Social Networking - Revisited

Almost three months ago, I discussed some aspects of social networking that I plan to incorporate into my website. How have I done so far?

1) Facebook: I have a diverse community of fans of different ages and cultures. I attribute that to my content - I have traveled to interesting places, and have posted pictures from those areas. Area where I could improve - encouraging dialog. However, I think that will take some time.

2) Blog traffic: Lately, I've noticed that my LinkedIn efforts are leading to increased blog traffic. However, I could post more often, and in more areas. Frankly, the reason I haven't is my new job. It's really taking more of my time than I'd expected. Between that and my newly disciplined workout routine, it's been a struggle. However, there's a direct correlation between my blog posts and my web traffic. It's a tough balance to achieve, I admit.

3) Flickr page views - they've definitely been on the upswing. Interestingly enough, this picture has climbed dramatically in the rankings:



And this one has fared well:



This tells me that I may have something "there" where architectural and interior photography is concerned.

Tomorrow - my "current events" - the shutdown and one of my contests. The former affects my weekend plans, the latter an upcoming set of submissions.

This Morning on GMA

I love GMA. It's my morning habit (for as long as it takes to get ready for work, anyway). Today, a segment aired where Joe McNally provided some tips and tricks geared towards those who managed to get a camera for Christmas. I listened closely - it's always good to learn. Some highlights:

1) Although the camera is a machine which does most of the work for you, you still need to know your camera and learn how to use it.

2) Group photography - this can be one of the most difficult types, especially if children are involved. You have to direct the group, get everyone in line, make sure everyone's eyes are open, etc. The best way to handle this is to tell everyone exactly what you want them to do, and take many many pictures. This way, you can guarantee that everyone will look good in at least one of them. I can relate to this - here's one that turned out very well:



I directed everyone to stand like this and smile. My sister, my brother-in-law, and my niece definitely do a great job of taking direction! :)

3) Get close to the subjects - here's a good one:



Any closer, and my sister probably would have slapped me. But, you get the point. :)

4) If you're shooting landscapes, find some visual interest in the foreground. I'm actually not very good at this. I tend to go for sweeping, beautiful landscapes. Or lots of colors, like here:



5) Move the camera around - funny - I do this ALL the time. I'm the one you'll find lying on her stomach, standing on a bench, squatting, or crawling somewhere. Here's an example:



I stood on the base of a statue to get high enough, and to be able to capture the entire section of the building. Had I stayed on the ground, the top half would have been cut off.

6) Remember that you can still be spontaneous. In fact, it's easier - you can take many, many candid shots without having to wait for several days for the film to develop (like in the "old" days). This served me well in New York:



My subjects were moving around A LOT. They were playing around, and I grabbed my camera and started shooting. Some of the pictures were blurry, but this one was really good (in my opinion).

All in all, I follow most of these tips anyway, but I really want to improve my landscape photography. Where and how would you like to improve? Which of these tips will you try?

Till tomorrow!

Back at Penn

A month or so ago, I mentioned my plans to return to Penn and take more pictures. Last weekend, I did just that. I spent three hours in what was the freezing cold, but it was all worth it.

My photography strengths don't lie in architecture. Frankly, it's a struggle for me. It's not the buildings themselves - it's a matter of what story I'm trying to tell. I don't always have one. Anyway, here are some pictures that made the cut:







A few things I learned about my choices:

1) I'm obsessed with College Hall (the green building) and the Fisher Fine Arts Library (the last two pictures). This is amusing, since I don't remember ever having taken more than one class at College Hall, and I didn't spend much time in Fisher, either.

2) Although I practically lived in Houston Hall (the fourth picture) in college, I didn't take too many pictures of it. I'll admit that I don't think it's the nicest building there. I also struggled with the interior shots there. I took some pictures of the Hall of Flags, but none of them turned out well.

3) I took NO pictures of the places where I spent the most time, aside from Houston Hall. Honestly, those buildings weren't pretty at all (DRL, Stiteler). Don't get me wrong, though, some of my best classes were in those less-than-pretty buildings. :)

4) Some abstract options looked nice (like the last picture, and a few others), but most did not. Penn is a historic campus, and my abstracts are better suited to modern contexts.

5) These pictures don't really tell a story, but they would make nice postcards. This is progress for me.

6) I used a wide-angle lens for the most part, except for the abstracts. I'm not sure if a point-and-shoot would have been good enough.

Some things for you to think about:

1) Make sure your buildings don't look like they're leaning. That happens if you tilt the camera upward to try to include the entire subject in the frame. You'll notice that I don't have full shots of some of the buildings. This is because even with my wide-angle lens, I couldn't fit the entire picture. I opted to showcase the open space (Penn is in the city of Philadelphia, but you'd never know it) and the grass instead. With a point-and-shoot, you'll have to make some sacrifices, since your shots won't be as wide. This means you'll need to stand further back, and crop liberally.

2) The cloudy day was great in terms of being able to avoid harsh reflections, but I had to add saturation and luminance to every picture I took. Some of this can be done if you have a point-and-shoot (and don't shoot in RAW), but you may want to be mindful of this by trying to use a setting such as "Vivid" - or something along those lines. You'll save time when you post-process.

3) I had to turn up the ISO for almost every picture. Low light isn't always your friend. This especially applies to the last picture in this set, which was taken indoors.

4) Keep an eye on your white balance, especially if not shooting in RAW. I forgot to change one of my settings, and a few of my pictures were blue. It's no big deal for RAW images, but it's hard to correct JPEGs. For the outdoor pictures, I used Cloudy. For interior pictures, I used Tungsten (so that they wouldn't look yellow).

5) Go with what you like. I focused on a few buildings, and ignored most others. It's fine.

6) Experiment and have fun. Many of my pictures didn't turn out well. I'm glad I tried different things, though.

Till tomorrow!

Backup Plan - (Almost) All Set

Yesterday, I discussed the need to revisit my backup plan. After having evaluated the offerings against my requirements, (also discussed yesterday) I ended up purchasing a point-and-shoot - a Canon SX210 IS. Why, you ask?

1) I didn't want to spend too little, or too much. My point-and-shoot of choice needed to be more than just a toy.

2) I needed something small.

3) As long as I'm buying something new, the more resolution, the better. I know there are concerns about distortion, but I'm not worried.

4) Wide-angle capabilities. I use my wide-angle lens on my DSLR the most, and I wanted something that was at least of some use to me. It's obviously nothing close to what I have.

5) I may as well shoot decent video for fun.

6) I can tweak at least some of the settings - manual focus, aperture, shutter speed. All are useful to me.

7) It's a Canon. I like Canons. It's how I am. :)

So, will this replace my DSLR? Not a chance. Here's why:

1) No macro capability that I can live with. Macro shots are my favorites.

2) Noise distortion at ISO > 400.

3) No shooting in RAW. As I've discussed, I can't live without this.

4) The zoom is good, but it's obviously nothing like that of a telephoto.

Some advantages:

1) If I'm hiking, I'd rather take this than my DSLR. I have less to lose if something happens with this camera.

2) In ideal conditions where I'm taking landscape or "postcard-like" pictures, I can take this rather than all of my gear, if I'm going on a quick trip.

3) While I wait for my DSLR to be repaired, this will absolutely force me to focus on my technique. I take too much for granted with my camera, admittedly.

My backup strategy won't be complete until I purchase a high-end DSLR. However, what I have is good for now.

For everyone else, some considerations:

1) You definitely want to think about two cameras of some sort if you're a) On a trip b) Photographing a special occasion c) You're on a trip to an exotic place.

2) If you stick with one camera, I urge you to have two (large) memory cards and two batteries. If you can take a laptop with you, all the better. That way, you can load the pictures on the laptop, at the very least.

3) Don't pack everything together. I am still upset about my Hawaii debacle. Had I kept the memory card in my purse, or had I had my laptop with me, I wouldn't have lost all of those gorgeous shots. It doesn't look like I'm returning to Hawaii anytime soon, so I'm still upset.

I haven't gone out on any photo shoots with my point-and-shoot yet. I'm going to try to before my NYC trip, so that I can practice using it.

Here's another Penn "teaser" picture - this time, of my favorite building:



Till tomorrow (I will discuss my Penn lessons learned this week, really)!

Backup Plan

Today is Day 1 without my DSLR camera. I miss it (see yesterday's post for details). However, the situation has really forced me to give some thought into my backup and recovery options. Prior to the debacle, I owned:

1 DSLR

Two batteries

Two memory cards

A series of lenses

Logically, I'm not going to replicate my lens environment. If something happens with one of my lenses, so be it. The fact that I owned two memory cards and two batteries was good. If one fails, the other is there.

But what about the camera? I've read that many professionals carry two or three camera bodies with them. That seemed excessive to me, as an amateur. Now, thought, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. If I were to purchase a camera body, though, it would need to be nicer than the one I own. However, I'm not about to go out and spend $1,000+ on a camera body right now. It takes me longer than two days to buy a piece of fruit, much less such a big-ticket item.

So, what to do? Well, first, I purchased two USB card readers. One is for my new point-and-shoot (more on that later), and the other for my DSLR. The latter is a universal one. This way, I would be covered on the road.

Back to the camera: I can't go six weeks without a camera. This is just not possible in my world. My Nokia phone's camera is nice and all, but it won't cut it. So, I headed to Penn Camera, and looked at some point-and-shoots. My criteria was as follows:

1) Good optical zoom - for my building shots, etc.

2) Good ISO options - for shooting in low light

3) High resolution - to do some serious cropping, since I was bound to have issues with exposures. Since I won't be shooting in RAW, I don't have the benefit of fine-tuning my shadows and highlights.

So, what did I get? I'll share that tomorrow. :) I need to test the camera first. And upload my pictures from Philly. They're still loading into Aperture.

In the meantime, for those of you who went to Penn, see if you can guess where this is:



Till tomorrow!

Here I am. On the Road again.

I'm in my home state of PA through Sunday. While I won't be able to post again until Monday, I have great plans lined up:

1) A do-over of my homage to Penn - I've packed every lens I own, and hope to get some interesting and good shots. Weather permitting, I'll spend most of Saturday on this.

2) (Time permitting) Philly at night - there are some tall buildings in the area. I thought I'd do a Philly take on building reflections - such as this one:



There is one building in particular that I'm eyeing. Fortunately, the sun sets early - if I don't have time to do this tomorrow (but I hope to), I can do this Saturday night before the work event.

Anyway, wish me luck! Till Monday!

Dear Penn, I Love You - A Gratuitous Trip Down Memory Lane

I am an extremely loyal person. Case in point: I LOVE my alma mater. So much, in fact, that I volunteer for it. It's time for my volunteer work to kick up in high gear, so I dug through my photo archives from 2004. It's amazing how my photography has changed since those days, but I think these are serviceable enough to show you:

I love you, Penn! I can't wait to take better pictures of you in December!
Till tomorrow!