Photo Techniques Archives - Page 19 of 19

Life in the slipstream

bobkrist
April 3, 2009
Destinations / Photo Techniques / Travel
7 Comments

I’ve had an opportunity to work with some incredible pilots in my time. Usually, they’re the behind the scenes guys who help me get aerial views of landscapes, but occasionally they’re the subject of the photos themselves. Here are two very similar views of two (well, actually four) very skillful pilots. The first, on this page, is Azhar Husain of Sport Aviation at Van Sant Airport in PA. I was shooting for my book about Bucks County and after seeing what planes and pilots were available we decided to try the formation flight.

We worked out all the logistics…the second pilot, the wind and light direction, a harness for me so I could turn around in the cockpit and shoot backwards. There was only one thing I hadn’t counted on, and it nearly cost me a broken nose, not to mention a smashed up camera. Hit the jump to find out how to avoid plastic surgery if you should attempt a similar shot… (more…)

Go Wide, Baby

I love the Lensbaby line, those lenses that help you bend and shape your depth of field; and I’ve had one of each generation (the babies are growing up!). All of the babies thus far have been about a 50mm focal length, which means for folks like me, a DX format shooter, it’s actually more of a telephoto, a 75mm.

At that focal length, the Lensbabies have been useful for me on stuff like portraits, food shots, and detail shots, like this one.

But what I’ve really wanted was a wide angle version so I could go out and do some landscapes and the like. They have, in the past, offered a screw in wide angle, but these were usually just video camera auxiliary lenses.

They were heavy and clunky and made it hard to focus the Lensbaby.

I’m using the model called the Composer now, and it’s extremely easy to work with, and with the dual element lens, the sharp part of the photo is really sharp. And now, there’s an equally elegant and usable wide angle attachment. I just got it and am looking forward to taking it to the Indian Ocean on a job next week.

I can just visualize all those soft topped palm trees—-oh yeah, it’ll make me look hip and deconstructed… and that is a tall order! Hit the jump to take a look at the wide baby.

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Channeling your inner O. Winston Link…

bobkrist
March 23, 2009
Lighting / Photo Gear / Photo Techniques
7 Comments

Maybe it’s because I’ve spent half my adult life in hotel rooms, but I love to work close to home. It gives me a chance to play around with techniques I can take back out on the road, and if my wife Peggy has any say, to do something worthwhile. In that latter department, for the last few years she’s volunteered me to be a mentor for students from our high school working on their senior “culminating projects” in the area of photography. It’s fun to work with the kids, and I get a kick out of their enthusiasm.

My current student, Josh, is a great kid with boundless energy for the project (I’ve got him working on a multimedia slide show about the New Hope/Ivyland railroad. And just for good measure, I’m working on one myself, you know, like the rookie teacher who is one lesson ahead of the class in the textbook?) So I knew that when the cold December winds were blowing through the little railstation, but the train would be around at twilight, I could persuade Josh to come out and play with some SB 800 flash units in an attempt to channel our inner O. Winston Link.

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Get ’em out the door

bobkrist
March 12, 2009
Destinations / Lighting / Photo Gear / Photo Techniques / Travel
17 Comments

Okay, I admit it. I’m a sucker for living history museums. You know, those places where folks dress up in period costumes and re-enact life in the days of yore. Think about it, how else can a travel photographer illustrate the “history” of a destination—there’s no shooting in the past tense (not like you writers, with your fancy tenses and facile flashbacks!) So, yes, my name is Bob, and I’m a living history-shooting junkie.

But the lawman in this shot, a cool guy named Michael, is not in a museum….

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Waaaaay Off Camera Lighting

bobkrist
March 5, 2009
Destinations / Lighting / Photo Gear / Photo Techniques / Travel
22 Comments

These days, you have to go to some lengths to bring home dramatic pictures of oft-photographed icons, like the moai of Easter Island, for instance. Seen ’em a million times in the daylight. But they’re in the dark at night, there’s no “son et lumiere” tourist light show, or even electricity out there. How do you light six 21-foot structures in the middle of nowhere?

You take that light waaaaay off camera.

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