Wednesday, April 28, 2010

JUMP FOR JOY !

THIS IS IT FOR TODAY.  SOMEBODY GAVE ME A WICKED COLD.  SEE YA LATER.....

Sunday, April 25, 2010

PICADADAY

PUBLISHED

IN

CAMERA

TALK

AND

INTERESTING

QUESTIONS

POPPED-UP.

HOW DO

YOU GET PERMISSION TO PUBLISH SOMEONE'S PICTURE ? READ ABOUT IT HERE.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Dance Around The Fire

PHOTO OF THE DAY NOT CRITTERS TODAY !

EVERY NOW AND THEN

PEOPLE SHOULD
GET A CHANCE.

PUT THEM IN
THE SPOTLIGHT

AND FILL UP
THIS SPACE SO I DON'T HAVE TO DO SO MUCH

TYPING !




Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY: MATADORU



HERE IT IS. RIGHT OUT OF THIS MORNING'S EMAILS:

Dear Mike,
Today I'm really stoked to announce the launch of MatadorU's 2nd program: Travel Photography http://matadoru.com/courses-list/travel-photography. As with our methodology in the Travel Writing Program, this course isn't just "how to take travel photos," but an immersion into the life of a professional Travel Photographer working today. Within the first month, students complete lessons on equipment and technique, then get right into building successful WordPress blogs, creating networks of colleagues, pitching work to editors, strengthening their brands, and powering up their portfolios and blogs so they can get assignments, generate ad revenue, and expand their audience as photographers and new media professionals. We're especially excited about the teachers who will be working directly with students in this program, including Matador's own Lola Akinmade and Paul Sullivan. Their recent assignments as pro photographers have sent them to Morocco, Istanbul, and Iceland to name a few. As well, we have Gail Mooney, whose work has been published in National Geographic and Smithsonian. There is a lot more to explain about the program, including lifetime access to the forums and Market Blog, as well as the direct feedback offered in the Photo Labs. But instead of talking about it all here, I invite you to learn more about the Travel Photography programhttp://matadoru.com/courses-list/travel-photography We look forward to having you join our community. Please contact us with any questions!
Sincerely,
David MillerMatadorU Team

Now, I'm in kind of a rush and just copied, pasted and borrowed the words outa my email 'cuz, ya'll know me; I hate typin' and that Spellchecker and those HTML Codes that are always messin' up my website and blogs. I'm in a hurry and don't feel like fixing LINKS and all that stuff. So, if you want to learn more about the course, CLICK ON THE TITLE TO THIS POST AND "BINGO" IT TAKES YOU RIGHT THERE!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Wagon Wheels

A shot like this is one I rarely take in the form I used to get it. The light was just right for what I wanted to do; clear blue skies and it was a photo I'd seen done before only, I wanted to do it better.

No tripod, no LCD screen and no way to look through my camera's viewfinder, it was a cameraman's worst nightmare. Probably, about three feet from the wall were a bunch of telephone and electrical wires to mess up the wide angle shot, as well.

Here's how it was done. With my Pentax, equipped with an 18-250mm lens, I laid it on the ground and propped the lens up with my cell phone, a pack of smokes and a lighter. I set the 10 second timer.  In fully Manual Mode and Auto Focus, I read the lightmeter on the outside of the camera body. From perfect exposure, at f/8, I stopped down on the shutter to minus one (underexposing) because I knew it was a high contrast shot.

The angle I aimed the lens at was just pure guesswork. The shutter button was pressed and I leaned back and waited 10 seconds. The camera fired and I packed up and went home figuring if nothing else, at least I'd have a nice patch of blue sky with some wires in it to analyze and I could always use the shot to try and figure out how to do it better, next time around.

See, I figured the photographer who shot the original scene (I'd seen in a brochure) used PhotoShop or something to clone the wires out of his picture. I'm not into doing that sort of thing.

But, to my surprise, when I processed the RAW file, I discovered the wires could be cropped out of the picture. With a little tweaking in my RAW developer, I can take the lens distortion out of the wall, put the color and contrast (I removed to post this online) and I'll have as good, or better photo than the last cameraman that made this shot.

The other option, I've been thinking over is using a camera with a rotating LCD screen. Canon's got one of those little cameras that's a Point and Shoot.  It'd fit in my pocket, shoot RAW, it can fire fully Manual, I'd never be without a camera, even when I'm walking three dogs and It would help me explain how to shoot little cameras better. Hmm.... Canon G11's lookin' better every day....

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

At the Exhibit

Well, the big time exhibit is over.  For the whole month of March, Doc and I had a slew of framed photos on display in a climate-controlled library.

Air conditioning is a treat for my photos; the constant temperatures and low humidity are so good for the prints I had to drag them, kicking and screaming, out of the library.

Now they're all back where they belong, with me, in a dingy, dark, musty bar. Here, they're lucky if they get dusted once a month.  They probably got Windexed and wiped everyday where they were by the cleaning staff at the library.

While the display was going on, I kinda missed some of my photos the walls were bare in a few spots. I really should print and frame some new photos. It's just one of those indoors-type chores I'd rather not do, as long as I can avoid it.

The photo above is actually a poster advertising the event.  It's one of Doc's photos but, it's got my name on it, so, I shot it and now, it's my photo. Way too involved to teach you how I took this picture but, I'll give you a short description of the materials I used: Cell phone Camera, Mason Jar and two upsidedown ashtrays.

It's raining cats and goats, again and I left my cameras home along with my laptop that I know how to use so, this is all I'm typing today.  More later.....

Cheers,
Mike

Monday, April 5, 2010

Photo of the Day


Marin, my #1 Granddaughter Graduates and makes the cover of LIFE MAGAZINE !
Well, not exactly but, that's what I'm telling her, anyway.

Published at Matador Life