Captured Light

In mid-August 2008, I went to Las Vegas with my fiancee. We went to take a break from everything going on in our lives from the wedding planning, purchasing a home, job stress and a lot of other things. Naturally, I took this as an excellent opportunity to take photos. So, as I packed my bags, I also packed my photo gear. This was the first challenge. I had quite a bit of photo equipment. I could carry them all, but it would have been really tough to move around and to bring with me in the plane since I wouldn’t ever want to check my gear in cargo. I would have to take them as carry-ons. Unfortunately, I didn’t want that either. So my only option is to cut down on my gear. So, first, I thought about what I was gonna do while in Vegas.

1. We were going to do A LOT of walking, so I need to pack light.
2. Most of our walks are going to be at night. So I had to be prepared to take a lot of night shots.
3. We were going to be inside the hotels and the buildings in Vegas. This meant a lot of indoor shots.
4. We also had a tour of Hoover Dam. This means, I needed to have a good zoom range from wide angle to ultra zoom (of course with Vibration Reduction for the ultra zoom range).
5. Naturally, I will be taking TONS of photos, so I needed to take extra memory cards and have a lot of power (ie: extra batteries).

So, there were a number of challenges. Here’s what I did:

1. Pack light
In order to pack light, I decided to take only my D40, 1 lens, my charger, memory cards, and my lens hood. I chose to leave my speedlight (together with its spare batteries and charger), tripod, extra lens, and my bigger camera bag. I attached my lens to my camera and put it in my camera bag which also had space for other stuff so I could use it as my carry-on bag. I left my battery charger in my luggage. The lens hood was attached to the lens in storage mode (attached in reverse) and I put the memory cards in a small pocket of the bag. That was it!

2. Night Shots
First of all, when taking photos at night, I don’t normally use my speedlight. I know that it sounds backwards since there is an obvious lack of natural light at night and speedlights provide artificial light. However, I found that speedlights, when used at night, don’t bring out the natural beauty of subjects at night. The images just aren’t as striking and the colors just don’t look good. Furthermore, using a speedlight illuminates your subject provided they are within range, and darkens everything else. So if you want to take a shot of someone with an awesome night time background, the speedlight would just illuminate the person and not the background. Unfortunately, a lot of cameras, in their AUTO mode would use the flash because it senses lack of light.

Now that I have that out of my chest, I will explain how I take night shots. The main thing is to allow the camera to take in as much light as it can. First, I open my aperture as wide as my lens can take. Of course, this isn’t very good if I need depth of field. but if that’s not too much of a concern, you’ll still be okay. Also, I didn’t really notice much of a problem when it came to depth of field. Second, in order to get more light, I need to open the shutter longer. So I set the shutter speed longer. The key is to not use too slow of a shutter speed since it might produce blurry images due to camera movement or subject movement. This is where vibration reduction comes in handy. Vibration Reduction allows you to take shots at a slower shutter speed without resulting in blur due to camera movement. This feature DOES NOT prevent blur due to subject movement. It only prevents blur due to camera movement. Also, vibration reduction only works up to a minimum shutter speed. Any less, and it no longer becomes effective. Also, wide angles shots don’t really need VR anyway. Finding the correct combination of aperture size and shutter speed is the challenge. Another important thing that I try to do is to minimize the ISO. On the rare occassion that I still can’t get any decent exposures with my aperture size and shutter speed, that’s when I gradually increase the ISO. The reason behind this is that the higher the ISO, the more image noise is introduced in the photo.

3. Indoor Shots
The problem with indoor shots is the absence of natural light. At the same time, there can be many lights coming from many different directions. This may work to my advantage because some of the artificial lights actually add to the beauty of the photo. Unfortunately, lights may not always be available. Therefore I am faced with the same problem as #2 with the lack of natural light. Therefore the same solution is the same as #2!

4. Focal Length Range
I have never been to Vegas before and I have never seen Hoover Dam before. So I did not know what kinds of things I would be seeing and taking photos of. I know the frustration of not being able to go closer to my subject when I need to. I also know the frustration of being at the long end of the focal range and getting blur from hand-holding (I wasn’t going to bring my tripod). Fortunately, I had my 18-200mm VR lens! With this lens, I didn’t have to switch lenses for switching between wide angle and zoom shots. Plus the VR feature allowed me to take photos at the long end of the the focal range and not get any blur Even better is the fact that I only carried this one lens! Problem solved!

5. Memory Cards and Extra Batteries
With digital cameras, we are able to take TONS of photos and store them in memory cards (unlike the film days where you were limited to only the number of rolls of film you took with you). Before going on the trip, I bought an 8GB SDHC memory card. It was cheap from Best Buy too! (lucky). This card can take up to 2500 shots on full quality (not RAW). Of course, I also carried a couple of 2GB memory cards too, just in case. I ended up not needing the other two anyway :).  The battery however is a different story. My D40 takes Nikon battery packs (EN-EL9). Therefore, I can’t just go out and buy batteries from the nearest convenience store if I ran out of power. Unfortunately, I don’t have any extra EN-EL9’s (since they’re quite pricey). So I brought my battery charger with me. On a full day’s use, a fully charged battery pack would have been more than enough for me. However, I forgot to charge my battery on our last night so I ran out of power on our last day in Vegas…..D’OH!

All in all, I was pleased with the equipment that I brought with me. Besides the battery running out, I pretty much covered all that I needed to take photos in Las Vegas. The hotels are all different and so there were tons to take photos of. There was so much to see at any time of the day, and every way I looked, there was always something photo-worthy. I liked the city of Las Vegas and I really loved the Hoover Dam tour. I took so many shots and it was nice to be able to see Las Vegas and Hoover Dam in person. I also learned a lot since everything was fast paced and if I missed it, there was probably no other chance for me to take it again (except for the Dam and the Hotels of course). Las Vegas is a fun place with so much to do and so much to see. If I were to go back, I would definitely be more prepared for the heat and all the walking. I hope to be back in Vegas some time in the future and now, I definitely have an idea of what to expect

Through the kindness of my workplace and my friends, I was able to acquire tickets to an Edmonton Eskimos Football game and an Edmonton Cracker Cats Baseball game. I had good seats as well.

Doing sports photography is pretty fun. Timing is a huge component. I pretty much had to watch 70% of the game through my viewfinder. The cool thing about sports is that there is a lot of repetition, so if I missed a moment, I can wait a bit and there’s a chance that it might happen again.

I am glad I had a good telephoto VR lens as well. I was moving quite a bit and I took a lot of my shots at 200mm. Focus control was a huge factor too. My 18-200mm lens focuses quickly. However, because of the speed of the action, and the subjects changing distances pretty fast, the autofocus kept switching. As a result, some of my initial photos were a little out of focus. I didn’t want to lock the focus either because I needed to change the focus plane and quick and then lock. The solution was the manual focus. Sports photography (especially in Football) really gave me a chance to play with manual focus and test my skills. I came out of the events feeling more confident on the use of manual focus.

What I also found is that a small depth of field is very effective in sports photography. With all the chaos in sports, using a small depth of field (wide aperture) helps to isolate the subject by blurring out everything in the background and sharpening only the ones in the focus plane. In baseball it can isolate the batter from the pitcher. Or in football, the wide receiver can be isolated from the defenders as they run to the end zone.

Many beautiful shots can be made in sports photography with the mixture and careful control of focal length, aperture, and manual focus. I learned A LOT in those few hours of sports photography and I look forward to doing more of it and learning more in the future.

I recently purchased the Gary Fong Cloud Lightsphere II for my Nikon SB-600. After reading much of the reviews and seeing many sample shots and comparisons, I decided to try it out for myself. After taking a few shots, with the Lightsphere and without the Lightsphere, I found that it really does make a difference.

What sort of bugged me before is that I had to bounce light off the ceiling or a wall to get a nice and even distribution of light. While it produced very pleasing results, sometimes, the ceiling was either too high, or there was no available wall to bounce the light. I would then use direct lighting to illuminate the scene if there was no other available light. The Gary Fong Lightsphere was my solution. It distributed light evenly. It would surround the room with light and my photos looked like I took them under natural light even under low light situations. The Cloud gave me soft lighting and softer or minimized shadows. Performance-wise, it is all that I expected. I greatly recommend this accessory to speedlight users.

On the downside, it IS a bit big. I did get a number of people asking why I attached a margarine tub to my camera. A number of people also asked me what it did and why I had it on my speedlight. I got a few giggles here and there, but after explaining its purpose, it was fine. Another thing is the weight. My SB-600 pivots and tilts. If the speedlight is angled, the weight of the Lightsphere sometimes causes it to tilt by itself. Also, its size makes the camera feel bulky as it hangs on my shoulder or neck. Lastly, I had to turn up the power on my speedlight because of the Cloud effect. This resulted in shorter battery life. But, then again, I never go out on shoots without any extra batteries, so that’s ok

Those negatives are more than negated by the difference in the photos. I like the results. It looks like I’ll be using the Lightshpere quite a bit. Highly recommended.

It’s been a while since my last post. Some would say that my blog has died, but here I am to resuscitate :)  Things have been very busy lately, and now I finally have time to go back to photography.  Anyways, here goes…

Edmonton summers are short. So people here want to enjoy it as much as possible. That’s why there are sooo many festivals and events here. As such, this is my opportunity to continue to highlight Edmonton, its people, and its culture.

I will be taking photos in most of these events.  Also, because I’m planning on participating in my first photo competition: The Nikon Annual Photo Competition. The theme this year is “At the Heart of the Image”

I’ll continue to post each of my events and try to do something new and also sharpen my current style and skills.

After my clumsy mistake described in my previous post, I went to Vistek to get my sensor looked at and to see if there can be anything done to revive my beloved camera. The girl that helped me was super nice and she showed me how to clean my sensor using a sensor brush, some methanol solution and a blower bulb. Plus she did it for me and taught me how to do it FOR FREE!

She cleaned up most of it except for the corners because she was already out of the unboxed corner swabs. I then picked up a box of corner swabs and a blower bulb (I’m never letting any compressed air get near my camera EVER AGAIN!). I went home and cleaned up the corners and then *gasp* my camera was back to tip top shape! Thanks so much for the help Vistek!

For a while there, I thought my photography days were over. It was extra painful because this camera holds a significant sentimental value for me. It was a present from my girlfriend and my sister on my graduation day. My girlfriend shared the costs for most of my equipment too! That’s why I hold photography in such high regard because it is personally fulfilling and it is highly supported by the people close to me.

I can now sleep soundly and have a big sigh of relief. My camera is back in excellent shape. I can’t wait to go out there and take photos once again!

Well, in my last post, I was struggling with the lack of photography ideas coming to my mind. On the first day of the long weekend, I went out and drove to the side of Edmonton that I don’t normally go to. First, I went to the nature paths behind the Alberta Museum and took photos there. I then went to Connors Hill and took excellent photos of Downtown Edmonton. My third stop was the Low Level Bridge. I have never taken photos of any of these areas before.

The photos turned out really well! With the excellent sunlight and the nice clear blue sky, I was able to take photos with awesome lighting and nice shadows. I’ll post those photos in my gallery soon!

I guess just going out with an open mind and the constant questioning of “what if…” worked! I kept asking, what if I stopped here and took photos, what if I laid on my belly to take these photos, or what if I just angle the camera a little this way or that way. I was very happy with my photos. Each shutter click was filled with excitement!.

Sure it was ultra hot (my car’s thermometer read 28 degrees Celsius *arrrrgh!*), but I still stayed out there in the sun!

At the end of the day, I noticed some dust on the mirror in the viewfinder. It was ok because, in all DSLR’s, the mirror can have dust from time to time, and the sensor can still be OK.

When I got home, I decided to remove my lens, and spray some compressed air into the mirror (bad idea #1). After a few quick sprays, I put the lens back and looked through the viewfinder. I saw the same dust particles on the mirror So I decided to do a few more quick sprays with the compressed air (bad idea #2). I then took a few test shots. The look of horror came when I saw dust spots in the photos themselves! That means that the dust was pushed into the sensor! NOOOOO!

All DSLR’s come with a feature to lift the mirror up so that I can get full access to the sensor. I did that and I saw the most expensive and most important part of any digital camera: the sensor. I’ve done this before. I have used my compressed air to push the dust our of the sensor. This time, though, it completely slipped from my mind that if I tip the compressed air can up or down, it will spray water out too! (MAJOR MISTAKE!). The look of horror turned to utter panic! If the water evaporates on the sensor, it’ll be tougher to remove that more than just bits of dust! My nightmare got even worse as I watched the water quickly evaporate. My heart dropped as I thought that my precious camera’s sensor got totally f***ed.

I did not give up, though. I read up on the service manuals and it turns out that there’s a filter that sits in front of the sensor. It means that the sensor is still ok (whew) but the filter’s got all this evaporated water streaks on it. I immediately grabbed a cotton swab (big mistake #4) and put some alcohol in the end (because alcohol will evaporate without streaks as stated in one of the sensor cleaning manuals I read). I gently wiped it (big mistake #5) . When I took some test shots with a wide aperture, it looked like everything was fine. There were no dust spots or anything in any of the photos. However, when I used small aperture sizes and even more in long exposures, there were tiny pieces of dust all over the photo (not a lot, but enough to make the photo look like shit). The dust was mostly concentrated in the corners and edges (probably where the swab couldn’t reach).

So, one mistake after another. I guess what’s left to be done is to take it in to McBain camera and have them clean it for me

I hope it’s still clean-able. I really hope so. I don’t care if the cleaning is a little on the expensive side…as long as it gets cleaned.

*sigh*…just when I got my shutter groove back, this happens. Oh well…

I guess this is a lesson to hobby photographers…DON’T USE COMPRESSED AIR TO BLOW DUST OFF THE SENSOR!!!!!

It’s been a while since I had a post on my blog. I guess it’s been work that’s keeping me busy, or I just couldn’t find the time to take any photos. These past few weeks have been learning about myself, where I am right now, and where I am headed. What little time I’ve had for myself, I have spent sleeping.

It is now May 16, and in Canada, it’s the Victoria Day long weekend. I have been looking forward to this weekend. All week I have been thinking about where I’m going to go, or what kinds of photos I’m going to take. At the same time, all week, I could come up with nothing. And now the long weekend is here! The weather is great, I’m in a great mood, but I just can’t seem to come up with any ideas.

I keep saying “I wish I could go to ______ and take photos there…” (fill in any location that’s not Edmonton). However, I believe that location should not be a hindrance to taking photos. So, even if I couldn’t think of something, I’m still really feeling it. I feel like if I just get out there, something might come to mind.

I read somewhere that a lot of photography ideas are not planned. They mostly come at the moment you’re there. So, I’m gonna go.

I started taking photographs because I love viewing things from a different perspective and to express what’s going on in my mind. Since I started, my emotions and my feelings have driven my photographs. My imagination is triggered by whatever I am feeling. From there, I transfer what I envision in my mind into photographs. Until I am able to transfer whatever I imagine into a photograph, I do not stop taking pictures. Such feelings are the driving forces for my passion of photography.

Lately, however, I have sort of deviated away from my original motivation. Upon reading a couple of my blog posts before this, one will notice that I have shifted from the art of photography to the more technical side. This is a hole that I have found myself in before. I found myself blaming my equipment for the quality of my photographs. Such thinking is somewhat justified. However, such thinking is still an incorrect way of viewing the art. As in my previous post, it is the photographer and not the camera that makes the shots.

I initially bought my 18-200mm VR lens to provide me with more flexibility and to help me take photos will less difficulty. As I said before, the equipment provides a great deal of convenience to the photographer and should not be viewed as the provider of vision and imagination. I took photos to take advantage of the new features. I was very happy with the new amount of flexibility and photo opportunities that I have gained with this new piece of equipment. In the midst of my excitement, I found myself worrying a lot about the technical details like the focal length, the vibration reduction, the aperture size, the shutter speed, etc, etc, etc… I paid so much attention to the new piece of equipment that I did not pay much attention to what was seen through the lens. My shots were cliche’s and I didn’t feel the same tingle in my shutter finger and the excitement that I used to feel after every shot. I’m talking about the feeling inside telling me that “I like that shot”.

I think it’s good that I catch myself in such a state before I fall into it any further. The next time I go out with my camera and my new lens, I will go out with a different mind - such a mind that will move me and trigger my imagination like before. The functions of my camera and the photography techniques I learned will be kept in my mind’s utility storage and will come up more as an instinct than a main thought. My eyes will wander and my mind will be open to imagine and create.

I am a hobby photographer. An amateur? Yes, but I hope to get to the point where the technical details are just an aside and the main focus of every shutter click is the image created from my mind and the expression of who I am. I take photographs because I feel complete, I feel alive, and I feel confirmed by photography. I am motivated and driven by my passion for the art, and not the numbers, statistics, money, or the equipment that, unfortunately, are more important to other people.

I have been taking my photographs with the 18-55mm lens that came with my Nikon D40 for a while now. For most of my usage, it has worked well and always gave me clear shots. However, from time to time, and more often lately, I found myself taking photos in low-light situations. In such instances, I was forced to go with slow shutter speeds and a higher ISO. I was disappointed with the noise and the motion blur that I got in my shots. There were also times when I needed to get close, but my lens couldn’t get any closer.

It was then that I thought that I needed a new lens. One that would allow me to get close while also allowing me to switch to my wide angle end of 18mm without having to switch to a different lens, and also one that would allow me to take shots at slower shutter speeds while avoiding or minimizing motion blur. For a while now, I have had my mind on the Nikon AF-S 18-200mm VR lens. This lens seemed to solve the problems I was having.

I read the reviews and the technical details on the lens. Many people that have the lens have testified to its quality and utility. The review by Ken Rockwell was very detailed and helped me a lot in deciding whether it was worth getting. The lens was not very cheap, so I had to take some time to save up for it. A few days ago, I picked it up from McBain Camera (who gave a good sale price for me ). They had a sample that was mounted on a D40 body - the same setup that I would have if I bought the lens. I was able to try out the VR and the nice zoom that it provided. I was ready to pick it up before I walked into the store, but seeing it in action on the same setup that I would have was icing on the cake.

When I got home, I took out my D40 with its mounted 18-55mm lens. I removed the lens and held it my hand. I then picked up my new lens. The first thing I noticed is that it was considerably heavier than my kit lens. My kit lens suddenly felt really light. I also noticed that the body of the 18-200mm lens was a lot more solid and felt metallic compared to the plastic body of the 18-55mm. The 18-200mm was also a lot more solid and not clunky like the 18-55mm.

After mounting my new lens. I took off the lens cap. Whoo that’s a huge lens. It was 72mm in diameter compared to the 52mm of my old lens. Holding my D40 with the 18-200mm mounted on it, it felt like the lens was heavier than the body! I guess it makes sense because of the glass lenses and the amount of metallic mechanical moving parts in there (most of which I read about in the tech specs which can be found all over the net). Looking through the viewfinder, I turned the zoom ring and out went the lens. I had a grin on my face as I looked through the viewfinder and was able to see closer than I could before. The zoom ring was firm, unlike the lenses that had lens creep in the reviews that I read. The lens did not extend or retract under it weight, so it was good The focusing was quick, although, it seemed a little louder than my 18-55mm. I particularly liked the Manual/Auto focus option where I could manually focus without having to flip a switch. I then tried out the vibration reduction. I took a few shots under low light with a 1/30 shutter speed. No blur. I incrementally took shots while switching it slower and slower and there was no blur until I got to 1/4 when I saw small hints of motion blur. My old lens would have shown motion blur at around 1/20 or 1/15. So I can say that I was greatly impressed. Now, I know that my tests weren’t very technical and not as detailed as the other ones on the net, but from what I found in my first few minutes with the lens, I LOVE IT ALREADY!

The next day, I took it for a field test at Hawrelak Park here in Edmonton, Alberta. I normally carry my tripod around with me, but I resisted this time I went out at sunset so that I could take shots with a good amount of light and then have low light when the sun has gone down. While the sun was up and there was a lot of good lighting, I tested my zoom and the VR. I took shots of some ducks and birds - undisturbed - because I didn’t need to get close to them if I used my zoom. The zoom was excellent. I took photos of the lake using the wide angle end as well. That also turned out great. There were people on racing bicycles going around the park so my girlfriend and I drove around with them while taking their photos. The park roads were bumpy, but there was no blur. We had the VR turned on and in active mode. The final test was in low light. When the sun went down, I took photos of the North Saskatchewan River with a shutter speed of 1/6. All the shots were taken with just handholding and they turned out great.

I understand that there are some flaws with this lens as well. Those include the distortions in the low end and the high end of the focal range. It has not been much of a concern for me and it has not manifested much in my photos so far.

Overall, I think it was an excellent choice, and I would definitely recommend this lens. It has an excellent focal range and the VR totally makes it worth getting. I look forward to taking my shots with it from now on. I don’t think I’ll be unmounting anytime soon…maybe until I get a 10-20mm wide angle lens

Recently, I was asked to take photographs for the Saranay group, a Philippine cultural group in Edmonton. Their group performs in events like commemoration events, concerts, and fund raisers. I was asked to become their official photographer. I would be at their events and take photographs of their performers and their performances.

I went to my first event on Friday night March 28, 2008. The event was a fund raiser for Changing Together: A Center for Immigrant Women. Their presentation covered issues like Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, Mail-Order Brides, and Bullying. Among the performers were performers from the Saranay group, students from the University of Alberta, and people from the Changing Together group.

I brought all my equipment:

1. Camera
2. 18-55 mm lens (my only lens)
3. Speedlight
4. Tripod
5. Extra batteries
6. Extra memory cards

The location was a well-lit hall with a 3.5 to 4 foot high stage. When I went in, I was glad to see that it was very well-lit when all the lights are turned on. I walked around the seats and tried to pick my spots. I then took out my camera and took some test shots. I had a pretty good angle from the left and right of the stage. However, the middle spot was a bit of a challenge since I didn’t want to block any of the audience’s views by being in front. So I had two spots from the central view. One was in front of the stage but I had to keep my angle low so I don’t ruin anyone’s view. The other was on the far side of the hall with a decent view of the entire stage.

What I did not realize until later was that all those lights that kept the hall well-lit were turned off when the performance started. The only light I had to work with was the stage lighting. I didn’t want to use my speedlight too much because I didn’t want to interfere with the performers and the audience.

In addition to the lack of light, the performers were quite active as well. Therefore, a slow shutter speed would cause blurred images. So, in an attempt to minimize blur while capturing as much light as I could, and after trying different settings and combinations, I used shutter speeds between 1/15 and 1/30, aperture at F5.0, and sensitivity to ISO1000. I did not want to push it to ISO1000 and use such slow shutter speeds, but I had no choice because of the limitation in light. Also, because I needed to be almost unseen to the performers and the audience, I had to take my photos at a certain distance. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get as close as I wanted because my lens maxes out at 55mm

Nevertheless, I still took my photos. I was able to take some good shots. However, some of my shots had either blur, or a lot of noise in the dark areas of the photos. The stage lighting was really hard to work with. I guess I was lucky that the lights are static and not those controlled lights. Having my camera hand-held a lot of the time, I did get a bit of camera shake as well with the long focal length and the slow shutter.

I did the best I could with the equipment that I had. However, I wish I had the 18-200mm lens with VR (vibration reduction). That would have allowed me to get closer shots of the performers with the longer focal length, and had less shake and blur with the VR technology. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait until I save up for it (the lens is $800 bucks!).

Overall, I had a lot of fun for my first time with event photography. I learned a lot about my equipment, their limitations, as well as my skills and what I need to work on in terms of my technique and methods of taking photos. I am very grateful and thankful for the opportunity that the Saranay group has given me and I hope to be better prepared and perform better in future events.