Saturday, September 19, 2009

Kiss the Girl 6/52

Kiss the Girl 6/52

View On Black

Week 6 of 52: ♫ Kiss the Girl ♫

A friend asked me to shoot engagement shots with him, so I needed to find a photographer to model my weekly shot from. Another friend had mentioned a local wedding/engagement photographer name Brian Hall, www.brianhallphotographers.com/main.html.

I looked through his engagement shots and found one I liked. It was a couple kissing in a field backlit so you could just see silhouettes and some definition of figure, so I wanted to replicate something similar. This isn't very close to his shot, but it is where I drew the idea from.

The person I was shooting the engagement shoot with had scouted out the area and took me to a spot with tall grass. It worked fairly well. I worked to define her form with the back-light and her front is defined by his shirt acting as a reflector. If I shot this shot again, I would have moved them further to the left so the tree wasn't behind him and worked on his pose a bit more.

Eric

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Week 5: Northward Ho

Northward 5/52
Week 5: My plans were simple this week. Take a picture of a star trail with the north star at the tip of an object (a tree is what I had available without too much light pollution). I was limited to about 20 minutes due to park closure time.

Taken with my SMC Pentax-A 35mm f/2 at about f/4 if I recall correctly for this shot. Fujifilm ASA 200 film and a Pentax MX body on bulb. In an ironic twist of fate, I had sold both my wide angle lenses this week prior to doing my planned shot where I needed a wide angle.

The widest lens I have left is the 35mm f/2 until my 16-45mm f/4 comes in, so I had no choice but to put it on the film body to get a 23mm field of view or so. I took a couple shots with the IR Dimage too, but it is a bit difficult to get bulb shots without a remote :)

To make matters more interesting there was some creature by the lake that would grunt and breath deep whenever I got close. I think it might have been saying "Tailypo, Tailypo, give me back my Tailypo" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailypo ), and this is the same lake: www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/3892157437/. Seriously though it was probably just a muskrat or something.

Eric

Friday, September 11, 2009

Sept. 11th, 2001

IMGP7823

I don't write poetry ever, but for some reason I did 8 years ago today. Here was what I wrote in my journal. It is amazing how this stuff remains around, it has been moved between about 5 computers and hasn't really been looked at in since I wrote it, but has been floating around in a zip file I made before upgrading my computer.

Journal follows:

The other world changing news today was the destruction of the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and the loss of four US commercial airlines. Could be the start of a war. It is disgusting how cowardly people can be; sending terrorist action against thousands of civilians.

Well, I thought I would have more to say, but I don’t. It is been a long and disturbing day. I need to get up early and go work on some homework.

Hopeless souls walking the streets
Unaware of the dangers surrounding them
Fiery death raining from above
The world tumbling to those unsuspecting
Who would have known life’s unfair

Events unfolding, life ever mutable
A foundation, sturdy as stone
Has stood through the ages
Crumbles and falls, touched and corrupted

Fingers are pointed, blame is placed
To no avail, the blow has been struck
Revenge is hollow, remorse deep in heart

From the ashes, a new bird arises
Reborn and anew, as life ever cycles
Such is the fate, of our ill-lucked race


Eric Tastad, ’01, memory of the WTC

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Shutter Sounds


A short video showing the differences in shutter sounds between the Pentax K-2000 and Pentax K-7. The K-2000 is the entry level camera with a coarse sounding shutter, and the K-7 is the top of the line model which adds a lot of refinement. Both are capable of taking excellent pictures. I show this example so a person coming from one of the other Pentax cameras (K10d, K20d, K200d, K-2000, etc) can get an idea of the refinement in the shutter.

Enjoy,

Eric

PS If you have trouble with the flickr video, use this one on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZANU2HCbycw

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Washed Up 4/52

Washed Up 4/52
My thought for this photo started during my 365 day project last year. I thought it would be cool to have a picture of me alone in a lake in the middle of the night with a full moon. I thought this would convey a sense of loneliness mixed with fear.

This shot morphed slightly after shooting as I was a little late getting there and the moon was too high in the sky to get the long reflection on the water. Also, at 21mm I am too small in the frame relative to the moon and my face comes out too dark with the moon behind it.

If I shot this shot again, I would do a diptych. One shot of the moon with a telephoto, and another of my face (front lit) by the moon with the moon reflection in the water beside me.

I will say it was a bit creepy walking into a completely calm lake out with no one else around and just the eerie moonlight for lighting. It feels as if you are disturbing the water when you enter it was so calm. I was waiting for a tentacled monster to come out and eat me like in Lord of the Rings ;)

To setup this shot I put my K-7 with DA 21mm on a tripod in the water about 10 feet from shore and it was only 8 inches or so above the water. This had me a bit nervous as the tripod was sinking a bit in the sand, but there were no waves to tip it or anything. Just ISO 100 long exposure shot. Camera was set to interval shooting so I could just float in the water for 5 minutes and hope to get a good shot.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. Trying to sit still in the water is a task when you start hearing noises and start wondering what they are, but you can't move because you don't want to blur the picture ;)

Eric