Flemming

Less is more

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:52:23 -0800

Halloo! Look who's back! That was a long time, but I can explain!

No, it's too much, let me sum up: I moved from my home in Los Angeles to my new home in Seattle.

I know! It just seemed silly to have so many scarves and never get to wear them, so that's all fixed, now. Onward!

I took a few trips this past summer and along with just not wanting to have to lug a bunch of gear around, I thought it would be a good challenge to pare down what I carried. I took 1-2 lenses each trip and on my first NY trip, I didn't even take a digital camera proper -- just my iPhone and the F5.

When I first started acquiring lenses and I'd go somewhere, "Oh! I need this one! And that one! And also this one! What if I miss something?!" Well the answer to that is: and so what if you do miss a something? You were there, you saw it, you had fun, right? Besides, sometimes missing the shot is good for ya. Builds character. (This is what I tell myself when I miss a shot I wanted. Ahem.)

What have I gotten out of limiting my lens choices?

A much better feel for what I can do with my 50mm or my wide angle. Forcing myself to think a little harder before and while I shoot means I shoot a little less, but I tend to like more of what I get and I'm all right with that.
Not fretting when I find myself out and about and realize I have only one lens with me or a different lens than I thought I did. So: a little more confident in my own abilities. Do I still have miles to go? Yes, of course; but less worry is always a good thing.

So there you have it. Give it a sho-- a try, see how you like it (or don't, that's fair, too). Also! Ken's got a good article on carrying less, check it out.

Resetting the camera: Polaroid SX-70

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:37:50 -0800

You've done it, I've done it.

You're out shooting in low light, so you crank the ISO, drop the shutter speed, etc. and continue merrily on your way. Next day, you're outside and everything you shoot is wildly blown out. It takes a few minutes (or an hour, if you're me), but you finally remember that you upped the ISO to 3200 and um, it's not that dark at 10am, so maybe it's time to fix that.

Heh.

In the case of a Polaroid SX-70, there's no ISO to change, but there is an exposure adjustment (light/dark wheel) and as I learned this week, you want to be sure it's reset before you go exposing shots that are a bit more expensive now than they used to be...

I didn't realize until these were midway through developing that I had the light/dark wheel set too far to the right (when you're looking at the camera)/too far into lighten. Blerg. These two aren't total loses, but it's not what I was after at all, so I'm disappointed.

(As an aside, in case you wondered, the Polaroid SX-70's ISO is about 150, but the still-available 600 film has an ISO of about 600. Unless you want always-overexposed photos, you need some an ND filter, either on the film pack itself [the method I use], or over the lens [the method my good friend Mark uses]. We can get into the differences between the two in another post. How about next week? Sound good?)

So: always check your settings!

Challenge: Composing with the iPhone

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:39:40 -0800

My recent trip to NYC presented me with a question: do I take the gear I would normally travel with? Or do I set restrictions for myself and see what happens?

The upside to taking my normal pieces and amount of gear: I won't "miss" any shots. The downside: that stuff gets heavy and in NYC? You walk. A lot. The upside to the restrictions: much less to carry! The downside: I would probably take fewer photos.

Restrictions it is! (:

What did I take? My iPhone and my F5 + 20mm lens and a few rolls of film. Don't get me wrong: the F5 is no featherweight, coming in around 2.5lbs. With only the 20mm on it and nothing else rolling around in my bag, though, it works out well. (The film is still undeveloped, so we can talk about the process of shooting film later.)

Relying on the iPhone isn't something I came up with entirely on my own. I nicked the idea from Justin when we were in Las Vegas this year (I second-shot for him and WPPI was going on).

I enjoy using the iPhone's camera so much because sometimes it flips out and gives you a puzzle photo, sometimes you miss the shot completely, and sometimes it works out just the way you want.

Composition is what I worked on with the iPhone's camera. Not that I generally don't pay attention, but you know, it's good to practice. (Of course, you won't always get a choice about when to practice. Like say when your auto focus jams the 2nd day of a 2-week trip and you get to spend 11 days manually focusing... ahem.)

Certainly, not everything I shot with the iPhone was great, but it was fun and so: totally worth it to remind myself how much I like taking photos.

A couple more favourites:

If at first you don't succeed...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:11:57 -0800

The first time I visited New York City, my good friends took me to the Met and we walked around for hours. For a short, two-day stop: I had too much gear with me, but I'm grateful I had my wide angle that day.

As we came out of the Medieval hall, I saw this statue and stopped in my tracks. To date, it's one of my favourite photos I've taken. I love the way the 12-24mm and the black and white conversion worked for me.

I was in New York again this past week and I wanted to get another shot of it. Another good friend ambled around the museum with me (for at least an hour and a half) trying to find it (I'd forgotten where I saw it). As luck would have it? The Medieval hall is under going renovation.

Of all the statues left in the room with the choir screen, only the half figure of the angel was removed. D'oh!

Took the shot, anyway. (:

Watching the Olympics

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:39:59 -0800

Since the Athens games in 2004, news sites have come around to having more (and better) photo galleries that aren't strictly tied to articles. The summer games in Beijing seem like the best covered Olympic games in recent memory. Or at the very least, the games with the widest selection of photos available to the public.

The games are finished, now, but there are just tons and tons of photos to be had and here are some of my favourites:

Olympic Pictures of the Day from the New York Times
Photo Galleries: Beijing Olympics 2008, LA Times
Newsweek's Visions of China. Vincent Laforet's entry about shooting events with multiple cameras is excellent. Access and timing are everything.
Women's Fencing at Boston.com's The Big Picture.

They're not the same.

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:13:00 -0800

"Our new cup. 15% less plastic than before. 45% fewer carbon emissions to make it."

The reductions are good news, but I'm just psyched they used "less" and "fewer" correctly. (A good primer on such things if you're interested.)

Google and Tycho

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:46:16 -0800

I love the trees planted around my office complex. They're all some 20' tall, with lovely broad leaves that catch the sunshine beautifully, providing buckets of shade along the way.

Normally: I'm the sort to see such a group of trees, wonder what they are specifically, and go find out. But you know how it is with the everyday: you forget because you see it every day. And so I did. Until today. Finally curious enough to do something about it, I engaged my Google-fu.

Unfortunately: the tree encyclopedia that I found wasn't much of a help in this search. Then it occurred to me that I remember lounging beneath similar trees between classes @ UCLA on the north campus. So I search "UCLA north campus trees" not expecting to find anything, because really: how likely is it that a university would detail their landscaping choices... oh, oh UCLA does. Well, of course we do. (:

As it happens, the trees from my college years and the trees in my everyday life that I enjoy so much are the same: the South African Coral tree. I'd forgotten that the trees at work bloom every now and again with those bright red flowers. Still: I recognized them at once.

Mystery solved!

Post tree-hunt, I came across 2 other items I want to share with you:

Not everyone's a fan of Ken Rockwell, but I like him well enough. He's always been straight with me and I appreciate that he uses the gear he talks about. In a recent update, he resurfaced his thoughts on how to use ultra-wide lenses and I think it's a pretty good Getting Started Guide if you're trying out the crazy wide end of the spectrum.

In short? Get close!
Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) has long been a favourite. Dub, atmospheric (not always the same thing), but never ever boring, I can let a Tycho record or EP play for hours on end. "Sun-drenched" is one of the best descriptions I've seen of his work. His latest EP features the single "The Daydream" (iTunes) and a short film called "Meridian" was just released featuring the track.

Not everyone gets down with the time-lapse photography set to electronic music, but this is pretty good. It's a nice selection of good photos with good transitions and some ridiculous particle effects.

Yum.

Entertainment Weekly. Who knew?

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:57:15 -0800

It took me a little by surprise to be smitten with photos from Entertainment Weekly not once, but twice in the last couple of weeks.

First up, a photo shoot of the cast from the forthcoming Twilight. And no, I don't mean the cover (Kristin Stewart is gorgeous, but I don't know why they had to do that to Rob Pattinson, I mean, really). Heh. No, I'm talking about the photos in the article, shot by Jeff Riedel.

I like that the photos have little to do with the look of the movie, they're Riedel's own. And you've got to respect a guy who shoots on location with a 4x5 camera. Dang.

Second up, a series of actor portraits from the by-all-accounts insanity that was the '08 San Diego Comic-Con. The portraits, shot by photographer James Dimmock, feature actors at Comic-Con in support of their various projects. A few of my favourites in the bunch:

What I like is the way the subjects dictate the mood of each shot and they're not all serious and drama with just rotating faces. Surely, a metric ton more were shot and just not uploaded, but still, it's a special skill bringing out your subject's personality (one I'm working on, myself) and Dimmock's clearly got it.

Pattern: Photo + caption!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:24:44 -0800

Not too long ago (at work), I found myself in need of getting photo captions actually on a photo, instead of below or beside the photo (not unlike the way the lead photos are laid out on the Yahoo! Sports homepage). So, I set about tinkering with CSS and semi-transparent PNGs. After throwing out the PNGs (what if I want to change the size of the overlay? I have to make a new graphic? Pass!) and a round or two of code review and updates and then some further tinkering on my own, I've got a pattern!

Brass tacks.
As I said, the PNGs went away quickly when I realized that if I wanted to re-use this code but wanted a differently sized overlay, I'd probably need a graphic. That's just silly! With some cross-browser transparency magic, the overlay can be any size (dimensions) that I want it to be.

div.transparency {background: #000; filter:alpha(opacity=70); opacity: 0.7; -khtml-opacity: 0.7; -moz-opacity:0.7;}

Then, I thought to myself, "Self, what if you want to use a portrait-oriented photo and not landscape? And what if you have more caption on some photos than others?" (She's always being difficult, Self is.)

Defining widths and heights wasn't going to cut it if we're using differently-sized photos and may have different amounts of caption (title, title + description, etc.), so out went the dimensions. Instead, I placed the overlay by using the left and bottom properties (of course, you could use top if you always want it... across the top, but I don't, so there you are).

The overlay, div.transparency, is empty and placed inside a caption container for 2 reasons.

By not wrapping the caption in div.transparency, the caption won't inherit the transparency over the overlay. It, the overlay, has a different z-index than the actual caption content so the two don't conflict.
With the overlay inside the caption container and set to full width and height, it takes on whatever dimensions the caption content gives its container. So, it'll flex with its parent. Yay!

div.transparency {background: #000; border: 0; filter:alpha(opacity=70); opacity: 0.7; -khtml-opacity: 0.7; -moz-opacity:0.7; height: 100%; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 100%; z-index: 2;}




		 


		  

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		   More info about the photo.

Monkey wrench.
At this point, I had a pretty good chunk of code working for me. I passed it over to Tom to try out and got more questions in return. What if I want it to align to the right? Does it always have to be the full width? Can it flex depending on the amount of content?

Picky, picky!

As it turns out: it can align to the right; no, it doesn't always have to be full width; and yes it absolutely can flex with the content.

For the width of the overlay, I decided to have the default not full width and offer an additional class to achieve it. Instead, the default is for the width of the overlay to be dependent upon the length of the caption content.

The default alignment of the overlay is also to the right mostly because I was using Tom's homepage as my sandbox. There's an additional class to push it back to the left, not that you couldn't swap the default and modifier if you so wished.

And lastly, there's an additional class to align the caption content to the right. Although, I must tell you, it only seems to work in conjunction with the full-width version.

div.full-width {width: 100%;}
div.caption-left {bottom: 20px; height: auto; left: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: auto;}
div.text-right {text-align: right;}

Samples of each case of the pattern and the code all put together.

Examples
T Incorporated: Tom's homepage changes dynamically and when there are photos, they use the photo + caption pattern.

Updates
Oh, I'm sure there will be plenty. Please feel free to drop in a comment if you've got suggestions!

Thanks to Tom for beta testing and cheerleading. (:

Inspiration: long photos

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:39:41 -0800

Inspiration, as they say, is found everywhere. The affordability of video cameras (Flip Videos, compact digital cameras that produce pretty good video, even small-ish HD cameras) has ushered in an explosion of folks creating hours and hours of their own video. It's not always good, but sometimes it can be great.

DIY35mmPro from twoneil on Vimeo.

This one is a test demonstrating a 35mm lens adapter on an HD video camera. I'm only used to seeing the focus change like this from inside my own viewfinder (or sometimes during some particularly dramatic moment in a film, heh).

Dunstan Orchard has a particular gift for composition. The combination of the images (bits of time?) and music he chooses for his video is always somehow just right. (And it doesn't help my gear lust at all that he made this one with the Ricoh GR Digital, a small-ish digital camera I'm highly interested in. (: ) For another example, check out "I can tell that we are going to be friends".

Lori is a favourite whether it's video or regular still photos. She has a great sense of humour and fabulous sense of style (and she owns that dead-center, headless thing and don't let anyone tell you different). Her videos tend to be short and this one's one of the best, I think.

Links for Tuesday

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:28:22 -0800

Split Second
Another excellent photography exhibit from The Morning News. Barbara Probst sets up her cameras (sometimes 2, sometimes many more) to fire at the same moment, capturing a scene from different angles.

Photography is like language: It provides us with an interpretation depending on the intentions and abilities of the person that told the story or made the photograph. - Barbara Probst

The mechanics of taking (or making, if you prefer) a photograph fascinate me. From the location, time of day, equipment, people/things being photographed, and the people doing the photographing: it's all part of whatever image you finally see.

Generally, I'm not bothered or disappointed in finding out how much (or how little) work went into a photograph. Lots of prep time and lights and make-up don't necessarily make a photo
any less inspired, so why bother turning your nose up at it? Everything can't always be shot from the hip, so what's the point pretending it should be?

London is Swimming
Photos of abandoned pools in and around London. I like it when such places that are forgotten and untended manage when photographed to say something about their former lives. In Gigi Cifali's collection of pools, I think it's low angles and bright & muted colours that sucked me in. (The photos are also in Polar Inertia's latest issue.)

Incidentally, BLDGBLOG is one of my all-time favourites; if you have any interest in architecture, urban landscapes/planning, then BLDGBLOG might be something want to add to your bookmarks/feed reader. It's not the sort of thing you can just skim -- well, okay, usually there are photos, so you can but why you would is beyond me, the entries are thoughtful and worth your attention.

Snow in July? A mixed blessing in the Rockies
The NYT runs some pretty excellent photos and I'm noticing lately that they're often going with a pretty large photo on the article page for the day's featured articles. Unfortunately, they pull the photos from the stories once they're a few days old, so here's the shot from the story:

Photo credit: Michael Jamison/The Missoulian, via Associated Press

Gear lust: the Nikon D700

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:22:10 -0800

Well, it's true: Nikon announced the D700 today. It's rather close on the heels of the D300 and D3 releases (both less than a year old), but in terms of price points: it makes enough sense.

The D700 is said to be priced at about $2999 (it always seems ridiculous to say "about" and then provide such a specific number, but it's a safe way to wriggle out of "hey, you said it would be some round number!"). For about $1400 less, you've got the D300 (my rig) and for $2000 more, you've got the D3.

Based on DPReview's hands-on preview, it looks to be a pretty excellent camera.

full-frame sensor, but still takes DX lenses
self-cleaning sensor (hooray!)
almost the same size as the D300
fits the accessories (battery grip, batteries) from the D300

Possibly the best news is that it doesn't go on sale in time for Christmas, it goes on sale in time for summer! (:

It's definitely going to be hard to resist. Woo!

Doctor Jones!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:19:30 -0800

A little Indy Jones waiting patiently for his Jungle Cruise.

The Big Picture

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:40:30 -0800

About a month ago, Boston.com fired up a new photo blog, The Big Picture.

With regular news stories, you rarely get very large photos. Very wide columns of text are difficult to read, so if photos are embedded in an article, they're typically medium-ish (say, 500 pixels or so). If there's a separate photo player, the photos still aren't "oh my goodness"-big.

Well, The Big Picture is all about "oh my goodness"-big. Each entry features an enormous collection of photos from a given topic, e.g. the latest space shuttle launch. We're all so used to seeing those medium-ish photos that these huge photos is a reminder of how powerful photos can really be.

Hello World!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:24:40 -0800

I've been touring a handful of publishing systems and so far MovableType is the only one to install and work the way I expected it to.

Okay, that's not entirely fair. WordPress installed quite nicely, but I managed to forget my administrative password and the password recovery is failing me entirely. It generates just 1 key, but when I hit it, it tells me it's an invalid key. Pff!

I got ExpressionEngine installed, but even though everything is up and running, er.. none of the posts I created are actually, y'know, publishing. So that's helpful.

What's all this then? I've tried (and failed) to have and maintain blogs before but they were always unfocused and sort of about everything. This go 'round, I have but 2 subjects in mind: CSS and photography. Heh.

CSS (and HTML and JavaScript and other web-authoring awesomeness) is how I make my living and photography is how I live. (Whew, that was cheeseball, I know; but it had to be said. Just so you know, I'm a big dork and corny jokes will almost always make me laugh and I will almost always go for it. (: )

So sometimes I will go turbo-geek on you and wax philosophic about some CSS technique or another and sometimes I'll post photos / photography techniques / awesome photos that I stumble on to, etc.

Really it comes down to this: I like sharing. So here goes! (: