2. Photography

365

A photo a day, for a year. The excitement, the drama, the successes, and the failures.
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Day 51. August 28, 2010. Had a fun time this morning taking some "semi-professional" shots of a friend at Stanford's CCRMA. Things I learned: (1) Blond hair is extremely reflective and will quickly blow out your highlights if you're not careful with your lighting. (2) Studio lighting controls at CCRMA are the most unintuitive things ever. (3) I need a boom for my light stand. and (4) Too much of a catchlight makes your subject look like an anime character.<br /> <br /> This is in CCRMA's listening room, which is perhaps the most perfectly designed room for audio playback ever.<br /> <br /> EF 50mm f/1.4 IS @ f/1.8. 1/50. ISO 100. 580EX II on camera with diffuser at 1/32 power with a light orange filter. 430EX II right of camera up high, bouncing off of ceiling at 1/4 power.
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Day 51. August 28, 2010. Had a fun time this morning taking some "semi-professional" shots of a friend at Stanford's CCRMA. Things I learned: (1) Blond hair is extremely reflective and will quickly blow out your highlights if you're not careful with your lighting. (2) Studio lighting controls at CCRMA are the most unintuitive things ever. (3) I need a boom for my light stand. and (4) Too much of a catchlight makes your subject look like an anime character.

This is in CCRMA's listening room, which is perhaps the most perfectly designed room for audio playback ever.

EF 50mm f/1.4 IS @ f/1.8. 1/50. ISO 100. 580EX II on camera with diffuser at 1/32 power with a light orange filter. 430EX II right of camera up high, bouncing off of ceiling at 1/4 power.

gportraits

  • Day 41. August 18, 2010. Temptations laid out on the desk in my hotel room.<br /> <br /> EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 16mm, f/4.0. 1/30s. ISO 400.
  • Day 42. August 19, 2010. Back home, and the cats are still here! One of our housemates, Sarah, moved out about a week ago, and since the cats belong to her, she'll eventually take the cats with her. But while they are still here, we are playing with them extra hard, and, in my case, taking a ridiculous number of pictures of them.<br /> <br /> EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ 173mm, f/3.5. 1/200s. ISO 800.
  • Day 43. August 20, 2010. The most spectacular sunset I have ever witnessed over land. And I had my camera and tripod with me. :)<br /> <br /> EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 10mm, f/9.0. 1/60. ISO 160.
  • Day 44. August 21, 2010. Standing on Barcroft Peak, looking at White Mountain Peak. Gusts topping out over 50mph. 13,040 ft. A little winded after hiking up this thing after having slept at Barcroft Research Station at 12,470ft, and doing badly acclimatizing while going through a cold and continuing nosebleeds. The views were spectacular. And the bluest skies I've ever seen.<br /> <br /> EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 10mm, f/7.1. 1/500. ISO 100.
  • Day 45. August 22, 2010. This was at the Schulman Grove, halfway down. Along with the Patriarch Grove slightly higher up the mountain, these bristlecone pine forests have some of the oldest trees in the world. The Methuselah Grove within the Schulman grove contains the Methuselah Tree, which has been dated at over 4000 years.<br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS @ 24mm, f/11. 1/200s. ISO 100.
  • Day 46. August 23, 2010. Moonrise. I got some awkward stares as I moved my tripod back and forth, with a huge white lens pointed toward what seemed like impenetrable hedges, trying to find a good gap for the moon to shine through.<br /> <br /> EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ 200mm, f/11. 5s. ISO 100.
  • Day 47. August 24, 2010. Bringing out the textures from my favorite book. Single flash at page level about 2 feet back and left of spine. Cool points to anyone who can identify the book.<br /> <br /> EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro @ f/11. 1/250. ISO 100. Bare 430EXII at 1/32 power.
  • Day 48. August 25, 2010. I just got my laundry back from the free laundry service at work, and noticed now the purple bag would make an interesting backdrop for something. The spatula bin in our kitchen looked colorful and interesting enough for this experiment.<br /> <br /> EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5IS @ 18mm, f/4.5. 1/60s. ISO 500. 580EX II at 1/4 bounced from ceiling.
  • Day 49. August 26, 2010. While walking down Bryant St. in Downtown Palo Alto, I found this gorgeous leaf on the ground. By evening when I took this, it had already dried up somewhat, but it still retained most of its bright colors. I soaked it in water for about 5 minutes, then placed it on a black cloth. There's a weak, diffuse on-camera flash, and a moderate flash from behind the leaf to the right that shines through the leaf. Burned bottom right corner in post-processing, and sharpened.<br /> <br /> EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro @ f/3.5. 1/125s. ISO 100. 580EX II at 1/64 power, 430EX II from behind right at 1/16 power.
  • Day 50. August 27, 2010. I found this web last night while watering the tomatoes and resolved to photograph is tonight. Turns out when it's pitch dark outside, it's really hard to get a good focus, or even find where the web is, especially with the web waving back and forth in the breeze. Eventually, a housemate came and held my headlamp to the web while I experimented, which was a huge help, so thanks. I just earlier in the day read a tip to use a spray bottle to attach water droplets to the web, so perhaps at a later time, I'll try this again with the 100mm macro, with water droplets in the early morning when there's better natural lighting.<br /> <br /> EF135mm, f/2.8. 1/60s. On-camera 580EX II at 1/8 power with diffuser, 430EX II slightly on camera right just very slightly behind the web.
  • Day 51. August 28, 2010. Had a fun time this morning taking some "semi-professional" shots of a friend at Stanford's CCRMA. Things I learned: (1) Blond hair is extremely reflective and will quickly blow out your highlights if you're not careful with your lighting. (2) Studio lighting controls at CCRMA are the most unintuitive things ever. (3) I need a boom for my light stand. and (4) Too much of a catchlight makes your subject look like an anime character.<br /> <br /> This is in CCRMA's listening room, which is perhaps the most perfectly designed room for audio playback ever.<br /> <br /> EF 50mm f/1.4 IS @ f/1.8. 1/50. ISO 100. 580EX II on camera with diffuser at 1/32 power with a light orange filter. 430EX II right of camera up high, bouncing off of ceiling at 1/4 power.
  • Day 52. August 29, 2010. Ugh. I've reached a new low in this Project 365. This photograph sucks. And it was actually taken a day later. But look at how friendly and pettable my pet wolf is. Perhaps that makes up for it?<br /> <br /> EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro @ f/3.2. 1/200s. ISO 100. 430EX II left of camera bare at 1/16.
  • Day 53. August 30, 2010. I was inspired to do a shot of a hand after watching--don't judge me--the season finale of of the sixth season of House. I only watched it because it was shot entirely on the Canon 5D Mk II, I swear. But anyone interested in photography or cinematography will have fun watching it. The use of the 5D Mk II and the usual lineup of wide-aperture primes instead of the standard big, clunky video cameras gives the episode a uniquely photographic quality. The episode starts with a pan of a hand in low-key lighting shot with the same lens I'm using here (albeit on a full-frame body). I started with black fabric, but that was a little too dark to reflect enough light to very subtly illuminate underneath the fingers. After trying a few things, my comforter turned out to be the right color. So here is the shot that may start my friend in a new career in hand modeling. <br /> <br /> EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro @ f/3.2. 1/200s. 580EX II @ 1/64 bounced from ceiling, 430EX II from right at 1/32.
  • Day 54. August 31, 2010. I got a light umbrella and mount! After playing with it for a while taking self portraits to figure out how the brightness and quality of the light, I recruited a housemate to be my guinea pig. This was definitely more of an experiment in using the umbrella than an exercise in portrait photography. "How should I pose," he would ask. "Umm...just look somewhere," I would respond. This is one of the few that was mildly planned. And, surprise, planning pays off. <br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8IS @ 50mm, f/3.2. 1/160s. ISO 100. 580EX II on camera bounced off ceiling @ 1/16, 430EX II bounced off of umbrella to the left @ 1/16, ceiling light to the left of camera.
  • Day 55. September 1, 2010. It's been awhile since I've done an outdoor night shot, so I was going to do a shot of some flowers backlit by streetlights, but as soon as I stepped out, I noticed the shadows dancing on the side of my car, whose name, as everyone should know, is Taiga.<br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8IS @ 48mm f/2.8. 10s. ISO 100.
  • Day 56. September 2, 2010. More housemate portraits! I see this housemate in various positions all over the house, invariably with his laptop, so here's an attempt to catch him in a semi-candid way. I used a single light balanced on a pillow for the key, and a weak bounce on-camera for fill.<br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8IS @ 21mm f/3.2. 1/100s. ISO 100.<br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm
  • Day 57. September 3, 2010. Friends of the house at our Farewell to the Cats party.<br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8IS.
  • Day 58. September 4, 2010. All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. Taking a red eye out to visit the East Coast, and then Minnesota for the next two weeks. Miraculously, I managed to fit everything into a backpack and a carry-on bag.<br /> <br /> (I'm writing this caption on a plane, and hence, don't currently have the EXIF details of the shot. Apologies.)<br /> <br /> EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS.
  • Day 59. September 5, 2010. (Where the streets have no name?) Alley next to the friend's house I'm staying at in DC. So many houses here have brick exteriors, which makes for amazing night scenes. Pretty straightforward shot. Only tricky part was balancing the ISO with the shutter speed to get just enough blur on myself.<br /> <br /> EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 10mm, f/3.5. 0.6s. ISO 400.
  • Day 60. September 6, 2010. Even though I took plenty of shots of the standard DC sights, I promise to not bore everyone with my copies of those same cliched pictures. So, here is another location on the National Mall, but one that gets much less lens traffic. This is the concourse connecting the East and West wings of the National Gallery of Art. The giant matrix of lights on the walls are densely packed, almost like an LCD screen, and generate mesmerizing patterns as you move down the moving walkway. There was another lady taking shots at the other end. Neither of us had a tripod handy, so we had a good time brainstorming ways of improvising camera supports.<br /> <br /> EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 13mm f/9. 1/20. ISO 1000.
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