The Nothing

Finally completed the final edit of the selected wedding photos from several weeks ago.  The Bride and Groom met with me last week and we went through about 240 images I thought were good and they made their final selections from those images.  I’ve since gone back through those images, re-edited and applied final touch ups.

The result?  I guess I did better than I had though.  The couple were more than happy with all the images I present them.

The downside, however, is that I STILL don’t have a check.  Again one had been promised when we met up on Tuesday.  A check was said to be in the mail the next day.

Again, rule #1, get paid first.

Following the direction found on Flickrs Poor Man’s Macro group I built a quick reversal rig for my 20D.  The deal is easy.  Take one unneeded body cap, hollow out, glue on one unneeded filter ring, attach to body, screw on lens backwards, go take photos.

My current setup is a 52mm filter ring allowing me to use my old FD mount 50mm f/1.8.  Focusing is useless as you’re only working with a few millimeters at best.  I’ve been hand holding everything and things are hit and miss.  I’m learning how much I move while I’m hitting the shutter release.  I think this also might explain some of my focus issues in the past.

It looks like I’ll also be able to add a second ring to this current setup allowing me to use my FD 28-80m.  I think this will give me a better range of magnification to use…

I also picked up a new book: Macrophotography: learning from a master.  I’m only half way through it, but I’m learning some things.  He puts a good emphases on keeping nature in tact, which I like, underestimates venomous animals, which I didn’t like.  I’m looking forward to the rest of the book.

Next week or so is going to be a lot of fun.  I’m in the process of closing down my pBase account and moving everything over to Flickr.  As much as I love everything about pBase, it’s just not cutting it.  Flickr has a million more users, and it’s much easier to find people with similar interests.  Tagging system is much better, not to mention the involvement with groups.  pBase is my prefered way to present photos, but Flickr has it beat with communication and connections.

Today I was supposed to be doing a photo shoot.  The organizer, unfortunately, was called to work and the rest of us have no idea where we were supposed to be going.  At this point it seems I’ll be doing something other than shooting photos.

I’ve found myself shopping for new glass.  Shop as I my, of course, the money isn’t there.  Some of the recent wants are: Nifty-50/Plastic Fantastic/50mm f/1.8,  17-40mm F/4L (equates to 28×64 on the 1.6 crop sensor 20d), 60mm macro, and a few others. [Read more →]

Finished up the production work on the wedding last night.  Finally.  No more worries about that.  Now have to hunt down the newlyweds, show them the proofs, and get a check.  I won’t do any more work till that happens at this point.

In other news, I also shot a car show last weekend. Just out with my parents, enjoying the sun while it lasted (it started raining the moment they dropped me off at home and started their drive back to seattle).

I’m having FUN with the production work now.  I think this is a sign…

i’m STILL going through some post processing on last weekend’s wedding.  I’m close to done though… only a hundred-some-odd shots to go.  I suppose I should really call it pre-processing.  I’m only cropping and doing some color/exposure correction.  Nothing major.  Then we’ll sit down, go through some images, pick some out for prints, then i’ll go crazy on the post and sent out for print.

I knew I’d have a TON of hours in on post production work.  I had planned on over 1000 shutter clicks, and we did that.