“Life Lessons from Big Cats” — by Beverly & Dereck Joubert. The photos, videos and stories are amazing.
“Piece, Love & Chocolate” — It’s a new chocolate shop opening at 850 Pearl Street (where Bayleaf used to be). I love the name and am looking forward to the shop opening. It’s a great location. Shot for Daily Shoot #ds405 for peace and harmony. (photo via my Flickr)
“Graffiti” — Inside the tunnel under Canyon Boulevard connecting Eben G. Fine Park and Settler’s Park. Shot for Daily Shoot #ds389 for graffiti. (photo via my Flickr)
LensHero—Find Your Next DSLR Lens
Photography is an expensive hobby. I can think of more expensive hobbies—e.g. piloting airplanes—but photography certainly costs more than reading or scrap-booking. While the advent of cheap digital photography has lowered the cost by obviating film development, SLR camera bodies and, more importantly, lenses still cost quite a bit. This implies that sustaining the equipment side of a photography hobby entails making trade-offs, especially about lenses—trade-offs about quality, strengths/weaknesses and price.
A new web site—LensHero—helps photographers do exactly that. The site is by the creators of one of my other favorite photography reference sites—SnapSort—which helps photographers of all levels compare digital cameras of all types.
The interface of LensHero is simple, attractive and intuitive. First, the site asks for your camera model and to specify a budget. Then, one gets to specify what type of lens one is interested in. Here is the main strength of LensHero. One can specify the type of lens in one of three ways—by photography style (e.g. macro, landscape, action, etc.), focal length (15-300mm) or letting LensHero know what lenses one already owns and having the site make recommendations.
The resulting page based on choices of photography style or focal length should be familiar to those who have used SnapSort. One can easily specify more criteria (e.g. brand, price, focal length, image stabilization, focus motor) to narrow the results. Each lens fitting the search criteria is displayed with easy-to-compare characteristics and a link to a page with more in-depth information about the lens. On the detailed information page, lens characteristics such as minimum and maximum focal length, aperture, and angle of view are rated as above or below average.
The “suggest” feature is interesting and helpful. I entered the two lenses I own: a Nikkor AF-S DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D. The resulting suggestions were Nikkor AF-S DX Micro 85mm f/3.5G ED VR and Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 DX Nikon-f. The first suggestion was especially intriguing as I had been considering a macro lens.
Two small improvements I can think of. First, enabling users to narrow down the lenses by sensor-type—i.e. lenses for full-frame sensors vs. those for cropped sensors—would be helpful. In Nikon parlance, it’s the FX- vs. the DX-format lenses. Second, for the “suggest” feature, it would be better to let users to add in all the lenses they own first, rather than jumping to the suggested lens after entering each lens.
“Sundial” — At the 29th Street Mall. @dailyshoot #ds384 for a diagonal line. (photo via my Flickr)
“The Flat Irons” — Shot from the southside of CU’s new Visual Arts Complex, looking southwest. @dailyshoot #ds378 for a vista. (photo via my Flickr)
![This is one of my favorite Big Picture collections so far. The collection depicts not only fantastic photos but also the stroke of luck that photographers need to get the shot. The caption for this photo is one such example:
The Serra da Leba Road near Lubango (Huíla, Angola). This is Serra da Leba, a landmark in Angola. A road built in the 70’s, it’s been in the country’s postcard images for decades, but all shots were taken by day. I wanted something different and tried a night shot. But it seemed impossible: pitch dark, foggy, altitude of 1,800m (5,000ft). I wanted no more than 60sec of exposure, max, to avoid digital noise. But a car takes a few minutes to climb or descend this section of the road. The fog was dense and blocking the view! Suddenly the fog cleared, a few cars went down, others went up, they met in the middle in under 60sec… Painting done! (Photo and caption by Kostadin Luchansky)
[via The Big Picture - Boston.com]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc6wgn04KY1qz6hddo1_500.jpg)
This is one of my favorite Big Picture collections so far. The collection depicts not only fantastic photos but also the stroke of luck that photographers need to get the shot. The caption for this photo is one such example:
The Serra da Leba Road near Lubango (Huíla, Angola). This is Serra da Leba, a landmark in Angola. A road built in the 70’s, it’s been in the country’s postcard images for decades, but all shots were taken by day. I wanted something different and tried a night shot. But it seemed impossible: pitch dark, foggy, altitude of 1,800m (5,000ft). I wanted no more than 60sec of exposure, max, to avoid digital noise. But a car takes a few minutes to climb or descend this section of the road. The fog was dense and blocking the view! Suddenly the fog cleared, a few cars went down, others went up, they met in the middle in under 60sec… Painting done! (Photo and caption by Kostadin Luchansky)
“Tree Ring Time Line” — A very large and old tree at the southwest corner of 7th Street and Pearl Street had to be cut down a few years ago. Recently, the stump has been turned into a artwork, with beautiful wood carving/engraving. On top of the stump is this historical time line with markers for major events, presumably located at the correct tree ring! Shot for @dailyshoot #ds341 for time. (photo via my Flickr)
“Calendar?” Daily Shoot celebrates its first anniversary today. A humble project by Duncan Davidson and Mike Clark to help photographers of all different levels take daily photos rapidly grew in participation and sophistication of the website over the last year. As of right now, 1,520 photographers have submitted at least one photo, and 35,905 photos have been submitted to its Twitter account.
I tried hard to catch up on all the assignments I missed before Daily Shoot reached its 365th assignment, but I didn’t make it. The screenshot I took for today’s assignment is a small subset of what I have submitted over the last 365 days. Although I wasn’t meticulous about actually taking a photo a day like a project 365, the photos do mostly document the last year. And thus they constitute something like a calendar, which is today’s assignment. (Photo via my Flickr)
“Fallen Leaves” — Leaves on the playground of Eben G. Fine park. Shot for @dailyshoot #ds357 for out of focus. (photo via my Flickr)
“Haerling Sculpture Park” — Through one of the sculptures, looking northwest toward Canyon Boulevard. Shot for @dailyshoot #ds353 for natural framing. (photo via my Flickr)
“Paints” — Kids’ painting station on Pearl Street for the Munchkin Masquerade on Halloween. Overexposed with a Speedlite, but I like the result. (Photo via my Flickr)
“Walking” — On my walk home from the bus stop. (photo via my Flickr)
“Fall Leaves 2” — This time, they are red! (photo via my Flickr)
