Cheetah Dies

Sad news. Cheetah died today. This is the Cheetah from the Tarzan movies that lived in Florida.

I interviewed Cheeta (not the one from Florida) and  owner in 2005. This was one big animal. I had to stand a few feet from him, just to be on the safe side. (Chimps can be fickle sometimes.)

As one of the most entertaining interviews I've ever had, that chimp wasn't the only one living with Cheeta in Palm Springs. His grandson lived there too.

The owner asked me to take off my shoes while observing the grandson. When I did, he went crazy, jetting from one side of his cage to another and grunting wildly.

The Florida chimp died today at 80, not the Cheeta in Palm Springs. The Desert Sun reported that much of our Palm Springs Cheeta story was fabricated.

Cat in a Car

cat_in_a_car, originally uploaded by matthewbam0.

This cat is doing something cats don't normally do--go out of the house.

Guess it got used to it as a kitten.

Five Facts about Century City Architecture

Century City, a creation of  Welton Becket, well known for its modern architecture, which rests on the the theory that repetition is a good thing.

The Century Plaza Hotel, a 60s iconic treasure, is the most famous building of the area. It was slated to be torn down a few years ago. Instead, developers have been proposing the conversion of many of the hotel rooms into condos. 

Ronald Reagan visited this hotel frequently, leading some to call it "the Western White House."

City planners are attempting to make the area more pedestrian-friendly.

A new 37-story building is being planned, which will be the most green building in the United States.

Added Note: If you want a great investment get the first edition of Architectural Photography: Composition, Capture, and Digital Image Processing

 old car photos

School's Out for Summer! Find Cheap Flights & Take a Trip! Book Now!

Why Does the Exposure Compensation Blink?

You may have noticed that the Ev meter is blinking and your camera stopped taking pictures. This can be frustrating at best.

It blinks because you are outside of the good exposure limits. On some cameras it will blink at -2 or at +2. On others at -3 or at +3.

The former is not all that wide a range of Ev so that the blinking is an obstacle to getting a wide dynamic range for an HDR series (which later are merged).

The later is really no big deal because +3 and -3 captures a set with a great deal of over and under exposures, provided you have other shots in the series that have Ev values closer to 0.

The Ev blinking keeps you from taking shots in the Av (Aperture Priority) mode. If you want shots for your HDR photos with a greater dynamic range, take more of them at values lower and higher than the Ev range on your camera. You can do this by shooting in Manual mode. In that mode, cameras will shoot with blinking Ev meters.

Vivian Maier Retrospective

Courtesy of John Maloof

CBS news gave a brief retrospective of Vivian Maier, a woman who was a nanny and a photographer in the middle of the last century. The story is that John Maloof, a Chicago realtor, came across some of her photos at a garage sale. He offered $400 for boxes of them. The offer was accepted and he was left with a valuable collection of gems.

Now, this didn't come easy to Maloof. He worked for years scanning and organizing the files, then had to prove to the museum community that the photos were on the order of Helen Levitt.

I wrote about this discovery last year in my book New Image Frontiers--Defining the Future of Photography.

These types of discoveries, 60 years-after-the-fact, is redefining photography today and helps bring about a wave of nostalgia that many people crave.

What's most refreshing about Maloof's discovery is that it gives us a break from the fast-paced high-tech trends in photography today. It's less technical with a lot more artistry, one of the most important aspects of photography that many in the tech world sometimes forget.

If you're in New York, check out the Maier Exhibition at Hearst Gallery. You also might want to check out the pictures yourself in Maloof's book about Maier. There's no doubt in my mind the price of this book is well worth it (and will go up) as demand is high and because it's a story that will be remembered for a very long time. 

Bible Bus

The text on this image gets you thinking about private schools and religion.

In this country many private schools have religion classes. Many parents feel that is a good thing for children to learn. The Bible teaches about history, narratives, morals and values. It's great that parents can choose to have their children go to private school and take religion classes.

Some parents of public school students wish they would be able to have those subjects for children. Some organizations lobby for this to happen. Everything the the Bible teaches is based upon a set of beliefs that are unique to different groups of people. Do you think that public schools should have religion classes during the school day (they already have them after school)? If so, what religion would they teach?

A photograph can get you to ask a lot of questions!

vintage cars photos

Christmas Cookes taken with Flash

Many photographers prefer not to use a flash. Personally, I'd rather carry around my tripod for almost any picture over using a flash.

Well, I broke down the other day, pulled my flash unit (Promaster 7500 EDF) out of the closet and went to work last Friday night.

I was fortunate enough to go with my family on a walking tour of Palm Springs boutique hotels. Located up against giant Mt. San Jacinto, most of the hotels have a mid-century modern theme. The hotels were: Korakia, Casa Cody, Orbit Inn, Chase and Viceroy.

Most hotels served cookies, coffee, tea and hot apple cider. The shot of the cookies in this post was taken at Spenser's restaurant at the Palm Springs Tennis Club. With my camera set, I got in a long line not only to get cookies, but also to take pictures of the cookies. I knew I had to be fast because people behind me were waiting with impatient anticipation to get their paper plate filled with the home-made gems.

Three things I had to make sure of before using my flash unit were that it was turned on, and set correctly. I pretty much intuitively knew to set my shutter speed about 1/50 in shutter priority mode. This is not the same you you would set your camera for an image without flash. I also had my ISO speed set at 400.

When my turn came to get some cookies, I immediately went to work, shooting away. I wanted to get a unique look at some of the cookies with the focus on the ones with the Christmas theme. I know that getting them to fit diagonally in the frame would make the shot interesting.

After I finished shooting, I grabbed the tongs and quickly picked out six cookies to eat, juggling it, my camera and the paper plate to get what I wanted. Of course I had my camera hanging around my neck so I wouldn't drop it on the ground. I looked at the pictures and was satisfied with them as I ate the cookies, which were made fresh that evening from scratch.

I've learned that food photography isn't an easy subject for on-the-spot photography. While the picture is satisfactory with sharpness in the right areas, it could have been much better using product lighting, something which I'd like to do when I get some time to set it up.

Five Best Photography Buys of 2012

Have the EOS Rebel T3i already? As a Canon Rebel fan, I do recommend the camera. There's a great Rebel T3i bookabout how to use it by David Busch. I've written one book with him, and he knows what he is doing with photography instruction. It's only $18.66.




If you buy a tripod, don't expect anything dependable for a dSLR camera that is under $50. After looking at the most popular tripod Amazon list, I found number
16 to be the best--the SLIK PRO 700DX Professional Tripod with Panhead .


 


Ah ha! Let's talk printers. If you want photographs that are wall-worthy the number 1 art photography printer is the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II Inkjet Photo Printer (3295B002) . It's cheap, too, under $500.




 
Although not on any list, per se, this camera and laptop bag (Lowepro Fastpack 250 Camera/Laptop Backpack ) seems be satisfying nearly 200 customers who rated it well. This is my next purchase. Less than $100.






To be sure Canon kit lenses are good, but they're not telephoto. This is number 2 at Amazon, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras , with the majority of 700 reviewers rating it highly.

Christmas Card Solution--Buy Cards Get a Book for Free

I've put it up at Fine Art America, a site that makes cards and prints from sellers' photos. If you're into the modern thing, you'll love this card.

The image was taken at an old 60s motel in Las Vegas. I caught it with the afternoon sun shining on it so that the colors pop out of the page.

At the time of taking the picture (in 2004), the sign was in pretty good shape. That is not so today, though you can still catch it near downtown (off the strip).

Let me know if you purchase the prints or card and I'll send you one of my books for free.

Holiday Shopping

If you're out holiday shopping this Christmas season, I've got a couple of photography holiday shopping ideas for 2011.

I was able to do extensive research on what cameras are best for HDR photography. Note that these cameras are really good for any type of photography. I've chosen the cameras with the biggest sensors (this matters more than the number of megapixels), the best AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing), camera Raw option and the best price (from Amazon). Note that all point-and-shoot cameras have much smaller sensors than the dSLR models below.

To learn more about cameras for HDR photography, preorder my latest book, Beginning HDR Photography.

The Canon S95 point-and-shoot with HDR mode.

The Nikon V1 is a small sensor mirrorless model, one of a kind with a sensor size that is between those of a point-and-shoot and dSLR.

The Sony NEX-5N or 7, a mirrorless model, has an APS-C sized sensor (a little smaller than full-frame, which is the size of a frame of 35mm film) and Camera Raw options. Note that the AEB isn't the best. Wait for a later model.

The Rebel T3i, a great entry level dSLR has Raw, AEB and an APS-C sensor.

The Nikon D5100 contains everything you need plus a mode that puts the sequence of shots together to make an HDR photo.  

AEB means Auto Exposure Bracketing, a method of setting your camera to shoot a sequence of shots by pressing the shutter release button all the way down until the camera stops shooting.