Flight

Not everyone is so fortunate to have such inspiration at hand.  This one makes me get out and be a photographer and, more importantly, a dad.

Where do your wings come from?

Playing Photographer

Made it out of the house today and got some good photos of a boy playing in the park.

New things coming.

Megan, my blessed wife, is working toward her own business that is wrapped in a talent and passion for creating in a medium most tangible to women - handbags.

Nonna Chic.  For the elegantly wise and fashionable lady.

Breathing Again

 Canon EOS 1DS Mk II w/ 17-40mm f/4L USM; f/5 for 1/60 sec. @ 28mm, ISO 200, Av mode.      1969 Volvo 144S "Wyatt"

     I didn't get far, but had to grab an exposure of Wyatt's left eye.  Working out many kinks in my kit, learning a new camera body until it is second nature where I don't have to look at the buttons (or wonder what they do!), and searching for good light.  Going to get out a bunch in the next few days, running some tests (exposure and white balance bracketing, outdoor flash, and 1:1 macro control), experimenting with a graduated neutral density filter, and pay more attention to my methods and process more than my camera shutter actuations.  Damn I just feel good to be on the ground again breathing fresh air.

Down Time

     Over the past weekend I've tracked down an issue with my primary camera body, Canon EOS 5D, that has left me in a quandary.  After working with this camera successfully for more than a year, it seems somewhere over the last few weeks that is has developed an auto-focus problem.  Many of the photos that I was taking, in ambient light and with off-camera flash, were coming out really soft.  Under more scrutiny I realized that the camera was focusing to some degree behind the subject, even though the auto-focus point had locked on the spot I intended it to.  Much of my weekend was spent testing this problem to see if this was an issue with a particular lens or if it was the camera itself.  After using a standard test involving a graduated scale photographed from various distances, using all of my lenses, I found across the board, more often than not, that the auto-focus mechanism was indeed locking substantially behind (back-focusing) the subject.  You can look at this 100% crop photo below and see the degree of this problem.

Canon EOS 5D with 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens displays back-focus problem.

  
       Here, the scale is setup on a 45 degree angle (where the left side is closest to the camera and with appropriate marks in centimeters to measure horizontal distance), photographed from a tripod mounted, remote shutter released camera 2.5 meters away, lens at maximum aperture, and the center auto-focus point locked on the single, vertical line between the four number ones.  This shows that the actual focal point/plane is nearly off the scale on the far right, some 10-13 centimeters behind the target.
      What this means in reality is that the camera will not capture in focus the details crucial to the shot.  That is, when using a very shallow depth of field, it will be very unlikely or sporadic that the eyes of someone in a portrait will be in focus; rather, the hair on the back of their head, or the tree/wall/whatever background will be in focus while their eyes are blurred and soft. 
     Obviously you can see how frustrating this can be for a fledgling business.  Getting ready for some major travel and events in the next few weeks has left me scrambling to find a replacement camera that will provide the same or better quality of imaging that I've come to expect out of this 5D.  Where I am fortunate, however, is in the support and enthusiasm that my wife brings me.  When I'm ready to collapse, she is there to hold me up and help keep me excited about the opportunities that are before us.  So, I'll keep moving forward and look at this challenge with the eyes of one who is blessed beyond measure and is hopeful through the trials.

~Jeff

Roasting in Black and White

Tom using the sample "trier" near the end of a coffee roast on this 60Kilo Roure.

 

Grabbing a sample for inspection.

60Kilo Roure, made in Barcelona, Spain; roasting in the drum, cooling in the tray.

The Dump.  Half-batch coming out of the 90Kilo Probat, made in Germany 1958.

I've been having a great time working indoors trying to capture the form and details of roasting at Counter Culture Coffee.  Typically, I try shooting with just ambient light, which is a challenge there as I've mentioned in previous posts, but I'm also exploring some fill flash (none of the photos above utilized flash).  Hopefully material from these sessions will go toward a series of pages on their website depicting the craft of coffee roasting and the characters who do it.  After documenting the "men of coffee" working their machines, I'll get down into the fine details of gadgetry, design and function of these mechanical beasts, then back out and get some "full-spectrum" landscape shots of the entire department floor including raw to roasted.   

Redbubble

I've discovered an interesting website called Redbubble.  This seems to be a consortium of artists from the various genres including the digital arts, drawing, painting, writing, and photography.  With the option to purchase prints and other products displaying your work this looks like a nice place to add some business.  My work on Redbubble, will be somewhat limited at first, until I can demonstrate the quality of the processing and their customer service.  Beyond that, there appears to be an excellent community of "working" artists that may prove invaluable in their support and feedback on my photography. 

Post-Processing - "Bleach Bypass"

"Bleach Bypass"

"Bleach Bypass"

  

"Standard"

"Standard"

I've been experimenting with color adjustment in Bibble Pro and stumbled upon the "bleach bypass" technique, often used in film development.  As illustrated in the top two images, the color saturation has been dropped significantly, the contrast adjusted quite high, and the exposure latitude is more narrow.  This effect also brings a bit of graininess to the images that I also find appealing.  The "standard" set has minimal adjustments made including a minor increase in contrast, little saturation added, and more vibrancy to the colors; typical for most of my work.  I think it is time to brake the definition of standard.

Afternoon Escape

Chores

I've been told that I'm a good writer.  I've also been told that I'm a good photographer.  While working on a short bio to share on the website, I'm praying that I'm a much better photographer than writer.  Why is it so hard to craft a few sentences that describe who I am and what I do?  That being said, I don't think I'll spend too much time on this, as I'd rather be fixing to go out and capture some night lights.

Tripod, telephoto lens, remote switch, wool cap...

Old Woods

A couple of more photographs from Occoneechee Mountain State Park, NC.  Both of these capture the "decay" that is ever-present in the old woods.