Photography

It’s been a little while since I posted anything here.  At first, it was because my attention was focused elsewhere.  Then, I started to appreciate the break.

Back in May, armed with a relatively new 50mm lens, I brought my camera with me every day of the month, making a point of taking photos around town during my daily walks to and from work or while taking the dog out for a hike.  This exercise culminated with a rather warm Sunday Carnaval celebration, just around the corner from my house.

Alongside all of this, I had a new project at work that required a lot of my attention.  It was in the early phases of a new initiative that required a lot of creative thinking and I found that I didn’t have a lot of that energy left walking out of work.

So it was in June when I decided to do nothing with those images, and not post to this site.  I focused all of my creative energy on work.

Sometime last month, I wrapped my head around the items at work and started putting some energy towards processing the images from May.  Towards the end of the July I took the camera out for the first time to take some photos of the now shuttered Transbay Terminal here in San Francisco.

And today I’m back writing here.

I’ll get around to uploading photos from May sometime, but I’m currently spending time going through some of the photos from Africa and South America, looking to make some black & white images.

The next few months promise to be pretty busy, in a good way.  I should have a few things to post.

But I did appreciate the break, and the perspective it provided.

This year is looking like an expensive one for my photo habit.

Just this morning I downloaded the newest version of Adobe’s Photoshop CS5. I skipped the last version and have been happily running CS3 since 2007 but between no support for the later camera raw updates and a few compelling features (like their revised HDR engine) and I decided it was time to update.

And yesterday I finally bit the bullet and ordered a 50mm f/1.4 lens.  I’ve been wanting this lens for quite a while now but have had other financial obligations that kept me from putting down the money.  On my D300 this will give me a really nice short telephoto angle of view which should make for a good portrait/street lens.  In fact, with my 20mm, 50mm and 105 mm lenses I might abandon zooms for a while.

Next up will be Adobe’s update to their Lightroom product.  I’ve been a big fan ever since it was announced and I plan on keeping up with the latest versions since, unlike the 20 year old Photoshop, this young product offers pretty significant changes in every release.

But My real expected expense this year will be in the form of a new camera.  The rumors are swirling about a new offering from Nikon and I hope that what they announce will match what I’m targeting.  I’m really interested in a D700 + video.  To me the D300/D700 offer the perfect product falling between the more consumer-oriented cameras and the big professional tanks.  The newer Nikon D300s (the replacement to my D300) is a great camera but the D700 provides the full frame sensor and better low-light performance from the larger pro cameras.  I’m hoping that the new release will provide some updates to the image sensor for even better low-light performance and nice HD video.  I suspect they might restrict the video to 720 (rather than 1080) but I’m fine with that (heck, my tv at home is only 720 and it looks pretty darn good).

I’ve had a few other minor purchases, which I’ll write about some day, including some neutral density filters that I’ve only had a little opportunity to play around with but these costs are pretty minor compared to those already listed on the page.

And then there’s the 4/3 camera platform .. if the right one were to be released this year… hmm..

San Telmo was my favorite neighborhood of Buenos Aires.  It had interesting streets to wander around, curious shops, good restaurants and cafes and a great mix of diverse people.  All this said, I was never in this area very late at night but I definitely wandered around a few streets that had a pretty grungy vibe that bordered on hip and and just plain dangerous.

Of course, I kind of like that vibe as it adds a little excitement to any trip.  I’m not looking for Disneyland..

And so I wandered through this area a few times, the most memorable being on a Sunday when the area is transformed into an outdoor market with lots of sights and sounds and a lot of dancing and music as the night comes on.  This is where I saw the Tango act whose music I used for my South American video and it’s where I captured the dancing/drumming images used in that video.

On other days of the week the neighborhood offers a very different, less frenetic vibe that’s equally enticing and is also worth a little of your time.

Anyone who is thinking about a trip to Buenos Aires should definitely consider being in this neighborhood on a Sunday and if you are there, make sure you stay around for the evening music!

This week I’m finally getting some photos online from my South America trip.

Buenos Aires was my first destination and it’s an awesome city.  I really liked the vibe of the city: friendly people, good food, abundant cafes, good parks, different neighborhoods with unique feels.  It’s everything you’d want in a city.

I spent a few days in Buenos Aires before taking off for Patagonia.  I stayed in the Solar Soler hotel in the Palermo neighborhood.  It was a really nice little hotel that I booked online before the trip (I always like to have my first night’s hotel booked before a trip).  After returning from Patagonia I again stayed with the Solar Soler folks but this time in their apartment which was cheaper and actually a little closer to a subway station.

The Palermo neighborhood reminded me a bit of the Mission/SOMA districts here in San Francisco in that it’s a pretty mixed neighborhood with expensive shops and restaurants and new development alongside older residences and light industry.  I liked having it as a base from which to explore the city (though this district puts you at one end of all of the areas you’d want to visit and not in the middle).

The Subway system was really convenient for me and a great way to get around town.  I’d just pick a destination and take the subway there (or close to there) and then walk from then on.  That’s essentially how I spent my days.

Nights were pretty mellow since I was on my own but I definitely enjoyed the food and atmosphere of the late-eating crowds (restaurants are easily still crowded at 1am on any day of the week).

I’ve sorted through and chosen just a few of the photos that remind me of the city and that I hope best convey what I saw while I was there.

I’ve split out a subset of photos that I’ll post next, which are from the San Telmo neighborhood.

I’m finally getting around to my photos from my trip to South America and this time I decided to do things a little differently.

After our trip to Africa in 2008, I not only posted photos online but I also put together a little video of the trip.  Using iMovie on the Mac, I  combined photos, videos and some songs from an African choir I downloaded from iTunes.  That video turned out to be pretty long, so I never posted it online.

While in Buenos Aires, I was so taken by the rhythm of the city, and the fact that music was everywhere, I decided I wanted to do a video presentation to accompany the photos.  I recorded videos of street performances thinking that I would use those as the soundtrack but the microphone on the G10 didn’t do such a great job of capturing the music – at least, not the way I was shooting with it (not really standing with the mic pointed reliably at the source).  And then I came upon this tango orchestra performing during the San Telmo markets on Sunday.  They had the audience captivated and I couldn’t resist purchasing one of their CDs. It’s their music I used for the soundtrack.  If you’re ever in Buenos Aires (and I would highly recommend it) be sure to check out Orquesta Tipica El Afronte.  They play regularly in town, though not on days that I was able to see them in a proper venue.

This video contains images taken during my trip including photos from Buenos Aires, El Calafate, Colonia Del Sacramento, Torres Del Paine, and Los Glaciars National Parks.

I will post the individual photographs soon as well as a few blog posts about the trip.  In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the video.  By the way, the little 4-arrow button on the bottom right of the video will blow this out to full-screen, definitely the way to watch (if you ask me )

As before, I used iMovie to put this together.  It’s a pretty decent product and the ’09 version fixed some of the little issues I had with the previous version.  This still turned out a little longer than I’d like – next time I’ll make it even shorter.

The photos and videos are taken using either the NIkon D300 or the Canon G10.  All of the videos are from the Canon and it’s obvious that the quality of the videos is not as good as that of the stills.  I’m really looking forward to getting an SLR with video capabilities but that’s not a purchase I’ll be making soon.

I’ve had a few recent conversations (online and off) about podcasts.  I’m a big fan of the format since unlike more visual mediums like text or video they’re perfect for when you’re on the go: in cars, trains, walking, etc.,).  This got me to thinking that I really should get around to writing down the list that I have on my iTunes.

I have a couple of basic categories:

News/Current events, etc.,

• Fresh Air – Great interviews.  I usually listen to each episode though I’ll sometimes skip some of the entertainment personalities.
• Commonwealth Club of California – interesting speakers, though not as reliably great as some other podcasts, I appreciate the format and the many of the guests.  I’ll usually skip over at least 1/3 of these if not more

Entertainment

• NPRs This American Life – Ira Glass’ great audio production of interesting non-fiction (mostly) stories.
• WNYCs Radio Lab – dumbing down science so that anyone can enjoy it, layered with elaborate audio production
• The Sound of Young America – enjoyable pop culture interviews by America’s radio sweetheart right out of his LA apartment
• NPRs Car Talk – click and clack every week.  I don’t often listen to these but they’re good to have on the ipod when you’re in the mood
• SFMOMA Artcasts – This I have to enhance my museum membership but the postings are sporadic and only occasionally useful/interesting

Photography related

• Jeff Curto’s Camera Position – Early episodes discussed why certain decisions were made while composing images.  Lately this has become less frequent and more about the overall process of defining ones approach to photography projects
• LensWork – thoughts about the creative aspect of image making.  Usually short, and so easily digestible when you’re almost at your destination but just need a few more minutes.
• Martin Bailey Photography – A Brit in Japan who works in technology by day but photography on the side.  His technical descriptions are easy for anyone to digest, I enjoy this one for the embedded images and the inspiration it provides to just go out and shoot and follow through with your projects.
• Nikonians The Image Doctors – usually gear talk focused on Nikons but sometime other topics as well.
• Lightroom for Digital Photographers – short tutorials on Lightroom features
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips – short tutorials on Lightroom features
• Photoshop for Digital Photographers – short tutorials on Photoshop features

So that’s the list on my computer (most of which get sync’d to my ipod/iphone.  Speaking of which – one aspect of the iphone I love?  The 2x setting.  Some of these podcasts (Nikonians, Lenswork, Martin Bailey) are easily consumed at twice the normal speed allowing me to pack in more listening.  Others (Terry Gross, Ira Glass) I prefer to listen to in real time.

I’m curious to hear what others are listening to as I’m always on the look out for good content.