Jer & Min Photography

Not a first frame. This shot took a few practice shots to get the lighting correct. It was my first serious attempt at light painting. I’m a huge fan of Lost America and attempted to mimic some of his technique. Obviously, he is popular for a reason as he makes these type of photos truly art. It was however, quite a bit of fun.

This is my Reflection entry to the 2009 Photo Challenge hosted by PhotoChallenge.org.

This weekend I’m going to shoot with only one lens, my 50mm f/1.8.  This is quite a sharp fast lens especially for the price (<$100).  I’m pretty excited about doing so and will post my photos.

Last night I had high aspirations of shooting some B&W landscape photography, but the weather didn’t cooperate at all.  We had low clouds with no contrast whatsoever.  I only kept the shot below.

Having not met my goal, I moved on to a different type of subject: neon signs.  We have exactly one of neon sign in our little valley.  It belongs to a new roadside diner that moved in called the Road Island Diner.  Here are the shots I made.

Although I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do, I had an enjoyable time and especially like the last shot of the lights reflecting off of the car.

One of the shots I’ve wanted to try is a long exposure at night while cars are driving past.  I like the motion and the colors I see in other people’s photos when they make similar photographs.

Last night I set out to do just that.  It turned out to be more difficult that I originally thought.  The difficulty had nothing to do with making the photograph, it was getting willing subjects to drive past.  I live in a very small town East of Park City, UT called Kamas.  It is a wonderful place to live, but not too many people moving around after dark.  I shot this at 8:30pm and had to wait for cars to go by!  I contemplated calling some friends and have them stage a drive-by but then felt that was cheating somehow.

A few things I learned:

1. Put a headlamp in my camera bag.  I had a devil of a time reading the settings display as I was trying to dial in a good exposure.
2. Turn off the IS feature of my lens.  You’ll notice some wiggle in a few of the stationary objects of the photo, this I believe contributed to this problem as I was tripod mounted.
3. Use Mirror lock-up.  This to may contribute to the vibration I saw.  Additionally, passing cars will contribute, but there is very little I can do about that.