Archive for November 2008
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One Way
Only One Way to get to downtown Minneapolis. At the corner of 9th St and Marquette is the Foshay Tower, Manny's Steak House and this lovely traffic light. Brandishing my Tamron Ultra-wide that goes to ELEVEN, I scrunched down and caught four Minneapolis Landmarks in one shot! From Left to right: The IDS Tower (built 1973, 792ft roof, 886ft antenna), Wells Fargo Center (built 1988, 773ft), The Foshay Tower (built 1929, 447ft) and Manny's Steakhouse at Foshay Tower. One of the perks of wide-angle is that slower shutter speeds are acceptable. Here's a simple rule for shutter speed: The slowest shutter speed you can use is: 1/x second where x=focal length. For example, if you are using a standard 50mm lens, you can go as slow as 1/50sec and the camera shake won't show. Remember that most DSLRs have higher effective focal lengths, i.e. 50mm is actually 75mm. Here's the personal challenge: see how slow of a shutter speed you can actually shoot hand-held. You'll see me rave about my 'human tripod' skills (chicks dig guys with skills) which is my ability to remain as motionless as possible while shooting so I can go for longer exposures with big lenses. I can sometimes pull off 1/5 sec shots with a 150mm lens. Hints: cradle the lens with one hand, lightly grip the camera with the other. Hold the camera as gently as possible, relax, breath out, think zen, slowly squeeze the shutter. Mirror lockup can also help. Take lots of shots. Digital film is free and you can pick the best of the images when you can look at them on a bigger screen.6
Tips from the Top Floor Challenge: Smiles
This was taken at Target headquarters, just outside Bob's office with the Sigma 600mm catadioptric lens. Mirror lenses create strange ring shapes in the bokeh, which is one of the reasons I used this lens. This effect created by the center mirror and I've noticed that it makes other photographers smile and laugh, so it made sense for Matt's "Smile" assignment. Click on the photo for an enlargement!11
CDPB Theme Day - Books
I'm running a few days behind, the City Daily Photo Blog Theme Day is the first but I couldn't think of any compositions with books in them, so I kept looking. Alas, my own neighborhood proved fruitful again; this is Majors & Quinn Booksellers' discount books rack outside the door on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown. Shot with my trusty 70-300mm VR, I got close enough to get a distinct DOF between the books and the street behind it. Stats: 140mm F5 1/25th at ISO 1000. Hand held baby, the human tripod strikes again!0