Picture a Week Project - Week 1

Three Friends:

This is a picture that revealed quite a bit about the subjects to me. The shot is of my son Gustavo (center) and two of his best friends. The one on the right and my son are very close, they call each other best friend and how they are leaning into each other is typical. They have a genuine concern and caring for each other, typical of an 8 year-old friendship.

However, its the boy on the left that brings the story to the picture. He is a best friend of my son as well, but is a very independent spirit. He's a great kid, but you often see in his affect that he is independent and does not need anyone, that he is here by choice and could leave at anytime. He adds the character to the picture. The stark contrast of the two that cannot be separated juxtaposed to the one that is fiercely independent is fascinating to me.

I kept the processing simple, just doing some high contrast black and white. It allows the picture to remain simple while naturally placing the two close subjects brighter than the one off to the side. It just seemed to inherently exemplify the contrast (no pun intended) between the two themes.

Anyway, let me know what you think, the shot is far from perfect, but the story it tells is compelling to me.

Week 2: Transformer

Picture a Week Project - Introduction

Work has is very busy lately and I find my shooting has decreased to the point where I find it concerning. Thus the Picture a Week Project is born. The projects objective is simple and while I intend for this to the first of many projects, it is the first so I need to make my goal achievable.

The idea is not to force myself to try new things as ideas are not the issue, but to force myself to take pictures. That is what I need right now, I need to take pictures plain and simple. This does not mean there are no parameters or controls to the project. The pictures have to meet two criteria.

1. It got me out to take the picture.
2. An either or...

• That it tells a story about the subjects. or...
• That there is a story as to how the picture came to be.

To me photographs are about stories so that is the purpose, that there be a story and I get off my duff and take some pictures.

So sit back and enjoy and let me know your thoughts. Also, don't be shy about letting me know when I'm late getting up submissions. I'll need your encouragement to make this happen. I look at this like a weight loss program but in this case I want to lose spare time not weight.

Click Here to see the Flickr pool of images.

New Pocket Wizards

Well, I'm excited about the new Pocket Wizards and their ability to support ETTL. However, I learned of a serious concern. Apparently when using them with a 580EX II, 430EX II or 430 EX the range of the triggers is limited to 50 feet. This is a pretty serious issue for me. 50 feet is not nearly enough. I'll continue to monitor this but it is something that would make me go with RadioPoppers over the Pocket Wizards.

Also, I learned something new about the RadioPoppers this week. Seems with a PX transmitter you can get High Speed Sync even when using JrX receivers. This is very exciting as it allows a step into a high value (at least for me) feature without having to shell out for the PX receivers initially.

I'll let everyone know what I continue to find out.

Now I'm confused

Well, I know I need TTL metering and High Speed Sync with any remotes I purchase, so I had resigned myself to the fact that I would need Radio Poppers. Well, of course now I have options. Pocket Wizard announced this week that they have TTL compatible remotes for Canon and Nikon coming out in March. Just great. :-)

These things look fantastic as they don't need wires to attach to a flash nor do they need to mount over the infrared sensor like the Radio Poppers. They simply mount using the hot shoe adapter. Further, they have a feature called Hyper Sync which essentially allows the sync speed of your flash to increase. For example you can get a Canon 1D Mark III to sync at 1/500 of a second, very cool in deed.

There are two models, the MiniTT1 which is mounted on the camera to control remote flashes and the FlexTT5 which can be a transmitter or receiver. With the FlexTT5 you can control your camera as well. With prices being $199 for the MiniTT1 and $219 for the FlexTT5 you just can't go wrong as they come in cheaper than the Radio Poppers.

Well, take a look at them with the links above and let me know what you think. You can also see the Strobist review of these by clicking here or Chase Jarvis discussion by clicking here.

Now I have to make a decision. Great, just great, I hate making decisions.

Shooting in the Mountains

Meant to post this some time ago, but hey, I'm finally getting around to it.

I took this shot while on business travel in Phoenix. I like to take one body and a walk around lens with me on all trips. My hope is that I will get out in the evenings to take some pictures and relax. While I'm not usually able to get out, given late work nights, this was a happy day where I did.

So I get in my car, not knowing Phoenix at all, and started driving about. I ended up in Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix and stumbled upon the above at sunset. Trust me this was luck, I'm not good enough to be in plan for this sort of event on purpose. After all Ansel Adam's moon picture was a happen to come across a moment photograph, so I figure I'm in good company. (No, I'm not comparing myself to Ansel Adams, I'm just saying we were both lucky once.)

Taking out my trusty camera I snap a few hand-held shots which with very little processing (bumping the darks and boosting vibrancy) I end up with the above. When I return home and process the images I'm thrilled. What more could I hope for.

Here is where it gets fun. I was on the phone with some co-workers in the Phoenix area, telling them about my excursion. They are thrilled for be but had one question. "Did you see any snakes or scorpions?" Snakes & scorpions I ask, you have to be kidding? Let be set the record straight, I'm a city guy, I have lived in major cities most of my life and always find it a bit strange to not have concrete around trees. So you can tell me about roaches and I'm fine, but snakes and scorpions, I don't think so. Apparently, snakes & scorpions are very common in Arizona. In Chicago we get roaches while they get scorpions in Arizona. That confirms it, I'm never moving to Arizona.

So why did I post this picture? Because its pretty? Nope! Because I learned a lesson taking it. The lesson being that I should pay attention to my surroundings, keeping myself aware of what is going on around me. Every time I see a sunset or mountain photograph I think of this lesson and smile. It was a good trip, a good trip in deed.

Have any of you encountered this lesson? If so, let post your experience, I would love to read about it?