Rob and I have been online friends for quite some time now, both encouraging each other in our photography.  After contacting Rob about this project we decided to take a slightly different approach to the project.  We would select photos from the others catalogs, but we would exchange full digital files, including the raw files.  And then we would each try our hand at editing the others shot and make a print.  It added an additional aspect to the project that was pretty fun. 

I selected “Wine Barrel” from Rob’s portfolio, and to be honest it was difficult to think how I was going to try to improve on Rob’s original processing.  I didn’t do much, I slightly change some of the color toning to make it slightly more monotone, but not much, I really liked the shot how Rob processed it. 

I want to thank Rob again for making this a fun project, and for Jim for coming up with such a cool idea. 

The first photographer that I wanted to contact about this project was Nicki Steiger of mynicki.net.  Nicki is based out of Dresden, Germany.  I have been inspired by Nicki since I stumped upon his site a little over a year ago.  Nicki has quite a photographic range, his darker work first caught my eye, but he also has a lighter side, and is able to capture some incredible child portraits.   

Upon approaching Nicki, to be part of the project, he was very interested, and happy to help.  Now it was just to decided which of all his great shots was I going to ask for as a print.  It wasn’t easy, but I ended up selecting “Autumn” I love the depth of field in this shot and though it would look great printed and framed within my house. 

I want to thank Nicki again for taking part, and Jim for coming up with this great project.

Goals for 2009 

My goals for 2009, are to keep shooting, if anything shoot way more often.  I have started PhotoChallenge.org’s 2009 photo per day challenge, hopefully I will be able to keep up.  I also want to work on macro and flash photography this year.  I would like to sell one of my photographs this year, not really for the money, but to see what people like. 

If 2009 continues as 2008 finished, it is looking to be a good year.  ]]> http://markgroves.us/blog/2009/01/02/photography-favorites-of-2008-goals-for-2009/feed/ 0 http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/11/20/renting-camera-lenses-online/ http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/11/20/renting-camera-lenses-online/#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:35:09 +0000 mgroves /post/2008/11/20/Renting-Camera-Lenses-Online.aspx

For my recent photography workshop with Bryan Peterson, I needed a few extra pieces of equipment.  Renting photography equipment is something that professional photographers are pretty used to based on the little research I have done.  Many professional sports photographers and wedding photographers rent extra gear when they have a big event.  Chris Hurtt and I were discussing this, and he mentioned that during the Beijing Olympics every rental place was out of stock of just about everything.

 credit: joeltelling

How it works

Each site works slightly differently, but basically you have several choices for how long you want to rent the lens (this applies to camera bodies also).  You usually have the option to rent the equipment for 3 days, 1-3 weeks or a month.  For most amateur photographers I think would fall more into the one week category.   Most sites provide the ability to add insurance for each item you rent.  Be sure to read the clauses before you decide to rent from a specific site.  From the agreements I have read, they usually cover the cost of repairing the lens due to damage.  They do not cover in the event of a complete loss, either due to theft, or because the items is damage beyond repair. 

I do suggest getting the insurance specifically for some of the more expensive pieces of equipment, but you should talk to your credit card company, some have the coverage automatically if you rent the lens using their credit card.  The additional cost, may be worth if for the piece of mind. 

What to Rent

This is your chance to rent the lenses that you have been drooling over for years.  Just to pick an example, the Canon 300mm IS 2.8L, a $3700 lens, is $191 for a week on one rental site.  That may be an extreme lens for most applications, but just imagine the shots you will be able to get at your kids sporting event. 

More reasonably, the Canon 70-200mm f2/8L IS, a great lens is ~$1600 lens and costs $64 for a 7 day rental.  This is an example of a lens I rented.  I had always heard good things about this lens, but before I was going to drop $1600 on a lens, being able to try it for a week was really worth it.  For example, one thing I learned was that my first reaction to this lens was that is was very heavy, but after using it for several days I got used to it and think it would be a fine lens for me to own. 

 credit: delta407

Renting Online vs. Local Camera Shop

If you have a local camera shop, it is likely that they also rent lenses. Many good shops such as my local shop, Glazer’s in Seattle publish their supply on their web site.  It is always good to support your local camera store, so if you have a good shop this might also be an option for you.  A benefit to using a local shop is that you don’t have to pay for shipping charges. 

If you have can plan ahead I found that it is cheaper to rent online.  The reason I decided using LensRentals.com it was one of the only online stores that allowed you to reserve a piece of equipment for specific dates.  Most other sites allow you to reserve a lens only if it is currently available in their stock. 

My Experience

After I placed my order on LensRentals.com for the dates I requested.  I received an email confirming my order, and alerting me that I would be receiving my order via 2 day Fed-Ex, and that it would show up a day or two early but this would not change my rental dates.  I received my order on the day they provided, in a well packaged box, with plenty of foam packing.  Each lens was packed in their own lens case, along with bubble wrap.  The included directions reminded me to keep all the packing, since when I was done with my rental I would repack everything and use the provided prepaid FedEx label to return the lenses. 

It was pretty nice, I was able to use some great lenses for several days for very little outlay.  It gave me a chance to try before I buy.  So if you have a outing and feel that you are lacking a piece of equipment, or if you want to try a piece of gear before you buy, consider renting, it was a very painless experience. 

Additional Resources

PHOTODOTO: 8 Online Lens Rental Stores Compared

DPS: Where To Rent A Lens Online ]]> http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/11/20/renting-camera-lenses-online/feed/ 0 http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/11/13/bryan-peterson-oregon-workshop/ http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/11/13/bryan-peterson-oregon-workshop/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:00:00 +0000 mgroves /post/2008/11/13/Bryan-Peterson-Oregon-Workshop.aspx About a month ago I was able to take a three day photography workshop with Bryan Peterson of Understanding Exposure, Learning to See Creatively, etc, along the Oregon coast.  This was an early birthday present, that came up pretty much last minute.  I had never been on anything like this previously so I really did not know what to expect.  I had a couple of goals for the workshop.  First just get out and concentrate on my photography for a few days.  Second, push photography out of my normal comfort zone. 

Since this was my first photography workshop, I really did not know what to expect.  As Bryan mentioned in his email to me about the class, the Oregon workshop is know as the vagabond workshop, since we go where ever the light is good.

The group all met at the Portland Airport, since most people taking the workshop including Bryan and Chris Hurtt (the other instructor) were coming in from out of town.  It was a great group, we have a total of 11 people.  We all piled into two minivans, and headed to Lincoln City, OR, since the weather was going to great at the coast.  We were truly lucky on the weather front, Brian mentioned that in the last 8 Oregon workshops, they never made it to the coast due to rain.  

Getting out of my comfort zone

One of my main goals of this workshop was to learn new techniques.  Not only within the types of photographs I normally take, but push myself to try forms that I had not spent much time at.  There were several things that Brian and Chris had us work that were pretty new to me.

Shooting Macro 

I had never spent much time shooting macro photography at all.  Sure I would take my normal lens out and photograph some  flowers in the yard while the kids were playing, with varying results.  Since during this workshop you spend at least 6-7 hours per day out shooting, there is only so many landscape angles you can get. 

I rented the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens, from LensRentals.com (more on renting lens online in another post).  Shooting Macro definitely took me out of my comfort zone.  First off, seeing a shot in macro is much more difficult for me, it is something that Chris helped me work on over the weekend.  Additional there is more technical challenges to getting a great macro shot.  Most of the time I found myself laying on the ground trying to get a specific angle on a blade of dew covered grass as a light breeze is moving the blade as if it is in a hurricane.  Since your depth of field is so shallow in macro photography it helps to blast off several shots to ensure you have one that is in focus.  I have a good bit of work to do in this area, but I now have a much higher respect for good macro shots, and am interested in continuing shooting macro.  

Motion Photography

Each morning, we would usually end up on the side of the road with Bryan showing us a technique.  One area that I had never spent much time on was various ways of introducing motion into my shots.  I can’t say I took any shots I really like, but it did open my mind to ways to handle motion. 

Taking time in one spot

Another thing I learned over the weekend was that if you focus on getting shots in one location you will find thing to photograph that you never would have.  I think many amateur photographers go out to a location, take the shots that are obvious then move on to another location.  I know I have done this in the past.  Several times over the weekend we would show up a at location and shoot there until the light changed.  That could be 2-3 hours.  It is amazing what you can find to photograph if you spend 3 hours in the same location.  So I learned not to rush from one location to the next, take time and look for thing that you never thought of, chances are you are going to find a new angle on something that no other photographer has ever seen. 

Learning from others

Doing a workshop with Bryan Peterson and Chris Hurtt was amazing, it was great to be able to pick their brain on how to see creatively and get the correct exposure in various conditions.  But the other benefit of having 10 other students at the workshop was that we all had various levels of experience and were able to learn from each other. 

I am still working on processing shots from that weekend, I took over 1600 shots.  Between working on this new version of my site, work and family, I am way behind.  But the workshop was a great experience and I am hoping to publish several shots from my trip soon in the new Gallery I am setting up on my blog.  ]]> http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/11/13/bryan-peterson-oregon-workshop/feed/ 0 http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/02/05/photophlow-a-social-experience-for-flickr-photographers/ http://markgroves.us/blog/2008/02/05/photophlow-a-social-experience-for-flickr-photographers/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:02:00 +0000 mgroves /post/2008/02/05/Photophlow-A-Social-Experience-for-Flickr-Photographers.aspx Brian Auer of EpicEdits recently did a guest article on Digital Photography School about photophlow. I personally have tried it, and it is really got me excited about moving some of my photos over to Flickr. I have been using SmugMug for some time now, and I don't plan to close my SmugMug account. I feel better about having full size images that I know are being backed up on SmugMug. But Flickr is way more social, and now with photophlow you add a real-time aspect to the social that the normal flickr is missing.

Blurb from the article:

photophlow is a mixture of several concepts and existing services (a mashup of sorts). The basis of photophlow is Flickr: the photo-sharing website that is popular amongst many online photographers. photophlow uses the Flickr API to interface with Flickr users and photos. The interface is somewhat of a skin that allows for added functionality and new features. The main feature photophlow adds to the Flickr experience is the use of chat rooms and real-time interaction with the other photographers.

Brian goes into details about the interface and how he has been using the service as a way to determine which photographs makes the EpicEdits weekly PhotoDump.

As an extension of my weekly PhotoDump blog posts, I’ve been experimenting with photophlow as a means to get people involved with the photo selection process. Prior to photophlow, I had been personally selecting photos from our Flickr pool to display on the blog each week. With photophlow, I invited the people submitting photos to the pool to also select the photos that would be displayed on the blog post.

Maybe there is some value in this Web2.0 stuff after all.

P.S. I still have a few photophlow invites if you are interested. Comment or email me.

I ended up with a couple light stands, two 43″ Westcott umbrellas (one silver, one white), a Vivitar 285HV flash, and a set of the Cactus V2 remote triggers (also known as Ebay Triggers). I think I may end up getting another Vivitar or try to pickup a older Nikon flash on eBay, since I don't think my 420ex is going to do me much good off-camera. The issue with the 420ex is that it does not have a manual mode, so there is no way when you take remove it from the camera to control how much light it puts out. The thing that is great about the Vivitar 285HV's is that they are pretty cheap and fully manual.

I need a bunch of practice with this setup, and I most likely will need to pickup some type of backdrop, but I already can see a benefit to getting the flash off the camera. I took a few shots today, pretty ad-hock shots while I was playing around with getting everything working.

Here is one I took of Evelyn while Val was holding her:

Not my best shot, her left eye is out of focus, but I light how the lighting came out.

This one I like, of course I had to play around with some layer effects on this one: