Small gear thoughts (with lots of distracting photographs)

I made it a goal this year to purposefully try and think about different types gear.  I decided trying a small carry everywhere camera, and a large format pinhole camera.

This is about the small camera.  More specifically, this a bit of a retrospective of nearly a year with my X100s.

I have taken it Tennessee, and I have even written a bit about it before.  But, I have carried it with me nearly everywhere I went everyday since I bought it.

This had an immediate effect.  I stopped using my cell phone ( as much ) for taking pictures.  I started taking pictures of my kids in restaurants with it.  I used it to document such things as metro's incompetence, dinner, random things that caught my eye because of color or light, etc.  Yes, this was all stuff I had done before with the cell phone, but, at least from a technical quality point of view-- these are much better than if I had used a cell phone.

I can imagine some of you are thinking, yeah, but you own dSLRs you could carry one of those around and do the same thing.  Yes, I *could*, and I did carry an SLR around nearly every day for a year or two prior to picking up the small camera.  But, I didn't use it nearly as much.  In fact, I think the only good it did me was make my back stronger.  It certainly didn't help fill up my picture library with high quality images of everyday moments.  There are a lot of reasons for that, none particularly good.  It was effort to get an SLR out of a bag, my SLR attracts attention, its pretty loud, and did I mention it attracts attention?  In any event, none of those things matter to me if photographing is my primary focus, but for a quick shot it is paramount.

I have also used it for more staged and/or serious pictures too.  It works very well there too.  I tend to work pretty methodically and slowly making those kind of pictures, so the speed disadvantage an x100 has compared to a dSLR doesn't impact me.

This has made me consider picking up one of Fuji's interchangeable lens X-cameras and potentially selling all my SLR gear.  Unfortunately, there are a few things I do that would fall flat if I tried that, and I don't want to support two camera systems.  One is expensive enough.  But, the thought still lingers.

I doubt there are too many people out there that are still on the fence about buying one of these little cameras-- but if you are go try one.  It looks like a an updated model will be out soon so you have 3 generations to choose from!

Okay, this may have been written to give me a reason to put up a lot of different photographs from the year that don't really warrant their own post, and don't easily fit with anything else.

New Character

Its been a while since Tobias agreed to do one of these.  He's reaching an age where he doesn't want to cooperate anymore.  So we made him older and conforming in this picture.

I had a whole bunch of stuff I was thinking about writing when we came up with this idea.  But I'm not going to write any of them.

Kindergarten Graduation

Kindergarten "graduation" has become a thing. I didn't have one, even Kathryn didn't have one. But Tobias did, and so did my nephew.

Events like this require photos, pretty much just because.

I decided to approach this similar to how I work with high school seniors. The main difference is this is WAY scaled back because I would lose his attention otherwise.

However, it still had lights, it still had cameras, it had slightly less action-- but its only Kindergarten, we'll have another shot at this in 12 years.

Ironman

It has been a little over a year since Tobias and I made a character picture.  Since the superhero fun night we've been wanting to get this done.  He went as Ironman, so we had a new suit.

Carly and Kathryn went to see the new Hunger Games movie, so Tobias and I were left figuring out what to do.  This had been on the list.  All we had to do was rebuild the "studio".  Well, we also had to make our own bucket of popcorn.

Hopefully it won't be so long before we do this again.

Superhero

 The Intersection Church in Gettysburg did a Superhero fun night. They held it on October 31. The date seems familiar, but I can't quite place it.

I took pictures of some of our heroes. Here are a few of them. I didn't get these done nearly as fast as I would like. Running off to Tennessee for a weekend took precedent.

The villain wasn't too bad. He was probably just misunderstood. In any event he chucked a Snickers bar in my lap while running away from the heroes. At that point, whatever he did was forgiven as far as I was concerned. I had a fun time photographing everyone. Even those who didn't give me a Snickers bar.

Quick Trip to Tennessee

I suppose "quick" should never be used to describe a trip that is about 800 miles one way.  But that is how I need to describe it.  My brother and I headed out west sometime Friday night and returned by Sunday night.

I know, some of you are scratching your heads wondering why in the world would I be in a car that long with Jon.  Okay, no, that is not why you are scratching your head. You are wondering what is so darn important to cram into a car for that much time in less than a 3 day span of time.

First, it looks amazing out there right?  And who doesn't want to feed calves?

Okay, I've already admitted here that landscapes aren't my thing, despite how amazing it looks that would not warrant such a drive.  I suppose feeding calves is fun, but I can do that much closer to home if I really wanted to.

No, the reason we went was because this guy was getting married.

 

I am really happy I got the chance to go.  It's good seeing family and meeting new people.  It was also a very memorable event.

I need to get back sometime in the future.  Hopefully I'd get to stay for a longer a period of time and bring my own family with me.  I'd also like to stop at Nashville on the way back home.

Jake Lewis, Singer. Songwriter.

I thought a while about how to title this.  You can tell right?  No?  Well, I did. I thought through all kinds of clever ways to use the titles of his albums: Location, Location and We Can Get Out of Here.  Nothing really worked for me.  Then I walked through song titles-- still, no dice.  In the end I opted for something simple, something informative.

For those who don't know of Jake he is a "local" musician, singer, and song writer.  I had to use quotes on local because he's been all over the place lately.  I will leave the review of his music to those who write about that better than I do.  Like most reviews I've read on any subject, I disagree with part of this one... Waves is among my favorite songs on the album.  [ For anyone who HAS to know what my favorite is ... Clara ].  The local paper also added some writeup about Jake in their Year End Review last year.  This also the age of the internets.  To find out more take a look at his website, or look him up on Facebook.

I was excited to have a chance to make these pictures.  It was fun.  I got to learn a lot and ask a lot of questions.  I also got to see a pretty sweet guitar with a family history.  I am really happy with the black and white one I posted here.

The Way of the Samurai

 

This summer I read two "classical" Samurai books.  I read the Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto and the Legend of the Five Rings by Mushashi.  They are both interesting books.  Mushashi's book isn't as interesting to me for what he says in it, but by the way he approached his life.  The Hagakure, on the other hand, is a little like listening to the stories and crazy opinions of an old man.  Both are filled with things of wisdom, and both have moments where a modern reader might thing "huh?".  The Hagakure has many more "huh?" moments than Five Rings.

I think there is a lot to learn from observing Mushashi's life.  First he made training a priority, he writes "You must practice constantly.".  This makes sense, because he made his "living" fighting, and a mistake would be the end.   He believed in the fundamentals.  This leads him to write my favorite line in the whole book:

"The first elementary teaching becomes the highest knowledge, and the master still continues to practise this simple training, his every prayer."

This is something I try to do.  I always want to get better at the basics, learn them again, practice them again, constantly.  I feel that "advanced" stuff is actually just the basics looked at in a different way. Unfortunately, I have never mastered anything well enough to prove that.

Some other things I learned from Mushashi is he traveled.  He did this in order to find the best in his field, to test himself.  It applies in modern life too.  If you want to play country music you go to Nashville, not Seattle.  If you want to work in finance you go to New York, not Las Vegas.

The Hagakure has some wisdom in it also. 

"When the time comes, there is no moment for reasoning. And if you have not done your inquiring beforehand , there is most often shame. Reading books and listening to people's talk are for the purpose of prior resolution."

 "Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never-ending."

There is also warnings of in-experience.

"A person who knows but a little will put on an air of knowledge. This is a matter of inexperience. When someone knows something well, it will not be seen in his manner."

The Hagakure also contains strange stuff.

"A long time ago this practice was followed, especially in the upper classes, but today even the children of the lower classes perform no executions, and this is extreme negligence."

 "If you cut a face lengthwise, urinate on it, and trample on it with straw sandals, it is said that the skin will come off. This was heard by the priest Gyojaku when he was in Kyoto. It is information to be treasured."

 Really?  Information to be treasured?

Reading these books made me want to make a picture of Tobias as a Samurai.  This is really a ninja costume, no one makes Samurai.  I have drawn up some armor and a helmet that I think I can construct out of foam, but I haven't had the time to put it together.  I also haven't found the foam I want.  This will do for now.  It is a very basic shot, nothing fancy.

Tobias as a Rockstar

Recently a friend gave us a child's size guitar he had sitting about. As you can imagine Tobias was pretty excited about this. We put some new strings on it. I need to set it up for real ( fat strings go sharp up the fret board ), but as far as Tobias is concerned it is perfect. Clearly that is a good reason to make a picture. We do that around here, whether it is learning to ride a bike, or a new cool toy.

He is trying to learn to play some too. For the most part we are picking a string and trying to hit it to a beat. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. One...

Eventually we will also try to use fretted notes too. Other than that I'm not sure what else he will want to learn from me. Maybe I will seek out a guitar teacher with exemplary patience that will work with kids.

Also, I'm not 100% sure what kind of instrument it is. It has no markings that I see. Its basic look and design is that of a Fender Strat. The case is marked "JAPAN", so I'm guessing the whole rig may have been made there. Its roughly a 22" scale instrument. The neck is a single maple piece that incorporates the fretboard. In the case was the package the strings it had on it. They were made around 1988. So, the guitar was probably made within a few years of that. If anyone has an idea of who made the guitar I'd be interested to know. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but I don't like mysteries.

I like the top picture for expression and pose, and the bottom picture I like because you can actually see the guitar.

Tobias as a ... space pirate?

My kids were given a copy of the really odd game, Ring Around the Nosy.  It led to some amusing dinner table conversation between Carly and I.  We are grateful for that, not too much has been amusing lately.  Unfortunately, I can't really repeat any of it.  Partly because it was a "you had to be there" moment, but mostly because it was super-saucy.

Despite that, I thought it could be used to make one of Tobias' character pictures, but not with the ridiculous elephant nose.  It reminded me a bit of the little character in Fifth Element, so I started to think a bit sci fi.  Tobias was playing with Pirates when I was thinking through this so I mixed the ideas together.

We may revisit this idea later.  To me this looks like my idea accidentally channeled a bit Eminem.  Besides, I'm thinking a space pirate needs a mechanical hook hand with a frickin laser beam attached.

Tobias as Mario

We are doing a lot of these lately. This one was by Tobias' request. My brain hasn't felt very creative the last week or so, but that is okay. It hasn't stopped Tobias. I decided to try something slightly different and present Mario as a diptych.

My Clone

Tobias got a a new suit for Christmas. Of course, this pretty much meant we had to make another picture for the character project. I kept the same basic idea I started with the knight picture. Processing is just a tad to the side of overdone, and the lighting is pretty straight forward.

I'm not sure if he is really my clone.  He looks a good deal like me.  But I'm pretty sure he is smarter, and he is going to be a lot bigger and stronger than I ever was.

The suit is a tad too big, above is the pullback shot.  That one isn't hyper-processed.

Tobias as a Jedi Knight

This is a continuation of the project I decided to pursue. This is Tobias as a Jedi Knight. I need to learn how to do up a lightsaber blade a bit better, but overall I think it looks decent. It fits in well with the other two pictures in the project.

Tobias as an Explorer like Indiana Jones

A while ago, I made a picture of Tobias as a knight.  That picture has become one of my favorite pictures of 2011 ( the other one lives at the top of this post ).  Since it is one of my favorite pictures, my mind will wander over to it sometimes.  During one of the wanderings I decided to try to make a few pictures of Tobias as various "characters".  I decided to tie the series together with similar hyper-real processing, and simple backgrounds.  We have a couple other characters in mind, and I hope to get to a number of them this year. 

We decided to start with Indiana Jones.  He loves the Lego Indiana Jones Wii game. 

I think he did a good job here, and gave us a bit of a sardonic grin.

More Video Learning

Kathryn was a wee-bit jealous because of the last video, so we made another one today while Carly was at the grocery store.  First, no, it isn't anyone's birthday.  Second, Kathryn was asked later not to say "shut up".

So, in order to build on what I learned last time I changed a few things.  First I used our little Flip HD camera.  That took care of file format issues and video format issues.  I also turned off the fish tank.  Because I was a lot a faster this go around I had time to throw on a background track and learn to work with that too.  I also found the "effects" menu and was pretty excited to see an adjustable black and white mode.  I have seen it before, but failed to find the adjustment panel.  All in all from start to finish this took about 45 minutes to record the video and background and edit together.  Again, the purpose is to learn.  Right now I'm not so happy with abruptness of the ending, but proper planning can solve that issue.

I like learning new things, but at the same time video is not my favorite thing in the world so I'm not sure how much I will mess with this stuff in the future.  Maybe a bit more.  All the new still cameras are built with pretty interesting video capabilities, and sooner or later I am going to end up with one.  It is inevitable.

Trying to Learn Some Software

I spent a little time trying to learn to sync up audio and video today using Adobe Premiere Elements.  The first order of business was creating the audio and video.  Carly was out shopping and Tobias thought the idea of making her a "video card" was fun, then changed his mind once everything was rolling.  Its still amusing, so I went with it anyway.  I used our P&S camera as the video camera and a little Zoom handheld recorder for sound.

So, what did I learn?

•   The fish tank is loud.
• Adobe Premiere Elements doesn't come stock with a motion jpeg codec.  That was annoying, but I converted the video with ffmpeg to get around that for the time being.
• Window light works for video too.
• The camera doesn't default to HD (d'oh).  It is set correctly now.
• Its not too terrible hard to sync the audio and video together. First trick needed is to unlink the audio and video on the timeline.  After that it is pretty simple really.
• It really was worth it to record the sound separately -- The audio off the camera has lots of white noise and seems to really "spike" up in volume when Tobias was talking.

Some day maybe I'll use a camera that can capture decent video.  For now, I'm going to use what I have to goof around.

Excuses, excuses

Its been a little while since the last post.  Part of that is because we went on small trip.  The other reason for that is things are frustrating at the moment.  :)  One of the things I discovered is the marketting material for our little P&S doesn't lie.  It really is water proof.  That being said, I didn't bring it in salt-water, I think that would be a bad idea no matter how well the sealing might work.

That was the primary camera on the trip, mostly because it fit in my pocket.

The kids were there too.

I've still been making a number of photos, I just haven't been writing entries to post them under.  That should change in the near future.

I haven't been writing much because I've busied myself drawing, painting miniatures, reading, and trying to figure a few a things out.  If you've ever heard the Tears for Fears song Everybody Wants to Rule the World you are familiar with the line "I can't stand this indecision married with a lack of vision."  That is pretty much where I'm at.  I can figure out what do at a tactical level, because I have no strategic plan.

Just captions

 

 So far, this has been one of those years.

 

And it has been one of those days.

All the Grandchildren

I had a chance to photograph all my cousins.  This represents all the grandchildren on my Dad's side of the family.  I'm there, just hiding behind the camera [they say the camera points both ways right?].  This is one you probably have to click on to really look at.  It looks a bit wonky so small.

The ages here range from 35 (me) to about 5.  That is a pretty large span of time!

It is a single light, in a barn.  Seeing this all together, I should consider pulling up the midtones in a few of these. 

Engaged: Ben and Klare

Ben and Klare gave me the chance to do an engagement session for them.  I'm happy they did. Since the moment we agreed to this I had a picture in mind I wanted to make, however the weather simply didn't allow for it this go around!  We found the one above though, which quite frankly, is better than what I wanted to do anyway.

We made some stylized portraits.

We made a perfume/cologne ad. Okay, its not really an ad and that wasn't quite the original intention, but that is what it reminded me of when I finished it.  So, for now, I'm going to pretend it was completely on purpose.

We also managed to capture a little bit of the sweetness they have for each other.

We talked a bridge into lighting up for us, in the rain. I forgot to mention they are both smart-cookies, which is why they were under the bridge and I was standing in the rain...

Most importantly we caught a little bit of the fun they brought with them!

The first "photo shoot" I ever did was around 10-11 years ago.  It was an engagement session for a couple of close friends. Before this weekend I have done a grand total of zero more. So, to say I don't do this much is an understatement. However, I should probably change that, it is fun, even if the weather doesn't do what I want-- and then taunts me with perfectness the following Monday.