Elephant Seal Viewing Point

Well, between playing World of Warcraft and sleep I have still been working on the Big Sur vacation photos. On our last day we stopped off at an elephant seal viewing point in Point Piedras Blancas.

First time astrophotographer

The first night we were out camping I tried my hand at some astrophotography. After setting up my and noticing that I would not be able to avoid the trees at any angle, I started trying to figure out the exposures. I kicked myself once I realized that I would only be able to shoot for 30 seconds since I forgot my cable release at home. So I cranked up the ISO and shot a f/4 hoping that I would get something that wasn’t going to be that noisy. After a bit of processing this is what I got.

Hard to see at this size but I cought a couple of shooting stars.


Look at all the stars.

HDR's of Big Sur

While working on some of my camping photo's, I made a couple of HDR images.

Camping at Big Sur

I’ve been back from camping for a little while now. I would have posted earlier but I just haven’t had the energy to work on the images I took. Today though I finally decided to clean some of them up and upload them to the web. As for how the camping trip went. Well, it was far too short. We spent most of our time driving to Big Sur then we actually stayed there. We stayed at the Fernwood Campground’s off of Highway 1. We had two campsites along the river because we had to many people to fit in just one. It cost a bit more then the last place that we went camping at, but not as terrifying to get to. After we got to the site and setup for the night we relaxed around the campfire for the rested of the night. The next morning once everyone woke up and got ready we went out Andrew Molera State Park. After some fun at the beach we went sightseeing and shopping in Pfieffer Big Sur State Park. Nothing better than ice cream on a warm day. When we got back to our campsite, we started our last campfire for the trip. I went to sleep early that night because I got too much smoke from the fire, so missed out on a good night of drinking. Or so I guessed because of all the beer cans that I cleaned up the next morning. With our full day of fun done it was time to clean up and head back home. Again way to short for 14 hours of driving round trip.

onOne Software's DSLR Remote App for iPhone and iPod touch

I've told a couple of people about an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that works as a camera remote shutter release. It is designed by onOne Software and currently is only for Canon cameras, but the Nikon versions is now currently in the works. Right now it is at an introductory price of $1.99 for a Lite version which only allows for shooting only and $9.99 for the Pro version which allows for full control over the camera. If you have an iPhone or an iPod touch I would take a look at this video that shows the app in action.

Video from GeekBrief.TV - Brief 569

The Flickr War

Well it has been a couple of months into Grace and my Flickr war. Since I got her a Flickr, we have been in a little completion to see how could get more view by the time of her next birthday. So far things have been going in my favor, but Grace is starting to make a comeback by posting to Flickr groups like I have been doing for a while. Here is my monthly tally and Grace should be posting hers to her blog later tonight. If you haven’t taken a look at our accounts now would be a good time.

John’s Flickr

Grace’s Flickr

Photo 203 – Lighting and Studio Techniques Final

The lighting class had a practical final in which they needed to shoot a white cup of coffee with a white saucer on a white seamless background. The concept was to use no more than two lights to create mood and drama in the photo. The class was given information on the assignment a week before the final so they could get the props and try testing some ideas. Cliff was going to give extra credit to any team that was able to get steam to come off the coffee in their shot. The assignment also had a special prop that would be given during the night of the final. When everyone was given their assigned stations they were also given sugar cubes. They had to use at least three cubes and work it into their idea for the shot. Once the final started, Cliff and I were walking around checking up on the progress of the teams. After a couple of minutes into the final, Cliff started to wonder if what he envisioned was the same thing as what his students were doing. He imagined something with more mood while most of the teams were lighting everything including the bright white background. For an hour's worth of work everything looked fairly good. With more time I think all the groups would have done great. There was one group that did get what Cliff was hoping for. Craig Norris and his group came the closest. It was shot with one light and the background was left dark to create the drama. Craig posted the shot his blog.

Each group for the final project was give a tabletop with white seamless and a two light preset up. Anything else that they might have wanted had to have been brought from home.

Cliff talks to his students about the final and group assignments.


Craig is the first to see the "special" item that had to be placed in the photo. There had to be at least three sugar cubes included in the coffee cup shot.


The last minute rules and instructions for the classes final.