Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Check out more at timescapes.org (where you can get it at 1080p).

I installed the latest Intel display driver via Windows Update on my Lenovo Thinkpad X200 notebook the other day, and twice yesterday I got this strange garbled-vertical-column pattern when I open the lid of the notebook and wake it from sleep. Altering the angle of the lid does nothing, but moving the mouse cursor makes the garbled pattern change a little bit.

I took a screen capture of the desktop and it looks normal, so it seems that this happens somewhere between the GPU and display -- hopefully it's not a hardware issue.

I now rolled back to the earlier driver via System Restore to see if that fixes anything. So far, everything seems normal again, but I'll be keeping a close eye on the system for the next little while. I'll update later on if anything comes up.

Has anyone else noticed this with the latest Intel 4-series display driver?

On Saturday, I drove out to the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec to meet up with Saad and Caitlyn of MeriJaan Photography. They’re a photography team, specializing primarily in weddings, with whom I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate.

Our first meeting, of course, was just a meet-and-greet-and-shoot-and-share type of affair, and we did exactly that. It also gave me a chance to put some new gear through its paces in a variety of settings and lighting conditions. This is, of course, very important, as you never want to learn how to use your gear on a client’s time. A selection of photos from the day is available here.

As I watched the embedded video above, an advertisement for Pedigree dogfood, I have to ask myself a chicken-or-the-egg kind of question: does creative vision beget technological advancement?  Or does technological advancement give rise to creative vision?

The video above was shot with a Phantom high-speed camera, capable of shooting one thousand frames per second.  If we take it at its core, this is really just a video of dogs catching treats in midair -- hardly something worth mentioning.  But when you take something trite, and express it in a way that's never been seen before, it can become a thing of beauty.  It can become a showcase for technological capabilities.

It can become art.

But which drives which?

I took the opportunity to test out the movie functionality.  Below is a short sample I shot today from outside the video processing lab's window.

Canon 5D Mark II - Test Video from Angelo Stavrow on Vimeo.

Sorry for the cheesy editing -- I have a lot to learn.  This was shot in 1080p/30fps at ISO 200, 1/30th @ f/5.6 on manual mode, through a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens.  No tripod, sorry about the slight wobbling.  Converted down to 720p in iMovie.

I have to say, I'm positively loving this camera and lens combination.  So sharp, such lovely colours, contrast, and saturation, and having a full-frame sensor means significantly thinner depth of field than the 20D's crop sensor could provide -- and far better high-ISO capabilities, too.

There are myriad reviews available around the Internet for the camera, so I won't waste your time, but I will check in a little later with an update on my thoughts on it.

Apple launched their much awaited iPad today.  While we’ll leave it to the tech sites to figure out what this means for the computer industry, I’m considering what this new device can do for photographers.

iPad offers an IPS screen (9.7” diagonal) with 1024 x 768 resolution, 132ppi.  IPS technology isn’t new, but it’s still pricey, and offers near-180-degree viewing angles in any direction.  What this means is that there’s no shift in brightness corner-to-corner if you’re looking at it head-on, but that’s only useful if you’re sitting in front of a large monitor; on a smaller screen like this, it means that more people can crowd around it and see it clearly.  Okay, so it might be useful as a portable, small kiosk.

Can you use it for processing photos?  Well, first you need to get the photos on the device.  If you need to sync it via USB, then you still need a laptop with you, which kinda defeats the purpose.  However, Apple will be offering dock connectors that either provide SD card-reader functionality (not very useful for pro-level cameras, which typically use Compact Flash cards), or a USB port for direct connection to your camera.  So that’s a start.

But what about software?  Adobe’s Photoshop.com Mobile iPhone app already offers some fairly useful photo editing but no Raw support.  Perhaps an iPad-specific version is in the works that takes advantage of the more powerful processor.

So… it’s a solid maybe.  You don’t have enough horsepower to deal with plugins and filters like Noise Ninja or Lens Correction, but for some quick-and-dirty shoot-and-show type work, it could be a compact, lightweight solution.  Whether that’s worth USD$500 to USD$830 to you is another story.

iPad goes on sale in about two months time.

Case in point: Photek’s Softlighter II was recommended by Shawn on NSOP as a versatile light modifier.  Looking at the 46” SL-5000 model, with a removable 8mm umbrella shaft.  MSRP on this item is USD$84.50; “street price” at B&H Photo is USD$59.95 for this particular unit.  To buy two and have them shipped via USPS International Express Mail (USD$65) would come to USD$184.90, or CAD$196.60 at today’s exchange rate.  It’s safe to figure about CAD$200 all-in after you factor in credit card forex fees.

Okay, fine.  But I prefer to support Canadian retailers when I can – especially since it avoids delays at the border and idiotic grey-market warranty issues (that’s the topic for another post, though).  One of my favourite sources for photographic gear, Vistek, offers the SL-5000 (per Photek’s site, Vistek is their only authorized dealer in Canada).  The catch?  They want CAD$130 for one unit.  The all-in price for two, after taxes and shipping?  CAD$288.59 – about CAD$90, or 44% more.  Taking shipping out of the equation at both retailers, you’re looking at twice the price.  Huh?  That can’t be right.

So, I e-mailed Vistek to find out what the story is.  Here’s their reply (verbatim):

Thank you for your email. This is to confirm that we fully understand, in these economic times, that people are looking to get the most for their dollar and are more able and willing to do comparative shopping than ever before so we try to price match whenever possible. Though the internet has opened a whole new world of cross-boarder shopping manufacturers, unfortunately, still look at North America as a separated marketplace attaching uneven pricing to items sold in the US versus those sold in Canada, as such we are simply not able to match American pricing.

Please note that most manufacturers maintain this by not honouring cross border warranties as well. For example, Nikon Canada will not service items under a Nikon US warranty. Please be sure to confirm that your warranty will still be valid if purchasing from an international retailer.

Sounds to me like they’re suggesting that their hands are tied, since pricing is set by the manufacturer.  So, I e-mailed Photek as well with the same question.  Their reply (verbatim):

WE SUPPLY OUR DEALERS AT THEIR SPECIAL PRICING....WE HAVE NO SAY AS TO  WHAT PRICE THEY  DECIDE TO SELL .

I AM SORRY THAT WE CANNOT BE OF ANY FURTHER ASSISTANCE.

Okay, so Vistek vaguely implies that Photek is to blame, and Photek less-vaguely implies that Vistek is to blame.  Of course, without seeing any dealer price lists, it’s hard to know who’s doing responsible for the markup, and since these price lists are confidential, it’s bound to remain a secret.

I’m not trying to imply that Vistek is a bad retailer (they’re fantastic), or that Photek is trying to screw anyone (I doubt it, and certainly haven’t done enough research to assert that), or that B&H is a fantastic vendor (they’re okay).  Many industries (or manufacturers within said industries) are still operating on the basis of outdated foreign exchange rates and therefore don’t see a 50% markup for Canadian markets as unusual.  Other industries and retailers have done their best to bring pricing in line with current rates.  The fact remains that most Canadian consumers will react with their wallets, either shopping in the US, or avoiding overpriced products from certain manufacturers altogether.

What would you do?  Buy from the US, or look for a more fairly-priced competitor’s product in Canada?

You see, light slightly changes colour depending on its source.  Without getting too technical (I'll leave that to Wikipedia), an object seen under direct sunlight is of a slightly different colour than the same object seen under, say, a common household lightbulb (which will make it a little more reddish), or a fluorescent light (where it will be a little more greenish).

The human brain, however, is a marvel of adaptation.  Since we know what colour human skin is, for example, we don't 'see' the greenish tone that skin takes under typical office/classroom lighting.  Instead, it corrects for this automatically and we see people, not Martians.

A digital camera's sensor, on the other hand, doesn't work this way.  It records the scene exactly.  Film was the same; if you wanted to take a photo in an office that was light by fluorescents, you'd have to toss a magenta filter in front of your lens to correct for the greenish colour of the light source.  Nowadays, you can set your camera's white balance instead, correcting what the camera sees without the need for expensive, fragile filters.  These settings are typically listed as automatic, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, and custom.  Pick the one that's closest to your current lighting situation, and you're good to go.

What's more, is that you can make photos more interesting and dramatic by simply setting the camera to a white balance that doesn't match the scene in front of you.  I took the three photos shown below one after the other, all at the same exposure value, but with slightly different white balances.

No processing of any kind was applied to these images; notice the change in saturation, especially in the blues?  That's entirely due to the white balance setting.  Try it and see what creative uses you can come up with!

This is what makes mixed-lighting scenes difficult to shoot.  Where do you set your white balance, such that colours look normal?  More on this in a future post.

The above photo is, to date, the most-viewed photo on my Flickr stream.

It’s not shot with a super-awesome $Texas lens.  It’s not a fantastic composition.  Truth be told, it’s not my favourite photo.  But, that said, it does illustrate the title of this blog post pretty well.  Viewing it at high resolution, you can see just how focused everyone is on that puck.  Will Huet catch the rebound?  Will Straka or one of his fellow New York Rangers swoop in and put it in the net, or will the Habs defense keep them at bay?  There’s a lot of tension in this image; both figuratively and literally, everything is up in the air here, and the closure we want will never offered to us through anything but our imagination (or, perhaps, a highlight reel).

At the risk of sounding self-congratulatory, the reason I believe this photo is so popular is because of the moment that it captured.  A fraction of a second earlier or a fraction of a second later, and this would have been just another snapshot taken by a newbie with a camera.  Instead, through dumb luck, this newbie managed to catch a half-decent photo of an exciting game.

What I’ve learned since is that catching the moment has a lot more to do with patience than luck.  It’s about avoiding the “spray-and-pray” still of shooting, and becoming analytical of how the scene will unfold before your lens.  It’s about patience.  It’s about gut instinct, or about knowing your subject, and, okay, sometimes it’s still dumb luck.  But the more you learn to anticipate the right moment to squeeze the trigger, the better you’ll get at creating dynamic images.

A while back I mentioned the advantage of buying used lenses.  Well, putting my money where my mouth is --literally-- I picked up a pair of new prime lenses for myself yesterday.

On the left, a Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 -- on my crop body, this is about equivalent to a 'standard' focal length of 45mm.  It should serve as a nice, fast indoor/low light lens.

On the right, a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 -- equivalent to 136mm on my camera, this is a great, sharp lens that I intend on using for portrait photography.  Anyone want their photo taken?

I'll be sure to post up my thoughts on each after I've had a chance to play with them.