Filter Frenzy

I remember when I thought Photoshop was the be all, end all. I was ecstatic when I finally wrangled and finagled the money to buy it. At last! The promised land!

And then I discovered plug-ins.

A lot of plug-ins. Apparently Photoshop was not the be all, end all. It was just the beginning, the first step in a long journey of third-party software that promises to make images better, faster.

The two that I plan to purchase are Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Exposure 2.0. Both programs have massive amounts of filters and presets to play with. I know that someone with real chops can get the same effects using Photoshop alone, without purchasing additional software.

But not everyone has those chops. And even if you do have the chops, it takes a lot of time. Time that could be better spent in other ways. Time, money . . . you get the idea.

Color Efex Pro offers a free 15 day trial, and Exposure offers a 30 day trial. Both demos are fully functional. I find the software to be a little bit on the pricey side, but if you (or someone you know) is a student or educator, both programs can be purchased through the Academic Superstore at a considerable discount. The value of education!

Sigma 10-20mm

I love this lens. I've been wanting one for a long time but was not sure how practical it would be. It doesn't stop down to 2.8. But then, it's wider than the Nikon, Tokina, and Tamron zoom lenses in the same category.

So I decided to go with a wider lens that was a tad bit slower. And it's a lot of fun! The above picture was taken at the Long Beach Grand Prix. They had an exhibit on green cars inside the convention center. I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but it's a Lexus sedan with a matte black finish. It looks very, very cool.

And it looks even cooler shot at 10mm; instead of looking like a regular car, it looks like the Batmobile. I was practically leaning right over the hood, and the car still looks like it's a few feet away.

I can't wait to try some portraits with this lens. They may not be flattering, but they'll definitely be interesting.

The Need for Speed

I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix today. I've never been to a racing event before and didn't know what to expect. I don't even watch it on TV because, frankly, I don't really get it. Cars driving fast? In a circle? That's it?

Well, now I can say that cars driving fast in a circle is actually kind of cool. They are incredibly loud - I had to buy earplugs after I got there. And they go really fast (duh). The above shot was taken at a shutter speed of 1/100. I still need to edit the pictures I took, but so far this one is my favorite.

Yeah, it's a blurry mess. But it's one of the few pictures that I didn't have to try to shoot through a fence. I could have bought a Super Photo Pass for $250 (!) and stood in special bleachers that were above the race track and fences, or bribed one of the press photographers to let me wear their silly blue vest for 20 minutes.

No, instead my brother and I wandered around the track, trying to get views of what we could. We ended up near the hairpin turn, which was the place to be when they had the drifting competition. I held my camera up above my head for this picture, meaning I only had to shoot through one fence instead of two.

Portraits: Blended #1

Kelly and Scott were the first people I photographed for my interracial project, which for now is called Blended. We took the pictures at their new home last Saturday. I've known Kelly for, oh, going on 14 years now. Kelly and Scott are expecting their first child, so it's a very exciting time for them!

Here are a few more pictures from the afternoon.

To Lightroom or Not to Lightroom

I use Aperture to organize my photos. I bought the program when it first came out, so Lightroom was not on the scene. Now it is. And I'm debating whether to switch to Adobe's photo management software or plunk down the money for Aperture 2.0.

I know that more people use Lightroom, but the idea of trying to migrate my entire Aperture library into Lightroom is less than appealing. Not to mention having to learn another program. From what I can gather, people who prefer Lightroom like the better integration that Lightroom has with Photoshop. Aperture can connect to Photoshop or any external editor you like. My only problem with the version I have (Aperture 1.5) is that when I send RAW files over to Photoshop, they don't open in Camera Raw. I don't know if Aperture 2.0 fixes this, but if it does then I'm sold.

What's In a Face?

I'm sure that at one point or another, if not always, we wonder what we "look like" to other people. Some people wonder if they look pretty enough, thin enough, rich enough, smart enough.

I always wonder what ethnicity I look to people. I'm mixed - my mother is African-American and my father is Mexican-American. Most people think I'm black. Some people ask if I'm Puerto Rican or Cuban. I've also been asked if I'm Brazilian, Ethiopian, Somalian, or Filipino. Strangers on the street have started speaking to me in Amharic and I'm like, "whuuuuuh?"

And frankly, I'm kind of obsessed with all things mixed race, cross-cultural, and interracial. So I've decided to channel all this obsession into a photography project: portraits of mixed heritage people and of interracial/cross-cultural couples and families.

If you or anyone you know fits the bill, send them my way! Currently I'm working my California contacts but eventually want to find people all over the country. Once I get going I'm going to create a special gallery on my website for the portraits.

Stay tuned!

Canon's New Beast

I'm a Nikon person. Why? Because when I took my very first photography class, my professor used Nikon. She recommended that we use Nikon. So, I went out and bought a Nikon FM10 and a few lenses to go with it. When I bought my first digital SLR I contemplated buying a Canon, but Nikon had their hooks in me and I didn't feel like making the switch.

And after that I didn't give Canon equipment much thought, until I chanced upon a review of their newest camera, the EOS-1Ds Mark III (man, that's a long name). What caught my eye wasn't any cool features or interesting specs, but the price tag - $8,000. That's a good $3,000 more expensive than Nikon's top-of-the-line camera, the D3.

Not that it matters, since I can't afford either camera anyway. But it's nice to think that Nikon's best is more affordable than Canon's best. And when I really start raking in the big bucks, I'll lay out for a Hasselbad H3DII-39: a nifty $33,995. Just to show I've earned it.

The Moment It Clicks

I've seen this book recommended in various places, so I finally picked up a copy. It's definitely interesting; there are a lot of great images and, for most of them, McNally gives a brief rundown of how it was lit and shot.

But that's just what makes this book a little intimidating. Some techniques are good ideas that anyone can do. And others take a small army and a truck load of grip and lighting equipment to accomplish.

The most fascinating pages are the two shots that show all of the camera gear and lighting equipment that McNally uses. It's quite impressive. I don't even know what a lot of that stuff is, let alone what to do with it. Right now I'm just trying to conquer off-camera flash.

This is a fun book, great to flip through and fascinating to read. I'll have plenty of ideas to add to my to-try list.

Play With Your Toys

I'm the first to admit that I often suffer from gear lust - I have a a mile-long list of all the lenses, lights, camera bodies, studio gear, and miscellaneous gadgetry that I know will make my photography infinitely better.

And I'm the first to admit that it's a ridiculous theory.

People are quite capable of using the finest, most expensive camera equipment on the planet and producing nothing but garbage. And people can take a cardboard box with a hole punched in it and make amazing images.

So it's nice to take a cheap plastic camera, throw some film in there, and see what happens. No exposure meters, no LCD monitors. That excitement when you pick up your film from the lab and see what you ended up getting. It's definitely a change of pace.

I received a Diana camera as a gift, along with 10 rolls of film. I just developed the first roll; the above image was shot on Fuji Velvia 100. It was taken in San Pedro, overlooking the harbor. The unpredictable aspects - the lens flare, the vignetting - is what makes this kind of photography so much fun.

Back That Thang Up

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who . . . wait, scratch that.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who back up and those who will. I am sad to say that I had to learn the hard way. Several years ago my new laptop, only a few months old, had to have it's hard drive reformatted. I think it was some goofy program that I downloaded from the internet. Luckily I had not had the computer very long and still had a lot of files on my old computer. But boy, did I learn.

I know that you can purchase software for backing up your files; for a long time I used Backup, software that comes when you purchase a .Mac account. But now Apple's OS 10.5 comes with Time Machine, and this thing is amazing. It makes backups of my computer every hour to an external hard drive.

Of course, just as internal hard drives will fail (not if - when), so do external hard drives. Chances are they will not fail at the same time, but . . . I also want to put my files on DVDs. Two sets of DVDs: master and disaster, as my brother would call it. One set stored at my home, the other set stored someplace else and hopefully safe from any disasters that may strike my place of residence.

Backing up of computer files is important for everyone, and especially important for people with photos and other irreplaceable files. Don't learn the hard way!