Colors of Venice
ISO 200, f2.5, 1/30 sec, 50@50mm
The island of Venice, Italy, is an art gallery lovers dream. There are hundreds of small galleries all throughout the island, many located on hidden side streets, off the normal tourist paths. While walking down one of these small side streets (I guess you call them streets, however there are no cars on the island), I came across a small hardware store which doubled as an art supply store for the locals. On the far wall was this collection of photogenic pigments which the store owner told me were used for everything from coloring textiles to making paints. In addition, he just happened to be an artist himself, and had a show across the street in a very unique stone-walled gallery. If only I had disposable income!
The lesson that I learned from this shot was to ALWAYS have your camera with you when you travel. The first time I walked by, I didnt have my camera and rushed back to the hotel to get it. The following day, he had taken down the mask, and the shot was gone!
Ciao for now…
Pont du Gard Aqueduct
ISO 160, f11, 1/40 sec, 18-200@18mm
This is the magnificent Pont du Gard aqueduct in Southern France. It is a short segment of the 50 km aqueduct which carried water from Uzes to Nimes. This engineering marvel was built by 1st century Romans and is listed as a UNESCO heritage site. It is the second highest Roman structure built, only bested by about 3 meters by the Roman Colosseum. It also contains the largest arch span ever built by the Romans, about 80 ft. I find the most amazing aspect of the structure is that it was built with no mortar! Held together only by friction, it has weathered storms and floods for 2000 years.
This shot is composed of three bracketed images at 2-stop intervals. I processed HDR with Photomatix, and touched up with Aperture. I really like this image for a few reasons, one is simply the majesty of the subject. In addition, I have recently been working with HDR and am impressed with the outcome of this shot, and lastly, I have been focusing on taking images that incorporate water, either flowing or with reflections.
Portrait Lighting for Photography
One of the aspects of photography that I know very little about is lighting. I recently purchased a really nice flashgun for my camera, the Nikon SB700. At first I had a little buyers remorse after spending so much $$ on a flash, but the more I read about it and especially USE IT, the more I really love it. It has already made a difference in my shots, even in the limited time that I have played with it.
So now that I have this awesome flash, it is time to pour through YouTube and REALLY learn how to use it . In doing so, I have picked up quite a few pointers on lighting in general, especially basic theory and layout for simple portrait lighting. I came across this great instructional video on portrait lighting basics by TheSlantedLens, and thought that I would pass it on to the blog-o-spere. In the video, Jay P. Margan demonstrates 5 different types of Portrait lighting:
- Rembrant Light
- Split Light
- Broad Light
- Butterfly Light
- Loop Light
Take notes and let him know if u like it!
I will try to post some shots using the new flash soon, maybe even some attempts at portrait lighting!
Portrait Lighting for Photography and Video! – YouTube.
Dockside
Nikon D90, ISO 100, f/20, 3 sec, 18-200@100mm
Perfect lazy and breezy cool Fall day with nothing to do but sit by the river and dream! Three bracketed copies were made of a single handheld image at 2 stop intervals. These were processed HDR with Photomatix, converted to B&W with Silver Efex Pro, and touched up with Aperture. Many thanks to my wondferful and VERY STILL model! Hope you like it.
Rialto Bridge, Venice Italy
Nikon D90, ISO 200, f/9, 310sec, 18-200@20mm
My family and I spent a few cold January days in Venice last year. The bright side of the cold weather was that there were VERY few tourists, and we seemed to have Venice all to ourselves. This shot was a 5min exposure taken using a 9 stop ND filter. This enabled me to capture the light trails of the few boats that traveled beneath the bridge during the night. I created three duplicated bracketed images which I then HDR’d in Photomatix , then tweeked it a little in Aperture.
Introductions and beginnings…
Welcome to LIGHTBOX3d, my new photo blog. I am new to photo-blogging, so please excuse the rough edges at first as I learn my way around.
I have been interested in photography for years, and had some general introduction into photography in college. I took a few photo and film classes back in the 35mm and darkroom days, but have not done much with it since then, and that was a LONG time ago. A few years ago I followed a friends lead into the digital SLR world with a new Nikon D90. Since then I have really developed a passion for the field, often at the expense of my VERY patient wife and kids!
I have gained most of my “new school” education online, thanks to the many wonderful and talented photographers who take the time to post , write, discuss, and simply educate those like myself who are hungry for information. Many thanks to all of you. While I don’t have a specific “Mission” for this blog, my intent is to explore my passion for photography mostly by posting images and surfing your sites to learn from the online community. Maybe even “contribute” to the online world by answering any questions from those that have not stumbled into the darkroom as far as I have.
So with this post my blog is now up and running. Thanks for visiting, come back soon, post comments, help me learn…and go take some pics!
GK
p.s. Header photo: Winter on Lake Vattern. f/16, 2 min, ISO 200, 48 mm. Converted to B&W w Silver Efex Pro, retouched in Aperture.
Lightbox3D 