El Dave Photography

Aaaand with that, I would like to wish you and yours Happy Holidays and all the best in the new year. Wage and myself are going to be taking two weeks off for the annual Davemas celebrations and will return with more pictures (and hopefully a new book!) on January 7th.

Stay warm, stay safe, and we'll see you next year!

I'm dreaming of a EXIF Christmas:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture:	f/4.5
Focal Length:	35 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	240 dpi
Y-Resolution:	240 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:12:24 11:48:46
Exposure Program:	Normal
Date and Time (Original):	2008:12:24 12:39:28
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:12:24 12:39:28
Shutter Speed:	2584963/1000000
Maximum Lens Aperture:	4/1
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2592 pixels
Image Height:	3232 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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Today's update is going to be a bit different today, because I have two, count them two big announcements!

Announcement the First: I am going to be taking a short break over the holidays, from Christmas until after my birthday (Jan. 5th). Wednesday's Plastic 52 will be the last update this year and the Plastic 52 on January 7th will be my triumphant return to the blogospheres.

Announcement the Second: During my break, I will be hard at work getting my first book published! I received a great Foreword by a good friend of mine and will be publishing through Lulu.com. Expect a formal announcement once everything is all put together and I hear back from the publisher.

I hope everyone enjoys their holidays and I will see you...in the future!

For auld EXIF syne:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture:	f/9
Focal Length:	30 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Date and Time:	2008:12:06 13:20:36
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:12:03 12:48:49
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:12:03 12:48:49
Shutter Speed:	545386/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2592 pixels
Image Height:	3888 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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Have you ever seen a figure that you knew nothing about, but knew you had to have?

Enter: Monev the Gale.

From Wikipedia:
Voiced by: Masuo Amada (Japanese), Peter Spellos (English)
Monev the Gale is the first Gung-Ho Gun to fight Vash. Knives locks him in a cell to train his body for twenty years in order to gain the skill and power required to kill Vash. He wears a powered battle suit and carries two high-powered chain guns on his arms. These guns fire extremely fast due to the pressure chambers located on his back, and have tremendous stopping power, enough to tear through entire buildings. He also carries a wide variety of weapons in a big cloth rucksack, including an enormous minigun, powerful enough to punch through a bank vault. He is defeated by Vash and killed afterward as punishment. His life is spared in the anime, but is then killed by E.G. Mine along with Dominique due to his failure.

While I have never read the manga (I hear it is excellent), I have seen parts of the cartoon, and am familiar enough with Vash the Stampede and the other main characters in Trigun. Monev was actually given to me by my buddy Sid, because I kept hassling him about never opening his toys, especially awesome ones like Monev. Thinking it would get me off his back, Sid handed me the figure, telling me to go take pictures or something and leave him alone.

Clearly I am well regarded within my social circle.

Monev was shot in the forest preserve, in a blatant imitation of this photo by my friend Dr. Beef. Go check her stuff out; it's so much fun!

Photoshopping consisted of Auto Levels and a Lab Color tweak to make the little details pop. I really think I'm getting spoiled with this Lab Color thing. Take the picture, run the action, Save As... and I'm done! Can you imagine how short these blog entries would be if all I had to do was post a Wikipedia link and the picture?

Not that this is much better, mind.

Peace and EXIF!

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	27 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Date and Time:	2008:12:01 13:30:02
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:27 11:54:54
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:27 11:54:54
Shutter Speed:	566484/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2592 pixels
Image Height:	3888 pixels

Be good,
Dave

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Thanks to the holidays, I've been baking like mad and our kitchen looks like a tornado went through. Wage asked to take some of the pressure off of me and took over the baking of some Lemon Shortbread cookies. While I am grateful for the help, it would have been nice of him to leave me some!

I mean, just one would've been nice.

I actually had to make a second recipe, because I forgot to take pictures the first time around. Because Wage wasn't there to help with the first thing I baked, it turned out terrible, but these cookies turned out fantastic! Or so I'm told.

2 cups EXIF powder:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	49 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Date and Time:	2008:12:17 07:49:46
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Normal
Date and Time (Original):	2008:12:15 21:01:39
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:12:15 21:01:39
Shutter Speed:	256042/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2592 pixels
Image Height:	3888 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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I wasn't expecting much when I bought these Mortal Kombat figures. I have the Kung Lau toy, which is nice, but it's nothing really special. Something about these ninjas makes me really happy, and they're so much fun to shoot!

Brief info RE: Mortal Kombat:

Mortal Kombat is a best-selling series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Mortal Kombat began as a series of arcade games, which were picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console versions. Now Midway Games exclusively creates home versions of Mortal Kombat. It is especially noted for its digitized sprites (which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), and its high levels of blood and gore, including, most notably, its graphic fatalities—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB. The series itself is also known for replacing the hard c sound with the letter K, thus deliberately misspelling the word "combat," as well as other words with the hard c sound (example: "klose" quarters instead of "close" quarters).

In the spirit of Mortal Kombat, I will be using K's instead of hard C's for the rest of this post.

Sub Zero is my default favorite karacter, having the easiest moves and the easiest initial fatality. Plus, I'm always interested in water/ice based karacters. Skorpion, being Sub Zero's nemesis, bekame my nemesis as well. Heading out to the forest preserve, I had to pik a day when it was above freezing to keep my kamera from being frozen solid. I found some small stiks and twigs that were skaled just righ- You know what? No more K's.

The most important thing about shooting outdoors is to find a backdrop that works with the size of your toys and doesn't pull the viewer away and remind them that they're looking at a toy. The goal is always to make the scene as realistic as possible; in this case, Sub Zero and Scorpion are in the middle of a fight, with Scorpion being slammed into a tree.

Processing in Photoshop got started with a Lab Color treatment, then a series of radial blurs centered on Scorpion to draw the eye in and create the illusion of motion. If fight scenes weren't so difficult to pull off, I'd be tempted to do this all the time.

Sub Zero wins...EXIFity:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/9
Focal Length:	24 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Date and Time:	2008:12:06 13:21:59
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:12:03 12:50:42
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:12:03 12:50:42
Shutter Speed:	456510/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2592 pixels
Image Height:	3888 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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Today we have the follow up to the previous Master Chief shot. Again taken in the wonderful forest preserve, this time Master Chief found himself surrounded by fall vegetation. I like this one a little more because it seems to be telling more of a story than the previous shot. The colors are a little more vibrant, the figure seems to be in motion, and I always love catching the sun rays like that.

Cleanup in Photoshop consisted of the Lab Color adjustment, tweak the levels a bit to brighten the whole thing up, and adding a gaussian blur for that in-game bloom effect.

Since this is just a follow up to the previous post, I think I'm all done with this one! Woo hoo!

I love the smell of EXIF in the morning:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	39 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Date and Time:	2008:12:01 12:54:00
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:28 13:24:13
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:28 13:24:13
Shutter Speed:	522046/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2592 pixels
Image Height:	3888 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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One thing I will say about Wage, he is a fancy pants. He only drinks (what he thinks is) the finest sparkling water, eats imported food (imported from the grocery store), and wears a silken (aka cotton) apron. So it comes as no surprise that, while visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden, he should enjoy these fluffy plants so much. He thinks they're where feather boas come from, and, as much as I tried to explain otherwise, he could not be persuaded. Fancy McWagepants, indeed.

This one was taken, as I said, at the Chicago Botanic Garden, nestled between the feathery seedpods of a prairie plant I can't remember.

Cleanup in Photoshop was about as simple as it gets. Throw a gaussian blur over the whole thing for the soft edges, tweak the saturation a little bit, then flatten and Save As.

Sorry for the light update today, but I feel terrible, it's too early, and I'm going back to bed.

Fancy McEXIFpants, indeed:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:11:17 14:06:54
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:02 14:51:07
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:02 14:51:07
Shutter Speed:	500948/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	3888 pixels
Image Height:	2592 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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