Photography: ND Filters

Without ND Filters:

With ND Filters:

Photography: Night Shooting

I decided to play with some manual settings, and a tripod late at night. Had allot of fun, and look forward to doing lots of night time shooting in the future.

This picture is using about a 15 second shutter and a slight reduction to aperture.  The red tint is from Chicago's light pollution slightly distorted by reducing the contrast.

Similar to above photo, with less contrast shifting.

This picture takes a moment to gain appreciation of its subtle colors and details. Obviously a bit on the dark side, but I still found it interesting and stimulating.Click to see in full size, and let your eyes adjust to the deep red backdrop, then you will see some interesting silhouettes.

ISO dropped down to a its lowest, probably too low, but still looks cool. 

This photo was shot in near pitch black and the tree was about 50-75' away. I placed my shutter speed on 60 seconds and I had my camera setup close enough to a porch light, that it filled in the darkness with this interesting fake light. Its fascinating how much detail you can still see in the tree.

Photography: The Dog Park

Photography with my new camera

For Film-making, I decided to go with a DLSR, specifically the Panasonic Lumix GH1 and purchased a 45-200mm Lens. I figured, before I try my hand at crafting beautiful images in motion, I should focus on the artistry and composition of stills. Primarily, I'm looking to gain confidence with using depth of field (this means, the subject is in focus, and everything else is not). This is a very common and important skill for a cinematographer to use in a way that tells the audience "This [blank] is important". A few of these shots, have a great depth of field, and some I just picked cause they look cool. Any constructive feedback or thoughts are always appreciated.

Video: That old dog

While browsing for videos that were made with the camera I just bought, in the vein of seeing what is capable, I stumbled across a gem of minimalist visual story-telling. This video, had a profound affect on me, it reminded me of my childhood, when I loved a dog just like this one. Some day, hopefully with a degree of career and personal success, I can own a home, and add this dog of my past, into my future.



Here is the filmmakers blog