I contemplated buying it from Best Buy, but they only had the kit version with the . . . → Read More: My Nikon D7000 arrived this week!]]> I recently received my Nikon D7000 (body only) from Amazon, looks like Santa arrived early at my home! With so much hype over this camera, finding a Kit version or the body only version, has been very challenging.

I contemplated buying it from Best Buy, but they only had the kit version with the lens, which I didn’t need, I was interested in only the body. Plus, I looked at a few at Best Buy and although they were selling them new, I could tell they had been opened and used. The obvious signal was the missing thin sheet that covers the plastic protective piece covering the rear LCD screen. So I didn’t want to risk it, too many people are returning these when purchased at Best Buy, so no need to buy a returned product from them.

So Amazon was my choice. Adorama and B&H, have been too late to carry these, plus the wait time for them is too long using those two sites. It had been several weeks that I planned to purchase it, and to my surprise, I got it 4 days after I placed the order from Amazon. Not bad.

The camera itself is great, however, the weather in Southern California has not. It’s been raining every day, so I haven’t been able to use it outdoors. Too delay things more, the weather calls for at least 5 more days of rain.

So far, I’ve been using it indoors casually and it fits my hand like a glove. The D7000 is solid, with a better quality feel than the previous D90. Since it has a focus motor, I can use all the Nikkor lenses in my goodie bag, especially my Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED Macro lens. Which is one of the best lenses I’ve ever owned. You can see the lens attached to my Nikon D7000 below. Much better than the kit lens they are selling it with!

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED Macro lens on a Nikon D7000 body

If you’re a fan of the show Glee you’ll know why the latest photos taken for the GQ Magazine have stirred up so much controversy. The photos were taken for the October edition of the magazine and feature Dianna Agron, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele. Both of . . . → Read More: Love the new Glee photos on GQ Magazine.]]>

Photo credit all photos: GQ/Terry Richardson

If you’re a fan of the show Glee you’ll know why the latest photos taken for the GQ Magazine have stirred up so much controversy. The photos were taken for the October edition of the magazine and feature Dianna Agron, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele. Both of the girls are posing in very short sexy outfits, a contrast from their on-air persona.

The famous fashion photographer Terry Richardson took the photos and in my opinion he did a great job. Some may argue that its too risque to portray them as sexy high school kids, but if your not aware all are well in their 20′s, so I say go for it!

Also, don’t miss these two images in high res: Photo 1, Photo 2

You can also see the full set at GQ Magazine.

When viewing any photo,  I look at the lighting, the positioning of the actors in the frame, and the overall setting. I guess it’s the photographer in me that likes to analyze how these images where created. In some ways I wish GQ would include, like POP Photo and Shutterbug does, the camera type, setting and lights used!

At the end of last month Facebook announced the option to upload and download high-resolution photos on individual and personal facebook photo pages. Directly from facebook:

“we will be rolling out support for print-quality, high-resolution photos. And unlike on many other online services, you don’t need . . . → Read More: Upload high resolution pictures to facebook?]]>

Option for uploading a high resolution image

At the end of last month Facebook announced the option to upload and download high-resolution photos on individual and personal facebook photo pages. Directly from facebook:

“we will be rolling out support for print-quality, high-resolution photos. And unlike on many other online services, you don’t need any kind of premium or paid account.”

I tried it recently and was pleasantly surprised. Facebook increased the size of the photos stored from 720 pixels to 2048 pixels on the largest edge, for an 8 times increase. Not bad since the amount of photos you can upload is unlimited and free to do so.

In order to view a photo in high-resolution, the original picture must be uploaded in high-resolution too. This is done at the initial moment you upload an image, see picture. Once the photo is up you can view it in its normal facebook mode size or choose to download the high resolution version.

Don’t forget to view my facebook page here, I’ll start to upload some new photos there as well.

One of the first things I learned about photography was to understand how the right depth of field (DOF) in my photos can enhance my photos. When one uses point & shoot cameras, most of the time the people or things in . . . → Read More: Alicia helps explain Depth of Field DOF]]>

Sexy Alicia in a photo with a medium depth of field.

One of the first things I learned about photography was to understand how the right depth of field (DOF) in my photos can enhance my photos. When one uses point & shoot cameras, most of the time the people or things in the pictures are all in focus. This is due to a large aperture setting like f/11 or so. Get your first DSLR or higher end point & shoot, and you’ll soon find that by changing the aperture setting along with your distance from your subject, certain things will and will not be in focus. Trust me, this is a good option.

When you want a subject to be in focus as well as the distant background, then you need a large DOF and your must make sure you are not too close to your subject. Too get something in between, then a good example is the photo on the left. I photographed the sexy Alicia to illustrate how I can manipulate the DOF to my advantage. Having her against the fence, I wanted the viewer’s eyes to be drawn to three areas, her face, cleavage and the narrowing fence leading away from her. I shot it at 40mm, f/7.1 and 1/500th sec., I also cropped it a little.

Alicia wearing a sultry dress looking in the mirror.

For the photo of Alicia on the right, I placed a mirror a few feet to her left and away from me. This time shooting at a focal length of 50mm at f/4.5 and 1/125 sec., I was able to have her torso on the left in focus and blur out her reflection in the mirror.  Using the similar setting, I could have focused on the reflection having it in focus but then her torso on the left would have been blurred. By the way, I used Aperture Priority settings for all these images.

Photo of Alicia with a narrow DOF

In my last example, I took a close-up of Alicia against a plain tin wall. Shooting directly against the wall would have revealed the texture of the tin too much, so I shot it at an angle. Since I photographed her close up, I needed to blur out the far and near portions of the tin wall. I shot wide open at an f stop of 2.8, with a focal length of 80 mm and a shutter speed of 1/250. This allowed me to make Alicia’s face the main focus point of the image.

So next time you’re out taking pictures with your new DSLR, take it off of Program mode.  Experiment with Aperture Priority or Manual mode and create great images with various depth of field settings! Finally, I’d like to thank Alicia for modeling for these pictures.

Short but nice site that gives video illustration on how to use the New D7000. From simple photo techniques to taking video in AF mode and manual mode. You . . . → Read More: New Nikon D7000 online instruction videos]]> A quick update to those waiting for their Nikon D7000 to arrive. Get a heads up on how to use the D7000 from Nikon’s Digitutor.

Short but nice site that gives video illustration on how to use the New D7000. From simple photo techniques to taking video in AF mode and manual mode. You can find the D7000 Digitutor here.

Nikon D7000 Digitutor

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of taking a 7 day trip on the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas. Oasis departs from Port Everglades in Florida, so I had to take a fly out there, yes I know, poor . . . → Read More: My recent cruise pictures of Oasis of the Seas!]]>

Aqua Theater view from my Boardwalk Balcony stateroom

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of taking a 7 day trip on the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas. Oasis departs from Port Everglades in Florida, so I had to take a fly out there, yes I know, poor me.

Picture of Atlantis as Oasis of the Seas arrived to the Nassau Bahamas

Oasis of the Seas called on several ports on my trip. First we stopped at the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Thomas, then it was St. Marten/St. Maarten and finally at Nassau in the Bahamas. The islands were great, but the real treat was the ship itself. Large and beautiful, a real photographers dream. I spent a lot of time taking photographs. These are just a small sample of my many photos. You can see the rest of my cool pictures of Oasis of the Seas here along with a day by day description of my trip.

Every 4 yrs the world comes together for a an event that only the Summer Olympics can compare too…the FIFA World Cup, and this year its in South Africa. Here in the U.S., Soccer or “Football” as its known worldwide, is not the most popular or widely attended sport. But . . . → Read More: Creating pictures with a World Cup theme!]]>

World Cup 2010

Every 4 yrs the world comes together for a an event that only the Summer Olympics can compare too…the FIFA World Cup, and this year its in South Africa. Here in the U.S., Soccer or “Football” as its known worldwide, is not the most popular or widely attended sport. But leave the U.S., and soccer is not only the most popular played sport, but also the most watched!

Don’t believe me? In 2006, the World Cup was played in Germany with over 32 billion viewers! That’s right, billions with a “B”! Read the ratings recap by FIFA here. Over 207 countries watched that event and this summer, the world will be watching again, and perhaps getting higher numbers.

Over the last 15-20 yrs or so, with the addition of the MLS and the U.S. Women’s Soccer team winning the 1999 World Cup match during a memorable gave over China, the popularity of soccer has increased. Its taken a new role in local schools and colleges. Kids in the U.S. are now playing soccer on a regular basis and perhaps one day it will reach the same status as the rest of the world.

So what does this have to do with photography? Everything! Imagine a photographer taking part in the most watched and popular sporting event in the world! I can image photographers, whether they are attending the event or not, are taking stock photography involving soccer or tailoring some pictures they create to this event. After all, who wouldn’t want to have the opportunity for only a fraction of the 32 billion viewers to see your work? In a commercial, a billboard or a magazine? Like anything else, viewers equals money to any business person and most professional photographers are in it for business. So if you are a pro or semi-pro photographer, you might want to start creating images targeting the viewers of this large and profitable event!

As of today January 26, 2010, there are less than 140 days left to the start of the World Cup in South Africa. You still have enough time to work on creating images for this big event!

Whenever I take a picture, I know that there is some possibility that I will work on it at least a little on Photoshop. After a shoot, I normally sort through them on my computer and place them in three ways. First are the best . . . → Read More: Simple steps for editing your pictures at home.]]>

Kung fu pose picture after final edit.

Whenever I take a picture, I know that there is some possibility that I will work on it at least a little on Photoshop. After a shoot, I normally sort through them on my computer and place them in three ways. First are the best pictures, those that overall are great pictures and may still need some or no photo editing. The second group are those that have potential, that with a little editing can result in a good usable image. The last, yup, the junk. These are the ones that are more of outtakes and cannot be saved with editing.

I want to talk about the second group. Whichever way you sort your photos, I assume these images are often overlooked and forgotten, never to see the light of day, right? Well, I wanted to share how I resulted with the image on the left. The picture is of a girl doing a martial art kick in the air and a very high distance from the ground. So was this picture photo-shopped? Yes and no.

Yes, I used Photoshop to crop and lighten the image a little, but no I didn’t add her to the middle of the picture. She really did jump and I caught this in mid-air from a distance. She was playing around with some friends and I noticed a photo opportunity. I was only able to take one picture, image on the right. As you can see she jumped from that concrete block not from the ground. Although I wasn’t able to get her face, which was blocked by the hand, I initially put this image aside and having some possibility to use but I knew I would need to do some editing. The image on its own is really a snapshot, but my eyes immediately went to the distance she was from the ground. So it was this portion of the image I knew would interest the viewer, as well as her straight leg/pose.

The image was a little dark, so I adjusted the exposure. The yellow truck was a distraction, so that needed to be cropped out. However I wanted to emphasize her pose and distance from the ground, so the only way to do that and create some “space” under her was to remove or crop out the cement block along with the truck. I spent some time on Photoshop outlining the area that would eventually be the final picture. In this case, the area I was going to keep would be crucial in creating the illusion of the almost impossible jump and pose.

How I edited my picture on Photoshop.

If you haven’t tried it, by cropping an image at the right place, the new picture will “tell” a different story. This was the case for this picture. Try it yourself with some of your own photos. Almost all photo editing programs have the cropping feature and all are very easy to use. I’ve included a simple outline of the area I cropped or cut out that would eventually be the final image. First I selected the area, making sure I didn’t include the yellow truck and cement block. I was also careful not to include the bottom portion of the picture, the area with the decorative bricks. It was important to show her in the air and the distance to the ground without any of the other distractions.

The final picture now is much more interesting. The viewers eyes are drawn to the pose on the upper right hand side and the empty area on the lower left emphasizes the high distance she is from the ground.

The site is developing as promised! Today I added a Model Castings page with several paid shoots available to local Los Angeles and OC models! We shoot based on projects, so when we have a specific shoot planned we will post it up right away. The page will change weekly, . . . → Read More: Model Castings page added to site!]]>

Model for Energiafoto!

The site is developing as promised! Today I added a Model Castings page with several paid shoots available to local Los Angeles and OC models! We shoot based on projects, so when we have a specific shoot planned we will post it up right away. The page will change weekly, so check it often for new shoots.

When you submit your email, be sure to include two recent images and your location. Click on the image to your left or at the link below to visit our casting page!

Model Casting Page