Saturday Morning

The few times I'm up and about before the city fully wakes up make me wish I was more of a morning person.

Riding

Cyclists riding through Prospect Park on a late spring afternoon. From time to time, I decide to practice shooting panning images, because it’s a technique I really dig. In the past, I’ve managed to get my subject pretty sharp more or less by accident. This time, I finally clued in and flipped my camera from One Shot to AI Focus mode, and I think I nailed it.

When an Upgrade is Actually a Downgrade

Canon 7D with Holga HL-C AdapterI just got myself a Digital Holga Starter kit for my 7D, turning my rather expensive DSLR into the equivalent of a plastic-lensed Russian Chinese toy camera. There’s no way of overstating this: this lens is really cheap. It feels cheap, it’s 60mm focal length is brutally unforgiving, the aperture just is what it is (roughly equivalent to f/8), and it demands that you crank your ISO way beyond what your good sense tells you you should be using. But it’s really fun, and definitely makes one appreciate the niceties of autofocus and the like, and getting a good result (whether by happy accident or otherwise) makes it all worth it.

Drawing kit, shot with HL-C Macro lens adapter

I got the close-up/macro lens kit. The “lenses” in the kit range in focal length from 500mm to 30mm, and are even tougher to focus with than the base lens by itself (particularly that 30mm), but again, the results can be quite beautiful. The restrictiveness of the lens definitely makes me slow down and think more about what I’m about to shoot. This is definitely a bit of an adjustment for me, given that I’ve been spoiled with the instant gratification of a purely digital background.

So, is it really a downgrade? Well, technically, I suppose it is, due to its inferior quality and what not. But all in all, it’s definitely a worthy investment at around $50.

From the Archives: One Year Ago Today

 Chocolat and Croissants

Sitting near the Sorbonnes with my wife on our last day in Paris, drinking a chocolat and eating croissants before heading to Charles De Gaulle Airport.

Martini

Tanqueray Martini in the making

Continuing my boozy series of still-lifes, here are some of the essentials for making what many consider to be the classic martini. Some of the things I’ve learned over the last few days of shooting these still-lifes:

• Your glasses and bottles are never as clean as you think they are
• Reflections are a pain in the butt
• Consuming the product while shooting it introduces complications