How-to: No-Budget Fine Art Photos From Home - Just Add Water

     Sometimes, you come along photos online that look completely otherworldly.  They amaze you, and it takes all you can do to try and figure out how the photographer accomplished something like that.  A few years ago, I came across a shot that looked strikingly similar to the one above.  The only thing was, it was black and white, and high contrast.  This made for a great artsy print, but I just felt that colors would really bring out the contours of the shapes, and make for some really interesting semi-abstracts.  It's a great technique to learn, and I'm going to show you how to do it.

War of 1812: Bicentennial Sailabration

     This past week, the Baltimore inner harbor welcomed over 40 ships from all around the world.  Mexico, Guatemala, Japan, Canada, and Indonesia were only some of the countries represented in the lineup.  The ships sailed in on June 13th, and sailed out on June 19th.  The event was the commemoration of the war of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. 

     Walk-around tours of the ships themselves were offered at no charge to all spectators.  Should you have been lucky enough to actually survive the wait line, and still have visiting time to spare, I'm sure it was quite the spectacle.  I, however, took a different approach.  One a bit less "touristy".

     At night, after all the crowds have disbursed and the sailors went in for the evening, the ships were strung with lights and lit up with all the brilliance of a christmas tree.  It was a beautiful sight, indeed.  One to be cherished, and definitely not to be missed.  Anticipating the crowd of spectators and tourists alike, I made sure to get there will after the mainstream crowds had gone for the evening.

Photos inside!

Calvert Cliffs with the D800 (and resolution test!)

Hello again everyone.  Sorry for the delay in posts for so long!  Anywho, this past week I've been able to take the beast out for a while this past week.  I had the chance to get over to Calvert Cliffs in southern Maryland.  The place really is a fantastic retreat and is full of wonderful photographic opportunities.  As per my luck, I was rained out shortly after arriving, but I did manage to snap a few shots off.  Here are some of the ones I particularly liked:

More D800 samples. Highish ISO, Night-time AF test.

Hello everyone!  Hope all is well.  Over the past few days, I've had only a handful of chances to play around with the D800.  So, I'm sure you have no interest of hearing too much.  So, without further adieu, let's get to the photos, shall we?

New Film Coming Up: Preview!

     Hey everyone!  I've been working on a short film idea for the past while awaiting my D800.  Well, now it's come in, and work can begin.  I don't want to give away too much, but it's going to be nice and gritty. Before I sold my previous DSLR, I filmed what I am going to now use as a preview to the full-length feature film.  As of now, the name of the film will be "We All Fall Down," but that's a working title.  So, nothing too permanent.

Anyhow, without further adieu, here's the preview!

Nikon D300s
Sigma 24-70mm F/2.8 ED IF HSM II
Nikon 50mm F/1.8D
Tokina 11-16mm F/2.8 AT-X PRO DX
Sigma 180mm F/3.5 EX DG HSM APO IF Macro
Manfrotto 055XB
Manfrotto 504hdv
Manfrotto 804RC2
Cinemover

Be sure to watch in full screen, 720p, and with the speakers up!

Thanks for stopping in.  I'd love to hear your input below!

Mark

Nikon D800 HDR and Video Samples (@ISO3200!) *UPDATED*

Well, like the title says, I've had one full day now to fiddle about with the D800.

I've taken some photos, of course.  None of which I feel are really up to par to show you guys.  They're incredibly bland, to be completely honest.  This is to no fault of the camera, however.  The camera's an incredible performer!  The resolution is incredible.  The focus is untouchable.  Color rendering and dynamic range are impeccable as was to be expected.  I'm utterly amazed by the performance of this beast of a piece of kit.

Nikon D800 in Hand! - First Impressions

At the time of this post, I have only had the camera for a few hours, and this post will show my first impressions.  There will be many more posts to come as I grow more with the camera, so stay tuned!  Click below to see the first part of the review!

Mark

Upcoming Nikon Releases

     There have been announcements made that there will be Nikon press release events held in Japan on both February 1, and February 7.
     For those of you who haven't been following the photographic media, this means that the new line of updated coolpix cameras will be announced on the 1st. This is said to include a water-, shock-, and childproof version specifically designed for children. I don't know much about the coolpix line, honestly. It's simply not something I look into too often.
     

     The more interesting stuff after the break. :)

Hello everyone.  A few days ago, I did a photoshoot for a friend of mine.  Her friend really wanted me to photograph her baby boy named Blake.  We talked about it, and decided it would be a good idea to do a secret photoshoot of baby Blake and surprise his mommy with a blanket of the photos on her birthday the coming week.  So, that's what we did.  Boy was the momma surprised!  She absolutely loved it.  

Anywho, here are some of the photos!  Enjoy!

More photos after the break.

Still Life

Hey everyone.  Just thought I'd share some of my shots from a recent still life shoot I did. The setup was fairly simple, only using two lights. I had (1) 150w/s strobe on the brown canvas backdrop, and (1) 150w/s strobe camera right at the subject.  A piece of glass under the subject gave it the nice reflection.  Shot with a Nikon D300s and Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 EX DC D.

Enjoy!

Mark