Category Archives: Photography

Photography

Painting-with-light2

Lizbeth Zamora’s picture of Brianna Aguirre swaying as she doodles shows what might happen if exposure builds up from repeated flashes. Notice her grey top and her torso. Had she had a white top on, her top would be over-exposed to the point where there wouldn’t be any detail.

After adding color to the plain black background by introducing the Christmas lights, I thought adding multiple images of my subject would make it even more interesting.

This is where I have to stress I had intentionally asked my students not come dressed in light shades especially not white.

For reasons far too scientific for us to ponder here, suffice to say, white reflects too much light in contrasty situations, so it’s best for your subjects to avoid wearing that color.

Also, since repeated flashes tend to build up cumulatively, over time there will be loss of detail in light colored clothing. Continue reading Painting-with-light2 →

Photography

Painting with light1

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Lights, camera & action—John Sanglang plays up to his classmates’ cameras during this long 10-second exposure. I walked behind him with the decorative Christmas lights plugged into my portable battery. I didn’t feel like tripping over wires in the dark, that’s why I used a portable battery.

I currently own 4 DSLRs and 2 Point-and-shoot cameras.

That’s more cameras than I have hands.

Even if I wanted to remotely trigger 3 and use one, I couldn’t.

I’d run out of lenses to use on all 4 bodies.

On a recent evening, I got this crazy idea that I would ‘borrow’ all my students’ cameras.

In the process I’d also teach them something about exposure. Continue reading Painting with light1 →

Photography

Mary Pope shares her daughter Sam’s passing with Poly High seniors

Mary Pope waits to be introduced on stage at Poly High's Arthur Littleworth Theater

Addressing an auditorium of high school seniors is no easy task.

I know this because I barely have what it takes to stand in front of 20 odd people in my photography classes.

My dear friend Mary Pope made it look easy as she addressed two groups of seniors inside Riverside’s Poly High school’s Arthur Littleworth Theater this morning.

She established audience participation quite effortlessly by suggesting everyone stand.

Then she asked everyone present to offer this greeting to their neighbor to the front and behind: “Peace Be With You”

Mary is new to this but she embraces her nervousness so well that her wonderful upbeat personality takes over.

Continue reading Mary Pope shares her daughter Sam’s passing with Poly High seniors →

Photography

From auto-focus to no-need-to-focus

Every so often a change occurs in an industry where folks describe it as a game-changer.

When I came across this latest camera made by Lytro, I viewed it as with most journalist, with some level of skepticism.

After looking over their website and pictures, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it.

The thought appeals to me that I don’t have to decide what I want sharp and in focus when I press the shutter.

If there was a downside to photography moving from film to digital, it was this: still camera owners no longer had to be choosy and picky before clicking the shutter.

That means if those same camera owners also hear ‘pros’ say shoot only RAW and not jpegs, their hard drives would fill very quickly with out-of-focus bad pictures, almost like someone shooting video the whole time.

Why sweat it when memory cards allow you to shoot thousands of images? Right?

So now we have yet another technological advancement which allows still camera owners to grab even more pictures without any planning or  decision-making. Continue reading From auto-focus to no-need-to-focus →