photos – Page 2

Jan 10 2012

Planes and Airports of the Holidays

Traveling is a fun experience. We go to different places, see different thing. It takes us out of our norm. People may dread those long layovers, but I like those people watching times.

All those different people all doing the same thing, traveling. All with there on style and mannerisms.

Airports present a very interesting arena for the wannabe photog. I love the HDR shots I was able to get, capturing what happens so many times a day.

Sadly I don’t think I will be at an Airport for a while now. When the time comes though, I have some ideas.

Dec 31 2011

Dave’s 100 Best Images of 2011

I’m still wondering if I even took 100 photos in 2011 that I actually like, never mind having an entire blog post with all 100.

Dave Brosha definitely did have at 100 photos, heck he probably has a 100 favourite shoots of 2011 as well. That guy was busy. Check out his top 100 on his blog at the link below.

Dave Brosha Photography » My 100 Best Images of 2011.

On a side note, this is one of Dave’s top shots and it is of a talented Yellowknifer by the name of Pablo. Looking at this photo makes me think Pablo would make for a good double if they were to ever redo the movie Passion of the Christ. What do you think?

Dec 01 2011

Epic fun with a fake MO and a camera

I had way to much fun with the Northern Groove Movember Photo Booth and I don’t even have a real Mo. Regardless of that though, I get theatrically when a camera comes out, as you might notice. Thankfully I had friends, Asia and Brent, also there at Marc Josephs taking photos with me. Cheers to them and cheers to Northern Groove for boosting my ego and putting them online. They have over 200 other photos on Flickr, check them out.

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Sep 26 2011

DIY Photography Lightbox

This was a spur of the moment idea to make a lightbox. A lightbox in photography land is a box that allows light in to illuminate the object that you are shooting. For me I am thinking this might be something to use for my food photography. This post will explain how I built it and how the trail went.

What you will need:

A box (medium in size)
4 sheets of tracing paper or wax paper
Packing take
Scotch tape
Exacto knife

The first thing you will want to do once you round-up all you supplies and tools is trace out the size of the tracing paper on the sides of the box you will be cutting. You will want to cut holes in three side and the bottom of the box.

Once you have traced the size of the paper on the box draw a smaller square on all sides of the box you will be cutting that is roughly 1″ smaller that the tracing paper square. You will want the tracing paper to overlap the holes in the box so you can tape them down.

The next thing I did was tape the hell out of the box. You will be cutting four holes in the box making it very unstable therefore you need to make the structure as strong as possible. Using the packing tape I covered this thing, every corner, every side and made sure the bottom would stay together once cut.

Of course once you have done this you will want to start cutting the box on all the sides you want to create holes, along the smaller square you have made. I recommend going lightly as you don’t want to risk the structure of the box.

When you finish up cutting the holes you should check to see if any areas of the box need to be re-taped. The bottom of the box may need some tape to keep together the two layers of the bottom. Then start on any side and tack down the tracing paper over the holes. I used the scotch tape to tack each corner and then will use the packing tape once satisfied. Make sure you keep the tracing paper as tight as possible to avoid any wrinkles.

The final thing you’ll want to add is a large white piece of paper that falls from the top of the box to the bottom front creating a white background. I used poster paper, but need something bigger.

As you can see from one fo the photos above I used three lights two on the side and one on the top. This was tricky as the one on the top was to powerful and didn’t display the light properly. Below as some of the trials I took using my very first Shannon Butler Mug.

The one above was actually also shot with my flash and the three lights. As you can see the flash over powers all the lights and creates the harsh shadow.

This shot above was with only the three lights. As two of the lights are incandescent it creates the yellowy look, which I need to learn to correct with White Balance or get fluorescent lights.

The last two shots were shot with only the fluorescent shining down through the top hole in the box. The first one (of the two) is a little harsh and was still on Auto White Balance. The second one (last photo) was with some White Balance correcting which really helped.

Things I need to improve on

I need to get three of the same lamps for this box, fluorescent one. I also need to read up on some more lighting theory and how to properly shoot using a lightbox. Understanding White Balance and my flash are also things to do.

Conclusion

Building the box is easy and can be done with household items we all probably have. The lighting and understanding that is the tricky part. If you try this DIY Photography Lightbox I’d love if you shared a link below to your build to see how it turned out.

Sep 03 2011

Holding print photos in your hand

I had a little nostalgic moment earlier today. I wanted to fill up some of the picture frames I had been gathering during my Garage Saling adventures so I got some prints done up. I had done it once before at Walmart, but I wanted to try the semi-local alternative Unforgettable Memories Foto Source. So 35 minutes after ordering 3 5×7 and 2 4×6 prints online they were ready for pickup in-store. Just like that I had them in my hands.

As cheesy as it sounds it was a real awe inspiring moment. I was actually holding something that I had created. It is funny to think that nowadays we often never print some of our photos. I can only image what it was like before the age of digital.