Archive for the ‘photography’ Category
The Last 3 Minutes
Apr.13.2010
This is simply amazing. I never thought much about video capabilities in a digital SLR until I saw this video. Shot entirely with a Canon 5d Mk II. All the technical details can be found here.
“The Last 3 Minutes” From Shane Hurlbut, ASC from Shane Hurlbut, ASC on Vimeo.
Aperture versus Lightroom
Apr.05.2010
A friend of mine had recommended Aperture 3.0 for managing digital photography. I downloaded a trial version of the latest release, Aperture 3.0.2, and gave it a workout on a small collection of photos last week.
The bottom line? Way too buggy for me. Although there are many things to like about Aperture there are issues with memory leaks, frequent crashes and hit and miss performance. The application shut down multiple times on basic image operations and despite running on a brand new, high-end iMac, the “processing” icon was constantly active and slowing the experience down.
With an extensive digital photography collection already being managed by Lightroom and a new release of Lightroom on the horizon, I do not see a need for me to make a switch. Still, I was quite surprised at how fragile Aperture was in the trail version. After the first few crashes, I was always expecting it to fail again at some point. And it did.
It is now off the machine.
Greenbrier
Mar.20.2010
At last. One part of the Great Smoky Mountains park was open. We hiked Greenbrier last night. Wonderful spot. Here are a few photos from the evening.
Great Smoky Mountains Shut Down
Mar.18.2010
Roaring Forks Motor Trail. Closed. Cades Cove. Closed. And now, the Little River Road. Closed.
All the prime photography locations at the Great Smoky Mountains. Shut down.
We went out to the park late this afternoon with the plan to shoot the Little River. Although we could go partway, the really interesting section of the river, from Sink Falls — the photo below was from last year — out to just before the Cades Cove loop, is the most photogenic.
I did get some shots of the river and the surrounding area. But with all the prime spots down, I did not have a chance to research alternate locations. And the park is way too big to do a random hike.
To give you some sense of the difference in location, here is a shot of the Little River, taken last year, in one of the prime shooting locations further upstream.
And from this evening.
Same river but further upstream is a much better spot for shooting in this park. A bit frustrating. Tomorrow should be a great day for shooting and I will have to do some research to see if there are any accessible areas in the park to take some photos. Otherwise, we might just hang around the cabin all day.
Great Smoky Mountains
Mar.18.2010
Woke up this morning and I had to take another set of panorama photographs. This one is 5 images stitched together. This is the view from the front deck of our cabin. Beautiful sunrise.
Middle Prong Little River
Mar.17.2010
Tonight we hiked the Middle Prong Little River north of the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. I decided to use my 18 – 200 telephoto lens as it can be a bit risky positioning a tripod in fast moving waters with a wide angle lens. Going with a wide angle lens generally means getting close to the action for the foreground. The water at this time of year is a bit too aggressive for me.
I used a polarizer and kept the aperture small with a slower exposure. Anywhere from f11 to f22 and 1 to 4 seconds of exposure. There was a fair amount of drizzle which seemed to work some magic with the rocks.
Here are a few photos from the evening.
Roaring Forks Motor Trail
Mar.17.2010
Went out last night to shoot some of the rivers and streams around the Roaring Forks Motor Trail. Unfortunately, the road was closed due to construction.
We were able to make it part way along the road to a trailhead simply marked as “Nature Trail”. It led to a wonderful and very active stream. I hiked around the stream for about an hour and a half until it became dark.
Light was fairly even and it was late in the day — around 7pm. I shot the stream at a very narrow aperture to slow the exposure down to about a second. That combination is what creates the water effect you see in the images below. f22, 1 second, on a tripod. Mirror up and remote release. That’s all it takes to frame these types of images. Oh, and a good pair of hiking shoes so that you don’t slip and fall into the water.
That View
Mar.14.2010
Here are a couple of shots of the Great Smoky Mountains from the upper deck of our cabin. What a view.
Family Portrait
Mar.12.2010
In one of the exhibits at the Smithsonian, there is a thermal imaging camera that presents the image on a monitor. You can see me taking a picture of the monitor.
A bit of a unique family portrait. I’m at the back, Matthew and Lorraine at the front.
I have collected pictures of some of the most stunning recording studios in the world and you can travel through the set by clicking 
