Martin Joergensen: December 2008 Archives

Tasteless espresso

By Martin Joergensen | December 20, 2008 2:08 AM |

leibovitz.jpg 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.

Continue reading Tasteless espresso.


Yeah Baby!

By Martin Joergensen | December 15, 2008 1:54 PM |

composer.jpgA 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!

Continue reading Yeah Baby!.


New design

By Martin Joergensen | December 12, 2008 6:03 PM |

IMG_2103.jpgAs 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.


Why free can make you money

By Martin Joergensen | December 8, 2008 7:20 PM | | Comments ( 3)

MJ0_2056-01.jpgGiving 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. Continue reading Why free can make you money.


Too many pixels?

By Martin Joergensen | December 8, 2008 12:37 AM | | Comments ( 3)

nikon-775.jpgWith 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. Continue reading Too many pixels?.


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