Monday Morning Re-cap » FishEye Studio

Happiness is Simple

Blogology, Digital Studio, Monday Morning Re-cap, Photography No Responses »

May 172010

The Lay's® Happiness Exhibit

Yesterday while I was on flickr, I found a flickr add that linked you to the “Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit.” This web site caught my attention, not because it was part of flickr, but, because I love the way this web site looks and works. The front page is laid out so simply, but is has a lot going on. I do find it interesting that they are partnered up with flickr. If you look in the lower right corner you will notice it says “Powered by flickr.”

I have been looking at a lot of web sites lately because I would like to upgrade my personal website and make it more functional or photography. My problem is that I am very technical and have a tendency to make things more complicated then it needs to be. I am trying to teach myself how to keep it simple (stupid). It is not as easy as it sounds for someone that is not artsy, but technical. So I keep looking and making notes and adding them to my list of web sites I like. This sight has been added to my list because of it’s simplicity and that is was made with flash.

If you know how they built this site or have an expertise in this type of web design, I would be interested in hearing from you. Also, i would like any suggestions of clases I can take to learn how to make this type of site. You can place your comments and suggestions in the comment section below.

Now on with the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit. When you look inside, you first notice that the images submitted are not by pro’s, but by the average point and shoot photographers. As you dig deeper you will find some very exceptional photos. It’s is easy to join and add photos. If you have a flickr account just go to the upper left corner of the frames, and you will see UPLOAD YOUR HAPPY PHOTOS and click on the Start Here. This will link you to your Yahoo or Flickr sign on. Sign-in and the follow the instructions to accept the API. Next when you go back to the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit it will ask you to accept and a few other instructions to follow. When you are done you will be able to add images directly to the flickr group Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit flickr group or directly to the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit.

If you don’t have a flickr sign-on you can follow the above instructions and create a new flickr account.

My Shutter Count

Blogology, Monday Morning Re-cap 1 Response »

May 092010

I was reading today on DPS (Digital Photography School) a post that was titled Finding Your Camera’s Current Shutter Actuations. I have always want to know exactly how many clicks had actually committed my camera to doing.

I Can't Believe it (55247)

In order to find out how many actuations you camera has taken you need to look in the EXIF data. Now I currently am shooting with a Nikon D70s and I have been shooting with this camera since June, 2006. Last night I had my camera with me while my wife and I were baby sitting her brothers kids. We took them to the park and had a good time chasing them around. The last image I shot last night was shutter click #55247. I figure that when my 4 year anniversary with this camera come this June, I will be up to at least 60,000 camera actuations. That is an average of 15,000 clicks a year.

Here is the link to the web site MyShutterCount that allowed my to grab this information for my Nikon camera. If you have a Canon or another brand go to the article on DPS to find your Shutter Actuations.

Business Card

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Apr 192010

All this week I have been preparing for a trip to Orange County. I am traveling to OC in the next week for a series of Job interviews. No, it’s not for a photography job, it’s for my chosen profession of a Financial Services Professional (Equity Trader). Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I was laid-off from my job over a year ago. Yes, it was a huge disappointment, however I never thought I would be unemployed for this long. The job market has been very bleak at best.

In preparing for my upcoming interviews I realized that I didn’t have a business card. I have cards that I made for photography, but nothing for my profession. Last night I rectified this little issue. I spent a few hours before I went to bed, and made some financial business cards. I had some ideas of how I wanted my business cards to look like. I didn’t want to just use the free templates that vistaprints.com offers. I wanted to have a personal touch.

A fes days ago I was fooling around with Wordle and created a couple Wordle graphics and posted to my blog here Financial Buzz Word Bingo . I mentioned that I was going to use them for a project. I decided to use them for my financial business cards. I downloaded the photoshop .psd layout file from vistaprints.com. I used photoshop to put my business card layout together. Next, I uploaded the finished file to vistaprints.com and added the text. The next step and most important step, I had my wife prof the card before I finished. This is what my business card looks like. If you notice I didn’t add an address, because I am looking for a job in the Greater Bay Area and in Orange County. I didn’t feel that the address was as important. My wife had made the suggestion of putting my Securities Licences on the card instead. I agreed that this was more important since I worked so hard to get them during my career.

PocketWizard FlexTT5 for Nikon

Blogology, Monday Morning Re-cap, Video No Responses »

Mar 152010

Are you a PocketWizard user? I am a PocketWizad user. I have investigated several different types of wireless triggers for when I purchased my first studio equipment. I currently use three PocketWizard Plus II and a MultiMax for more specific needs and time-lapse photography on my Canon G10.

I use Calumet Geneses 200 gear for my home studio. However, since my camera gear wasn’t set up with a PC link (Nikon D70s and Nikon SB600) I decided to go wireless. My choice is the PocketWizard Plus II. It was not the cheapest wireless system on the market, however it filled my needs, with the ability to expand and grow as my needs grew.

When I found out last year that PocketWizard released the Flex TT5, Flex TT5 Mini for Canon equipment, I couldn’t wait for the release of the Flex TT5 for Nikon. However, PocketWizard ran into several issues with the Flex TT5 for Canon. These issues delayed the development of the Nikon gear until the worked all the kinks out of the Canon Flex TT5.

Now it looks like they have figured it out and hopefully they have worked all the bugs out, and corrected them for the release of the Flex TT5 for Nikon.

Mark Wallace of Mark Wallace Photography and SanpFactory has put of a short video on his test of the Flex TT5 for Nikon at WPPI last week. Mark Wallace is a Canon shooter, but he is using Nikon equipment for this test.

Check out the video below or hop over to his SnapFactory Blog to get the write-up. Or get the official work from PocketWizard here.

After talking to a few local photo stores the speculated release date will be some time in April.

Learning with Joe - part 2

Blogology, Long Exposure, Monday Morning Re-cap, Portrait, Video No Responses »

Jan 252010

Joe McNally - Control of Color Part 2

Here is the second video of Joe McNally teaching Control of Color from Nikon School. As Joe did in his first video, he teaches techniques of using multiple flashes in off camera mode. Show the importance of identifying the correct ambient light and adjusting to the proper white balance. Joe also shows you how to place a flash for hair highlights.

Here is the link to the second video Control of Color part 2 at the Nikon School. If you missed the first video here is the link to that as well Learning with Joe – part 1

Photography Business

Monday Morning Re-cap, Wedding Photography No Responses »

Jan 112010

A friend of mine stopped by last night. He’s not a photographer, so I was surprised when the conversation turned to wedding photography. He asked a few questions. One question he asked is: “Why don’t you do wedding photography? So I told him a few stories about why I am not a wedding photographer, nor did I ever consider becoming a wedding photographer. I will explain why.

In a previous life, to make extra money on weekends I drove limousines for a friends company. I actually did this for several years part-time on weekends. On of my jobs was to drive for weddings. Weddings usually happen on Saturdays so we were busy all the time. Clients have a tendency to drop their guard in a limo. I am not sure if it the booze or just the fact they think the limo driver is minding the road, or minding his own business, or the driver just can’t hear the occupants in the back. What clients don’t understand, while we are minding the road we have nothing to do but listen to the conversations in the rear of the limo. Also, we are self taught to listen, just in case there is a threat to other occupants or the driver. Continue reading »

Costco Photo Center

Monday Morning Re-cap No Responses »

Jan 042010

Costco Photo Center has recently sent out “An Exclusive Invitation”. If you are a member of Costco’s Online Photo Center then you recently received a email. Costco Photo Center is launching a new free service to provide Costco Photo Center members with valuable tips on digital photography, prints and gifts. Here is the letter they sent out if you missed it Continue reading »

MacBook Pro takes a dump

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Dec 072009

The other night, my wife and I were watching her brothers kids while they went out for a Christmas Party. No big deal the kids went down easy a 7 PM and that meant we would have a nice easy night of baby sitting. My sister-in-law asked if I would export some of my pictures that I have taken at the last few family events. That is an easy task. Plug in one of my external HD (the one with the photos), load Adobe Lightroom II, open the 2009 catalog, find the appropriate folder i.e. Halloween and export to her thumb drive. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy…

When I got done exporting and was done with using my computer, I went through the shut down sequence and put my computer away.

Vintage Photo Restoration

Blogology, Monday Morning Re-cap, Video No Responses »

Nov 302009

Good Morning and welcome back from a long holiday weekend. If you are in the USA then hopefully you celebrated Thanksgiving weekend with family, friends and or loved ones. You have slugged off your tryptophan coma, and decided to focus on something other football.

During the weekend in-between football games and eating leftovers, I did find some time to skate through the blogosphere. While in the sphere I ran across a great post about Restoration of old or aged photos. I know I have been looking for a simple easy way to restore some of our old family photos, that have either faded been slightly damaged or discolored. Sometime if you don’t have the negative to restore the original picture, then you have to scan the orginally photograph. When you scan the original, then you scan all the defects that go along with it.

So I ran across a blog by Michael Albany on how he restores old photos. He has a great video that he explains how he restored an early vintage baseball photograph. It was explained very well, and it is an easy adjustments to make in Adobe Photoshop. Here is the link to his blog post “Faded Old Photo? Easy?

I am currently working on some pre-World War I photos that my wife and her mom dug up from a folder of her grandfathers. He was in the US Navy and we think that he may have served on the USS New York, during his years at the United States Naval Academy. After I finish one of the Image Restorations I will post it again in a new post recap.

I hope this helps those of you like me, that have family projects to restore old images and movies before they all turn to dust. I would like to see any photos you restore using this Michael Albany’s process or any other process you might use to restore old photographs. You can post them and your technique to the comments section below.

Richard Avedon Photography

Events, Monday Morning Re-cap, Photography, Portrait 2 Responses »

Nov 092009

Exhibition begins at the Richard Avedon exhibit at SFMOMA

Today on Monday morning re-cap, I will tell you about the Richard Avedon exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A few weeks ago I blogged and invite for anyone in the Bay Area to take a trip to SFMOMA and see the Richard Avedon exhibit.

On Saturday my wife and I spent the day in San Francisco, and we took some time to visit the SFMOMA. We were excited to see the Richard Avedon exhibition, since the exhibit will close at the end of November.

Let me just start with this. I expected the museum to be more crowded then it was. Also, since my wife and I are members we did not have wait in line for the exhibit we were let right in, (Membership has its privileges).

Richard Avedon was born in 1923. He passed at the age of 81 in 2004, was an American photographer. Richard Avedon had a great career that span many decades. His most famous work was done with models of the fashion world. He also shot celebrities, dignitaries and common Americas in his series called the “American West”.

My personal take on the exhibit was inspiring. I love photography, and in was struck by the simplicity of his work. Granted it may not have been simple by any means, however they white background used in most of his portraits was a trademark icon that he used throughout his career. His work showed me how to use a simple white background to make a perfect portrait.

When you walk up to the images you can see the detail from every pore to crease and scar. Some of the images we not very flattering to the subject, but that were what he was looking for the real person and not the made up face or image that usually come from a professional photo session.

An example that I can give you, is the photo he has in the exhibit of Marilyn Monroe. According to the 87 minute movie about Richard Avedon, he said he spent hours in the studio photography the actress. She posed, smiled, flirted for hours in front of the camera. However when it was all over, she was like a little girl quite and sitting alone in the edge of a couch. According to Avedon, he would never taken the picture without her permission in this vulnerable state.

Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon at SFMOMA

Like I mentioned before if you have the opportunity to see the Richard Avedon exhibition go and take in the career of this great master of the lens. It will inspire and awe everyone…

Richard Avedon Collection at SFMOMA

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