The picture of health

The picture of health, a photo by SL_Photos on Flickr.
I could have called this one "Chinese Ham" - the camera came up and this guy was instantly on a stage playing his part.  The "Health Source" sign in the background is a nice little touch.  This was taken during a photowalk in Chicago's Chinatown as part of the Eric Kim street photography workshop.  I'll be writing more about this fabulous experience later, once I free up from my busy (non-photography) work schedule. 

From this point forward I will no longer put my gear list for each shot on the blog. I'm done thinking about equipment, I need to focus on the shot & the vision.  I will say that I used a 35mm prime lens, this focal length (along with an ultra-wide) seems to be the ideal lens for street photography.  It's just wide enough to pull in more of the surrounding environment than a 50mm, but not so wide that you have to worry about extraneous elements poking their head into your frame. 

Big difference

Big difference, a photo by SL_Photos on Flickr.

Obviously. You would think an F5 would beat out a IIIa any day of the week. But it's not as clear cut as that. For instance, if I'm walking around all day I'd just as soon pick up a rangefinder since I can take 2 cameras and 3 lenses for less weight than an SLR and one lens. For fast action it's the F5 no questions asked. But all that speed and auto-everything comes with a price, namely a tendency to cede control of your photography to a CPU instead of your own head.

Vivian Maier

Taken at the Vivian Maier exhibit in Chicago. I had to get down pretty low on this one, using the 17-35mm 2.8 @ 17mm.

Ray Ring Flash

As part of my never ending quest for perfect light, I decided that a ring flash would be a neat toy to play with. It provides an even blast of on-axis light directly into your subjects face, and if the subject is standing close to a wall will generate a "halo" type effect. This was just a test shot that I played around with in CS4, I added some high key effects after the fact and did a B&W conversion. I'm eager to try this outside by underexposing the clouds and sun.

the opposite of not blinking.

the opposite of not blinking.
Originally uploaded by I_Take_Pitchers

This photo instantly became one of my all-time favorites. I love it love it love it. I don't think she was really even acting surprised here, just trying not to blink as my on-camera wireless iTTL commander sent out pre-flashes. This usually causes people to blink before the slave flash is finished firing. It's a good reason to buy an SU-800.

Varun & Rishi

I seem to be a paid photographer now. That part seems a bit odd, but I'm doing something that I truly love. Capturing moments that will (hopefully) be loved and preserved by a family for years, decades, a lifetime is a pretty heavy weight when you think about it. But it's worth it and I hope I can continue to do it.

This shoot was for Rishi and Varun, ages 2 & 8 and two brothers who are polar opposites in personality. Rishi was a bit shy at first but he eventually came around - I think climbing on the swing set was the key. Or maybe it was swinging around in a circle and kicking me in the arm?? Varun on the other hand was ready for his moment in the sun, he was posing like he was ready for his ESPN magazine cover.

If this is where photography is going then count me in

Apparently Sony announced a new mirrorless SLR at PMA 2010.  Some screenshots of the user interface have just been released.
The one that set my heart all a-flutter was this one:

For bokeh geeks, this is pure manna. This means you're no longer solely dependent on getting those f/1.4 & f/1.2 lenses in order to blur the background.  Of course, this kind of effect has always been available on photoshop (by applying a duplicate layer with lens blur then painting through to the parts you want in-focus) but that process is slow and not available to all photographers.  Another cool feature is that the mode dial now appears to be physically removed from the camera and placed on the LCD touchscreen as a virtual dial:

Read full post below:
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/sony-ultra-compact-dslr-camera-concept-menu-and-lcd-screenshots-11-03-2010/