Photographic tips

I've been listening to Chris Marquardt's Tips From the Top Floor on my iPod while I ride the bus to work and there are lots of useful tips and tricks for aspiring photographers like myself. One trick I learned recently and has become my favourite is using the fully manual setting on my camera when shooting in consistent light conditions.

I like trying to use natural light through windows when shooting indoors and it is relatively consist for Julie's entire attention span while she's being my model. Since my ist D L2 tends to underexpose my photographs in indoor, natural light conditions, I like to correct for this so there is less post-processing to do. I can set my shutter speed and aperture and the camera also indicates if it thinks the settings are correct or not. I typically overexpose by one full stop to get results I like.

Another great advantage comes during the post processing. Since conditions do not change, all the photos I take are similarly exposed. Ergo, if I'm still not happy, I can batch correct all my photos quickly. I use iPhoto for most of my general corrections and Elements for anything that needs particular attention. iPhoto allows me to copy and paste edits between photos.

My only word of warning is to watch the ISO on the camera. If I take a few shots to start with, I use the P setting and then switch to fully manual when I see that Julie is in a good mood and going to give me a lot of cute faces. The camera remembers the P settings when I switch to M but the ISO resets itself so my first manual shot is horribly underexposed if I'm not paying attention since the P setting with an automatic ISO will often select an ISO of 1600 in low light. My minimum ISO is 200 so I'm typically three stops underexposed if I don't force the ISO to something higher or adjust my shutter speed or aperture.

I'm currently switching from Picasa to Flickr so you can check out those sites if you want to see more of my photography (read: Julie). If you use a news reader, you're probably better off subscribing to the Flickr feed. And check out the Tips From the Top Floor podcast.

The world keeps on spinning

I know this picture also appears in my TFFTF photo challenge album but I kind of like it. The toys above Julie's head would be clearer with a shorter exposure but the challenge was for a 30 second exposure. I had thought about the typical long exposure of car headlights and taillights streaking through the night but this idea struck me as a good one too.

Julie's reached the age of 15 days. We're all settling in nicely around here and she's doing great. The first night home was a little rough 'cause Ying's milk hadn't come in and Julie was hungry until we gave her a little formula. There's now a plentiful supply of milk especially for Julie and she couldn't be happier. She's a very quiet baby unless she's hungry or her diaper's poopy. Even then, she's pretty calm. She was a major drama queen for the first few days when we were changing her diaper. She'd take her crying to the next level, shed a few tears and even get her bottom lip quivering but it'd quickly stop when the new diaper was on. The latest picture in her album on Picasa shows one such visit to the changing table.

Ying's mom has been great taking care of Ying and Ying's been great taking care of Julie. Ying thinks I need lots of sleep so I can do well at work so she gets up to tend to Julie during the night. Of course, there's nothing I can do about feeding Julie. Sometimes I'm woken up too and I'll do a diaper change or burping. Ying's able to get in lots of naps during the day 'cause her mom will look after Julie and do all the cooking. Once in a while I need a break from the Chinese food so I'll do a little cooking for myself. But, so far, Julie's been a great little baby and we're all doing well.

Be vewy, vewy quiet...

Spring has sprung again in Calgary but we'll have to see exactly how long this one lasts. With the office weigh-in, another season for basketball and softball season pending, it'd be nice to be able to get out and about without needing my down jacket. In the hopes that tomorrow will be nice enough to ride to work again, I did a very quick shake-down of my 'cross bike. I was just a few metres off my driveway and a big hare appeared in front of me on the road. After getting back home, Ying and I went for a walk in hopes of seeing the hare again. We did a little circle of the neighbourhood with no success. As we're heading home, the hare appeared at the head of the bike path and made its way right towards us. It passed pretty close and I was able to get a number of good shots.

Here's hoping the weather starts to improve. Another session of basketball starts on Wednesday and softball in just over a week. I'm hoping most of the guys added to our team are no shows 'cause we've got double the number I'd like: eight! We only have two girls which means they'll be on the floor the whole game and, if everything was equal, the guys would get 37.5% of the playing time. I might get more exercise in softball this year. The team I play for likes to take things easy. There are usually a lot of volunteers to be the extra player and no one was interested in a league with no outfield fence. I'm quite the oddball on the team 'cause I'm looking forward to the bigger field this year. My favourite position is still first base but I'll probably be seeing most of my playing time in the outfield. I hated the small outfields I've previously played at since lazy fly balls turned into home runs. I'm not a power hitter in softball so I'd rather have the opportunity to track down some balls in the outfield. Thanks to Dr. Jordin, I'm feeling quite good this Spring so I'm eager to do some cycling, some running up and down the roundball court and to stretch my legs in the outfield. If only I could find a decent outdoor basketball court. I checked out one near by today. One hoop was set at about 11' and the other was 9'. No happy medium.

necessary photographic equipment

We're up in Edmonton this weekend picking up the new family car. So far, we love it! It's got a sunroof, an aux jack for my iPod so I'm no longer using the cassette converter and a ton of oomph. (Remember cassettes? Two wheels and a ton of magnetic ribbon which made skipping ahead a song very difficult. After I turned 16, I spent more time in Stuart's car listening to a tape winding than actual music.) Uncle Bob and Aunt Joan are also in town this weekend and have bought us a crib so we almost have everything we need for the new member of the family. With six weeks to go, we've got some new baby clothes, blankets, a rocking chair, stroller, crib, car, house and visa documents for Ying's mom. With all this new stuff, I'll be hard at work over the next long while to make sure there's enough money to pay for it all. We still have two grandmothers who are doing a good job spoiling the baby before it arrives so we're well taken care of.

I brought my camera to Edmonton and found a little time to do some photography. I'm still hoping to get a picture of a bird washing itself in the bath in the backyard but I got some photos of the next best thing. Some chickadees kept landing on trunk of this old tree in the backyard. They were continually landing just out of my view so I was wondering what they were up to. I was able to circle around and it seems they've built a nest inside the trunk. I've got a few photos of them flying in and out. I'll try for some more later when the Sun is in a more favourable position; assuming they're still at it later. As I'm taking my pictures, I'm realizing some equipment I should have handy next time: a baseball cap and a stool. While using my 300 mm reflex lens, I was also using my tripod since the focusing is so tricky. The Sun was above and behind the nest which is very close to the ground. So, I'm squatting in the backyard, squinting through my viewfinder and trying to get some good shots. I haven't squatted that much since playing catcher in baseball when I was 16 or 17. I'm also trying to shield my eyes with my hand so I can see something out of the viewfinder because the backlighting is quite bad. A little shade for my eyes and something low to sit on would have been very helpful. I'll post the results once I'm home and can get the photos off my camera.

=> We're home now and I've posted a photo of the chickadee. It was using my 300 mm reflex lens and did I mention the focusing is tricky? I botched most of the shots on the focusing and should have taken control of the ISO so that my exposure was shorter. You can see that I was shooting into the Sun and you can notice a bright spot in the upper right.

Let them eat cake

Just a photo for this post. Sonja invited Ying and me to her daughter's first birthday. Sonja's nephew, Logan, took a cue from Sidney and tried to grab a little cake before he was cut his own piece. He was quickly stopped from helping himself and had to wait like the rest of us. I rather like this picture I got of Logan wondering if the next piece of cake will be his.