2009 October » jamesberghout.com

Day 8: For the Birds

Oct 212009

Taken with Camera. Edited with PhotoEffects and Photogene.

For the birds is a funny expression. As an American idiom it means “not worth much”. But that’s not what I mean by making this the title of today’s photo. What if you were a bird? What would you be able to do? What would you be able to see? You would have an entirely different perspective on life.

Photography is about learning to see. “Learn to see the light” is an often repeated mantra of photography teachers. How often do we look around us and wonder what we could possibly photograph? And yet, if we really stopped and tried, we could spend hours photographing a blade of grass.

Manual: Page 85. What do you know! My Nikon DOES have a bulb mode.

Photographer: Ansel Adams “Our National Parks” (Hey, It seemed like everyone else was looking at him today, I might as well too. Ken, Tasra)

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Day 7: It’s Been a Week…Must Be Sun Day

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Oct 202009

Taken with Camera. Edited with PhotoEffects and PerfectPhoto.

It’s been one week since I started, so I thought it was appropriate that I use a photo of this glass sun that hangs on my patio.

I’m still refining my approach to this challenge. As Tasra pointed out in here 50th post day today. Lot’s of people take a picture a day, but to truly take this challenge (and our photography) to a new level requires more than just taking a picture. It requires actions such as learning the technical aspects of the equipment as well as looking at what great photographers have already done. Doing this each day is not just the purpose of the challenge but also the key to taking our photography up to the stars…or maybe the sun.

I heard a quote once that said, “It’s better to shoot for the stars and miss than to shoot for the mud and make it.”

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My Own 365 D1: Am I Nuts?

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Oct 162009

I’ve started my own 365…that is…I am going to make and post a new image every day for 365 days. I’ve been inspired by other 365ers, the lastest of whom is Tasra Dawson.

Here are my rules:

Photo will be taken with and processed entirely on my iPhone each day.
It will be posted to my blog under the 365 album by midnight including a title, and what iPhone apps I used to process the photo.
I will learn something about photography, Photoshop or design each day by reading a page out of my camera manual, reading and following an online tutorial or watching a video tutorial online.

I’m already on my third day. (Is that cheating…getting a head start?) I’ve been working heavily on my website. And I still have plans for what I want it to do. So It will likely keep going through a little evolution.

Do you wonder if I can do it? So do I.

onONe DSLR Camera Remote Review

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Oct 122009

After onOne recently updated their DSLR Camera Remote to be able to work with Nikon Camera, I was intrigue. The app remotely control your Canon or Nikon DSLR camera from your iPhone or iPod Touch

I guess you could say that I’m an iPhone app addict, especially when it come to taking and editing photos. Or maybe it’s just that I haven’t found the perfect app yet, but that’s beside the point. I don’t mind dropping a buck or two on an app. That’s part of the reason I try so many of the various photography apps. But it was a bit harder for me to pay $20…but only a little.

Yesterday, I finally decided to buy it and see how well it worked. I’m here to report that it does what it says it does. And it’s kind of fun. I can envision using it from time to time in various scenarios which could range from model shoots, photographing from strange angles to self portraits. (It might be sort of weird to actually have myself in a few more photos from time to time.) If you really want to push the proverbial envelope you could combine all three: photographing yourself and a model from a strange angle.

Here’s how it’s hooked up. The camera, in my case the Nikon D90, is controlled via USB cable that connects the camera to my MacBook Pro. A free server application runs on the computer and seamlessly takes care of the dirty work of communicating between the camera and the iPhone. Wifi needs to be enabled for all of this to work. But thanks to the genious of wireless I was able to takes photos from my basement with the camera that was situated on the floor above.

Those cameras that have certain live view capabilities are even able to display that live view through the iPhone. Very entertaining! I love to be able to adjust the aperture, shutter speed and ISO from the comfort of my iPhone touch screen.

So it sounds like I’ve given DSLR Camera Remote a pretty glowing review. The question remains…will I really use it. Only time will tell. Ask me in a few months if it’s still on my iPhone or if it gone to iPhone app graveyard. But I suspect that there will be several photography apps removed before this one.

Stalked in the Corn Maze

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Oct 122009

This weekend we went to a corn maze. I thought it was a good opportunity to capture some images. The above image is my favorite, but it still left something to be desired. The trouble is that when the family wants recreation, they don’t want to stand still for long for me to setup a shot.

I suppose the solution is to set expectations in advance and to try to keep recreation and location photography somewhat separate. Otherwise, frustration might be the only thing found, and fun will be lost in the maze.

October Skies

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Oct 082009

This is my favorite time of year for clouds. On my drive home from work, sometimes I can’t keep my eyes off the clouds. It makes driving very dangerous. I stopped the car for this shot. It’s composed of 8 individual photos.

This morning the clouds were once again stunning. I’ve been enjoying the film grain that I can get out of NIK filters. I looks like there is a hand in the sky…a three fingered hand from the Simpsons.