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… 

february flowers

So you might have guessed from my last post that I have a new sidekick. So, for the past year or so it's been a bit challenging (and not top of mind, honestly) to get out a photograph. But with the gorgeous spring blossoms around San Francisco last month, I took the camera out with the little guy in his Ergo carrier. He…was not super happy to be standing around Church Street in his carrier, so it was pretty brief but it felt good to flex the Canon muscle.

Then I looked at last year's photos from the same time, and in comparison I feel a little rusty! For some reason this year, I just kept thinking the flowers reminded me of wallpaper and that's what I got!

four months

mendocino

Quick trip to Mendocino for the weekend. I haven't taken pictures in FOREVER so it felt good to pull out the old camera and try to get some shots. Didn't get too creative. Just some windswept vistas with the 50 mm. 

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. Recently restored and super cute.  

A pretty walk from the car to the lighthouse. Walk back includes more windswept vistas. Here, looking inland, I put together 5 shots in PhotoStitch (which came on the CD with my 6D).  I lost my PhotoShop license and found PhotoStitch was pretty easy! Export as JPG, and put 'em together. Seems like the resulting image isn't super clear, but if you re-import to Lightroom the file it creates actually pretty big. Click to enlarge:

We also checked out Mendocino Headlands State Park. Two ~20 minute jaunts from the car, with some views of seals in the water and a pretty boardwalk out around to see the ocean. Back to using Waterlogue again!

And the highlight of the whole trip was Montgomery Woods State Reserve. About a 30 min drive inland from Ukiah. A beautiful windy drive. The walk itself had an uphill incline for about 10 minutes then flattened out and you are in the middle of the loveliest forest ever. A couple mile loop we completed in 1-1.5 hours stopping often to just look up and stare. Huge redwoods - this is an area that has remained unlogged. I sort of surrendered to trying to capture it on film, Redwoods at least 10 feet across, I don't even know how to approach that.  Just have a look at the images here.  This spot and Point Lobos might be my two favorite California hikes.