Red Rock Canyon National Park
During the Consumer Electronics Show this year I decided to take an afternoon away from all the craziness. I rented a car and headed out to the beautiful Red Rock Canyon National Park.
I only had my Sony NEX-7 because I didn't feel like carrying too many cameras. I got there just before sunset and snagged a series of photos using my new Sony 10-18mm wide-angle lens.
I'll try to post a few of my favorite shots over the next few days.
I'm out here at CES 2013 and anxious to see all the consumer camera announcements. First up: Polaroid with some Android based cameras. I've played with other Android cameras before and I haven't been impressed. I'm not sure I need a browser on my camera. But these new Polaroids are interesting. It's nicely called the iM1836. It just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?
It has an 18.1-megapixel, 1080p video-capable mirrorless body with Android 4.1. One of the nice features lets you share images over WiFi and with other devices through Bluetooth, a nice feature which will let you edit photos on a tablet while on the go.
The biggest wow for me is the price: $399, with a 10-30mm lens included. Take that Nikon!
I am so excited that my new 50mm lens from Sony just arrived! I cannot wait to get out and start playing with it. I had been using a 50mm lens for my Canon D Mark II but it was time for upgrade.
If you ever get a chance to visit Germany you must head to the southern part of the country. The little town of Füssen sits at the base of mountains on the border next to Austria. I ran down the hill to get to this amazing lake just as the sun was setting.
I took three exposures and I really should have lowered the ISO and kept the shutter open for much longer than I did. This was my first real photo trip and I'm somewhat happy with the photos I took there. For many of my landscape shots I wish that I had set my aperture to a higher f-stop to really bring out the clarity in the distant trees. Live and learn!
Sunset at a lake in Füssen, Germany.
Photographing people in the snow is hard to do, or so I've always heard. It's partially true because there are new variables thrown into the mix: cold weather, stark white light, just to name a few. But it's actually not that hard to grab some great portraits in these conditions. In fact some of my favorite photos usually involve a snow covered tree, a cute face, and a nice scarf.
Here are five tips to photograph people in the snow:
1. Don't be afraid to shoot a subject against a white backdrop. I've always been worried about white because it can blow out the camera. I mean I work in television and its always been a rule that you never wear white on camera unless you have a suit coat overtop. It turns out that if the snow is evenly lit you can use it as a nice backdrop to bring out the kids' faces. Again, it has to be evenly lit because the eye will be drawn to the most blown out part of the photo.
2. Use colorful clothing to draw attention to the faces. With such a stark background you'll want hats, coats, and mittens to keep it interesting.
3. Shoot some action shots as the sun is going down. The late afternoon glow helps warm the scene and provides a nice golden contrast to the white ground.
4. Try to choose overcast skies. The light from the gloomy day will reflect nicely off the snow.
Exposing for the snow. I found that by hitting my exposure compensation button you can help mitigate some of the bright white snow. Usually just pushing it up to +1 will do the trick. Although in some situations +2.
5. That blue hue. Look I'm a fan of photos that look like the real world, and if you've ever been around snow you know everything takes on a blue hue. Without firing off a real flash go ahead and try the 'flash' setting in your favorite post processing program. For instance I used Lightroom 4's flash filter in the portrait photos featured here.
Sometimes I get too bogged down in aperture, shutter speed, and ISO that I forget photography is all about fun. At least for me it is! That's why I decided to start reviewing some fun photo apps and programs that I've been using just to pass the time.
I wanted something that my kids and I could play with while I had an iOS device in my hands. Anytime a child can see themselves on the screen they get really excited. That's how I discovered PopBooth for iOS while digging through the App Store.
PopBooth lets you use the front facing camera to snap multiple photos in a sequence like you would at one of those old kissing booths at a boardwalk carnival. Not that I would know anything about that of course. The interface is clean and easy to use. Once you tap the camera button you get a countdown clock before it starts snapping a series of four photographs. There's a white bracket safe area to let you know where to align your faces.
Once your photos are done you can add a series of filters like black-and-white, vintage, and some funky colors. You can also complete some in app purchases to buy more. For $1.99 you can send your PopBooth photo as a postcard to a loved one.
The sharing features are one of the downsides of this application. I found it a little confusing. It's not immediately obvious that your photos are saving to your camera roll as there is no button that lets you do this. Once I exited the app to check my camera roll I found my photographs were saved there. You have the option to share to Facebook, Twitter or email. If you decline to share to any of those and you hit the share button the photo automatically saves to your camera roll.
My other criticism is not being able to edit the comment accompanying your photo when it's shared to the social networks. Once I shared my photo to Facebook it comes complete with a stock comment that I wasn't able to edit.
Minor gripes aside I'm really enjoying this application. And so is my daughter! It's free so grab it today in the App Store here.
