Even professional photographers don't get the perfect shot straight out of the gate. The difference between professionals and amateurs, is that pros don't give up until they've got that perfect shot. They make get frustrated, but they try and try and try again, even in the freezing cold dawn with their feet in mud in the wilds of Wyoming.
I found it very insightful to watch Scott Stulberg fail his first two attempts of taking the panoramic, but by using different zoom and exposure settings and a certain level of patience, he was able to get a perfect shot. Here is Scott's panoramic of Oxbow Bend at the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop (taken minutes after the video was taken):
Check to make sure your entire shot is level and all your subject is in your frame
Shoot on Manual so that all your settings stay constant
Use a cable release
Overlap each shot by 20%
Stitch photos in post
I think the moral of the story is that you should never give up on a shot, especially a complicated shot like a panoramic. Try a different angle, focal point, aperture, exposure and see if you can make the shot work! Hope this inspires you to go out and take some panoramic shots yourself.
What are your experiences shooting panoramic shots?
Remember when Twitter was elitist and cool and way geeky? When tweets actually contained thoughts or links to sweet content? When the twitter was, like, our geeky secret club of social 2.0 misfits?
Twitter is about connecting, about sharing, about helping each other through our daily geeky struggles with toasted HDs, exploding MBPs, 404s and other jedi mind tricks.
That's all gone now because therealbritney is on Twitter. Yeah, even Britney Spears can't get her own name on twitter. Anyway, I won't start that rant about how some jerk took @mostlylisa on Twitter!
Stop the madness and just say NO! No Britney we will not follow you, or @ you, or retweet any of your lame blogs or blog entries. I'm glad your management team has finally discovered the power of social media, but Twitter is our world and you and your nekkid videos can take a hike off my feed.
Now say after me:
I promise to not follow Britney Spears on Twitter
Good! Now I wanna see your solemn vow in my comments!
NB. I will, however, continue to listen to your music while cleaning and doing laundry and perhaps dancing in front of a mirror with a Swiffer Sweeper.
Special mentions go to Rob & Lauren and Scott Bradley who gave Nik a run for his money with their awesome shots.
I am always interested to know the story behind a great photo, so I asked Nik to share the story of "The Anonymous Surfer":
'The Anonymous Surfer' was taken on the last night of my stay in San Diego in September. The previous evening, I'd witnessed a gorgeous sunset - one that had disappeared by the time I had run back to the hotel, grabbed my camera bag, and made it back to Pacific Beach.
So for the time it came to the last evening in town, I took the camera bag with me to dinner, and waited. Because of the lens I primarily shoot with (10-20mm) I dropped down onto the beach, and quite by chance this surfer was about to pass me by. With the sunset in the background, and after a week of my own attempts to body-board, it seemed like a fitting photo to end the holiday.
Technical Details: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 HSM EX lens, 10mm focal length, 1/40 sec @ f/4. The shot was deliberately underexposed on the camera, only modification in Aperture being to ensure the horizon was perfectly level.
Thanks Nik! And a hi-5 to all the people who entered the contest. It's never easy to have your photos judged, but I think it's really important to share your photos with others and see what other people are creating. It's also a great feeling to receive comments and encouragement from other enthusiastic photographers.
And with that I present the next Mostly Lisa Photography Contest: Portraits!
My first time shooting the stars was a memorable event. I've always been facinated by stars. My childhood room was plastered with constellation, galaxy and astronomy posters. I even had the main constellations replicated in glow-n-the-dark stars on the slanted ceiling above my bed. I was seriously into stars. So much so, that I only alloted a small 6x6" piece of wall for Matt Damon.
On the last day of the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop, I was elated when Scott Stulberg suggested that we decided to stay long into the night to capture some astronomical pictures. We did have to forgo dinner and general warmth, but it was well worth it.
The group was lead by Scott Stulberg & Martin Gisbourne, an experienced astrophotographer who guided us through the sky and found a perfect spot right below the Milky Way for us to set up our gear.
It's really important to set up your tripod and camera and find your frame and focus point before it gets dark, because when it's dark, you can't see a whole lot through your view finder. I learnt my lesson by finding the edge of a huge tree in a lot of my star pictures after the fact. I think the tree decided to move in my frame just to spite me. Jerk.
Also, if you don't have a headlamp flashlight, get one. They are essential for early morning or night shoots. Trust me, mounting a camera on a tripod or changing a CF card in the dark is not a good idea. Also, the iPhone flashlight app does not give sufficient light for finding anything really. Tried. Tested. And true. And dress warm, like a Michelin man amount, as it gets a wee bit chilly waiting for those 30s exposures.
As soon as the sky was dark, the group started shooting. It was really tough to get the stars in focus and the photos weren't coming out the way we wanted. Scott Stulberg and I ended up breaking from the group to do some crazy light painting of the Mormon barns which I"ll talk about in another post. When we came back we ran into legendary Nikon photographer, Dave Black, and his pals shooting some spectacular shots of the stars in a completely different position in the sky. We asked them how they were getting such clear shots. He said that the trick is to set your focus to manual, on infiinite focus, positioning the cursor right in the middle of the ∞. Then we had the magic formula:
Aperture at f/2.8,
Shutter speed at 25-30s,
Manual focus set to infinite focus,
ISO cranked to 3200 to 6400 (for those of us with Nikon D3s).
The only problem was, Scotty's camera was outta juice and he forgot his spare battery (tsk, tsk) and my lil Xti couldn't hack it, so Richard generously loaned us his Canon 1D Mark III to get this magical shot.
Most of us were shooting with wide-angle lenses, as wide as a 14mm fisheye, to get in as much sky as possible. But if you've got zoom, use it, especially if the moon is out and aboot.
I hope this has given you the inspiration to go out and take your own star shots. If you get any good ones be sure to link them in the comments!
No matter how fancy or thin or sleek or polished the newly released MacBooks and MBPs look, I promise to stand by you, my lovely MacBook Air. Those flashy new guys may be faster, more powerful, or just plain better, but we have a special "connection" you and I. We've been through the good and the bad, haven't we? And that's not something I'd just throw away for some cheap thrills. And they would be cheaper. Word on the interwebs is a lot cheaper, as in under $1000. But even that wouldn't sway me because I am committed to YOU. Ok?? I'm glad we had this talk.
Uh. What now?? You want me to stop looking at leaked photos on engadget or all reading all the hype on apple insider. I'm not.. I.. I.. just followed a link from twitter. You know what? You need to start trusting me here. You can't just start monitoring everything I do from now on and holding my internet history against me! You know I clear the cache after 3 days anyway.
What? You've changed my preferences? Deleted all my passwords from my keychain? And you've stopped synchronizing with my iPhone? And you are not currently not accepting any bluetooth devices. Well that's just great. *hmph*
Look, your beef is with me. Don't take it out on the peripheries. And if you want to throw all that attitude at me, then why don't I bring up the fact that I will never ever be truly satisfied with your ONE USB hub? And since we are being totally honest here, your hub is kinda flimsy and *cough* a little bit small. What's that? You're sorry for being so inflammatory and rude. Ok ok. I accept your apology.
But remember, jealousy will get you no where. There will always be others splashing their bits n' bizznizz all over the net, and I may be tempted. Yeah, I'll admit it, I'll look, but there's no crime in that. It's completely natural to check out another Apple laptops stats, but I promise I will not stroke anyone else's keys or snuggle up in bed with anyone but you.... mostly.
Let's remember the good times, like when I got you. Look how happy I am!
Are you gonna stand by your old laptop, or trade it in for a newer, younger, prettier model?
Shot with the Sony DSC-T500.
The last time I was in San Francisco, I was determined to go to the zoo to catch some wildlife shots to add to my growing collection of animal portraits. I had such an amazing time at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in the Gold Coast of Australia with the roos, koalas, [...]
