Timing

Elle August 19, 2014

"It's always about timing. If it's too soon, no one understands. If it's too late, everyone's forgotten." - Anna Wintour The summer has positively flown by. I can't believe I start school orientation next week and then immediately jump on a plane for my "Last Hurrah" trip to Hawaii, which will honestly be the last photo-centric trip I'll be able to take for some time. I'm sure there will be many opportunities to photograph interesting goings-on with grad school, but that probably won't be at front of mind with actual studying, case analyzing, and paper writing going on.

Since the week in Hawaii will be rich with interesting subjects, I hope to make some improvements to the quality of photos I'm able to take. Thus, I've been reading up on various strategies to coax out sublime colors and light and I've come to the conclusion that it's all about timing.

There are really two optimal times of day and a 15 minute or so window at each time for amazing natural light: sunrise and sunset (ha, like the Fiddler on the Roof song). And this is where it'll be an interesting challenge, since I'm not generally a morning person and with this last vacation before the maelstrom of working full time and going to school part time starts, I do want to actually enjoy myself and relax. Again, it will come down to striking a balance! I hope to be able to get up for the sunrise at least once or twice during the week. Sunset will be a little easier to negotiate, we'll just have to make sure our dinner reservation doesn't overlap with it! Some of the tourist things we'll do will inevitably coincide with non-optimal harsh light, but c'est la vie.

I might even experiment with the aperture/shutter speed priority modes. To date, I've shot exclusively in manual mode, which has resulted in some over/underexposure, but was a great way to learn how to adjust on the fly and make artistic choices. The downside to that is that sometimes, images won't come out quite right and I don't always react/adjust the settings quickly enough to catch a moment before it's gone. I may start sprinkling in some of the priority modes just to increase the chances that I get a salvageable shot since I'm working sans light meter. I find that when photographing things in the moment, it frequently comes down to luck.

The benefit of this trip is that I'll have lots of opportunity to take a lot of photos - my goal is at least 1500 shots through the whole trip and the law of large numbers should let me see where my skill level shakes out on average. Not to mention more images should result in a higher absolute number of "good" shots.

Book Learning: 2 Hours to Date: 177

Blood Moons: A Game of Light & Shadow

Elle April 15, 2014

Almost a George R. R. Martin novel. Almost.

In all seriousness, watching last night's total lunar eclipse was a pretty awesome experience. While NASA may not consider them to be anything special, considering that there was a 300 year period just before the 20th century where there was a complete absence of blood moons, they still seem pretty awesome and somewhat rare to me.

Alas, I do have two complaints about observing celestial phenomena...

They generally involve staying up really late at night, which is just inconvenient since the cosmos don't accommodate a working schedule

and
Cloud cover and light pollution mean you have to drive forever to find someplace with an optimal view

Both of those came into play last night/this morning since totality wasn't until 12:45am and our original viewing spot of the beach had to change with the marine layer that rolled in... literally at the precise moment we got out of the car and started walking towards the sand. It was actually beautifully clear until then. Fortunately, we had nearly 2 hours from start to finish and were able to head back inland and not really miss too much.

Since I don't have a telescope, I was relying on my best zoom lens (50-200mm) and a tripod. And the fact that the moon isn't all that far away really helps. Since there wasn't a whole lot to change with composition given the distance limitations, this session was really all about the light. At the end of the day, that is at the core of photography. This concept was also underscored for me when this girl that happened to be at the same park kept getting frustrated as her little point-and-shoot camera's automatic flash kept going off automatically and blew out all of her snapshots. I imagine even if she could turn it off, the photos would end up just showing a pinpoint of light anyway, which is what happened with every iPhone photo I attempted to snap.

Fortunately, with the DSLR, I was able to override automatic modes with manual settings and focus. I ended up opening the aperture as wide as it would go on the 50-200mm lens (f/5.6) and kept that as a control, so the variable was the shutter speed. It's interesting how there seems to be a parabolic relationship in terms of light exposure - too much light and the details are lost in the highlights; too little light and the details are also lost, but this time in the shadows. It's also pretty incredible how much light affects color and how the right lighting conditions can really produce some amazing images. All of the below photos are digitally unedited with the exception of two that were cropped and yet, they still look pretty visually stunning - a great reminder that digital editing isn't always necessary.

The moon peeking through the marine layer just at the beginning of the eclipse - taken at the beach

Exposed for too long, so the details were lost. And I freehanded this, so it's slightly blurry.

Further inland and with a tripod, 1/8s exposure @ 12:13am

1/6s @ 12:13am - interesting how the longer exposure resulted in underscoring the red hue as the Earth cast more of its shadow on the moon and made the whole sky darker.

And yet, evidence that photography is still more art than science... this photo was taken with the identical settings as the photo above: 1/6s shutter speed, f/5.6, ISO 3200, and less than a minute after, but looks so different.

Probably my favorite of the series, with the lunar surface detail, but also the copper "blood red". Shutter speed of 1/5s and 10 minutes before totality

Many Moons
Active Shooting Hours: 1 hour
Review Hours: 1 hour
Hours To Date: 129

The Island of the Pelicans

Elle March 27, 2014

Innocent sounding enough, but Native Americans avoided it, believing it to be cursed. Early Spanish explorers initially called it La Isla de los Alcatraces, after the flocks of migratory birds that nest there; it would later be known simply as Alcatraz. First a lighthouse, then a military garrison and prison, and finally, and most infamously, a federal prison housing only the most troublesome inmates who had a penchant for escape elsewhere.

Even during one of the most beautiful days I've ever experienced in San Francisco and amidst the throngs of tourists, there's something unsettling and eerie about the place. Beyond the rumors of it being haunted, it's bleak and cold. The natural light that streamed into the cell block created harsh contrasts and the incandescent lighting inside the cells themselves cast a sickly yellow tinge upon everything and everyone inside them. It was a stark contrast to the glorious weather outside.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was meeting an actual former prisoner, Bill Baker. He has written a book about his experience and happened to be on-island during our visit. We were fortunate enough to get signed copies and ask some questions... of course the boyfriend being far more thoughtful than I, asked the better question: What would you have mailed yourself, if you could have? He responded hilariously that he would have mailed himself either a pretty woman or a speedboat to get off the island. It's amazing to me that he was able to maintain good spirits and humor despite all of that time locked up in a bleak environment not optimized to actually rehabilitate anyone.