Here’s my contribution to the Flickr 888 group.
I didn’t really have a chance to go anywhere to take a lot of pictures, so I just went to my garden and took a few pictures of what was blooming.
Photography
Nikon D90 coming soon?
The rumors of an upcoming Nikon D90 DSLR seem to be getting more plausible. The D80 is due for a replacement and the D90 looks like it will fit nicely into that niche. Unlike the 10mp D80, the D90 will have 12mp, the first Nikon entry level DSLR with that resolution. It also supposedly has the ability to record video, which I also believe is a first in Nikon’s DSLR lineup.
I’m starting to think about an upgrade from my D40x, mostly because I really miss having internal auto-focus. None of Nikon’s prime lenses have an internal auto-focus motor, so I can only use manual focus with those lenses, which I still find slow and difficult to set accurately, especially with a narrow DOF.
Since I already own several lenses, I would buy a body only. The D80 seems to be the most attractive in the current lineup, although it’s still bigger & heavier than the D40x. Although the D300 looks really great, I don’t like the size & weight, and I’d prefer a camera that uses SD cards, since I like to use 8GB cards when shooting raw, and 8GB or larger CF cards are still very expensive.
More Photo Walk Details
Paulo has posted more details about the Second Fort Lauderdale Photo Walk at Scott Kelby’s site. You need to sign up for this one, although registration is free. It will be limited to 50 participants, and we have 38 already.
We meet at 9AM on Saturday August 23 at the Pier Coffee Shop (now closed), at the end of Commercial Blvd just east of A1A.
Picture of the day
I’ve been watching these baby birds grow up. They’re getting pretty big now.
I used my 55-200mm VR lens for this shot, which I took from the ground in front of my building. I still use the 18-55mm lens which came with the D40x most of the time, since it can focus much closer than the 55-200mm and has a more useful focal range. I would probably use the 50mm prime a lot more if it could do auto focus on my camera.
The 1 Focal Length Weekend Challenge
I’m planning to take Digital Photography School‘s photographic challenge: Shoot at just one focal length for the next couple of days.
Choose a focal length to shoot at this weekend (or for at least one day) and don’t allow yourself to shoot at any other focal length.
- If you have a prime lens it’ll be easy – fit it to your camera and don’t take if off.
- If you have a DSLR with a zoom lens just choose one end of the focal range and resist the temptation to zoom.
- If you have a point and shoot camera with a zoom – again, just choose one end of the range and stick to that.
When choosing which focal length you go with – try to pick something you don’t normally shoot a lot at. For example if you tend to shoot fully zoomed in – try shooting with a wider angle. If you normally shoot with wide angles challenge yourself at the other end of the spectrum.
I’ll attempt to use only my 50mm/f1.8 prime lens, which also means I won’t be able to use auto focus.
When to use manual focus
I still have difficulty using manual focus, thanks to my glasses and less than perfect eyesight. For anyone who doesn’t have perfect vision, it can be difficult to see if the subject is perfectly in focus, especially when using a large aperture with a narrow depth of field.
However, there are some instances where you have to use manual focus. With my D40X, any non AF-S lens, which lacks the internal AF motor, can only do manual focus (although the focus indicator will light up when it thinks the subject is in focus). I have a love/hate relationship with my 50mm/f1.8 lens for that reason – it’s the sharpest lens I own with the largest aperture that can produce a wonderfully narrow depth of field, yet I still find the manual focus difficult to use.
For certain subjects, like this spider web I photographed this morning, auto focus won’t work, since it will try to focus on a higher contrast object behind the spider web rather than the web itself. I took about 10 shots to get 3 that were perfectly in focus.
For this one I cheated a bit by spraying the web with a fine mist of water to make it stand out more.
SmugMug vs. Flickr
After trying SmugMug for a few days, I’ve decided to keep it, although I’ll still continue to use Flickr.
SmugMug has several pros & cons in comparison with Flickr. SmugMug lets you create really beautiful galleries where you can customize both the color theme and the photo layout. The default layout shows thumbnails on the left side with a large view of a single photo on the right. You can even let your visitors choose which layout they want to use.
SmugMug does have some significant weaknesses, though. On Flickr, all of your photos appear in your photo stream and it can also be included in multiple sets or group pools. SmugMug doesn’t have a photo stream; it has albums and every photo can appear in only one album. Flickr also feels more like a community.
For general use, I prefer Flickr, but for a professional, SmugMug seems like a nicer way to show off your best photos.
Check out my SmugMug gallery at mike3k.smugmug.com, and as always my Flickr photo stream is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_c/
Watermark 1.0 is here!
I’ve released Watermark 1.0. Download it here or visit the project page.
Watermark
The Watermark plugin is fully working. I’m now working on the documentation and I hope to release it in a day or so.
Here’s my first official copyright marked picture, which I took today. This baby bird is nesting outside my neighbor’s window.
Plugin Progress
I had a chance to do a lot more work on my watermark plugin this weekend and I made lots of progress. Most functions work, but I still need a few days of QA & testing before I can release it.
Black Star Rising tells why you should add your name and copyright notice when posting a photo, which is the reason I wrote this. I noticed that almost all of the pictures by the professionals from last week’s photowalk have a copyright notice, so I wanted to make it easier to do with Aperture.