It’s Christmas vacation, the kids are home playing games, skiing and having snowball fights, including our adopted daughter and I’m in the office cleaning up my messes. This pretty much sums up how I feel!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6626.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Thanks Frank!
So there I am at Bosque, shooting with the D3s (through the 600mm) and Moose Cam (Canon HF-10 attached as normal above the lens barrel). I’m shooting stills and two types of video, working at figuring out a system while trying to make quality images/video clips. I came back from Bosque with one image I’ve always wanted, a down the barrel shot (which you can’t really see here)
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/SC8641.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The eyes are both lit and sharp. Not that it’s the greatest image, it was just a personal challenge.
At the same time challenging myself with this, I was shooting video like I mentioned with both the D3s and HF-10. The D3s since I was focusing manually via the Monitor, I knew those videos were sharp. The HF-10, I just went along as always with it because it has always delivered. Having no time at night to review the days’ video, I didn’t suspect any issues. Spent the weekend though going through 8hrs of video from the HF-10 and to my horror, found it’s all out of focus. I checked the HF-10 and found that I changed the focus from AF to MF! If I had followed my own insistence of reviewing everything I shot that day for video like I do for stills, I would have found the problem first thing. But no, didn’t do that.
What other issues could come up, well, see if you can figure what I goofed up here
It helps if you flip the switch to ON (doh!). I’ve incorporated video into my shooting now for 18month now and I still feel like a beginner. My brilliant assistant came up with the perfect filing system for video which I’ve been searching for this entire time (job security for her) so we’ve made our first step into a workflow, still miles and miles away from perfection. I see more potential for all of this a month ago but I also see a steep learning curve for me as well.
Mammoth Mtn puts on each Christmas a spectacular on the mtn they call the Night of Lights. It really is a fabulous show. We walk from our home to the Gondola where we get a ride up the mtn to Canyon Lodge. There out in the snow you listen to a live band and then watch a Snow Goomers, Snow Machine, Skier show that’s kicked off by the Redbull Dive Team who skydive in the darkness to land in the crowd. The night is finished off with one of the best firework display you’ll ever see. All of this is done under the stars and on the snow. It’s a great night.
This year a hot air balloon was stationed stage left. I brought the D3s because with its amazing ISO6400 image quality, I knew I would find at least one subject to play with. I started a ways away thinking I might like the overal shot with the stars. Na, I can do better so I moved.
Once I got closer I still kept a vertical format thinking that I needed more of the balloon to make the photo. But after a couple of clicks I realized I was missing the heart of the photo which wasn’t the balloon. So I got closer.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5863.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The photo is all about the folks enjoying the warmth of the balloon’s heat on the nippy winter night. It’s a real simple image to take, AWB, -2 exp comp, AF sensor on the basket, just compose and shoot. There’s one piece of advice I often give when I crit someone’s images, “Take one step closer.” Glad I listened to my own advice tonight. It was a gorgeous night out with friends under the stars and in the snow. I love winter!
Photos captured by D3s, 28f1.4AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
There’s this myth that with age comes wisdom. It’s a myth I put to the test everyday. Of course at what age comes what wisdom is not told in this parable, it’s just assumed that it will come. Now that I’m “older,” am I or do I feel wiser? Sometimes yes, most times no. I wish there was a written test to measure what we had, what we’ve acquired and now what we posses but no such test exists. Here’s my concern, how much of what I have learned can I still access and how much is now lost and with that loss, is wisdom gone with it? Or, does that leave a void to fill with new acquired knowledge? Does merely asking that question demonstrate wisdom? I doubt it.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/SO0114.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
What Stephanie did was simply brilliant! It was literally simple and its effect is brilliant. I can’t wait to share it with folks at Photoshop World this year. It goes right to the core of my style of photography and image finishing yet subtle, while following the KISS theory. And it’s so simple it went flying past me for years, I did see it or what’s probably worse, didn’t seek it out. Did the wisdom or old age let me down all these years or did it serve me well by giving Stephanie the challenge in the first place, tapping into that pool of youth?
I just love what this creative genius comes up with. But man, where does he get this stuff? Check out this new tutorial by Corey, just the stars blows my minds with its simplicity let alone the rest of it. Great weekend project, a lot of fun and if you think about it, the techniques and logic could be applied to other finishing touches to other images.
It ain’t real, but if it ever were to be, I’d have a cupboard full. I would prefer 85f1.4 size, perhaps 135f2