Busted Shutter Studios

Well folks, this concludes the broadcast of this blog. I'll be starting up another site shortly for my new business. I've finally decided on a name...Busted Shutter Studios. Sounds kinda cool? Maybe? Time will tell I guess. The new site will be a blog but will mostly relate to business news and basically be my initial web site for the business. Once my budget allows for a hosting company, I'll probably create an actual site, but for now, any excess cash goes to more photo gear.

So be on the lookout for a new site and some cool offers.

adios!

Where the F*%# Have I Been?!!?

Well...quite busy actually. Things are just starting to wind down now at work. THe last three weeks or so have been quite hectic and have seriously given me second thoughts on whether I'll want to be doing the whole office thing much longer. Just getting real sick of being stuck in front of a computer screen all day. All the more reason to keep the photography thing going full steam.

Some photo news in my world below, as well as some of the pics I've taken over the last few weeks. More to come...

- Have been asked to be the photographer for the breast cancer walk in Dover this October. Will be nice to volunteer my time as well was promote myself a little bit. Gotta get on some business cards.

- Was asked by an old co-worker if I would be up shooting her wedding next summer. Still have to get back to her on that actually. I'll end up saying yes and at the same time strongly recommending she hire a professional while I do it for free. Will be cool to see how it goes though. Will be a real test.

- Asked by a friend if I'd be willing to take some head-shots for her. She's an aspiring actress and I'm an aspiring photog so it's a good professional match I think. Can't wait to help her out while getting some good experience and hopefully, finger's crossed, some nice additions to my portfolio.

I'll be sure to keep all my readers (are there any of you??) updated in the coming months.

Time for a picture dump. These two shots were my submissions for the Portsmouth photowalk. Yucky day but got some good shots.

These next two shots were some test pics I took with my new 70-200 lens. Some sexy glass my friends.

Took this shot in Newburyport with Sara. Spent the day on Plum Island at the wildlife refuge. What a day.

These two shots are from Odiorne Point but on two separate occasions.

Well that's all for me. More to come soon comrades. Stay classy.

Michael's Graduation

Howdy do fellow comrades, patriots, and lovers of democracy! It's been a while since my last post. I always look forward to summer as a time for relaxing, kicking back, and just taking it easy. However, so far it has been anything but. Over the past couple weeks, I slowly moved from my condo into an apartment across the street. I had help from a lot of people, but it still was a time warp it seemed like. Didn't have time for much else other than packing and cleaning.

The following weekend I was finally able to take some time off from moving and visit some old friends from home. Our family friend had just graduated high school and his family threw a little party. I thought this would be a great opportunity to practice some people photography. Armed with just my D200 and 18-200 lens, I collected a handful of decent images. I wasn't too impressed with them to begin with, but for what they are, I think they came out pretty good. More time in better light would have been good....a better lens would have been nice....and the willingness of my subjects to have their pictures taken would have been even better, but I wont complain........

Here's a link to the gallery.

In other news, I picked up a copy of Tamron's 70-200 mm 2.8 lens over the weekend. What sharp one it is! I'll have some test pics up tomorrow. Until then...happy Monday.

Moving Sucks...

Greetings commerades! It's been about a week since I've made a post…and with good reason. I've been a pretty busy guy as of late. I'm about 99% moved out of my condo and into a new apartment after days of punishing my back. My old roomate recently purchased a house with his soon to be wife and has basically achieved the American dream. Hard to believe that sort of thing is still possible now-a-days, but kudos to him.

The picture above is the HDR shot of Thompson Hall I posted earlier, only I've converted it into a poster layout using photoshop. This is done pretty easily by selecting "Canvas Size" from the Image menu. I think it looks alright. Fun to try out different fonts.

MB-D200

I took these shots looking into a mirror so that's why things look flipped around. I wanted to do this so I could show the new battery grip I got for my D200 about a week ago. The grip itself is that extension along the bottom portion of the camera below my hand. If you looks carefully, you can almost see the seam between the camera body and the grip. It's screws right into the bottom of the camera via a plastic command dial just below the lens. The grip holds an additional battery so it gives you twice the shooting time. It also adds some additional weight to the camera which will be nice when I get a couple bigger lenses this summer. Soon as I can save up enough cash.

Another benefit of the grip is that it contains a second shutter release. This enables you to turn the camera sideways to take a vertical picture while still holding the camera in a comfortable manner. Very handy. If you have a DSLR, I would highly recommend picking up one of these grips. 9 times out of 10, there's a grip for your specific camera, you just gotta look online for it. Not to mention, they just look badass...and I'm all about the badassness.

Another Gallery Switch

Just can't seem to stick with one place evidently, but this will be the last move for a while. I've decided to go with Zenfolio for a hosting site for my pictures. They're cheaper than Smugmug and much easier to customize. They don't allow the same freedom with CSS like Smugmug does, but I like they're standard themes and layouts enough. Within a month or so, I'm hoping to have the online store available to purchase prints, but I'd still like to test that system out myself first. Anyways, here's the link for the new gallery. I like it much better.

Thompson Hall

Took a ride over to campus this evening and took a couple shots of Thompson Hall. Tried a little HDR out with a couple shots and I liked this one the best. Decided not to go with the "surreal" type of HDR shots I've done before. This time I used the powers of HDR to just give a broad tonal range and I think it works here. Always brings back great memories walking around that place.

Gotta get up early tomorrow morning. Gonna try and pick up some sunrise shots near the ocean so I'll most likely be out the door by 4 tomorrow morning. Oh boy.

Kennebunkport

This past weekend, Sara and I took a little trip out to Kennebunk, Maine for the afternoon. For our 1 year anniversary, we thought it would be best to take things slow and thought a nice walk around the port area would be a fun. Sara has this book of walks and trails along the seacoast area of New England which we consulted before we left. We found this cool little trail along the water at a Franciscan Monastery. This made for some cool photo ops of the port area, shrines, statues and other neat little attractions.
We then made our way to the beach for a nice walk on the ocean. I wish I had taken my camera with me for this walk, because I encountered a funky worm-like creature in the sand. I had never seen anything like it before. Was quite strange indeed.
After the beach, we took a drive out to my grandmother's old house. I used to spend time there with her and my grandfather every summer when I was just a wee lad. It brought back some great memories of cheating in checkers against my grandmother, driving past the presidents place on the coast and shouting at the house from the car, going on whale watches with my grandfather, and just enjoying some quality time on the beach.

All in all, a great day. Didn't get too many keepers picture wise, but it was a much needed day of relaxation.

HDR Monday

Time for a little HDR Monday. I've got so many other pictures to touch up and post before this one, but I thought this was too cool to wait. I took a stroll over to Dover High School on Sunday afternoon this past weekend. Was bored and figured I would kill some time by trying out some HDR shots of the campus and athletic fields. The sky was real moody for these shots. Rain was in the forecast, but wasn't due for a few hours so I took my chances. The photo at the top was my favorite. Pretty simple. Captured this up on the bleachers overlooking the football field. Looks really cool, but didn't take much to make this shot, surprisingly. The photo is three exposures merged into one. One metered correctly, and the other two are over and under exposed by two stops. Merged in Photomatix and colors punched up a bit in photoshop. The afternoon clouds made for some great HDR shots. This shot below of the baseball field is ok, but I like the first one better.

Well that's it for me today. Check back tomorrow and hopefully I'll start on my backlog of photos; starting with my trip to Kennebunck Port this past weekend.

Cheers

An End to the Filter Debate

Well, not really an end, but basically I think I can present my case pretty well enough. Let me start by first explaining why I personally like to use the filter. First of all, they do not affect image quality....at all. For 99% of the people out there, they will not know the difference from a picture with a UV filter and one without. To prove this point, I decided to take some photos. I recently purchased the 50mm 1.8 lens and grabbed a clear UV filter from Ritz to put on the end. Look at these two pictures. Can you tell which one has the filter?
The picture on the top has the filter and the one below it does not. It's virtually impossible to tell this difference with the naked eye.

The other reason why I like to use the UV filter on all my lenses, is because it provides that extra layer of protection for the front lens element. I've heard so many horror stories of people dropping their lenses, only to have the front UV filter get damaged while the precious glass underneath remains unscathed. It's much cheaper to replace a 20 dollar UV filter than it is to replace a 1,000 dollar lens.

Don't be an idiot. Protect your glass.

Achilles with the 50

I haven't posted a pic of Achilles in a while so I figured I would take one and throw everything I had at it. I set up the tripod in the upstairs hallway where he likes to sit and I attached my flash. It's a tight area with white walls so it's pretty nice for doing a small bounce job. I also touched it up quite a bit in photoshop...which I think is pretty apparent here, but I wanted to try a couple plug-ins I just picked up. Came out pretty great I think.

Got the one year anniversary tomorrow with the lady. Very exciting! Check back Sunday night when I personally put an end to the UV filter debate.

Cheers

Portrait with a 50

I've decided to venture into portrait territory and decided to be my own first subject.  I currently have no light stand and just one speedlight and nothing to modify the light with.  Just a cold, hard, flash.  I set my camera up on the tripod in my bedroom and took a few test shots to get the focus just right.  I went back and forth a few times making small adjustments to get it close enough, but didnt fuss with it too too much.  I think the focus looks decent.  I set the flash to remote and just basically held it out at arms length and that was pretty much it.  Converted to black and white in Photoshop.  I probably tried ever facial expression imaginable but I liked these three the best.  All were taken with the new 50mm 1.8 lens.

Really liking this lens so far and highly recommend it.  Might even use one of these for the profile pic.  Well that's all for me.  Time to fold some laundry and hit the sack.

Cheers

Boston with a 50 & New Wesbite

Well I've got my first 50mm gallery up and running on the new website. I decided to make a "Personal Collection" page for any galleries I create outside the realm of normal landscape or portrait work. This gallery was shot entirely with the Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens. The first set of images are from the museum of science, followed by a black and white set in the Beacon Hill area, and some final shots of the gardens in the Common. The new website also contains some additional galleries of my previous work in the Landscapes and Pets sections. It's still a work in progress, but at least it's viewable now. The whole thing is pretty much done in CSS which I haven't really used since college so I'm a little rusty. At some point I'll host it myself, but SmugMug gets the job done. Links are below. Enjoy.

New Website
Boston 50mm Gallery

50mm Fun

Since Sara and I planned on going to Boston for the day yesterday, I decided to pick up a 50mm prime so I wouldn't have to lug my 18-200 around all day. I decided to go with Nikon's 50 f1.8 lens which I picked up form Ritz for about $139....I think. Don't quite remember the exact price. You can find many technical reviews online, but I thought it would be cool to show so finished photographs I took with it. Overall I think it blows my 18-200 away in terms of quality and sharpness. It also forced me to really think about my shots since I had move around to frame things. It's kind of fun to limit yourself to one focal length for a couple days. It almost forces you to be more creative. The next couple posts will be the shots I've taken in Boston and the Redhook 5K this weekend using only the 50mm lens. This will give me a chance to show off the new website too. Check back later.

Tweet

Well hell has frozen over because I've joined twitter. Never thought that would happen, but there are actually some cool people to follow if you're into photography. Scott Kelby, Moose Peterson, and Matt Kloskowski are three of my favorites that post some cool information regarding their seminars, shows, and books.

If you're in the unfortunate position of actually caring about what's going on with me, look me up. Here's the link to my twitter page.

Finished With Landscapes

I've been shooting landscapes pretty much non stop since I started on this whole photography kick about six months ago. That's a pretty long time. The only shots I'd really like to capture around here are some more sunrise/sunset shots near the ocean. Kinda tough to get those during the week, but I'll definitely have more opportunities for that this summer.

In the mean time, I'd really like to start getting into more "portrait" type shooting or just shooting more people in general. I can start with a photo journalism type approach with my current 18-200 lens, but I'd really like to pick up a different lens for the majority of the people shots. Most likely a faster lens with at least an f/2.8 maximum aperture. I'm currently leaning towards a Nikon 50mm 1.4 or the Tamron 20-75mm 2.8 . I'lll probably end up getting both at some point, but once I pick up the lens, I'll want a stand for my flash and an umbrella. Both of those should be fairly cheap.

On a side note, I have a prospective buyer for camera at work. Might end up getting the 400 bucks I was asking for it and pick up that 50mm.

Bye Bye Cassius

Well after one year of living in the Dunns Bridge condo development, my roommates are leaving me. They've recently had an offer accepted on a house in Rochester so at the end of May, they'll be moving out. When they go, they'll be taking their dog Cassius with them. Kind of stinks because I think I might miss him. I've been able to reap all the benefits of having a dog without having to take on any of the responsibilites of ownership...which has been real nice. I mean with a picture like this, how could you not miss him? So long Cassius. I promise to visit.

New Website

Hey folks. I finally got around to putting a quick website together. Rather than dive right in with a hosting company and domain registration, I figured it would be much easier to display my photos through SmugMug instead. They do charge money, but for the cost, it's much cheaper and I have the flexibility to register my own domain with them later if I chose. I'm hoping to upload some more galleries today, but if you want to check it out, click here. Another cool thing about smugmug is that they allow the ability to edit your own CSS files, which provides some more creative tools at your finger tips than standard preset themes they provide. Of course you need a little HTML background to do that. I'm gonna try and take a crack at it later and add a flash intro and my own banner. Too bad the weekend is already beginning to slip away... Man I hate Mondays.

Cheers

Gear Review Backlog; New SB-800

Got a few new pieces of gear to review that I just haven't gotten to yet. My tripod and new D200 are the main ones I've spoken of to date, but last weekend I was able to add an SB-800 to my collection. After skimming Craigslist early last week, I came across a listing for a bunch of used photography equipment. Nestled in the list of 30 or so items, I noticed "Nikon SB-800" was listed and for only $270!! I couldn't believe how cheap this guy was letting this go for. Since the SB-800 is no longer being produced, they currently go for a much higher price. Amazon has them for $800 right now so that gives you some idea. Granted the thing was used, but it's in great condition and looks brand new.

I drove up to Rochester to meet the gentlemen who was selling the flash and I quickly understood why he was selling it at the price listed. His mother had been the previous owner and she had just passed away last month. He was trying to sell some of her things, but he obviously wasn't aware of the flash's true value. Fortunately, I was. I gave him that cash and pretty much hopped and my car and sped off. Victory!

I had planned on waiting until I built up a solid lens collection before I got into lighting, but this deal was too good to pass up. I'll post some test shots with it later today.

Cheers

Mount Kearsarge

Went hiking in the white mountains this passed saturday with my girlfriend and couple other cool peeps.  We braved the treacherous Mount Kearsarge up in North Conway, New Hampshire.  Well...ok...wasn't really all that treacherous to someone in shape, but I got my ass kicked pretty badly.  Not gonna lie.  The map said the north trail was only 3.1 miles to the top, but it definitely seemed closer to 4.  Was probably 7 or so miles round trip, but it was a pretty nasty climb.  The first mile wasn't so bad, but the last couple to the summit were the worst ever.  I almost threw up....no...wait...I did throw up.   There was even a fair amount of snow to be seen on the last half mile or so which was a little unexpected and made for a slow finish.

Anways...I got some pretty great pics and once I finish processing them, I'll be sure to post them.  This one was probably my favorite one though.  Such a cool shot of Mount Washington.  I wish the peak wasn't covered by the clouds, but oh well.  I'll keep this one for now.