Starscream: "Don't push me, Megatron, my desire for power is as great as yours!"
Megatron: "Power flows to the one who knows how. Desire alone is not enough."
I've been playing a lot with light lately. I'm the first to say that I'm no expert; in fact it takes me forever to get the settings right on my camera. My memory stick is FULL of under- or overexposed images with a small percentage actually turning out the way I want.
One of the first lessons I was taught was to never shoot into the sun/light source, and for a long time I followed that rule religiously. Even going so far as repeating it to myself when I'm taking pictures. Now that I've begun breaking this rule, I'm realizing just how limited I was. With this, I stood the figures in the light, pointed the lens directly at the sun outside the window and snapped the shot.
Amazing what you can learn from the little things.
Starscream and Megatron are Revoltechs, produced by Kaiyodo.
Be good,
-Dave
I been programed as I said before
Technology
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Wow. What. A. Weekend.
As I said last time, I was looking forward to getting out to see new things and hang out with other photographers, and man did I hit the jackpot on both. Saturday I went with the Chicago Science Field Trips Club to visit Yerkes Observatory up in Wisconsin. Not only had I never been there, I had never heard of such a place! With as many astronomical luminaries that have been there (along with it's association with the University of Chicago and the White City Exposition), I am ashamed of my negligence.
A quick refresher, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Yerkes Observatory, which calls itself "the birthplace of modern astrophysics,", is an astronomical observatory operated by the University of Chicago in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. It was created in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and financed by Charles T. Yerkes. The observatory represented a shift in the thinking of observatories, from mere housing for a telescope and observer, to the modern concept of observation equipment integrated with laboratory space for physics and chemistry. A 102 cm (40 inch) refracting telescope built by the master optician Alvan Clark is located inside. It is the largest refracting telescope used for scientific research (a larger demonstration refractor, the Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900, was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900).
In addition to the Yerkes refractor, the observatory also houses 102 cm (40 inch, referred to as the "41 inch" to prevent confusion) and 61 cm (24 inch) reflecting telescopes. Several smaller telescopes are used for educational outreach purposes.
Current research includes the interstellar medium, globular cluster formation, infrared astronomy, and near-Earth objects. Additionally, the University of Chicago maintains a sizable engineering center in the observatory, dedicated to making and maintaining scientific instruments. As of May 2007, the engineers are working on the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC), which will be an integral part of Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
Not only does it have the scientific chops, the building itself is beautiful. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
And that's just the front door. I ended up with over 400 photos of this place, but I'll spare you having to sort through them all. I will be adding a few a day to my Flickr, if you are so interested.
Ok, so maybe one more.
On Sunday, April and I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden for the Nature Photographer's Meetup. We got up bright and early and got to the garden around 7:30 (we would've gotten there a little earlier, but you know, breakfast). The botanic garden is a great place to begin with, but when you throw in the great people we met, it was all the better.
While I did take over 300 shots (seriously, when did I start doing this? I'm usually a done in one kind of guy), I did manage to sneak in a few toy shots ever so slyly.
Not only did I meet lots of great people, go to new and great places, and take a ton of pictures...
I jumped back into Plastic 52.
Be good,
-Dave
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Patlabor, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Patlabor takes place in what was, at the time of release, the near future of 1998-2002. Robots called "Labors" are employed in heavy construction work. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has its own arsenal of Patlabors to combat crimes and deal with accidents involving Labors. The story arcs usually revolve around Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2. Noa Izumi is the main protagonist of the series, but all of Division 2 play roles.
The feature films follow separate continuities, referred to as the "movie timeline" and the "TV timeline." The different OVA series follow either the movie or TV timelines.
The Griffon was released by Kaiyodo as part of their Revoltech line. He can be ordered from a number of online vendors or in local specialty toy shops.
This one was a happy accident. I stood the figure in a small puddle, hoping to get some reflections, but I just couldn't find an angle that made the Griffon appear tall enough and still reflect as much as I wanted. I compromised with this one and took it into Photoshop.
The first thing I did was paint his eye, then, to tie it all together, I added a Gradient Map of yellow and red running diagonally. I gotta admit that I'm really happy with how this turned out. I got a little reflection and some great light.
How to build your own combat EXIF:| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 0.025 sec (1/40) |
| Aperture: | f/11.0 |
| Focal Length: | 50 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 400 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0 EV |
| Flash: | Off |
| File Size: | 4.2 MB |
| File Type: | JPEG |
| MIME Type: | image/jpeg |
| Image Width: | 2592 |
| Image Height: | 3888 |
| Encoding Process: | Baseline DCT, Huffman coding |
| Bits Per Sample: | 8 |
| Color Components: | 3 |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time (Modified): | 2009:02:13 13:12:42 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-sited |
| Exposure Program: | Aperture-priority AE |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2009:02:13 13:21:39-06:00 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2009:02:13 13:21:39 |
| Metering Mode: | Multi-segment |
| Color Space: | sRGB |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.29532497149 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.60824742268 dpi |
| Custom Rendered: | Normal |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Scene Capture Type: | Standard |
| Compression: | JPEG (old-style) |
| Global Angle: | 30 |
| Global Altitude: | 30 |
| Copyright Flag: | False |
| Photoshop Quality: | 12 |
| Photoshop Format: | Standard |
| Progressive Scans: | 3 Scans |
| XMPToolkit: | Adobe XMP Core 4.1-c036 46.276720, Mon Feb 19 2007 22:40:08 |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Metadata Date: | 2009:02:13 13:12:42-06:00 |
| Creator Tool: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Format: | image/jpeg |
| Color Mode: | 3 |
| ICCProfile Name: | sRGB IEC61966-2.1 |
| Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type: | D50 |
| Measurement Observer: | CIE 1931 |
| Measurement Flare: | 0.999% |
| Measurement Illuminant: | D65 |
| Color Transform: | YCbCr |
| Flash Return: | No return detection |
| Flash Mode: | Off |
| Flash Function: | False |
| Flash Red Eye Mode: | False |
Be good,
-Dave
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To everyone who looks down their noses at friendships made online, let me offer up this image as just how wrong you are. My good friends Adam and Sarah (whom I've never met face to face) sent April and I a Christmas package this year, and inside was an Uglydoll for April and this incredible Revoltech EVA for me. If this is the quality of people you meet online, I might never leave the house again!
Now to the business at hand; EVA Unit 03. I have never seen the Evangelion cartoon (yeah, yeah, I'll get to it someday), but I really dig the designs. I have a long history with giant robots. For Unit 03, I wanted to somehow capture just how huge these things are supposed to be, while at the same time having a little campy fun with it.
Trying to combine a cartoon robot (that I've never seen in action) with the classic image of Godzilla rising out of the sea to attack Tokyo presented some new problems that were fun to tackle. First off, where am I going to get enough water for this? Thought about the bathtub, but it was too deep and I couldn't safely get the camera at water level without April killing me. I thought about the sink, but I didn't want to try and clone out a giant faucet from behind my supposedly giant robot.
"AIE! We must flee the city! Unit 03 is attacking!"
"No, the children's singing has summoned the bathroom faucet to protect us!"
I tried a plastic bowel, but I couldn't get the light to work out (the dark plastic absorbed the light with no reflection) and the water wasn't deep enough for the shot I wanted. Finally, in a moment of desperation, I grabbed the largest metal mixing bowel we have and it worked PERFECTLY. The curved edges reflected the light (again, the stove-top lamp) so the EVA was lit from all the important angles and still cast a reflection in the water. Plus, it looks like it is being lit up by helicopter spotlights as it emerges from the ocean.
Photoshop cleanup was a breeze. Tweak the contrast, play around with the eyes for a more menacing look, save, and upload to Flickr, and thank Adam and Sarah again and again for being such great, great friends!
EXIF Data, EXIF Data, EXIF Data:
| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 2 sec (2) |
| 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: | 2007:12:25 20:38:36 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-Sited |
| Exposure Program: | Normal |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2007:12:25 21:23:38 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2007:12:25 21:23:38 |
| Shutter Speed: | -65535/65536 |
| 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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