Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

There are charms made only for distant admiration.
—Samuel Johnson

My guess is that Canon cameras were used to photograph the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Note that the site is in Russian, but that doesn't really matter as the subject matter is universal.

Portfolio: Ernst Haas

Superb black and white photography and portraits of celebrities (including Einstein) by Ernst Haas.

His behind-the-scenes photographs on the set of The Misfits are the last memorials to Marilyn Monroe's career.

Other than the first photograph in the series, I can't say I was impressed with his photographs of Audrey Hepburn's wedding; the photos have a distant quality, rather than an intimate quality to them.

His colour photography is breathtaking in framing (see "Locksmith's Sign" in the New York series), composition and contrasts— he makes photography look so easy.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Moon Shot

The Moon. Shutter Priority 1/640s, f/1.4 [1 of 15]


A few weeks ago, just before bed, I happened to take a look outside my window, just before getting into bed when I noticed that the sky was clear and the moon was out— I just had to take some pictures.

Before getting dressed, I checked my journal entry where I recorded the camera settings for the last lunar eclipse I had photographed. I then got dressed and hopped out onto the balcony with my 50D and began photographing the moon. I leaned the camera on the balcony railing for stability, but because of the distance and my 50mm lens, even the slightest vibration like the shutter clicking added jitter to the photograph.

As I was coming back in, I bumped the base of the camera on the sliding door quite severely (if it had been a piece of wood, it would have nicked the wood). Once inside, I carefully checked the body of camera for a dent or a paint bruise— nothing, not even a scratch— phew!.

Update Wed Dec 03 15:54:47 2008: I was re-reading the manual last night and I realize I should have changed the metering mode from Evaluative to Center-Weighted as the subject I am photographing is in the center, and surrounded by blackness.

Update Sat Dec 06 20:17:04 2008: I was taking some night photographs of the freshly fallen snow and playing with the metering modes, I found that Partial Metering produced better exposed photographs (at -2/3 EV).

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This blog will go live on a full-time basis when I have finished copying all my old articles from my journal. I have a Picasa Album for my photos.