Pics and Posts

Another update

2011-01-14T23:37:00.000+08:00

Still short on time. Have been slowly doing more 'home visit' portraits...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevyong/sets/72157623732340446/detail/

Also have shot a series of discarded TVs for a project titled 'not digital ready'. I have about 150 photos of different verges shot on my way to and from work over a couple of weeks.

A quick selection here. I still have to edit the set into something presentable.
Here are a few...

In other news...

I was a semifinalist in the IRIS awards and also the lucrative MORAN photographic prize for 2010.

I now have a Leica M2.

Next baby is iminent. Going underground again...

update

2010-05-28T22:21:00.000+08:00

Not a lot of time to maintain this blog for now... I'm not sure how often I'll be updating here so check out my flickr stream to see what I've been shooting lately.

Very little photography lately, except lots of baby photos which I love, but are pretty boring to everyone else.

Been buying more gear as usual. New to my shelf are Hexar RF with CV35/1.7, Canon 50/1.8.

Also Pentacon Six kit.

I did get selected to participate in the Magnum workshop in Feb this year. Chien Chi Chang was the tutor. The workshop involve shooting a project within the 5 days and selecting and preparing the images for exhibition by projection under the guidance of the tutor. The projection was featured at the opening of Fotofreo 2010. A very intense and enjoyable week. My work will also be published in a Magnum book featuring photographs taken by workshop participants. some of the photos I took here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevyong/sets/72157623732340446/

Japan

2010-03-29T11:41:00.000+08:00

Just back from a spontaneous 10 day trip to Japan visiting Tokyo and Kyoto. What an amazing country. Dying to get back ASAP.

Some pics. A few are from a Fuju KlasseW which I picked up at a used camera store at Tokyo station.

more:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevyong/sets/72157623702749152/detail/

2009-12-06T00:15:00.001+08:00

5D 24-105

2009-12-06T00:14:00.000+08:00

Rolleiflex Tmax400

Vivian Maier

2009-10-16T10:51:00.000+08:00

http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

Incredible street photography with a great background story...

Soaking beans for making soup

2009-09-22T10:29:00.001+08:00

Mamiya6 Acros100

Rolleiflex Provia 100F

More baby pics

2009-09-22T09:39:00.003+08:00

Haven't had much time to get out shooting so it's baby pics galore for now.

Elan7 with 35L. Ilford XP2

Rolleiflex 2.8D. Kodak TriX.

One month old...

2009-07-20T10:21:00.004+08:00

Rolleiflex on Provia 100F slide.

Great Grandma

2009-05-22T13:59:00.004+08:00

Another ebay purchase. Konica Hexar AF.

http://www.1point4photography.com/blog/hexar-af-review/

Mum and Renato

2009-05-14T10:37:00.004+08:00

Rolleiflex 2.8D. Portra 400NC.

Not sure what caused this light leak. I think it was because I didn't load the film properly initially and had to manually respool it before reloading.

Another

Baby

2009-05-05T14:30:00.002+08:00

5D 35L.

New baby arrived 2 weeks ago. Probably won't have much time for photography or for this blog for a while...

Friends and family please email me for a link to more photos.

Cheers
Kev.

2009-04-17T12:03:00.002+08:00

A few recent shots...

Rolleiflex 2.8D. Ilford XP2. Entertaining friends in my backyard.

Port Beach.

Olympus XA2. Fuji Pro160s. Cottesloe.

Predigital Journeys II

2009-03-30T15:09:00.003+08:00

I've now revisited my old negatives from previous travels (1997-2001) and rescanned my faves with my new V700 scanner.

See the selection here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevyong/sets/72157594409433089/

Big Day Out

2009-03-30T15:06:00.003+08:00

BDO 2009. with XA2. Was stoked to get free VIP tickets and catch legend Neil Young.

More Singles

2009-03-03T10:11:00.002+09:00

Olympus XA2.

SINGLES Collection

More scans - Nepal 1998

2009-02-26T11:17:00.002+09:00

Going through old negatives and scanning with my new Epson scanner.

This set is from a 3 week trip to Nepal in 1998. See entire set HERE.

Lancelin

2009-01-30T11:18:00.002+09:00

A few shots from a short Xmas break in Lancelin.

Taken with my Olympus XA2. Ilford Delta400 film.
Scanned with my new Epson V700 scanner.

Renato in Shed

2009-01-22T15:35:00.002+09:00

Mamiya6 Portra

Bikes in Freo

2009-01-15T12:54:00.001+09:00

, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

With my little Olympus XA2. Ilford XP2.

Headshot for Ray

2009-01-05T22:43:00.002+09:00

5D with Zuiko 85mm. Natural light. f/2.0.

Took this as a promotional portrait for my brother who is a concert pianist and conductor in Melbourne This was taken at our holiday house in lancelin over Xmas. Found some nice light at the entrance of the shed.

2009-01-05T22:42:00.003+09:00

Olympus XA2. Fuji Pro160s.

Red Hat

2008-12-17T09:59:00.001+09:00

A few scans from an old project. Did this one while at Uni with my friend Jacky. We took a photo of the red hat every day for a month.

Jacaranda

2008-12-07T23:20:00.001+09:00

Jacaranda, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Took this for my wife who wanted a print for the wall. The stuff i've been shooting lately hasn't been that 'pretty' really.

This beautiful tree lives in my backyard.

Wear Good Shoes

2008-11-21T10:34:00.001+09:00

From the Magnum Blog.

Wear Good Shoes: Advice to Young photographers

New Toys...

2008-11-18T12:20:00.007+09:00

Just got back some films from a couple of film cameras I purchased recently.

First bunch are from a Mamiya 6.

Weeds

Sunset View

Renato

Jock lives across the road. He helped build our house over 50 years ago. He comes over for a chat when he sees us cruising on our front porch. Top bloke.

The next couple are taken with an Olympus XA2.

Brief spell with the R3A

2008-10-28T22:11:00.003+09:00

Had a voigtlander bessa R3A in my possession for long enough to shoot 2 rolls of film. Takes a great photo but the viewfinder was something I was never going to get used to. The framelines were hard to see and made me feel very constricted. Pity, because it was such a nice camera to shoot with otherwise.

Post Digital Explorations

2008-10-21T21:02:00.004+08:00

A new collection in my Flickr Galleries.

Post Digital Explorations:

A round trip back to film after 6 years of purely digital photography. Digital photography gave new life to my photography and provided a rapid learning tool through instant feedback and a community of online photographers to learn from.

Now I am drawn back to shooting film. There is a certain aesthetic to film that I love, especially for black and white photography. There is a simple pleasure of using cheap old film camers that just work and something in the way of shooting with film that makes me feel like I am taking better photos... don't really care if that is true or not... as long as I'm having fun.

More from the same day:

Clivir

2008-08-27T16:51:00.002+08:00

Check out this new learning community website. A very cool concept. A free site for user generated content.

A classroom has been setup especially for PIP Flickr members.
www.clivir.com/classrooms/show/photographers- in-perth.html

-------------------------------------------- -
The CLIVIR blurb:

About Clivir

Clivir is a learning community where you can be both the teacher and the student.

At the core of the community are our members - which includes you. Clivir is merely just the space for people to get together and assist each other to learn.

At Clivir you can teach and learn by creating and viewing lessons, having discussions in classrooms, asking and answering questions, and forming networks with other members.

If you would like to find out more then please check out the lessons in the Clivir Classroom.

Remember, one of the best ways to learn is to teach.

Print resolution and viewing distance

2008-08-21T11:41:00.002+08:00

Some good information here about required resolution for large prints.

LINK

Sumatra Pics

2008-07-31T15:30:00.003+08:00

Photos from Sumatra:

First set is in black and white. These are from around the town of Krui and on the road. (Click picture to see the set)

The second set:
Photos from around the surf camp.
Our base for a 2 week surf trip to southern Sumatra was a little place called Ombak Indah Losmen. The nearest town Krui, was about half and hour away by bemo. A pretty basic accommodation with a laid back atmosphere and friendly staff. The surf watch platform was in ideal position for checking out the surf. Surrounded by pristine coastline with plenty of activity on the reef and water. Good memories for sure.

A few wave pics....

Back from Sumatra

2008-06-19T08:54:00.003+08:00

I just got back from Indo on the weekend. I spent 2 weeks surfing in Sumatra with a few good mates scoring some great waves and getting a few good photos on the way as well. We were based on the south coast near a small fishing town called Krui. A fairly remote and undeveloped part of the world. It made for some interesting travel and a chance to see a town largely unaffected by tourism and outside influence.

Here's my first shot uploaded from the trip. I've got about 500 to sort through. This one is a bit more artistic than most of the others which are mostly documentary style photos.

Will post more soon...

Mr Phillip Toledano

2008-05-26T13:27:00.002+08:00

http://mrtoledano.com/

"I believe that everything should start with an idea, whether it be a single or as part of a series. I also believe that a photograph should be like an unfinished sentence. There should be space for questions."

Approach...

2008-05-13T21:32:00.004+08:00

I've become increasingly interested in reading and hearing about how other photographers approach their work. What are the thought processes going on behind the images? Really fascinating and surely something to learn from.

A relatively new book of mine is Magnum Stories which I am slowly working my way through. One of the best books on photography I have seen in terms of the way it presents photos from various photographers together with text written by the photographers to support the images and give some insight into their ways of working. Some excerpts...

Abbas
"There are two ways to think about photography: one is writing with light, and the other is drawing with light. The school of HCB, they draw with light. They sketch with light. The single picture is paramount for them. For me that was never the point. My pictures are always part of a series, an essay. Each picture should be good enought to stand on its own, but its value is as part of something larger." "My projects can take five years, or seven... My statements are my books. It's more like the work of a writer than a photojournalist."

Eve Arnold
"I always believe when you're photographing somebody... it's generally a collaboration. You let them give what they're willing to give you. Usually people are doing something in my pictures, and eventually they forget about me, I hope. If not, then you use that attention the subject is giving you. It's always the subject who's the hero, not the photographer. A lot of photographers become personalities in their own right and use that to impress the subject. By definition you're in contrl, Bit often I want to lose control. I want the subject to be in control, because they will give me something I couldn't possibly know about them."

"If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument."

Bruno Barbey
"I didn't think of it in terms of a story: I was just trying to make as many good pictures as I could in a place that excited me visually." "Today I am interested in minimalist compositions and simple ingredients, and I am looking for strong individual photographs with which to do books and exhibitions."

Ian Berry
"The photog at Magnum that interested me the most, apart from HCB, was Marc Riboud. ... he has hade me aware of the need not just to take good photographs but to get into situations that were in themselves interesting. It's not enough to make a beautiful photograph. You can go out in the courtyard and play with light and shapes and make something interesting, but for waht? For me, there has to be both Content and The Moment."

"The point of 35mm photography for me is to remain unobserved, working with available light, wathcing and waiting and looking, discovering pictures while a scene is in motion. What I am looking for is the one moment, the defining moment, that says what you want to say, that works as a shape and that has impact. ... It's fantastic when it does: looking at the composition and seeing that everything works, that there is nothing intruding that takes away from it. "

Simon Norfolk

2008-05-12T12:00:00.002+08:00

simonnorfolk.com
Landscapist with a focus on human impact, in particular war. Has though a lot about his work and has some very interesting writing on his website to accompany the images.

Brent Williamson

2008-05-07T11:56:00.002+08:00

IMG_2033, originally uploaded by stateotnation.

flirckr user stateotnation. wonderful gallery. lots of wide angle beach shots balancing off camera flash with available light.

Brent's blog

Preston Gannaway

2008-05-07T11:42:00.001+08:00

http://www.prestongannaway.com/main.php

Moving Sands

2008-03-10T12:17:00.003+09:00

Moving Sands, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

This is one of my favourite landscapes. Forms part of a newly uploaded series "The Southerly" which was inspired by the winds in Geraldton.

A couple of other recent sets..

Summer in Ireland & Abrolhols for a day

GX100

2008-02-12T10:24:00.001+09:00

, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Another from the new GX100. Amazing image quality for a pocket camera. The B&W jpgs are great straight from the camera.

More discussion....

2008-02-08T12:19:00.000+09:00

From the harcore street photography group at Flickr. A discussion about making photos that are more than just pretty pictures and visual acrobatics. Good read.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/onthestreet/discuss/72157603864675660/

Some links to a couple of awesome photogs mentioned in the OP:
David Solomon - Happenstance - Brazil
Paul Russell - Beside the Sea

Sand between the toes

2008-02-05T23:39:00.001+09:00

Sand between the toes, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Got me a new Ricoh GX100 compact camera. Love it!!

Portrait

2008-01-22T09:37:00.001+09:00

, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

The start of a portrait project - 'My People'. Quick test snap with 5D + 85/1.8 + 1.4xTC combo wide open.

Matt Stuart

2008-01-15T09:32:00.000+09:00

Great street photographer. I love looking through his photos...

http://www.mattstuart.com/

Some of his personal comments about his photos:
http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2008/01/matt-stuart-what-was-he-thinking.html

©David X. Tejada

2008-01-15T09:20:00.001+09:00

©David X. Tejada, originally uploaded by ian niles galbraith.

David Tejada. Featured once again on Strobist.com. He's always sharing his latest techniques and ideas. Makes some awesome vids too (check out his blog).

Anyway, I thought I'd bookmard this one for the home made ring flash which is very cool
http://davidtejada.blogspot.com/2007/12/building-ring-flash.html

Golden Grass

2007-12-10T08:02:00.001+09:00

Golden Grass, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Taken during a weekend away in Harvey.

Suburban Santa

2007-12-03T17:18:00.001+09:00

This crew were cruising through our neighbourhood with Xmas carrols blaring. Turns out they were selling Christmas Cake for charity.

Documetary and Street Links

2007-11-18T11:22:00.006+09:00

Photographers:
Charles Harbutt - Travelog, Progresso
Alex Webb Magnum - the Istanbul essay is really good. find it in the major features link.
- Interview
Sebastiao Salgado

Matt Stuart - Pure street. This is the sort of stuff I want to do...
- some personal comments on his photos - http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2008/01/matt-stuart-what-was-he-thinking.html

Joel Meyerowitz on the street - Video - describes his way of working. cool to see him in action.
- also has a gallery on the iN-PUBLIC site. see below.

- Quote from 2point8 interview...
"I use pictures as a kind of building block of a visual language, so that it's not the individual picture that's the so-called "master work" the way painting created master works. These pictures are all little gestural elements that don't necessarily add-up on their own to anything profound, but as a run of pictures, you might be able to sustain some thoughts and ideas. And I guess that's what I always, since I understood Robert Frank's "The Americans", from the first few times looking at it, I suddenly understood, 'oh, they don't have to be great photographs, they have to be interesting and interlocking in a way that you could fuse them in runs of seven or ten pictures, to be stating a sort of collective of ideas into one thing that will carry the reader along."

Henri Cartier Bresson Interview Video with Charlie Rose
The Decisive Moment - HCB. Entire book scanned and online. Great intro by HCB.
Cary Conover - Visual Diaries -
Alessandra Sanguinetti -
James Nachtwey - War Photographer. The DVD is awesome
Tony Marciante - Flickr (timewitness)
David Alan Harvey - personal blog (called road trip). Magnum photog.
Simon Norfolk - Landscapist with a focus on human impact, in particular war. Has though a lot about his work and has some very interesting writing on his website to accompany the images.

David Solomon - Happenstance - Brazil
Paul Russell - Beside the Sea
Ben Anderson
Dog Days, Bogota -Alec Soth
Phillip Toledano
Ben Roberts

Magnum
Approach... excerpts from Magnum stories

La Pura Vida Gallery
Heading East Blog - Raul Gutierrez
Seconds to Real - street photography collection

Discussion:
Hardcore Street Photography group - Flickr. Gallery and Discussion.
- Limitation of street photography - discussion regarding random street snaps vs directed prolonged projects.
- Similar discussion to the above : getting deeper than street photos as pretty pictures.
- Quotes -
- Killer Street Sets

2point8 - awesome street photog blog.
- Ways of Working
- The Phyla of Street Photography.
- Resources page - some nice links here
- Discussions

iN-PUBLIC - great gallery.
- Masters Galleries and Bios - Richard Kavlar, Joel Meyerowitz and Bryan Campbell
- What is Street Photography??

Some video links I want to watch

Lung S Liu

2007-11-15T14:47:00.001+09:00

gypsy kids #6, originally uploaded by Lung S. Liu.

This guy is very good. Fantastic portraits and street photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lungsliu/
http://www.lungliu.com/info.html

Selecting a subject

2007-11-14T19:56:00.000+09:00

I thought I had posted this article before.... but I can't find it so here it is again..

It is an extract from the book: "On being a photographer". One of my all time favourite books on photography.

Article is titled: Selecting a Subject.
http://enhanced.lenswork.com/obpenhanced.pdf

I've read this several times. I'm revisiting it now as a Flickr discussion has got me thinking about my photography and what I am actually trying to do with it.

With the flood of photography on the net there has been a real jostling for attention and thumbnail photography. We see an overload of cliched images - saturated long exposure sunsets, flower macros, HDR, photoshop manipulations - all stuff I've done myself, but am getting quite bored of it all.

In this culture of vacuous prettiness, the camera can become a tech toy rather than a photographic tool. There can be too much emphasis on showing off technical skill and camera tricks.

The goal of photography should not be produce nice photos. The camera should be used to transmit an idea or feeling that the photographer is passionate about.

Good photography arises when one can capture something that has personal significance and convey that meaning to others in an asthetically pleasing image. The camera is the chosen tool used by the photographer to understand the world and share that understanding with others.

So one needs to overcome the fascination with the camera and themselves and look to the world for inspiration. When they are passionate about something, they can create good photographs. That's what I need to do. I have several projects in mind...

I've been going on about this for quite a while. Really gotta get a change of approach going.

--------------------------------------
Update 27/11/07
- found the link to the entire book "On Being a Photographer".

Zombie Lizard

2007-11-11T15:50:00.001+09:00

Found this guy in my shed. He made the perfect subject for a still life light painting.

Handheld panoramas still work well

2007-11-02T16:06:00.000+09:00

I usually use a tripod with RRS panning clamp and rail to create panoramas that stitch perfectly.

I didn't bother with this approach when I was travelling through Europe and was surprised how well my panoramas came together. PTGui is amazing software.

Photos from Europe

2007-10-30T22:13:00.003+09:00

OK. Back from an awesome trip through Europe. Have uploaded some to my Flickr gallery.

A few keepers:

Enjoy.

More LR B&W conversion stuff - desaturate in HSL panel

2007-10-22T14:46:00.000+08:00

This tip is from Martin Evening (Lightroom News).
Link here to the video: http://lightroom-news.com/2007/08/24/tips-for-better-black-and-white-conversions/

This technique replaces the greyscale conversion tool within LR. It gives more control and the results are less noisy in flat sky areas.

You basically desaturate the image within the HSL panel. A preset can be created to avoid moving every slider each time. Then adjustments can be made using the luminance controls, WB and tint sliders, and vibrance/saturation sliders.

Works very nicely.

Fishmonger, Borough Markets, London. 5D. 35L. f/8 ISO 1000.

Nice read - article about a Jay Maisel presentation.

2007-10-22T09:01:00.000+08:00

Came across this great article. Thanks Adam from the PIP flickr forum for bringing it to my attention. It is an article describing a seminar that Jay Maisel presented at a recent photgraphy conference. This photographers' approach to photography and his pictures themselves are inspirational.

Heres the link.

Here are some tips from Jay Maisel that I liked from the article. I thought I'd summarise for my own benefit in case the web page gets taken down later...

Be filled with the subject and have fun with it.
Carry a camera always.
Computers are time suckers. He tries to capture what he saw. Not create a surreal piece of art with photoshop or show how clever he is.
He is stimulated by light, colour and gesture.
All things can have a gesture.
Be aware of every mm of the frame.
Be aware of the difference between what you think you see and what you actually see.
Shape is the enemy of colour.
Perseverence triumphs talent.

Ray's Concert

2007-07-01T20:25:00.000+08:00

Concert was awesome! Review was in the west. Can you tell I'm proud of the little fella.

I did some promotional shots for him in the auditorium while he was here.

Lightroom 1.1

2007-06-29T23:53:00.000+08:00

LR 1.1 was released this week. I have been waiting for this for a while as I thought the initial 1.0 release was bit undercooked.

Well, first impressions are good. Very easy installation and transition for my library. My old workflow remains intact with the benefit of much improved performance.

New things I like:
1. Develop improvements - clarity, sharpening, noise reduction, CA removal.
- will save many trips to photoshop.

2. Right click option to get to folder that the image lives in.
3. Catalogs.
4. Keyword painter
5. No change in colour from develop to library mode.
6. Ability to turn of subfolder items
7. Heirarchies for presets
8. Better search and metadata browsing.
9. Select by star/colour/pick.
10. View virtual copies/masters only

Things I wanted but still not available:
1. Stacks in collections
2. Local colour labels
3. Ability to edit metadata such as lens.

Dislikes:
None yet - though it seems lots of people on the forums are having major dramas.

Still exploring. All good so far :)

Bubbles galore

2007-06-11T11:13:00.001+08:00

, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

I took this one on the weekend in my backyard. The sun was behind him producing a lovely rim light on his hair and shoulders. I used a large white reflector to light his face.

I was tempted to use f/1.8 on my 85mm to narrow the DOF. Glad I stopped down to f/5.6 - this allowed the bursting bubble and face to be in focus at the same time (a fair bit of luck here to capture the burst). The background is still nicely blurred because the focus distance is quite short.

Lost America

2007-05-29T12:07:00.000+08:00

Lost America is a series of awesome night photography images by Troy Paiva. He shoots abandoned buildings and vehicles by moonlight and paints light with gelled strobes. This is really unique and creative stuff. Probably not the sort of thing I'll get into but great to look at for sure.

2007-05-24T16:19:00.000+08:00

Latest upload from the Archives... from when I was living in Gero.

New Web Site - Hinius

2007-05-23T15:58:00.001+08:00

New Web Site, originally uploaded by hinius.

I first came across Hin Chua's photography about 3 or 4 years ago, when he was based in Perth. He was doing some amazing stuff back then and has since developed a unique style to his street photography. These are really great street images.

Street is my favourite form of photography but has been the area where I have found least success in producing images I am proud of. It is a genre where subject is everything and this appeals to me. I'd love to hit the pavement more often. Doesn't help that I live and work in the burbs but that is no excuse.

Hin's passion for his photography is inspiring and his collection of images is a fantastic achievement. He presents his work in this little website.

I am inspired to stop dabbling in different photo techniques and focus my energy on creating my own body of work to create something of substance.

More of his work is can be found on Flickr where he admins the Hardcore Street Photography group.

Grub

2007-05-21T16:41:00.001+08:00

Grub, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

More lighting practice. Click Here to view large.

MPe-65 at 1x magnification. The light on his head is a little hot, but I like the body detail.

Setup pic :

Lighting

2007-05-21T10:56:00.000+08:00

Light resources and links will be posted here.

Tutorials:
Strobist.com
- First stop for learning how to light.
- specialising in affordable effective lighting.
- minimalist and DIY gear.
- great blog and associated flickr group.
- My photos featured on the blog back in November - Here.

Sitzbono - photojournalist with a great soundslides presentation of various setups.
http://www.sitbonzo.com/sit/

Planet Neil - good tutorials here on balancing on camera flash and ambient.
- good for wedding photography and other dynamic situations.

Photonotes.org - definitive guide to how Canon flashes work.

DG28.com - More PJ style location lighting. Heaps of good set information.

Dave Black Photography - Legend sports shooter. Does awesome location stuff with his lights.
- check out the Workshop at the Ranch link for monthly tutes.

Books and other resources:
Light Science and Magic
- really good book covering the principles of light.
- especially good chapters on dealing with reflections on glass and metal.

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait - Michael Grecco.
- amazing celeb portraits.

My book wish list.

Studio stuff:
I'm tempted to get into some studio stuff because I love the idea of the gear and creativity you can have with light. However, being stuck in the studio is getting away from the type of photography I want to be doing which is getting out in nature and amongst people and real life. I think I'll be hanging back on this genre but using some of the lighting principals in my location shooting.

http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/ - good tutes that make you want to buy their gear.

Baby Baboon - Perth Zoo

2007-05-09T14:19:00.001+08:00

Baby Baboon, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Still sorting through my photo library, keywording etc. Came across one of my old favourites. Not sure if I've already posted this before, but here it is again.

I was at Perth zoo testing out my 200/2.8L when this little guy was playing in the sun. He was a brand new arrival at the zoo. Very cute.

A couple more...

Rock and Roll Confidential

2007-05-08T13:48:00.000+08:00

Just for laughs ... classic stuff!

http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/index.php?page=1

Strobist Lighting 102

2007-05-02T13:49:00.000+08:00

New lighting course at Strobist.com to commence on June 4. Free! Click banner for further information. Learn to light creatively on a budget. Highly recommended!!

Morning Sun

2007-05-01T23:36:00.001+08:00

Morning Sun, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Panorama taken on a recent trip to Mundaring - just out of Perth WA. This view is from the deck of a B&B I was staying at.

5D + Zuiko 35 shift lens. 6 vertical images. Rotation around nodal point with camera perfectly level. 10mm of vertical shift to include the tops of the trees and keep them vertical. Stitched with PT Gui.

Spider Macro - Strobist Lights

2007-04-23T13:02:00.001+08:00

Spider, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

I haven't got out my macro kit for a while now. I had a bit of time yesterday and this tiny spider appeared on a bougainvillea cutting I was preparing for propogation.

Being a regular visitor of the Strobist site, I have realised the impact a photographer can achieve using simple off camera lights. Lighting adds drama and depth to a photo. I wanted to test out these principals in a macro situation.

The spider was a willing model and presented a perfect opportunity. Normally bugs and spiders move too quickly to set up lights around them. It's difficult enough to get the critters in focus, so lighting adds another element of challenge.

Most macro shooters have their flash on a bracket or on camera so they can chase the bugs around, holding the camera in two hands (necessary for stability at these magnifications). Macro lighting can become a bit boring this way and start to all look the same.

I'm pretty pleased with this result. I'm planning of making some mini studio setups to create "portrait" style bug macros. Will be a challenge I'm sure.

Here is the setup pic.
.
Pretty quick and nasty. Had to work fast because I was worried the spider would run away.

I used the ST-E2 to trigger the 430EX (camera left on little stand) which was set at 1/16 power and zoomed to 70mm. The Nikon SB26 has an optical slave so this was triggered when the 430EX went off. I just rested it on my camera bag where it provided a subtle backlight to highlight the legs and spines. Set it to 1/16 power at 24mm. Exposure f/11 1/125s.

I was using an MPE-65 macro lens on my Canon 5D. The image is full frame at 5X magnification. Not cropped.

Dragonfly

2007-04-20T14:26:00.001+08:00

Dragonfly, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Another one from the Archives. I'm still wading through my library, sorting, and keywording in Lightroom. This is an old favourite. Reworked using the Angela Drury LR preset describe in the previoius post.

More macro shots Here

Masonic Hall

2007-04-19T23:06:00.001+08:00

Masonic Hall, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

Taken in Cue, Western Australia. Remote town in the Goldfields.

I was trying out a new Lightroom preset (by Angela Drury) I read about here.

Depth of Field article - Ron Bigelow

2007-04-18T13:10:00.000+08:00

Ron Bigelow has a series of excellent technical articles on photography. A recent one which has been educational to me is his article titled Depth of Field -- Part I.

In the article he gives a good explanation of how DOF works and what factors contribute.

A couple of interesting things for me were:

1. DOF is not absolute for a given apperture, focal length and subject distance. There is only one plane of focus and the extent of areas in front of and behind that plane that are in apparent sharp focus, depends on the size of the print or image display and also the viewing distance.

Small prints will have larger DOF as will downsized jpgs. That is why web sized images at f/1.4 still have sufficient DOF ( a good example is using a 35mm wide open for low light candids at family gatherings destined for email.) When viewing the image at 100% or on large prints, the out of focus areas are more easily apparent.

2. For the same field of view and same apperture, a crop camera will have a larger DOF than a full frame camera. (e.g. 30D with 50mm lens vs 5D with 80mm lens.)

So in choosing you apperture, sometimes it's useful to consider the final destination of the image. If there is a chance you will want to enlarge it, consider stopping down a couple of stops...

Quick links - Inspiration

2007-04-16T12:17:00.000+08:00

These guys are just awesome. Mainly portrait stuff. Genius.

George Lange Video - Must see. Truly creative.
Gregory Heisler - Genius with lighting and portraits.
Dan Winters - more great portraiture. Some very original ideas here.
Greg Gorman - Celeb BW.

------------------------------
Added to Inspiration blog page.

Sleepy Bay

2007-04-16T11:39:00.001+08:00

Here's a landscape from my 2006 Tassie trip . Sleepy Bay in Freycinet National Park. One of the most beautiful places in the world. I reworked this image in Lightroom. I much prefer the RAW conversion over what I got out of RSP.

...from the Archives

2007-04-05T11:03:00.000+08:00

I'm currently taking a bit of a break from shooting. Just needed some time to refresh and relax to get the creative juices flowing again.

I've been spending a fair bit of time learning Lightroom and going through my Library, keywording and adding metadata to my old library. It's been great to revisit old images. Here are a few macros from my first weeks of digital shooting (Canon 10D). click image for larger view.

High Pass Contrast

2007-03-13T22:43:00.000+09:00

This is a fairly advanced photoshop technique. Found it while researching the "Dave Hill" look which I will discuss in my next post.

The technique provides some contrast to the midtones. Gives the image a bit of subtle pop as well as an impression of increased sharpness. Very subtle. Very good. I've made and action in PS and plan to use this one often. From www.johnpaulcaponigro.com

Tutorial Link Here

Steps
1. Duplicate layer. ctrl-j
2. Set blend mode to overlay
3. Set blend if sliders (double click on layer) - 50/70 and 185/215 (alt to split slider)
4. Apply high pass filter at radius 50
5. Desaturate
6. Adjust opacity to taste - start at about 20% as a good default.

Adobe Lightroom V1.0 - finally here

2007-02-20T22:13:00.000+09:00

I have been using Adobe Lightroom since about September last year. There have been several beta version upgrades and now we finally have version 1.0 ready and shipping.

Lightroom is great. A refreshing change in the way we deal with our growing libraries of digital images. The program is built for digital photographers and is designed with efficient workflow as a central priority.

It is a great organisational tool utilising a library database which references images in their physical location and saves sets of organisational and processing instructions in the database without altering the image.

The RAW processing gives beatiful results which can be exported for print, slideshow, email, and web all from the RAW file. No need for duplicate files for different purposes. Versions and stacks are a welcome addition from B4.

The organisational features are also very nice. You can import images in a folder structure that mimics your physical hard drive storage. You can also place images in 'virtual' collections...an image can be in several different collections without having to duplicate the file.

My speil here is quite brief and just touches on some of my favourite things about Lightroom... read more in the links listed below.

My Favourite tips:
1. Drag images to LR library to import.
2. alt-double click on image moves you from develop to grid view and back.
3. Auto advance with ratings and picks (Caps Lock on)
4. Export to the watched folder so that your images are auto imported to a sortbox.
5. Ctrl click within a library panel to get unions of sets of images. Ctrl click across panels to get intersections.
6. Export to PS droplet to batch apply actions.
7. Click folder path at left lower screen for drop down list of recent 'locations' in the library
8. When entering new keyword: type keyword>parent to maintain heirarchy.
9. ctrl-alt-arrow to move back and forth from recent views.
10. To update folder contents: rt click>show in explorer. Then drag the folder from windows onto LR window and all new images will be imported.

Resources: All extremely useful...

Adobe Official LR site
- has some good introductory videos. This is where to get your free 30day trial download.
Lightroom News
Lightroom Extra - a great site from Sid Jervis. Lots of tips, free presents, user customisations and other goodies. Has a great FAQ for newbies - essential reading for making the transition from B4.
Sean McCormack's LR Blog. Similar content to Lightroom news.
Adobe User Forum
Digital Outback Photo - LR review. - nice overview.
Foto Espresso - Lightroom edition. - more detailed article in this excellent free online magazine.
Video Tutorials Michael Tapes. Another good set of tutorials. Michael Tapes was the front man for RawShooter and carries on his excellent teaching with LR.

More stuff: (added 22/2/07)

Inside Lightroom - O'Reilly Digital Media - has a great blog. good stuff about workflow here.
Custom metadata viewer for LR by Jeffrey Friedl
regex.info/blog/2007-02-20/386 more info on the viewer. Works well.
Inside Lightroom - free develop presents. non that I really like so far but will see what offerings they come up with.

Update: 5/4/07

Feature Wish List
1. Auto watched folders.
2. Larger keyword sets - or checkboxes next to keywords heirarchy for quick keywording
3. Vignette tool for cropped images
4. Improved performance.
5. Allow same name file with different extension in same folder.
6. Turn off view of subfolder images when a folder is selected.
7. Separate Keywording module.
8. Allow editing of EXIF
9. Brighter colours for labels
10. Better noise control and sharpening. (like RSP)
11. Scroll within panels.
12. Get filters off the filmstrip
13. Allow quick collection marker to be displayed without being clickable.
14. Allow export queue.
15. Print to file. Especially for contact sheets.
16. Save place in library when deleting from loupe.
17. Easier renaming. Double click on name.
18. Stacks across folders.
19. Better search with And/Or selections
20. Smart collections.
21. Burn Slideshow to DVD with music that can be played on DVD player.
22. Allow undo delete.
24. Search for keyword synonyms.
25. Export synonyms and other keyword information when keyword list is exported.
26. Allow editing in Adobe 1998 colour space.
27. Print lightening.

Surfer's Dream

2007-02-16T13:57:00.001+09:00

Surfer's Dream, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

This photo is from an epic surf trip to the Philippines. It's a photo of my mate Simon who shared some perfect waves with me during our 3 week adventure.

The surf break is just out of town from a place called Baler on the east coast of Luzon Island. Quite a remote spot. No other surfers. Every morning we would make the hour long trip to the mangrove.

The walk through the mangrove was surreal...no wind, the water like warm mercury, surrounded by mountains, tiny swells pushing through to the shore behind us... the magrove twigs bent over and then flicked upright in rows like a mexican wave as each wave passed.

I had the slide printed. The slide is lost. All I have left is the print. This is a scan of the print converted to black and white. I have a whole stash of slides and prints to scan from my travels around the world... more to come when I get organised.

City Beach - Game On

2007-02-14T15:56:00.001+09:00

Game On, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

One of my favourite shots - dug it up from the archives.

What lens to buy?

2007-02-01T11:29:00.000+09:00

A frequent question from those starting out in photography. "What lens should I get? Which is the best lens? "

Read this thread from the Fred Miranda forums. Sums up the answer perfectly.

Basically, there is no best lens. The lens you choose depends on what you want to shoot and what you feel your current gear cannot provide you. As you explore various styles of photography, you will need specific lenses to get specific qualities in your images. Unfortunately, you can spend a lot of cash doing this. Beware!

For a lot of people, their SLR is really a big point and shoot with a nice sensor. Good for holiday pics and snaps of friends etc. A good zoom is ideal for these photographers, but while a zoom is flexible, there are many compromises. There is no lens that does everything.

Zooms have smaller appertures - means slower shutter speeds and reduced ability to create nice out of focus areas with shallow depth of field.
Zooms are not as sharp as primes, and have lower overall image quality (flare, chromatic abberation, distortion).
Zooms can't focus as close as primes - especially macro lenses.
Zooms can't tilt and shift.

So start with a zoom. Figure out if you can live with the compromises. If not, then find a lens which can do what you feel is missing in your zoom. When you start out, don't try to build a kit that will do everything. You'll probably get it wrong because you need experience to know what you need - everyone shoots differently and you need to get stuff that suits your style.

Enough rambling from me. Get out, shoot, have fun.

Faces of Sunset Boulevard

2007-01-25T09:18:00.001+09:00

Just came across this photographer Patrick Ecclesine.
Check out his website at facesofsunset.com. The images are from a book project "Faces of Sunset Boulevard".

"a colorful and cinematic collection of portraits and interviews taken along the world famous sunset boulevard."

The 'History' and 'Journal' sections in the Faces of Sunset site are a good read and give some insight into the way he thinks and works.

Also check out his commercial site www.ecclesine.com

This photography really appeals to me. The preparation needed for some of these shoots is phenomenal. The street locations combined with great studio lights makes for some really unique images. Just fantastic. Enjoy.

Essays - Alain Briot

2007-01-16T22:36:00.000+09:00

For futher reading on aesthetic and artistic consideration in photography, check out the wonderful series of essays by landscapist, Alain Briot. There are two essay series on the site:

1. Photography and Aesthetics Series
2. Reflections on Photography and Art

Both series are great reading. Click the link below...

http://beautiful-landscape.com/Articles%20&%20Publishing.html

Photoshop Image Processor

2007-01-09T22:04:00.000+09:00

Here's something I only just discovered in Photoshop. Been batch processing the hard way for years now. I was getting frustrated at having to select jpg compression setting everytime I wanted to batch a bunch of images. Eventually found the solution with the PS image processor...

Here is a quick tutorial:
http://www.informit.com/guides/content.asp?g=photoshop&seqNum=253&rl=1Ev

In Photoshop CS2, choose File > Scripts > Image Processor

Got one running as I type.... :)

Great Website - Edwin Bont

2007-01-08T14:27:00.000+09:00

Here's a really great website I came across in my browsing. It's by photographer and illustrator Edwin Bont

Heres the link http://www.edwinbont.nl/index.html

He has a fantastic macro gallery of various bugs. The lighting of his macros is what makes then better than most other stuff I've seen.

Make sure you check out his illustrations page too. He prints cartoons that he has made in Photoshop onto card. Then arranges the cutouts into scenes and photographs them with great lighting. Really creative. Excellent stuff!
http://www.edwinbont.nl/articles/illustration/howto.html

New Lens - Canon MPE-65

2006-12-21T10:05:00.000+09:00

My MP-E 65 just arrived at my front door. This is a super macro lens. Magnification 1x-5x. Does not focus in the distance. The photo is from my first go in the backyard. Very nice to use. Much easier to handle than my Bugzooka. I'm very stoked with this one.

Here is a partial crop to demonstrate the sharpness of the lens.

Flies

2006-12-21T00:38:00.000+09:00

Taken with my "Bugzooka" setup.

Sigma 150 on Tamron 1.4x TC and 67mm of extension.
Handheld. Wimberley bracket with 430EX triggered with STE2. Inflatable diffuser.

Here's the rig...

Portrait retouching

2006-12-21T00:05:00.000+09:00

A few useful retouching tips for portraits. I learnt these techniques while processing the images from Dave and Pip's wedding. Click the link to see some examples of how the techniques below can be applied.

Quite a few of the tips are from Jay Davis at FM... Thanks.
Smoothing skin on portraits.
"Go to menu item:Select/ Color Range/ Sampled Colors. set the "add to sample" option and with a low fuzziness setting (around 25) begin selecting the model's skin area. Play around with sampling and different fuzziness settings until you have the skin almost all selected and none of the dark areas around the skin. Choose OK and now you will have a pretty throrough selection of the skin tones.

Copy this to its own layer (ctrl-C; ctrl-V) - (or just ctrl-J)

Apply Gaussian Blur to this layer only. You have to choose the amount to use. Adjust it up until skin detail just disappears and then a bit more. At this point the picture will look hideous.

Monochromatic noise can be added by selecting your skin layer, go up to filters and choose noise, there is a check box for monochromatic, set a low number (should look a little like faint pores) and then apply/ok. If it is too much then you can go under Edit (if I remember right) and choose Fade to fade the last filtered effect.

Now ... add a layer mask while pressing the Alt key ... this will add a Black layer mask and everything will then return to "normal"

Here's the part when you retouch the skin: Using a soft-edged paintbrush and white paint selected, choose an opacity of 20% or less and a brush size that's workable, start painting white on the layer mask just in the areas of the skin gradually reducing it's opacity until the skin is the way you like it."

Skin Glow Technique...
1. New layer
2. Set blend mode to screen.
3. Gaussian Blur - about 15px.
4. Reduce opacity to abou 22%
5. Paint mask as needed.

Applying a vignette.
1. Make a selection with the lasso tool - an elipse around the main subject.
2. Invert selection.
3. Feather selection ctrl+alt+D - quite large feather. Up to 250px for large images.
4. New hue/saturation adjustment layer. Selection should load as a mask.
5. Reduce lightness to taste.

Sepia overlay
A nice effect. Works quite well to warm up skin tones.
1. New hue/saturation adjustment layer.
2. Set Hue 25, Saturation 25. Make sure colorize box is ticked.
3. Reduce layer opacity to about 30-40% or whatever suits the image.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Post Processing blogposts from the archives.

Non destructive healing - Photoshop tip

2006-12-20T23:33:00.000+09:00

1. New layer
2. Select healing brush - make sure that the "use all layers" box is checked.
3. heal
4. Another new layer
5. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E - merges visible into new layer.

Thanks Jay Davis from FM.

A Great Wedding - Dave and Pip

2006-12-11T22:39:00.000+09:00

A few of my favourite photos from the day...

I did a quick write up on the Flickr Stobist forum for anyone that is interested. Covers some of the practical aspects photographing the day and some lighting notes.

More pics here. Hope you like them.

Blogged on Strobist !

2006-12-06T00:02:00.000+09:00

Everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame at some time or other... well mine just came when some wedding photos I did for my friends Dave and Pip were linked onto the front page of the Strobist site.

Click the image below to see the entry. Must say, I was pretty stoked. The photos turned out great on the day - thanks mainly to some great lighting tips I picked up on the strobist site since it has been up and running.

More wedding photos and photography notes to follow soon....

Quick Photoshop eyedropper tip

2006-12-05T23:31:00.000+09:00

To select a colour from a part of the screen outside the Photoshop window:

'Select the Eyedropper tool, click in the image, hold the mouse down, and drag anywhere on the desktop. You can use this option to select a color displayed in another application, such as a color in a web page displayed in a browser.'

Taken from PS CS2 Help.

Contemplation

2006-12-05T13:40:00.000+09:00

Contemplation, originally uploaded by Kev.yong.

A view from the Narrows bridge in Perth. Was mucking around with a fake photoshop tilt effect.

The Creative Process

2006-11-30T23:30:00.007+08:00

Thoughts and articles here on what good photography is and how to make it.

I've had enough of talking about gear.... and making vacuous eye candy...

I think the beginnings of good photography arise when one stops trying to show off what the camera and software are capable of and starts working on a process that focuses on a passion for a subject and the and intent of communicating an idea or feeling to the viewer in a aesthetically pleasing way.

I've created this archive as a place to expand my thoughts on this subject. More posts and links below...

In search of Quality
Quiet Times
On Craft Science and Art - Otis A Tomas - Luthier
The Ladder of Understanding
Petteri's Pontifications
Essays by Alain Briot
Article about Jay Maisel
Selecting a Subject

More discussion and links...HCSP thread.

Approach... excerpts from Magnum stories

Wear Good Shoes

-------------
addit: march 2009.
Have been looking over my photos over the past 6-10 years. Quite an interesting process to see the change in emphasis and direction. Slowly seeing a certain style developing but still experimenting too much with different gear and techniques for this to really consolidate.

HAve been through many phases, experimenting with all sorts of techniques gear and post processing.

Now trying to be a bit more restrained and subtle in my presentation of subject matter. Looking to create photos which communicate and conjure feeling, which bring attention to the profound, quirky, awkward and clever. Steering away from in-your-face, commercial type photography, extremes of focal length, over use of DOF, overly vibrant colours, over processing. Not doing much pre-meditated shoots, but rather looking to capture serendipitous moments and quiet magical scenes.

Russell Brown - Advanced Masking Tute

2006-11-30T22:33:00.000+08:00

Always had problems making nice masks with brushes, extract, colour range and lasso tools etc.

Here is a fantastic video tutorial by Russell Brown which cleverly uses channels to create a perfect mask.
http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/AdvancedMasking.mov

In summary..
1. Create channels adjustment layer. Click the monochrome checkbox.
2. Adjust channels for maximum contrast
3. Save merged image (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Shift-C) as a new alpha channel in channels palette.
4. Increase contrast in alpha channel with Levels and Dodge and burn tools
5. Repeat for different parts of the image
6. Ctrl click the alpha channel icon to make it a selection
7. Ctrl shift click other channels to add them to selection
8. Click icon at bottom of channels palette to turn new added selection into a new channel.
9. Apply the new channel as a selection - ctrl click.
10. Get back to Layers and click layer mask to apply.

Perth Sunrise and Sunset times

2006-11-14T13:15:00.000+08:00

A useful reference for planning "golden hour" photography.

Perth Sunrise and Sunset times

..

2006-11-03T12:20:00.008+08:00

Flickr

2006-11-03T12:09:00.000+08:00

This is a test post from .

I'm getting a bit bored with my pbase gallery. I like the interaction and community at Flickr. when I get the time, I'm going to shut down the pbase galleries and move most of my image storage over to Flickr.

Here is an artice by Petteri on the merits of the Flickr photo site.

Check out my Flickr galleries HERE (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevyong/)

Spring flower

2006-09-03T17:25:00.000+08:00

CURSOR: hand" alt="
"src="http://www.pbase.com/kevyong/image/66200408/medium.jpg" border="0" />

Don't know the name of this one. Quite an extreme closeup. The flower is less than a centimeter in size. Reversed 28 on tubes with flash (tissue papar diffuser).

Hope you like it.

Dolphins at the Brewery

2006-08-30T21:49:00.000+08:00

Another taken with the Hartblei setup. Will be sad to see this lens go...

Hartblei 45mm Super Rotator Lens

2006-08-27T20:41:00.001+08:00

I've mentioned my Hartblei 45mm f/3.5 Super-Rotator Medium Format lens in a few previous posts. It is a truly unique lens and I've been meaning to write about it for a while.

I use it coupled with a Zork Panoramic Shift Adapter for Canon mount. The final part of the kit is a Really Right Stuff 'L' plate which has been modified to fit the adapter.

This combo allows simultaneous shift. 23mm in one direction with the adapter and a further 12mm in a perpendicular direction with the shift on the lens. I usually keep the shifts to 20mm (horizontal) and 10mm (vertical) respectively to maintain optiumum image quality. With these amounts of shift I can get an equivalent FOV to 24mm or wider on FF. Single row panos on 5D (2 shots) measure in at about 24Megapixels and 2x2 panos are about 48-50MP.

The Super rotator design also allows tilt on the lens in ANY direction. Very fun and very flexible. And sharp too!

How I make panoramas with this lens:

The lens is mounted so that the PSA is shifting side to side. That is the 'vertical' arm of the L-plate in the tripod clamp. The camera can rotate on the back of the adapter. I have the camera in horizontal orientation.

Most often I will just shift 20mm side to side to get a 3:1 panorama. I will take an extra picture at neutral point but the lateral shift images overlap anyway. The extra picture is just in case of moving elements or a critical subject which lies at the seams. This is extremely quick to set up and shoot and very easy to stitch in Photoshop. It's magic how easily the seams come together. No parallax whatsoever.

Of course, the lens is manual everything so it's best to set your focus and exposure before you start shifting and tilting. I first focus with the lens wide open. Then stop down to my chosen apperture. I will take a shot in Av mode to check metering and mentally record the shutter speed and check the histogram. The camera records apperture as 00. I then change to Manual mode and set the shutter speed (with minor adjustment depending on histogram) and also set a constant white balance - this ensures all images will have the same exposure and WB so stitching later is much easier. After this, it's time to start shifting and shooting.

It is also possible to do a huge 2x2 pano using this kit - the image at the top of the post is my most recent example using this technique. The procedure for a 2x2 pano is very similar to what I have described for a single row stitch above, except that you include some vertical shift on the lens as well.

So my shot procedure is as follows. Shift left 20mm on the PSA and up 10mm on the lens. Shoot. Slide across to central position - shoot - slide to 20mm right shift - shoot. Then press the shift direction release button and spin the lens 180 degrees. This will bring it from being shifted 10mm up to 10mm down. Shoot. Then slide back left to the central position on the adapter - shoot - slide to full 20mm left position - shoot. As I previously mentioned the central position images are not essential but can save a pano in certain situations.

Here is a demonstration of how the image panels overlap (each panel is 13 Megapixels)...

Check out the panorama links thread below for some other cool tutorials on flat stitching using shift lenses.

Update:
April 07. The lens is sold. I found it a bit bulky for my landscape kit. The lens was also prone to flare. It has been replaced with an Olympus 35 shift lens which is superb. Much smaller, better image quality, not as much shift and not tilt. I am using the oly for combined flat and rotational stitching.

Strobist

2006-08-16T18:52:00.000+08:00

Haven't had a chance to work on the blog lately. A few other projects on the go which will be revealed in good time...

Anyway, I have been spending a bit of time at Strobist.com which is an educational blog about using small speedlight flashes off the camera to increase your photographic creativity and flexibility. A truly fantastic site.

I have since upgraded my 420EX to a 430EX and added an ST-E2 wireless transmitter which can trigger the 430EX. I also bought a Nikon SB-26 from ebay, which has an optical trigger, to use as a cheap second light. The nice surprise is that the SB-26 can also be triggered by the ST-E2. It has a very similar power output to the 430EX so combining them is quite simple.

I've set up a mini studio in the garage. I'll post some shots soon.

How to Clean your DSLR sensor

2006-08-03T17:38:00.000+08:00

Another great article by Petteri Sulonen on How to Brush Your Sensor .

Also within the article is a link to the Copper Hill wet cleaning method

I haven't cleaned my sensor myself before. Dust is becoming a real problem on my FF sensor so will bite the bullet next week...

Update: Oct 22 2007.
The brush method works well. I had heaps of dust on my sensor for an entire 3 month trip through Europe. Didn't bring any cleaning gear, so plenty of spotting work to do in post production now...

A summary of the brush method in case Petteri's site goes down.
1. Get a soft flat non sized nylon brush and clean with detergent.
2. Test on a filter for residue.
3. Take test shots with camera.
4. Try blower first. if clean then stop.
5. Strike brush on back of knife to clear dust from the bristles.
6. clean focus screen and check for dust through the viewfinder.
7. clean brush on knife after each swipe.
8. brush sensor in one direction, clean brush, then repeat.