Twice a week, I go in to work at 1:00 p.m. Instead of just driving around or wasting time at the Office Max by Panera, I’ve decided to go around photographing stuff. I even have a list of stuff that I want to get in pictures. This building is one of the things I can cross off the list.
I’ve always wondered what this building is. It’s by a railroad track and even connects to it. Is it a repair facility? Is it for storage? I suppose I could ask someone. I believe it’s a Florida East Coast track, but I think they were recently acquired by someone else.
I have a shot of just the building, but I thought this shot was more interesting with just the one car. I was taking several shots to get the building by itself, which I did eventually do. This is along Biscayne Boulevard, which is what Miami-Dade County calls part of US-1 that falls within the county limits. As you can imagine, it’s a busy street. The fact that this is by a traffic light doesn’t help.
I know it’s at an odd angle. I was parked in the parking lot of a justice center and had no real reason to be parked there other than to take the shot, so I didn’t want to stay too long. I also didn’t want people seeing the camera and getting any ideas. I may go back on a weekend so I can get a better parking spot.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Railroad building
Thursday, September 4, 2008
DSC_5570.JPG
Yes, it was late in the day. No, I didn’t use a flash. I didn’t want to because those are places of residence in the picture. I didn’t want anyone looking out their window wondering what was going on. It also creates a nice effect and I’m not sure I would have been able to illuminate everything anyway. It’s not the best area and I didn’t want to stick around too long with a lot of equipment, especially if I was drawing attention to myself.
I’ve seen people take some really amazing skies. I have to figure out exactly when sunset is one day so I can attempt that. This one came out ok, especially considering it was at 10mm, but I think I could have done better with it.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Bulb setting at night
I’m still experimenting with the bulb setting, but this time, I’ve gone outside. (I’ve been in the back yard, mostly for security reasons.) I’ve noticed that a lot of the pictures in the back yard on bulb come out yellow, but that has to do with the lighting from what I understand. I don’t want to use the flash, mostly because you can get better results at night with bulb.
I do have an 80B filter, which removes yellow, but it doesn’t fit the 50mm f/1.4 lens I’ve been using and that’s the one I’ve been getting the best results with. (I know I can fix it in Photoshop.) I may try using other lenses just because the 50mm has such a limited range of view. The Sigma 28-90 I have may work. I think it even takes a 55mm filter.
As for the ones that I’ve taken, I have been playing around with them in Photoshop. I even posted one with a diffuse glow, which I think came out pretty well. I think with the bulb setting, it will take a lot of practice to get it down. I’ll probably post some other attempts latter this week.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
laserpointer 4961
It’s funny what you can accomplish with a small piece of technology. My father got me a laser pointer and I’ve been playing around with it. It helps that I started playing with the bulb setting on my camera. For those that don’t know, the bulb allows you to hold the button down to keep the shutter open for as long as you like. This can be used for several purposes, including showing the path of stars.
This picture was taken by pointing both the camera and the laser at the vertex of my room and moving the laser in a very tight circle around said vertex. For a picture like this, it helps to have the lights out and to take the picture at night. Otherwise, you get a very bright picture.
Had I been looking to show you the color of the wall, I could have used the flash to capture the wall. Since the flash fires for an instant, the room returns to dark and doesn’t add any information or value to the pixels. It’s only if I use the laser pointer that anything changes.
I’ve been playing around with the laser pointer, pointing it at different things. In an adjacent picture, you can see what happens when I make the circle a little bigger. Since I’m not yet capable of creating a perfect circle, you can see distinct lines. (It’s much easier to keep the laser in a more confined space for some reason.) You also get a clearer definition of the vertex.
I may post some of them later. (Note that the number at the end of each title is usually the number that the D50 assigns to the picture. Thus, a lower number indicates something that I took earlier.)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Junebug 5013
Yes, it’s been a while, but I thought I’d start back up. The primary reason for this is that I’ve gotten several new toys, one of which is a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens. For those that don’t know, this is a film lens (which can be used on a digital body) to get great photos. The low f-stop gives the blurry background. I was able to get this picture of my brother’s cat, which my mother loves. I have to admit that I do like it, even though the top of the ears are cut off.
I’m not so sure I’ll be taking more pictures of her in the near future, as I got a bite on the hand from her for my efforts. I’m not sure if it’s that she was upset by the flash or if she just likes biting people. It might be a bit of each. (For the record, I had the flash pointing up towards the ceiling.)
I’ve been able to get a similar photo of my cat, Pepper. The lens is great for portraits, but I have to stand back a lot farther than I’m used to with the 28-90 lens. The part about this lens that I like is that you can get the blurry lens. I’ve also noticed that I don’t have to use a flash a lot of times. (That’s another advantage of a low f-stop.)
I’m hoping to post a photo or two a week. I’ve also got a new memory card that I’m testing out which is supposed to put the location of the photo into the EXIF data, but I haven’t gotten that to work very well yet.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Arch Creek 2283
I had a chance to go to the Arch Creek Park today and take some pictures. I even had a few that turned out pretty well, like the one I’m posting today. This was mostly an attempt to test out the Sigma 10-20 lens that I bought last week.
The distortion is visible with things that are easy to judge, like grids, boxes and faces. For things like grass, it doesn’t show up so much. It’s also odd looking through the viewfinder, then taking it away. From what I’ve read, the angle is somewhere around 102°. That’s pretty good.
If you’re thinking it’s a great way to get a picture of someone without them knowing, bear in mind that you do notice distortion in the corners. The trouble with a lens that wide is that it‘s going to be a fisheye or close to it. Yes, you can correct for this, but it’s not always that easy. I’ve been messing around with a few pictures and some turn out better than others.
It’s also an f/4-5.6, which means that it’s not so good for indoor shots. Here, it’s at 5.6. I got some nice lighting from outside, but it still came out a little dark. (The onboard flash didn’t help much, which is why I should make my next investment an SB-600.)
I’d like to go to some other area parks to get some more shots. Depending on my days off and the Miami weather, I may do just that. I just have to make sure to bring someone with me.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Do cool photographers use a polarizer indoors?
Here, I was able to put the sun behind the trees. I got a nice silhouette effect from it and the sky looked a little darker. Without the circular polarizer filter, the sky would have looked a lot bluer. (Click on the picture and check out the surrounding photos.)
A circular polarizer definitely has its uses, especially here in Miami. The sun can be very bright. I’d live to get a chance to really try it out. I think this weekend, I’m going to go to a local park and see what I can do. I ordered a new lens, but it probably won’t arrive by then. I can always hope, though.
