Canon 7D, Canon 50mm ƒ/1.8, 1/500 sec at ƒ2.8

So, dav.d and I were being a bit goofy at the Ogden Photowalk on Saturday, but little did I know we would get an accidental “photobomb” during the process. Beautiful timing, little girl … whoever you are.

BTW, if you’ve never seen it before you have to check out “This Is Photobomb” … but only if you like to laugh. :)

You can view them online here. :)

Canon 7D, Canon 50mm ƒ/1.8, 1/500 sec at ƒ1.8, ISO 100

The Photowalk on Saturday was awesome … I had never been to Ogden before so I didn’t know what to expect. In the area we were walking around there were several antique stores and other cute shops along the walk and now I want to go back during the week when everything’s open!

The above photo is my favorite shot of the day. I like to photograph people so I’m always asking random people if I can take their picture and they usually say yes (it gives me a chance to talk about Photowalking Utah, too!). :) This guy was a character … there were several other photographers standing around photographing him and he for some reason for this brief moment he looked right at me. I only took three shots of him and this one was just perfect. I edited it in Lightroom and used a Nik Color Efex Pro film grain effect to add some noise and make the colors pop a little bit more.

Canon 7D, Canon 50mm ƒ/1.8 lens, 1/90 sec at ƒ1.8, ISO 500

A few weeks ago I went out and had sushi for lunch at Mikado in Sandy, UT. I’ve been trying to carry my 7D around more and happened to have it with me so I got a photo of this beautiful little plate of food. It’s one of my favorite foods but I don’t get out to eat it often enough. It’s also something I’d love to photograph in a “real” photo-shoot one of these days. Maybe I’ll take one of the “Sushi 101″ classes at Harmons and learn how to make it myself so I can do all the styling on my own. :)

Canon 7D, canon TS-E 17mm ƒ/4L Tilt-Shift lens, 1/400 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

For the first time ever I had the opportunity to use a Tilt Shift lens (the Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift from BorrowLenses.com) and really enjoyed using it. I didn’t use it for its “tradional” purpose (architectural photography) but rather was playing around with the unique depth of field it creates and the ability for it to make things look “miniature”.

Using the lens was easy, and even focusing was a piece of cake (read the last paragraph of this post for my focusing tip). I think the most difficult part was actually finding something to photograph. I was looking for a neighborhood scene, one that I could get up over but didn’t want the houses to be too far away. I think that this image is a good example of how cool the focus can look with these types of lenses.

Here’s my quick focusing tip: When you are using a Canon lens in the manual focus mode—and the tilt-shift lenses are all manually focusing lenses—put your focus point where you want focus to be (in the above photo my focus-point was set on the brown house in the bottom right third of the image). Then half-press the shutter while turning the lens’s focusing ring. You’ll hear a “beep” when the camera senses that its in focus. Then take your photo and voila! Your image is in-focus. :)

This past weekend 300+ photographers in Utah attended the second annual PhotoCamp Utah. I wasn’t around for last year’s event but had a good idea of what to expect this year and I was not disappointed. The entire event is run by volunteers and we had a solid A-list of sponsors as well. All I can say is that I’m excited for next year! It seems to be growing in the right direction and I’m looking forward to seeing what it will become in the future.

A huge thanks to Jeremy Hall for all of his efforts in making this year’s camp a success. I’d also like to thank Zack Arias for coming all the way out here and donating his time and energy—that dude’s an amazing speaker and you know he’s speaking from his heart.

A few other folks have written up their thoughts on PCU2010 … you can check them all out in the links below. Some of the presentations were recorded and can be viewed by going here, and to check out photos from the event please visit the Flickr group.

PhotoCamp Utah 2010 – blog posts and recaps:

- SQL Server Insane Asylum:: “Volunteers and the Community”
- Pixel Remix: The Ann-alog:  ”Quite a Show: PhotoCamp Utah 2010”
-  The Nicole Show: “Photography as Life”
- dav.d: “PhotoCamp Utah 2010 Recap”
- Parker A. Grimes: “PhotoCamp Utah – My Report”
- Nathan Marx: “PhotoCamp Utah 2010”
- Hooked on Light: “PhotoCamp Utah 2010: Wrap-up”
- The Blog of Torsten: “Photo Camp Utah”
- Ryan Olsen: “Day 33 – #PCU2010”
- The Artistic Mom: “Food Photography Friday: PhotoCamp Utah 2010”

If you wrote a blog-post or recap on the event please link it in the comments below and I’ll add it to the list. :)

Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 ƒ/4L IS, 1/80 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 6400

One thing I love about my Canon 7D is its ability to shoot in low-light situations. I upgraded from a Nikon D200 which at its highest ISO could only go to 1600, but with my 7D I can go all the way up to ISO 12,800 (only if I want to … I rarely push it that far). With my D200 I felt very handicapped when I was trying to shoot and the sun would go down. I remember one time just this past summer when I was out with some friends at a rodeo and it came to a point where I actually had to stop shooting because it was just too dark (even w/ my 70-200 f/2.8) … meanwhile they were still shooting away using a D700 and 5dMkii. That was kinda depressing.

Now, I’m not saying that you have to have a top-of-the line camera to get great photos. I made thousands of dollars (literally) with my D200 but got to a point where I really needed an upgrade. Before I purchased the 7D my mentor Scott Bourne told me that most people aren’t being held back with their equipment but the equipment I had was holding me back. That’s when I knew it was time to upgrade. (Thanks, Scott!) :)

I photographed this image on Sunday at a church concert event; the performer is Andrew Webb and he’s made his way through Utah a few times in the past year. The lighting was really low in the room so I had to push my ISO to its max of 6400 (not including the High level). I used a 70-200 f/4L IS lens to compress and add a nice blur to the background. It’s edited in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Nik Silver Efex Pro … the grain is pretty true to what it was in-camera but I honestly thing it’s beautiful. Yes … sometimes noise is a good thing!

So, in a nutshell don’t be afraid to push your ISO up to a level beyond what you’re comfortable with. I used to brainwash myself into thinking that I should shoot everything at ISO 100 since I do my best to keep my images very neat and clean to license them on iStock. But now when I’m doing my own personal work I tend to not care as much—I’d much rather get the shot with a little (or a lot) of noise than miss it altogether.