When an Upgrade is Actually a Downgrade

Canon 7D with Holga HL-C AdapterI just got myself a Digital Holga Starter kit for my 7D, turning my rather expensive DSLR into the equivalent of a plastic-lensed Russian Chinese toy camera. There’s no way of overstating this: this lens is really cheap. It feels cheap, it’s 60mm focal length is brutally unforgiving, the aperture just is what it is (roughly equivalent to f/8), and it demands that you crank your ISO way beyond what your good sense tells you you should be using. But it’s really fun, and definitely makes one appreciate the niceties of autofocus and the like, and getting a good result (whether by happy accident or otherwise) makes it all worth it.

Drawing kit, shot with HL-C Macro lens adapter

I got the close-up/macro lens kit. The “lenses” in the kit range in focal length from 500mm to 30mm, and are even tougher to focus with than the base lens by itself (particularly that 30mm), but again, the results can be quite beautiful. The restrictiveness of the lens definitely makes me slow down and think more about what I’m about to shoot. This is definitely a bit of an adjustment for me, given that I’ve been spoiled with the instant gratification of a purely digital background.

So, is it really a downgrade? Well, technically, I suppose it is, due to its inferior quality and what not. But all in all, it’s definitely a worthy investment at around $50.

Nostalgia Video of the Day: Max Fleischer's Small Fry

via youtube.com

On some one of his many trips abroad, my dad picked us up a VHS compilation called Cartoon Classics of the 1930s (at least, I think that was what it was called). It included a number of cartoons, including this one, and maybe one with Felix the Cat.

Anyway, a fragment of the song kept popping into my head, because one of the fish in our aquarium just gave birth (they're live-bearers) and my wife keeps referring to the "fry", which I don't think I ever realized was the term for baby fish.

Martini

Tanqueray Martini in the making

 

Continuing my boozy series of still-lifes, here are some of the essentials for making what many consider to be the classic martini. Some of the things I’ve learned over the last few days of shooting these still-lifes:
  • Your glasses and bottles are never as clean as you think they are
  • Reflections are a pain in the butt
  • Consuming the product while shooting it introduces complications

 

I'm Gellin'

Yeah, I hate that ad campaign as much as you probably do, but I really am gellin’ - in that I’m starting to see the versatility and importance of using them in my flash photography.

Check out this shot of a bottle of Captain Morgan’s 100-Proof Spiced rum:

There’s one speedlite in a softbox, camera-left, and another directly behind the bottle, with a Honl Speed Gobo strapped to it. I like it. When I look at it, I can almost feel the burn of that delicious golden liquid as it warms my insides.

Now check out this shot I made, after adding a red gel (what Sensei McNally calls the theatrical gels) to the speedlite that was behind the bottle.

Dramatic, huh? It’s a small thing, but it’s really starting to open my eyes to the importance of using gels, or at least the creative possibilities that they make available to me. I’m still wrapping my head around the concept of using gels to correct mixed lighting situations (I’m still in the “I shoot RAW, so I’ll just fix it in Aperture” mindset). But I’m determined to get more comfortable - after all it’s yet another tool to have ready at the arsenal.

Bonus: Here’s another shot of the same bottle when I pulled the camera off the tripod and went handheld (which is more in my comfort zone).

PS Quick Tips: Spring-Loaded Tools, Bird's Eye View and More

Photoshop Tips: Spring-loaded Tools, Bird’s Eye View and Interactive Brush Sizing from Simon Abrams on Vimeo.

It’s been forever, but I finally decided to demo and upload some more Photoshop tips. In this video, I cover Spring-Loaded tools, Bird’s Eye View, and a couple of other quick tips that were introduced back in Photoshop CS4, but that may have slipped under the radar.

Steve Wozniak to the FCC: Keep the Internet Free - Steve Wozniak - Technology - The Atlantic

What if we paid for our roads per mile that we drove? It would be fair and understandable to charge more for someone who drives more. But one of the most wonderful things in our current life is getting in the car and driving anywhere we feel like at this moment, and with no accounting for cost. You just get in your car and go. This is one of the most popular themes of our life and even our popular music. It's a type of freedom from some concerns that makes us happy and not complain. The roads are already paid for. You rarely hear people complain that roads are "free." The government shines when it comes to having provided us pathways to drive around our country.
via theatlantic.com

A great essay by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on what's at stake with Net Neutrality.

The New Family Time?

Family Time [85/365]

So, I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed this new cultural phenomenon lately where people seem to be spending an awful lot of time on their laptops and smart phones…

Okay, I’m being kind of tongue-in-cheek about it, but it is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. My wife and I were talking about it last night, and we both realized that when we’re at home, we’re mostly doing stuff on our computers, and then we go to bed (usually pretty late), and then we go to work, and the cycle repeats itself.

I’m kind of conflicted about it, because I really like being on my computer. It’s one of the things I do to relax and entertain myself. The problem is, I also happen to sit in front of a computer for eight hours a day to keep the lights on, the upshot of which is aching hands and wrists, an aching neck, tingling forearms and other various afflictions that are so familiar to so many of us these days.

Besides the physical side effects, of course, there are the effects on our relationships, our concentration, our ability to learn and retain information. There are tons of books and articles exploring all of these questions, so I won’t delve too deeply into it here, except to say that at least we’ve started to talk about it in our house, which I think is a good first step. 

Anyway, for a while now, I’ve had the idea to start playing around and exploring how our online time is encroaching on our meatspace time via a series of photographs, so keep an eye on this space for more… I just need to check Facebook and Twitter first.