Random photos and commentary from artist and photographer Robert Giordano. An eclectic collection of images that may or may not have any relevance to anything. Use only as directed.
The annual Christmas on Las Olas celebration, in downtown Fort Lauderdale, was bigger than ever this year. I say that only because I found the streets more crowded than I can remember. To see a larger version of this photo and a few more crowd shots from tonight, visit design215.com/photos/misc/lasolas2012_9347.
On Friday, November 2, 2012, people of all ages painted their faces like skeletons and descended on Fat Village Arts District in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There was a skeleton procession down Andrews Ave., art exhibitions, live music, circus performers, custom cars, food trucks, and more. To see more of my photos, visit my Facebook album, Day of the Dead 2012.
Earlier this afternoon, bulldozers and front end loaders piled up the beach sand that covered A1A, in an attempt to keep the ocean out of the road. By 8:30pm, the ocean was back in the street, with the water level higher than the sidewalks.
This is one of the first panoramas I've made with my new Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head. For this shot, I used the Nodal Ninja to take 8 photos at 45 degree increments. The Nodal Ninja also allows you to position the camera to eliminate parallax.
I used Hugin to stitch the images together on my Macbook Pro. Hugin is free and very powerful but it has a little bit of a learning curve. There are numerous features I haven't even played with yet. After using Hugin, I ended up with a nice, wide, rectangular panorama.
Finally, I brought my "normal" panoramic image into Photoshop and used Polar Coordinates to create the image you see here. There are many tutorials on the web that explain how to do this, although I found some variation between them. At some point, I might do a complete tutorial of my own but I'm still figuring out some details and I don't like to teach something until I've mastered it myself. =)
Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. Exposure: f/8 8s ISO 400 x 8 images.
Manfrotto tripod. Fanotec Nodal Ninja 3 w/RD16 Rotator.
Tonight, I was wandering around Delray Beach again. I was looking for something unusual to photograph but nothing was really jumping out at me. I've photographed Delray many times before and I have a number of long exposures with trails from car taillights and so on. I just wanted something different. Earlier, I was talking to a woman who was also walking around with her camera, trying to get some interesting shots. One of her shots was a palm tree in Pineapple Grove, that was wrapped with "light rope". While her picture was nice, I wanted something more. I walked over to Pineapple Grove to see if anything there would inspire me. First, I climbed up in one of the planters and literally hugged one of the palm trees, in an effort to get an interesting shot. I was looking straight up the trunk of the tree. Nope, didn't do it. Finally, I reached in my bag and took out my fisheye lens. I lay down in the middle of the courtyard, flat on my back, with my head firmly against the ground, and took this shot. People thought I was nuts. One man came over to me with his wife and said he had to know what I was doing. I showed him the picture in my camera and he said, "Oh wow!! That's amaing!" and showed it to his wife.
Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. Exposure: f/2.8 1/4s ISO 800.
I just received my Nikon D800 a few days ago and I'm still learning all of its nuances. The D800 is a full frame camera, meaning the image sensor is the same size as 35mm film. If you attach a standard 35mm lens, you will get the same coverage that you would get on a 35mm film camera. This is nice. I can finally use my Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 lens to take wide angle pictures like I used to do with film. When I put my 24mm lens on my Nikon D7000, the image is cropped because the sensor is smaller. On the D7000, my 24mm lens becomes like a 36mm lens. Not so good if you want a wide angle shot. Nikon calls the D7000 a "DX" format camera while the D800 is called an "FX" or "Full Frame" format camera. All of my good old fashioned, 35mm lenses that I used to use on my film camera, are FX lenses. Some of the newer lenses that I bought for cameras like the D70, D90, D200, and D7000, are DX lenses. DX lenses use smaller glass elements because they're made for the smaller sensor cameras. If you put a DX lens on a 35mm film camera or a FX digital camera, the image from the lens won't always fill the whole frame. You'll see black around the edges of the image, known as vignetting.
When you put a DX lens on the Nikon D800, the camera automatically crops the image just like a DX camera. In other words, if you're using a DX lens, you'll see roughly the same thing on a D800 as you would on a D7000. If you take a picture with a DX lens on the D800, you'll get a 16 megapixel image, not a 36 megapixel one! Yes, you read that right. With a DX lens, the D800 might as well be a D7000 with a few extra features. But wait...
I'm pleased to tell you that you can turn off the DX crop feature!! Yes, you can go into the menus of the D800 and set it to take full, 36 megapixel images all the time, no matter what lens you stick on the camera. This is awesome. One of my favorite lenses is my DX 35mm f/1.8 lens. You can buy this lens brand new for less than $200, its super sharp, and its an f/1.8 lens! Ah, but its a DX lens. That's why its so cheap. Anywhere you look for this lens online, it will say something like, "DX lenses are NOT recommended for use with FX or Full Frame Cameras." I'm sorry, but rules in photography are meant to be broken. Don't tell me not to try my DX lenses on my FX camera! Thankfully, someone at Nikon knew there would be people like me out there and included the option to TURN OFF the DX crop!!
I set up a tripod on the Pompano Beach fishing pier and used my DX 35mm f/1.8 lens on both cameras. Both cameras were set to the same exposure and the images are unretouched. The inner image from the D7000 is the same image you get with the D800 and its DX crop feature turned on. When you turn off the DX crop on the D800, look what you get! Yes, there is some vignetting around the edges but is that so bad? Obviously it depends on what you're shooting but its nice to know I have the freedom to choose whether I want my images cropped in the camera or not.
Finally, the D800 gives me a third option, called the "1.2" crop, which is between the DX crop and full frame. I'm not sure where I would use it because I can always shoot full frame and just crop it later in Photoshop. Having options is always nice though. Kudos Nikon!
Nikon D800/D7000 with Nikon DX 35mm f/1.8 lens. Exposure: f/4.0 2.0s ISO 1600.
The Lost and Found Saloon is a neat little place on 36th ST, in the design district, a couple blocks west of the Target shopping center in downtown Miami. It has great food, friendly servers, and an interesting atmosphere. Its also open until 3am, which is perfect for me. Many times I'll be working late in Miami and I'll want some reasonably healthy food. My friend Olivia currently works there so if you see her, tell her I said hello.
In case you're wondering... yes, I've been using my fisheye lens a lot lately. The thing is, I keep finding myself in situations where the fisheye is going to give me the best shot. This restaurant is small but the bar is fairly long and the entire wall behind it is interesting. Even with my 12-24mm lens, I never would have fit the entire bar in a single shot. I used a shutter speed of 2 full seconds so my tripod came in handy.
Nikon D7000 with Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. Exposure: f/4 2.0s ISO 200.
Tonight I went to Club Cinema in Pompano Beach, FL and filmed DJ Steve Aoki jumping from the second level balcony into an inflatable kiddie pool held up by the crowd!! This was the second time I've done video of Steve Aoki and he always puts on a good show. Last time, I didn't get any good footage of his balcony jump because I was behind the stage. This time I positioned myself on the opposite balcony so I could have a good view of the action. It still wasn't easy. The club was so packed that I sandwiched between people that were constantly jumping up and down and pushing against the railings. I have no idea how I managed to hold the camera as steady as I did.
Nikon D7000 camera with Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G DX lens. ISO 1600. Zoom Digital Recorder.
My friend Ill Nocturnal called me this afternoon and asked if I could meet her at a friend's house to shoot some photos. Here's one of the images from that shoot. It should be obvious but I'm going to say it anyway... don't try this at home!! Ill Nocturnal and Ill Ra are part of the Illuminautians. Check out their web site, www.illuminautians.com.
Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens. Exposure: f/5.6 1/15 ISO 400. Remote strobe.
Tonight I decided to make a music video. I was inspired by Ajapai's track, Incoming (Taku Remix) and thought it would be perfect for time lapse. You can purchase the music track here.
I shot the "intro" part of the video with a Nikon D7000 and several manual focus lenses. I shot it all at f/2.8, ISO 1600. If you look closely and pause the video in the right spot, you can see my custom camera mount I installed in my 2012 Scion xD. Yes, its a slightly modified tripod. I tried a number of different ways to mount a camera but mounting a DSLR and having it remain in position while driving around, over speed bumbs, etc., was a bit of a challenge. Filming the intro was fairly straightforward. I already had a list of shots that I wanted. I waited until the parking lot was empty, and I positioned the car exactly where I wanted it. I shot 3 times as much footage as I needed and I must have at least a dozen clips of myself getting into my car. In the end, I didn't use all of the shots from my original list. They just didn't fit with the flow of the music. Maybe I'll include these "deleted scenes" on the special edition DVD, lol.
I used a Nikon D90 for the time lapse. The moon was out and there were just enough clouds in the sky to make it interesting. I also thought Saturday night would be the best time to drive around South Beach. I connected the D90, filled up at a gas station, and started the time lapse controller. I had already figured out my route and for the next couple of hours, I just drove around and listened to my camera click every few seconds. My camera took more than 4700 pictures before I ended up back at my house. The video ends just as I'm getting back on I-95 to return home but I wanted more footage than I needed so I could play around with stretching parts of the time lapse to match some of the breaks in the track.
If you like this video, please share it on your page and consider buying the track from Ajapai. Do you need a time lapse film? Contact me at www.Design215.com.
Equipment used for the video:
- Nikon D7000 camera
- Nikon D90 camera
- Nikon AF DX 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens
- Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 manual focus lens
- Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens
- Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens
- Manfrotto 3021BN tripod
- custom Manfrotto camera mount for 2012 Scion xD
- custom time lapse controller
- modified Nikon EH-5a power supply
- 2012 Scion xD, 5 speed manual, TRD suspension
Route:
1. I-95 South to Miami / 395 East.
2. Right on Alton Road.
3. Left on S Point Drive.
4. Left on Ocean Drive.
5. Left on 5th Street.
6. Right on Collins Ave.
7. Left on Lincoln Road.
8. Left on Washington Ave.
9. Right on 2nd St.
10. Right on Alton Rd.
11. Exit to I-195 West.
12. Left on Biscayne Blvd.
13. Right on SE 2nd St.
14. Left on Brickell Ave.
15. U-Turn on Brickell Ave at 14th Terr.
16. Right on Biscayne Blvd.
17. Left on 82nd St.
18. Right on I-95 North ramp
Wandering around downtown Fort Lauderdale, I ended up at Revolution Live for the 12th Planet show. I took this shot with my Nikon D7000 and 10.5mm fisheye lens. This fisheye is becoming one of my favorite lenses. It has a much wider field of view than my 12-24mm f/4.0 and I have several aftermarket plugins for Photoshop that can correct the distortion inherent with fisheye lenses, if I want to do so. The fact that this an f/2.8 lens makes it quite versatile.
Nikon D7000 with Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. Exposure: f/2.8 1/4s ISO 800.
This is the fountain in Bubier Park in Fort Lauderdale, FL. It is located on the corner of Las Olas Blvd. and Andrews Ave. I took this shot with my Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye lens. Even though you might think a fisheye lens has limited uses, I've found that you can correct the "fisheye" distortion using Photoshop's native lens correction in CS5 as well as with several aftermarket plugins. This image has not been corrected and I think the effect is quite nice.
I did not use a tripod for this shot. The combination of an f/2.8 lens, and the D7000's excellent low light sensor certainly helped. A general rule of thumb is to always use a shutter speed that is greater than the focal length of your lens. In this case, 1/15 is greater than 10.5mm (15 > 10.5). If you want to look at it another way, wide angle lenses will show less camera shake than telephoto lenses. A steady hand helps too. After a lot of practice, I've found that I can usually hold the camera steady down to 1/4 second. This will depend on how much coffee I've had. =)
Nikon D7000 with Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens. Exposure: f/2.8 1/15 ISO 800. Handheld.
I was working late and all of the regular restaurants were closed. I went to Rocco's Tacos on Las Olas and had some of their amazing guacamole. Its raw, its good for you, and it tastes really good too. When I finished, it was almost 2am and I was the last patron in the restaurant. I've had a lot on my mind lately and I didn't feel like going home just yet so I went for a walk. I love empty city streets in the middle of the night.
Nikon D7000 with Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens. Exposure: f/2.8 1/30 ISO 1600, handheld.
Tonight I watched the annual Fort Lauderdale Boat Parade with my family. We were on my brother's small boat which he anchored in one of the side canals of the Intracoastal. Although we had front row seats, it wasn't all that exciting. Maybe I had seen this parade too many times and I was tired of the same thing every year. But wait! There WAS something new. Between two garishly decorated yachts, was a person flying what appeared to be a jet pack!
I did some Googling and the company that makes it is JetLev.com. I found a number of videos on YouTube including this one. How does it work? In a nutshell, you are tethered to a small boat by a flexible hose. The boat has a 200 horsepower engine that pumps water through the hose to your jet pack. The water spraying out of your jet pack lifts you off the water. Ever play with a Water Wiggle when you were a kid? Well its basically the same thing, except you sit on top of it and control it. Sadly, it costs a little bit more than a Water Wiggle. Prices start at $99,500.00 USD.
In case you're wondering, those weird colored shapes to the right of the guy with the jet pack are the result of "lens flare". Lens flare is caused by a bright light (usually the sun) pointing directly at the camera, that makes reflections on the glass elements inside the lens. The spotlight pointing at me from the lower left is causing the lens flare in this photo.
Tonight I went to Rocco's Tacos in Fort Lauderdale for some of their guacamole. They make it fresh, in front of you, when you order it! You watch them cut open fresh avocados and mash them up in a cool looking, stone bowl. Next, they add fresh cilantro, diced tomato and onion, fresh lime juice, and some spices. As many of you know, I try to make raw food a substantial part of my diet and guacamole is one of my favorite raw foods. When I order it, I always ask for extra jalapenos. The chips are certainly not raw, so I try not to eat too many of them. The staff probably thinks I'm crazy because they always return to find my guacamole bowl empty and my basket of chips still full.
After I finished eating, I was talking to my friend Thea in New York. Thea is a dedicated raw foodist who is also studying photography at Columbia. I told her the guacamole story and she prompted me for a photo. It was pretty dark but I didn't use a flash or a tripod. Thea likes taking pictures at night so I added the captions so she could see how I set my camera. I have no idea why I used that font.
This was a little exercise I created for myself, kind of a homework assignment. I wanted to shoot a number of street scenes, at night, using only available light, then edit them together like a television commercial for the area. I selected Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. Its an older area of town that has been transformed into a lively destination for tourists as well as locals. There are upscale restaurants as well as pizza parlors. There are wine bars, a tequila bar, nightclubs, and various shops along Clematis that all stay open late on certain nights of the week.
For this video, I used my Nikon D7000 and Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens. This lens has become my favorite for shooting at night, whether stills or video. For sound, I used a Zoom H2 digital recorder. I'm learning to edit in Adobe Premiere and like I said, this video was a homework assignment. Working on this project, I learned simple transitions, syncing audio tracks, and the overall pacing of the different shots. I realize I still have a lot to learn but I think it turned out pretty well. I also learned that you need to shoot a LOT of footage to have enough for editing. The more you shoot, the more creative choices you can make later. I invite all constructive criticism so please leave me comments. =)
Something that's already been brought to my attention is that I should use a tripod. The irony is that I frequently carry a tripod with me to shoot still images at night, but it didn't occur to me to use a tripod for this video. For some of the shots, like the fountain, I simply set the camera down on a wall. Also, I need to buy a pan/tilt head for my tripod. Anyone have any suggestions for a good DSLR pan/tilt head?
Tonight I walked down to the beach on the south side of Hillsboro Inlet. I brought my camera and tripod so I could shoot this panorama. While I didn't use a dedicated panoramic head on my tripod, I did have my Manfrotto 503HDV head which allowed me to slide the camera back so the center of rotation was directly below the camera's entrance pupil. This point is usually just in front of the aperture diaphragm in the lens. If you don't rotate the camera around this point, you'll get parallax errors and the images will be much harder to stitch together.
This panorama is made from four 16MP images. I used Hugin to stitch the images together, then I did some minor retouching in Photoshop. The final image is more than 14,000 pixels in width.
Nikon D7000 with Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens. Exposure: f/5.6 20sec ISO 400 (all four images)
Tonight, I went to see my friend's band, The Necrophiles, at Monterey, a small bar in Fort Lauderdale. I brought my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens. I really think the D7000 is superior to the Canon 7D for shooting video in low light. I've been a professional still photographer for over 10 years but I'm just getting started with video. I shot some video with my D90 but I wasn't impressed. With the D7000, I can shoot in situations like this dimly lit bar and it looks like something from a movie set. Take a look at the establishing shots of the bar at the beginning of the video and see if you don't agree. I just started learning how to edit video in Adobe Premiere so my skills are very basic. My lesson for this video was adding titles and fading them in and out. I'll get better. You have to start somewhere.
I recorded the audio using the D7000's built in microphone. While it isn't horrible, its a good thing the band wasn't very loud. The D7000 has a stereo input jack so I definitely need to look into an external recorder like a Zoom H2 or H4N.
Armin Van Buuren on the main stage. This is one of my favorite shots from this year's Ultra. Everything about the Ultra Music Festival was amazing this year and I have a ton of photos from both days. If I took a picture of you or if you see yourself in any of my photos, please leave a comment on my web site or friend me on Facebook.
Here's Tiesto on the main stage at the Ultra Music Festival. The is the sixth year I've been hired by Ultra to photograph their event. Its not an easy job but I love it.
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