I wanted to test a homemade green screen that I made, so I put my MS Office 2007 CD-holder on it and took a pic with my Cliq XT. Then, I searched Google images for a replacement background, and chose a photo of a beach. I put both pics on my desktop, then went to YouTube to find a tutorial on how to chroma key in Photoshop CS4.

Not only did I find a tutorial video (see below) but, with it coming in at 2 minutes and 35 seconds long, I found a very SHORT one at that… and miracle of miracles, it was easy to understand and follow. Less than ten minutes later, I’d successfully chroma keyed my first photo. Yay, me! :)

I combined these two photos…

To get this photo…

Why did I do this? I needed to see if my homemade greenscreen would work, because I’m going to start video blogging again and this time I wanted to have different backdrops behind me to liven things up a bit, at least visually, anyway. I haven’t done a vlog in several months. I hadn’t been feeling well (fibro flare), and I also had to try to find a new place after I decided not to renew my lease in Sandy Springs. By the way, I love living in Midtown!

I’ll be doing a full write up, including pics, of how I made my greenscreen in the next few days. So, stay tuned! In the meantime, if you want to learn how to chroma key using Photoshop CS4, here’s the tutorial video I watched.

It’s about time for the blog to get a new look. Here are 3 new looks that I created last night while I had caffeine-induced insomnia. I created the graphics from pictures I took with my Pentax K10D (DSLR) camera, so yes, all the graphics are 100% original!

Which do you like? My favorite is actually #2.

Layout #1 – Flowers

Layout #2 – U.S. Capitol

Layout #3 – Baby Shoes

Update: The lens isn’t really a “fail”. It’s just quirky. I decided to keep it, but I just won’t try to use it in full manual mode without first adjusting the exposure compensation on my camera. As I said below, when I put my camera in Aperture Priority mode, the photos are fine (aka properly exposed). So, I’ll probably just only use this lens in that mode.

…..
So, I finally got the lens Saturday. But, I had to head out of town at the last minute on Sunday, so I didn’t get to take any test shots until I got back and recovered from the trip. From looking at the lens, it looks fine. No oil on the aperture blades, no fungus on the glass, no scratches or chips in the glass, and the body was okay, etc.

However, when I put the lens on my K10D and started taking test shots, I noticed that the photos taken with the lens wide open at f2.8 were DARKER than the photos taken stopped down to f5.6. In fact, the f5.6 aperture setting seemed to be this lens’ “sweet spot”, as it got the exposure right. The photos taken at f8 through f22 were all supposed to gradually get darker as the aperture got smaller. Looking at the photos in the order taken (from largest to smallest aperture: f2.8, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22), the darkening of the photos should have followed an easily detectible progression from brightest/lightest to darkest. That didn’t happen.

The weird thing is that when I took the camera out of full manual mode and put it in Av mode (aperture priority), the exposure in the shots was balanced correctly. But, if I want to grow my technical skills, I can’t get into the habit of shooting in Av mode all the time. But, if I only shoot in Av, without understanding how to use manual mode, how would I know what to do if I needed to use full manual mode in a difficult lighting situation? Exactly. I’ve contacted the seller to arrange a return and refund.

My latest acquisition is a low budget, wide-angle manual focus prime lens. The Pentax Takumar Bayonet 28mm f2.8 lens is a member of Pentax’s low budget Takumar Bayonet line of lenses, and debuted in 1984. Optically it’s identical to it’s older, and more expensive, brothers in the Pentax M and A lines, and it’s even built to the same high mechanical standards.

But, yet, it’s very much an underdog because, as a low budget lens, it lacks the Super-Multi-Coating (SMC) that is found in Pentax’s higher end lenses. The lens is coated, but the lack of SMC makes it prone to flaring, among other things. But, used within its limitations, this lens can turn out some great results.

Example 1. This photo is straight out of the photographer’s camera. Not bad. All I did was crop out a cloud and some tree leaves on the sides.

Example 2. The same photo after a super quick edit in Photoshop. I decreased the exposure and increased the contrast both a smidgen, just enough to make the colors pop a little.

Not bad at all for a 26 year old underdog “budget” lens, huh? To see more pictures taken with this lens, check out this PBase photo gallery that I found.

My first serious attempt at shooting fireworks, during a pre-4th celebration on June 26th, are in a post called SummerFest on the Green Fireworks. Comparing this set to the last set, I think I show definite improvement. Things didn’t go according to plan, but I was able to improvise and get decent results. So, what didn’t go according to plan?

Well, this time I had my complete tripod… but I forgot to bring the remote control for my camera. :eek: I put the camera on the tripod anyway, because I figured that even if I did have to manually press the shutter-release button, there would still be less camera shake than if I hand-held the camera to take the shots.

All things considered, I think the results are okay. My goal for this set of pics was to improve over the last set, and I did. So, I guess I can say mission accomplished. Here are my favorite five pics from the 4th of July. Don’t forget that you have to click on the pics to see them full-sized.

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful lady who liked to take pictures. One day, when the weather was almost perfect, the beautiful lady decided to go to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area to see what interesting things she could find to photograph. When she got there, the beautiful lady had several trails to follow. Loving to be near water, she decided to take the trail that followed the course of the river…

Down the stone steps…

Past the hidden creek…

Through the shady woods…

To the open area on the riverbank…

Where someone built a pier…

And a house…

And their very own island…

At the end of her visit, the beautiful lady was tired but very happy. She went home, and after her aging body recovered from the miles she’d walked, she edited her pictures and found that they were good. The beautiful lady shared her pictures and lived happily ever after.

The End.

This past Saturday my boyfriend and I attended the city of Morrow’s annual SummerFest on the Green. Starting in the early evening around 6pm, it’s a family/community day kind of thing. There were rides and games for the kids, an open hydrant for anybody who wanted to get wet, food vendors for the hungry, and a pretty good band that played a variety of music. A good time was had by all, and at 10pm, the fireworks show started.

I was really excited about the fireworks, because it’s challenging to get good fireworks photos. I went online before we left, and got a few pointers for photographing fireworks and made a crib sheet from an index card, LOL. Things didn’t go as planned, as I couldn’t use my tripod, which is the best way to take some types of photos like fireworks. I left the tripod’s quick-release plate, that attaches to the bottom of the camera, at home, so I had to hand-hold the camera and do my best to keep as steady as possible and catch the fireworks. I think I did a pretty good job, but you be the judge.

Camera: Pentax K10D, ISO: 100, Shooting Mode: Bulb (B), Lenses: Pentax Takumar (Bayonet) 135mm f2.5 & SMC Pentax-M 50mm f1.7

Y’all, I’ve been bitten badly by the collecting bug. My items of choice are film SLRs and old-school lenses. It all started out so innocently when I bought a DSLR last summer. After a year of becoming comfortable with the basics of photography, I decided it was time to start adding lenses to get more variety and creativity in my shots. But, the newer autofocus lenses are expensive, especially for someone on a fixed income. So, I did something that I think has kicked off a collecting hobby, or maybe… addiction?

I started stalking eBay and my local craigslist for old manual focus lenses from back in the days. I have a Pentax DSLR, so not only can I use lenses made especially for Pentax digital SLRs, I can also use any lens ever made for Pentax film cameras, regardless of manufacturer. Well, stalking paid off, because last Sunday I picked up two prime lenses AND a Pentax film camera (with a cable release!), all in really good condition, for $60!!

I know I just wrote about my new additions, but the fact that I can confidently say that I got over $100 worth of really good photography equipment for $60 is major. Everyone who knows me knows at least two things about me: I don’t like spending money I can’t justify, and I love finding good deals and bargains. I think what made me get more excited, and blog about this again, is that when I researched the Pentax ME Super film SLR I found out it was a highly liked and recommended film camera.

The icing on the cake was that I wanted to try to making star trail pictures, and the ME Super (with a cable release) was recommended as a good camera to used to do astrophotography without a telescope. That last part sounds complicated, but it’s really a simple process involving a tripod, film SLR camera (preferred, but DSLRs can do them, too), and a cable release, all of which I now have. Star trail photo credits: Peter Michaud (Gemini Observatory) and MSNBC.

The two new (to me) lenses are not the best, but they’re decent and can produce some great results in the right conditions. There are some 135mm and 50mm lenses that are more recommended than the ones I have, but right now I can’t find any in my price range on eBay, KEH.com, or any other used camera websites. Oh wait, I think I may have seen some on the National Camera Exchange website. Oops, I was wrong. I just checked (I have the site bookmarked), and they don’t.

What’s kind of weird to me is that on photography message boards, I see all these posts about people finding great lenses for $20 and $30 dollars on eBay, and I have to wonder if they’re talking about auctions or the Buy It Now option. I always use the latter, because I don’t have the patience to wait a week for an auction to end – or the nerves to stand a bidding war – and I have yet to see these great lenses for so low a price. Either my luck is bad or I’m really missing out by not bidding. So, I guess if bidding is how to get the really good stuff, then maybe I need to give it a try. At any rate…

I now own the following:

Pentax K10D & Pentax 18-55mm AL II Lens

Lens in photo is the 1st generation AL; I have the AL II.
Photo Credit: Flickr user Kornichon

Pentax ME Super film SLR & SMC Pentax-M 50mm Lens

Photo Credit: Whitemetal.com

Asahi Pentax Takumar Bayonet 135mm Lens

Photo Credit: Flickr user James_Gu

Note: The Pentax Takumar Bayonet lenses are NOT “real” Takumar lenses. Pentax resurrected the Takumar name for a budget line of zooms and primes that lacked the usual Pentax multi-coating aka SMC/S-M-C aka Super Multi Coated. Source: Wikipedia Takumar entry.

I have created a new page on the blog called ‘Gallery’ (see the top menu), where I will – again – share the results of my photography hobby. I finally got around to searching out the new(er) plugins that allow bloggers to have integrated gallery pages, and/or mini galleries in a post or on the sidebar. I decided to try NextGEN Gallery, and so far I like it although I haven’t viewed my blog from a browser other than Firefox 3.6 yet.

As my long time readers know, at different times I’ve had a photoblog, photography portfolio, and my Facebook photos linked to this blog. In the case of Facebook, they were pulled from there and displayed in photo albums on here. Those options worked when those were all the really reliable options available, but in the last couple of years there have been some WordPress plugins coming out that allow galleries to be integrated directly into blogs. Take it from me that this is a LOT less work, LOL.

Enjoy the pics!