Pic of the Day: How To Make A Car Look Sexy

 

This is the BMW i8 Concept Spyder.  When I first looked at this photo in Lightroom, I knew exactly what the title would be.  Yes I cropped the photo.  No the light was cropped when I took the photo.  Why? It brought my eye to the blues and blacks of what I saw in the frame.  If I had captured the full width of the light, then the eye wold have been split between the grill and the light.  In my opinion the grill is the focal point of this photo and of what I saw.  Everything line of the car's nose lead to the grill.

So how do you make a car look sexy?  It starts with the car.  If the car doesn't look sexy, then it never will be.  i.e. a Yugo... not sexy.  When I look for the beauty in a car, I look for it's lines.  All of the lines come together to form a shape.  Every car has this shape.  Some are sleek, some are fluid, and some are just not there.  This grill is a perfect example of how you make a car look sexy.  Clean lines, color and form.

Pic of the Day: Central Wonderland

This photo was taken with a Leica M4 and a Voiglander Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4.  I must say this camera and lens are absolutely amazing.  If you have the means of owning or using a M4 I highly recommend it.  The color separations and sharpness, is spectacular.

In case you are wondering this is the Central Park Zoo.  The actual location where Alex the Lion and the Penguins of Madagascar is featured.

Pic of the Day: Digital Dark Field

I took this photo with a friend's Canon 60D.  She just got it and had a Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS on it.  The lighting was mixed.  I have to say one thing about the 60D.  It takes some good quality photos.  I just do not like the fact that you have to press a button to change the mode you want to shoot in.  I believe Canon made a huge mistake here.  Having to press the center button in the Mode Dial, is just an annoyance.  I've been using Canon cameras since my old 20D.  And I do not remember seeing that button on any other previous versions or the two new Canon cameras, the Canon 1X and the Canon 5D mark III.

Pic of the Day: Truth

This photo was taken with a Mamiya RB67 Pro S , using a Mamiya Sekor C 180mm F4.5 lens with natural lighting.  It was shot using Ilford 400 speed Delta black and white film.

More than 7 months ago, I was lucky enough to have a good enough friend who loaned me his Leica M4.  After shooting with that camera for a very short time, I went onto the, "Tips From The Top Floor's" forum (which no longer exists in that format) and posted a simple inquiry.  At the time I was looking into the possibility of trying to buy a film camera.  I knew buying a Leica M4 wasn't in the cards for me.  So I started researching the Canon AE-1, as a possible film camera.  In the AE-1, I found some qualities which appealed to me.  They were weight, form, availabliity of lens, availablity of repair facilities and straight up coolness factor. :)

My post to the forum, was simple enough.  It was something like this:

Hello,

I am considering getting into film.  My friend loaned me his Leica M4.  I know I can't afford that.  Can you please give me your input on a Canon AE-1.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

What occured next was an absolute miricle.  A woman named Ruth, from the forum contacted me via private message.  She offered me one of her husband's cameras.  Appareantly he had a boat load.  All I needed to do was to send her the money to ship it to me.  I basically got (I know bad grammer) a free film camera for free.  But that wasn't the end of my excellent surprise.  Ruth had sent me 3 lenses, camera batteries, a boatload of filters, manuals, and a great camera bag.  HOLY CRAP RUTH!

Unfortunately, I had a very quick change of employment.  I had her send it to my job.  A friend delivered it to me after weeks of it being there.  The forum closed down and I lost Ruth's information.

After several months, Ruth contacted me.  (I can't say how) I was sooooo happy and I owe her so much.  Ruth you are my Angel.  I owe you big time.  

Several months later with the film bug firmly dug into me; I made the leap to a medium format camera.  I purchased a Mamiya RB67 Pro S kit.  It came with with the Mamiya Sekor C 180mm Lens, a 110 film back and the standard Mamiya Focusing Hood with built in magnifier.

I purchased a Sekonic Zoom Master L - 508 , Light Meeter to help me properly meter my photos.  This photo is a result of using the Sekonic Meter with the Mamiya RB67.

The point of all this is that I've been taking a lot of photos every day.  Unfortunately for most of my viewers, I've focused on film more than digital.  As a result I had tons and tons of rolls of film.  I've developed most of them.  And this photo is one of them.  In addition, most of the photos I've taken were of people, which I do not have rights to present on my site.  Obviously this is one of the photos of people.  However it too difficult to the average person to identify who the person is.

The reason why I call this photo "Truth" is because when I look at it I can see directly into the soul of ther person.  You see everything about this person.  And trust me... it's very truthful.

If you would like to learn more about shooting with film, and would like to accompany me on one of my expiditions, send me an email.  I'll get back to you as soon as I can, or will respond via a post on the site. 

Pic of the Day - Canon Zeiss Combination

This is a photos of my friend Sarah's spanking new Canon 60D along with a Zeiss 50mm 1.4 lens on it.  After Sarah purchased her lens, I wanted to take some photos of the camera, up close and personal.  So I grabbed my Canon 5D mk2 and put on my Canon FD 100mm F4 Macro lens.  I love this lens.  I use an adaptor to use the FD lens.  I shot this photo under mixed light (Florescent and Incandescent).  Under many cercamstances where mixed light is an issue, I usually switch to shooting in Monochrom mode.  I find that if I can get the tones in my black and white image correct, at the time of capture; the results are favorable.  After taking the photo, the color data is still there.  I simply disregard the black and white properties of the photo in favor of the color data.

 

Pic of the Day: Free Knowledge

 

SOPA and PIPA put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.

Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the "cure" that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they will fatally damage the free and open Internet.

 

Go to wikipedia.com today and protest for your future!

December 7, 1941 - December 7, 2011

70 years ago today, the United States of America was deliberately and maliciously attacked by the Empire of Japan at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  2,403 people were killed in the most damaging attack to date, in United States History.

Semper Fi,

Daniel Russo