Monthly Archives: May 2009

Tamron 17-50mm f2/8 in for Service

Posted on by

tamron17-50I finally did it. I sent my Tamron lens in for service. This is my main walking around lens, and only wide-ish lens. So… for now I am walking around with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I like that lens, but it sure isn’t on the wide side.

I had finally had enough of the lens. I sure hope it can get fixed. I would feel bad about trying to sell it and move to a Nikon version without getting it check out. So, what did I want looked at? Three things:

  1. Ever since I got the lens there has been issues with the camera reporting a F–. That means that the camera body doesn’t think there is a lens attached. I had to return two other versions before this one too. The current copy doesn’t do it often at least.
  2. The front mount where the hood goes seems loose. It is very jiggly. I don’t remember it like that before. I don’t know if that effects any of the lens elements. Probably not.
  3. The biggest issue is focus. I have been disappointed since getting this lens with it’s sharpness. I think it deteriorates toward 50mm the most, and is most evident as smaller apertures like 2.8. When I try to take pictures of people at 2.8-4.0 the success rate of in focus shots is rediculously low.

I lived with this stuff for awhile now, thinking that this is what I get for not going Nikon, but it isn’t acceptable now. I bought this lens after hearing from several Canon shooters who had the similar lens in a Canon mount just how good it was. I can’t believe it is the same lens they talk about.

It was getting some quality Nikon glass that pushed me to send it in though. I now have a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, and that lens is amazing. It really does make me want to try other Nikon lenses out and see if they are as good. The Tamron is no where near as sharp a lens. I can only hope that Tamron can find some little screws to adjust in there somewhere that will magicly make me like this lens. Otherwise, I am saving pennies (and lots of them) for the Real Deal.

Update: Tamron Customer Service.

Update: I got a paper confimation (05/29/2009) that they had recieved the lens and found issues they would fix. Paper. Really?

Update: Lens Fixed.

Star Trek on You Tube

Posted on by

It didn’t take long for this Star Trek movie to¬†make it up on You Tube. I think this is the most hilarious movie yet. Check it out here. I thought they would have had a bigger special effects budget though. The new characters are spot on. Kaplah!

What did you think?¬†I just found out about it here. ¬†I had no idea. Too funny. I guess this is from a couple of years ago, but I hadn’t heard of Photoshop World until recently. I would really like to go sometime though. The next showing is in Vagas Baby!

Post Vision, Still Motion, 35mm

Posted on by

There was a lot of stuff going on today. It‚Äôs ‚ÄúGuest Blog Wednesday‚Äù featuring Andrew Kornylak at Scott Kelby’s blog. It is another great post. Andrew has started to create what he calls “still motion” video, where he takes still images from his camera and puts them to music to make a video. Some of these are really good. You can get some pretty powerfull stuff when the music syncs with the images. Check out the Parlour one. That was my favorite.

David duChemin put’s up a “Big Q” today that came from your’s truly. I was wanting to know more about some calendar pictures he posted that were split-toned.¬†When¬†did the vision for the image strike – at picture time, or later. Check out the response, and the original calendar post.

I got a response from Tamron. I had written to them last night about sending my 17-50mm f/2.8 lens in for repair. I think it back focuses,¬†the camera¬†still sometimes reports that it is not connected, and the end of the lens with the mount for the hood seems like it has too much play.¬†Makes you want to buy the lens¬†doesn’t it! Anyway, Tamron responded right away. Don’t need an RMA,¬†and turnaround is 3-4 weeks. Think I will send it in.

So what do I shoot with in the mean time? I will have my 50mm f/1.8 prime, but it is not very good inside. I can’t back up far enough usually. What I could use is the new Nikon 35mm f/1.8.¬†It looks to be about $200, but isn’t out yet. There are reviews at SLRGear, DPReview, and PhotoZone. Not a perfect lens, but for $200, seems pretty good.

Back to my Roots

Posted on by

Spring is finally here. Well, it has been for a bit, but my backyard has been slow to bloom. I have often taken pictures of flowers from my backyard, but it seems like it has been forever since I have been able to do that. We finally got the tulips to bloom, and I took a couple of pictures.

Rain on Yellow 

I had the girls help me. Their favorite thing is to get the spray bottle and spray everything in the backyard, except the flowers I am trying to photograph. It had rained earlier in the day, but we needed to add a bit of water by the time I took these in the early evening.

Rain on Red 

Once again, I am taking these with my Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I love the bookah that I get from that lens. I can get the focus better with this lens too. I am not convinced that my Tamron 17-50 focuses properly. I am looking at sending it in. So, it probably means that I will be using the niffty 50 for most of my pictures after sending the Tamron in. But that’s ok. It is sometimes a little too big when taking pictures of the kids, I have to back up further than I want to, but I still like the pictures I get from it of them.

Big Little Jump 

These two were the reason I picked up a DSLR in the first place, so it is good that I am getting back to taking pictures of them. I have been trying to concentrate on getting portrait pictures for a new portfolio that I haven’t taken¬†many pictures of my kids lately. But now that it is nice out again, we will go for¬†more walks and hikes, which will present more¬†oportunities for pictures than just the sidewalk in front of our house.

Behind the Railing

iPhone as Mobile Portfolio

Posted on by

I heard some one once say that if you are a photographer you need to buy a iPhone or a iTouch from Apple. This way, when you are out, or traveling, and run across someone asking what you shoot,  you can simply pop out your device and voila: instant portfolio.

Before I got an iPhone, I thought it sounded it cool, but how could a little screen be of much use? Well, that was before I saw the screen. It is great for showing off your pictures.

I just got some business cards printed up:

business card

I was walking around the office (computer programming day job) and handing them out. People were asking about the type of pictures I took, so I pulled out the iPhone. Nothing like instant ooh’s and aah’s. If someone wanted to see a certain type of picture, I had an album for that. Here is a recent shot:

iphone picture of emma

I find it really easy to get my latest images onto the iPhone. I am using Aperture, but iPhoto would work similar. I create a smart album that collects all the images of a certain type. Could be 5 stars, or tagged as portraits/seniors, etc. Then in iTunes, I select go to the photos page, and select to manually sync pictures. I then select the smart albums I created. Now whenever I update Aperture, it updates the smart albums, and every time I sync, iTunes puts the latest photos on my phone. Simple, instant, up to date, mobile portfolio.

20 Giants Of Off-Camera Photographic Lighting

Posted on by

On Seshu’s website there is great list of 20 photographers that are masters of light, and who are willing to pass on the knowledge. These photographers offer worshops, DVD’s, blogs and books. I have seen many of their websites, and have lots of their workshops and materials on my wish list. You should check out this list and see who you don’t know.

Out at a Horse Farm

Posted on by

 Sunset on the Farm 

Well, I swear that it is a horse farm. I didn’t really get any pictures of horses that I liked. Oh, well. I was trying to get pictures of the horses when I missed the only real color to the sky. This is all that was left when I finally turned around. Oops.

Once the sun was down we turned to playing around. First up was taking pictures of the moon. This turned out well. The clouds were moving, so they give a spooky / erie feel to the picture.

Erie Moon 

I need a farm house or something below it. Maybe I should try to combine the two shots that you see here. Well, after that we pulled out the speedlights. I first tried to light someone with hard light from both sides, and that did’t quite work. Next up, I had the voice of Hagrid in my head saying “You’re a wizzard Harry.” I was trying to go for the two balls of light in my hands look. I wish we were a little wider, as the light actually gets cut off at the edge of the picture.

Light Orbs

Eye-Fi for the iPhone

Posted on by

bike ride picture taken with iPhone

Today, as most Saturdays are, was family day. We went for a bike ride to the park, and a picnic. I pulled Lily in the Burley, and Annie pulled Kate on a trail-a-bike. The only camera I had with me was my iPhone, so I decided to snap a few pictures. Now, how to get these pictures somewhere that someone else can see them. Email? I don’t like doing one at a time, and entering email addresses is a pain.

How about to a web site? My website. Well, if you have an eye-fi card for your camera, you can use their service with the iPhone. What the eye-fi service normally does is sends pictures from your camera through a special wi-fi memory card through your router to their site. From there they can send it back to your computer, or a web site, or both. I have a site using Gallery2 software that they support.

eye-fi-iphoneThe iPhone app works similar, but you don’t need a wireless card, you already have on in the iPhone. So, the images get sent to eye-fi’s servers, then on to my gallery. Here is the one from today

I think this is pretty cool. The interface is simple. The app displays pictures from your iPhone, and you pick the ones you want to send. You can even see other images that you sent to the service (history). The image you see here is how you select what images to upload.

Over 3G you don’t have the fastest speeds, and if your phone goes to sleep, then the transfer is interrupted, but it does a good job of resuming afterward.

I like that I don’t have to sync the phone, export from iPhoto, and then ftp the images. This is so much easier, and so much more immediate for my family scattered across the continent. The app is simple, and it works. If you have an eye-fi card for a camera, you should definitely try this app.

Just found the Hongkiat site

Posted on by

I have been looking around for inspiration for a site redesign. I have a few things going on in my head for little touches and stuff, but I still don’t have a handle on the core colors I want to go with. I was searching google for “backgrounds”, “photoshop abstracts”, and other things when I stumbled upon www.hongkiat.com.

This is a pretty cool site. It has just about everything. Well, actually, a lot of the content is an agregation of other content, so they have stuff like 40 cool abstract and background photoshop tutorials,  60 useful photoshop actions, 41 great looking free wordpress themes, and so on. There is a lot of content collected here.

There is material here on photoshop, wordpress, icons, backgrounds, and more. A lot of is is more “design” and “photo-retouching” related, but it seems like I will spend some time here looking around.