Honolulu Festival 2009

Ok great I was able to try out the new lens at the grand parade of the Honolulu Festival in Waikiki. I've decided that I may not be a great photographer, but my caption-writing skills are bar none. I wonder if I can get paid to write snarky captions? Anyway, taking pictures is still a lot of fun:

http://picasaweb.google.com/woompood/HonoluluFestival#

Some Gearhead Stuff

Any good hobby provides numerous opportunities to spend lots of money on "stuff", and lots of time researching said "stuff". In that respect, photography is an excellent hobby.

Since getting into photog it took me six months to invest in a new lens. I'm pretty slow at buying stuff. I finally decided to get the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS. In case you don't know what all that means, you can go look it up the next time you have trouble sleeping.

Actually, photofolk enjoy talking gear once they learn the language. It's not so bad. Having an exclusive lexicon is another fine quality of hobbies. Keeps the looky-loos away.

Anyway, back to business.

I chose this lens because:

• Range - my kit lens is 18-55mm, so this one conveniently picks up where the kit leaves off.
• Diameter - it's 58mm so it will take the same filters as my kit lens.
  
• Amateur - in reading reviews, it seems like this lens is a logical next step for XSI/XTI owners. If I start getting hard-core about photography I may need to do some upgrading. Until then...
• Price - this is a very affordable lens at around $250 brand new!

and I got it in spite of the fact that:

• It's EF-S, meaning that if I should upgrade to a full-frame camera body, this lens won't be compatible :(
• It's driven by a DC motor, not an Ultrasonic (USM) one. It's noisier and slower to focus. Since I don't plan on doing any funeral photography, noise is not a problem for me. The dead won't mind either.
  
• The construction is plastic not metal, although that may come in handy when getting that once-in-a-lifetime paparazzi shot of Magneto:

but on the other hand:

• It's still made by Canon, so it's a high quality product, and
• It's cheap! :)
  

Oh, and did I mention that the price is right?

With the money I saved I also picked up a UV filter, circular polarizer, and lens hood (Canon ET-60). I have to admit, it felt pretty good attaching all this expensive plastic gear to my camera. Similar to the feeling of attaching a silencer to the muzzle of a sniper rifle, I'd imagine.

Guess all I need to do now is take some pictures.

For specs on all Canon lenses, feast your eyes on this PDF, you spec freak.

The Usual Suspects

Good pictures of kids are very hard to come by. The difficulty level is inversely proportional to age, and rises exponentially with the number of kids in the photo and the number of cupcakes they've eaten. So this was the best I could do given these factors. Identities have been concealed to protect the innocent.

Yann

Every day my Firefox browser serves up these two pages, and every day they blow my mind:

http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/v2/yab_us.htm
http://www.yannarthusbertrand2.org/

Mystery Photo 2 Answer

Okay, that one wasn't so great...

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/esEAvLWs7rYBh65X2IRkAg?feat=directlink

Mystery Photo 2

What is this?

Ho Ho Ho!

The lightbulbs were hung, from the eaves with care...

How Dark

While for some the massive power-outage was a time of pouty-outrage, for me it was an opportunity to practice some 30-second-exposure photography. This city scene doesn't seem too dark, but when I took it I couldn't even see the controls on my camera.



The moral of the story:

Things will brighten up if you give it some time.

Mystery Photo 1 Answer

Did you figure it out? Here is the full image:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4iH1yNchyxGhXFGclY3pXA?feat=directlink

Mystery Photo 1

What is this a picture of? Send a guess or comment! The answer will be revealed later... stay tuned!

(click for larger)

Cruising

Unusual circumstances put me in the back seat of Jimbo's 1965 Chevy Impala convertible. Now that's a big car. It was a perfect day to go for a drive.



I can totally take a comfortable nap in this thing.



Thanks for the ride, Jimbo!

Sunset

I think those two dots are planets, but not sure which ones...

Me and the spokesperson for Bic

Lilioukalani Gardens

The class had its final field trip at Lilioukalani Gardens. Emphasis was on shooting people and pets, but I mostly shot this Chinese Crested named Poki, who was an excellent model.

http://picasaweb.google.com/woompood/LilioukalaniGardens#

Kualoa Ranch

Took several shots at our class field trip to Kualoa Ranch. That was a long day but didn't really get too many outstanding photos due to the weather. Anyway, here are the results.

http://picasaweb.google.com/woompood/20081101KualoaRanch#

Rainbow Sherbert Sky

Wow it's been a while since I've posted. Here's a nice little warm-up shot of the late afternoon sky.

Existing light

Class this week was about existing light conditions and shooting at night w/o flash. Learned a pretty cool trick where you have a long exposure for taking say, fireworks, and you cover or reveal the lens with a hat to create a multi-exposed image. Also learned that when you shoot the moon you should use daylight settings because the full moon is actually really bright, especially if you are able to use a long focal length to have it fill the frame. Need to do more shooting!

Magnum

Pretty sweet video podcast from Magnum photography co-op:

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/podcasts

Outside Mag

For some reason Outside magazine keeps showing up in the mail. I never subscribed to it, but it's a pretty decent mag that talks about a lot of things outdoorsy. Anyway, it's only recently that I've noticed how cool the photos are. I may never visit the exotic locations, but it's neat to imagine what it was like to be there in that spot where the shot was taken. And thanks to my class, I now understand the meaning of all the camera info that they print in the captions.

http://outside.away.com/outside/photos/index.html

Affliction

Lately I've noticed that every time I look at my camera sitting on the table, I have the compulsion to pick it up and take a picture of something. Or at least play around with the settings since I'm still learning what does what. It's a pretty amazing device really... about as many cool features as my laptop but more responsive and more stable. It also doesn't take nearly as long to startup... ... ... ...