Pixelstick! Its HERE!

Remember this kickstarter awhile back? PIXELSTICK  Well I finally just got my pixelstick today! YAY! I'm hoping to find the time to get some cool images up, but it might be just some initial test pics while I learn how to use this thing.  It has 8 demo patterns built in too to play around with so you don't need an SD card right off the bat!  The whole thing seems pretty solidly constructed and the bag is super nice (only quibble is that i'd like to keep the "spin" handle on and the holder in the bag doesn't account for the size with it on the handle.)  Now I'm off to find 8AA batteries!! :D

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Makerfaire Post, 2014 Edition!

"Welcome to my annual Makerfaire post, 2014 edition!  This is the repository  for all of my makerfaire photos, videos, and other bits and bobs."  

I'm hoping to try out a little bit of live blogging this year as well as hopefully post some pics from my phone (galaxy s5, decent quality), but will also put up the photos from my DSLR afterward.

In the meantime keep an eye on this space or head over to one of my other blogs to pass the time:

dbclunie.com - My electronics, 3dprinting, career website.

d4d6d8d10d12d20.com - My Roleplaying and  boardgaming website.

ptsuksuncannyworld.com - My video gaming website.

lunchemunche.com - My food blog.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by, and if you're at Makerfaire and see a guy with a yellow 10ft tall pole with a camera perched atop, stop and say Hi!

Spider Web Trees Under The Street Lights

It was somewhat rainy, wet, and the trees in the glow of the street light made them appeared as if they were made of spiderwebs.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Steel

Some macro shots with the android 4.2 filters(click to embiggen).  Feel free to use as background images if you would like.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Announcement! : Lightroom 5 Beta Now Available!

Over at Adobe's blog HERE you can garner yourself a copy of of the new Lightroom 5 Beta

software.  The software is going to be available until June 30th, which I'm presuming they'll release the full version of the product at that time.  Anyways, on to the new features!

Here are some of the new features:

• Advanced Healing Brush
  
• Upright (one click method to straighten tilted images)
  
• Radial Filter
  
• Smart Previews
• Improved Photo Book Creation
• Slideshows with Videos and Stills
• PNG file support
• True Full Screen Mode
• Configurable grid overlays
• Additional search criteria for filters and smart collections
• Lock zoom position preference settings
• Direction field in EXIF metadata panel
• “Set as Target Collection” checkbox in Create Collections dialogue
• Integrity verification of DNG files
• LAB color readout
• Aspect slider added to the Manual tab in the Lens Correction panel
• Persistent clipping indicators between Lightroom sessions
• Crop overlay aspect ratios
• Visual indicator of Favorite book pages
• Transparent buttons for improved Text creation in Books

Some new and exciting stuff for us photog's ;) Don't forget to pop over to their blog for a full detail and explanation of all the new features.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Video : Trey Ratcliff Google Talks 1 & 2!

Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs is a famous Google+ celeb and awesome HDR Landscape photographer, and was invited to speak at Google not once but twice! You can usually find him on his various hangouts on Google+ where he and some of his other photog friends discuss various topics concerning modern photography and various other subjects, they're very entertaining to watch and listen to.

He's one of my more recent people I look to for inspiration and the two discussions below are great for any photographer hobby/professional to listen in on as he describes his process and what inspires him.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

  

Video : Lighting Illusion

Here is a great video why we can't trust out eyes (or our cameras for that matter) when it comes to various lighting situations and why the two can be so far apart.  Pay careful attention to the gray, and non gray squares, or are they even gray at all?



Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Video $25 and $30 DIY DSLR Camera Cranes / Jib !

Over at Oliviatech they've created an awesome video/dslr video crane or "jib", and it only costs $25! With the $25 mini camera crane you can create some great shots when shooting video or even get a different viewpoint when shooting stills.  Overall the crane is just some aluminum square tubing, some 90 degree angle pieces,  a quick release mount, and some other bits of hardware.  Check out the video below!
(don't forget to subscribe to her channel too for more great videos!)


Now if you're looking for something a little more robust, larger and just $5 more and just as portable(the original version) for an even more "awesomely epic" dslr crane / jib.  You'll want to head over to the Frugal Film Makers Channel /site and check out the Frugal Camera Jib and the upgraded 2.0 version! Check out the videos below!  I'm subscribed, and you should to, to both the Frugral Film Makers youtube channel as well as his blog.  Now get out there and take some pictures and video!

The Original


Version 2.0


Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Video - Shoot With Cheap Fluorescent Lights And NO Flicker!

Youtuber and photographer Photo Joe Edelman has a couple of videos up on his youtube channel, a channel you should really subscribe to, on how to shoot with cheap Fluorescent Lights! Yes, the kind you get at home depot and traditionally the ones that flicker and hum like crazy.  Professional photography fluoro lights that correct the flickr issue can run $3000.00 or more!

The trick? Just shoot with a shutter speed of 1/125 or slower!  What a great idea, not to mention Joe shows ya how to use em.  Check out the videos below.  The "trick", which I already gave away, is at the end of the 2nd video but Joe has some other tips for shooting with fluorescent lights. Don't forget to checkout his youtube channel and subscribe!





Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Video : Mirrorless Cameras vs DSLR's!

The new and future trend in camera tech is the move to "mirrorless cameras".  Some friends have asked my opinion on these miniature wonders of technology, and if these cameras were the equivalent to a DSLR.  I too myself have ponder the question.  There are both pros and cons to using these cameras.

While I'm not in the market for a new camera, I did, back in the day, enjoy using smaller cameras such as the coolpix 950, coolpix 4500, and a canon point and shoot. I especially like the ability to put those cameras in small spaces, or at weird angles that would be difficult or near impossible with full sized DSLR.

Thankfully I found this great, albeit crude, video by Bart Zoni, who delves into the question of quality with the mirrorless cameras and makes his argument that as things improve with the mirrorless you are likely to see better quality with the smaller form factor.  So check out his video below and see what you think.



Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Camera Platform based on LEGO !

So a while ago I saw this posted up on youtube.  It's a video demo of a camera mounting system that is built using the lego minstorms system as a camera base and automation setup.

I really would like to build one of these and use it for dslr video, panoramas, timelapse, etc.  Also with the ability to actually program the "base" you could potentially create some very nice dslr timelapse videos using this and a diy slider system.  You might even be able to tie into the system for automating the slider motion as well! The only drawback I see is that the left to right automation of this seems to be a bit "jerky" and not very smooth, unlike when they do the up and down motion, but that might be just a gear issue that could be solved fairly easy I think.

Take a look at the video below and let your mind just think of the possibilities!

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

B&H Introduction to Studio Lighting

Over at  the B&H youtube channel they've put up a some informational/teaching videos for your viewing pleasure.  One video that stands out discusses the basics of photography lighting.

You can find the video below called "Intro To Studio Lighting".  It is a bit "informercial-ish" in that "Joey", who runs the impact brand that spun off from B&H. The video id not obscene like those ones late at night and really is all about how to use the equipment rather than pushing a particular brand.  Again its about the fundamentals of photography and lighting.



Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

VIDEO ! MAX 2011 Sneak Peek - Adobe Image De-blurring!

Many of you have likely seen the grainy video from MAX 2011 of Adobe's now famous de-blurring "feature" that was highlighted in their "sneaks" portion of their event. The audiences shocked and awed reaction to the quality of the deblurring made the net buzz and hum with anticipation to see high quality video and stills from the event.

Here is the video as well as the stills, before and after, and don't forget to check out the adobe.com website for the full article and why the 3rd image isn't posted!

click to embiggen

click to embiggen

Here is the link to the article on adobe's site.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Know Your Rights: Photography

With all that has been going on recently with various protests and structured gatherings, its good to know your rights when taking photographs. 

The most important thing is to find out the laws for your location, but in general there are some basic guidelines that as a photographer you're covered by. 

Macro Photography For DSLR's - Do You Really Need That Macro Lens? Part 2

In part 1 of this series, I laid out the initial question "Do you really need that macro lens?" This post is all about lenses, and regardless if you go for the expensive or cheap, new or old school, you will need "some" type of lens to do your macro photography.  More or less you'll want a lens with good glass that lets in plenty of light, the lowest aperture you can find and afford, which usually means a prime lens.  A prime lens is one that doesn't have a variable focal range, e.g. no 50mm-200mm.

Macro Photography For DSLR's - Do You Really Need That Macro Lens? Part 1

So do you really need that expensive macro lens for your DSLR? Is there a similar offering, maybe even  cheaper, that will give you quality macro photos? These are the questions I'll be exploring in a number of blog posts on Clunie Photography.  These articles will delve into a few of the options available to most DSLR hobbyists.

What is macro photography?  Macro photography is basically taking close up pictures of  usually small things.  Some examples of macro photography are of insects, circuit boards, coins, grains of salt, etc.  When taking these macro pictures most photographers typically rely on expensive macro lenses.  However there are a few options out there that just may make you think twice about purchasing that expensive macro lens and save you some hard earned cash for other quality lenses!

These articles are going to explore a few of the products out there you can pick up for a reasonable price, as well as one that isn't so cheap, a 85mm Nikkor Micro Lens (1:1) which is about $500.00 these days. When talking about the specific products in the posts, I'll list the model numbers and price points.


So here are the products I'm going to be looking at:

(As pictured left to right in the top photo)

• A Macro Bellows System
• 85mm Nikkor Micro Lens (1:1) from Nikon
• 35mm Reverse Lens Ring
• 50mm Nikkor Lens (not directly reviewed per se, as this is the lens I used with the other products)
• Extension Tubes

Hopefully when I'm done with these posts you'll have your answer to the question I initially posed or at the very least, a place where you can start if you're getting into macro photography.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

   
 

Inaugural Post Of Cluniephotography.com !

Welcome to the inaugural post of Cluniephotography.com. Cluniephotography.com is a site featuring my photography work, gear reviews, tips and tricks, experiments, and do it yourself projects in regards to the world of photography.  I'm looking forward to sharing ideas, feedback, and projects with other photographers in the community and as always learning from my peers.  I'm also getting more into dslr video now as well.

I've been in love with photography since the 3rd grade but back then I hadn't a clue about shutter speed, asa(iso), aperture, or other photography concepts.  Mom just gave me a kodak instanamatic and let me go to it!  I still have those shots from the field trip to Green Field Village in Michigan.

Years later while in high school on the yearbook staff as a photographer I was allowed to use my fathers old slr camera, a camera that was older than I was.  It was a Nikkormat camera and I've had it ever since.  Unfortunately, its getting less and less use these days but is still a great camera! I still have film!

I'm now a fully dslr photographer and my latest acquisition has been a Nikon D7000, and I'm loving the new camera!  Also with the introduction to a few new concepts from the diy community, I've discovered many new techniques for "off camera flash" photography as well as the previously mentioned dslr video techniques.

So it is with much fanfare that I welcome you to this site and hope that over time this site will be as helpful as those I've learned so much from:

David Hobby - strobist.com

Zack Arias - www.zarias.com

Scott Eggleston - www.thefrugalfilmmaker.com

Dave Knop - Quick FX on YouTube

DeeJay Scharton - www.dslrfilmnoob.com

Mikey and Andy - www.lightenupandshoot.com/

As well as the flickr and instructables community for posting great how to's and diy projects.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!