Visiting Venice

Ahh, Venice!!

Venice was everything I thought it would be and more. The city is so full of life.

The best advice we got was to put the map away and get lost. And we did. There's a unique aspect to Venice that you actually see more if you allow yourselves to wander than if you plan your every step.

The Future Mrs. & I spent the whole day in Venice and were exhausted by day's end. But we did a lot including, go up the bell tower (San Marco's Campanile), watch Murano glass making, learn about Venitian lace, visit a few churches, shop for souvenirs, take a Gondola ride & eat dinner with live music. Oh, and along the way we took a few photos too =)

I could have spent 3 weeks in Venice shooting the city. I had so many photo ideas that I felt sad that I didn't have more time to capture the essence of the city. But I guess that also will get filed under the "Things to Do Next Time" list.

I have 19 photos from Venice in my gallery here:
http://www.pbase.com/alinla/gallery/venice

Its so hard to pick only a few sample photos, so I encourage you to visit my gallery where there are more images. As always, I appreciate your comments either here or on Pbase itself.

Visiting Amsterdam

The Netherlands, what a wonderful little part of the world. I visited for about 24 hrs and that really can't do anywhere justice but I was there long enough to know I'd like to visit again.

Arrived in the evening and we had time for a canal cruise to see the city from the water. Unfortunately it rained nearly the whole cruise and there were no good photo ops. But we did see a lot of the city that way.

We had the next morning to ourselves as were leaving around noon. I decided it was a great morning for a bicycle ride. I found Mac-Bikes which rents bicycles and off I went. 12 million bicycles in The Netherlands for 16 million people and today I was one of them. The crisp morning air was great as was the views & people. Several friendly folks waved & smiled at me. I was Dutch for the morning. Ring, ring... ring, ring (bicycle chime).

As luck would have it about 2 hrs later and several miles away, the rain made another appearance. I decided to pull into a little sidewalk cafe with an awning to wait out the rain. Unfortunately, I was pressed for time as I had to return the bike & catch my coach. Reading a map while riding a bicycle in the rain is best left to someone with 3 arms & 4 eyes. Eventually I made it but I was quite soaked. Walking to our meeting spot the rain stopped and I had enough time to buy some souvenirs.

Only 6 images in my Amsterdam page. Next time I hope it rains less.
http://www.pbase.com/alinla/amsterdam

Visiting London

The Future Mrs & I really like London. We had fun riding the Tube to & fro, meeting new people and discovering how little our puny American Dollars would buy. Weather was hot & humid but still much cooler than where we came from.

We had about 2 days to explore London. We saw a lot in that time although my photos don't really reflect this. We had fun and would like to visit again as long as the security issue is taken care of. Unfortunately we flew back home thru Heathrow and the mess was quite surreal. If there was a hint of that again, I'll probably chose to visit elsewhere.

Nonetheless I'll fondly remember London. Thanks to the Brits for a nice visit. I'll always remember to "Mind the Gap". There are 12 images & commentary from London here:

http://www.pbase.com/alinla/london

The Art of Revisits

Visiting a photography location more than once seems rather tedious to some. But there a lots of good reasons to take a second trip to a location.

Obviously there can be different light conditions which can radically change your visit & photos. In fact visiting at a different time of day is a good idea. And there also may be areas you didn't notice or explore fully the first trip. Or perhaps there was one area you wish you could have spent more time at, but didn't. Last but not least, you may just have different lenses or equipment to use.

Apart from those obvious reasons, revisiting often makes you work harder the second visit, either by improving the execution of ideas you formed the first time or looking for new ways to shot your subject.

To assist me I often go over the older photos I shot, analyzing areas of interest and looking for areas of improvement. I found I can't get enough practice on the execution of photography. If I find a photo that had a good idea but I failed to execute properly, I'll focus finding a better method to capture the idea.

On the other hand, if I like what I shot I'll practice looking for new ideas. This is fun because I don't get bogged down with technical details. Using this thought process, I often shoot less and focus on more abstract subjects/ideas.

Either way I find revisiting is helpful to keep both the mind & eye sharp.

Strobist Assignment #2

So I've joined the Strobist Online Bootcamp. What is the Strobist? Well you can learn all about it here http://strobist.blogspot.com/ but the short version is its an online class to learn how to use portable flashes effectively.

The first assignment was a simple headshot. The current assignment is a portrait with a lit background. So I came up with a few ideas and developed a good plan for them. Later I shared them with the Future Mrs. and she provided great feedback and improvements.

The first idea was to shoot me, in the garage with my motorcycle. Ideally I would have liked to have three seperate flash units, but I only have 2 so I had to make do. As it turned out I was quite happy with the results although, setting up the shot, shooting & modeling can be a lot for one person to do. I took a lot of photos cuz I wasn't pleased with my expressions. Next time I'll find a model.

Tech data:
Pentax *ist DS ,Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD (IF)
1/90s f/6.7 at 63.0mm iso200 with Flash
Pentax AF360 on camera for fill in light about 20ft away
Sigma EF500 from camera right bounced off umbrella about 8ft from subject

The second idea was to shoot a simiar photo on a road with a Curves Ahead sign in the immediate background. We decided we didn't really need my bike as the attire & sign would be suggestive enough. We drove around for a while searching for a sign with the right scene, facing the right direction etc. We finally found one on Mulholland just east of Kanan. I set up the lights & camera took a couple test frames and starting shooting. As luck would have it, a motorcyclist came by, and I was able to capture him driving across the background. I took a couple more photos but I think I knew the one with the motorcycle was "the" shot.

It was a long day of prep & shooting but in the end I think it was worth it.

Tech data:
Pentax *ist DS ,Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD (IF)
1/60s f/8.0 at 43.0mm iso200 with Flash
Pentax AF360 lighting road sign from above camera 20ft away
Sigma EF500 lighting subject from camera left at eye level 4ft from subject

Planning for the 4th of July Fireworks

What's the most crucial element for a successful fireworks photo on the 4th of July (other than the actual fireworks)?

Getting there early & saving your spot?
A good tripod?
Shooting a couple test frames to ensure your exposure is correct?

While all these are good & very important, they don't quite carry the weight of the most crucial step to planning a great fireworks photo.

The most important part of a great fireworks outing , is knowing where the fireworks are. That's the step that Derick, Tom & I will be making sure is at the top of our lists next year. You see, we did everything else right. Tom drove down to the Long Beach Harbor the night before to scout the area & shoot a couple of test frames. We arrived about 3 hours early on the 4th and saved our spots, with the Queen Mary directly across the harbor from us. We set up, determined our compositions & exposures and even tested a few frames to improve our shots.

All it took was 3 seconds and we realized all our planning failed. When the fireworks show started we discovered we were facing the wrong way! What happened next was a scene right out of 3 Stooges. We all said "D'oh" and tried to move our tripods to a better location. Only thing was we had no room to maneuver and had 3 tripods almost on top of each other. As it turned out we had to duck & lean out of each other's way to shoot. Tom went high & extended his 'pod fully. I went low and in the corner. Poor Derick, well he was caught in the middle. I remember thinking this isn't what we planned for. And it wasn't. We did our best in the situation, but when all was said and done, something Derick said kept ringing in my ears... "There's always next year."

You Can't Afford Not To Get

So in trying to get myself a good professional image, I decided to get some business cards. And I mean real 4 color press, coated business cards. Cards you can feel proud to hand out, and not the kind you print at home and feel you have to apologize for.

After cruising various online forums reading both good & bad stories, I settled on using www.overnightprints.com. Their webpage is very simple to use and I have to say they must have the best set of online instructions I've seen anywhere. They list a wide variety of detailed instructions all based on whatever application you have installed on your computer. I used the Photoshop instructions and they were easy to follow, had graphic examples and were accurate.

After about 20 minutes (most of it was me screwing around PS trying to get the photo just right) the business card was all done and my order processed. I decided to order 100 cards because I didn't want too many lying around and I can always order more. I choose 4 color printing on one side (as a photographer you have to have a photo on the front) with a white back for room to write on. All in all with ground UPS shipping the grand total was $20. Just twenty dollars.

The cards arrived about 6 days later (I did say I ordered UPS ground). I was very impressed with both the quality & accuracy of the design. Essentially what I had seen on my monitor was now in my hands.

A couple of days ago, I found a discount for to use at overnightprints. Use the code VALUEDCUSTOMER and you'll get $10 off your order. That's half off an order of 100 cards. Now that's a deal you can't afford not to get.

Twice Around the Clock

Twenty thousand frames! Wow I usually don’t like to do anything I like (or anything else) that many times but the experience has been quite fun. But this last month I rolled the image counter over for the second time while shooting horses at Santa Anita Racetrack.

So I decided to use this milestone as a chance to reflect on my DS ownership.

I’m approaching 2 years of DS ownership: Zero problems (Thanks Pentax!)
I own 2 cameras: my DS & a tiny Sony P&S
I’ve bought 12 lenses since I got my DS.
I’ve sold 6 lenses with 1 more on the selling block.
I’ve borrowed 3 lenses from a family member.
I rotate through 5 sets of NiMH batteries (flash included)
I use 3 SD cards.
I’ve cleaned my sensor with a swab just once.
I’m on my second camera bag and I just bought a photo vest.
I have over 700 images on Pbase.
I am very proud of the 43 images in my Best of ’06 gallery
I just bought a domain name (a little piece of the WWW that’s my very own)
I’ve joined 2 local photo groups to go out and shoot.
I have many new friends (local & online) who share my passion for photography.
I gave away a photo calendar to friends with my best stuff from ’05.
I’ve explored and attended countless places & events that I would have never been to without my camera.
I've made a couple of perfect strangers happy by taking their photos and emailing it to them.
I’m 32 weeks into my Photo A Week project.
And started this cool little blog along the way.

The Most Important Lenses

The Most Important Lenses for Photography

The best & most important lens to have... the one that sits on your nose!

Go see your eye doctor for a check up every now and then. Your eyesight is critical for manually focusing, checking DOF and also for post processing properly on the computer. You can have the best most expensive body & lenses but if your eyesight is slightly off, your photos will be too.

As photographers, we spend too much time & money on photo equipment to not pay attention to the health of your eyes.

Welcome to the Trapped Light Blog

Welcome to the Trapped Light Blog.

This blog has been created to share my thoughts & ideas. Most will pertain to photography which is my passion, but occassionally I'll wonder off topic.

I'm just a regular guy. I live in Los Angeles with the Future Missus. I love to spend taking photos with my friends and sometimes wondering on my own. As part of the LA Shooters Photography group & the SoCal DSLR group, I regularly join them for photo shoots. Those shoots are usually outdoors at various locations. In fact the irregularity of the shoots is something that keeps me constantly testing new techniques & methods, helping me improve.

I've been shooting digital photos for about 4 years now. I've bought & sold about 6 Point & Shoot digicams before I bought my Pentax *ist DS DSLR. About 2 years & over 20,000 frames now, the DS has provided me with stellar performance and I'm extremely happy with it.

I'm also a regular at the Pentax SLR Talk on DPReview. I find this is the single best source of information about Pentax DSLRs and its really a pleasure to discuss photography with this fine group.

Anyways, I hope this blog becomes a source of useful information and helpful for all.

Al