More Photo Documenting Harrisburg

Seems that two wheels is the transport mode of the week! Thank goodness spring is turning here. It's starting to "green up" outside and more people are outside enjoying the city making an editorial istockphoto shoot more and more attractive.

Took a little break from the scene to snag a shot of my trusty steed while it was waiting for me to return to finishing the ride.

Bicycle commuting begins - Outdoor photography season close behind

Today was the day I'd been hoping for for a few weeks now. Bicycle Commuting Season officially opened today. The weather was nice. Actually it was downright warm this evening. The ride to work was a little interesting, I broke a spoke on a fast descent. The wheel wasn't TOO bad out of true to ride it. It did slow my pace to make sure it was stable though. A quick stop at the bike shop on the way home for a spoke and trued wheel fixed it all up though. (see missing spoke pictured above)

This also makes me feel smile that it's going to be outdoor photo session time. The trees still have the winter bare limbs and the grass isn't quite as green as my saturation slider makes it look... but we are getting there.

It was also a good day to do some scouting with the LX-5 today on the ride for an editorial shoot I want to do showcasing Harrisburg. I think I'm going to be focusing on Riverfront park for my project because it falls in line with my fitness interests of late. It's an attractive location (just not yet... still wintery looking.) 

I'm also testing my Eye-Fi card in my LX-5 and I'm waiting for the announced "direct mode" feature they announced at CES. This would have let me port these images from my LX-5 direct to my iPhone while on the trail without needing a WiFi hotspot and then I could have social shared them right away.

For the photo above, I had a little fun with the processing. I took the LX-5 RAW file into Lightroom and did some basic exposure adjustments and a "little" creative settings. Nothing major. Then I ported those JPGs back into my iPhone and used the app Diptic for the layout (cool little app for multi-panel images). That image was then imported into Instagram for some final finesse and sharing to my flickr feed, facebook wall and twitter. It's a fun little experiment to see what all you can do with iPhone apps when you are using a little better source material then my iPhone 3G camera.

Let me know what you think. Drop me a comment.

Bicycling Photography

Got out for the first mountain bike ride of the year now that the weather is turning. Been working on the bikes and tweaking and just hoping that things will be rolling smooth. I've also been cross training pretty heavily and I'd have to say, the first ride of the year was better then any ride last year (fitness wise). So, I'm feeling good that this is the "starting point" for the year. That's exciting!

My riding buddy Jon wanted a new fb photo rocking his new gear and ride so I threw the LX-5 for a quick short photo loop before we were done for the day. 

In the vein of the previous post about finding your creative inspiration... I started reading a new e-Book on my kindle this weekend and in the introduction alone, I've already seen a couple videos in my head that I'd like to produce. Along the lines of today's photoshoot, it really gets me thinking about some photoshoots that I just HAVE to do this "outdoor season".

Jump Starting The Creative Idea - Finding your photo passion

If you've ever hit a creative slump, writers block or just not inspired by recent work... it happens... this podcast episode is a must listen to.

Hearing words like these really get me missing our podcast that is currently on hiatus. The gems still found in the LightSource podcast was amazing and chatting with all these wonderful guests for an hour or so was something I'll always remember. I still get emails with people begging and asking for more episodes and while it isn't on the current list of "to dos", I wouldn't say there will never be another episode! It was a lot of fun.

I've been focusing more firing up my passion for my own work though. Digging through my mountain of iStockphoto.com uploads and getting more of my past work seen and sold so I can move on to creating new work. It's exciting. Bring on spring and the outdoor shooting season!

 Excitement

Find out more about the inspirational LensWork Podcasts available at
http://www.lenswork.com/lensworkpodcast1-1.htm

Canon rumors (put the brakes on the upgrade)

With my recent postings, I’ve been hungry for any sort of details of a new camera that might be coming from Canon. I don’t follow Canon Rumors very much, but was just poking around and saw this info.

5D Mark III
I received 2 different announcement dates. September timeframe and in the 28mp range from a decent source and 30mp and June from an unknown source.

28mp? Sweet. I can’t wait to see what video details they’d put in that camera. With the success of the 5D Mark II, I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t raise the bar with video in an SLR.

If Canon is listening, I’d love to have two card slots like the D7000 has with the ability to split up what gets saved where.

And while I’m requesting stuff, Can Eye-Fi figure out a way to send a photo direct from the card to my iPhone (without being on a WiFi network.)


I don’t know what to make of this rumor… but I have to say. I’m willing to be patient this year and just shoot more stills and Low-Fi HD Video. Maybe I’ll work on upgrading that lens and flash, while I’m waiting on Canon to make their announcement.