By Peter Phun, on August 17th, 2010
Michelle’s dad, Lee, gives her away at the ceremony as Alex looks on. Extreme contrast is always a photographic challenge. I was at least 40 feet back. Because the 580EX had to kick in quite a bit of light from that distance, I used the external power pack to allow for quicker recycling. 1/200 sec f5.6 ISO 100. I should have raised the shutter speed to 1/320 sec from 1/200 sec to retain the highlight in the bride’s veil in retrospect. My 580 EX speedlight was at 1/2 power.
There is no doubt, a wedding on board a ship is romantic.
I’ve been a part of 3. My first time was on board the Star of India in San Diego too many years ago now.
Though the cutter never left the dock and the temperature was too hot to be in a suit and tie, I can still remember the name of the vessel.
Two days after I quit the newspaper business I shot my first wedding “professionally” on board the Dandeanna, a yacht which circled Marina Del Rey for 4 hours.
On that occasion, I remember borrowing a 2nd camera body from the person who replaced at the newspaper.
Waiting for the guests–The Empress at the dock before all the guests board her for the evening’s cruise and festivities.
Those of you thinking about doing weddings for a living, yes, you should never shoot a wedding with just one camera.
It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
This weekend was a special treat and a delight.
My nephew Alex married his sweetheart Michelle on board the Empress as we cruised the Sacramento and American River. Continue reading A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 1
By Peter Phun, on August 10th, 2010
Every so often when I clean out my closet, I’ll come across an item which is still in pristine condition just the way it was after I broke the clear shrink-wrap.
It starts me wondering, “What the heck was I thinking?”
You are bound to disagree with me, but before you post your comments, which I encourage you to, remember this:
The tools any artist finds indispensable is dependent on usage. And usage is dictated most by the types of subjects we point our lenses at. So with that in mind…
400mm telephoto f4.5
When I was in college in Ohio, I owned a 400 mm f4.5 telephoto lens. MInd you, this was in the old days of film and manual focus. In the Midwest where I went to school, that lens was only used in the best of lighting conditions. The aperture of f4.5 was way too slow for anything but outdoor sports which happen in good light. Those of you reading this have to realize even in today’s high ISO capability DSLRs, trying to get a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec is asking a lot.
Flash diffusers
Over the years I’ve bought some doozies. I once bought a diffuser which you inflate by blowing up like a beach ball.
I even had one that was a miniature umbrella that attached to the flash.
Diffusers for flash units or Speedlights/Speedlites are often not the problem. It’s the placement of the flash, being on camera.
Now I’m wondering as I write this if I’ll ever be seen with Gary Fong’s Lightsphere. Continue reading Photogear I shouldn’t have bought
By Peter Phun, on August 6th, 2010
Where the heck is that picture?
Exquisite image–A green turtle photographed by my old buddy Stephen Yeow off the waters of the island of Sipadan earlier this year.
My first Mac laptop, a G3 Powerbook, had 6GB of hard drive storage.
At that time my largest Compact Flash card had a 128 MB capacity.
Today, about a dozen years later, just one of my Secure Digital cards alone easily holds more data than that hard drive.
You don’t have to be a long time digital photographer like me to see that as long as you own a digital camera, you’re headed down the same path as me–just a little later.
So you better get organized and develop some sort of workflow–fancy word for a system of messing with your digital images.
If you don’t, good luck finding your pictures when you want them.
In fact, if you don’t practice safe computing like making frequent redundant backups, you might one day lose everything.
I’m a Mac users but I often teach on Windows so I won’t be dragged into which platform is superior.
Repeat after me, “Nikon or Canon, Mac or Windows, neither blows especially when your work flows.”
Continue reading Managing digital images
By Peter Phun, on August 2nd, 2010
Available light–Inside my garage it’s more like available darkness. See where I placed my reflector, a sunshade, the kind you use in the dashboard of your car. See the scene without the reflector.
My 3 kittens can entertain me for hours with their antics.
As you might expect, I’ve been taking lots of pictures and videos of them with my Canon G11.
Right now they’re still confined to the garage. This patsy is still holding strong. If I can, they’ll stay outdoor cats. But we’ll see…
The garage has been their world all these 6 week. It’s been quiet, safe and, though small, they’ve found lots of things to occupy themselves with.
The trouble with the garage? The clutter in there makes photography a major challenge. The light levels are also usually too low. So far everything I’ve shot has been moments when they’re calm. Continue reading Kitten Pictures
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