Photographing the small stuff

I’ve never done much ‘official’ macro photography, what with the special lenses, ring flashes, extension tubes, and all that hoo ha.  But, there is no doubt that getting close to something small and making it look big in the camera is a rewarding style of photography.

I have a number of, uh, offbeat hobbies that suck my time.  That’s one reason I have a hard time keeping up with my blog posts.  One hobby that goes hand in hand with the photography though is miniature wargaming.  This is a difficult thing for a lot of people who aren’t into it to get a handle on.  Basically, it involves pushing toy soldiers around on a table top in accordance with a set of rules in an effort to simulate a battle, often a particular historical battle.  Science fiction and fantasy settings are also popular.  Rather than enter into a detailed explanation of the hobby on what is supposed to be a photography blog, I’ll just point you here and you can get more info if you are interested.

Twice a year, in April and October, a friend of mine puts together a science fiction based game he calls “Zombie Crawl”.  It is based in the sci fi world of Necromunda and involves a group of mercenaries/gangsters trying to escape a zombie apocalypse.  His games are very popular and typically we have 20 to 30 players involved.

Below are some shots I took of the game.  The figures are 28mm scale, so about an inch tall.  I didn’t use any specialty equipment, because I don’t have any.  I used my Canon EOS Rebel T2i with the 18-55mm kit lens that came with it.  I’m liking this camera a lot more the more I use it.  I shot all the photos using available light…it wasn’t a place where I could really set up off camera lighting and the on camera pop up flash is worse than nothing.  That means I had to shoot at a very high ISO, 3200, to get reasonable shutter speeds.  If you zoom in on the pictures the noise becomes obvious.

Copyright @ 2012 by Adrian M. Benson

Copyright @ 2012 by Adrian M. Benson

Copyright @ 2012 by Adrian M. Benson

Not photo related but…

We lost our sixteen year old cat last night, poor old guy.  He’d been having health problems for the last year and Friday morning it was pretty obvious he wasn’t going to last the weekend.  Started looking through my old files and realized  I don’t have many pictures of him, and none that are really good.  But I’m a photographer amirite?  Fortunately my brother in law took this one a few years ago at my daughter’s high school graduation.  So long Quincy, we’ll miss ya!

Quincy

Fun with exposure: Things You Can Do in a Museum

The light meter in your digital camera, be it an SLR or a point & shoot, is a pretty darned sophisticated piece of electronic wizardry.  Throw the meter into matrix mode, point your lens at a scene and shoot it, you’re going to get a “correct” exposure.  The problem is, a correct exposure might not be what you’re looking for; your creative eye will look at a given scene and see it very differently from how the dead accurate, but unimaginative, meter does.

This neon art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston serves two purposes.  It’s art, and it is a nice way to present the museum do’s and don’ts to visitors.  The piece is located near the main gift shop in a well lit lobby.  I took a couple of snap shots of the sign because it made me chuckle, but then started to wonder how I could make it a semi-worthwhile photo.

The neon is mounted on a stark white wall in a largely white room, pretty uninteresting as a photographic background.  Blue light shining out of a black hole though would look pretty cool…outer space like even.  How to make it happen?  There are two light sources in this photo. One is the neon lights (conveniently that also happens to be our subject) and the ambient room lighting.  I’m no genius with light, but solution to this problem is pretty simple; get a base exposure for the scene (which ended up being 1/30 sec, f8, ISO 800) and then work the shutter speed til you kill the ambient.  Starting with that exposure, I took a series of shots, upping the shutter speed about 1/2 stop for each one; if I was good I could have guessed at the right shutter speed but I’m not.  I ended up getting the effect I wanted at 1/160 sec, f8, ISO 800.  The ambient light is gone completely and all we have is our funny neon artwork.

Copyright @ 2012 Adrian M. Benson Nikon D200, Nikkor 16-85mm AF-S VR, 1/160 sec, f8, ISO800 Neon artwork, MFA Boston RAW file processed in Photoshop Elements 10 w/Adobe Camera RAW

Awesome Photographs That Aren’t Mine

My brother in law sent me a link the other day that I want to share with you all here.  It’s a selection of 4×5 Kodachromes made mostly during WWII.  It’s unusual enough to see color photos from that era as color reversal film was still fairly new (Kodachrome was introduced in 1935) and expensive to process.  We’re extremely spoiled as photographers today.  Our digital SLR’s are more computerized image processors than they are cameras and with the luxury of post processing in Photoshop that can allow someone with a little skill to make a good image out of a horrible exposure, many “photographers” don’t worry much about getting things right during the shot.

So visit this link and revel in the beautiful images made when you got it right “in camera” or else.

http://pavel-kosenko.livejournal.com/303194.html?thread=22669914

“If your photographs aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough.”

The above quote is attributed to Robert Capa, one of the founders of Magnum Photos.  I believe Capa was mostly referring to the photojournalistic photographs for which he is famous, but it’s true enough for any style of photography.  I spent some time at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on Sunday and took a few casual shots while I was there.  Take a look at these two images and tell me which one you prefer.

Copyright @ 2012 Adrian M. Benson Nikon D200 Nikkor AF-S 16-85mm f4.8 @ 1/100 second ISO 100. Post in Elements 10 and Adobe Camera Raw.

The first image at least lets you know what you are looking at, an amazing glass sculpture, but the detail shot is the better, more interesting photograph by far in my estimation.

Mystic Seaport

One of the things that make living in New England tolerable is being surrounded by history. The United States “grew up” on the eastern seaboard and New England in particular has a rich maritime history.  Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT celebrates this history and makes it come alive for visitors.  The seaport presents as a working whaling village from the 1840′s and has historical interpreters, museums and artifacts from all eras and it is an effective representation of life in an 1840′s seaport.

In addition to its static displays, the seaport is home to a number of historic ships, some of them serve as live-aboard schools for those seeking to learn more about America’s seafaring history.  The Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in existence, is the seaport’s best known resident, but a number of other vessels, large and small, wait to be explored as well.

Mystic Seaport is home to many of the few shipwrights who still know how to work on these old tall ships, and in addition to being a museum, the seaport is an active shipyard as well.  It has all the facilities, including a dry dock, that were present in Mystic’s heyday and they are active year round, performing preservation work on historic ships and working on new ones.

If you have the slightest interest in history, especially maritime history, Mystic Seaport is worth your time to visit.  Plan to spend the day if you really want to see everything.

Copyright @ 2012 Adrian M. Benson Nikon D200 Nikkor AF-S lens 28-70mm f2.8 lens f8 @ 1/250 sec, ISO 400. Image cropped in Elements 10. Boat was hand built by craftsmen at Mystic Seaport.

Copyright @ 2012 Adrian M. Benson Nikon D200 Nikkor AF-S 28-70mm f2.8, f8 @ 1/750 sec , ISO 400. Post in Elements 10. Fishing nets at Mystic Seaport.

 

Public Service Announcement: Adobe Lightroom 3 for cheap $$

If you haven’t jumped on the Lightroom bandwagon yet because of price (that’s me), then today is your lucky day!  Adorama is selling Adobe Lightroom 3 for $79.95 TODAY ONLY.  That’s February 14th.  Version 4 of Lightroom is in beta test and will be released soon, but still this is a good deal; almost $200 off the list price of Lightroom.  And this is the full version of Lightroom, so you should be eligible for the reduced price upgrade to Lightroom 4 should you so choose.

In terms of professional grade tools Adobe Lightroom isn’t very expensive, but its price tag always kept me away from it.  But at this price, I’ve already placed my order.  :)