ERMAGERD FLIKR!

Hey all! I'm updating to a dedicated Flikr just for Caffeinated Pixelations work. You can dig it HERE (aka http://www.flickr.com/photos/caffeinatedpix/ ) for full on tastiness of everything. Enjoy!

Taken with D90 on a foggy day

A study in snacks

ISO 640 50mm f1.8 1/800 sec

Because sometimes you just wanna have fun. A study in snacks today. Shooting fruits and vegetables in the grocery store provides a good challenge for balancing existing light and glare on your subject. As many fruits and vegetables sold today in stores have a wax coating to help preserve them, you can get unwanted highlights. To counterbalance this shoot a little to the underexposed side of what your camera's meter reads at. However, only shoot one or two stops down so you don't lose too much image data. If you shoot where it meters, you will most likely get subjects that seem overexposed with overblown highlights.

Everything shot at ISO 640 with the 50mm.

Quickie Comparison

Just a quickie comparison for now. I'm really loving the new D600. She is a lovely monster and I promise I'll have more for you soon that really shows what she is capable of. Honestly, I'm still learning my way around her and her quirks. :D

ISO 500 50mm f1.8 1/80sec

ISO 1250 85mm f4.5 1/25sec

Happy Holidays!

ISO 500 50mm f1.8 1/80sec

Happy Holidays from Caffeinated Pixelations Photography! May your time be filled with joy, family, and coffee!

Almost Christmas!

A rare time when you get to spend time with family for the holidays. Sometimes it is just about the camera you have with you. Taken with the iPhone 5.

My favorite orchard

First post with the D600! Came to the discovery last night though that Lightroom 3 doesn't have D600 support so for the time being I'm doing this the high tech way. Using the wu-1b to connect to my phone and then upload from here. Gotta love technology. So, I give you the first thing from D600! A shot of the inside of Bashita's Orchard store in Massachusetts. I grew up going here and stopped in to get some fresh pressed apple cider.

***EDIT*** 

SO, now that I've seen this on my computer I have figured out that the phone upload totally compresses the ever living daylights outta that image! SO NOTED. When using the wireless sender and the phone for uploads, Facebook quality only! I'll get some decent edits up here for you guys soon! Promise!

HIGH DEF

ISO200 28mm f8 1/1600sec

Want to see more in full on awesome quality? Want to buy a print? You're in luck! Check out my Flikr or over on 500px.

Nummy nummy bokeh

ISO500 50mm f1.8 1/80sec

ISO500 50mm f1.8 1/80sec

What is bokeh? It is a word which is Japanese in origin and appropriated by the photographic community meaning blur. This is expressed in photography via background that are out of focus this effect can range from only mildly out of focus to so out of focus that all you get are smooth colors seeming to almost blend into one another.

This technique is achieved by having a very wide aperture on your lens, the more light let in by your lens, the stronger the effect of the bokeh will be. Now, this can be a little confusing because the "wider" the aperture the lower the number, f1.8/f2/f0.95. The more more narrow the aperture, the more you will have in focus. The side effect of that is that you let less light into the sensor thereby having to increase your exposure times. However, that is another can to open on another day.

Now, with judicious application of bokeh, you can create some great images adding focus to just your subject. Or you can get creative and go very abstract with things. Finally, if you are really inspired yo can modify your bokeh shapes. I however, haven't experimented with that quite yet. Not to mention, it just looks delicious!

ISO200 28mm f8 1/200

Blogosphere, we have shutter movement

Here forward I will be using this lovely beast for my photos. She just arrived late last night and is fabulous to use. You will likely still see things cropping up from my old bodies, but, I'll let you know what is from what. Can't wait to test her out this weekend. I'm hoping for at least one evening of clear skies at my grandmothers house for some astral photography on the pond.

Happy shooting!!

Frankenphoto

Quick post today. Last week I went down to the Library of Congress for an informational seminar on Somali language materials, history, and current status in celebration of it's 40th anniversary as a written language. On my way out I couldn't help but admire the main entryway of the library and thanks to some glorious December sunshine coming through the windows of the upper balcony I was able to get almost HDR like color contrast out of single exposures. For my photo stitching I used PanoEdit (available from the app store for Mac users) and then color balanced again in Lightroom3 post stitch.

ISO 1000 28mm f8 1/60sec

I believe this is a stitch of 16ish photos with some cropping round the edges to clean things up. The key to remember when preparing for a photo stitch is to have everything set to manual (AF, ISO, shutter speed and aperture) and single shutter shooting. Shooting burst mode for this sort of thing, fun though it may be, will result in image blur as you move the camera. Also, make sure you have your shutter speed fast enough that you will not accidentally blur an image while shooting. One of the most annoying things ever while doing large stitches is to have a great image with one section totally useless and thereby ruining your final result.

Final tip for large stitches, shoot LARGER than what you want for your end result so you are certain everything you want will be in frame. If you have a program like Photoshop you will be able to correct the distortion that you get from shooting an image like this and therefore you can make sure everything is frame correctly, however, when shooting like I do without it, you have to make sure that you have everything set up to account for the extra image data that you will need so you have enough to crop out the jagged edges and not lose what is important in the frame.

For the full on 9364x5425 goodness check it out on my Flikr account. Full screen viewing recommended.

Chasing the wildlife

ISO200 50mm f3.5 1/200sec

So, one of the greatest challenges for me is interacting with children. Then, you add on top of that the trouble with photographing children at play in a park. For me, this is the most intimidating thing I could possibly imagine. Of course I had to ask a close friend to do a shoot with his kids so we could send photos to his wife who is overseas for a while. Obviously. Because that is totally how I'm comfortable working!

The key with photographing kids is to make sure that you're ready before you even meet up with them. Make sure you have the right lens for the job. Then, if your light isn't going to behave, bring your flashgun. Finally, patience. Lots of patience.

ISO200 50mm f3.5 1/400sec

 My choice for this shoot was a D90 with a 50mm f1.8D. The prime for this sort of shoot in a playground makes sure you keep up with your subject. Kids move at approximately 1.5x the speed of light at a playground and if you are shooting a zoom, you can almost guarantee you will end up with a piece of playground equipment between you and your subject, thereby missing the shot. 

However, the longer you spend with the kids on the shoot the more you will see that they tend to move in patterns around the playground. They all have a particular slide that they like more than any of the others and will make their way back to it frequently. So, at that point you can set yourself up at the base and wait for the perfect moment as they come down. Burst mode is recommended so you can catch the varying stages of static cling in their hair. Parents can't help but smile when you give them the shot with their kiddo's hair all fuzzed up.

Just don't forget, the thing that will make your shoot go smoothest of all is to relax, smile and go with whatever happens. Let the parent handle any problems that arise, and you'll have a great day. Kids are great to work with and always exciting, especially when you let them do what they love to do best, play. I've never had much success with getting kids posed, but, if you're willing to work around how they like to play, you'll find you'll get the best images from them.

Sometimes you have to compensate

The only good thing that has come of the Hipster movement is that I can still make use of my old crappy Nikon D70s. Now, when I say old and crappy, I really mean it. Periodically it will eat part of or all of the data on my CF card for no reason. If the camera wasn't so old, I'd send it in and get it refurbished. SO, what does this mean for shooting with it for now until my D600 arrives? HIPSTERIZE IT!

ISO200 50mm f2.4 1/125sec

What does this mean though? The short of it is, overexpose, blow up your highlights, soften the focus, and soften the colors.

Here is the thing though, why would you want to do this? In my particular case, it is because my camera can't gather data in low light/shadows anymore and I also get a lot of color noise throughout. So, to counterbalance this I overexpose (aka shooting to the left) which overloads the sensor with lots of light and extra data, allowing the sensor to fake it. What helps facilitate this is using a wide open aperture so you can really pump the light in to your image as well as get that glorious creamy bokeh in the background.

Now then, there are a couple of ways to achieve this sort of look on a regular (read non-crappy) camera. You can drop a mint on Photoshop and some premade filters, or, you can just use something like Lightroom and pump the highlights up a little bit on your already overexposed image. Then, add some fill light, reduce color noise (which will help soften your image), and adjust your white balance to where you want it.

Happy hipsterizing!

ISO200 50mm f4.8 1/30sec

All Flamingo'd up

ISO 400 200mm at f5.6 1/1250sec

In a recent trip to the National Zoo I had a scene unfold perfectly before me to snag a great shot of a flamingo. Here I will give a quick walk through of how I achieved this image.

I went to the zoo mid day and as it is already December the sun starts setting early, moving "golden hour" up a little bit. This image was a combination of great luck with unblocked sunlight and fortunate positioning of the Flamingo in its enclosure.

I watched the flamingo enclosure for about twenty minutes before a bird finally moved into the position I wanted. Along the right side there was a section of bushes casting a fairly deep shadow but also with a mostly unobstructed pool of light in front of them. After a few test shots to make sure the contrast would turn out as I was hoping, I sat down quietly to wait for a flamingo to get in place.

The main thing with images like this really is patience. You can't make the birds move anywhere they aren't planning on moving, so, you may as well just get comfy and watch their antics while you wait for the shot you want to arrive.

The reason that this shot was able to work is because the sunlight was extremely bright and direct, allowing me to meter for the flamingo with a fast shutter speed even at a smaller aperture but still have the background be underexposed enough to create a natural version of a blacked out studio backdrop. Then, a little tweaking of white balance and color levels in Lightroom and you end up with a wonderfully contrasty photo of a very regal looking flamingo.

Here are a few of the other shots I grabbed while waiting for Mr. Right to sidle into place:

Testing out the light while I waited.

These guys spent a whole lot of time bickering. Highly entertaining to watch though.