More Arlington Park Images - 9/22/13

Another Balanced Exposure Field Trip to Arlington Park on 9/22/13

On the first race, horse number 3 came in without a jockey!  It "placed" and came in second!

A "pan" shot to show motion.  I was tracking horse 4, but since horse five is running at a different rate of speed, it looks like it's blurred in comparison.  Most likely, it's trying to catch up to horse 4!

9/11

We will never forget...

Arlington Park - 8/31/13

 

I went back to Arlington Park today with several of my students on the first Balanced Exposure field trip to the park.  We worked on "panning" so that we could blur the background to convey motion.  Just as we finished our allotted time, it started to rain.  But at least we did finish the class in time!

The bottom photo shows an image taken at 1/1000 second shutter speed.  Everything "freezes" at this fast of a shutter speed!

Arlington Park - 8/25/13

A couple of images from today's photo shoot.  One of my students who is familiar with Arlington Park showed me around the park.  I took my mobility scooter too.  I left it by itself for 10 minutes at a time when I was shooting.  To get to the fenced area, the scooter can't make it down the stairs.  But nobody seemed to mind me leaving it parked near the seating area while the race was running.  Seems everyone leaves their seats to move closer to the fence when the race runs.  Then they either return to their seats or they go inside to place bets.

I panned the shot of the horses and jockeys.  The first image was shot with shutter speed priority at 1/30 second, f22, ISO 160.  The second was 1/125 second, f7.1 ISO 100.  Nikon D4, Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR.  The third shot is an HDR image.

I'll be offering field trips to Arlington Park next year.  Now that I know a little more how things work there, I can offer this as another option for students to go to learn to shoot.

Night Photography Class on 8-13-13

Balanced Exposure students working hard getting their night photos at the Night Photography class last night.  Several tried HDR on the night photos, so I did one as well!

Bell 47-G2 Helicopter

When I worked at the San Diego District Attorney's Office, I had the opportunity to fly in a couple of helicopters that were owned by the San Diego Sheriff's Office.  Part of my job was photographing crime scenes and getting these photos ready for court presentation.  At times, the attorneys would ask for an aerial view of the scene and we'd go up in the helicopters to do it.

The Bell helicopters were my favorite because we flew with the doors off the helicopter and then leaned out of the helicopter to take the photo!  The Bell had a huge front glass area as you can see from the photo above so you had a tremendous view when you flew.

This one is a old 1956 model year but wow... it's in great shape!  This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the EAA AirVenture Museum up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  With all the airplanes shown in the museum, I'd say the hightlight for me was this Bell helicopter!  It just brought back memories of flying in it!

The photos taken for court was done with a Mamiya 645 medium format camera.  Those large negatives make a big difference when showing aerial photos!

By the way, the 1966 Batman movie had a Bell helicopter that was made into the "Batcopter"!  Check out the photos of it on this website!

Butterflies At The Milwaukee Public Museum - 6-30-13

A couple of butterfly photos from the most recent Balanced Exposure field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum...

Toys

When I was a kid, I always liked remote control toys.  The problem was that back then, nothing was wireless.

I remember a remote control car meant having a car with a wire attached to a remote control.  You'd have to follow the car around because you only had the length of the wire to travel.

Today, getting a wireless remote controlled car is pretty cheap.  I bought this one for around $25.  I plan to use it during my photography classes so that students can practice photographing subjects that move.

I would have liked to get a wireless remote helicopter instead, but considering how poorly I control the car, I can just imagine the helicopter crashing into someone's head!  No thanks!

I also bought a Nerf gun so we can practice how quickly we can release the shutter on a camera.  The Nerf gun is a lot of fun to shoot.  The little green discs fly from one end of the room to the other!

Brookfield Zoo Field Trip - 5-19-13

Great time at Brookfield Zoo on the first field trip there this year! I had a great time with the students despite the hot weather! Here are a few images from the trip:

White Bass Fishing - Fremont, Wisconsin - May 2013

Back from a 3 day trip to the Wolf River at Fremont, Wisconsin... my two friends and I caught a total of 132 White Bass! My personal total was 41.

While this is a lot of fish, there were people out there catching a lot more than us! We heard reports of groups coming back with over 200 fish in one day. That's incredible!

There is no limit on white bass during the white bass run on the Wolf River.

I'll post another photo so you can see what the fish looked like in our cabin freezer.

Last year, we tried fishing on the Wolf River but were one week too early. We only caught 17 fish. This year... 132. Big difference! The photo below only shows 53 of the fish caught.

The Chicago Botanic Garden

This year, I'll be taking students to the Chicago Botanic Garden on several field trips.  While known for it's many flowers, it offers more than just that.  Just check out the views at this place!

Butterfly at Milwaukee Public Museum

A butterfly at the Milwaukee Public Museum's Puelicher Butterfly Wing...

New Location for Balanced Exposure

 

My company, Balanced Exposure, moved last Friday,  March 29 and had its first class yesterday, April 2.  The Photo Essentials class seemed to like the new place, but since they never saw the old place, it's hard to say if students really liked it or not.

Tonight's class is a DSLR Advanced class with continuing students who had all attended the old location.  We'll see if they like it or not.

The new location has more space for the students, and also more space for the studio.  While I originally had thought of putting two studios next to each other, after re-evaluating the space, I felt it was best to leave it as a single studio so that there was more room on the sides for the lights to move around.  Overall, it was a better decision.

I hope the students like the new place!

Field Museum

I took my scooter to the Field Museum and to the Shedd Aquarium.  Both museums were free!  The Shedd Aquarium had a "free day" for all attendees but I got into the Field Museum free because I am a member of the Milwaukee Public Museum!

Here are a couple of images from the Field Museum.  I thought the dinosaur exhibits were the most interesting.  The images were taken with a Lumix DMC-LX5 camera.

 

Milwaukee Public Museum

In preparation for the first Photography Field Trip this year to the Milwaukee Public Museum on March 10, I went up there yesterday to check out the museum one more time and to test out the scooter. I am happy to report that the scooter did just fine and I am glad I chose this museum as a venue to shoot indoor photos with the students!

I brought my Nikon D4 and Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens with me and shot about 160 images which will help me guide the students on how to properly photograph the various lighting conditions offered at the Museum. It will also help the exposure class as well.

Below is a typical image you can expect when traveling through the "Streets of Milwaukee" section of the museum.

The image is straight out of the camera without the aid of Lightroom 4. Image taken at 1/25 second, f2.8, ISO 2000 with Aperture Priority with Exposure Compensation of -2 EV to keep the image looking exactly like it is when seen in person. Yes, they keep it quite dark in the museum at the Streets of Milwaukee section to simulate a night scene. Come join me to learn how to shoot it properly!

And here is another image from my trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum on Friday. Straight out of the camera, no post production work done. Image was shot with Aperture Priority, 1/25 second, f 2.8, ISO 1600. Nikon D4, Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens and taken at 24mm.

Why shoot at 1/25 second? The "handholdability" of any lens for its shutter speed is 1/focal length of the lens x crop factor. Since the D4's image sensor is a full frame camera image sensor, the crop factor is 1. So 1/focal length would be 1/24 second. The camera does not have that as a shutter speed option, so the next best thing would be 1/25 second.
 
The aperture of f2.8 was needed to get as much light as possible to the shot. Plus, depth of field is not much of a factor since the distance from the image is enough to give a fair amount of depth of field.
 
Based on these two settings, the corresponding ISO was picked as ISO 1600 by using Auto ISO.

And finally, one more image from the museum...

Image shot at 1/40 second, f2.8, ISO 800. Image enhanced with Photoshop CS6 to brighten the lower light in the display windows. Air vent and electronic sensors in the ceiling were removed as well.

2013 Chicago Auto Show

I had the chance to go to the 2013 Chicago Auto Show yesterday with my brother-in-law.  It had been a couple of years since I had gone, so it was nice to get out to see the new vehicles.  We spent most of our time looking at the brands of vehicles we were most interested in and it turns out both of us were looking at cars that were hybrids.

To me, it makes most sense today to find a vehicle that can get at least 40 mpg.  We all know there are cars out there that can get at least this and some can get over 50 mpg.  So why bother with cars that still hover in the low 20 mpg ranges?

Regardless, the vehicles I liked to photograph most were still sports cars that are way over my price ranges and concept cars that nobody can ever buy!  Here are some quick images for you to get an idea of what caught my eye:

Honda EV-ster Concept Car:

Mercedes Benz Style Coupe Concept Car:

Lexus LFA:

Chevy Camaro:

Corvette Stingray:

Custom Sai

Many years ago, my father purchased a pair of Sai for me when I was in high school. He told me that if I watched my sister (who is 5 years younger than me) for the summer, he'd buy me a pair. Sure enough, at the end of the summer, he bought me the sai!

But I found that the metal that the sai was made out of was rather flexible. If struck, the sai's blade would actually bend. Not good. For a $35 pair, it wasn't bad for display, but it didn't really work well for actual use.

I told myself that one day I'd buy a custom made set that would not bend.

So recently, I found a company that made custom sai.  The company is Worbington Steele.  The owner, Phillip Worbington is a 7th degree black belt in Isshinryu Karate, but also a master machinist by trade.  Not a bad combination for someone who makes custom sais!

Made of 304 stainless steel, the sais are sized to my hands and arms.  The finish is an antique (natural) finish rather than a polished finish.  I prefer this as it gives the sais a more authentic traditional look.  I also wanted round blades as opposed to octagonal blades.  This helps keep the sais from denting as much when hit together.  My older sais are rather dented because they were octagonal.

I find the sais to be very well balanced and lighter in weight than my old sais.  This will allow me to do a lot more "tricks" with these sais than the ones in the past.  Can't wait to try out all the new moves I've learned!