June 5th, 2009
Well, after using Flickr successfully to share my pictures, it is time to leave them soon! They haven’t done anything wrong, but I have been asked by several people on how to get some of my photos. Enough that I am going to start a free 14-day trial on another site and see what happens…
There are several things that I wish Flickr would do that they just don’t. One of them is to offer some way for me to get all of my original size pictures off of their site and sent to me on a DVD (or several) even if I had to pay for that. Instead, I am forced to spend hours of time manually downloading each individual picture after logging into my account.
A friend of mine (and pro photographer) found another site that offers this and much more. Based upon his research, initial trial period, and success at selling photos online for a living, I am joining him in deleting all of my content from my Flickr Pro account and moving over to start my - FREE Trial - Trust your most precious memories to SmugMug, upload your photos today.
If you
are interested, please click the link above and try it out. If you stay with the service and pay your membership, it helps me out. And, if you DO join from my link above, let me know after paying and I will show you how you can cover your yearly hosting fees by showing others how to get their account as well!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
May 6th, 2009
During my current trip to Alabama, I took a ride into Oak Mountain State Park on what most considered a horrible rainy afternoon. While driving through, I saw a lake to my right and was fortunate enough to find that NO ONE was around! Their loss, my gain…
When I came around the corner, I saw a beautiful clash of colorful paddle boats and canoes sitting at the dock. The amount of color was just too much to walk away from, so I parked in the empty lot, put on the best lens I had with me, and walked out to the dock looking for the right angle to get this capture.
All I can say is walk around your subject until you can see what you really want to capture. I never imagined I would stand where I did to capture this shot. But, it was the best for lighting and color. Time was also on my side when the sky opened up and I caught the gorgeous blue sky with gray and white clouds just above the tree line. Don’t stay in if it is raining, you never know what you will find!
Tags: alabama, boats, Flickr, geotag, lake, location, Photography, photos, pictures, red, tree, water
Posted in Downtown, Everglades, Flickr, Miami Beach, People, Photography, Places, Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 20th, 2009
First and foremost, a very big thank you goes out to my buddy Ross at www.floridaphoto.com for a great flight on a perfect afternoon yesterday. Can’t wait to do it again!
Last time I went flying with Ross I had a Sony DSC-H1. The pics came out ok, but back then I was a pure point-and-shoot kinda guy. No manual settings, everything was set to automatic. The pictures came out fine, but nothing like the ones from yesterday using manual settings on my 450D!
I started out trying to shoot at ISO 100, then 200, only to find out that my shutter speed was way too slow for what I wanted to capture. Based upon his suggestions, I made some adjustments and all I can say is THANKS - it definitely made a difference in the sharpness of the pics.
Another thing I learned is that next time, I won’t be attempting to use my circular polarizer AND I will wear a dark color shirt to minimize the reflections from the inside of of the window on my side. Of course, one of those nifty holes in the window on the other side will help as well Ross - LOL.
If you are looking for aerial photography around South Florida - take a look at Ross’ site mentioned at the opening of this entry. If he doesn’t already have what you want, you won’t be disappointed with his work!
Tags: aerial, beach, Flickr, flight, florida, flying, geotag, islands, miami, Miami Beach, Photography, photos, pictures, water
Posted in Downtown, Flickr, Miami Beach, People, Photography, Places | No Comments »
April 17th, 2009
Talk about timing!
I was recently out with a friend of mine and his wife taking Loop Road out by the Miami-Dade / Collier County line… It was a 25 mile or so drive through the Everglades off of Tamiami Trail which proved to give me one of the best shots yet.
But, I must say, that all of this was absolute perfect timing! I was using the standard 18-55mm lens on my XSi, while my buddy was using his new 200mm lens on his camera. After standing out there for a few minutes, I asked if I could borrow it for a couple of shots and that’s when the magic happened!
The apparently young falcon was simply sitting there enjoying the sunlight when it decided to spread its wings and turn around for us! It was stunning to say the least! Needless to say, I am now in the market for the Tamron 18-270mm lens with the Canon mount for my XSi. With a couple of back-to-back trips coming up in May, I can tell you that I will absolutely have this lens for that next perfect timing moment!
Tags: Everglades, falcon, florida, miami, Photography, photos, pictures, timing, tree, wildlife
Posted in Everglades, Flickr, Photography | No Comments »
February 11th, 2009
All I can say about this shot is…. WOW, this turned out great, and people are talking!
As you can see from my last blog posting, I went out to shoot a car in various locations throughout Miami. We went out to Watson Island, drove through Coconut Grove, down through Gables by the Sea, and then found a great road with no traffic to take this shot. I knew the theory behind longer exposures and capturing motions, so I put what I thought was right for this shot into play…
First and foremost as to use my newly purchased tripod. I found an “open box” at Best Buy and saved twenty bucks, paying $30 for this one. Since I saved that money, I also bought a monopod as well. After setting up the car facing away from me, I put the tripod in the middle of the road and yelled at the driver - “GO!” - about a half second before hitting the shutter. Why the delay? You have to give time for human reaction! Figure it takes 3/4 of a second for someone to react to something like this if you try it out.
I set the camera to 400 ISO, 18mm, for a 6-second exposure. It was rather dark already and I wanted to make certain I captured as much as I could with the street lighting and what was left of the sunset off to the west (right side of the picture here).
Find a pedestrian overpass somewhere and start playing with your camera until you figure out what setting is just right for what you are dealing with. I worked on some of this during my recent trip to Las Vegas as shown in the night shot below. If you don’t take the time to play with your camera, the only other way to get a shot like this is pure luck! Here are some more samples of night shots with time exposure - click for larger images:
Tags: car, corvette, florida, lights, miami, motion, night, palm, red, sky, tree
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
February 7th, 2009
Sometimes one sets out on a hunt for the perfect location to take pictures of their subject, only to find a surprise location on the way home!
Today I drove down to Watson Island with a friend to get some pictures of his car in front of the Miami skyline. We went there, took the pictures from several angles, and then it started to rain.
We decided it was time to move on and see how the rest of the day would go. Perhaps we would come back if the rain stopped and take a few more pictures before heading in for the day. We ate lunch in Coconut Grove and decided to continue towards home.
As we drove through Coconut Grove, we observed a great photo stop. I jumped out of the car and started shooting… The result - awesome!
If you are taking pictures for fun like me, don’t forget to take a look around while driving to and from your selected location… you may drive by a place that is perfect!
Tags: car, corvette, florida, fountain, location, miami, red, tree, water
Posted in Photography, Places | No Comments »
January 24th, 2009
While visiting Las Vegas last week, I was able to take over 500 pictures and really get a grasp on the camera settings available to me in full manual mode. Having never done this before, I was pleasantly surprised at the results from a little experimentation with the settings.
As you can see in this picture, the water coming down from the fountain outside of the Paris Hotel and Casino appears to be a light colored curtain of water. Just to compare, I took a picture in full auto mode and was stunned how “ugly” it would look when the flash fires and captures the water droplets in air.
I sat on the sidewalk with my back to the fence separating me from the Las Vegas Strip, put my elbows on my knees and created a rather steady position from which I took this shot. I took several pictures at different time settings until I found the ideal time exposure of one second. The shot looked good on the camera display, but even better when I got it on to the computer screen. Another setting I played with on these shots was the white balance. I believe I set it to “tungsten.” Click the picture and see the picture properties on flickr (towards the lower left of your browser window).
Tags: casino, fountain, hotel, las vegas, lights, nevada, night, running water, water
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
January 11th, 2009
I have been told that I may have an eye for framing pictures. We are not talking about putting a picture inside a border for display, we are talking about looking through the lens and seeing the shot in its entirety as one would want to have it if printed.
When I was walking by this building, I looked up and saw the angles created from the balconies, the curves from the building itself, the reflections of the sky in the windows, the trees, the sky and the clouds above. I could envision all of these aspects in a picture and it was not until that point in my mind that I picked up the camera and framed the shot I wanted to capture through the lens.
I wanted to capture the height, the angles, etc. to ensure that it is more than a flat image. I also wanted to capture the depth of the shot by having the palm trees up front and the clouds over head. This was a simple shot that I really enjoyed. Now, if I could only live here and look over the ocean every morning - that would be awesome!
Tags: building, florida, framing, miami, Miami Beach, palm, photos, reflection, south beach, tree
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
January 7th, 2009
Some days are just much busier than others. Today was just one of those days that there was no time to do anything productive in using the camera or learning something new. Then, when I finally left my office, I was confronted with degrading weather conditions here in Miami. It was a dark sky, windy, there was a little rain coming down, and worse of all, there was lightning in the sky.
So, the next best thing to do? Look for stuff online, answer emails, and then create a badge from my most interesting Flickr photos. A badge is simply a mosaic of pictures that is shown where I put in a code on that page. Once it is pasted into a page, a small collage of pictures will appear. Every so often, the pictures will change within the badge.
Below is my “interesting” badge courtesy of Flickriver. When clicked, you will see my pictures on a black background as opposed to the typical white background on flickr. Come back every so often to see if they change!
Tags: Flickr, flickriver, Photography, pictures, random photos
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 6th, 2009
Wondering where you could shoot pictures related to farm work, agriculture, and livestock in great weather at just about any time throughout the year? Look no further than Miami’s agricultural areas!
Southwest Miami-Dade County hosts a thriving agricultural community. During the proper season, you can find fresh strawberries, tomatoes, avocados and many other fruit and vegetables being grown in south Florida. With a little time before heading home, I stopped to take some pictures of things and places that many people don’t get to see or enjoy down here. Most Miami visitors do not know that driving west is not only to get to the Everglades, but it can afford visitors the opportunity to take some incredible pictures.
Horses, birds, plants, and other animals are plentiful in this area. In fact, I am planning on heading back out there soon to find the wild peacocks that I saw. Unfortunately, they were spooked off and I was unable to capture any of them with my camera. Most people probably didn’t think of farm or agriculture pictures when mentioning Miami, but now you can keep this in mind if you are contemplating a certain theme for a photo series. Most areas are accessible via paved and unpaved roadways which provide a great backdrop to frame your shots.
Tags: agricultural, agriculture, crops, farms, florida, green, linear, miami, plants, ranch, rows, sunset
Posted in Photography, Places | No Comments »
