Ethnic Fest 2013

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 640, adjusted

Last Saturday I took some shots at the college’s annual Ethnic Festival. I try to time the Saturday photography seminar I teach once a semester to coincide with an event like this with some good photo opportunities. This year we missed the dance groups, so photogenic moments were fewer and farther between.

The one thing I forgot from last year was that the light in the field house is deceptively bad. It looks okay to the eye, but it’s dim enough to make a camera struggle. The shot at the top of this post was far too dark straight out of the camera:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 640

And that was at a relatively slow, 60 shutter. Fortunately, fixing that particular picture was an easy level adjustment in Photoshop.

When I slowed it down further, however, the lighting got better but other problems cropped up. A 30 shutter is about as slow as I can go and not pick up camera vibration. And even then, I have to concentrate on holding the camera still. If I pay attention to my grip, I end up only with motion from the subject (though at this slow speed even that will show up in the picture):

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/30, f/5.6, ISO 1000

But if I’m not careful, the camera moves and the whole picture gets messed up:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/30, f/5.6, ISO 1000

In retrospect, I should have cranked the ISO up a bit more and found ways to adjust for the resulting graininess.

SAC Museum 2

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/25, f/2.8, ISO 1600

This shot turned out to be an interesting demonstration of lighting, transparency and reflection. I took it looking through a window into a small booth containing a training station for air crews.

As a general principle, anything lit will show up and anything dark won’t (sort of the nature of photography as a whole). When you shoot a surface such as glass that can either reflect the light from the outside world or let the light from inside pass through, you can end up with a mix like this.

The spots inside the booth that are lit up become stronger visual elements than the shadows underneath the plane behind me, which is why you can see the training station fairly well. But the spots in the booth that are dark (especially up toward the ceiling) don’t compete with the strong, reflected light from the museum’s roof.

The result is an almost surreal blend of interior and exterior light. It’s hard to get an accurate sense of space from this image. Normally I don’t care for visual “tricks,” but this one kinda works for me.

SAC Museum

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/160, f/6.3, ISO 200

Actually, this is the Strategic Air and Space Museum. But I’m used to this branch of the Air Force being called Strategic Air Command, so it feels better to me as SAC.

These shots of the SR-71 Blackbird in the main entry hall show off different lenses and different framing options. The first shot (above) is a fairly standard composition with one of my everyday use lenses. It’s at the lower end of its focal length range (18mm), so I’m getting a little distortion. But because the airplane itself is made of long, curving angles, the distortion doesn’t mess up the shot.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/160, f/6.3, ISO 100

Now I’ve switched to my other camera, where I’ve got my 10mm lens mounted. On the minus side, this isn’t as dramatic a shot of the Blackbird. On the plus side, the wider angle provides a better sense of the space in the hall. I also like the frozen motion on the kid in the right-hand side of the shot.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/160, f/6.3, ISO 100

Then by tilting up a bit I get this result. The top of this picture is actually the ceiling behind me, making for some strange perspective. I like the geometry of this image, the solid, iron-shaped roof floating in a web of thin lines.

Westheight panorama

Nikon D7000, 29mm (18-55), various shutter speeds and f-stops, ISO 200

Here’s one you really need to click on for the full effect. I’ve been playing around with Photoshop’s ability to stitch a series of photos together into a panorama. Though this result isn’t perfect (you can see some exposure inconsistencies here and there), it’s still a fun effect.

St. Pat’s parade

Nikon D7000, 92mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 320

Last Sunday Ken and I shot pictures at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Lawrence. Thanks in part to the inclement weather and in part to the lackluster parade participants, I found myself more visually interested in the crowd. In particular, some folks brought a three-legged dog who appeared to be having more fun than any of the humans in the vicinity.

Most of the parade itself was standard stuff:

Nikon D7000, 112mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/160, f/9, ISO 400

Nikon D7000, 116mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/250, f/5.3, ISO 400, cropped

Nikon D7000, 170mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped

Bee and flower

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/250, f/8, ISO 110

This shot should probably have been one of the Unblogged Favorites of 2012. I took it on the college’s nature trail during a class exercise.

For this shot I zoomed in as far as the lens would let me in order to avoid disturbing the subject. At this focal length, the depth of field is fairly narrow. The background is a complete blur, which is good because it helps focus attention on the foreground.

The Plaza

iPhone, cropped and filtered

The technique in the photo above is called “tilt shift.” By manipulating the focus of the shot, you can take an ordinary scene and transform it into something that looks like a miniature model. Though I suppose it doesn’t have a ton of practical applications, it’s still fun to play around with.

And best of all, Photoshop has a blur filter that creates the effect automatically, saving the expense and effort required to set up a lens to get the effect straight out of the camera. Indeed, I took this shot with my phone, which of course I couldn’t have attached tilt shift equipment to even if I’d had any with me.

Here’s what the undoctored photo looks like:

iPhone, cropped