HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
. . . . . to everyone who reads this !
What other images could I post here except fireworks! First allow me to post a composite of a fireworks display I shot in 2007 on Kauai. It was a small private fireworks display that I was fortunate enough to be invited to with some very,very dear friends.
 2007 Kauai Fireworks Composite Pretty cool, isn’t it? Now let’s get to present day, so you can do this too!
In the 5 years I have lived in Santa Barbara, I have never even attempted to go to where I could watch the fireworks – I didn’t want to fight the traffic or the crowds. But this year I decided I wanted to shoot the fireworks and crowds and traffic didn’t matter. In the end, when all the parking and walking were done, it really didn’t matter – even though I parked 2 miles away from Stearn’s Wharf, where I eventually ended up shooting from. And the walk was all down hill getting there, which means it was all uphill going back!! That one hurt a bit, but it was a great means of letting me know how out of shape I am! Isn’t that what we all want to be reminded of when we are having fun?
The first images are prep and set up. I fired off about 10 shots to check camera settings and play while I was waiting for the festivities to begin.
PREP IMAGES
Since I will be posting so many images today, I will not add the camera data to the images; however, all images were shot with my back-up Canon 10D, on a tripod, with a cable release. As much as this is a great little camera, my 5D it is not ! ! ! [sadness] This camera could not keep up with me! And it was very disappointing to use it and work with it during this fireworks display. That said, I shot a total of 107 firework images!
What do I mean that it can’t keep up with me? The fastest writing speed CF Card doesn’t matter when the camera can’t write the information to it fast enough to be ready for the next shot. And when fireworks are launched, I can’t tell them to wait until my camera is ready! So, while the camera was writing to the card, I could not fire the shutter! I had no idea when the camera was busy or when it was ready to go, as it’s thinking light was on almost constantly. Amazingly enough, out of the 107 images, about 20 were missed timing shots due to this slowness in response time of the camera! Overall, I was very happy with the results from the evening.
A LITTLE HOW-TO WHEN SHOOTING FIREWORKS
There is a rhythm to shooting fireworks, as most of you know – you hear the boom of the rocket leaving the launch tube, wait a few seconds, and then the visual burst and display begins, lasting any where from 2 seconds to 10 seconds. Your job as the photographer is to be ready, count, and be ready for the next one . . .
EQUIPMENT
How are you going to be ready? There are some things that are a must when shooting fireworks, and a good steady tripod is one of them, a cable release comes second (this will prevent camera shake and allow you timing adjustment for longer exposures). The ability to set your camera to manual exposure with a ‘bulb’ setting is preferred, though cameras that have manual exposures where you can set the exposure to 1 or 2 seconds will work just as well.
ORIENTATION AND LENS CHOICE
The next thing to determine, if you know where the approximate launch site and direction of fire the rockets will be launched into, is camera orientation and lens choice. Some people I know use a vertical orientation for their shooting, my preference is a horizontal (landscape) orientation of the camera because of the spread of the display. Lens type will vary depending on how far away from the launch site you have positioned yourself. For example, the first several shots I fired off tonight, were shot with a 24-70mm lens, set at 24mm – this wasn’t wide enough! It didn’t take me very long to realize this and immediately change to a 16-35mm lens, set at 16mm. But I was very very close to the launch site and the displays! Sometimes you need to take into account wind direction, and tonight the displays were coming directly at me – this was totally awesome, by the way, but it caused me to back out on my angle of view quite a bit.
EXPOSURE
You have your camera mounted on a tripod with the shutter being released manually by you. You have the camera orientation and lens chosen, now let’s talk about exposure and focus. Manual exposure is best here, with a ‘bulb’ setting preference so you can control the timing of the exposure (shutter speed). As I mentioned earlier, however, if there is no bulb setting on your camera, a 1-2 second exposure will work great: 2 seconds is better than 1 second because you will get more trails and light. It would stand to reason then, if 2 seconds is good, then 3 or 4 seconds will work also – and you are right in this thinking. You may have to play with this, except unless you know your camera really well and can make those adjustments on the fly, setting up before hand is optimal so you don’t have to risk the chance of missing anything during the show – firework shows only last between 15 and 20 minutes at the longest – this is kamikaze (fast, furious and suicidal) shooting at its finest, so the least you have to adjust during, the better.
If you have the ability to set your camera’s ISO, the best settings for shooting fireworks is ISO 100 or lower, ISO 50 being the lowest most cameras will allow you to set this function to. WHY? Because there is much less digital noise at lower ISO settings, and the last thing you want is digital noise in the dark areas of your shots. And let’s face it, most of the image will be darkness (night time)!
Aperture settings are a subjective choice, but typically fireworks are shot at f/8 or f/11. Does this mean you have to shot at this setting? Absolutely not! For me, I want as much depth of field as possible. That said, at a 16mm focal length and 500ft distance from the subject, what is my depth of field shooting f/2.8 for this lens? Did I bring my little lens manual with me to know this? I am thinking – NOT! Do I know it off the top of my head? NOT! Am I going to play with it to find out? NOT! Does it even matter? Probably not! So just trust me on this one . . I got my information from others that have done this way more than I have, chose f/8 or f/11 – be safe.
Here is a good rule-of-thumb to follow: if your are shooting at 1 second, chose f/5.6 or f/8; if you chose 2 second exposures, set your aperture to f/8, maybe f/11; if you are at 2+seconds (adjusting through your rhythm and ‘bulb’ control), set your aperture to f/8, f/11. and maybe f/16. Just remember – aperture combined with shutter speed control the amount of light that hits the film plane (digital sensor): not enough light and your fireworks will be dim trails, too much light and you blow things out (over expose).
Another good thing to keep in mind is what you are exposing for. The fireworks themselves are intense points of light and little needs to be done to expose for them. Your shutter speed is controlling the ambient light in the scene, meaning it is what determines the length of the firework trail and any of the surrounding scene – so, the longer the shutter stays open, the more information gathers on your sensor and consequently, your image.
FOCUS
And now the last thing to adjust is your focus. This is really easy if you are close enough to the launch site and get to your position early enough to set up during daylight to test your focus points. But that isn’t going to help you when it gets dark and you have no idea of where the rockets will explode. The best rule-of-thumb is to set your lens’ focus to infinity and take it off ‘auto focus’. Please, Please, PLEASE take your lens off ‘auto focus’ ! ! ! Did I stress this enough? In the darkness, without a point of focus, your lens will never have the ability to get the focus set and be ready for the shot. To be very honest here, I don’t know if point-and-shoots have this ability or not, so this little how-to is aimed more at those who have cameras with the ability to replace lenses. Okay, your focus is now set to ‘infinity’, right?
READY ? GO !
You are ready to go! Feel the rhythm, get into the grove, stand back and enjoy the show, count and click! Don’t worry about chimping, don’t worry about what you got and changing anything during the show – count and click and hold, and . . . . . . . . . oooohh. . .h. . .h. . .h, aaaahh. . .h. . .h
IMAGES FROM THE NIGHT
A FEW LAST WORDS
These helpful hints will work whether you are shooting film or digital. The only recommendations I would make if your choice is film are as follows: choose ISO or ASA 100 speed film; use 36ct rolls versus 12ct (and if your camera has the ability to add a film back that holds more than 36 exposures – use it!), and have the same fun we digital shooters are having! Okay, maybe you might want 2 cameras ready to go instead of only one, that way when the 36 shots on the first camera are used, you don’t have to worry about removing the camera from the tripod and putting in a new roll of film.
As you may have noticed, there was a lot of smoke in some of the images I shot tonight. You really can’t get around this – Mother Nature does as she wishes, when she wishes – and sometimes her wishes are not perfectly aligned with our own. The longer I held the shutter open, the more smoke is revealed in the image; and similarly, the more intense the firework display, the more evident the smoke. If anyone knows how to get around this, aside from cloning it out in Photoshop (and paying someone beau koodles amount of money to do it!), please let me know.
From infrared to bright yellow. It would be nice to put a name with a face, or in this case a name with a flower. I can hear Ralph Clevenger yelling at me now (not that he would ever yell): you need to add the names of these flowers in your metadata.
He’s right of course – so if there is anyone out there that is reading this blog and knows the names of the flowers I post here, please, please let me know what they are!
This particular bloom was taken on a walk along Cabrillo Blvd in East Beach, on the side of the Andre Clark Bird Refuge -at least I know where I was when I took the shot! To me it doesn’t look like a wild flower, it looks more like an iris I would find in a cultivated field – but what do I know? I just know I liked it enough to stop my walk and photograph it.
TODAY’S IMAGE
 pretty yellow flower camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, 168mm
exposure: 1/1000s @ f/6.3
ISO: ISO 400
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Andre Clark Bird Refuge, East Beach
Just because most of the photographic world has moved to digital capture and therefore digital processing of images, doesn’t mean infrared is gone forever.
Today’s image is a classic example of the effects that can be applied in post-processing to garner the same rendition of an image as one captured by infrared film.
The drama and contrast of the image (as well as yesterday’s post titled ‘lighting the way’) were created with a manipulation of several sliders in Lightroom to simulate the infrared effect. Once the image is converted to greyscale, it is really easy to take the reds, oranges, yellows and greens almost to the extreme maximum (+100) while the blues, purples and magentas are taken in the opposite direction (-100). A word of caution: this techniques does not always apply to all images – in some cases it renders a lot of unwanted grain to the image; in others an extreme fringing on the edges. In the long run, it is a matter of taste. Below is the after and before – notice the drama of the first image.
TODAY’S IMAGES
 stately palms  before infrared camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, 130mm
exposure: 1/500s @ f/11
ISO: ISO 1600
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Patterson Avenue
Today’s journey took me to a different street in Santa Barbara – finally, I went somewhere other than Cota Street! Today it was Arlington Avenue. My destination was Art Essentials (located on Victoria Avenue) for paper supplies, but I ended up walking around the corner to Arlington Plaza, Arlington Theater, and onto Arlington Avenue proper.
Some how Arlington has a nice ring to it . . . reminding me of Arlington National Cemetery. Rather appropriate for the time of year and remembering our fallen soldiers who have given their life in the line of duty.
However commemorative this walk was, I found nothing to remind me of such, but I did find some interesting items to photograph and share. There are a few more than normal today – guess that really doesn’t make it ‘a’ photo of the day, does it?
TODAY’S IMAGES
 25 Arlington Avenue camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, 28mm
exposure: 1/4000s @ f/6.3
ISO: ISO 1600
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Arlington Avenue
 Arlington Plaza  Arlington Avenue  Arlington Theater and beyond  lighting the way  street lamp and flag
WOW ! ! ! I can’t believe an entire month has gone by and I am still at this project! Today is the day I will be putting all of this month’s images into one collective gallery, which then gets placed into an album/separate page titled Photo of the Day – I know, it’s very original, but it’s easy for both of us to keep up with.
I sincerely hope everyone has enjoyed the images . . .
This last image of June is from my neighbors front porch. She is the sweetest person ever ! Very thoughtful, very considerate and most of all, well just sweet. I should also mention that she is a collector, like me, not necessarily of the same things, but certainly of ‘things’ and of antiques. One day, I am going to sit on her patio/back porch with my camera and soak up everything I can – there are so many little treasures!
Why this image is significant is that it is about her, it is about her most famous words . . . . . “to be continued.” And so it is with this project – to be continued . . .
TODAY’S IMAGE
 . . . . . to be continued camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 62mm
exposure: 1/500s @ f/2.8
ISO: ISO 400
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Cinco Amigos
Today is rather a bittersweet day for me . . .
First, it is my oldest son’s (David) Birthday – and this is cause for a great celebration – he made it to 28! Not that I had any serious doubts about this, but his humor and cynicism and opinions are very clearly stated at almost every opportunity and leave me wondering sometimes. Okay, maybe a lot! He really is a good kid and incredibly intelligent (he gets this from me!), it’s just the cynicism part (he gets that from his Dad!) . . .this is the good part of the day. Happy Birthday David !
Ah . . h . . h, the bad part of the day – I had to ship my Canon 5D off to New Jersey today, to Mack Camera and Video Repair. After testing it throughout the entire range of ISO’s, apertures and metering modes, with 3 different Canon L series lenses, as well as in the auto focus and manual focus positions; the images are fuzzy and not sharp. And yes, the entire test was shot on a tripod! I was not about to let my human-ness interfere with clarity!
I did the same test with a Canon 10D and a rental body (same camera – Canon 5D) with the same three Canon L series lenses. While the quality of the image produced by the Canon 10D was inferior, it was still tack-on sharp. And the difference in the rental 5D and the one I am submitting for focus problems was “night and day” – almost no comparison: the rental body produce crystal clear imagery.
I have also noticed that the focus points slip – not on every image though. If I use one focus point to lock in the focus, then recompose the image, the focus point slips (NO, I am not in AI SERVO mode) – when the slippage occurs, it always seems to be to the back or rear – it has never slipped to the front, whether I am doing table top or portrait work. Again, this portion of the problem doesn’t always happen, but the lack of clarity and sharpness seems to be on 95% of the images.
Talk about panic! It is like having your baby ripped out of your arms! And for me? Not having a camera to shoot with for client sessions is deadly! Not having a camera I can count on is just as bad!
What does this teach us?
1) Always purchase a warranty with your equipment! (Fortunately, I had purchased one at the same time I purchased the camera)
2) Always have a back up!
Today’s photo just seems to sum it all up – caught between a rock and a hard spot! – because I can’t afford to purchase a new camera right now.
TODAY’S IMAGE
 caught between a rock and a hard spot camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, 77mm
exposure: 1/250s @ f/7.1
ISO: ISO 1600
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Tucker’s Grove
I found this hat in a store front window and just had to add it to my collection !
The great thing about photography is that your collections can grow and grow, and you can admire them so easily without ever having to spend a dime!
Unless, of course, you take into consideration time and hard drive space, then we might have an issue, like I already have.
In light of that problem, and in conjunction with this ‘Photo of the Day’ project to date, I am severely limiting the number of images I take each day. For example, of this image, I took two – that’s an all time low for me! But the first image I knew from the onset was blurred – this hat was not near the front window of the little shop, it was set back a ways behind other miscellaneous items and they were blocking the light . . . so I am at ISO 1600 and f/2.8, with a shutter speed of 1/50s and I know I can’t hold things steady at this speed.
So, aside from the 250+ images I took today to test my camera, I only took 12 (equal to a small roll of film) for this project. Not too bad!
TODAY’S IMAGE
 adding to my collection camera type: Canon EOS 5D
lens type: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 48mm
exposure: 1/50s @ f/2.8
ISO: ISO 1600
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Ventura, CA – Main Street
Today I am shooting an engagement session with Wedding 64. Donna and Alex are getting married at the end of August and I will be shooting their wedding for Art Suwansang of Wedding 64. I will post some of their images when I am finished in post, but in the meantime, here is the Photo of the Day – iron work.
The image was taken for the symmetry and shapes in the fence and was intentionally juxtaposed against the blue sky. The following three images were peeping through the holes . . .
TODAY’S IMAGE
 iron fence  flying the flag of freedom  the things you can see looking through holes in the fence  let the freedom bell ring camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 24mm and the Canon EF70-200mmL IS USM @ 135mm
exposure: 1/2000s @ f/2.8, 1/100s @ f/7.1
ISO: ISO 200
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Cota Street
Ahh . . h . . h . . h, my all time favorite cookie – the Lofthouse Sugar Cookie – all decorated for the 4th of July festivities. And I couldn’t wait until the 4th to enjoy these!
But at least I waited until I had photographed them! And of course, I had to take them out of the package in order to photograph them – okay, a few were tasted along the way! But at a whopping 200 calories per cookie, only 2 were eaten today. Some times I surprise even myself with the amount of self-control I have!
This was also the day I initiated the testing of my camera. It seems I am having focus issues with my Canon 5D. It’s rather disconcerting to shoot a portrait session or a wedding and find that your camera is not as tack-sharp as it was even a month ago, or that the focus point slips. But that is a story for another day . . .
Today it is all about cookies . . . yum!
TODAY’S IMAGE
 my favorite cookies in the world !  sprinkles everywhere camera type: Canon EOS 5D
lens type: Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 70mm
exposure: 1/6s @ f/2.8, tripod mounted
ISO: ISO 200
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – at home in the dining room
More Flowers, but at least they are not in my own back yard. These are from Cota Street, the home of the infamous Cota Street Condos – I call them the Flintstone Condos.
These lilies adorn the outside wall of the condo complex. I just liked the way the wall behind it was catching the light during this time of day – it really shows the texturing of the wall. Similarly, I like the reflection of color on the wall from the lilies themselves.
TODAY’S IMAGE
 day lilies camera type: Canon EOS 10D
lens type: Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, 84mm
exposure: 1/1000s @ f/8
ISO: ISO 400
post-production: Lightroom 2.0
location: Santa Barbara, CA – Cota Street Condos
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