Altered Reality

Here is a great example of using photography to alter reality.
In this series, the photographer shoots on the hills of San Francisco and puts the camera level with the ground. It really gives you a clear picture of how buildings and people have to compensate for the steep grades!

Content-aware Fill in Photoshop CS5

Just saw this video on the wire and it's pretty amazing.
Not having made the jump to CS4, I can already see how I could use the new content-aware feature in this short preview.
This could save me a lot of time on my panoramic shots alone...

Cheap Trick with a Holga. Ray flash ordered.

This past week I was in Austin running sound for the Ray Johnston Band at South by Southwest (SXSW). I managed to take some photos and videos of the scene in and around Sixth Street, ground zero for the music happenings. I also managed to be lucky enough to make it to the photo pit when Cheap Trick played at the massive outdoor stage by the river. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the outcome!) the only camera I had were my G9 point and shoot and my Holga! Will have to wait and see how the photos turn out, but I don't feel very confident that the Kodak 400VC film I used was the best choice for such an occasion.
Dallas is once again covered in a blanket of snow, yet another opportunity to take more great snow photos!

I have a wedding shoot coming up this week also, and decided that I would try out the Ray Flash ringflash adapter. I really wanted to get the Orbis ring flash adapter instead as I believe it has a better quality of light, but all the extras that I'd need to buy to get it to work would just make it too expensive. On top of the adapter itself is the sync cord to trigger the flash and the bracket to hold it in place around the lens. For such a secondary piece of equipment, I think the less expensive Ray flash will suffice for my needs. I hope to have some comments up once I start using it.

Photo projects

I'm always looking for new and different ideas on what or how to photograph. This article on the New York times blog is my new favourite photo project idea.
I love the simplicity of the idea and yet how personal and revealing it can be of people's lives.
As the article states, it's been done by several people before, but I'd love to try this on my friends and family.

New Photo Series

Today I started shooting photos that are to be used in a documentary about a church based here in Texas. I don't go to church at all these days and this service was different than anything I'd ever experienced.
I'm very excited about working on this documentary project and can't wait to see how it all looks in the end.

St. Patrick's Day Dallas

St. Patrick's Day Dallas
Originally uploaded by d double u

Today I braved the (small) crowds and headed to Lower Greenville Ave to shoot some people on the street. Finding a location was tricky - my setup was some white seamless on a North-facing wall. I found a spot and that worked for about 15 minutes - a group of girls on bikes showed up and parked their bikes in such a way that my backdrop was useless. I moved on, but wasn't able to find another spot suitable.
Not exactly an overwhelming number of shots taken, but it was a fun little trip.

Cloak Bag

There is a lot going on in the world of David Wilson Photography, but I wanted to post about this new device - the Cloak Bag.
With this, you can (somewhat) secretly take photos while keeping your camera in a bag. I think this would be great for when you're trying to shelter your camera from the elements while shooting.

This seems like it could be really popular with photojournalists and tourists alike.