Panning the Marathon

I was at the Twin Cities Marathon today with a bunch of family ... in fact, we tailed my brother-in-law along the whole course. We met him at the first five-mile marker and every subsequent five miles after that. It's a fun little hopping game with a bunch of family in the van squeezing through the narrow double-parked streets of south Minneapolis. It was a beautiful day ... hot, and we had a great time.

I spent the day with my D70s and the 18-70mm kit lens. I really like this lens. I think it's almost an insult to call it a kit lens. This lens is very sharp, focuses fast, is light weight and looks cool, too.

Besides the obligatory pictures of the pit crew goofing around, I had the opportunity to try some panning with my camera and show some motion with the subject. I was shooting in aperture priority so I kept the f/stop high around f/22. This meant that the shutter was hovering around 1/15th to 1/30th of a second using ISO 200. I kept the focal length of the zoom at about 50mm. That gave me nice distance between me and the subject as I panned perpendicular to the street.

Here are some of the results ...

In the next couple of months I'd like to touch base on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I've been using it for almost a year now and have some things to say about how it has helped me. I'd like to find out what is hootnik on readers are using. Let me know. I'm not interested in starting big arguments just gather information and see what people think. Thanks all.

i shoot nikon

Custom Settings and other things D70

Speaking of custom settings on the D70 & D70s, a friend of mine and I sat down with our cameras this weekend and I introduced him to the many custom settings and some of the logic behind them. Some of the settings are pretty obvious ... turn that damn beeping off! Other settings need some insight and explanation.

Now, I'll spare you the dissertation here and just give you a "heads-up" on PlanetNeil. Photographer Neil van Niekerk publishes this great blog on his work. And he happens to have a spec sheet that describes all the D70/s custom settings, how he uses them and why.

It's a great little resource and saves me from having to type all that stuff out. Here's the link to Neil's custom settings page: D70 Custom Settings. And another link to Neil's great content: Nikon D70 wireless TTL flash.

Thanks Neil ... hope you don't mind.

i shoot nikon

Hotdish and the Heisman Trophy

Let's see ... thirty days has September, April, June and November ... what the hell happened to August!?! It was just here a minute ago! Man, I can't believe that September is here already and I still haven't deflated my pool toys yet. I'm two assignments down for Strobist Lighting102 and my schedule just keeps getting busier.

I'm sorry about that because I'm noticing a little more traffic here at is hootnik on and I need to accommodate even a modicum of interest with new content. I've actually had a lot to say but it's incomplete. For now, let me take you on a little adventure we like to call the "Great Minnesota Get Together."

That's right ... you missed it! The Minnesota State Fair. It's a beautiful event. Spiritual in every way that is only Minnesotan. In brief, a state fair is a gathering of folks that want to show off their wares, which in turn gathers more folks that need to eat and spend money ... or at least sign up for stuff. That is the fundamental spirit of this event. It lasts 12 days (through Labor Day) and you can see everything from a new calf being born to the Heisman Trophy. Back in 1941, Bruce Smith won the Heisman playing football for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Eating is a fundamental joy that, at the State Fair, only slightly transcends the primitive ritual from which it stems. Example ... the ridiculous manner by which it's accomplished ... that is, on a stick. It's very popular, almost requisite, to find something, preferably edible, put it on a stick, and sell it to people that have little if any manners. And the more creative the better. We're talking deep-fried candy bars and Hostess Twinkies, alligator, pork chops, all varieties of kabobs, stuff you can't pronounce, nor would you show to the kids.

Now it's important to understand that Minnesota is Scandahoovian country. A conglomeration of Northern European ancestry that, mixed with a conservative Lutheran backbone, comes out green Jello and hot dish. Hot dish is the common vernacular for "casserole." However, in its tradition, it has been elevated to the high art combination of ground beef, tater tots and cream-o-mushroom soup. For the record, Ole and Lena make a kabob alternating tater tots with meatballs, batter that bad boy, deep fry it and serve it with a generous side of aforementioned soup. Mmm mmm good!

But that's not all! Visiting dignitaries often border on the impossible. Remember Jesse Ventura, who wouldn't leave Minnesota, and Senator Norm Coleman who couldn't win anywhere else? Well, Santa comes here in August. I'm not sure why ... walleye and musky fishing won't pick up again until late September, camping is crippled with minnesquitoes and picnics can't escape the wasps. He must own a jet ski. Either that or Jimmy Jam's manse on Minnetonka has gone time share. Never-the-less, it makes the state fair an interesting place to hang out for the day.

Photographically, I had a hard time at the fair this year. I continued with my experiment working with center-weighted metering instead of 3D Matrix. I found overall that my images came out a little muddy, under-exposed even though highlights were blowing out. Lot's of sun is very difficult to shoot in. Most of the images I captured had to be on the run because I was there with family and that was really the purpose of the excursion. So, I feel lucky to have gotten anything. I shot in auto-aperture mode with my ISO set to 400. Even with all the bright sunshine I literally had to point and shoot relying a lot on the camera.

I was able to get this shot of the cowboys up on Heritage Hill and particularly enjoy the composition. The three white hats, the leisurely postures. Then I'd get a cup of coffee and give my foot a push. Just me and the pygmy pony over by the dental floss bush (Thanks FZ).

I always wanted to be a cowboy when I was a little kid but now I can't imagine living that ... even in the comfort of a heated, well-lit barn; a mud room with plenty of space to hang my hats and a basketball hoop along side the driveway. I think I'd be far too conscientious wearing a hat like that in the hood.

Still, it's one of my favorite shots from the day in that its authenticity is very human albeit contrasted with its contemporary surroundings and a bright red styro-foam cup.

Finally, I just want to point out the old adage ... "there's a comedian in every crowd". Here's the proof. Al Franken for Senator.

Vice-president New Guy: "The senate recognizes the distinguished Senator from Minnesota, Democrat Al Franken! ... who will be selling DVD's of his campaign out in the lobby after today's session."

Shine the light, Al. Shine the light.

i shoot nikon

Strobist: Cooking Light Assignment

Okay ... so take what you've learned and apply it. Why is it so easy to forget?

The Assignment: ... photograph one or more kitchen utensils - knives, forks, spoons, whisks - whatever you like. The look you are going [f]or is that of ordinary object elevated to high art. Or at least commercial art, as this is the kind of thing that might appear as a catalog cover or in a calendar or on the wall of one of those ubiquitous "fast casual" restaurants.

The first piece of advice was something I unconsciously ignored: keep it simple.

I'm not sure why I started by over-thinking but I did. There always seems to be at least two ways to accomplish just about everything. Sometimes I start with sketching, formulate some image. Have a plan. Work loose and noodle until it's clear. Or because of computers, we tend to work tight, manipulate tight imagery into an even tighter image often times forcing the issue and achieving no real expression.

My first attempt is the perfect example of working too tight and forcing the issue. Here ... take a look and I'll explain. See Setup Here

This is a pretty nice image but really says very little of the assignment. I didn't plan or even noodle around awhile. I found this interesting shape with this vegetable brush and some pretty rocks. Completely unrelated unless I'm using the brush at the end of a fly-rod. That's not to say that the combination isn't workable, just not in this context. And the result says I took some stuff and lit it with some stuff that I've been trying to find more uses for. It was a lazy, inexpressive attempt.

Well ... at least it was late enough that it garnered little attention.

Version 2 is a nicer image. It is simple, direct, and actually uses the principles that I learned in the first two exercises from Lighting 102. Here ... take a look. This is a much nicer image. In fact, so much better that I did two versions of it. The two are virtually the same except for the material that was used to diffuse the light. In the first one I was using a PhotoFlex Light Disc and in the second I found and used this huge roll of white paper (almost as heavy a butcher paper without the coating on one side). The only change I had to make between the two materials was to increase the output of the flash from 1/32 power to 1/8th.

The second image seems to hold a little more detail. The light is still hot on the "MicroPlane" text yet seems smoother in the second image. See Setup here.

i shoot nikon

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