Indianapolis Zoo Photos

 

I managed to do something that I rarely do, I stayed away from any computers all weekend. I was disconnected with the exception of my Blackberry, which means I really didn't do much on-line at all this weekend. We had plans with friends Friday night, and a trip to Indianapolis Saturday and Sunday to visit with Angela's brother, his wife and our little niece.

We all went to the Zoo on Sunday, a nice sunny day, as you can tell from the few photos I put up on Flickr. Naturally, we had the cameras out, of course, there was a little girl to play with first and foremost, so the cameras didn't get as many good shots as usual. However, there were still a few in the small set over on Flickr.

I hadn't had the camera out much lately, so it was good to get back in that grove, even if it was just a little bit.

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:53 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Microphones and Cameras, they change people.

One of the interesting things I heard about at PodCampOhio last weekend was in the session led by Robin Maiden. He talked about having tried to capture the stories pilot's tell one another as a podcast, but found that somehow, when he put them in front of a microphone, the stories just weren't the same. The microphone changed things.

I immediately thought of my experiences with photography, and understood exactly what he was saying. Being in front of a camera changes people. People I know who have the most sincere, expressive facial expressions, stiffen up into the most unnatural, and unhappy, looking model. I know that it's nerves, and a good photographer/interviewer should do everything they can to lessen those nerves, but some people never get over them.

Or is it that they don't want to get over them? I don't know all that many people who enjoy having their photo taken, much less spending a significant amount of time doing a portrait session. (Hence the reason that as much as I would love to do more portrait work and gain experience, I've done one session) I wonder how many people love talking, but not being recorded. There's definitely a difference, not unlike the difference between laughing and smiling with friends, and someone taking your photo. The act of it being recorded creates changes in behavior.

Of course, this truth creates interesting questions when it comes to living in a surveillance society. People act differently when they are aware of being recorded. If we become aware of the possibility of being recorded everywhere, will our behavior change, or will we accept it to the point where our behavior doesn't change? I have my doubts about changing human nature. I tend to think it's rather difficult, and I tend to think the You Tube generation is already seeing changes in behavior, because of the constant presence of video and photographic equipment. But that's a topic for another time...

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:44 PM | 1 comments | Links to this post

 
SRO at podcamp Ohio

SRO at podcamp Ohio
Originally uploaded by mikemac29

Labels: Personal, Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:35 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Memorial Day

In retrospect, there's another reason I'm very glad we took our trip when we did a few weeks ago. Having just been to Arlington, and the WWII Memorial, Antietam and Gettysburg, etc. it's much easier for me to come into today with the proper level of remembrance.

It's certainly nice to have a three day weekend, and I'm glad the unofficial start to the Summer season is upon us, but this day is about more than that. Amid your celebrations today, take a moment to remember those who have made it possible and say thank you to those who are still with us.

Labels: Personal, Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 7:48 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Pulitzer Prize Winning Photos

This afternoon the wife and I went to the Ohio Historical Society's main facility here in Columbus to see the Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs exhibit.

If you're in Columbus between now and July 25, I'd highly recommend making an effort to get there. It was quite an impressive collection of photos. The one thing that was interesting, and we even heard other people commenting on it, when you see them all together like this, you begin to see a real pattern of what kinds of photos are considered deserving of the Pulitzer, and they mostly (with a few exceptions) deal with the darker sides of human existence, war, hunger, natural disaster, tragedy, etc.

On the one hand, that was slightly disconcerting. On the other, as Angela pointed out, it may just be that photos of the more joyful, happy moments are more common, and thus don't stand out as shockingly. There's probably some truth to that.

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:41 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
A week's worth of photos took me a week to post

 

Yes, it's true, I finally have worked my way through all the photos from last week's vacation and have them posted to Flickr. You can see the week on the Archives over there. Not only are there a bunch from DC but also from Old Town Alexandria, HarpersFerry, WV, and the Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields.

Next up are the handful of photos I took at Race for the Cure with my cell phone today. We'll see if any of them are worthy candidates. We had a good time doing the 5K and I want to say thanks to all my family and friends who helped me raise $225 towards what appears to have been a $2 million dollar day for the Komen foundation.

Labels: Personal, Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:24 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Race for the cure

Race for the cure
Originally uploaded by mikemac29

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 8:52 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Arlington National Cemetery

Just a quick note. I threw a few photos from Arlington Cemetery up on Flickr today. That's not the only place we took photos, but it's getting late, I've been up since very, very early and that was about all the time I had tonight. ;)

Arlington is a great stop, and viewing the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns is truly impressive. To think that only 500 people have ever qualified to guard to tomb, in it's history, and that the post has never been unmanned, even during a hurricane, is really something. The photo's title above is based on the fact that during the 30 minute shift, the guard will take 21 steps, then pause for 21 seconds, before taking another 21 steps in the reverse direction. This is a symbolic representation of the 21 gun salute.

The cemetery certainly gives you some perspective on life, and on the meaning of sacrifice.

Labels: Personal, Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:19 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
A little Photowalking

With the weather turning quite Spring-like this week, we went for a change of pace. Instead of going to the gym, we just walked right on by it with the cameras and did a little photowalking around campus. It was a good idea, I felt like I got some exercise, got the stress relief benefits of that, and got a chance to shoot some photos, which I haven't done nearly enough of lately!

Perhaps I'll get a chance to take some more photos on an evening like this, at least before I take a whole bunch the first week of May when we're on vacation. :)

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:28 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Well it's a nice monitor

Well it's a nice monitor
Originally uploaded by mikemac29

Labels: Photography, Tech

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 2:17 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Event Photography

Aaron Hockley does a good job of listing out the things you need to take into consideration when shooting an event with speakers and a large group of people. I've certainly run into problems with most of the things he listed, especially the last time I worked tech support onsite for a firm event. Granted, I was there first and foremost to do the A/V setup, keep the mics and presentation running , etc. but many times I take the camera and try to get a couple of photos that our marketing folks can use to market future seminars.

The last time I did this, it was in a room with one entrance at the back of the room, one aisle down the center, curtains that didn't quite cover all of the window (on a very bright sunny day no less), and generally no way for me to get around at all without being in the way of folks who paid to be there. Obviously, I didn't get anything worth writing home about.

Anyway, while Aaron's list is good, I'm going to add a couple of other things to think about from my experience working events:

1. If you're working with the event organizer as their photographer, get the script. Know what's going to happen, when and where ahead of time. This is especially important if the event takes place in more than one room.

2. During the event, stay in touch with the organizer, because the script will change!

3. Be helpful to organizers and guests. They'll be much more likely to help you get the shots you want if you're not seen as a nuisance. If you're friendly with the attendees you'll get better candid shots.

4. Get there early, stay late, and shoot as much as you can. Like any photo outing, the more photos you take, the more likely you'll have some good stuff!

5. Don't forget the sponsors. If you're working an event on behalf of the organizer, make sure you go out of your way to get photos of the sponsors. If they have a booth or table, spend some time getting photos. If you're taking photo-op photos with the speaker, get the sponsors done first. They'll appreciate the exposure, and in some cases, they may contact you about using the photos in their own marketing.

In short, communicate with the organizer, have fun with the attendees, and try to stay out of the way! :)

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:05 PM | 1 comments | Links to this post

 
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Naturally, there were bagpipes everywhere in Chicago this weekend, even at the lobby bar on Friday night! I guess they were just getting warmed up for the parade Saturday!

It was quite a lot of fun to get to see the Parade, and the Chicago River dyed green later on. After a few long days spent at Techshow then taking in all the sites, and finally flying home to a busy Sunday, I decided to sleep in today, in honor of St. Patrick's. I do, however, need to go get ready to head to work for the afternoon.

Enjoy, and have a safe celebration!

As always, more pics over on Flickr

Labels: Personal, Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:20 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Dyed Chicago River

Originally uploaded by mikemac29

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 3:49 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Blizzard Warning? Let's go take Photos!

OK, so we're a little crazy about getting photos, but not that much. The strong winds limited us to just a few minutes outside, but trying to capture some interesting shots at least gave us a break from complaining about the weather! Looks like any plans we had for Saturday will be scrapped. I miss the days when Daylight Savings Time meant Spring weather was likely. Not this year!

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:28 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Photo lessons learned

I had the opportunity to do something new and different this past weekend. A friend of ours needed to have some photos taken of herself, and I offered to spend part of the afternoon shooting her. Now, since these were private photos, I can't show you examples of what I learned, I can tell you a bit about it.

First off, the reason we were doing this in the first place, is because this person is very uncomfortable in front of a camera, thus they don't have any recent pictures! I started out shooting with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. I love how this lens keeps the warmth of skin tone and gives me enough speed to not be blurry when I operate it without a tripod. Unfortunately, the fixed focal length has one draw back, though many might not see it as a drawback. If you want to get a closer shot, you have to move yourself closer to your subject. I quickly discovered that if I wanted to really get a close up of my friends' face, and get a good capture of her eyes, I had to stand fairly close to her, and that was, in fact, making her more uncomfortable than she already was! It showed in the photos too! I don't do a lot of portrait work, but even I know that an uncomfortable subject is not going to photograph well, no matter what lens you use, so the 50mm was quickly replaced with my 18-55mm. This allowed me to stand at a comfortable distance to the subject, and vary the focal length to suit my needs, from focusing on her face, to widening out to capture some of the background around her. This seemed to work much better for her. It probably also helped that I wasn't moving, especially towards her, so much.

The other thing I did, to help her be more comfortable, is simply let her talk. We chatted about work, people we both knew, stories from the 10 years we've known each other, etc. Obviously, having known her that long gave me a decided advantage here, but as she chatted, I shot. Now, that meant I had to do a lot of shooting, because she was talking as I took the photos, plenty of them have her eyes shut, or some silly mid-sentence look on her face, or a hand in her face, but she was comfortable, and laughing, so there was enough there to get what we were looking for. I took 245 photos in about 90 minutes. I think what I'll end up giving her will be somewhere in the 40-50 range, but I think it was worth it to get that many photos where she looks happy and relaxed.

The last thing about shooting with someone who's not comfortable is taking care about location. Yesterday was a beautiful day in Columbus, relative to what our weather has been like so many places we might have thought about going, would have been full of people. We started out at Northbank Park downtown, which was pretty empty, it being Sunday and all. That gave us some freedom to wander around to different places, while avoiding the possibility of us being watched. The second place we were going to go was the fountain in front of the Main Library downtown. It's an old Carnegie Library, a pretty magnificent building. Unfortunately, as we walked up, we realized there was about a dozen people just sitting out front of the building on the benches. We were going to have an audience there, so we just kept right on walking, over to the Topiary Park, a block away. That was much less occupied, and gave us some more time to venture around and take some different shots.

Overall, I think there are some real nice shots in that bunch, if I don't say so myself. I think we managed to get some shots that not only look nice, but also capture some personality, which was really the goal. The real test will be when she gets to see them after I get done processing later this week, but I suspect she'll be pretty happy with them.

Hopefully, the next time I get to do something like this, I'll be able to share some of the results.

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:44 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
I'm a trend follower

It occurred to me earlier today, while I was sharing my love of the new Macbook and running VMWare Fusion on it, that I have become the thing I've always hated, trendy. Just since the new year I got a pretty trendy new lens for my camera, a Macbook, and now my wife and I have a Wii in the house!

See, the thing is, I've always fought against trendy tech tools because many times, they simply weren't the best tool for the job. Yeah Mac's have been the sexier choice for computers, but they never really made sense in terms of doing what I need to get done. There have been more trendy gaming consoles, but my Gamecube has always had what I wanted, so it was the right tool for me.

I realize now, that I haven't become trendy, the trendy tools have become tools that do the job better. There's nothing like the Wii on the gaming front, and now that Mac's run on Intel chips and allow me to access the Windows tools I need for my livelihood, it makes sense to own one. The 50mm lens adds a tool to compensate for some areas of photography that I had been ignoring for too long.

It's not that the old un-trendy tools I had weren't working, it's that, finally, the trendy technology isn't just trendy. It's actually a better fit for what I want to do. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some ice, or a heating pad for my arm. Yeah, day 2 of having a Wii in the house, and my arm's sore. How cliche.....

Labels: Personal, Photography, Tech

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 7:55 PM | 2 comments | Links to this post

 
Proof and the compulsory fanboy photo

Here's something I'm sure some people never expected to see me working on...

So far, so good. I'm not having too much difficulty getting things setup the way I like, and I've been pleasantly surprised by silly little things that are just nice. For example, the fact that the power cord is magnetized on the end, so I only have to get it close to the connector on the laptop. For some reason that seems pretty cool to me. :)

I am not overly impressed with the touchpad, but I generally dislike touchpads anyway. Luckily, my MS wireless mouse works just great!

Once I have the OSX side setup the way I want, it'll be time to get VMWare Fusion and get a Windows VM setup. Responses on that last entry seem to favor just using a VM instead of Bootcamp so far. Thanks for the feedback!

Labels: Mac, Photography, Tech

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 2:58 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Speaking of New Experiments

I used the Picnik integration with Flickr to put a very small, and hopefully unobtrusive, watermark on the last batch of photos I uploaded over there. It's an experiment at this point. Don't worry, I'm not suddenly going all professional on you, I just want to see if I can put a watermark on the photos, to sort of keep my name out there should someone decide to use it in a blog or something, without messing with the enjoyment of sharing the photos too much.

I may continue to do it with my photos going forward, I may not. I still allow any non-commercial use of my photos, and I'm still willing to send a higher-res, and watermark-free, version to anyone who asks for one to print. I'm not a professional, I take photos because I enjoy doing it first and foremost. If there's any "payment" from other folks it's seeing them enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy taking them. I doubt that will change.

Let me know what you think.

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 1:04 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Franklin Park Conservatory

If you're looking for a good place around town to do some shooting without getting frostbite on your hands, the Franklin Park Conservatory is a pretty good choice.

 

The plant life and flowers currently on display make for some nice experimentation with light and color, and the giant palm leaves make for some nice textures to play with.

  

We had a good time, and took plenty of photos. As always, you can see more over on Flickr, as well as in Angela's set.

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:03 PM | 2 comments | Links to this post

 
More 50mm f/1.8 lens fun

We had a very productive day today, including a trip downtown to see the monet exhibit at the Columbus Art Museum. Naturally, while we were downtown, I had to take the opportunity to play around with the new lens a bit.

More pics can be seen at Flickr.

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:20 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
New Lens

I ordered the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens on the recommendation of a few folks last week, and it arrived at the office today. Naturally, I couldn't wait to try it out.

The one thing I was really excited about was how well people told me this lens works with available light when you can't, or don't want to, use a flash. So I took it for a spin around the house this evening and I have to say I am impressed. I got some nice quality, without having to resort to using the flash, which definitely made for a warmer photo, and nicer skin tones.

I've got a few more in my 50mm lens test set on Flickr. Can't wait to get some more time this weekend and see what else I can do with this lens, I hear it's great for playing with depth of field, and taking photos of lights at night, we'll see!

Labels: Photography

Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 7:12 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

 
Best of 2007

Thanks to a challenge from Kevin Devin, and his own collection, I put together a slideshow of my favorite shots of 2007 from my Flickr collection.