Project 365 - Days 32-36
After finishing up Project 365 for the month of January, I saw February as a fresh start to the project. I realized that I was going to have to keep this project fresh in order to stay motivated and committed to completing it. I think I'll be treating each month as a fresh start to keep it going forward.
Well, here are the pictures to start off February!
[032/365] :: Island Style. It's my birthday month and I was beginning to feel my age after coming back from vacationing in Hawaii. I was missing it a lot...especially the food. My coworkers had just happened to be having lunch at a small Hawaiian restaurant serving up some home cooked ono foods. This is probably the closest I'd get to some delicious island food without having to get on a plane. The spot is called Island Style Cafe and I would advise you to try it out if you're in the San Diego area. I ALWAYS order their Korean Chicken plate (pictured), but I've tried everything on their menu and it's all delicious. I want some now...
[033/365] :: Lens Tester. Being a parent, my son is probably my most photographed subject. I've got thousands of pictures of him and he hasn't even turned 2 yet! Here he is helping me test out my new Sigma 85mm lens. I've been waiting to acquire this lens to start some portrait photography projects that I've had planned for months. For the time being, I've unleashed its potential on my son and he doesn't seem to mind at all. We shot this while he was playing around in the kid's section of IKEA. The environment is very well lit and I had no problem dialing in the proper exposure for the picture. This was shot wide open at ƒ/1.4 to blur out the cluttered background behind him.
[034/365] :: Texture. With the purchase of the Sigma 85mm, I now have possesion of the Sigma Trinity at 30mm, 50mm, and 85mm. All of them have a max aperture of ƒ/1.4 and perform just as good, if not better, than the Canon "L" counterparts I tested in the past. For my daily walk around lens, I'll usually have the Sigma 30mm attached to my Canon 7D to give me a "normal" focal length to work with. It provides me a focal length close to what I see with my own eyes. I really like the texture of the pillow in this photo and wanted to see if the Sigma 30mm could capture it in the low light environment I was in. This is the kind of picture quality that the fast aperture provides me. I shot this wide open at 1/60s without having to bump up ISO. I got the sharpness, quality, and performence I expect from these Sigma lenses demonstrated in this one shot.
[035/365] :: Cold Night. It really was a cold night. We were sitting outside of Studio Diner waiting for a table when I snapped this shot. We were being lit by multi-colored flourescent neon lights from the diner sign, streetlights on the sidewalk, headlights and breaklights from passing cars, and powerful signs from businesses accross the street. It was a lighting nightmare and there was no way I could have fixed it. The boys posed for me anyway and waited for me to take this shot. I had to use a relatively high ISO 3200. I did some noise correction in post processing and I selectively reduced the saturation on the warm colors to get this final image. It might look a bit overprocessed, but I think I was able to get the COLD look I was looking for in this photograph.
[036/365] :: Tree Model. Another picture of my son! He is so used to having a camera pointed at him now. We were taking a walk around our neighborhood when he suddenly decides to pose by every tree we pass by to take a picture. It was pretty hillarious! I'd snap a few shots at each tree and he would quickly run over to me to review the pictures. If he didn't like them, he'd go back to the same tree and pose a little differently. HAHA! All this was done with no direction from me. What a funny kid. I should start "A Kid and His Trees" series. There were some funny poses in this set, too. But I decided to choose this shot because it really looked sincere. His eyes are in perfect sharpness and they look directly at you. They really drew me into the image. I'll post the other shots when I have some time to process them and maybe revisit these trees again with him soon.
[TIP]
Viewing EXIF data :: I've been asked a few times about the camera settings used to take some of the shots I've posted in this blog. I don't extract any of that EXIF data because I like to be able to share what I've learned. I don't have a problem with it because anyone can take my settings, but you can't take my eyes. :D I shoot what I see for the most part and set up my camera to get the shots I want.
You can find that information by clicking on the pictures so they take you to the picture page on my Flickr. From there, you will see text just to the right of the image saying something like: "This photo was taken yesterday using a Canon EOS 7D." There will be a link on the text for "Canon EOS 7D" if you hover over it with your tracker. This link will show you the camera settings used for that particular photo as well as a handful of other information that could be helpful.
