Latino Festival

Here's another shot of the Latino Festival that I shot on Saturday. It was very hot, but a great crowd and everyone was having a great time. This is held each summer as an outreach to the Latino community by our local community college. It also gives us the opportunity to learn about the culture, enjoy the food, and to share a day of fun.

This is a shot of a group of dancers. You just have to love all the colors--the flags, the dresses, the sky... Shot at ISO 250, f5.6, 1/500 sec using an 18-135 Nikon AFS lens. More to come.

Adios...

Latino Festival: First Look

I had the opportunity to shoot my college's Latino Festival today. While I don't have time to post much tonight, here is one shot to give you an idea of the colorful subject matter that I had to work with. Enjoy!

Shot at ISO 250, f5.6, and 1/250 sec.

I will pay attention to my shutter speed. I will pay attention to my...

Remember back in school when you goofed and your teacher made you "write sentences"? Whether it was, "I will not chew gum in class." or "I will not pull Sally Lou's hair.", the combination of punishment and repetition was supposed to help us to remember to avoid doing that wrong again. I've come to realize that maybe I need to be "writing sentences" to remember to pay attention to what I am doing. Here's the problem...I've become accustomed to using the camera's meter to make adjustments to the shutter speed while looking through the viewfinder. While it's good to be able to make adjustments on the fly, with the camera up to my eye, I have found that I sometimes do not pay attention to the shutter speed setting, but only turn the wheel in the appropriate direction to increase or decrease.

Though I won't be writing sentences, I will work on paying attention to the current shutter speed as I make changes. The photos you see here were taken yesterday afternoon as my wife was watering the flowers. The first was shot at ISO 320, f5.6, 1/20 sec. I used a Quantaray 70-300 macro and shot from a tripod.

The second was shot in the same manner, only with a shutter speed of 1/15. Both were imported directly into Lightroom 3 Beta 2, converted from raw to JPEG. No further adjustments were made.

Speaking of Lightroom 3, I have ordered mine but have not yet received it. I hope it arrives before the end of the month when the beta expires.

I'm shooting an event for my employer tomorrow so look for Latino Festival photos in the next few days. This is the third year that I have shot this festival, but the first time that will shoot it in Manual mode. Though I do not look forward to the scorching heat, I am looking forward to photographing all the bright faces and colorful costumes.

Until next time...Adios!

Shooting in Low Light

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to shoot a production of our local children's theatre group. While the kids did a great job writing, directing, performing, and producing the play, their budget was limited and lighting was less than optimal. So I took my spot on the balcony and did the best I could do with what I had to work with.

I used my Nikon 80-200 f2.8 lens and shot handheld with my D300. This particular picture was shot at ISO 2000 (that's really pushing the limits of my D300), f3.2 with a shutter speed of 1/160 sec. With that big, heavy (metal) lens, that's about the slowest shutter speed I could use and still get a clear shot. While I certainly won't be making sofa-size enlargements of these shots, I came out with several usable shots and got some good experience in shooting in very low light. 

Until next time...

Handheld HDR?

Here's another quick post with a photo I took of a line of police motorcycles in Times Square. This is an HDR taken handheld by holding the camera at waist level. I took five shots but only used four (original, one above and two below) on this top shot.

I have another shot that is a little brighter (using two above and two below), but I think this one better shows that it is completely dark (after midnight). The lighter one is a little might be a little over the top. While I like HDRs, I am not a big fan of the super bright shots that look more like a painting than a photo. Oh well, I'll include the other one and let you decide.

Later...MK