my life, my thoughts, my world.

Today my Canon 5DMK2 DSLR arrived and I got busy with some comparison photos. The unit is a refurbished deal from Canon so I’ll be shooting a ton of frames to make sure everything is in proper working order before I send in my old, broke, Canon Powershot S410 for their recycling program. My first test was to provide a comparison, in a good light situation, of the detail differences between the Canon 5D and the Canon 5DMK2. This setup involved my tripod, a release cable plugged into one of my Pocket Wizard II+ transceivers, my Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens, and my oldest acoustic guitar with one of my amplifiers as a background. Both cameras were set to meter the scene’s average exposure in aperture priority (Av) mode with an f-stop of f/11. All images are direct conversions from the RAW files, and all noise reduction settings were turned off. The color temperature range for the full series of shots was +/- 75K. The 5DMK2 appears to be more saturated than the 5D for the same scene, light, and camera settings. My assumption is that this is a function of several different variables, one of which is likely the newer DIGIC processor. I actually took photos at every single ISO option available when the expanded ISO set is enabled in the custom functions menu but I decided to only post ISOs 100, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 as direct comparisons. The high end, ISO 12800 and ISO 25600, of the 5DMK2 are also included just because I can.

The pictures can do the talking from here, slideshow below. The each ISO is displayed 5D first, 5DMK2 second. The final two slides are ISO 12800, and ISO 25600.

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with using continuous light. Continuous light, from a source so large its gravitational field holds an entire galaxy together, is awesome. Pair that light source with my Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM and you’ve got the makings for something great. A few examples below:

Meg

Meg

Meg

Meg

Cassandra

Late last week, I got together with Brittany for a quick photoshoot outside. My new Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens was really just dying to be used. New lens, meet local model!

Having fun is usually my first objective when I pick up my camera, and this shoot did not let me down. I stuck with only the 85mm, one reflector, and a pair of my 285HVs. The results? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that (if you’re reading on Facebook click here).

Test drive with a new lens. Kate was kind enough to sit still and let me take a few photos.

Straight out of the camera

Above is my favorite of the bunch. Lighting is provide exclusively by our friend the sun. I do have one of my tri-grip reflectors against the wall to her left for some fill light, as you can see if you check the highlights in her eyes. The one thing I’ve noticed thus far is that I’ve got to be a lot more stable with the 85mm, medium-telephoto, focal length than I do when shooting my 50mm or 28mm primes. Throwing motion blur into the mix certainly kills any sharpness. I’ll keep messing with the lens, but I do like the perspective, and the additional standoff I get when doing headshots and other portraits.

Never has it been a secret that I enjoy my travels. The opportunity to see new places, meet new people, and escape from everyday life as I know it is always welcomed with open arms. When finals finished up, I seized that opportunity again. Destination? Boston!

One of my oldest friends, Sheehan, goes to Boston University. My old Battle Captain, Leo, attends Harvard. Flickr friend, Meg, goes to Northeastern. Over the course of my five days up north, I got to see them all.

Meg was kind enough to invite me to Cape Cod with a group of her friends. The trip started great, but a medical monkey-wrench got thrown into the works early on. The first morning at the beach house started with an unfortunate trip to the hospital for Meg. I won’t go into other people’s medical business, but I will say if you have to go to a hospital make sure it isn’t on Cape Cod. I wasn’t even the sick one, but I still wanted to choke half of the staff. Color me unimpressed.

Meg pre-hospital

Once Meg’s parents showed up, and we handed off all of her things, the rest of the group decided it was time to head to the beach. I decided it was time to call on an old friend for an extraction. The group was nice, and did a lot to make me feel welcome, but I just didn’t feel right sticking around. Leo said it best, so I’ll just say what he said. There are some people you just help when they need it. Convenience isn’t a factor. If they need help, and you can provide it, you just do it. I’m glad he counts me as one of those people; I’d do the same for him.

Meg's friends in the ocean

Leo and his wife took me to dinner, gave me a place to stay, and showed me the sights of Boston. I’ll let the pictures tell this part of the story.

Random lonely chair in a field

Harvard

Boston Massacre Cemetery

Memorial for OIF/OEF casualties

USS Constitution mast

The rest of the photos can be found here.

Cellpic from my trip to Cape Cod. More about the trip later.

Today is my Mom’s 50th birthday. I hope she enjoys many more, because there’s never been a more loving and supportive mother. I’ve made more than my fair share of stupid mistakes in this life, but through all of them she’s been there loving me just the same. Heck, I even made her spend her first wedding anniversary in labor with me but she forgave me even for that.

Anyway, she’ll read this eventually. I love you Mom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/macktruckturner/4593086768/

My friends, Colby and Lauren, asked me to take some photos last week. The sun was shining brightly so I went with natural light and had some fun with both my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, and my Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. There were even a few frames shot on my film body, with the 50mm lens, on Ilford HP5+. I’ll get those developed at some point.

Since I was rocking the sun as my main light, I broke out one of my 4′ reflectors for some fill and kept the sun behind my subjects. Eventually, we ended up using a large (oh, 80′ or so) white wall instead of my reflector. It didn’t get blown around quite as much as my reflectors were. Giant reflectors require an assistant, and I did not have one with me. Remember that if you plan on using reflectors. They’re great lighting tools, but you need a stand or an assistant (probably both).

There were quite a few keepers from the shoot, but below are four of my favorites.

Them Shades

Longing

Fight - Colby using the force.

Two

The rest of the set is here.

Quite a bit has happened in the last few weeks and I have not been very good about updating this to reflect all of that.

On the photography avenue, I have taken to using that flaming ball of gas we orbit as my primary source of light. To address the problem of fill light, I picked up a pair of Lastolite TriGrip Reflectors. Since bigger is always better I ended up with the large version. Four-foot tall reflectors are not easily handled without an assistant. Looks like I will need to find an assistant.

Usually, I would never dream of writing the above without the inclusion of some photographs. It just so happens my 5D is right next to me with plenty of photographs I would actually love to share. The problem? My Core2Duo 24″ iMac was kindly equipped with one of Apple’s subpar LCD panels. Leave anything still for even a single minute and its outline, and sometimes even text, would burn into the screen. I could understand if this happened after a period of hours. I cannot understand how it happens in less than five minutes. Anyway, my netbook lacks the power to handle my RAW files so until Apple is kind enough to give me back my iMac I have no real way to get those photos up. Sad times for all.

Still on the photography note, I am considering getting rid of my Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens. Having gone through a good deal of my photos taken with that lens it seems I tend to use it at both 28mm and 50mm quite a lot. I have faster primes at each of those focal lengths. Just from actually using the lens I also know that I often find myself wishing I had just a hair more reach than its 70mm telephoto end gives me. Generally, that means I am either walking closer to my subject or swapping on the gigantic Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Right now, I have two thoughts on how I’ll approach this problem. Thought one involves the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. Thought two involves the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens.

Enough photography talk for now. School is driving me mad. Once upon a time, I was awesome at math and science. If only the same held true today. Might my epic failure on my last physics exam be somewhat related to my not having had to use this half of my brain much at all in the last decade? Possibly. Am I okay with that? No, I am not. Next week I take my finals. Next week I do or die in both calculus two, and physics.

There is a natural light at the end of the tunnel next week. A few short hours after I finish my physics final, I will be flying to Boston for about a week. Sometimes the best way to deal with a stressful semester is to fly at least a thousand miles away from it. It helps when there are old friends to see all over the place, and new ones to meet in the same places. I am looking forward to the break because when it is done I have a brutal summer semester to tackle. Calculus three, and physics two. Oh. Joy.

What else? Oh, right. Beer. My keezer had a very large temperature gradient from the bottom of the keezer to the top of the keezer. This, it seems, was largely responsible for some of my more annoying carbonation problems. A fix was obviously needed and a quick trip to the garage provided me with an idea. A few minutes and a few pieces of bent metal later my temperature sensor had migrated its way off the floor. The temperature gradient still exists but now at least my beer lines stay cold enough to maintain an appropriate level of carbonation between the keg and my glass. I still need to go refill my CO2 tank.

A few weeks ago, my Mom called me down the stairs with concerns about there being some kind of animal loose in our kitchen. Some investigation revealed the animal was a bird who had made her nest inside the vent for our electric range. Anyway, her eggs have hatched and there are now chirping baby birds living in that vent making all kinds of noise. Today, while I was out shooting film for the for the first time ever, I heard the chirping start up while I was outside. A quick transition to my Canon Powershot G9 made it easy to catch a few shots, but I like this one best:

Momma Bird