"Floating Focus" - Rhodri Lewis

Ford Focus WRC '08 ^©Rhodri Lewis

Pun intended! Rhodri Lewis is a motor driven, UK based Motorsports Photographer. The above is an older image from World Rally Championship [WRC], but reserves the same level of amazement no matter how many times you see it. Earlier this year, Rhodri began photographing for RaceRevo.com. For those who haven't heard of the site, RaceRevo specializes in coverage of professional motorsports, from an artistic, revved up point of view.

Be sure to check out more of Rhodri's work on flickr.

About the Drivers:
Federico Villagra
Jose Diaz

Busted by the Cops - Beau Hudspeth

Image ©Beau Hudspeth 2008

Technical knowledge can only take you so far. You can know what you're doing, but a trueness lies in creativity. Here is an awesome portrait from Beau Hudspeth. Here he captures his 4 year old son getting busted by the cops. This is an honorable mention because Beau does not have a blog, but he is a regular at Examiner.com.

Taking Images with a Dirty Lens

kurtmunger.com

Most Photographers are pretty tedious when it comes to keeping their glass clean. They carry around at least a micro-fiber cloth, or a cotton corner of their shirt in case of an emergency cleaning. At the very least, it certainly is annoying to be walking around with an oily fingerprint on the front of your element. But when it comes down to it, how often have you taken a photo, and said "oh, this Smudge got in the way?" Probably not that often. And why would someone name their kid Smudge?

Whenever you do have an obstruction on your image, it is probably due to dust on the sensor itself. There are tests you can do to explore this, but if you can't see it in the image, why bother? Cleaning the sensor is not exactly wiping off a front element. It's not so much that it's a hassle, and a delicate process, but the fear that you could actually make it worse. If you are confident and handy, take your time and it can be done well. Otherwise send it in to the manufacturer if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself.


Image Copyright Christine Gacharna

In the image above, Christine clearly marks the dust on the image. She also guides you through her [dangerous] cleaning endeavor. Here are a few tips to make sensor cleaning easy:

1) Look for menu items to aid in cleaning. Newer cameras such as the Canon 40D include options like "auto clean" and "clean manually." Cleaning manually locks the shutter open, giving you access to the sensor.

2) Try to remove dust without even touching the sensor. Blower

3) If you are not comfortable calling yourself a technician, send it in to one.

Another thing worth mentioning is that some cameras provide special features just for "removing dust." Many EOS cameras include the "Dust Delete Data" function, which allows you to communicate the issue with the DPP software. It allows you to add additional information to your photos, as you take them. When you import to your library, DPP will give you an option to automatically remove dust on all the images. This won't be ideal for every situation, but sometimes could be a great help. Personally I would set up a Photoshop action. This is if the camera's auto cleaning isn't suffice.

Another way to test this is to evenly light a white wall. Set your aperture to f/16 and take the photo. Import into your editing software and zoom in to 100%. Any obstructions will be apparent.



For more on this "Dirty Lens" write-up, and to see what type of image this lens takes, visit Kurt Munger's website.

Fake Model/Tilt Shift

At first thought, the term "fake model" sounds like an oxymoron. Well, in fact it is. You see, an oxymoron is something that is seemingly self-contradictory. Ok, you're not here for an English lesson. But, a quick history on tilt-shift lenses.

The function of a tilt-shift lens is to allow you to have a wide depth of field all the way to maximum aperture. This is achieved by literally tilting and shifting the angle of your focal plane. However, just as with standard lenses, people get creative. One way to do this is by creating these interesting fake model shots. These types of shots are very engaging because usually an artist models reality through interpretation, but in this case, reality is directly replicated in a photograph, and is reminiscent of a model. In the image above, the trees really do look 1 inch tall, when in reality this is a real place.

If you are interested in learning how to make these images, check out this tutorial. Gimp users click here.

More fantastic images by Quemas.

Welcome to Photography Bloger! 1G!

Welcome to the first generation of "The Photography Blogger." More or less we try to highlight blogs that deserve to be highlighted. From time to time we will have tutorials as well as industry news, but the focus here is the people, the bloggers. Many Photographers are realizing more and more the importance of a website, blog or both to showcase their work, as well as share experiences. With my background in web-design, I know a little bit [no seriously, a little bit] about getting the word out. And that's why we are here. Bare with us as in the beginning things may look a little bare, but it's all about the content, and that's what we are here to share. Now go take pictures!

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