A Family that Snaps together...

The absolute best thing about photography for me is that my wife and I both feel so passionate about it. There isn't nights where I say,"Honey, I think I'm heading out to the bar with the guys...kiss the girlies goodnight for me" , and I've never heard from her, "Babe, my girlfriends and I are going out shopping for the day...there's frozen dinners in the freezer." We are either spending time with our crazy kids doing something, with our cameras in tow, or the once or twice a month that grandma watches our little ones we figure something out that involves photography...whether that means just driving around looking for something new and cool to shoot, or just staying at home and playing and working on lighting.

The other great thing is how different our styles are and how much fun it is to see each others take on the exact same subject. Last night (which the photo above is from) we packed the monkeys up and headed over to Hocking Tech to hang out with the horses. I could shoot those beauties everyday...what amazing animals! Heather stole the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 right off of my camera before we left, she's pretty sneaky like that, so I had the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 on mine...so just right there you know you are going to get some different, unique perspectives. We shot around 150 photos a piece, was only there for 1/2 hour or so, and then couldn't get home fast enough to put them on the computer and compare!

She's an awesome photographer. She's is so good at zooming in tight, getting personal with her subject, getting you right into the action. I tend to frame a little wider, seeing more of the whole story. Sometimes one works better than the other.

But she won tonight...

Jeffrey

What is Art and will I ever become an Artist?

Art is a very tricky, frustrating subject for me, as it can be for a lot of people I'm sure. Sites like Onexposure and others like it have gone a long, long way in helping me "see" photography as much more than just having the photo in focus and well lit with little or no graininess. Composition, flow, and mood have become a lot more important to me...shadows are slowly becoming more and more my friend rather than something I'm trying to chase and beat away so that every single part is visible. I find myself looking at my photos extra small, almost at thumbnail size, so that I can't see the details...only shapes and tones and composition.

I have sooo much to learn. Figuring out how to "see" is probably going to drive me crazy, cause major depression, keep me up at night smothering me. Focus can be figured out. The correct exposure can be arrived at. But can I "see" like an artist?

Yeah, maybe a little over-dramatic, but it is something I find myself obsessing about on a regular basis...why can't I look at that scene and find the perfect photo hiding there? Why can't I instantly find the flow...the story?

I won't give up. I will keep trying to learn...

Jeffrey

Review : Spyder 3 Pro

We recently upgraded our computer. I am absolutely NOT a computer guy as far as processor speeds, video cards, megahertz, etc. goes, but I can tell you when what I have isn't doing the job anymore, so our 4 year old PC was passed down to our 8 year old and we got with a friend who loves playing computer nerd on the side and told him what we needed. Basically, first we wanted something that could have Lightroom 2, Photoshop CS4, and Capture NX2 all up and running and be able to move at will between them all with out stalling the engine! Second, we wanted more than the 500GB hardrive of our old PC, plus a little extra storage to internally back-up to. Third, we wanted a good monitor that would give us a high definition view of our photos so we could work on them a little easier. Other than that, we just left it in his hands and let him go as crazy as our budget would let us...and he gave us exactly what we wanted. Everything works smoothly and quickly! We have the operating systen on a 70 GB hardrive, store all the main stuff on a 1 TB hardrive, and back it all up on another 1 TB hardrive. He also gave us an Asus 22" HDMI monitor which is just beautiful to work on and look at...but also is why I'm doing this review!

Right from the very first look at our photos, I knew we were having color issues with the new monitor. Everything looked beautifully alive and clear but all of the colors were just not quite right, in particular the reds and oranges...just way, way over-saturated. I've known for quite awhile that to save ink and assure you were being accurate with the photos you were sending out you really need to calibrate your monitor with something other than just your eye, so after reading a few online reviews I decided to give the Spyder 3 Pro display calbrator made by Datacolor a try, so brought up our favorite vender, B&H Photo's site, and placed our order. Three days of just working on Black and White photos later, our new toy arrived.

When I first opened it up, I must admit I was a little worried. The instructions didn't say much more than "stick the CD in" and there was a CD and the little triangley spyder thingy...I don't know for sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it. So since there wasn't anything else exciting to read or to do, I just put it in. A little screen comes up, asks you a few questions, gets you registered, shows you where to stick the little plastic Spyder thingy and then takes off. That's it!!! I went down, got an iced tea, came back up and it was done. It had a screen up where you could click and see the before view of an image and the after view...and it nailed it!

So all in all, this was one of the most anticlimactic experiences that produced EXACTLY what I wanted I've ever had.

Morristowne Review of Spyder 3 Pro : 9 out of 10 ... minus 1 just because of no WOW factor in the instructions. Definitely recommend!!!

Jeffrey