High in the sky

Want to know how this shot was taken? It was done with a balloon and a small point and shoot camera. Check out the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/personaltech/27basics.html?src=me&ref=technology

Extreme fisheye lens

I love really rare ultra expensive lenses. It's a shame I can't afford any of them. Imagine how much fun you could have with this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=350347707478&Category=3323&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2

Suhee from Seattle

Hi everyone! How have you been?

I'm in Seattle now, traveling by myself, no, with my Nikon who is much heavier than I thought. My shoulders are killing me... Hope that I have something to share here when I'm back to NY. Take care~

Cheers,
Suhee Kim

Macro photography on the cheap?

I haven't tried this, but apparently flipping your lens around might let you take close-up shots like these.

This weekend it's the New York Photo Festival in Dumbo, Brooklyn. I have a small contribution which was put together with several other photographers. Come along and check it out:

Sombra Projects is proud to present its inaugural exhibition, a collaborative effort dedicated to showcasing social documentary photography within a fine art aesthetic.

May 12-16, 2010
Location: Tivoli Room, Café Bar, Dumbo General Store. 111 Front Street, Brooklyn. NYC.
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm (Bar open till late)

Contributing Photographers:

Jason Andrew, Richard Ashe, Lyric Cabral, Francesca Cao, Tiffany Clark, Christina Clusiau, Julia Gillard, Chiara Goia, Lucy Helton, Yo Imae, Shiori Kawasaki, Yasutaka Kojima, Tiana Markova-Gold, Shizuka Minami, Kathryn Obermaier, Christina Paige, Pax Paloscia, Elizabeth Rubincam, Deidre Schoo, Gabriele Stabile, Nicole Tung, Tom White, Tadej Znidarcic.

Ed Kashi

Ed Kashi is a great photojournalist and a really nice guy too. Check out this slideshow of some of his work and listen to him narrate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2010/may/06/ed-kashi-niger-delta-madagascar

He shoots entirely with digital. He does video work too. He doesn't extensively retouch his photos and he doesn't push for style over substance. His work is a good example of how to take a great photo just by using the equipment simply and effectively, exploring the subject you are photographing and responding to what you see in front of you.

http://www.edkashi.com/

Telephoto F2 lens

Got a spare $14 000?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330429653113

NYC Skyline

I took some night shots from Hoboken of the NYC skyline. I was playing around with multiple options and these turned out to be one of the better ones.

Here the camera was at ISO 800, F4.0 and 1/5 shutter speed. I did a little bit of post production on this one using LightRoom














For this one I placed the camera on a tripod and exposed for 3sec at ISO 100 and f4.5

I did some experiments in low light conditions for two concerts at Blue Note using the 18-105 zoom lens for Madeleine Peyroux's concert (I was a little bit far from the stage) and a combination of 18-105 and a prime 35mm at the Chick Corea concert, this time I was extremely close so the 35mm didn't work very well. I also did a few experiments with bulb mode at the brooklin bridge. Please don't take the concerts by my pictures. Both were great!

Night photography & manual control

Usually you would want to use a tripod if you are doing long exposure photography, but it is possible to get good results without one. For this shot, I was inside a bar photographing through the window. I propped my elbows on the table to steady my grip. This is shot at ISO 200, Aperture F8 and a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds. The focal length of the lens is 17mm (equivalent 25mm).

Using F8 gives me a good depth of field so the flag pole in the foreground is in focus and I also get some focus on the buildings in the background. I took 3 shots and this one came out the sharpest with the least camera shake. (The beauty of digital means I can check straight away to see if it's in focus!).

Because I was using a mid way closed down aperture of F8 and I kept my ISO low at 200, then the slow shutter speed was required. This was a deliberate choice as it allowed me to see a bit of movement in the flag which was blowing in the wind.

This is an example of when my choices allowed me to control the exposure to get the exact effect I wanted (large depth of field for the buildings and a slow shutter speed for some movement from the flag). The camera's auto setting would have read the fact that it was a dark night scene and would probably have chosen a wide open aperture to keep the shutter speed as high as possible (in order to avoid any camera shake). In this case I chose to do the opposite of what the camera's auto setting would have suggested.

Nikon's f/1.8 35mm lens

I just picked this lens up today from B&H Photo (which you have to visit if you haven't already, just for the experience). It's super cheap and loads of fun to play with. Working with a prime, I completely forgot what a zoom lens and started moving all around the room and crawling on the floor snapping pictures and enjoying that nice big aperture (the kit zoom lens you get with the Nikon D90 is f/5 at 35mm; this lens lets in almost 8x as much light!). I won't inflict any photos of Gus the 16lb cat on you guys, but here's a nice depth-of-field shot I took in the apartment I was visiting tonight.

Getting started

From a November trip to a market in Peru. My wife's aunt took us shopping, and when we got home she gave us a cooking lesson. I built a website for her and now she gives cooking lessons to tourists for a nominal fee. Visit www.CookingClassInPeru.com if you are interested.

Welcome to Intensively Digital

Those of us posting to this blog include a Brazilian who came to New York City on a sabbatical, a Bulgarian, a fashion marketing manager, a Columbian, a Hawaiian with a passion for social justice, a motorcycle commuter, a nuclear trained submarine officer, and several others, led by a British-born photojournalist.  We're united by our common desire to improve our knowledge and mastery of digital photography, and we met in the two-weekend Digital 1 Intensive workshop at the International Center of Photography.

We started this blog to share our work with each other during the course of the class as well as after we graduate.  Thanks for visiting - we welcome your comments.