OK, OK, so this isn’t explicitly a camera topic; however, it is what I edit my photos on (an Apple). The old Macbook Pro was doing well and good, but my dad decided he wanted a laptop and it was a good excuse to get a little bump in speed and an updated machine (other machine is in the mail to him now). Surprisingly little has changed on the insides in the past 2.5 years that I had the old machine — now: a little more speed, a little more storage, and a little sleeker look. Sounds good.

So to photos, and where things stand. Sadly I didn’t do the side-by-side precision testing before boxing up the last-gen laptop. But here are a few numbers in photo terms on the new one: from a cold boot Photoshop CS4 loads in 5 seconds (if you quit it and re-open drop that to 2 sec). Lightroom 2 in the same manner loads in 6 seconds (and 3 secs with the quit/re-open maneuver). Speedy. Processing is definitely sped up as well; although, as with any computer (even a Mac Pro w/ 8Gbs of RAM) I can bring it to a crawl if I really want to. That said, a nice tidy boost is appreciated when editing 16.7 MP images. If you do the math and visualize the 30+ hrs of rendering time the 4122 photos from my last wedding took to process from RAW to JPEG w/ settings and compare that to some increased speed, well that is quite a bit of saved time.

OK, closing remarks. I am extremely impressed to date with the new unibody. It is solid, rigid, and performs. The new LED LCD made my old CCFL look like it was off. It is very bright. Glare is definitely there with the switch from mat to glass, and I will have to accustom to seeing my ugly mug all the time. You tune it out after a bit. The microphone is much more sensitive (the better to record my thoughts, classes, and chat with), and the speakers are equally louder. The smarter touchpad is great!, and means real four-finger fun, zoom, and multi-directional pan. Awesome. If I had a “highly recommended” sticker, it would be placed on this mini-review. Love. It.

Unibody Macbook Pro Specs:
15.4″ Glossy LED LCD, 1440×900
2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo (T9600, 6M Cache)
4 GB DDR3 1066 Mhz SDRAM
320 GB HD (SSD, someday)
512 MB GDDR3 NVIDIA 9600M GT (+ onboard 256 MB NVIDIA 9400M)

Alternative title: Why you should try to sell your photos! So recently I have decided to try my hand at stock photography; to enter this venture I have chosen Shutterstock. I heard about it through a few fellow photographers, who had good fortune. There are alternatives out there (and no reason to pick just one!), but I will tell you about my experience to date and maybe a few tips & tricks on the approval process (at least what has worked for me!!).

The process. So you want to be a stock photographer. You might think to do so will hamper your creative freedom, and you might be partially correct. Things for sale need to have “commercial value.” This to a photographer (or least to me) sounds fairly arbitrary, but essentially you need to put yourself in the place of a graphic designer — find images that convey a message, show an object, describe an event, or really anything that you could picture in an ad. This turns out not to be as challenging as I initially thought, but what you do need to make sure is that your images are up to par.

First step: LOOK AT EVERYTHING AT 100%, PERIOD. I pixel-peep on every image I take, and strive to maximize image quality, to reduce noise, and to make things contrasty enough to catch someone’s eye. Think of trying to be able to produce the largest print you ever imagined…now treat your file that well. The photo reviewers pixel-peep also, so make sure your images have no noise, no sharpening artifacts, no sensor dust, or any other abnormalities (white balance errors, chromatic aberration, etc etc, they all matter)! Otherwise, standard things seem fine — I upload in an sRGB color space as JPEG at full quality (least compression). Tagging and categorizing your photos is the next challenge. If you use Flickr this is pretty easy; I mostly free-associate and type whatever comes to mind.

The initial approval process with Shutterstock requires 10 images to be submitted for approval — you need 7 of 10 to make it through. Choose your best, have releases signed if they include people (forms available), and one dirty trick I do is to size the image down slightly if they have a little noise (minimum requirements are 4MP, my images range from 8.2-16.7MP and give reasonable room to do this). I am very new to the process, but with high hopes and reasonable results to date. Here are a few samples of what has made it through.

So try your hand! Here is the Photographer’s link to Shutterstock. And here is Subscribers link to Shutterstock if you want to subscribe and shop (that is OK with me too). =]

We are one. This was seriously cool, and probably the most historic thing I have participated in. Yesterday (18 Jan, 2009), HBO hosted the Inauguration Kickoff event for Barack Obama on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The title of the event was We are one celebrating our nation as we come together to heal after the past many years of increasing difficulty and hard times. It was broadcast live and free-to-view in HD on HBO.

The event featured performances by: “Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Jon Bon Jovi, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Caleb Green, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, Bettye Lavette, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, U2, Usher, Will.I.Am, and Stevie Wonder.” Also, celebrity appearances included “Jack Black, Steve Carell, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Foxx, Tom Hanks, Ashley Judd, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah, Laura Linney, George Lopez, Kal Penn, Marisa Tomei, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, and Tiger Woods” who excited the crowd and gave historical perspective reading famous quotes.

More information about the event, and the others accompanying Obama’s Inauguration can be found here. Here’s a few photos, with many more on my Flickr. GObama!

EDIT: Here’s a 180º panorama. Check out the large version to see just how many people were there!

In April 2007 Canon announced an update to one of my favorite lenses, it is the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM super wide-angle lens. Yeah I am a little behind the times, but I tend to be cautious and patient about most of my camera purchases and don’t make them until I do the heavy research and read all of the reviews.

Well, this lens has been out more than a year and a half and I still haven’t found a satisfactory answer to my simple question — is it really improved? I have found a lot of very good reviews, including those from Digital Picture and multiple users on Fred Miranda, but I have yet to see an in depth side-by-side comparison of the two (they may be out there, but I haven’t found one yet). The general consensus appears to be it is, but it is marginal. I haven’t found that result very helpful in deciding if I should upgrade my v1 of the lens.

Canon claims this lens has been entirely redesigned, with 16 elements in 12 groups (here is a link to the block diagram). In their words: “It has been specifically designed for improved edge-to-edge image quality that will meet the strict requirements of professional and high-end amateur photographers.”

So, I finally decided to put my wallet into the equation and see for myself. I ordered one over the holidays and it arrived right before my NY trip for New Years. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and my camera didn’t get much use (a few pictures here). It is time for a little more of a close look and a controlled comparison between these two. Just to set the background, I am comparing a USxxxx (2004) manufactured lens that I purchased in late 2004 before my Antarctica trip to a UWxxxx (2008) lens.

For the comparison I locked my 1Ds Mark II to a tripod, with MLU (mirror lockup), and used a remote trigger. All shots were at ISO 100. The camera was set to aperture priority, and each lens was sequentially mounted to the camera for the test scene below (note: I shot multiple test scenes, but this one is quite representative of my findings). As a landscape photographer I care most about edge performance, and not just sharpness, but overall clarity, color, and control of aberration. Here’s a 700px version of the scene and representative 100% crops.

Scene:
16-35 @ f/8
700px Version

100% Comparisons: center, edges

Conclusions:
Unfortunately the new lens back-focuses significantly — to the point where determining any differences in image quality (IQ) becomes a mute point. The options now are either to send the lens into Canon for repair, or simply to return the lens. I will do the latter, as if the problems are more than focus there is no reason to keep the lens and I will be outside of the window to return. I’m sad and a bit disappointed. =[ Look for another review when I receive the new copy.

UPDATE 11-Jan-09: This past Friday I received a new copy of the Canon EF 16-35 II, and it correctly focuses via AF. Yeah! I repeated the test and here are my updated conclusions.

Revised Conclusions:
My latest copy of the 16-35 II performs better at 16mm than my original 16-35 (which I think was a pretty darn good copy!) in terms of sharpness (center & edge), color rendition, and especially in CA. Yippie! They are quite close in center sharpness at f/8 and smaller apertures, although I give a slight edge to the new version. At 35mm, the two versions are almost indistinguishable — this is at both the center and edges. It looks like I have updated my arsenal and have a v1 for sale.

Here are the test results and images for comparison. In this revised test, I shot two scenes. While auto-focus (AF) was performing correctly on both lenses I instead shot the comparison with manual focus (MF) to avoid any discrepancies in focus and solely examine image quality. To note: the difference in apparently field of view is due to the 16-35 II being 8.6 mm longer in length than the 16-35 (which changes your view, even though you have locked the camera to a tripod)!!

Comparison @ 16mm

Backyard -
Full scene @ f/8 (1500px version): 16-35, 16-35 II.
100% Crops: center, edges

Brick Wall -
Full scene @ f/8 (1500px version): 16-35, 16-35 II
100% Crops: center, edges

Comparison @ 35mm

Backyard –
Full scene @ f/8 (1500px version): 16-35, 16-35 II
100% Crops: center, edges

I send very warm wishes to you and yours! Happy Holidays 2008!! A few photos from my trip home to the Seattle area for the Holidays. As always, more photos on my Flickr.

Shooting. I think most everyone may have figured out how to achieve good results taking smoke photos before I did, but just in case here’s my setup. The most obvious observation is that you want to maximize contrast — I used a matte black background to aid definition. Next, you have to light your smoke, and this was really the only tricky part. I remotely triggered a flash at left, and had a reflector (tin foil) at right. There are many more complex ways to do this (light boxes, multiple strobes, etc), but this was quick and easy and it let me experiment within about 2 minutes. The thing you want to note is that you need to control flash coverage; I would recommend either a snoot, or to zoom your flash. Here’s another perspective to see the simplicity (*another note, also I think incense might be a bit easier than matches.. but I didn’t have any around the house).

More creative things to do. After you have your shot, you can invert the colors (i.e. black to white, as below, etc), add color, clone, twirl, or do a number of things to make your art. More examples here.

Well, there’s more to be done. Next I think is dry ice, more smoke, some props, and maybe to gel the flash. I had fun, though. =]

My first wedding in Hawaii!! My first wedding in Maui!! Two amazing and beautiful people; about the most caring people you could ever know. Jen and Justin were married in Maui (Maui’ed) in the presence of family and friends on 28-Jun-2008. As usual, I shot many thousands of photos that will take me a little longer to get entirely through. In the meantime… check out the set and watch it develop on my Flickr (more pictures being added daily)!

Congrats you two. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day. A few of the favorites.

It’s been a while since a post… and a busy/ long past couple of months. I have moved across the country from Seattle to Washington D.C. to pursue graduate school. Dramatic changes and much work again, but a fantastic place and a wonderful opportunity. I will dearly miss seeing family and friends, but will keep in touch and plan to relentlessly stay active on my Flickr. Stay tuned, more to follow. =]

Better browsing; turn it on already! If you have been using Safari you already were in the know… but with the recent release of Mozilla Firefox v3 no one has any excuse not to see photos as they were intended to be seen.

Read more about it at Rob Galbraith’s site. He has an excellent description of how to enable.

I am pretty excited about this; there’s a fantastic feature article on my long-time friend and astounding musician, Marcus Eaton, in this month’s [July 2008] edition of Premier Guitar. And… they’ve run nine photos of mine for the article! Here’s a version of the lead image, as well as a screen capture of the article itself. Be sure to check out the article entitled Northwestern Exposure on pgs 56-67. Congrats Marcus, nicely done!