Posts Tagged ‘digital’

Selfie

©TimeLine Media - self portrait

This photography term has become popular with the explosion of social media in the last few years. Back when film was the more popular medium for photos, I only saw a handful of instances where people made self-portraits with their cameras. Most of these would not be in focus. Or the subjects would not be in the frame, which would mean a wasted frame from your roll of film. Each frame was thought out more back then. With this in mind it would not be wise to use these for “throw-away” images that you attempt without looking through the viewfinder at the back of the camera.

Turning the Camera Around

I clearly remember the very first time I ever tried a “selfie”. It was at a big transition time in my life – just after college, and during the time when family was in town to pay final respects to my father. He had recently passed away, and we were surrounded by so many family and friends. It was a time where many photos were taken, and many trips were made to the drug store to get enlargements and copies. While taking photos with family outside, I turned an Advantix film camera (a graduation gift from my girlfriend’s mom) to me and my cousin, Vic. It is hard to take a bad photo of Vic – a talented singer that is used to working in front of an audience. For my first time, it actually worked!

©TimeLine Media - first "selfie"
©TimeLine Media – first “selfie”

I’m glad it turned out – so I kept trying.

©TimeLine Media - self portrait
©TimeLine Media – self portrait

With digital, I still take selfies. I do not own a mannequin head that photographers use test lighting, so I just put myself in the scene. I laugh like a madman at myself sometimes especially considering no one else is around. Thankfully it has helped to make shoots go smoother once the subjects arrive, and has helped me to be a better photographer by experimenting with a model that won’t stop posing until the shot is perfect.

©TimeLine Media - self portrait
©TimeLine Media – self portrait

Large Camera Selfies

©TimeLine Media - self portrait
©TimeLine Media – self portrait
©TimeLine Media - self portrait
©TimeLine Media – self portrait
©TimeLine Media - self portrait
Author self-portrait ©TimeLine Media

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703-864-8208

Working with Memory Cards – Tech Thursday

©TimeLine Media - ballroom dancer portraits

When photographing ballroom dance events, the action on the dance floor is the focus. Especially at a Showcase event where there are choreographed routines that are performed by solo couples, the action photos take priority over all the other photos of the day. Other photos that I make during the day include the decorations, the table centerpieces, and posed portraits. Some dancers like to have their photos taken while not under the pressure of being in front of the audience and judges during their routines. I can understand! You can face the camera exactly how you want to be angled, and you can hold lines perfectly for the camera which is difficult to do while dancing.

Event Workflow

©TimeLine Media - ballroom dancer portraits
©TimeLine Media – ballroom dancer portraits

This brings me to the point of the post today regarding memory cards. I took some photos off the floor of some couples at the event. In the hustle and bustle of the day, I did not download the card with these photo right away, and kept them in my Nikon D4. I then went back to photographing action with my other camera, a Nikon D700. When I started to run out of space on the card in the D700, I reached for the card in the D4 to continue shooting. One of the limitations of the older D700 is that this camera cannot display files created by the D4. It is also a good practice to format cards prior to using a new card to ensure that files are not corrupted when re-writing to a memory card. Well this is where my problem started. When I checked the D4 card in the D700, it said that there were no images on the card. So I reformatted the memory card before starting to use it in the D700. GONE! Of course, I did not discover this until yesterday as I was editing the photos from the event.

Sandisk-8GB-cards
©TimeLine Media – SanDisk Compact Flash cards

Is this still a common practice by photographers? Am I being too cautious by always reformatting cards prior to using them in a camera? If I had not done this to the card prior to shooting, I would likely still have the images. I am trying to see if any data recovery software could possibly get any of the images back, but I am not hopeful. Please let me know your thoughts on the subject!

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703-864-8208

Web services

Butterfly-flower-www.timelinedc.com

This morning, I received news that one of my favorite Google products, Google Reader, will no longer be available starting July 1, 2013. For me, this was one of the only services from Google that I used on a regular basis. At this time I have accounts for Gmail, Google drive, Google Plus. However, I have never put all my chips into that system. This has caused some problems as they are ubiquitous among lots of companies and users.

Software Shutdown

Photography really lends itself to blogging. “A picture is worth a thousand words” after all. I have used Google Reader to subscribe to many RSS feeds from photographers and websites discussion both technique and technology. This helped me to stay current on new releases and has given me lots of inspiration for future shoots.

It has also spurred me on to continue blogging as I have since the beginning of the year. Social media platforms give you the same content as blogs. However, for the content creator, it is important to contain your posts on your own website. Although you should send your posts to Facebook, and other networks, the terms of use for social media change rapidly!

Social Networks

Instagram users lashed out at the company last year when they announced that the company would be allowed to sell users images. Whether you agree or disagree with the policy (that was later changed back), it is obvious that the best way to keep your information your own, is to host it on your own website. Yes, it is still out in the open for anyone to take, but you still have eyeballs on your website viewing your content – which was the point, right?

Just like Google Reader, all of the social media platforms and web services can be accessed for free. As such, it is possible that the program can be taken away, or changed in a way that makes usage unfavorable for your taste. In light of that, I encourage more content creators to host your photos, videos, or post on their own websites more. Use the social media platforms to point to your website, but keep it “in house” to control the way you distribute your unique contributions to the web! Here’s my Spring-time one for the day:

Butterfly-flower-www.timelinedc.com web services post
©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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