Author: David

Published in Santa Fe Reporter

Post author By David
Post date May 21, 2008

The Santa Fe Reporter publishes a large glossy Annual Manual around this time of year — giving locals and visitors lots of useful information and insight into Santa Fe.

And this year, they used 2 of my photos in the publication.

They (very cleverly) organized a photo contest asking for shots of real life in Santa Fe, and chose the best ones to illustrate the Manual.

The runners up (like me) get exposure, and the one top winner gets that and a nice prize, too.

And the Reporter get lots of good shots for their publication.

My shot, ‘All in a Row’, was used to illustrate a piece on Santa Fe architecture.

‘Don Diego and his posse’ (above) accompanied a piece on the Fiestas we celebrate here in the Fall.

Result all round, I’d say.

And a tip of the hat to Marci, for persuading me to enter.

Personal Reviews

“Show big to sell big” – Mpix printing comes through

Post author By David
Post date May 16, 2008

I came across that pithy piece of advice the other day – the idea being that as a photographer, if you want to sell large prints as part of your portrait or wedding business, then you should only have large prints on display in your studio.

It’s not directly relevant to me (no studio, no portrait or wedding business), but I got the idea when I opened a flat box today from Mpix.

I’d had a bunch of shots printed at 12″ x 8″, and while that’s far from huge, it was the largest I’d seen most of these images.

Laid on the dining room table (helps that it’s white), they looked great.

And I could see some patterns and connections I’d not seen before between the different photos, even though I’d pored through them in deciding which ones to print up.

Personal Reviews

Back from Vacation

Post author By David
Post date May 14, 2008

Like every camera-toting tourist who just got home from their holiday, I’m keen to show you my pics.

We travelled to Ireland (Co. Clare, and Dublin), and Italy – back to Le Marche. I packed light(ish) – the Rebel XT, Canon 24-105mm L, Sigma 10-20mm, and the Canon 50mm f.1.8 for the low light stuff.

We were bringing the laptop already, at least partly as a DVD player to keep our daughter amused on the long flights, so I got to do some editing and reviewing while I was there, which was great.

I also packed a LaCie 160GB Little Disc portable drive for backup. It seems pretty flimsy, but it’s small and light, and did the job. It’s also pretty cheap.

Anyway, here’s the Flickr set of pics.

Personal

Annual Manual Success

Post author By David
Post date May 14, 2008

The Santa Fe Reporter publishes a large glossy Annual Manual around this time of year – giving locals and visitors lots of useful information and insight into Santa Fe. And this year, they used 2 of my photos in the publication.

They (very cleverly) organized a photo contest asking for shots of real life in Santa Fe, and chose the best ones to illustrate the Manual. The runners up (like me) get exposure, and the one top winner gets that and a nice prize, too.

Reviews

Lens review: Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM

Post author By David
Post date May 7, 2008

I bought the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM ($479 at Amazon right now) as a way into architectural and landscape photography – the 28-105mm I had at the time being way too long on my cropped-sensor Rebel XT.

It’s sturdy, and delivers some amazing shots, but you need to watch out for the distortion.

Reviews

Book Review – ‘Understanding Exposure’, by Bryan Peterson

Post author By David
Post date May 6, 2008

I haven’t quite kept to my resolution of reading one photography book a month, but I’m enjoying those books I have got through, including ‘Understanding Exposure‘ by Bryan Peterson .

It’s a quick read, with a few annoyances but a fair bit of good advice.

Links

Pick a colour, any colour

Post author By David
Post date March 29, 2008

First, sorry for lack of posts around here – mad busy with 3 big projects to get out the door before we head to Ireland and Italy in mid-April.

That said, here’s a great toy I stumbled across recently. Jim Bumgardner’s Experimental Color Pickr does exactly what it says on the tin.

Choose a colour, adjust its brightness and the picker will show you images from the Flickr Color Fields group (worth a look in itself) that exactly match the colour you’ve chosen.

It doesn’t sound like much, but in practice it’s very cool. It might also be useful for designers looking to find images that match a particular color (but as you have to drag the picker around, and can’t enter a RGB value, you might struggle to get exactly the right shade).

Personal Reviews

My new old precious – Canon Canonet QL17

Post author By David
Post date March 13, 2008
4 Comments on My new old precious – Canon Canonet QL17

Call it the poor man’s Leica, call it indestructible, call it whatever you want, but I love my Canon Canonet QL17.

Made between 1962 and 1971 the Canonet offers everything you could look for in a small flexible film camera:

40mm f/1.7 lens is sharp, flexible and great for low light conditions
either go fully manual or (with the addition of a battery) use the metered mode that gives you a pretty good shutter-priority mode
quick-loading film mechanism makes it easy for digital-heads like me to make sure the film winds on properly
cheap and relatively easy to find (I got mine on eBay for around $35)

Links Tips/Tutorials

Aperture 2.0 released

Post author By David
Post date March 9, 2008

Apple have updated their photo management and manipulation program Aperture. I’m a big fan, and have been using the 1.5 version for over a year now, so an upgrade is welcome.

The key improvements include adding great adjustment features including vignetting, much faster functioning, a cleaner interface and an improved plug-in API.

Photographyreview.com has a good overview, and if you’re in the US, you can buy it for (the reduced price of) $189.99 from amazon.com

My copy’s in the mail, so I’ll talk more about it when I’ve had the chance to take it for a spin.

Inspiration

Shoot a roll, put it up

Post author By David
Post date February 24, 2008

Bernhard Wolf‘s a street photographer in Vienna, and he does a simple/difficult thing very well.

He shoots a roll of black and white film while going about his daily business – meeting friends, taking a train somewhere, eating breakfast – and then he puts up all the pictures from the roll on his blog.

Some shots are better than others, of course, but it’s an engrossing experience, gaining this insight into his life, and the life of a city I’ve never been to.

The quality of his photography is impressive, and the pithy comments entertaining too.

Well worth a look: Yet another cute B/W-Color Blog