Monthly Archives: May 2011

The ISAP Cometh

Okay, you have to forgive the theatrical title but it made me smile!  It is not long now until the annual symposium of the International Society of Aviation Photographers or ISAP.  This year it is being held in San Diego and I have to admit, I can’t wait.  I have been a member of ISAP for a number of years now and find the annual symposium to be an excellent event.  My first symposium was in Pensacola and I turned up knowing absolutely nobody.  I couldn’t believe the friendly welcome I received from so many people and that is a continuing theme throughout ISAP for me.

The symposium is a very well organized event.  We have two full days of presentations on different aspects of the business with a field trip day in the middle that takes us to some location that would not normally be available with access to great aircraft to shoot – all with a really great bunch of people.  What more could you ask for?

The levels of the attendees vary greatly.  Some are enthusiasts while others are long established professionals.  Everyone is open to discuss the topics on offer and there are a willingness to share knowledge that is very refreshing.  I have learned a ton of good stuff at these events.  It is also an opportunity to share your work.  Putting together whatever I want to take with me is something that I start thinking about long in advance.  Having some prints put together for display along with any other presentational forms is both fun and a little intimidating.  These are the best in the world that you are showing your stuff to!

Soon I will be heading off.  For those of you interested but who have never gone, give it some thought.  For those of you that are members already, see you there!

Hello froggy

Our hotel in Door County Wisconsin had access to the beach across some marshy land. Resident in these marshes was a colony of frogs. You were in no doubt they lived there since most of the time they were trying hard to let you (or more likely every frog of the opposite sex) know that they were there. During the day this blended into the background a little but at night it was a steady sound that actually became quite soothing after a while.

I decided to go and find some of these frogs. This is less straightforward since, while they advertise themselves constantly when you are a distance away, they get awfully shy as you approach. They switch off as soon as you get reasonably close and wait for you to go. Get a distance away again and they are back making whatever noise it is that a frog makes.

Spotting them as they lurk in the water is a little hard at first until you get used to what you are looking for. They head will be just proud of the surface of the water, probably surrounded by weed to he camouflage them. The regularity of the head shape is the giveaway. Once you get too close they disappear under the surface with a plop!

What I don’t know about frogs is whether they are very confident in their ability to get away or whether they are a bit dopey. If you approach slowly, you can actually get very close to them indeed. Maybe they are constantly assessing the threat I pose or maybe they don’t realize I am there until they have an “oh crap” moment and dive for safety. Anyway, whichever it is, I was able to get some good face to face time with a couple of them.

Thankfully not too many people were around or they might have been wondering why I was lying on a wooden walkway across a marsh!

An alternate canvas

I guess the title is a bit of a lie in this case as the alternate is actually canvas. I haven’t done any canvas printing for a while. I used to have some canvas that printed in one of my previous Epson ink jets but I haven’t used that stuff since changing printers and haven’t ever found profiles from the manufacturer so they must have disappeared not long after I bought the stuff.

I have experimented on printing on a number of finishes in recent times with some printing on metal that has come out well. However, I gently had a client who was interested in a large format panorama. I was hunting for a good printer for this since my regular print outlet does not cater to large format panos at all. I had used another place as a trial but they had produced a really crappy result. While searching for an alternative, I mentioned to the client that I had heard good things about a place that specialized in canvas prints including larger format panos and was he interested. It turned out he had already been wondering about a canvas print.

I prepped the files and sent them off to the place. I told him to hold off paying for it until I had seen whether it was worthwhile. If I don’t like the result, I am not going to have a client paying the price if my name is on the work. The turnaround was really pretty speedy.
I received the canvas and I have to say I was impressed. It was mounted on a wood frame ready stretched. The finish was excellent and the colors looked very vibrant. The packing was also good and the whole product was well protected. I will certainly use this place again if I have anyone after a similar product and I now find myself contemplating some panoramic options for myself to justify a print for home.

Panning for gold

While the title might be a bit inaccurate, you are probably not going to struggle to guess what the topic really is. I have always enjoyed playing with panos since my days of film when it would be a lot less complex and consist of sticking together a large number of 6×4 prints to make a larger collage. The effect was rough and ready but there was something rather cool about the way they came out at the highly accurate results possible today doesn’t have.

While stitching together shots is straightforward given any number of software tools (although Photomerge in Photoshop has got sufficiently good that I rarely need to use anything else), achieving a good pano with the camera in my phone was a different challenge. Without control of the exposure and the white balance, it was hard to make the shots merge cleanly. I then got hold of an app called 360 which would shoot a pano as you gradually moved the camera around. It overlays a grid so you can see the coverage still available and you could pan up and down as well as laterally.

Originally the results were less then ideal. It would have discontinuities on some of the straight lines in the scene and was particularly unhappy in low light or when panning vertically. However, the latest version of the app is now out and it is a dramatic improvement. After playing with it at home briefly, I tried it while on the road the other day. We were heading up passed Green Bay and so stopped off to see Lambeau Field. I’m sure the Bears fans I know will be cursing me for such treachery but I wanted to see such a famous stadium. Anyway, it wasn’t a photo trip so I only had my phone in my pocket at the time. I decided to give the pano a shot using the latest version of the app and I think it did a pretty good job. It was fun to watch new areas that had a different exposure suddenly get corrected to merge with the existing image and straight lines that were originally out of position get jumped to the right place as the app worked out what was wanted.  It isn’t perfect yet.  Some lines still don’t line up and the resolution is surprisingly low compared to a normal shot by the phone.

Nice work by occipital who are the developers. I like what you have done so far and look forward to what you come up with next.

Heading Out

I’m nipping off for a few days for a short break.  Possibly not going to be writing anything for a few days – unless something inspiring happens that I feel compelled to share!  I will be back in a few days.  Hope the deeply insightful stuff here will not be missed too much!!!!

To Shoot or Not to Shoot

Harsh Sky

In a previous post I mentioned my trip to Indianapolis for the air show at Mount Comfort.  A few things were going to make getting good shots tricky at this event.  First, the crowd face south at the show so, through the majority of the display, there is a strong chance of back lighting.  Also the forecast was not for great weather.

Dark Cloud Background

This forecast was one of the things that actually helped persuade me to go.  With a lot of cloud, the backlighting might actually have been tempered.  Also, with the possibility of rain, it might even work out that a lot of vapor could show up during the displays.  It could also mean getting drenched with no flying, though, so a chance was taken.  There is always the nice idea of a bit of sun on an aircraft with an evil looking sky behind it.

Harsh Sky

When I am at a show with a backlighting issue, I tend to try and go to one extreme of the crowd line.  This can have two advantages.  First you get some different angles from the normal shots that being near show center gives.  Second, by picking the end carefully, you can get sections of the display that at least have the sun on a quarter position rather than head on.

 

Dark Cloud Background

Metering in these situations can be tricky.  You can go with exposure compensation based on your view of the sky brightness with anything between +1 and +2 a possibility.  Alternatively, you might try manual metering based on some pre-readings.  That is a lot easier to go with when the lighting is more consistent – constantly changing skies make manual metering a lot more work.  I have used both.  Of course, with harsh backlight, there is only so much you can

Backlit

Top Light

do.  Good exposure on the subject is not going to be matched with a great background.  Therefore, there are only going to be certain angles that can get a reasonable chance of a good shot.  Does that stop me shooting at the other angles?  Of course not!!  I have tons of images that are no-hopers but the fun of the shoot and the way things look better through the viewfinder are highly likely to stop the part of the brain that says no point shooting now.  Of course, there is an upside to this.  Tracking the aircraft throughout its pass does put you in a good position to get a better shot when the light is good.

Another thing to look for is exploiting the conditions to get a different look.  Normally when shooting aircraft you are trying desperately to avoid a silhouette.  An alternative is to go for that look deliberately and get something a little different from the normal shot.  It isn’t always going to work but when your options are limited, why not try something else?

Silhouette

One last thought, panning with aircraft to get a good shot is something that is always worth practicing (if you want to shoot aircraft that is!).  Even crummy conditions can be good panning practice and will set you up well for the time when the conditions are good and you need to be ready.

Indy Air Show

The beginning of the air show season has already arrived but my plans for the year are rather sparse.  Some things I had originally planned to go to have been overtaken by competing events so there are relatively few shows that are presently a firm fixture in my calendar.  That is fine.  If the other things weren’t things I wanted to do, they wouldn’t have taken precedence.  Besides, when I am looking at a show, I am looking for something a little different since there are a bunch of acts, all good in their own right, that I can see any number of times through the year.

The show in Indianapolis caught me off guard therefore.  I hadn’t really been thinking about heading down to it.  I had read that the lighting is a bit harsh and had originally thought I had something else on.  However, I ended up being free and they had some aircraft that piqued my interest.  Besides, it is only three hours to drive down.  The forecast was looking mixed but I decided to give it a go.

The drive down was not inspiring!  Crappy conditions in Chicago as I left got worse as I drove down through Indiana.  At some points, the fog was quite bad with the wind turbines looming out of the murk as I headed down I-65.  However, as I reached Indy, the skies parted.  We were pretty lucky for weather for the rest of the day to be honest.  There were bursts of sun but mainly clouds.  However, I watched a few heavy looking downpours approach and they all passed east of us – at least until I was back in the car!

The show had a nice mix of performers.  I had never seen the PV-2 or C-1A fly before and that was nice.  They organized some warbird combined flights which were pretty good and photogenic – well, if the light had been better they would have been.  Overall, a good mix of things to keep me interested.  The light was tricky all day and there are a lot of shots that will never be seen in public because they are just blah!

All in all, though, a good day out and it was nice to get back into practice of shooting things moving rather fast.  Also nice to bump into some familiar faces during the show.  Good to see you guys!

Chicago at Night

It has been a while since I last went out and did some night photography around Chicago.  I had been meaning for a while to go and photograph the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park at night when they have the light and music show.  This was supposed to be a relatively quick trip out but ended up being a rather longer expedition.

Chicago at night is a great place to photograph.  It is fine to walk around at night and there are usually a bunch of people out and about.  However, do you do get a feeling that the city is yours and that you aren’t sharing it with the tourist masses.  The night lighting is also a lot more generous to sights that look less impressive during the day.  The dark hides a lot of the blemishes!

The show at the fountain takes place every hour on the hour.  I got down at 8pm which was just after sundown.  This wasn’t such a good plan as, even at the end of the 20 minute display, it really wasn’t dark enough to get the benefit of the lights.  I figured I would try again another time but ended up taking enough shots of details around the fountain that soon it was sufficiently close to the hour again that there was no point in leaving.  The 9pm show was certainly more photogenic – even if I had to take a few angles that concealed some of the construction sites on the skyline.

With some shots in the bag, I headed back in the direction of home.  however, along the way were plenty of things to shoot as well.  The Art Institute, the Pritzker Pavilion and the bean were all there along with the goings on of Millennium Park.  It ended up being pretty late by the time I finally headed home.  I have now whetted my appetite for some more night shooting so hopefully it won’t be too long before I am back out.

Pullman

For the longest time I have been thinking about paying a visit to Pullman.  Pullman is a town on the south-side of Chicago that was created by the Pullman Palace Car Company, a railroad car builder at the end of the 19th Century.  Having read some history of Chicago, Pullman has an interesting position in the way things have developed.  It was an ideal town created to allow the workers to have everything they could need and probably a lot more than they would have had if they were working elsewhere in Chicago at the time.

Of course, the story is not all sweetness and light.  Having a controlled environment like that had other consequences and, when the economy tanked and the sale of railcars fell, the workers had their wages cut but miraculously the “market forces” did not result in the company owned housing rents following suit.  It all ended in a nasty strike which was ultimately broken by the federal government.  If you want the full history lesson, I guess I am not the one and there are better places to research.

Anyway, we finally got around to taking a trip down to have a look around.  There is a visitors center where they gave us a walking tour guide.  While the factory was mostly destroyed by fire in recent years, the majority of the town is still there to see.  It is a great neighborhood to wander around and everyone we met on the street was very friendly.  A number of the properties are in the process of being restored by the owners.  Others are in worse shape.  However, the place has a really interesting feel to it.

A sunny day always makes a wander around a new place more fun.  We were there in the middle of the day so not the best lighting for shooting but the trip wasn’t primarily for photography – just for exploration of a place we’d not been to before.  Therefore, the shots aren’t amongst my best but they are fine for the time-being.  It is always a good challenge to try and make something worthwhile out of some harsh light and shadows.

Lenskirt Review

Living in a high rise in the city, I have a lot of chances to shoot things that I can only see through the windows.  This has been a tricky thing to deal with over time and I have come up with various solutions with varying success.  A couple of times I have thought about making something myself to be the solution but have never got around to it.

Now someone has made something that pretty much does what I want.  It is called the Lenskirt.  It is a black squared funnel that has a fabric sock at the base which cinches around the barrel of your lens.  I has four suckers at the four corners that will attach it to glass.  The idea is that it blocks any light coming in from the side and reflecting off the glass and back into the lens.

I love this idea.  However, the $49 price seemed a little steep for what it is.  However, i did buy one and it has just arrived.  Overall, I am quite pleased with it.  My suspicions about it being a bit overpriced seem valid but it does do what I want.  Moreover, it handles my widest lens (the 17mm) without any problem.  It allows flexibility of placement so you can shoot at an angle without seeing the skirt.  Therefore, while it is a bit pricey, the alternative is something I have never bothered to do so it is probably worth it to me.

This could have other applications other than shooting through normal windows.  It might be useful in an aircraft when you can’t open a window to shoot out as well.  I am never a fan of shooting through something since the surface is often of poor quality but sometimes you have no choice.

Could it be improved?  Yes.  I would have made the rim stitched to sit flat to a surface when attached rather than having to bend out.  Also, I might consider a slightly more rectangular shape given the format of shooting (although that would impact on the ability to fold it flat).  It is slightly wider than deeper but given the need to look sideways sometimes, a little more width might be good.  (The shot above makes it look a lot wider than it really is by the way!)  I might also have gone for a less reflective black material  just in case.  As I try it more, we shall see if other issues come up.  However, so far, a welcome addition to my bag.