The Untrained Eye

UCF vs. ECU

2009-03-28T22:50:00.007-04:00

It has been a while since I have shot anything, between my schedule and the weather I have pretty much been trapped indoors, and it is starting to get to me. Last weekend however I was able to make it out to Greenville, NC and catch a baseball game, my girlfriends school, ECU versus mine, UCF. Unfortunately, they wiped the floor, or field with us as the case may be, for three consecutive games, but I was able to get some much needed sun and make some good usage of the DA*300mm. I was just standing just inside of the left field foul pole braced by the fence. I had a pretty good angle down the line and was able to get these shots.

Mr. Ball, say hello to Mr. Bat

Safe at 3rd

Play at the Plate Series

Full Moon's Bore Me

2009-02-12T00:08:00.002-05:00

But I am just so compelled to shoot them when they come out. This was taken with the DA*300mm using the Kenko 1.5x SHQ TC. This is an excellent teleconverter to use on the newest Pentx bodies until Pentax releases their own later this year because it maintains the Pentax's HSM focussing and delivers great IQ. I am hoping that the Pentax model will be just as good if not better but also offer weather sealing and report the increas in FL to the body so that the SR mechanism can be used to its highest potential.

Must be in the genes...

2009-02-10T14:20:00.003-05:00

I swear that my nephew is getting a camera for his birthday, and like his uncle Jay, his first camera is going to be an SLR, not a P&S. Here is a shot that I took of my uncle, my fathers' brother.

And here is a shot that my nephew took of my father.

Product Shoot: Day 2

2009-02-02T14:31:00.003-05:00

I did some more jewelry shots today for The Prettiest Pearl and made some improvements on my technique. As one of my peers suggested, use a remote trigger and set the camera up on a timer and get out of the way. The funny part, well to me anyway, was that I was using a remote trigger as to not shake the camera, but it never accured to me to move from behind it. Well I did that today, which also afforded me to make lunch as I shot which is mucho importante'!

A Combination Floral and Nautical with Loose Pearls

These are AAA Grade Black Pearls

Pearls in a Half Shell

New Site Launch!

2009-02-01T14:28:00.003-05:00

Well it is February 1, and as promised to my client I got her site up for phase one. We are doing a 3 phase installment to her site to better manage her costs as well as to bring her product to the public faster. As a result of this project as shown in my previous post I wa able to do some product shots. I was a little apprehensive of what she might think of what I came up with, but after talking to her once she got to look at the work, she was floored. She said that she just kept watching the gallery play over and over and her cheeks hurt from smiling. So I guess I did a good job. You can check out my photos and Mia lovely jewelry at The Prettiest Pearl

First Product Shoot

2009-01-31T20:12:00.006-05:00

I had spent this week working on getting images ready for my latest clients website, The Prettiest Pearl. She is a jewelry maker that specializes in pearls, obviously, which are harder than crap so shoot because I haven't figured out yet how to get ME from reflecting in them. I am going to have to do some research and some PP as a result, but here are some of the concepts that I came up with. All were shot in a lightbox with a black velvet backdrop and continuous lighting and K10D on a tripod. I had to use my DA*50-135mm with a set of Bower Macro Filters on it because I sold my macro lens before I realized that I needed it.

DOUBLE STRAND BRACELETS WRAPPED AROUND A SHELL

TURQUOISE EARRINGS IN A HAL SHELL
A TRIPLE STRAND WITH QUARTZ CRYSTALS ON A HALF SHELL
A LONG OPEN ENDED STRAND POURING OUT OF A SMALL PITCHER

SCORE!!! Disaster averted...

2009-01-29T13:21:00.003-05:00

So I was on Craiglist and I saw a post for a guy selling a K1000 in good condition and two unknown lenses for $35. I figure, what the heck, I'll go and check it out, I may score a winner. Well I got there and the K1000 was in great condition. He also had a M 50 f/2, I was hoping that he would have a f/1.2 and not know it but no such luck. But he also had a JCPenny 135mm f/2.8. [SCORE]

I was so happy to see the 135mm that I just popped it onto my K10D without any reservations... then it hit me.... then I saw it... the lovely KR* stamp on the side. [DISASTER]

*For those fo you who have no idea what I am talking about, KR mount lenses which can work on Pentax cameras will get stuck on digital Pentax SLRs. These lenses were originally made for Ricoh cameras and have an extra pin on the mount. The Ricoh pin which causes KR mount lenses to get stuck may be removed in about 15 minutes, the only tool required is a small screwdriver. Modified KR mount lenses may be mounted on Pentax digital SLRs without getting stuck, becoming the equivalent of KA mount lenses which allow automatic and manual modes.

Fear struck I just froze because I knew that it was not coming off, but I had to give it a shot. No such luck. So I fiddled with it for a bit, then decided that I would just buy it and deal with it later, which had to be NOW because I am in the moddle of a photo shoot. Soooo I get home and started searching on here and came accross the Ritz Camera Repair Department method of taking the lens off as desribed in another thread. This basically consists or putting the camera in MF, holding down the lens release button and just ripping it off.Worked like a champ. [DISASTER AVERTED]

The K10D is a brute, and can withstand brute force measures.

Budding Pentaxian

2009-01-28T10:32:00.005-05:00

So I went do to Florida to visit with my family over the MLK weekend and, as usual, had a wonderful time. My nephew, Trenton, loves it when I come down because he thinks I have the coolest toys, but lately he has been completely in love with my Camera. So when my family all got together for dinner, he wanted to play with my camera, so being the good uncle that I am, I let him. His younger brother Logan was playing with is hero, Spider-Man at the time, and the two of them got together to make, well... a production.

It started out on the coffee table, but you know Spider-Man has this whole web thing going on which allows him to take to the air . I am not sure where the prop came from but they put it to good use. I was awesome waching them work, I could only imagine if this is how the Wachowski brothers do their thing. Logan would set up the prop and build the scene and Trenton would take the shot. I wish I had an assistant like that.

Trenton was using my Pentax K10D with the DA35mm Limited Macro so he was able to take advantage of the wide angle as well as get in close to these guys fighting it out in the sky.

Ironically the figures were not that big at all, I would say 2 inches tall at most. The battle in the skies was actually taking place off of my mothers orchid plant.

This is beautiful. What is that, velvet?

2009-01-27T18:44:00.002-05:00

For $25 it should be gold spun!

I am doing a product shoot this week for a jewelry maker, Mia, who's website I am building for her new company called The Prettiest Pearl. So I went to the fabric store to get some nice velvet for the backdrop. Fortunately that was all that I had to buy because it was $25 a yard!! There was the velveteen stuff there that was 1/2 the price, but it looked 1/2 as good. I figure that this was an investment so I decided to get the good stuff. It wasn't rolled up like the other fabrics, it was hung on gilded hangers so I felt good about the purchase, at least they presented it well.

When I got home, I was even happier. Mia had supplied me with all of the items that she would normally use at a showing of her lovely pearls, necklace stands, earring stands, and they were all covered in the same high quality velvet like I had just bought. I cannot wait to get setup tomorrow and start snapping away!

It's a good thing....

2009-01-23T18:04:00.004-05:00

That I have some web design training. Without a good knowledge of CSS I would actually have to pay someone to help me do all of this. Well that is not true, if I didn't know what I was doing, one of my best friends would help me out. Brad Earnhardt of BDesigns.net would hook me up. He is a whiz at CSS, his stylesheets are the thing or Web Lore!

Good Evening

2009-01-23T18:01:00.001-05:00

I am just tweaking up this template some so that it looks as close as possible color wise to my gallery site so I need to get some content in here to hide all of this dead space.

Good Morning!

2009-01-23T08:26:00.000-05:00

I have taken this year to put some of my photos online instead of keeping them to myself, and I have also decided to setup a blog. And this is my first post.