How I Shot That - Bokeh in the Fall

How I Shot That - Bokeh in the Fall

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Lens - Sony 85mm f1.8 FE - https://amzn.to/2Gwzto2
camera - Sony a6000 - https://amzn.to/2H9lplA

Sony has been growing their lens selection to include some impressive glass.  One particular lens is the 85mm f1.8 seems to perform above its class.  That means it is relatively affordable, but at first had some people thinking photos that came from it were like that of a Zeiss build of glass. 

This is what I love about this lens, besides how cheap it was, it wasn't very heavy (for me) to carry around.  And in spite of some of the photos describing how big it was, it didn't feel that big in my hands... it felt just right. 

I rent this lens for a family photo shoot, but I needed to get a feel for the lens.  I went out to one of the parks with access to wild life and a variety of shooting options.  It was fall, with a beautiful collection of fall colors breaking out all over the place. 

Now, I'll let you in on a secret of mine... I have some color blindness.  But it is selective with trouble between some reds and greens.  You will find other incredible photographers out there with color blindness as well (probably most well know is Trey Ratcliff).  So, when I can see how awesome some color combinations are, I'm sure it is going to look amazing.  At least that is what I'm told... lol!

Being an 85mm lens with a 1.8 f-stop available to it, you can achieve an incredibly thin field of focus.  On top of thin focus, you can gain some silky smooth backgrounds.  With a marsh and fall weather, I knew I could get some greens, reds, blues, yellows. 

So this was a plant that lost all of the pedals and just had a ball of its center left.  I was near the water where some sun had peaked out.  That made me in shade, this plant in light, and a mix of light and shade behind it.  This makes use of one of the greatest assets of a mirror less camera, the electronic viewfinder.  It helped me see the effect I was going for all the easier.

That electronic viewfinder also helps because people can't focus this way, and it helped me nail the focus on the ball.  It also helped me realize if I missed my intention, I could go right to the next shot.  No wasting time.

When I first placed this on some of my media pages, people came up to tell me how neat it was.  People also told me about how some colors were amazing (you know, the ones I didn't even know were there)! 

But that is what makes the feedback so amazing.  You not only get confirmation about what you intended to do... but you get to understand the view of other people around you, too.

How I Shot That - After Hours near the Bahai Temple

How I Shot That - After Hours near the Bahai Temple

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Sony a6000: https://amzn.to/2GiWa2T
Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS:  https://amzn.to/2E24YEx
Bahai Wilmette Wikipedia Page

When you are in town for a visit with family and you find a little bit of time... go do something.

The other day I was in the Chicago area and after dinner I had a little extra time.  I asked my brother, if we could go see the Bahai Temple in Wilmette, IL. 

If you haven't seen this place, it is huge!  It is the kind of thing that in most cases, a small lens was made fore.  But I really like the 50mm.  I like it so much, I still use it for getting scenic shots.  Could I have had done this with something else... probably. But I'm still very happy with this.

That night was very much spur of the moment.  The night had actually gotten a bit more chilly than I expected, too.  But being the upper Midwest, we are not unfamiliar with this change in weather.  After we found a parking spot it was a small walk up to this location. 

But, since it was cold, my brother and I did a couple of things before leaving the vicinity of his car. We checked our batteries in our Sony cameras.  Changed our lenses, and then started walking. 

As we got closer, it became apparent just how massive this structure is.  But since I had the 50mm lens on my APS-C sized camera, I had to find my first photos be from a ways back.  And that is where I found the location for this photo. 

Where most people would take the photo of the building dead center, I wanted the off-center look.  But when you do that, usually it helps to have something that makes up for the empty space.  That is where a leading line comes into play.  That is why I took this spot to start snapping away.  The lights for the parking area lined up a little to point towards the top of the dome.

Some of the first photos were a little fuzzy, and had too much noise.  I didn't have my tripod with me, so this was going to require me planting my feet in a very steady position.  I held the camera a little extra tightly, and against my head by the eyepiece.  Then I started to lower the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second and then lowered the ISO to 500.  After a few attempts, I got a clean shot. 

If you want to see a clean, enlarged photo, go to my Google Plus Post Here.
 

An interesting thing is hearing out there all of the talk about photography gear.  People look at the new toys out there, but not at what they already have.  Or, they are convinced that this one particular lens will be all they need. But the truth us going to be messy.  That is because as artists, we are usually a little messy. 

And I think that night illustrates some of this point. I sure would like different gear, but the distraction of other gear for me will be a detriment. If I had kept my 70-210 lens with me during this walk, I would have been distracted with other 'options' and couldn't have focused on what was in front of me.  It helps me stay in the moment.

Thanks for letting me vent a little bit!

How I Shot That - Late Afternoon Marsh Bench

How I Shot That - Late Afternoon Marsh Bench

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Lens: Sony 50mm 1.8 OSS - http://amzn.to/2tT6LvK
Camera Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2FFH6fF

Golden Hour... 

Besides the fall, spring can give you a magnificent glow.  Morning and evening will give different properties so you want to choose your times wisely.  This article will discuss the ending time of light.  

Usually, shooting into the Sun isn't going to be helpful to your photo.  But, like you will find so often in Photography, rules are more like guidelines. And in this case you can find the exception in this: the shadows are not too much.  

Some of this is because many of the latest sensors like the one in my Sony a6000 have great dynamic range.  That means it can bring out the details between shaded and lit areas very well.  I did need to sacrifice one thing, the sky.  

But what happened to me today?  How did I come up onto this place, it could almost be cropped further for different aspects to give a new outcome.  This spot could be used for different types of portraits, nevermind all of the foliage and wildlife that surely must be near this.

By my nature, I'm a very distractible person.  (I try to keep these posts short because of it.)  But this time when I went out with my camera, I used that distraction.  In fact, I had been shooting what I could of wildlife and random people.  This was part of a path that forces you to turn around and head back as it becomes a dead end.  But photography is almost always a matter of perspective.  And walking a path in multiple directions helps me release my distractions and swim in them at the same time.  

So I was heading back from the dead end, and I realized the sun had produced an extra glow due to all of the pollen in the air.  This location was probably one of the richest in pollen thickness in the air... you could smell everything (if it didn't overpower your nose).

And the glow struck me that the shade never was completely dark.  The glow made me wonder because a portrait would give an air of magic to the subject.  The glow made it possible to break so many 'rules' you could find in photography.  

If I had to come back to one thing, that is to explore... even if you can't travel, explore the same places.  Probably more important when you are new than anything, because it gives you experience.  It gives you ideas for the future.  Explore the same thing at different times of day and of the year.

If that skill was good for Ansel Adams (autobiography, http://amzn.to/2FFC96i), I'm sure it will help me out here and there too.

How I Shot That - I Would Rather be Ice Fishing

How I Shot That - I Would Rather be Ice Fishing

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Lens: Olympus Zuiko OM 135mm f3.5
Micro 4/3 Lens Adapter: OM-M4/3 bESCHOI
Camera: Olympus OM-D EM10ii

 Winter in the Upper Mid West is very different than what you would find in many other places.  Here, you may find almost as many people willing to be outside the house as you find inside the house.  That is what I re-affirmed when I went scouting for a portrait shoot this day when trying to use my Olympus OM-D EM10ii with an adapted old film lens, the Olympus Zuiko 135mm f3.5. 

So, when the weather gets just a little bit warmer, but we still have thick levels of ice, it is time to get those winter portraits of people that do an ice sport or those that just love the outdoors.  This island in the middle of the Mississippi River has a great little lagoon on it.  The water is protected from the currents and freezes really nicely.  Additionally, almost no matter what direction you shoot in, there is going to be a great back ground to shoot . 

When I walked onto the ice, it was very smooth under the snow.  When I went out there, this guy had already setup his ice fishing tent.  I loved this, only in Wisconsin will you find someone who would rather be in a small cramped shelter rather than a huge one you can all see in the back ground.  I mean, since you can't fish from the big one, there really is no contest, right?

Couple of more nice things was his fishing spot was centered nicely with the Gazebo, the trees the lined it, and the little bit of open water you can see in the background.

What's more, I used this camera that I won from a Drink and Click event in Madison, WI.  I haven't really liked this camera until I got these old lenses and adapted them.  That is because the camera has IBIS (in-body image stabilization) where it moves the sensor a little bit to counter any jiggle you make as the camera holder.  Effectively, this is like shooting with a 270mm lens.  And I needed that, because I was practically shooting from the other end of the lagoon. 

I just had to move around to center up the tent/shanty with the gazebo, and no problems.

How I Shot That - The Waiting Skaters

How I Shot That - The Waiting Skaters

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Amazon SP Teri Skate Search
Amazon Edea Skate Search
Amazon Riedell Skate Search

Figure skating, like in a lot of things, is filled with an atmosphere of 'hurry up and wait'.  I couldn't think of a finer personification of that statement than with this moment.

Every year, the City of La Crosse Park and Recreation and Forestry department puts on an ice show for the people that participated in their winter figure skating program.  Over the years, through my wife, I have gotten to know many of these kids quite well.  At the time, the camera I was using was still new to me (Sony a6000).  But I loved how flexible it is for me in this environment.  Specially since it let me get a shot like this.

This is a little bit before the ice show started.  I had previously determined that this location is where I would shoot the entire show from, because the door there would open up to the ice.  At this moment, many of the higher level skaters were lining up at this door for the show's opening number.

One of the  challenges about figure skating and photographing kids is a lot of people don't always like their kids faces online.  So I'm always looking for a photo that will be universal of sorts.  When we were waiting for the show to start, I'm seeing all of these kids with all of their skates.  For me what I think worked best, very few of the skaters had the same skate as someone else.  What got me excited was, everyone skating with whatever they had... an incredible cross-section of skaters.

So I got low with my camera (from Amazon: Sony a6000) and I kept on my 50mm f1.8(from Amazon) lens.  By focusing on some of the middle skaters more of the skates could stay in relative focus (I didn't need bokeh balls in the background).  I could get the shot down to 1/60th of a second but still needing my ISO up to 1000.

And I must say, the best reward of this photo was printing it on metallic paper.  This is a shot that needs to show the shine of the blades while making the skates shimmer a little bit.  I liked it cropped or like this.  So it can be taken down to 16x9 and it still looks great!  Honestly, I think ice rinks all over could have this photo to decorate with.

How I Shot That - Rivoli Theater Building BW

How I Shot That - Rivoli Theatre Building BW

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Shot with Minolta 70-210 F4 Lens - http://amzn.to/2sNQSGy
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

A photographer I admire has said many times, "Clouds are cool!  I won't shot if I can't see clouds."  

While I am not 100% sure that is true for every situation, clouds did make this photo better. 

Besides the obvious clouds in view on this photo, there is something else that the clouds did that day.  Normally during an afternoon walk, I am exercising futility in my photography.  Broad daylight with the sun coming almost directly overhead is actually not a very good thing.  Light coming almost directly down would have made the shadow from that little ledge at the top of the Rivoli building too much.  But Wisconsin if full of weather changes.  Cold, hot, windy, calm rain/sleet/snow (many times all at once) and of course sunny.  

Since there is so much of this changing weather, I keep reminding myself, even if your walk doesn't provide a fruitful set of photos one day, does not mean another day won't provide something awesome.  Just like this awesome September afternoon did.

Now, normally, a straight on photo of a building doesn't do it for me.  But since the wind was blowing this flag around I really wanted to make it part of the photo.  Funny thing, this flag is in a Bank parking lot across the street, it doesn't belong to the theatre at all.  But for many here in La Crosse, WI, we love this theatre just as we love America.  It only has two movie screens, a main one and a 'showing room'.  You can order a pizza, get beer, essentially have a movie type dinner here.  The main theatre even has a section in front that has tables.  When you have a child's movie playing, it is the most family friendly place.  When you are there for fright night type of a showing, it is the most fun.  And when they decide to show an old movie (that they do frequently) you have a great date with the one you love.

So I had to include this flag.  Like the movies, America is full of drama.  Just as much as the sky was showing that day.

On this walk through town, I was trying something different.  Normally, street photography makes you want to have a short lense. Most use a 20mm.  Many times you will see me with the 50mm.  But this day I used what many in the Sony/Minolta world call 'The Beer Can" lens.  We call it that because it is the 70-210 f4 Minolta lens that has no optical stabilization and is just a straight and tall can shape.  Almost the size of large beer kans from back in the day.  

From where I saw this, I had walked through an alley from another block away, letting me see across this parking lot of a bank to have this reveal itself to me.  Obviously, if I was zoomed in all the way, I would have been looking at the sign of the building, and forgetting about everything else.  So this was most of the way out at the 70mm zoom.  And I was using f4.  After making sure my shutter speed was really high at 1/2000 of a second.  This gave me the clouds a pop in shape, froze the flag in motion while giving me enough light on the building.

To show this place some love, visit them at http://www.rivoli.net/