Mission Street

So, I made it through 12 days of the 14 day Put Down Your Phone Challenge (I made that up). I kept the phone down but wasn't feeling it.

Back today walking down Mission Street with the Sigma 24mm f/1.4. I love the seeing the history that remains in such a rapidly changing city. Don't change, Mission Street! Except for the crime and sometimes really gross dirt and sad seafood shops, don't change!

Days 10-12 PDYP Project: Varying successes

Hi. So Day 10 I really tried. The one Kickstarter campaign that I funded was for the Petzval lens. It is gorgeous and complex (manual focus, manual changing of aperture plates, flash can't read the aperture I don't think so things get weird…). Maybe indoor flash pictures of an active infant are not its specialty. But I tried, I really did.

Day 11. Nothin. Tired.

Day 12. Took the Sigma 24mm f/1.4  on a walk down Mission Street. Here are a few I liked.

Day 9 PDYP Project: Canon 100mm f/2.8

So today, the challenge was challenging. After loving the Sigma 24mm f/1.4, and the tried and trusty Canon 50mm f/1.4, the Canon 100mm f/2.8 was difficult to use for pics of a small person in a darkening living room. Too close! Too dark?! I had also been lazy and left the batteries in the flash and they seemed drained and slow to react so the first set had a bunch that were just total darkness. A battery change improved things. Also, on a side note, with the Canon 6D (using Aperture Priority) and with the Canon Speedlite 430II Flash, I set exposure compensation to +2/3 or else it's just really all too dark. Then in Lightroom I'm generally moving exposure up even more.

Shot with a Canon 6D, Canon Speedlite 430II Flash and a Canon 100mm f/2.8 lens.

Anyway, the top shot of the night:

And who can resist little toes?:

Day 8 PDYP Project: Maintenance

The muse has gone to bed early. So it's a night to back up Lightroom and also to transfer from iPhone to iPhoto. For some reason I was getting errors that iPhoto would not accept JPGs from iPhone. I updated both the computer and the phone and now we're good.

At rest:

Day 7 PDYP Project: TOYS

I've long wanted to make a light box. Still on the to do list, but thought I would see what happened just leaning things up against a bent white board. It's a start!

Canon 6D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens (cropped in Lightroom) and Canon Speedlite 430II flash

And some dear old friends

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Day 6 PDYP Project: Mirror Mirror

Today I set out to do a proper photo "shoot" with baby in clean, white onesie, etc. The actual shoot effort (which lasted about 2 minutes) was missed with lots of twisting and attempts to leave the scene by the subject. However, he did find the mirror super interesting and here are some of those shots. Focus great? No. Does it matter? Not sure. I like the colors and brightness.

Canon 6D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens (cropped in Lightroom) and Canon Speedlite 430II flash

Day 5 PDYP Project: Sigma 24mm f/1.4

I am really loving the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 lens. Wasn't sure what I'd really use it for, and expected to be taking more pictures outside with it, but it's fun to use indoors and has a nice journalistic quality. Also for some reason I'm not the focus freak I am with the Canon 50mm f/1.4 even though you can still crop in pretty close. Is it a sharper lens? Not sure but some of these are really crisp on zooming in.

Shot with a Canon 6D, Canon Speedlite 430II Flash and a Sigma 24mm f/1.4 lens.

Home journalism in action:

Tack sharp hair and eyes

Yes, I could tidy the kitchen

Zoomed in. A boy and his car, again: 

Day 4 Put Down Your Phone Project: FOCUS Part II

More pics today with the Canon 50mm f/1.4. In search of the magic focus bullet, I found a little nugget in an article from Ken Rockwell: "The center sensor is more sensitive than the others in dim light. If the other sensors aren't doing well in dim light, choose the center sensor and you'll be much happier." I'd been using an upper right hand focus spot. You know what, Ken?? I am much happier, thank you! Seriously, this did seem to have an impact.

Canon 6D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens (cropped in Lightroom) and Canon Speedlite 430II flash. Click to zoom.

And one from yesterday that was pretty cute

Day 3 Put Down Your Phone Project: FOCUS

Focus. My white whale. Am I asking too much? Really though, I've got an active subject, love wide aperture shots and am using a flash after hours, how tack sharp can I expect? I have switched to AI Servo which is supposed to be the correct AF mode, but it's not life changing. I will continue to research and get back to you.

Again with my Canon 6D, Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens (cropped in Lightroom) and Canon Speedlite 430II flash. Click to zoom.

Day 2 Put Down Your Phone Project: 50mm f/1.4

On the second day of my "Put Down Your Phone" Challenge, f.k.a the 14 day Media-fast Challenge, I took pictures with the best lens ever, my Canon 50mm f/1.4. Again using the Canon Speedlite 430II Flash. I really loved using the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 yesterday so this was a difficult to be so close at 50mm. Also, I happen to be a bit of a focus freak, so as usual struggled to get the eyes really crisp. SUPER hard to do with a crazy active 9 month old. Much more introspective baby today too, intent on playing and specific toys.

14 (?) day Media-fast Challenge

A few things have happened recently…

1) My little guy turned into a chunky little man right in front of my eyes
2) I acquired a Sigma 24mm f/1.4 lens
3) Not exactly new, but I have been thinking a lot about what inspires me and what's an important way to spend my time…

So instead of the "decompression" time after work where I half-heartedly scroll through Facebook and the usual sites, with one eye on my playing son, I'm now going to turn on my camera and capture this incredible time. The internet claims you can be an expert in any subject in a year (not surprising given everyone else is just reading nonsense on their phones). Heck, I'll be happy if in two weeks I just get more comfortable with my flash and capture something special - mission accomplished on the latter. Not sure if I'll post every day but the boy was super happy to see the camera and there were some cute shots today. All shot with a Canon 6D, Canon Speedlite 430II Flash and a Sigma 24mm f/1.4 lens.

six months

 

Aannd the obligatory foot shot…