Gelato at Pan'e Dolci, Las Olas Blvd.

Gelato, made fresh at Pan'e Dolci Italian Bakery 613 E Las Olas Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, FL. I was just having some fun, wandering around with my camera and fisheye lens. There is hardly any grain in this image, even though I was shooting at ISO 1600. I held the camera right up against the glass of the gelato case.

Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. Exposure: f/4 1/500 ISO 1600.

Ill Nocturnal and Ill Ra... the REAL Angry Birds?

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.

Stuffed Animal Fluffies by Tikidoll

Here's my friend Tikidoll Sakura wearing her custom made, stuffed animal fluffies. She makes all kinds of crazy clothes for gogo dancing and EDM events. We did this shoot in downtown Miami, near Biscayne Boulevard. If you'd like to learn more about Tikidoll and her clothing, check out her page.

Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens. Exposure: f/8 1/250 ISO 125. Remote strobe.

"Miami Drive" Time Lapse Music Video

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

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.