I don't know that any shipment that has arrived for me recently has made me as excited as a little envelope I received today from Adorama. I received a neat little device called a "52mm to 55mm Step-Up Adapter Ring".

Such a tiny and inexpensive piece of happy. This little guy will let me use all of my current filters and special adaptation lenses on my new Nikon D60.

Digital Photography Studio [ART288DH]
Michael K. Hensdill
This course provides the opportunity for advanced self-determined work beyond the limits of regular studio course sequences. Emphasis is placed on creative self-expression and in-depth exploration of techniques and materials. Upon completion, students should be able to create original projects specific to media, materials, and techniques. This course has been approved to satisfy the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement for transferability as a premajor and/or elective course requirement. -- 3 hours

Registered

I have made some changes to my Spring 2009 schedule.

I have now officially added ART 288 DH (Digital Photography Studio) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3PM until 5:45PM.

I have dropped CHM 131 & CHM 131A (Introduction to Chemistry w/lab). I do not need the stress of such a heavy course in an already loaded schedule, and it will be nice to not have a class that late at night (until nearly 9PM on T and R).

The Digital Photography Studio course has been added because it is a course I am very interested in, but wasn’t on the original course schedule for the spring semester. Actually, it wasn’t even on the schedule until I requested that it be added after there was a late addition of a regular Digital Photography 1 course to the schedule.

If anyone is interested in taking the Digital Photography 1 or Digital Photography Studio courses with me, there are 4 seats left in the former and 3 in the later. The Gaston College CRNs are 014458 and 014578, respectively. The courses are in the same room at the same time.

I have arranged all of my digital photography projects into a single collection on Flickr. If you wish to review my summer semester pictures, please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/kularski/collections/72157605379226000/

I kept looking back and forth between these cameras trying to figure out what made them different from each other, to be able to justify the additional cost of the D80, I guess the answer is 1.25 million extra pixels, that I likely wouldn't notice being without except for shots in RAW in "difficult lighting situations".

I have had several sets of prints done at this point. I have used a different method for just about every time I have done it and I haven't picked my favorite yet. I think I really like having them sent to my local CVS store though, no matter how they are printed... except when having them shipped is a much better deal.

Tonight I was looking at some photo accessories on Amazon and ran across an offer I couldn't pass up, a lens cleaning pen AND $30 of free prints on ShutterFly. I had nothing to loose, so I did it. I bought the pen (should arrive Tuesday), and received my coupon code and I now have 2 orders with ShutterFly that should arrive sometime next week. I am looking forward to seeing what quality of prints I get. I am excited by a feature they have that no other photo printing service I have used yet does. They will print whatever you want on the back of the photos, for easy identification. This is something I would have loved to have had when I was doing other prints of my work for my digital photography class, to mark lesson and image numbers. Another fun thing I got free is an 11x14 poster containing 1 - 60 images... I picked to do 15... the 15 of my  final project and I even got to have fun and put titles and stuff on it.

I'm looking forward to receiving all of my prints next Friday.

Series V will be standing in for Series F for the graded project.

Here it is, the result of several gigabytes of photos and many hours of editing and sorting. The final project for ART390, Digital Photography.

Series A:
  

Series B:
  

Series C:
  

Series D:
  

Series E:
   

Series F:
  

Series G:
  

Because I do everything with great redundancy... here are the sets that didn't go in the final project. These are backup sets, or sets that were considered as alternates.

Series V:
  

Series W:
  

Series X:
  

Series Y:
  

Series Z:
  

Since starting my digital photography class I have had a few of my photos printed professionally (about 250 or so). I have collected a few of the Kodak envelopes full of my photos (consolidated them into as few as I could). After the first few sessions of printing I decided I wanted a photo album to put them in... something just for my art photos. I had a hard time picking one originally... the age of scrapbooking is fucking us all over on that. Apparently no one just puts photos in an album for portfolio purposes anymore. I finally found one I liked, but didn't obtain it then because it was a little big and a little expensive for what I needed it for... but after looking around more... I found nothing more suitable, so I decided to get it...but that's as far as it got. I think about going to get one of the things every time I move my photos around, and now that I am waiting for another order to be processed I realize even more that I need to get one... but once again I have forgotten to actually go get one. Its the type of thing I would usually just get from Amazon.com, but I am really particular when it comes to this type of thing, so I really want a chance to fondle the product in person. I suppose when I go to pick up my photos tomorrow I should also venture out and find a photo album to put them in.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/grass-art/

I found this article to be very amusing, somewhat interesting and a bit inspiring. I guess this proves that there are some things that you just can't do with digital photography (although its easy enough to get slides made). This stuff seems about as useless as ice sculpture, but grass photography seems more interesting. 

In the past few weeks I have been trying a variety of subjects, mostly flowers, but also some of their "visitors". I have found photographing bees to bee very difficult. It is very hard to get a bee to sit still for a photo. They like to fly around, I guess checking out the best pollen in the neighborhood. When you do get a bee to stand still for you, such as the one above, there is a limited amount of time to get the focus right before they move again, and then there is an issue with the contrast. Some cameras seem to focus on bright subjects and ignore dark subjects. Since most bees are dark colors, they get lost and the camera focuses on the flower they are resting on. Another issue I have once I do get a bee in focus and sitting still long enough for a photo is that they tend to collect pollen with their heads, therefore, the least flattering side is showing. Sunflowers seem to be a good spot to catch bees since they are open and allow for access from multiple sides.

I'm using my new lens and it seems to be helping. I am still very limited with how close I can be to a subject, but when I get a subject in focus, the details aren't lost anymore, making macro photography worth doing. Another thing I am seeing with the new lens is that there is no blue hue around the edges of the photos anymore. With my old 2 element lens I had a lot of "cheap glass" issues. This one is super clear and brings out details nicely.

"Make six images of a public space. This could be outside in a park, parking lot, grocery store—anywhere that the public can go"

"Make six more images of a private space"

I have been fighting with myself about this photo for days. I feel like there is a lack of contrast in what otherwise could have been a really cool shot. Anyone else have an opinion?

Most semesters when final projects and final exams come around, I don't usually give much thought to those things, I just dive in and do my best at the time, usually scraping by on the deadline. I am really excited about my Digital Photography final project, and am trying to get everything in place and ready to execute it the best I can. I have a new lens coming in the morning, as well as a new memory card so that I can shoot in CCD-RAW format for greater image quality, while at the same time being able to use a greater sensitivity (which with other formats results in grainy images). A lot of my photos this semester haven't been the best possible quality, because, well.. I wanted some sanity left. I am going to execute the final project with as much precision as possible.  I selected macro photography as my subject, which is something not really covered much in the course, so I have "ordered" a few books on the subject from the art library at UNC. I'm hoping they show up tomorrow with the lens so that I can get started.

Check this out: http://www.47stphoto.com/item.asp?invky=6777612

Right-angle lens for a camera. So many uses, so absolutely unethical!

Just showing off my new macro lens:

Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for 55mm Digital Camera Lenses

• 4 elements optical glass
• includes caps for both sides
• includes carry case

I'm a geek, so what?

kularski's del.icio.us Bookmarks: Sunday, July 06, 2008

Opteka HD2 55mm 2.2x High Definition Telephoto Lens

Opteka 70" Pro Tripod for Photo

Just looking through 47th Street photo tonight after ordering a new HD macro lens to use for my project. Found a few neat little toys I would like to play with. First item is a nice telephoto add on for my camera that would give me the effective power  of 22x optical magnification. Don't know how useful it would be, but its certainly a cool little add-on. The next thing is a 70" tripod, which is taller than mine and would let me do portrait shots (camera on its side). Its also taller than my current tripod, which would  let me shoot things over my head.