Well this was one of the cutest photo shoots I have ever covered. The National Geographic Kids Club had a petting zoo visit Tysons Corner Center. To say it was a big hit is an understatement! The small animals from Squeals on Wheels were quite the attraction for everyone visiting the mall. There were kids of all ages that wanted to line up and pet the rabbits, chicks, and piglets.
John and Jill the co-owners of Squeals on Wheels gave an orientation to everyone visiting about how to get up close to the animals. They encouraged everyone to greet and touch the animals – “It’s not a looking zoo, it’s a petting zoo!”
The line to come into the zoo was full the entire time they were open. The amount of people that could see the animals at one time was nicely controlled so that everyone had plenty of time and space to visit. It kept the animals calm as well so they did not have to entertain too many at one time!
Not only were there animals, but there was also talented Face painters and balloon makers. Parents and kids had a great time at the club this afternoon, and I am sure they will be back for more events this year. Go to their website for more information, and I’ll see you at the next one!
There was a very nice installation at Tysons Corner Center a few weekends ago. The display was very photo-centric and unique much like a lot of the content by National Geographic. Brain Games is a new show on the Nat Geo channel that describes how our brain interprets the visual data gathered by our eyes. If you watch this show, the demonstrations are mind-bending in the way that they show how our mind will digest information. Sometimes, there will be blind spots, sometimes the mind will fill in missing areas of information with its own data, not unlike “content aware” options in Adobe Photoshop.
To go along with this show, the display had 4 different setups that made for some great illusions when captured on camera. There were rooms that were setup upside down, some with drastically sized furniture that would change the size of people in the frame, and some used mirrors to trick the eye into interpreting the scene. I do not have any photos from my camera on the setup since the camera position was very integral in getting the effect correct. I tried in a few frames, but it did not work as well as their setup – a credit to the designers and builders of the display! So after getting some standard photos of the display and the crowd that was taking part in the demonstrations, I decided I need to get some sort of strange – brain bending angles to the photos.
Fisheye Photography
This is where the fisheye lens comes in. I rarely uses these on shoots. When you first get a fisheye, you will use it constantly for a week, then you struggle to find an appropriate time to use it, especially for client work. The extreme wide angle distortion makes it difficult to use with people, and architecture photography would be too unrealistic with these lenses. If you shoot weddings, there will likely be a handful of times during a ceremony or the reception where it would be nice to get an overall view of the venues with the fisheye. The one I have is the 16mm Nikkor lens which is not the best performing lens, and has not been updated with a new model in quite some time.
Nikon 16mm Fisheye Lens
Although there are lots of people in these photos, I had the camera on a tripod to get blurred motion from people moving through the display. It depicts more of the drama and action while keeping all of the elements of the display sharp. In Lightroom, you can straighten the bulbous curves in the frame using the Lens Corrections panel in the Develop Module. I try both the corrected and the uncorrected versions before deciding on a final version. It really depends on what is at the edges of the frame as to which is the best for the photo. Corrected frames will really stretch the edges which is not as bad for structures as it is for having people in those areas. I am happy with how this came out, and now have Brain Games on the TV watch list!
Every year, the Christmas decorations that pop up in the malls and office buildings in the area signal the holiday season. The strings of lights that wrap around the trees and line overhangs make for some pleasing light. They are usually a very warm yellow, and the many small points of light put together, make it a very soft light in photos. These are great for people photos, which is another reason everyone takes photos by the lit Christmas trees during this season.
The small points of light can also be used to make some unique photos while they are up. Bokeh a Japanese word that photographers use to describe the out-of-focus areas in the background of photos. Having the background completely blurred will help pop your subjects out of the frame. The amount of blur depends on how open an aperture you set on your lens. Additionally how far your subject is from the background affects the blur. If you have your subject a fair distance from the background, and you place your lens very close, you will have a nice out of focus background. If you have Christmas lights in that background, the shape of the lights will take on the shape of the aperture of your lens to make a nice shape with each bulb.
An early Christmas gift from my in-laws was this Bokeh Masters Kit. The kit has hard plastic discs with shapes cut out in the middle of each. There is also another plastic mounting piece that you fit over the lens. When you fit this over your lens, then setup your subject as before, the pin point illumination from the Christmas lights takes on the shape of the disc.
Bokeh Masters Kit
Bokeh Masters Kit
This was the first setup I tried, and it works as advertised! Obviously, I tried the star disc for this image. The boxes were about 5 feet from the tree, and the lens was set to f/1.4. There was a large amount of vignetting from the lens which was expected since the holder was covering a portion of the lens edges along with the disc itself. But you can clearly see the stars from each of the lights.
I will have to try this with other subjects and setups, but this was a good start! With all of your decorations up inside your house and outside in your neighborhoods, there are lots of opportunities to try this out. Thanks to our friends at Encore Ballroom Couture for the gift and still-life subject!
