© Bob Krist
I love the Lensbaby line, those lenses that help you bend and shape your depth of field; and I’ve had one of each generation (the babies are growing up!). All of the babies thus far have been about a 50mm focal length, which means for folks like me, a DX format shooter, it’s actually more of a telephoto, a 75mm.
At that focal length, the Lensbabies have been useful for me on stuff like portraits, food shots, and detail shots, like this one.
But what I’ve really wanted was a wide angle version so I could go out and do some landscapes and the like. They have, in the past, offered a screw in wide angle, but these were usually just video camera auxiliary lenses.
They were heavy and clunky and made it hard to focus the Lensbaby.
I’m using the model called the Composer now, and it’s extremely easy to work with, and with the dual element lens, the sharp part of the photo is really sharp. And now, there’s an equally elegant and usable wide angle attachment. I just got it and am looking forward to taking it to the Indian Ocean on a job next week.
I can just visualize all those soft topped palm trees—-oh yeah, it’ll make me look hip and deconstructed… and that is a tall order! Hit the jump to take a look at the wide baby.
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Mike Keefe is a great social satirist and cartoonist. This one is even more brilliant than his usual. Makes you want to run out and take a multimedia class! Or just run out and head for the hills….
copyright Mike Keefe/ Denver Post
Here’s a familiar scene. You’ve checked into your hotel and maybe it’s an expensive hotel, far more than you wanted to pay but it was the only choice so you were stuck, and you’re on your hands and knees with your head under the desk, desperately searching for another outlet.
Yes, the compleat digital traveler these days must be able to charge his or her iPod, iPhone, Kindle, multiple camera batteries, Audio Recorder, Laptop, video camera, curling iron…(hey, you think this beard looks so good without help?). And most hotels? While they may offer designer furniture, designer water, and designer pillows, most still give you one outlet under the desk, and one that never works (along with a non-functioning Ethernet port) built into the stylish base of the designer lamp on the desk.
The best and most customer friendly electrical setup I’ve ever encountered in an accommodation was not in a swanky hotel at all. It was at Chief’s Camp in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Admittedly, my room was just a tent, and they only had the juice that they generated themselves, but tacked up on the wall right next to (and not under) the desk was a multi-outlet powerstrip that looked like this:
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Maybe it’s because I’ve spent half my adult life in hotel rooms, but I love to work close to home. It gives me a chance to play around with techniques I can take back out on the road, and if my wife Peggy has any say, to do something worthwhile. In that latter department, for the last few years she’s volunteered me to be a mentor for students from our high school working on their senior “culminating projects” in the area of photography. It’s fun to work with the kids, and I get a kick out of their enthusiasm.
My current student, Josh, is a great kid with boundless energy for the project (I’ve got him working on a multimedia slide show about the New Hope/Ivyland railroad. And just for good measure, I’m working on one myself, you know, like the rookie teacher who is one lesson ahead of the class in the textbook?) So I knew that when the cold December winds were blowing through the little railstation, but the train would be around at twilight, I could persuade Josh to come out and play with some SB 800 flash units in an attempt to channel our inner O. Winston Link.
Photo © Bob Krist
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I’ve been trolling the Wall Street Journal these days. Not so much because I’m a masochist about my financial portfolio (but, wow, these are great days for masochists!), but because the august Journal interviewed me about travel photography for a feature they’re publishing next month (April 19th, they say. I’ll keep you posted). And I figured, any journal that has such good taste in travel photographers is worth a look:-).
Well, this article caught my attention. It’s about the famous Manny/Fairey case. You know the one where the “artist” appropriated the Obama picture from the AP’s Manny Garcia, colorized it, called it his own, and proceeded to make tens of thousands of dollars selling it. That’s Manny’s shot on the left on the next page… Read more…
If you’ve been reading the fine print of the plethora of photo contests that have arisen lately, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that Somalia isn’t the only place experiencing modern day piracy. No, the rights grabs sunk deep in the fine print of most photo contest rules these days make the Somali pirates look like pikers and the bonus babies at AIG look like paragons of conscience. I’m amazed at what some contests ask for, just for entering (never mind winning), and also stunned that some of these contests are sponsored by allegedly photo-friendly organizations and publications (who really do know better, but don’t seem to care). I’ve got a whole column on the subject in an upcoming issue of Outdoor Photographer.
So it was with the usual world weary trepidation that I went to the website of Weibetech, makers of excellent harddrives that I use for backup, when they sent me a marketing email announcing a photo contest. I was expecting the usual “you grant us the rights to your life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, as well as the copyright to this picture…” jargon, and instead read this:
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While it’s true that I’m not as adamant about tripod use as some of my nature and landscape shooting buddies, I’m not a photojournalistic purist who never uses a tripod either. For me, tripod use is a case of “situational ethics:” if the situation requires a tripod, I’ll use one. Of course, to use a tripod, you actually need to have one with you, and here’s where the formula usually breaks down into the following dilemma: “which is better; the big, heavy sturdy behemoth tripod that you left back in the hotel, bus, or trunk of the car, or a lightweight one that you’ll actually carry?”
By now, I’m assuming that everyone’s discovered the strength, light weight, and downright beauty of the carbon fiber tripod, so I won’t even go into it (other than listing a few of my favorites at the end of the post). But if you have to carry that lightweight ‘pod like this gentlemen (in a shot from OpTech, the good folks who bring you those wonderful neoprene camera straps–got ‘em on all my SLR bodies– or in the case of this photo, neoprene leg wraps), your hands are figuratively tied up when it comes to shooting (although you would look cool toting that baby into the batter’s box at your next softball game).
courtesy www.optechusa.com
Fortunately, there is an easier way…
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Okay, I admit it. I’m a sucker for living history museums. You know, those places where folks dress up in period costumes and re-enact life in the days of yore. Think about it, how else can a travel photographer illustrate the “history” of a destination—there’s no shooting in the past tense (not like you writers, with your fancy tenses and facile flashbacks!) So, yes, my name is Bob, and I’m a living history-shooting junkie.
Photo © Bob Krist
But the lawman in this shot, a cool guy named Michael, is not in a museum….
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These days, you have to go to some lengths to bring home dramatic pictures of oft-photographed icons, like the moai of Easter Island, for instance. Seen ‘em a million times in the daylight. But they’re in the dark at night, there’s no “son et lumiere” tourist light show, or even electricity out there. How do you light six 21-foot structures in the middle of nowhere?
You take that light waaaaay off camera.
Photo © Bob Krist
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