Dan's blog about Photography and things

I love black and white images. For us darkroom folks, it has a special place in our heart.  So I'm brining the Darkroom back through LightRoom!  If you're confused, read on. Canon 5D MK3 24mm 3.5L TSE II Stitched two images together (using the lens shift) See it bigger This is the original color version The color version is not bad, but I think the black and white image brings more drama to the photograph. This is Baltimore by the way. The industrial area near Francis Scott Key Bridge.  All the areas near the water was fenced in so I was going to try some other places, but I got lucky.  I slipped through this one guard using my charm… Ok, This is what really happened:  the guard asks me, "You're going into the Marine Safety Building?" to that I said,"… Um, yeah… Marine Safety Building… That's it"  Then she lifted the gate.  I didn't even get to use my James Bond charm that I've acquired as a photographer needing access. Some ti...

Shot for the Washingtonian Magazine for their "Before the White House" article.  It was fun visiting these homes and talking to the owners about what they know and have learned over the years. This story shows the homes of some presidents before they moved into the White House.  The presidents that I covered was Bush Sr., Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Harding, and Johnson. John F. Kennedy 3307 N St. NE DC JF Kennedy's house Canon 5d MK3,  24mm 3.5L TSE II This House was a bit of a challenge because I did not want to show cars or street signs. Just off the the left of the shot is the street, so I didn't have too much space to work with.  From this angle I was able to keep the composition pristine as possible. Just to the right was a bunch of construction workers moving stuff around.  The wide 24mm with the perspective correction allowed me this shot from such a tight vantage point. I love this lens!  JF Kennedy's house. Back view. Canon 5d M...

I'm guilty! Guilty of neglecting my 617 crazy-pano film camera for a modern digicam. Gaoersi 617 Medium format film camera with 90 Schneider lens. Look at the wooden grips, the metallic  sound of the mechanical shutter, the gorgeous optics! What have I done? What is my sentence?  I beg you to be merciful!  '...Your sentence is the following...' You will save around 50-80 bucks in color film processing fees! You will also spend about 10 hours quality time doing whatever pleases you since you're not scanning! You will also suffer the consequences of being able to work on your picture right away! ?! I've always loved the pano format.  Especially the 617 medium format film cameras.  The image quality is just wonderful.  But to be honest, I've been shooting this camera less and less.  As a working professional, time is very important to me. Spending days scanning on my Epson 750 Pro has just become too much.  I like to multi pass the scans ...

Waterfalls are particularly suited for slow shutter photography.  I wanted to do something different with these waterfall photos, but it seems that slow shutter technique just works so nicely with waterfalls. Maybe that’s why its been done to death… But who cares, it looks nice… Real nice. Canon 5d MKIII 135mm 2.0L lens 1.3 seconds @f13 with Genus Variable ND Filter Click here to see more photos from this session  A word of warning, this session gets pretty technical.  So if you are the type of a person who has the robotic lady that answers your cell phone because you can't set the thing up, I urge you to... read on anyway.  But if you remember Ronald Reagan as the actor, you are exempt from the above derogatory remark.  Technique Here are some hints at slow shutter speed or long exposure techniques.  It is very simple.  The idea is to keep the camera as steady as possible during the exposure as the shutter remains open.  So you'll need a sturdy t...

My goal in this blog is to educate about photography. I’ve come to realize that learning photography is not just technical. Matter of fact, the technical side can be rather easily mastered in short amount of time. The artistic aspect of photography such as composition, seeing light, and the ability to capture a certain mood of the scene is the part that makes photography a unique art on its own. To me, without the artistry, photography is just a scientific craft. It is only when the emotion of the photographer is present in the image, the photograph is given “life”.   I dedicate this blog to trying to help photographers understand how to inject the human emotions and our values into the photograph using various tools that is available to us as photographers.   Fuji x-100 Click to see it bigger Before the shutter is pressed, either instinctively or consciously, we must answer series of questions. These questions will always lead to serve the one main goal: How can you dup...