I had a little spare time today as I recovered from a cold. I've been trying to get into photography more and really figure out how to make pictures that aren't just ordinary. I wanted to try my hand at some macro photography when I read this article. The project involves making a softbox (light tent) out of ordinary household supplies (was free in my case) and then shooting into the sides. The tissue paper on the side diffuses the light very nicely and it then bounces around filling in most of the shadows. I'm using my flash, but a bright lamp would work just as well.
Here's a few shots of stuff I grabbed off my desk and tried in my new cheap-o photography tool.
The Setup
Light being diffused by the tissue paper
Swiss Army Knife (in the full size pic my fingerprints are very clear)
The old trusty point and shoot that needs to be retired
Compact flash cards have never looked better
A lonely battery
Not so lonely batteries
Exact same setup as above but using direct onboard flash, flat and boring
The softbox still needs some work, I'll probably make a larger one and count this one as a prototype. As I continue to dabble I'll post more stuff up. Any suggestions for something to shoot?
Tagged with: flash, photography
Posted under: Photo Stuff
Sarah's Basset Hound Bayley
Tagged with: animals, photography
Posted under: Photo Stuff
Last weekend Sarah and I crashed my brother-in-law's sister's wedding. Previously I have had 2 chances to take photos at weddings with my Nikon D70, one at Lori and Angelo's with the on board pop up flash and then at my brother's wedding with my newly acquired SB-800 flash on the hot shoe. First time my results were adequate but really didn't look much better than a point and shoot. Second time around my results were much better but I still hadn't really grasped some of the basics like balancing background exposure and fill flash.
This time I'm definitely more pleased with the results and it is easy to see, here are the latest pics.
Paul and Grace's Wedding (10/7/2006)
And for quality comparison:
Nathan and Stacie's Wedding (7/9/2005)
Lori and Angelo's Wedding
Tagged with: photography, wedding
Posted under: Photo Stuff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewcharlton/sets/72157594267348623/
Had a blast at my brother-in-law's 30th b-day pit bbq last weekend and here's some pics of the festivities. Washer Toss is down right addicting but needs a better name to reflect its awesomeness.
Tagged with: family, photography
Posted under: Photo Stuff
Got a few shots up from a July visit to the Getty. Sky was pretty overcast so no mind blowing colors, had to do some tweaking to get them how I wanted them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewcharlton/sets/72157594240337767/ Tagged with: museum, photography
Posted under: Photo Stuff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewcharlton/sets/72157594196557149/
I finally got a little tired of my Gallery2 install, it was just a little too slow on my server and I thought I'd start moving stuff over to Flickr. I like it so far and the uploads are quick and easy and viewing speeds are great. Maybe it will give me some more motivation to shoot and post pictures.
But on the pictures themselves, I took them with my Nikon D70 with an 18-70mm. I'd say 90% of the indoor aquarium shots were without flash so I had my ISO bumped to 800 or 1600 most of the time. The shots through the tanks were pretty tough and I was having to brace myself against the tank and pretty much hold the edge of my lens agaist it to minimize camera shake (oh how I pine for a VR lens). Let me know what you think.
Tagged with: animals, long beach, photography
Posted under: Photo Stuff
Since I have a mild addiction to the Internet (healthy ambition to learn and gather information is how I like to think of it) I want to highlight some of the cool stuff I come across and the more useful sites that I use frequently. So here's one I found yesterday:
http://www.panoramas.dk/ has full 360 degree shots from around the world and in my honest opinion is very cool. Some of the shots are just ordinary everyday life but some give a sense of actually being there, check out the Austria National Library. Requires Quicktime but everyone should have it, but if you have a weak stomach be warned that spinning the image around in circles could cause motion sickness.
If you have a cool site let me know about it and I'll highlight it up here.
Tagged with: internet, panorama, photography
Posted under: Photo Stuff
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