I was thinking about a new way to showcase my work. I am tired of the boring, old fashion portfolios with the acetate pages that glare. I also wanted to be in more control of the look of my images. Since I love to print with my Epson printer and have read good reviews about the Moab chinle portfolio, I thought I would give it a try.
The Moab chinle portfolio kits come in two sizes, 8×9 inches and 12×13 inches. Since I wanted to try the portfolio kit, I ordered the small kit with an extra box of paper. The kits come complete with the Ice Nine Portfolio by Case Envy, 10 sheets of Moab lasal photo matte 235gsm double sided ink jet paper (scored and drilled) and all the hardware for assembly.
Some of the features of the chinle portfolio are
Award winning design by Case envy
Stylish, translucent flexible grey cover
Simple, expandable screwpost assembly
Lightweight yet durable
Available with your favorite Moab papers
I had never seen one of the portfolios in person, but I have used the Moab paper before and really liked it. Because of Moab and Case Envy‘s quality, I had high expectations about the products. When I received them in the mail, my expectations were met. The portfolio cover is a nice translucent shade of grey. The binding is rubber and plastic and assembles with aluminum screws and posts, which are expandable if needed. The paper is Moab‘s lasal photo matte, which is also a really nice rag paper. If you need extra paper, don’t worry, because you can get a box of paper with 25 sheets already scored and drilled.
Now I’m ready to print! I have used Moab‘s Entrada paper before, but now I want to really get to know the lasal paper. I still use an older Epson 2200 printer, but I have updated the printer with Jon Cone’s Edition K3 inks.
I have all my images that I will use ready to go. I turned on my printer and did a head cleaning. I usually clean the heads when the printer sits up for longer than 2 weeks without use, especially with third party inks. I opened my first image in Photoshop. The lasal paper is 8×9, but the printing area is only 8×8, so I size my image accordingly. I went to print and opened the print diver. The driver did not offer the size paper I needed, so I made a custom size. Here is where I ran into a little problem. When I tried to print with the custom size, it would only pull the paper in from the roll feeder. I needed the paper to be pulled from the sheet feeder. After about an hour of frustration with the driver, I decided to fool the printer. I just set it up as a 8.5×11 page and used margins to center the image onto the paper. This worked! But, here is a shot of my first print.
The print heads needed to be cleaned again. Plus, the image was not lined up correctly. I cleaned my head a few more times, and then played around with lining up my image. I am so glad I got an extra box of paper. Here is a shot of my notes. I would write down my measurements on the prints. It took several, but I finally got it right. As you can see my print heads were still clogged at this point.
Now that I have everything working, I printed out all my images. I let them set overnight before I put the portfolio together (as recommended by manufacturer). I have 10 pages with 19 images and my logo printed on the front page.
Once you have all your pages in order, just sandwich them together with the portfolio covers and use the post and screws to put them together. The assembly is very simple and quick. When all assembled, you end up with a modern-looking portfolio that’s elegant to present.
Here is my final outcome. A very pleasing portfolio to present. The prints on the Moab lasal paper are sharp, vivid, and just stunning.
Here you can see how the portfolio is bound and also how the paper is scored. At first, the pages with the scored area are a little stiff, but with some use the pages turn more easily.
Here is just another angle of the binding.
I really like the look and feel of the Moab lasal paper. It has a good thickness and is double-sided. I think if I print another portfolio, I will end with a blank back page or place my information small at the bottom.
As you can see the binding covers some of the image. That’s why I think a blank page will work best. Or, maybe get creative and add a velum or some sort of Japanese molded paper.
The finished portfolio is very nice and lightweight. At only 8×9 inches, it is very easy to carry with you when you meet clients or socialize at a networking event. I highly recommend the Moab chinle portfilio or any of the Case Envy products, which are designed by LostLuggage.
For more information on the products, check out their websites
One day I was out on the front porch and saw a guy on a longboard being pulled by his black lab. I thought, “How cool is that, I would like to do that.” As time passed, I would see the speeding duo rolling around the neighborhood, and I would tell myself I need to look into longboarding.
I have been into mountain biking and whitewater kayaking for about 15 years. Since my move to Florida, I stopped those activities for lack of mountains and whitewater. I finally decided I wanted to get a longboard and start skating around the neighborhood, as this would be good exercise since I was not doing biking or paddling. I started to do research on boards and found out they are made of many different materials. Bamboo really jumped out at me, and I liked what I was reading about boards made from bamboo. Since my girlfriend is a environmentally conscious person, I decided this was a good choice to look into further. After more research and a few e-mails from board manufacturers, I found out that bamboo boards have a very large carbon footprint, since almost all bamboo comes from China. This would really offset the production of being sustainable, since the two major materials used, maple and bamboo, would generally come out with the same carbon footprint for a finished product made overseas.
I then decided to reduce the footprint by going with North American maple and not a mass produced board from overseas. I narrowed my choices down to a few large companies and one small company. All the big companies had really fancy websites with very good photography. Since I am a photographer, I thought I would go with the small company and offer my photographic services. I emailed www.jatiboards.com and was able to get a custom-made board from them. I told Jati I would photograph the board when I received it and would share the photos. I got my board in the mail about 3 weeks after I ordered it.
I wanted to keep my money here in the States as much as possible. I researched the parts for the board and came up with almost all USA-made parts. The trucks and wheels are made in America. The ball bearings and the housings are made here. The Oust retainer ring with assemble is made somewhere else. I emailed Oust with the question: Where are they assembled? I received a personal call from the owner of the company, he was pretty cool, and we talked for about a half an hour. He told me they have proprietary bearing covers and assembly, so he could not tell me where the assembly takes place. He did assure me that it was not overseas (Asian market). After the conversation, my conclusion is that the bearings are not assembled in Asia, but I’m going out on a limb to say maybe it’s a neighbor to the south or north, just an assumption. After the long talk, Oust will be coming out with some new products. I was told these items will be longboards, trucks, and bushings. I can’t wait to see them. I highly recommend the Oust bearings.
So now, on with the photography. I sketched out my ideas and lighting diagrams. I decided I would just keep it simple and use a black background. My board is custom made and does not have an actual production name. Jati’s boards all have a Japanese-style name. When I asked Jati what my board name would be he said maybe “Mumei,” which means nameless, unknown, and obscure, or “Tokumei,” which means anonymous. I like the thought of being anonymous, so I stuck with Tokumei.
I set up a simple, black background with one light, then two lights, then three lights. I had the board in a vise attached to a coffee table. I played around with the lighting and board angles. I photographed the images that I had sketched out and had some extra fun playing around with other ideas that came to mind during the photo shoot. Now to download all my images, bring them into Lightroom, organize, and start putting an ad together.
I wanted to show my creative side, so after working on the board shots, I wanted to photograph the other parts and do something creative with them.
I shot the other skate parts on a white background to keep them clean and be able to see the detail in the product. I then extracted the product from the white background and dropped it into a new background. See images below.
The parts are Randal RII 180′s, Bustin Swift Freeride 77mm 82a wheels, and Oust Moc 9 AIRR... bearings. I have links to the manufacturers below.
I recently photographed a graffiti event in Ft. Lauderdale. I thought those images would be great as backgrounds for my skate products.
These are the final, self-promotional pieces that I came up with. The one on the left shows the full product in an ad. The one on the right shows the mystery of what’s to come with little visual access to the product.
Click on any image to see an enlargement.
I have had so much fun photographing the products. Jati Boards really liked the images and self-promotional pieces I presented. Jati said he wants to work with me in the near future.
I have a personal goal now. To finish a 26.2 mile skateboard marathon. November 5th is the Adrenalina skateboard marathon in Hallandale Beach, Florida. I am in training and have all the confidence that I can complete the race. While training, I met a guy that has much experience with these types of races. He liked my board set up, but advised me on some new bushings for my trucks. His picks were Venom Bushings or Orangatang Nipples. I went with the Orangatangs, because they use some of the best urethane on the market. Here are some shots with the stock bushings, the Orangatang Nipples bushings, and then with the new bushings installed.
I would like to share my first longboarding video with you. It’s action-packed, full of drama and wildlife spottings, and, of course, a crash-n-burn. Enjoy!
I recently went to South America for an international biodiversity conference. Before the trip I decided that I wanted a small point and shoot camera that also recorded video. I am a solid Canon shooter, but really liked the specs and reviews I read on the Olympus VR-320. So, I decided to jump outside the box and take a chance with another manufacturer. My main purpose for a small P&S camera was to always be ready with a camera, especially when my DSLR’s were in the backpack. I also thought it would be good after the trip so that I could always have a camera with me when I didn’t need the bulk of my DSLR’s.
At first sight, I noticed the Olympus VR-320 had a more attractive design style than the competition. The front of the body has a nice elegant contour with a raised, molded grip for better handling, while the back is clean with just a few buttons for easy access to the main functions. There is a large, 3″ LCD for composing and viewing your images. The screen display is only 230K dots, which is low for a 2011 model camera and makes it hard to see out in the bright sunlight. But, the quality of the image is a little more important than the LCD screen. Another notable point about the camera is that it has an all metal body, which makes it very durable.
When I unpacked this camera I had to go straight outside to test it. I really like the way it feels in my hand. It’s very easy to hold, you don’t have to squeeze it, and it does not feel like your going to drop it. I set the camera up with all the top quality functions (large resolution, low ISO, image stabilizer on) and started to shoot. All of my shots were a little dark and blurry. I also had no creative control over the camera settings. My first thought was to step back and think. When I have my DSLR camera in hand, I have to be in control. I shoot most of the time in M (manual mode) and sometimes shoot in A (aperture priority). I know my equipment and know how to compensate for different lighting situations based on my meter. With the new camera I felt like I totally lost control, and I did. So now I have to figure out this new tool. I asked myself a question: How can I make my vision work with this equipment when I have no control?
Now to answer my own question. I have a little control when the camera is set in P mode. I can change the ISO, turn the flash on or off, set the macro mode, frame rate, white balance, and exposure compensation. The first thing I tried was to changed the ISO and that helped out a lot. Then I noticed it was over exposing in bright areas. I changed the exposure compensation to -.07. After playing with settings and shooting, I noticed the camera does tend to overexpose. To solve that, I left the exposure compensation under -.07 all the time.
I really like the 24mm wide angle this compact offers. The zoom feature is 12.5x, which in 35mm equivalent is 24-300mm. In theory, it’s nice to have that in the palm of your hand. In reality, when the camera is set to P mode, anything past about 125mm gets a little soft, anything around 150 and beyond gets a little blurry. Olympus claims dual stabilization for this camera. How that works is when you are shooting on scene mode or iAuto mode, the camera uses the sensor shift with a combination of a higher ISO to achieve a sharp image. When shooting video with the stabilization off, the video has a quality that might make a person motion sick, but offers a little more stability when turned on. For me, the image stabilization is one of the weakest points for this camera.
For the solution of soft or blurry images, I purchased a modopocket by Manfrotto. This little table top camera stand is pretty cool. I like to shoot from different angles, and this table top camera stand helps me do just that. When I walk around, I can find just about anything to set it on. Here in this picture, you can see that I have it on a rock. I was shooting some waterfall landscapes with a little video. The modopocket attaches nicely to the tripod socket on the bottom of the camera and folds up flat out of the way. I also found that when I keep it open I can hold the camera more steady. I highly recommend this little accessory for the photo enthusiast.
Here are a couple of examples of the zoom capability. The first is the 24mm wide angle. The second is using the 12.5x zoomed to the full 300mm. You can see how powerful the zoom capability is by looking at the florescent green shack in the center of the picture. It’s really nice and handy to have this much flexibility for the zoom range. And yes, I was using the modopocket set on a handrail.
A little quirk about this camera is that the white balance seems to be inconsistent for me. In my example of the owl, you can see the first image is a little blue. The white feathers of the owl and the gray rocks in the background have that bluish tint. I used Lightroom to warm up the second image of the owl. You can see the white feathers are white and the gray wall is gray.
I have noticed that you can take 4 shots in a row, and each one will be a different hue. This is easily fixable in Photoshop or Lightroom. If you get your images printed, the lab will color correct the images for you. BUT, I have to say that probably 99% of the consumers who buy these types of cameras will never notice the difference.
I have to confess. I am a control freak. With my DSLR’s I shoot RAW format. With this camera the only option is JPEG. Shooting in RAW, you have more control over the entire image than with JPEG. In these examples below I did tweek the files, but I can only tweek a little, because overworking an image will give you a bad-looking image that looks, well, overworked. In the graffiti wall below, I added a little saturation, contrast, and changed the color balance. The original looked plain, but with these minor changes, the picture really pops with the texture and cracks in the wall.
In this example of the basilica, I added a little blue in the sky and opened up the shadows so you could see the green in the trees. I like to be in control of my images, and the JPEG format leaves just a narrow path to work in since the file is already compressed.
Here is a front of a cathedral. You can see how detailed the architecture is and how well the camera captured it. The sensor used in this compact is a 14 mega pixel CCD. I think the detail is pretty good in well exposed images. Usually in these small cameras the less pixels crammed onto a little sensor like this one will often have better image quality for higher ISO images. It’s almost like a trade off, more detail or higher ISO performance. I do like the detail though.
I took this image and converted it to B&W and added a little contrast.
I have spoken to groups about photography and led photo tours. I give private photography lessons. The number one question I get is, “How do I get my stuff to look like that, I don’t have a expensive camera.” My answer is always the same, “Know your tools.” If you know the limitations of your gear, then you know how to make it work for your vision. Practice this vision and practice with your tools. You will only get better with your craft. I pushed the limits of this point and shoot camera to get my vision without having an expensive camera, just to prove that it can be done.
The strongest feature of this camera is the macro capability. There are two settings for this, macro and super macro. The distance from the subject with macro setting is .2 meters. The super macro setting is 1 centimeter. This is amazing and opens up many new possibilities. This camera has one of the closest focusing macro settings for compact point and shoot cameras. Flowering in the rain forrest of Ecuador are these beautiful orchids. The size of the orchid in this example is about 1/2 inch in length. As you can see, there is plenty of magnification to see the finest detail of the flower. I was about 2 inches away when I took the picture.
I wanted to get even closer. In this next example, I am about a half an inch from the center of the flower. This photo is very sharp with plenty of detail in the petals.
Since the super macro setting gets as close as 1 centimeter, I wanted to see how close that actually is. In this example, the rare orchid is smaller than a pencil eraser. Since it was so small, I could not get as close as I wanted, but it still did a very good job of magnifying the orchid. With the way the light was shining with the super macro setting, you can see distortion around the edges. The distortion is really noticeable in the highlights and water droplets. Overall, the macro setting is by far the best feature of this camera.
Here is the inside of another flower.
I wanted a little camera that also records video. This Olympus offers 720p HD. I thought now would be a good time to learn a little video, since it is getting more popular. My short video example is of two clips merged together. I am a MAC user, so I edited the video with iDVD. This short clip took me about three hours to figure out. Now that I know how to use the software, maybe my next video will go much smoother. I shot about 30 clips, and I have to say it was a challenge. After opening them up on the computer I was not very happy with them. When recording video in macro mode the focus keep going in and out. I need much more practice learning the video side of photography.
After you learn what all the settings do, this camera is easy to use. It’s small, lightweight, cool looking, and does a fine job at recording the light. After all, that’s what we photographers are chasing–light. I highly recommend this camera. Retail is $199, but I have seen it with online sales for as low as $149. So if your in the market for a point and shoot, consider the Olympus VR-320.
I was thinking about a new way to showcase my work. I am tired of the boring, old fashion portfolios with the acetate pages that glare. I also wanted to be in more control of the look of my images. Since I love to print with my Epson printer and have read good reviews about the Moab chinle portfolio, I thought I would give it a try.
Some of the features of the chinle portfolio are
The print heads needed to be cleaned again. Plus, the image was not lined up correctly. I cleaned my head a few more times, and then played around with lining up my image. I am so glad I got an extra box of paper. Here is a shot of my notes. I would write down my measurements on the prints. It took several, but I finally got it right. As you can see my print heads were still clogged at this point.
