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photographer squid — Comments Off
9
Oct 09

first time for everything

I recently got to help out at a wedding being Mr photog. I hadn’t shot a wedding before and it was over before I could blink. It was a fun wedding. The bride looked pretty the groom was unshaven. It was a morning wedding so during the reception, it was breakfast time. Shooting in a room with no windows with the only light coming from a light source that could be darker then a candle was a challenge. BUT, I was using the new camera from Canon the EOS 7D. It has super powers with high ISO’s. It didn’t do to bad, it’s no Nikon D3 but I was surprised at how it turned out. Of course some noise ninja work fixed it up a little but it was fun. I would like to do more just like with everything it takes a lot of shooting before you have everything worked out. I wish I would of bought a wedding magazine to check out some shots but with a small room and bad light I would have just been freaked. Instead of just thinking, well, it’s more light then at a concert and i’m good at concert shots. Next time I will rent a big lens for some tight shots but I had to do with what I had.

photographer squid — Comments Off
12
Jul 09

What I learned from taking photo’s at the Coldplay Concert.

At this point in my photography life this is the biggest show I’ve ever had a chance to take photo’s at. Besides it being one of the best concerts I have ever seen from one of the biggest bands in the world right now and forever, top 5 concerts I’ve ever attended. I was kind of nervous for this show because I haven’t really taken photos at an Amphitheatre before. It will be good practice when I take photos at Dave Matthews for 3 days and Blink 182 3 days later.

1. Follow the newspaper guys.
These people know where to be if you are not allowed in a pit. If you have a choice to which side you get to be on, follow the paper jockeys.

2. Own the biggest and fastest camera you can afford.
I don’t own a great camera, I kind of fake it and get by with taking hundreds of shots. You need a lot of low light power.

3. Your lens isn’t long enough no matter how close you are.

We couldn’t be in the pit area because this is Coldplay and the biggest band in the world. They had more light set ups and video camera’s in that area that I have ever seen. PUT U2 to shame. I have a 24-70mm L 2.8 Canon lens that is perfect when you get in the photo pit or any closer than row J. For some reason I decided to put my 100 – 300mm lens in my bag just in case we got put in the area around the sound board. This lens is in no way a concert lens. BUT, I faked it and made it work.

4. Bring a taser
Because you didn’t follow the newspaper guys you got stuck with two idiot novice photogs. One “winner” used flash the whole time, so she got great flash shots of the people 4 feet in front of her. The other guy had his camera above his head the whole time taking blind shots. What a good taser would of done. I just stood behind them the whole time shooting between them getting shots. I took almost 270 shots in 16 minutes. I would have taken more but my camera has a buffer of 5 shots at a time.

5. Bring a Point and Shoot
When talking with my buddy that works for Clark County Amp… Thanks Keevin. He told me to bring my Point and Shoot because they didn’t say no to that. Which they really couldn’t of. But I hate my point and shoot, it’s old and is harder to change settings and I needed control. I had been checking out the Canon G9 because of what a friend had told me about them and he uses it for everything. Concerts, interviews and everything in between. It took really good videos and that was the selling point. I can’t say anything really bad about this camera except it has crappy low light High ISO. BUT it makes up for it with it’s video and sound.

So those are my tips for taking photos at Coldplay. I had fun, I ended up with a few good ones and a lot of blurry ones.

Here are a couple videos from the show…

Coldplay – Fix You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDwIbIs3EHU

Coldplay – Billie Jean “Michael Jackson Cover”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gHbDec7n6Q

photographer squid — 1 Comment
7
Jul 09

How to…by squid vicious

I don’t mind getting tips and tricks about photography but if I’m not asking for help why give advice. I love taking photos of fireworks, it’s something I look forward too a couple times a year but this year has been different. Twice in the last 3 days I have had people tell me how to do it. I don’t think my firework photos are perfect by any means but really. On the 4th I had a guy walk up to me, look at my gear and tell me I should be on the other side of the river to get the city in the shot. I said no and you can’t get the city lights and the fireworks at the same time. Plus I wanted to get this angle. I have taken photos from where this guy was telling me to go and guess what, the conditions are different this time. I don’t think he knew the barge moved to the southside of the Hawthorne Bridge. Usually it’s right in front of the Salmon St. Fountain on the northside of the bridge. The barge was also really close to shore. I was pretty annoyed by him, someone with a mono pod “basically a Tri pod with one leg” wasn’t going to give me any heads up or tips if is

A. Walking in the opposite direction he was telling me to go

B. Using the wrong equipment.

The second time was last night and I’m sure it’s just something he does being an old seasoned vet letting you know different settings could fix a problem. Only problem was it was a bokeh firework shot. To keep it simple “bokeh” is out of focus. After I told him that what I took was what I was trying to do he looked at my other photos and realized I knew what I was doing.

If I put my photo in a critique group or in the description ask for help then give your opinion. I don’t spew my ideas on people. If you want help, I’ll help. I didn’t help the 3 dumb ladies next to me on the bridge looking fir the firework setting on their point and shoot cameras.

photographer squid — Comments Off
7
May 09

firework season

I have lived in the same apartment for 6 1/2 years and if I am not watching the fireworks on the Waterfront i’m at my apartment. For the first time the fireworks were not blocked by buildings. I was in shock, never before have I seen any spark of fireworks. This was a good night.

photographer squid — Comments Off
28
Apr 09

concert shot

I really like doing concert photography. It’s super hard with it being very dark but I seem to be good at it. I am in a very nice situation since I work at a radio station that I get a lot of access that most would not. This last weekend I had a chance to take photo’s at the Wonder Ballroom with Ida Maria. Of course when a show doesn’t sell well or has a photography pit/security pit it makes it nice. Yeah the photo’s of the show didn’t turn out to bad but no where close to the ones I was able to take with Carolina Liar or Franz Ferdinand or Vampire Weekend. Being stuck at side of stage does limit the angles but she was fantastic in the world of moving around and being an odd singer.

photographer squid — Comments Off
21
Mar 09

Beach Trip

Never really thought about it being Spring Break for the Oregon kids. The drive down to Lincoln City wasn’t the faster beach drive ever but after 3 hours we finally got here for the sunset. I had heard reports from the other beach goers that the rain was coming down sideways. I didn’t have too much faith with the photos for the weekend but as I write this the sky is clear and the stars are out. I didn’t even say hi to anyone when we arrived, I just busted ass right to the beach. In the front and out the back before anyone noticed me.

photographer squid — Comments Off
17
Mar 09

False Horizon

It’s amazing that a sunrise can change the morning mood. I get up every morning take two steps to the right and look out the window. If it’s nice I continue to the living room, if it’s cloudy right to the bathroom. I do need to change my alarm to a little earlier with the day light savings. But living in Portland do I really take the chance on a 50/50 surnise or cloudy morning?

photographer squid — Comments Off
12
Mar 09

cooliris dot com

This might be the best way to view your contacts photo’s from flickr.
www.cooliris.com
First off, it’s fast, and very very pretty. We all like seeing our photo’s on black and this does that. Looking at your contacts the way flickr shows them to you is lame. They are so small and can’t really see the photo. I really don’t want to click on someone who has posted the same photo fifty times but with the camera moved one inch at a time. You can flip through tons of pages of contacts and see them at a normal size then zoom in. I know some people like using friendfeed.com but that get hard to view when you have a lot of contacts who do a lot of posting. This at least makes it easy. The downside of it is that you still can only see 5 photo’s from each contact but I’m ok with that with how nice it looks. Try it, or don’t. It’s what I like to use. Enjoy.

photographer squid — 1 Comment
7
Mar 09

bad sushi

Wow, I didn’t have fun this afternoon. I went to the movie Watchmen in IMAX then had sushi afterwords. I plowed through a couple dishes then picked up my third and had two pieces. Then I got one of those looks like Lardass got in Stand by Me after he had his 12th pie. I was able to manage keeping it down for the drive home but it didn’t end well. I did my business took a tap and some advil and I feel a lot better now. I do think nothing is in my system. And yes, it still tastes like sushi on the way out.

In no way is this photo from the place I had sushi, this place was in the Beaverton area…barf..bad sushi

Squid ViciousBlog of Squid, Portland Photographer at www.FiveZeroThree.com