Category Archives: General

onONe Photography – Focal Point

Oct
16
2011
by Jessy | 0 Comments

I participated in a photo contest recently that was based on using onOne Photography suite.  onOne has add-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom so that you can make all edits at once.  My favorite at this point has to be the “focal point” add-in.

This image specifically uses the focus add-in.  The entire image was in focus and it made nothing appear different or attractive about the image.  The image actually seems rather boring.

red plymouth in focus

 

 

The image below is done using onOne Focal Point.  This added oval focus areas on the grill with extreme feathering on the edges.  The focus put only on the front and grill of the old plymouth with everything else out of focus adds the much needed abstractions in the photo.  The image now has something that draws your eye to focus on an area of the image.

Red Plymouth onOne

 

 

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Photography Equipment Rental

Oct
15
2011
by Jessy | 1 Comment

Have you ever really wanted to try a lens before you purchased?  Or maybe you have a photo shoot or a vacation that particular lens would be great for but you don’t want to make the investment yet.

When things like this come up I know many people go to lens rental sites to rent camas, lenses, and other equiment.  The main place that I have heard of is LensRentals.com as they seem to have the most availability as well as the nicest site.   There are a few others out there as well such as BorrowLenses.com, TheLensDepot.com, and CameraLensRentals.  These sites allow for day(s), week, and month rentals of equipment to fit your needs.  Granted the prices go up the longer you rent but what else would you expect?

I beging to question at what point you purchase rather than rent though.  There are several lenses and cameras that if you have them for 1 week, and rent multiple times, one would be close to purchasing.  Are there particular reasons to rent rather than purchase?  At what point do you determine to purchase rather than rent?

For now my needs are not so great as to need all of these lenses and to make regular rentals so I am still new to the idea.  I definitely think a 3 day rental would be worth the cost of you are seriously contemplating the purchase of an expensive piece of equipment.  Nothing is ever as great as knowing exactly what you are purchasing.

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Nikkor Lens 105MM

Oct
15
2011
by Jessy | 0 Comments

Super excited and decided to share.  The other day I managed to win an ebay auction on a Nikkor 105MM f/2.8 G ED IF AF-S VR Micro!

The 105MM is rumored to be one of the best current Macro and portrait lenses if you look around online and read some reviews.  Per Ken Rockwell there are some minor focus breathing issues but for the cost this cannot be beat.  The option to solve the breathing issues is the 70-180MM Macro which is at a much greater cost.

I am very excited to finally have a great lens to really get into macro work as well as some of the portraits that I have scheduled to complete soon.  I think this lens is going to be a great addition to my collection and provide me with some photography options that I have not had previously.

The lens typically goes for about $934 but if you watch amazon.com and ebay.com then you can win some auctions for the lens brand new or slightly used at a much lower price.  I know purchasing on ebay and buying used lenses always seems to concern us but I did get my wide angle on ebay and it was very used!  The lens is  a Nikkor 12-24MM f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom and as you can see from the link this typically averages in cost from 1,100 to 1,200 and I managed to purchase the lens for half that.  This lens is probably my favorite lens and has a lot of wear on the body.  The glass and function though is amazing!  For the cost savings that I have managed to get from purchasing on ebay I will continue this until I get burned.

Once the lens is here (another 5-10 business days) I will be sure to start posting images and my review of the lens.

If there are other places that you purchase lenses at a discount or other lenses that are your favorites let me know.  I would like to hear about them and rent one to try it out.  I can always learn more from other individuals and continue to improve based on your feedback.

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Site Organization

Sep
18
2011
by Jessy | 5 Comments

What is the best way to organize your site?  I have been moving around some of my galleries so that the list of “galleries” is shorter and things are easier to find.  The fist example of this is the new “places” gallery and the Savannah gallery under that.  I have several images for Philly about that are about ready to go up as well.  Is this the best idea or is there something better?

How d o you organize your site for your own photography?

I know the more information about each gallery the better, this always helps with SEO, but they can be divided so many different ways trying to determine which is best is difficult.  I have also found it’s very difficult to keep the home page updated with new things to keep returning visitors interested.  Without updating the home page users will have less reason to view further into your site.  I’ll keep researching some of the best practices and I’ll let you know what I find.

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Lake Scott Car Show

Aug
26
2011
by Jessy | 0 Comments

This year I managed to make it back to Scott City Kansas for the Lake Scott Car Show and my dad’s b-day. I took several pics around the park and elsewhere around town. I love the perspective that the wide angle lens gives to cars, it’s wonderful! Below are 3 images each with the wide lens (12-24mm) and all turned black and white.
If you haven’t noticed yet, black and white is may favorite. I do like color images and how vibrant they can be, but I have a special connection with the black and white.

You can see more about the Lake Scott Car Show posted on The Horses Asses Car Club site here.

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Photoshop Brushes

Aug
26
2011
by Jessy | 1 Comment

I found some great brush sets at Paxton Prints!  He has put together some great brushes and textures that you may want to check out.  I even found some Light Room workflows on the site that are open for (Free) download and provide great installation instructions if this is something that you are new to.

All of these items are easy to install and use to help you provide some more artistic touches to your photos without spending the time to create each of these yourselves!

If you have other resources that you primarily use please share them here so that we can build a library of links for everyone.

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Bridge photography contest

Aug
26
2011
by Jessy | 0 Comments

The ViewBug bridges photography contest is open for voting.  Please help me by voting for my image!  Click the “like” button on the right side of the page!

Vote

Image to vote for here this bridge at New River Gorge

New River Gorge Image

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Photomatix Contest Winner

Aug
17
2011
by Jessy | 1 Comment

I entered a Photomatix contest on Facebook a week or so ago and I found out this morning (August 17, 2011) that I won!  You’ll have to check it out on Facebook.  This should link directly to the page itself, just read the caption at the bottom.

Award:

Editors Choice Award

 

Prize:

Photomatix Pro Bundle


 

Photomatix software is used for HDR images. It has a great de-ghosting affect and has several presets that will get you very close to the result that you are looking for and leave little work to follow.

The image that won the contest is the inside of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Savannah Ga.

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Feature Photo

Aug
17
2011
by Jessy | 2 Comments

I have to share as this is my first ever featured photo!  In my previous post I spoke about ViewBug and today (August 17, 2011) the photo below is the second featured photo on ViewBug!  (out of 4, not too shabby).  I have also included a permanent link to the photo in case if you want to see it and see the amount of feedback that you are able to get on a single photo.

http://www.viewbug.com/photo/1273350

 


This is an HDR creation (one of my first) taken at Jacksonville beach of the pier. It had been storming that morning and I had to wait till about 9am for the sun to start coming out to get the breaks in the clouds that you see. The beach looked beautiful that day.

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Photography Contests

Aug
15
2011
by Jessy | 1 Comment

ViewBug appears to have several active Photography Contests at all times.  Its a great community with several different photography groups.

Each photo contest has specific types and rules as well as differing prizes per contest.  Many of the contests are free though some cost but you can get around these “per photo costs” by purchasing a membership.  I have found that regardless of winning there is the ability to request critiques and a great opportunity to receive feedback from other photographers!

ViewBug also has the ability to sell your photos online.  Check it out!

ViewBug

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