Juan's Photo Blog

Frustrated with blogger.

2009-05-02T12:02:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, the quality of my pictures decreases when I upload them to blogger. They don't show as much contrast, and the colors are a lot less vibrant than they should be. It's super frustrating. I will try to figure out a way to fix this.

More portraits of Allie!

2009-05-02T11:36:00.004-04:00

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f5.6, ISO 200, 1/160 sec

I took the above picture about a year ago at the Silver Spring reservoir back in Maryland. It was slightly overcast that day. The light was diffused pretty well by the clouds and surrounding trees. Made for nice lighting for portraits. This was the day of Allie's graduation party at her parents. I took a ton of pictures that day.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f5.6, ISO 800, 1/125 sec

I took this picture the same day I took the B&Q picture below. Natural light.

Portraits!

2009-04-29T22:47:00.006-04:00

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f8, ISO 800, 1/30 sec

Every once in a while Allie lets me take lots of pictures of her. This one I took in our living room, using natural light and my nifty fifty.

Pretty Butterflies and Bad Ass Tarantulas.

2009-04-27T18:18:00.005-04:00

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f2.8, ISO 400, 1/100 sec

Allie and I celebrated valentines day by going on a date at the Butterfly Pavilion. Really cool place, I took a lot of good pictures. This butterfly picture is my favorite. Unfortunately, the colors are a bit washed out when I upload it to the web. Not exactly sure why.

The butterflies were pretty, but I liked the first part of the museum the best. Their first exhibits are a collection of live insects that camouflage themselves (stick insects, insects that look and move like leaves on a tree, etc.) . Also, they have a bunch of tarantulas (one of which you can actually hold) and all sorts of dangerous poisonous spiders. Bad ass.

Overall, a good time.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f1.8, ISO 400, 1/100 sec

More Waffles!

2009-04-26T14:51:00.004-04:00

I absolutely love the cabin. If I don't go to the beach in august when I visit Maryland, I am definitely going to ask Eric if we can go to the cabin. It's the best place to spend a weekend. Swim in the lake, go canoeing, fishing, have a BBQ, drink lots of beer, hang out with your closest friends, take lots of pictures...what more could you want?

Anyways, here's waffles again. As far as post production, I think I may have sharpened his eyes a bit and I also did the B&W in post as well.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f1.8, ISO 400, 1/250 sec

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f2.8, ISO 400, 1/250 sec

Dogs are pretty in B&W

2009-04-25T14:39:00.002-04:00

I took this picture about a year ago at the cabin. This is Simba A.K.A Waffles chillin' on the deck. He is super photogenic. Unfortunately, Hunter (Eric's other dog) doesn't take very good pictures. He's a black lab so its harder to get enough detail on him unless there's a ton of light on him and no backlight. Plus he moves around a lot. Waffles just lays there. Makes it easy.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f2.8, ISO 400, 1/125 sec

3D photography!?

2008-05-21T12:42:00.002-04:00

Today I learned about 3D photography at DPS. It's a photography technique where you basically take two similar images, put them side by side, and then cross your eyes to view them in 3D. No really!

Check out Neil Creek's Website, he's an awesome photographer who shoots 3D photography. His website teaches you how to take 3D photo's, and how to see them.

I think I'm going to try it!

Fungus Amongus

2008-05-17T22:09:00.003-04:00

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f5.6, ISO 200, 1/125 sec

I took Amy-Rose King's advice. Awesome Photoshop tips!

Flowers

2008-05-13T19:09:00.006-04:00

I took these pictures in my parents' garden:

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f3.2, ISO 100, 1/200 sec

I really want a Macro Lens.

I love my parents' garden. They really put a lot of work into it and I've taken about a thousand pictures of it. I'm really going to miss it when I move out to Colorado and I'm really going to miss my family. My parents have always been extremely supportive. In fact, when I said that I was interested in photography they offered to pay for half of my camera for me. I probably wouldn't have my camera or this blog if it wasn't for them!

They've always been there for me. Thanks Mom and Pops!

Awesome blog with awesome pictures

2008-05-13T18:52:00.005-04:00

I found another really good blog. Amy-Rose King is a portrait photographer and takes amazing photos. She posted on the digital photography school forum and had a link to her site.

Check out her Photoshop Secrets section. There are a lot of helpful tips there.

Random Cabin Pictures!

2008-05-12T21:26:00.006-04:00

These are some random pictures I took at the cabin last weekend.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f1.8, ISO 100, 1/125 sec

I was really intrigued by this pot. I really liked the way the red-orange color of the rust contrasted with the dark blues and grays toward the top. The shiny metal handle also stands out from the dark blue of the pot.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f1.6, ISO 100, 1/50 sec

Take a look at the inside of the pot in the above pictures as well as the rust flaking off of the old rim in the picture below. I thought the rust in these pictures created some really interesting textures.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f1.8, ISO 100, 1/2500 sec

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 at f22, ISO 100, 4 sec

I took these pictures using my circular polarizer filter to get rid of some of the glare in the water and also to allow for a longer exposure time (which is what I needed to get the nice blur effect from the water fall).

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 at f29, ISO 100, 3.2 sec

I was going to make this picture black and white...but I decided that the detail from the rocks and dirt looked better in color.

Strobist

2008-05-08T18:24:00.003-04:00

My friend Ben gave me a link to an awesome blog called Strobist today. The author teaches you how to effectively use lighting. Thanks Ben!

Now I just need a Flash...

The NIfty Fifty

2008-05-08T06:46:00.005-04:00

These are some of the pictures I took over the weekend using my new Canon 50mm f/1.8 II. I've never actually used a lens/camera that didn't have zoom capabilities so it was a little awkward at first, but once I started running around and "zooming with my feet" I had a blast! I took these pictures at Eric's cabin. It was in the middle of the day, and we we're all hanging out on the back deck where the light was diffused by both the deck itself and the surrounding trees. The weather was absolutely perfect at about 70 degrees with a light breeze and I was in a blissfully happy and creative mood, so I started taking pictures!

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f2, ISO 400, 1/1600 sec

There are a couple things that really stood out to me about this lens.

First, it's incredibly sharp in comparison to my kit lens. Almost too sharp! It definitely captures all the bumps and blemishes on people's skin and unfortunately, those are distracting. As you can probably already tell, I had to do a little bit of retouching. I used Adobe Photoshop's spot healing and patch tools to remove blemishes and then the median noise filter to smooth the skin a bit. I found a really cool tutorial on skin smoothing.

Second, the wide aperture allowed me to create some nice and pleasant blurred backgrounds (Bokeh!). Unfortunately, while I was taking pictures I was so focused on creating those nice backgrounds that I failed to realize that some of the facial features might turn out blurry. For example, in the above picture, Allie's right eye is noticeably blurry in comparison to her left eye. If I stopped the aperture down a bit I probably could have kept the blurry background and had both eyes sharp.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f2, ISO 400, 1/1600 sec

I really like this picture. I'm really glad that both her face and her hands turned out sharp. I think that while the ring really stands out, the first thing that catches your eye in the picture is Allie's face. As you take a closer look at the picture, the ring kind of makes it more interesting. I think if her hands weren't in the picture it would be a boring.

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II at f2, ISO 400, 1/1600 sec

Allie doesn't like this picture. She said that she's doing something weird with her mouth. I disagree, I really like this picture because the combination of lighting, colors, and her facial expression make her look soft and warm. She just looks sweet and caring in this picture. I think there are a few harsh shadows under her eyes and behind her... but I like it overall.

I definitely need to work on my lighting. I really want to get a nice external flash at some point. I think I'm going to make some simple cheap reflectors/diffusers out of white cloth, tin foil, and other reflective materials (I'll experiment) to help with lighting.

I also need to work on setting the aperture to the right f-stop so that I get the right depth of field.

I'll post the rest of the picture's I took at the cabin soon (I'm still retouching). Please let me know what you all think of the pictures I posted and how I can make them better! I need your input and constructive criticism!

I'm Broke!!!

2008-05-07T09:50:00.003-04:00

I've been saving up like crazy since I realized I was going to be moving. I now have more money in my savings account then I've ever had in my life. So last week I figured I would treat myself for being such a good saver....and I went a little crazy.

I went out and bought Mario Kart Wii on thursday. Then, as luck would have it, REI was having their "biggest sale of the year" starting on friday, so I went out and bought rock climbing gear. I knew I would be doing a lot more rock climbing once I got out to Boulder, so I figured why not? I also knew that I had to take pictures of Allie for her graduation and I needed a sharper and faster lens. So After REI I immediately went to my local Penn Camera and picked up the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens that I wanted.

Now, I know that this is a BIG treat...and it really wouldn't be a problem....except for the fact that last week my car started making a horrible high-pitched noise whenever I hit the breaks. It was really quite painful to the ears. Anyways...I figure my brakes needed to be changed. In fact, I was right. But thats not all it needed. It needed $570 worth of repairs!

On top of all that, it's my mom's birthday and Allie's birthday today.

I have bad timing.

So lets break it down:

$200 - Rock Climbing Gear
$100 - Camera Lens
$50 - Mario Kart
$570 - Mechanic
about $450- on birthday presents
= A very broke Juan.

On the plus side, Mario Kart Wii Kicks ass! It's a lot of fun and now that I can't spend any money I'll be well entertained at home!

Also I took a bunch of really great pictures over the weekend using the Nifty Fifty. I absolutely LOVE it! I swear I will actually post pictures on this "photo blog" as soon as I'm done touching up the faces a bit. I'll try to post the pictures by this thursday.

My Photo Equipment

2008-05-02T09:46:00.003-04:00

Did I mention that I'm just getting started in photography?

I've had my Canon Rebel XT for about a year or so. When I first got it I was extremely excited and wanted to learn everything I could about photography, but I did'nt have a lot of spare time on my hands because of school and work (I work 40 hours a week and I'm working on a dual masters in Human Resources and an MBA).

While I'm still in school and still working 40 hours, I've had a lot of time on my hands lately and have been able to work on my photography a lot more. Mainly I've just been reading and studying up on photography equipment and techniques. I've been reading a couple of blogs and websites that have been pretty helpful. Check out the Digital Photography School Blog for great photography tips.

So far, I still only have my trusty kit lens (Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6). Other than that I have a circular polarizer filter, a remote switch, lens cleaning supplies, a crappy tripod thats falling apart, a small camera bag, and two or three memory cards.

The next lens I'm going to buy is the "Nifty Fifty." This is the $80 Canon 50mm f/1.8. As you can see its really fast and apparently very sharp. I've heard nothing but good things about this lens despite its cheap price.

I mainly want to get this lens to work on my portrait photography. Allie asked me to take graduation pictures of her in her cap and gown, so she's given me an awesome project to test this lens out. My good friend Kristina is going to help me with this. She's also into photography and has access to her school's light kits. So she's gonna bring over some lights and umbrellas so we can shoot Allie.

Stay tuned for the results!

The Big Schloss

2008-05-01T17:26:00.007-04:00

Shot Details: Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF-S18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, f14, ISO 100

A few of weeks ago I went on a two day camping trip with some friends. We went to the George Washington National Forest in Columbia Furnace, Virginia. In just a few hours into our 12 mile hike, we made it to Big Schloss Peak, which is where I took this picture.

This was my first camping trip of the year and I wanted to work on my landscape photography. For this picture I used a circular polarizer filter to eliminate some of the haze in the atmosphere and give the sky a deep blue color. Later, in post production, I made some curve adjustments and cropped the image a bit to to get the composition I wanted. View the rest of my camping trip pictures here.

This was a great hike and it gave me a lot of time to think about where my life is going. In just a couple of months I'll be moving out of the D.C. area for the first time. My girlfriend Allie (the girl in the picture) decided to go to CU Boulder for her masters program.

While I'm really excited to move to Colorado, I'm also really nervous. I'm leaving my job, friends, and family to live in a place that I've never even visited. What makes this move even scarier is the fact that I won't have a job when I get out there. At the moment, I work in the human resources department at Georgetown University Hospital and I'm basically saving as much as I can so that I have money to live on while I'm unemployed in Colorado.

Despite all that, I'm actually starting to get really excited about moving. On the plus side, my best friend Ian lives out in Boulder. I'm really looking forward to rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, and camping with him. Also, Allie's parents own a house near Boulder that we're actually going to live in while Allie is in school. This will DEFINITELY make the move a lot less stressful. I also hear nothing but good things about Boulder, which also helps. Finally, (and most importantly) moving out to Colorado means that I get to stay close to Allie. I've been with Allie for four years and she is absolutely amazing and nothing would suck more than to be thousands of miles away from her.

My name is Juan. I decided to create a photo blog to document my move and to keep me motivated to learn photography and get better at it. So please, let me know what you think of my pictures and tell me how I can make them better!