We talked about the new ultra cool Flip Mino, hung out with Alex Lindsay and the awesome crew at Pixel Corps, including Joe who is not on twitter, and then nearly got kicked out of an Apple Store. Besides that, the “rat” problem, and the epic Kelly Clarkson lip dub-a-thon, it was a totally normal Friday for me.
This was my first Holga lomo picture to actually come out. I took it the day after the madness that was WWDC 2008. My first roll, I accidentally exposed to light while taking it out of the camera. My second roll, I shot mostly at night in San Francisco (which looked so so cool) but I forgot to set the camera to “bulb” and all the shots were underexposed. Gah!
Film is intense. After having the immediacy of digital shots, waiting for film developing drives me bananas, but you can’t deny the coolness of the medium format. The graininess, the subtle vignetting, the saturation of colour, the sweet 70s feel it gives photos. I’m really excited about exploring the lomo now!
Check out lomography.com or the flickr Lomo group for inspiration. And if you are experimenting with lomography link me up to your flickr photos.
I love my digital SLR, and I don’t see myself ever using film as my main format, but there is something almost too perfect and unnatural about digital images, especially those that have been photoshopped. You lose all the unexpected surprises in the process of using film cameras that can produce seriously beautiful shots. After seeing my lomo shots, I realize that it is still important for photographers to experiment with film and develop a style that is independent of digital automation.
What do you think? Is there still a place for film in today’s digital photography age?
I was the special guest on an uber cerebral podcast last night called the Friday Night Party Line. I promise that I most definitely said something to embarrass myself. We talked about Esperanto, kids, video editing, environmental issues, polar bears, GPS, and what we would spend $5000 if we had to spend it.
What I would spend $5000 on if I was in some alternate universe where money grew on trees and responsibilities floated away on hot air balloons and the world wasn’t in peril (so I’m excluding things like rent, food, bills, saving the environment & polar bears et al.):
Good lenses are ridiculously expenses, so for most of us, owning a bunch of good glass is just not financially feasible. I own one good lens for my Canon Xti/400D. The 50mm f/1.4. Such a beautiful lens, but limiting. I also have a crappy kit lens 18-55mm f/cr.ap, but i refuse to use it now, because I know the results will be sub-par.
The other option is to rent lenses, which is actually a lot more affordable than you think. Plus, you get to take the lens for a test spin, keep the photos, and not have to sell stolen girl guides cookies out of your garage. Come to think of it, that’s not such a bad idea… No not a good idea… A very bad idea…
You can rent pretty much any lens, even the elite L-series, for approx. $30 a day. And with most camera rental places, if you rent a lens on a Friday, you can keep it for the weekend. If you live in Vancouver check out Beau Photo or Leo’s Cameras.
So I wanted to ask all the photogs out there:
What is your favourite lens?
What awesome lenses do you think I should try?
PS. Thanks to my twitter peeps, I had a nice list going on twitter, but then the tweety bird freaked out again. So I’d like to compile a list on my blog, because I’m fairly certain WP won’t try to lift a giant whale with tiny songbirds.
I felt like my blog was getting a leedle to intense and serious, so I thought I’d bust out a sweet silly vid of Justine and I frolicking from or MacBreak taping at Pixel Corps to the SF Apple Store just around the corner.
As you can tell from the video, Justine and I totally don’t get along. She even yelled at me for eating her left-over Starbucks’ chicken pesto salad and wouldn’t lend me any floss when I got green junk stuck in my teeth for most of the day.
Also, head on over to Mr. Adobe Frederick Van’s blog for a sweet interview with me about my photography and some photos he shot of during an impromptu TWiP photo shoot. Scott Bourne also took a neat B&W shot of me.
PS. If you are a TWiP follower or photographer send out a shout and a flickr link so I can check out your awesome photographs.
PPS. Any ideas for my next meet-up with Justine? Accent off? Dingo chase? Flip Stack?
You have to admit, those are some hardcore moves to bust out in the SF Apple store. They were so hardcore we nearly got kicked out. Totally busted.
Also, Justine’s Flip Ultras gave birth to a little baby mino on MacBreak. There were celebrations through the Pixel Corps office….. until a stray dingo was let loose…
PPS. this was only a short excerpt of a day that started at 8am and ended at 2am with the only kind of craziness that you can capture on 5 iPhones, 4 flip videos, a Canon G9, and photobooth… ooh and my Lomo!
I just got my gadget geeky hands all over the Canon G9 (12.1 Megapixel, Canon DIGIC III Image Processor, Optical Image Stabilizer) a few days ago, and I must say, I am really impressed.
I really wanted a high quality point and shoot that I could use capturing the behind the scenes action on photo/video shoots and for grabbing quick video for my blog videos.
Although my media company owns 2 Canon HV20s, I almost always use a 2-year-old simple point and shoot, the Canon PowerShot A510, to capture most of my videos. Even though it’s from back in the days when it was cutting edge to sport a 3.2 Megapixel camera, it’s just lower maintenance, smaller, and less fragile than the HV20 and seems to scare and anger less people than the HV20 with the intimidating Rode Video Microphone. Plus, despite it’s age, the PS A510 has a great lens and can capture good 640×480 video. Also, it just quicker to just upload to upload and deal with the footage sans TB HDs.
(aside: I always bring my Gorillapod tripod (pictured above) with me wherever I go. It’s a really handy little tripod. It can bend around things and grip them. Much more flexible and lighter to carry than a standard tripod.)
And now I’m getting all gooey with the Canon G9. I may even have “love feelings” towards G9′s video quality. It shoots really sharp and clear 640 x 480px video at 30fps which is more than adequate for web content. It also shoots HD: 1024 x 768px at 15fps. The auto exposure works very quickly when moving from contrasting light conditions and it’s cool that you can zoom during video recording. It’s not optical and it does look fairly pixelated, but it’s still great that you are able to zoom.
This is getting super technical and nerdy. I promise my next post will be super fun for those who could care less about pixels, though you must admit, pixels are pretty neat. You are looking at some pretty neat ones right now. Respekt.
Does any one else love the Canon G9? What point and shoot camera are you using? And if you use your camera to capture video, give me your impressions or link me to one of your videos. Fanks!
PS. w00t! I just convinced my mum to buy the G9. First the iMac and now the G9… we are moving slowly, but surely in the right direction. Now, i just have to get her to ditch her 15 year old, very round screen TV!
Whilst in England in February this year, I got very attached with a MacBook Air. It wasn’t mine but I wished and wished with all of my might for it to be so…
AND SOMEONE ACTUALLY SENT ME ONE!! A MB AIR!!! (CAPS LOCKS ATTACK!) How insane is that? I’m still waiting for a Darlick or a Darma dude or a cylon or Ashton or Jonah Takalua to appear…
PS. If anyone else would like to send me stuff, i still need an iPhone, more M&S Biscuits, and a dinosaur Pez dispenser to match my awesome dino PJs. Rarrrr.
