Families
We ate. We painted. We painted some more. We got Dressed. We played. Then we played some more. And a bit more. And then we meditated for a few moments and played some more.
Playing is serious stuff.
This here wonderful family was referred by another wonderful family (never blogged for personal reasons, but let me tell you, that shoot rocked!). They are recent additions to our wonderful country from across the sea, where dragons live and queens are real. They also talk funny there. Cute but funny. Talking about cute, these kids were practically edible, well behaved and awesome personalities (the adults were okay too :)).
And here's the outcome (more outcome than income...):
And here we are. After going on a blogging diet for the past few weeks (yet the blog has not lost any weight. I my have to rethink this one), I have a whole bunch to post over the next week or so. Keep your eyes posted.
This loverly family here was (and since has) moving to New York and wanted one last session before the upheaval (I think they said something about wanting to get away from earthquakes). You may remember them from a few months back.
It's a Friday, so I got to help in the kitchen or with the kids (or both, being that the kids like hanging out in the kitchen, but only when we're there and there's lots to be done).
And we all say: Amen.
Warning: For geeks and nerds only. If you do not follow into one of those categories fell free to scroll down to the photos below.
A few weeks ago I received a telegraph from China (read all about it here). I thought I answered his question (or what I thought the question was) pretty well. But a few days ago I received yet another telegram:
BIG STOP STOP WITTLE STOP STOP NOT ARWYAS SAME STOP STOP SOMETIMES MORE STOP MUCH TIMES LESS HEAVY LESS LIGHT MORE PHONE MANY MORE STOP WHY STOP NORMAL NOT WIDE NOT STOP PREASE HEWP GOING CLAZY LOOLOO STOP
Wow dude, you couldn't be any more clyptic?
Anyways I figured I'd talk a bit more about stops and maybe this Chinese bloke will reverse his course to the clazy house.
Two numbers to remember 2 and 1.4.
To change your ISO or shutter speed by a stop you double or half.
To change your aperture by a top you multiply by or divide by 1.4. The reason being is that the aperture refers to the size (diameter) of the diaphragm (the opening) of the lens which is a circle. When you multiply the diameter of a circle by 1.4 you get double the surface area, or in this case double the amount of light coming in.
Very exciting. So you go from 1-1.4-2-2.8-4-5.6-8-11-16 etc.
Why would you want less light coming in? Good question. A. Most lens get sharper when you close them down a few stops. B. More depth of field. C. Slower shutter speed.
Another thing that changes in increments of 1.4 is the focal length of lenses. 24mm-35mm-50mm-85mm (well not exactly), 100, 135, 200, 300, 400, 600 etc. the reason being is that, again since we are dealing with a circle the area covers halfs every time it's multiplied by 1.4. So a 35mm lens covers half the area of a 24mm lens.
Yet another aspect changes with every multiple of 1.4 (and this one is actually important) is the Depth of Field. A 24mm lens at f/2.8 has double the DOF of a 35mm lens at 2.8 and quadruple the DOF of a 50mm @ 2.8. So if you want to blur out that background you could spend $1400 on a 50mm 1.2 or $300 on an 85mm f/1.8 and the background will essentially be more blurred with the 85mm @ f/1.8 than with the 50mm A f/1.2 (and the 85 will probably be sharper as its much easier to make a 1.8 lens than a 1.2 lens.).
While we're (we being me because I have absolutely no clue who would actually get this far into this ramble) on the DOF topic I have to mention the sensor size. Each time the sensor grows by 1.4 it halves the DOF and the FOV (field of view) goes down by 1.4 (an 70mm f/2.8 lens would act like a 50mm f/2). So a 50mm f/1.4 lens on a d90 (Nikons cropped sensor) would act like a 75mm f/2.1 lens (x 1.5). And a 80mm f/2 lens on a 645 camera would act like a 50mm f1.25 lens on a full frame sensor (such as the d700). And a 300mm f/4.5 lens on a 8x10 view camera would be like a 50mm f/.75 on a full frame camera. (this is all in regards to frame of view and depth of field. Exposures don't change with sensor size or focal length).
The point being? Have fun!
As we were.
I had this awesome shoot this past week, with this great family. I was a bit nervous about the timing, as I usually like the late afternoon and am not that familiar with the harsher light of not-so-late afternoon. 'Twas tough in the beginning but we persevered (and I perspired) and we really had fun. I even got to use my new lens bought earlier in the day. A manual focus 105mm f/2.5. Yummy. And I tried a fake tilt shift.
Sunny, Warm Southern California has been acting awfully of late. Seems to be confusing itself with Cloudy, Cold Northern California. We planned this wonderful beach shoot for what should have been a semi-warm-semi-cool late afternoon. It turned out to be windy and cold (and windy). Kiddoes didn't like it. And no one was going even near the water. So a beach aspect of the shoot was abandoned a bit, but we still had fun (I did at least) and we got some great shots. This was my first time on the Santa Monica pier in somewhere in the vicinity of a decade. Holy Moly are there a lot of tourists!! With camera! Expensive cameras! Someone was even doing this professional looking documentary with a Nikon D3S and a 70-200 (no clue why he wasn't using Canon. Who shoots pro video on a Nikon?). Note to newbies with fancy cameras. Keep your lens cap in your pocket, not on your lens. Note #2 just because the store says you need a $20 filter on your $90 lens, don't listen to them.
All in all a great, fun, windy and cold time was had by all. (And shooting birds in flight with a 24mm 1.4 is an exercise in futility.)
After having a talk with the big boss about the recent weather, he seems to have fixed things up. It seems it was all just a big misunderestimation.
I have ambitions. Some loftier than others. And sometimes I let my ambitions stop me from being productive.
For example, I have ambitions for this blog. I want it to be informative, interesting, humorous, quirky. I want the photos to rock and the words to rock along. But sometimes I don't feel neither informative nor humorous. Nor interesting or quirky. So I won't post. Or I'll procrastinate (I love procrastinating. I'm pro-procrastinating).
No more! I shan't be a slave to my ever-changing altruistic dreamy ambitions. I shall strive to be mundane, boring and ordinary. At least until I get some stuff done.
Say no more. Here are some wonderful captures of some wonderful faces. Enjoy.
