12th Planet at Revolution Live

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.

Bubier Park Fountain at Night

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.

Stoned Wheat Thins?

Yes, I thought this was amusing, so I photographed it in my studio. The setup I used for this shot is common for products. The background paper is solid gray but the background gradient results from the light falling off as the background paper bends upward and away from the product. I used a 44" soft box, hanging directly over the product, facing down. The large soft box provides even lighting on all sides with no hard shadows. Because it is facing down, there is no direct light on the background paper behind the product. All other lights in the studio were off so there was no other ambient light. No adjustments were made to this image other than adding the text.

Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 50mm f/2.0 manual focus lens. Exposure: f/8 1/60 ISO 100. Studio strobe with 44" soft box

Record Tables at Johnny Rockets

This morning I did a shoot for Johnny Rockets in the Sawgrass Mills Mall. The client wanted overall shots of the restaurant and detail shots of their cool, phonograph record tables. The lighting was a little tricky because of the many existing fixtures in the ceiling of the restaurant. I wanted to combine the ambient light with a light source I could control. I used a Nikon SB-800 strobe on a light stand, with an umbrella. I used a wireless transmitter to trigger the strobe. My goal was to minimize the reflections from the light fixtures in the restaurant, while emphasizing the design of the table. I took pictures of the table from several different angles, with the table empty and as you see it here. I felt the reflections from the items on the table added to the image.

The camera was on a tripod so I could use a small aperture, a slow shutter speed, and a low ISO. The small aperture increased the depth of field so the entire table is in focus. The slow shutter speed let me mix the ambient light in the restaurant with the light from my strobe. A low ISO keeps the details sharp and noise to a minimum. The D7000 is really good when it comes to noise however. I probably could have used ISO 400 or 800 without much of a noticeable difference.

Nikon D7000 with Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens. Exposure: f/8 1/2 ISO 200. Nikon SB-800, manual mode.

Passion 4 Sound

My friend Winona came over at 5am because neither of us could sleep. She brought her headphones.

Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens. Exposure: f/11 1/125 ISO 200

Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe!!

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, the same year as Abraham Lincoln. He is best known for his poem, The Raven, and short stories like The Tell Tale Heart. In 2005 I built the educational web site, Poestories.com so anyone could learn about Poe and read his stories and poems. I've always wondered what Edgar would have written, had he lived in the 70's and 80's of the 20th century. Would he have listened to death metal?

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Las Olas Boulevard at 2am

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.

Saturday Wakeboarding

Here's my nephew, Eddie, wakeboarding with some friends. Eddie is a Team Rider for Exceed Wetsuits. Although I've done Exceed's catalog photography and magazine ads, this wasn't a commercial shoot. We were just out having fun on a Saturday. Eddie asked me to get a shot where he and his friends were all in the same picture. This is the result. =)

Nikon D7000 with Nikon 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. Exposure: f/8 1/640 ISO 800. Weather: overcast.