Red Hot

Winter Koi

G10.  Exposure 2 - Provia 400 (50% opacity).

Fight Journal

Last week David Allen Harvey's burn featured a short edit of Adam Smith's Fight Journal; a good start to a worthy project.  Maybe at some point I'll get to see the rest of it.

Along those lines, this Saturday night photographer Mac Danzig (who yesterday posted one of the best and most extensive lens reviews I think I have ever seen) will be in Las Vegas doing that other thing he is good at.

Roast

5 guys, 3 bushels.  35mm f/1.8 - cheapest lens in the bag.

The Elusive

Mr. Salinger.  He can finally be left alone now.  Sometimes after I illustrate (all in Photoshop) I like to go back and mess it up a little with Machine Wash (vol. 3).  I have spent some time trying to apply it to photography but have always found the result distracting.

Not trying to pull a Shepherd Fairey here;  I was unable to find credit for the photograph I used to illustrate from.  Most obits credit it back to synaesthesia press but I think they are just saying where they lifted it.  Sometime this weekend I am going to try and figure out how to make copies of some of my illustrations available from Zenfolio .

Kuvasz Quarterly

Truman and his handler.  Turns out he is not the loaded weapon everybody thought he would be (the dog not the handler).  50mm f/1.4 - both.

Fogged In

I don't remember the part about the river turning green.

Scott's Variety Store

Following in the footsteps of Peter Frank Edwards wasn't easy but I found it.  Some of the best barbeque ever.

Two Point Shot

Nancy Whitehead had been by the quail club sometime prior to me getting there to drop off copies of her book In The Field.  Might be the best sporting dog book I have ever seen.

Shot this one with my 300mm.  Shooting dogs in the woods with a long lens is not as easy as you might think.

Birdman

I have known this guy since I was in college.  Every now and again he shows up in one of my dads old golf shirts.  Try as I may I can't understand much of what he says,  I think it's Gullah.

I love my 50mm f/1.4 (a 75mm on my D80) but was feeling the need for something wider.  Not ready to step up to a full frame body ($$$) I picked up a 35mm f/1.8 DX.  Brand new it was just under $200.  It's the cheapest lens in my bag and has already been living on the camera.

I would recommend it to new SLR shooters (with DX sensors of course).  Making yourself use a fixed focal length will make you better.   Forsake the zoom for getting closer to your subject.  Shoot it wide open as much as possible.  Narrow your options; think simple.

Backwoods

Back from a road trip to Hemingway, SC where I shot a few quail over some pretty amazing dogs, ate a ton of oysters, caught up with old friends, found an elusive barbeque spot, and took what was for me a modest amount of pictures.

First Snow

Back from a week with no internet.

Little Ego

I recently got these little daylight flourescents from Lowel.  The Ego is a well designed 60 watt (2 bulbs) lamp that emits light similar to that of a little softbox.  It can sit on a table top or be screwed into a tripod/stand/boom.  They are as simple as it gets.  You could do-it-yourself on something like this (the $$ is in the bulbs) but for $90 the clean design of these little guys might be hard to beat.

With just one light and a bounce card I was able to hand hold these shots - f/1.4 at 1/320th, ISO 200.

Spot the Fake

It's a bit of a trick question, there are actually two fakes here.

About half the traffic to this blog everyday is linked to a review I wrote of two different kinds of ring flash adapters.  Guess there is more interest in these things that I thought.  One reader recently wrote me to ask what I knew about the Coco ring.  Turns out it looks EXACTLY like the Ray Flash.  I would be quite surprised if they didn't come off the same line.

Vespa once decided to stop manufacturing scooters in India.  The problem was the factory kept making the same scooters but called them a different name (Stella).  Oops.  International manufacturing can be a sticky wicket.

What stings Ray Flash a little harder - the Coco is a mere $50 (75% cheaper).  The reader did mention that she was getting some red eye off the Coco, I couldn't remember seeing red eye off a ring flash ever but not sure why.

Sail On

Back from Florida where I got to do some fishing with friends.  6 Sailfish off the kites in one day - not an everyday event.  Wading through 1000+ shots.  Time for some slash and burn.

Good to be back on the Nothing Better with friends who really know how to fish.

Bathtub IV

Making my second attempt to head south in the morning.  Planes, trains and automobiles.  Sometimes it helps to just think of ourselves as little ants rushing from one place to another.  Below is one of my favorite Keith Luotit time-lapse videos. All the others are linked here.  I love these.



Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.