ping's posterous - My personal photo journey... and random stuff.

September 5, 2008

[Pinging Ping] Start Exploring (Picasa Web)

Here is a more detailed post about the new Explore page on Picasa Web: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/09/start-exploring.html.

The main new features of the explore page are featured photos, recent photos, popular tags, and a where in the world game. Come check it out :)

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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 9/05/2008 10:45:00 PM

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September 5, 2008

[Pinging Ping] Destined Evolution....?

So Canon has started running a full teaser campaign today... The Canon USA site has a little flash movie with a moon showing the shadows of a new DSLR with the tag line... "Destined Evolution", you can see it at http://www.canon.com/moon/en/index.html. Canon Europe also has a flash ad with the tag line "The EOS story continues.... See the future of photography.... stay tuned" on their home page. I guess the rumors are true, Canon is releasing another DSLR this year... and logic would suggest that it is a 5D replacement of some sort... rumors are flying all over the place about 2 DSLRs, 7D and a 3D etc etc. I guess either way, something IS finally coming after months and months of chatter about a 5D replacement... something is finally coming... unless it is a 1D Mk IV >.
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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 9/05/2008 09:24:00 PM

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September 5, 2008

[Pinging Ping] Good night Seattle!

So I'm finally done processing the Seattle photos from my trip over the weekend. Nothing amazing, but a couple of shots I really liked. Our first stop was Pike Place Market, which always have great photo ops, from the fish market that... throws fish to the flower shop next door that just offers so many vibrant colors to the organic veggie shop just a few more feet down. Photographing people there is always interesting too with street performers at every street corner. Here are a few of the photos I liked slightly better from Pike Place...

From Seattle trip

There is something about this photo that I really like... maybe it's the back lighting and shadows on the orange. Maybe it's the simplicity of the colors... maybe it's just because it is so simple... a bunch of circles. If you like this image too, let me know why... :)

From Seattle trip

This turned out to be one of the better food shots from this trip... ok ok I only took like 5 food photos. This photo really showed off the power of the 24-105 F/4 L lens. This was shot at f/5.6 at 1/125 secs, 45mm and it is just SHARP. At 5.6 I was able to get just the right DOF so that the entire sandwich is in focus, but everything else is nicely blurred, especially the distracting stuff in the back just turns into this nice soft out of focus background. The light was also in my favor where I had hard directional light coming straight through the windows hitting my sandwich (but very little else in the background - or it was blocked by people :p). The directional light also creates interesting shadows on the bread bringing out the textures.

After Pike Place Market we stopped by UW - University of Washington, the campus is just beautiful, especially when the weather is as nice as it was. This is my second trip to UW, but during the first trip the library really stood out to me and I just couldn't forget how beautiful it was... so this time around I had to get a photo of it...

From Seattle trip

But the best photo probably came from inside the library...

From Seattle trip

I had to use my 10mm here to fit everything I wanted, but also I wanted the exaggerated perspective offered by the super wide. I dialed in a + 2/3 EV while using matrix metering to brighten the scene up a bit. Finally, I had to play around with the white balance a little to get this warm golden feel to it... originally it was a dull gray color, but with slight change in WB completely changes the mood I think.

The best shots of the day came at night... while we missed twilight due to some complications (including getting lost... stupid 1-way streets...). Here are a couple of shots of the Seattle skyline from Queen Anne. While the sky was mostly clear, there were definitely enough clouds to be light up by the bright city lights. I had a few shots where the entire sky was orange which looked kinda cool... but in the end I think this cleaner look is better. If the clouds do become a problem (as in the wide angle / panorama shot), turning the photo B&W always solves the problem. I bumped up the shadow and highlights a little to increase the contrast and make the Space Needle stand out even more.

From Seattle trip

The pictures were taken just above Kerry Park, just off W. Highland Dr and Queen Anne North. We had to point at pictures and ask a couple of locals before figuring out how to get there. Note that Queen Anne is actually a 1 way street near the Space Needle, so we had to go up 1st Ave, turning left at Roy St, then right at Queen Anne to drive up. Here is the map for your convenience:

View Larger Map

This is really a must stop for any photographers visiting Seattle... on a clear day you can see Mount St. Helen in the back making it the perfect post card photo of Seattle. Next time I visit Seattle, I have to make sure I get here before sunset to get some twilight photos :). Overall, Seattle treated us very well... wonderful weather, great scenery and some good food. Thanks Seattle!

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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 9/05/2008 01:01:00 AM

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September 3, 2008

[Pinging Ping] The long road...

This long road we've been walking down finally comes to a close... today marks the official launch of Picasa Web Albums and Picasa 3.0. It's the biggest update to both the client and the web site since initial launch of the product just over two years ago. The main updates to the client include:

Much improved collage and movie maker to give you more choices and complete creative freedom
New text tool to let you add text in all sorts of cool ways/fonts/colors
New touch up tool to fix distracting blemishes (now you can fix up your photos like a pro!)
New integrated photo viewer, a lightweight tool that lets you view photos, slide show, that is directly integrated into Windows
Sync with Picasa Web Albums, now whatever changes you make locally will get sent up online automatically!

Unfortunately, Picasa 3 is only available for English (U.S.) users at this time, but it's pretty cool stuff and worth checking out! You can try out the new version at http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/.

Picasa Web also launched it's new version which includes several key new features:

Facial recognition aka 'name tags.' You can easily tag the people in your photos with a name and create custom slide shows containing those people. Want to find all the pictures of your grandma and share that slide show with her on her birthday? Sure no problem! Just opt into the name tag feature on the settings page, tag all the photos with grandma in it and just make sure those name tags are public (can be changed from settings page as well as on individual album level). This is available in English only right now.
Creative commons
E-mail upload, now you can upload photos from your mobile device or even set up forwarding filters in Gmail so all the photo attachment you receive automatically gets uploaded to Picasa Web.
Explore page, which lets you browse the wonderful community within Picasa web from looking at featured photos, popular tags, recently uploaded public photos from around the world as well as play a quick game of guessing where the photos were taken ('Where in the World').

Come check out all the new features!

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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 9/03/2008 12:53:00 AM

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August 31, 2008

[Pinging Ping] Insurance... it's good for you.

So... I'm in Washington now... Mt. Rainier National Park to be exact. Seattle and Olympic national park both treated us to wonderful weather and spectacular scenes... But it's been a tough trip so far. Half of the people I'm traveling with are sick... we are sleeping about 5 hours a night here... The other driver got a ticket for speeding (I swear the park ranger was BSing about how fast we were going... I fell... TWICE (while trying to step up onto a piece of log). The first time I fell I got lucky and just hurt my bottom a bit... my camera bag broke my fall (not sure if anything in there broke yet...). Then I stood up... and fell AGAIN but this time sprained my angle and slammed my back against another piece of log that had a round protruding part... I guess I got lucky because it would have been really bad if I hit my spine or head against it... or even rib cage... lucky enough I missed my spine by about 2 inches and it just hit the side of my lower back. I hit it pretty hard... really kept me down for a few minutes... To make it worse... I dropped my friend's lens that was borrowing today... I was changing lenses... it slipped... I bobbled it... it fell... It was new when he lent it to me... and now it is semi-broken. Oh btw, did I mention that the lens is the $1000 Canon EF 24-105 mm F/4 L lens? yeah... so now I owe him a new L lens.... a nice pricey L lens.... I insure all my equipment... but he was new in SLR world so he doesn't... F**** This is why you buy insurance... cuz shit happens... This has just been a terrible week... First the 4 car chain collision that I caused... now a dropped lens... I think I should stay off the road and avoid touching expensive things....

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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 8/31/2008 08:49:00 PM

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August 29, 2008

[Pinging Ping] Assignment 4: Taste

The 4th photo club assignment was taste... yes, taste. This included everything from food photos to people's emotion/reactions to food, basically anything that could represent taste. The shot I really wanted was to get someone (preferably a girl) to eat some ice cream. I wanted to compose the shot just showing the lower part of her face (chin/jaw) and have the spoon in her mouth, all against a blown out bright white background (well ok maybe some color, but I wanted strong back lighting). You know, the typical "hmmmm that was delicious" look to it where you hold spoon in your mouth, enjoying every second of that wonderful sweet flavor. Thats what I wanted... but I never got a chance to try to execute so I had to settle for plain food photos. Oh well.

I ended up settling for some hot dog shots from work...

Just a plain shot, I wanted to make sure I got the action of putting the mustard on the hot dog... hey this is TASTE after all :). It might have been better to get the whole hot dog in focus but at the same time I wanted some blurred background so I just settled for making sure the ketchup and mustard was in focus. I also really like the red + yellow contrast... overall the white balance is off by a little bit which kind of sucks (see the that yellowish tint?). Finally, for this shot, I had to make sure the hot dog wasn't centered... I felt that would have been too plain and boring; besides that paper is almost just as interesting as the hot dog!

During the course of the assignment, I was also lucky enough to fly up to the main campus up in Mountain View with all the great cafes... I happened to stay in Building 47 where Pintxo 47, one of the coolest cafes with small tapas styled plates, is located. These little dishes of delight made it the perfect food photography subject...

I haven't shot food a whole lot... so I can't say I have a lot of experience or that I know what I'm talking about... but a few things that I personally watch out for are:

Make sure you have the correct white balance. There is nothing like a yellow (or pale blue) tint on your food photos to destroy your appetite. Make sure that white is actually white... if that fish is white, please don't make it look yellow or orange (yes, I'm guilty of making that mistake...), it just doesn't look right.
Don't under expose... I think it is almost always better to OVER expose than to under or expose just right. So error on the side of making things too bright... there is nothing more disgusting than a dark looking photo of red meat... it just makes it look dull, dry, heavy, greasy... But if you brighten it up, it will just look that much fresher, juicier... tastier.
Keep the background simple. As with everything else... simplify simplify simplify. The food is the main subject, avoid clutter from the table (i.e. clashing cups, bowls, utensils, etc). While these items could be used to set a context for the food (i.e. wine pairing), make sure you focus on the right things otherwise the viewer's eyes will simply wander around.
White plates help... I personally tend to find white plate settings best... white plates + slight over exposure just creates that light fresh feeling. White probably also brings out the colors of the food the best... but again, this is just a personal taste
Tilted angles... for some reason, I love my food shots tilted slightly. Angle (eye level? 45 degree looking down? completely top down?) and composition is very important and is something I need to work on, but I find that I always like these tilted photos the best... maybe because they remind of me magazine food photos :p
Use lights to bring out the texture... I tend to like a bit of back lighting on food photos (maybe even some rim light). But lighting is definitely something I need to master... when to use a strong directional light, when to use a soft light... I also tend to avoid using flashes directly as that will usually cast a pale blue light...

Anyways, those are just some quick thoughts about food pictures... also, make sure you take the picture while the food is fresh and freshly prepared... People have suggested using a spray bottle of water (or oil) to 'freshen' up the food like how you'd spray the flowers to make it look more lively. Finally... desserts are usually easier to photograph as chefs tend to make it look pretty no matter where you go... I had a lot of fun doing this assignment, but not nearly as much fun as I had enjoying all that food afterwards :)

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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 8/29/2008 01:02:00 AM

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August 29, 2008

[Pinging Ping] Seattle... here I come

Tomorrow I'm starting on my labor day weekend photo trip to Seattle. We'll be spending Friday in Seattle, driving out to Port Angeles at night so we can hit up Olympic National Park on Saturday. We'll spend Sunday and Monday at Mt. Rainier hiking and taking in the vistas... I'm praying for good weather... but in Seattle that may be a little tough :). I'm hoping this will be interesting and inspiring photo trip. I've heard so many great things about Olympic National Park and Mt. Rainier... Too bad Canon didn't release anything interesting in time for me to buy... I did borrow my friend's EF 70-105 f/4 IS L lens... I wonder if I'll fall in love with that lens and buy it for myself as an upgrade to my 17-85 :).

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Posted By Ping to Pinging Ping at 8/29/2008 12:03:00 AM

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July 11, 2008

Street photography....

More photos from the farmers market... this time post processed to look more gritty... All post processing done with Picasa (shadow, desaturate, tiny bit of highlight and sharpen)
Not sure I like doing street photography... just feels weird taking photos of random strangers without really asking them first...

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July 10, 2008

Emotions

Man, I love this posterous idea.... it's so easy to just throw stuff out there, whatever is on my mind.
Recently I've connected with a group of photographers out in Vancouver it seems. One of them left a comment on my picasa web photo and I naturally checked out his gallery... he has just amazing amazing stuff:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joekuo/JuneOthers/photo#5220419805613262882

That is probably not even his best photo, all his stuff is so good. Through him, I found a couple of his friends that are also just amazing photographers. These pas 2 days has made me think about a few things (not necessarily new things, but just made me rethink some stuff)

1) Picasa web SUCKS at connecting people. I cry every time I leave a comment/question hoping for a connection and have NO idea if that person responded or not (thanks Posterous for getting that right). How can they NOT build that!? Please let me subscribe to changes on a photo!

2) My photos feel so lifeless, I just went through a rant on my blog (http://pingingping.blogspot.com/2008/07/where-do-you-want-to-go.html) about my recent trip out to Malibu with some coworkers and family. It is so difficult to create images that evokes some kind of emotion in people, to create stories. I guess the last time I came close was at Half Moon bay, funny enough my friend said to me "go be inspired" before I left, and sure enough nature put on quite a sunset for us and it was just impossible NOT to be inspired. But Joe and his buddy (Tony I think) seems to be able to create art at will, maybe with a lot of post processing, but they know what they want to convey and they do it so effectively. Even the simple macro nature shots are so calming and peaceful. I am lacking something, perhaps I'm lacking soul, passion, whatever you want to call it. Makes me want to quit my day job and just go walk around everyday taking photos of whatever. Go see the world, go breath in nature and all the different things the world has to offer... but alas, something needs to pay for the mortgage (and the camera gear!).

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July 9, 2008

Farmers Market... retried

Hehe, so it seems that sending pictures directly out of the camera isn't so hot.... lets try this again.... including a few more pics from today.
For some odd reason, I really like the bus picture, originally it was meant for a local photo club assignment (catch the rainbow). I just wanted to take pictures of blue things... I have no idea why I like it. There is nothing special about it. Maybe it's because you only see a tiny part of the bus, so it makes you think more about whats left out of the frame, like portraits that only include half of the person's face? Nah... can't be that deep... maybe I just like the numbers.

The second picture of the police officer I wanted to get right sooo badly. I've the shot planned in my head for weeks but I just couldn't execute on it.... I wanted his arms out more while putting his hand at his waist, as if carefully watching all the people walking past him. I wanted him to look... more authoritative.... instead I get a blah image. Oh well I should have worked with him more but he was on duty... I decided to move on.

The last picture is the picture of the baby girl, hopefully oriented correctly this time :). I just like her expression... exploring the wonders of the world... being amazed at everything

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