Full Frame Photography Portfolio Launched

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A week or so ago, I saw that Scott Kelby had launched a new portfolio with a full screen flash gallery. I thought it looked pretty sweet, but I wanted to have a go at getting a similar, but not the same look using Javascript, not Flash. I think it turned out pretty well. You can see the portfolio here. The Javascript works pretty well. You can’t however take over the entire screen, but the images will fill the browser.

I intend to detail how it works, and provide something for you to download if you want to use it, but that will have to wait a day or two. Check back, I will share.

Upgrading WordPress and MySql on 1and1

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Upgrading WordPress is trivial now. I wanted to upgrade from 2.8 to 2.9, so I went to my dashboard and pressed the “Please update now” link. I got a few warnings, a message to make sure I did a backup first, and then finally a button I could press to do the upgrade.

Only it didn’t work. WordPress 2.9 needs MySql 5.0 or higher. Crap. I had a 4.something MySql version. I went to the 1and1 control panel. No way to upgrade. No way migrate. S.O.L. When I had created my blog and the database for it, which didn’t seem like all that long ago, the default on 1and1 was to create a 4.x database. Now I was in trouble.

Hey, no problem I thought. I was told to do a backup before the upgrade, and I had done that. I used the phpMyAdmin tool to do the backup, I could do a restore to a new 5.x table the same way, right? Not exactly. I had a LOT of data in my database. 1and1 will only let you import 2meg. I had 4 times that. I needed to reduce some data.

I know, compression! First I tried to do the data dump with zip compression. Then I found out that the import tool didn’t support it. Sheesh. Then I tried the gzip compression. For me, this resulted in exactly the same file size. This wasn’t working at all. I just need to get rid of some data. Continue reading →

What is the first lens I should buy?

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Well, first go read this post, and if you just bought your camera, I will try to talk you out of buying anything.

 Ok, if you are sure you need another lens, then you need to think about what you need a lens for. I am assuming that you are looking to replace the kit lens that came with your camera. Most of the time, that lens is around an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. (In this post I will be talking Nikon, but Canon has lenses that are very similar.)

So, why do you want a lens? Other than that glass is cool. Are you wanting more reach, to get images of birds in the trees? Are you wanting to take pictures of kids in low light? Would an external flash be better? Would you like something with a zoom, or something with a fixed focal length? Do you have $300, or $3000? Do you know what f/3.5-5.6 means?

You need to be able to answer those questions to make a truly informed decision. Reading the Digital Photography Book (post) by Scott Kelby would help with this too.

Ok, lets take a look at some reasonable (for photography) options.

Nilkon 50mm f/1.8

Nilkon 50mm f/1.8

If you are looking for some “fast glass”, the traditional recomendation is the “nifty fifty.” Fast glass, or a fast lens, is a lens that has a very large minimum aperture size. This refers to a small aperture number, such as f/2.8, or f/1.4. The kit lenses are usually of a variable aperture, meaning they are not constant through out the zoom range. Zoom lenses are usually more expensive to make in a constant aperture, so most people look to get a fast lens with a single focal length. What does this do for us? By “opening up” the lens to a wide aperture, you let in more light, so the shutter speed can be faster when taking available light pictures. Also, your depth of field gets smaller, meaning that the area in the photo that is in-focus is smaller. This can be good and bad depending on the picture¬† you are taking.¬†

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S

The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 that most people call the “nifty fifty” has been a staple of most photographers, and the price hovered around $120 – $150 depending on where you get it. (amazon) There are a couple of issues with this lens though. First of all, your camera may not work with it. Cameras like the D40, and D3000 do not have a traditional motor drive in the camera body. This means that autofocus will not work with the nifty fifty. I used this 50mm lens manually focusing on a D40 for quite some time. Worked great for flowers, not for kids. You need a AF-S lens in Nikon terms to get auto focus. That means that the lens its self has a motor in it. But, it makes the lens more expensive. Amazon has this version for about $440.¬†

Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AF-S
Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AF-S

Problem #2. The 50mm lens is a great lens. It used to be called the “standard lens” and many film era cameras shipped with just this lens (a 50mm). So what’s the problem? Sensor size. If you want to use your new “fast glass” to take pictures indoors without flash, the 50mm¬†can be too long a focal length. You might want to consider the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S instead. (amazon) ¬†On most digital cameras, the sensor is smaller than a film negative. This makes lenses appear to have a longer focal length, and why the 35mm works better indoors. 35mm x 1.5 = 52.5mm on a APS-C “crop sensor”. (I am not going to get into this anymore today, but there are lots of places to read about this,¬†like¬†here)¬†The good news is that the 35mm lens is cheaper. Amazon has it for about $200.

Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

How about if you want to make small, or far away subjects look bigger in the viewfinder? A longer zoom? Or move your feet. Seriously. Many shots can be taken by simply getting closer to your subject. Also, telephoto lenses are not just for “making things bigger”. They also compress the scene. They make the background and the foreground appear closer together. For birds and¬†other critters, you may not be able to get close enough with your feet. If you want a telephoto, you are looking at getting something that zooms to 200 or 300 in a variable aperture, or you are spending really big money.

Some of  you may already have this lens, the Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 AF-S VR. (amazon) Sometimes this lens is bundled in a two lens kit with some cameras. This lens is only $200 Р$250, and for a lens of this price, is really quite good. The VR (vibration reduction) helps to reduce hand shakyness, especially at slower shutter speeds. This was my first lens purchase, and one that I found useful.

What about macro? Fixed focal length zooms? Wide angle? All in one zooms? Take it slow. Learn your camera and the lens you have. See how close¬† you can get with your lens. You can get fairly close “macro-ish” shots with a kit lens. Move your feet and get closer to subjects. The 18mm of most kit lenses is reasonably wide. Learn how to use that. That said, I will tackle some of these options in another post soon.

Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR

Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR

If you want a little bit more reach, a sharper image, and have some extra money, the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G AF-S VR is considered a very¬†good lens for the money. You can find this item for less than $500. (amazon) ¬†At $500 the cost is getting more expensive, but is still reasonable in the world of camera lenses. I don’t own this lens, but many people I respect have and like this lens.

 

Happy Shooting.

What is the first Digital Photography Book I should get?

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Tdigital photography bookhe first book you should read is your manual. I know, I know, that is not what you wanted to hear. But you really do need to read your manual to understand what your camera can do.

What’s after that? What is the first Digital Photogarphy Book you should get? I would suggest, funny enough, the Digital Photography Book, by Scott Kelby. After that, check out the book page here on my blog.

Why did I suggest that book? For one thing, you don’t need a DSLR to do lots of the stuff in this book. It is easy to read, and written with quite a bit of humor. What Scott says, is that he is trying to explain things to you as if you were a shooting buddy that went out shooting with him. Kelby himself says in the book, that this is not the most technical of books, and if you want more detail, you will need to find another book. What you will get are simple recipes and instructions on how to do certain types of photography, and how to get certain types of shots.

You will also get introduced to some new equipment. Do you have to buy it? No, but some things do require some extra gear to get the best results. Photography isn’t a cheap hobby, but make sure that what gear you buy will be worth it for you.

There are two other volumes in this series. They get more advanced and more in depth with each volume. You will get more into flash photography, and using some other gear. Start with the first volume. It will give you a good exposure to what you might want to do with photography, and what gear you might put on your wish list.

You got a DSLR for Christmas. Now what do I buy?

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Nikon 3000New Shooter: Hey photo guru, I just got a new XBR-43 Mega Ulta Canikon DSLR for Christmas. My first few test shots don’t quite look the same as the ones I see in magazines and online so, what else do I need to buy?

Photo Guru: Nothing.

New Shooter: Uh. Come again?

Photo Guru: Nothing.

New Shooter: Well, it is obvious that you don’t work for a camera store…

Photo Guru: Gear is good, vision is better.

New Shooter: Yea, ok, whatever. So did I get the wrong camera? Your pictures look much better. You must have a better camera.

Photo Guru: Have you looked on flickr or contest by lines to see what camera was used to shoot the photos you like?

New Shooter: No, but I am pretty sure they have awesome cameras.

Photo Guru: They do. Canon Powershots, Canon Digital Rebels, and iPhones. (flickr camera stats)

New Shooter: What? I am sure my camera cost more than those camera’s did!

Photo Guru: Gear is good, vision is better.

New Shooter: That’s the second time you said that, and it still doesn’t make any sense.

Photo Guru: Your camera’s a tool you use to take pictures. You still need to know how to use your tools. That said, even the best carpenter with the best tools can’t build an amazing chair if they have no vision of what they want that chair to look like.

New Shooter: My camera is a tool? I thought I just point and shoot?

Photo Guru: You can. If you are happy with those pictures, then be happy with those pictures, but there must be some reason you thought you wanted a DSLR. If it was just because you thought that you would get better pictures, then learn to make better pictures with a point and shoot camera.

New Shooter: But don’t you need a certain level of camera to take great pictures?

Photo Guru: Check out thebestcamera.com. Those pictures were all taken with an iPhone. Lots of these pictures are really great. But notice, there are no pictures of high speed sports action in low light with the athletes perfectly sharp. If that’s what you are looking for, you will need a certain level of equipment that the iPhone can’t handle. But there is an endless amount of creative possibilities that you can try with what ever equipment you have.

New Shooter: Well, what can I do with my camera?

Photo Guru: Learn what you have. That goes to the heart of why I said “Buy nothing.” You need to shoot, shoot, and shoot some more with the gear you have. You need to learn what happens at small and large apertures, fast and slow shutter speeds, high and low ISO’s. You need to shoot in bright light and low light. You need to learn what all the buttons on your camera do. You need to know what types of images you get from the lens that came with your camera at 18mm and 55mm, or what ever extremes your kit lens does.

New Shooter: I thought this “tool” as you call it was a little smarter than you make it out to be. You seem to be suggesting that I have a lot of learning and work to do to take pictures with this camera.

Photo Guru: That depends. Again, what I said earlier, if you have happy with the pictures you take in auto mode, you are done. Be happy. If instead you look at those pictures and say, “There’s something not quite how I want it…” then you have some work to do.

New Shooter: Ok, I am getting kind of overwhelmed by all these buttons and terms. I can’t learn everything at once.

Photo Guru: You don’t have to. Just take pictures. Then read the manual. Every weekend pick a new feature to explore. It will come. Before long you know a lot of stuff.

New Shooter: Ok, I will go work with the tools I have, but where does this vision thing come in?

Photo Guru: That is much harder, and I recommend you don’t worry to much about it at first. You need to have your tools down pretty well before you can envision an image in your mind and then try to get it in the camera. It takes even more shooting to be able to impart a vision into an image that you want someone else looking at your pictures to see. If you want to explore vision more, check out the pixelatedimage blog by David duChemin. He has some great ebooks he sells, and a great book on vision: Within the Frame. I stole his phrase “Gear is good, Vision is better” too.

New Shooter: Ok, if vision is getting ahead of myself a bit, is there something other than a camera manual I can read?

Photo Guru: You can check out this book page on my blog. It lists the books I have read and reviewed, and the ones I have on my list to read.

New Shooter: Alright. I’ll check those out. I try to read that manual too. Ok, see you later… I have to go shoot!

Photo Guru: That’s the spirit. Good luck, and have fun!

Read it later is great iPhone app/Firefox plugin combo

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read it later firefox pluginI came across what I¬† think is a great concept. Read it later works a little like temporary bookmarking. The idea is that you will have articles that you come across that you want to look at again, but don’t want to hold in your bookmarks to come back to again and again. These “read once” items can get lost in your book marks too.

Read it later comes as a plug-in for Firefox,which I am using, and an iPhone app. They indicate on the website they have options for IE, Safari, and other mobile devices too. The Firefox plug-in works great. There is a small button to the right of the RSS and Favorite icons up in the search bar that you can use to add pages to your list. There is another small arrow to the right of the search entry that allows you to access your items. The plug-in displays an icon, title, and short description so it is easy to see what you have saved.

A great feature is that you can create an online account. With this account, your items are synced immediately across whatever browsers you have the plug-in installed in. This is great to allow you to “send something home” for example to read later.

readItLaterThe iPhone app is needed because you can’t add a plug-in to mobile safari. You can add a javascript based Bookmarklet, which allows you to mark items you find in safari to be added to your read later list. You need the app to took at and read the items you have marked and would like to read on your iPhone. The app lets you read and manage all the items you have saved to your list. The free version seems to do what I want: let me read the items, and rotate the screen. You will have to check their site for what extra the paid version does.

What I like is the way to get items to my desktop. When I follow along in twitter, I keep finding people linking to sites that have flash, that I can’t see, or a resource I want to download on my desktop. What I used to do, is copy a url and then email it to myself. Painful. This is much better. On a page in Safari, I press the bookmarks icon, then the Read it later bookmarklet. The item is saved. You can even edit the title and give it keywords if you wanted.¬† Then when I get home, I have simple access to these items in Firefox via the plug-in.

Press the arrow on the right of the tool bar, and there’s the list. Select, read, then mark the item as read, and it dissapears off the list. It really only goes the the archive, and you can retrieve items from the archive if you want to. Pretty slick.

I am using the app as a web reading to-do list, and a way to get content from my iPhone to my desktop. Works great for me. Check out Read it later.

Visionmongers Book Review

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visionmongers book coverThe title: Visionmongers, Making a Life and a Living in Photography is a perfect title. It was written by David duChemin who writes the pixelatedimage blog. He also wrote the book “Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision“. (See also this “interview” I did with him after reading Within the Frame.)

This book is a blend of the two. David is very clear in this book that if what you want is to make a living in photography, he wants to help you find out how to make a life in photography. There is a difference. You need to find a way to do something that you enjoy, find a balance between work and family, and find a way to feed your family.

If you are thinking of leaving “your day job”, or have recently jumped ship, or are starting to make some money from photography, this book is for you. In fact, if you are a working photographer, and feeling frustrated, this is also probably a good read for you.

So how does David DuChemin tell you how to make a life in photography in Visionmongers? He scares the shit out you. Seriously. I put the book down several times to go shoot instead of read. I kept thinking “Am I really good enough?” (Which is something that he addresses.) I think this was somewhat his intention. David follows a thin line (successfully I think) where he tries to make sure you understand just what you would be getting into. This is not an easy road. This is not a glamorous job. This is not a two hours a day job. This is hard work. Damn, I gave away the killer secret in the book already. Oh well.

David doesn’t want to scare you out of the life of a photographer. He is not afraid of anyone taking his job. He has made is own job. That’s a big theme in this book: making your own job. He just wants to make sure you really want to do this.

So after getting shocked a couple of times, and trying to take a real look at who you are, what your photography is like, and where you want to go, if you are still reading, David is back to all smiles. Back to giving honest, practical information, and concrete ideas about how you can get going as a full time paid photographer. (Ok, the whole book is refreshingly honest, but the second part isn’t as scary 🙂

There is a ton of information in here that while very relevant to photographers, isn’t really about photography:

  • Understanding what you are good at, and what your market wants
  • Learning how to serve your customers and exceed expectations
  • Basic marketing (logo, business cards, website)
  • Importance of contracts and insurance
  • Understanding finances (assets, liabilities, debt, pricing)

You aren’t going to be reading this book to learn what you should be shooting. Look to “Within the Frame” for that. You are reading this book because you want to know exactly how to make the transition from amateur to professional. You get the answer. You get the answer from several people in fact: Chase Jarvis, Gavin Gough, Zack Arias, and some others. David and the others all say the same thing:

  • Be good at what you do (taking pictures with vision)
  • Find a market to serve (while doing what you love)
  • Work really really hard

No silver¬† bullets here, but there is sound information you can apply in your own journey. As someone who wants to make the transition, I think this book succeeds in preparing one for the journey ahead, and in providing some great “1st step” marketing business advice. David mentions some other books in this one as follow ups for some of the business and marketing ideas that he has presented too. Who knows they might end up getting reviewed here.

Anyway, if you fit the criteria I mentioned at the top, of a photographer that wants to transition to paid work, part or full time, or a beginning photographer that wants some more business advice, then this is a must read.