By Martin Joergensen | January 2, 2009 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
I started this blog back in August 2008, and as a celebration of its first New Year I thought it would be fun to look at the most visited pages I published on the blog since then.
Starting from the tenth spot a small news story on a fancy strap begins (or rather ends) the list, which then consists of a mix of technical, gear-related articles and opinions. My flash modifier series seems quite popular, which is good, but I like the fact that my opinion on the megapixel race and the value of pictures is placed high. Both types of entries will be high on my list in 2009. The first place is somewhat a surprise, but I guess a few references on other blogs and incoming links have lifted my rumor-piece to a first place. The number of visits to the first three entries are about the same, so it's not like a clear winner. I have omitted the front page from the list. Its number is about ten times the top ranking story, so a lot of people see the front page and don't get much further - as it is on most sites.
10 Black Rapid Strap
9 Flash modifiers
8 I filmed with a D90
7 A mini snoot
6 Too many pixels
5 Flash diffusers
4 Flash filters or gels
3 Flash snoots and grids
2 Why your images are worthless
1 Nikon's bigger brother
By Martin Joergensen | December 20, 2008 2:08 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
I usually respect Annie Leibovitz for her work. I read Vanity Fair regularly, and Leibovitz' pictures are always worth some attention. I'm not exactly overwhelmed by her style, her compositions or her lighting skills. My guess is that most skilled professionals would be able to do a lot of what Leibovitz does, if they had the resources that she has. But she sure does a decent job of most assignments given to her.
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Tasteless espresso.
By Martin Joergensen | December 15, 2008 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
A few years back I stumbled over a weird contraption called the Lens Baby. A primitive lens construction – no offense, it really is – consisting of a single lens, a bellows and a Nikon mount. No aperture, no focus ring, no electronics, no nuttin'. Just a lens, which you can bend and squeeze to almost any position. The samples I saw shot with this little thing and its price made me order one right away. It's not often you get a lens at less than 100 USD.
It was fun, but not an easy lens to master. I ran around for a couple of weeks and bent and squeezed I did land a few lucky punches, but never really got the effects, which I thought I would, and the lens spent more time in its small plastic bag than on my camera. The loose aperture rings, my inconsistent results, the dark viewfinder. No, I didn't find that easy at all.
But that has changed now!
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Yeah Baby!.
By Martin Joergensen | December 12, 2008 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
As you have probably already noticed, there's a new design on my blog. The new design is of course meant to tie my activities together with the Nikonians by providing a similar look and not least links to other parts of the humongous Nikonians site. The original blog was kind of an experiment, and was just launched with a standard design. It has been the plan to do a redesign all the time.
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the blog or the new design, feel free to contact me. Use the comment field below.
By Martin Joergensen | December 8, 2008 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3)
Giving stuff away for free can be a very good way of making money. I have written about that before, and the current economic state of the world makes this even more true. People will spend money even more unwillingly due to threats of downfall and recession. It's not like they won't spend money. They will. In particular if they know that the stuff they buy is good.
The last few weeks there have been a few entries on Danish professional photographer's web sites – mainly on the Photographer's union's web pages. Most of these photographer's are photojournalists who come from a world of stable jobs, regular freelance agreements, strict segregation between amateurs and professionals and magazines and newspapers as the typical customers paying the tariff.
One entry reads “Free images, free newspapers, free stories, free entry. Soon the only thing not free will be the ride to work”. This piece and a couple of others on similar photojournalist's sites mainly cover an incident where a newspaper published images taken by an amateur photographer who gained free entry to a concert in exchange.
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Why free can make you money.
By Martin Joergensen | December 8, 2008 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 3)
With the introduction of the new D3x 24.5 megapixels monster from Nikon I cannot help think that one can get too many megapixels.
Maybe I should rephrase that: I could definitely get too many pixels.
My humble D200 does 10 megapixels, and that has been sufficient for most of my uses. I do get images published in glossy magazines and I have landed a few covers on such magazines. A lot of these shots were actually done with an older 6 megapixels camera, and my favorite example of the sufficiency of pixels is a Nikon CoolPix 775 image, which I had featured as a full page in a fishing magazine. For those not born back in April 2001 when this camera was introduced, we're talking 2 megapixels or a stunning 1600 by 1200 pixels.
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Too many pixels?.
It's hard to beat the Strobist!
By Martin Joergensen | November 24, 2008 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
However much I'd like to be voted or even nominated the Best Photo Blog 2008, I will have to get out of bed extremely early to beat David Hobby and his blog The Strobist – arguably the most influential and popular photo blog and one of the most influential tech blogs at all on the web.
David has managed to turn his profession as a newspaper photographer into a passion, which he has managed to spread out to literally hundreds of thousands of readers. His small spare time project aiming to inform and educate on the use of small flashes – strobes – has become the place where small light fans – including myself – hang out and get inspiration, learn, discuss, post images. And it has formed the base for David's professional life as The Strobist.
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It's hard to beat the Strobist!.
By Martin Joergensen | November 17, 2008 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2)
I have always liked the light that comes from striplights - narrow softboxes, which create a well defined strip of light. Opposite square or wide, rectangular softboxes, the striplight gives a more defined light, which is not quite as soft as the light from the softbox.
Striplights are often used to accent body shapes or to create distinct rimlights on bodies or faces. the narrow band of light will create character in one direction and soft light in the other. When used on shiny objects the reflections - the specular highlights - will also be narrow strips rather than squares or dots - or reflections of an umbrella or another familiar shape.
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DIY mini-striplight.
By Martin Joergensen | November 10, 2008 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
These ten rules were originally made for Lomo's and Lomography. If you are not familiar with this concept, check it out. I'm not going to cover it in depth here. But I will happily steal the Ten Golden Rules of Lomography and rewrite them to Ten Golden Rules of Photography.
Like the Lomo, these rules are kind of anarchistic and definitely against the establishment. But they are still very much in line with my recent entry "Exercise your photography muscles". These rules are kinda "Exercise your photography muscles in a fun way".
Continue reading 10 Golden Rules.
By Martin Joergensen | November 5, 2008 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Unfortunately the system I use for my "On Location" slide shows don't allow me to incorporate video (yet), but I still shoot some footage now and then when I'm on location.
These 7-and-a-half minutes were shot at the Strobist Meetup here in Copenhagen, which I covered a couple of podcasts ago. The video shows the ambiance at these meetings as well as some setups and more results from the day.
And yes, I know there are white lenses in there, but trust me, those C-shooters can actually be quite nice.
You can see a larger version of the video at Vimeo.
