Month: January 2014

Where’s your camera?

by Stanley Learybusiness
 
Fuji X-E2 panoramic mode

I finally started carrying my camera everywhere with me a few years ago. I think of it like my watch. I can’t benefit from owning a look and using it as needed if I don’t wear it.

 

I am constantly looking for a camera solution I can use all the time. But, unfortunately, for the most part, my cameras have been more like a clock than a watch.

A more miniature camera is why I am now enjoying shooting with the Fujifilm X-E2. It is smaller and lighter than my Nikon D4, but like my clocks, at home, I am keeping the Nikon D4 because it does serve a purpose for my commercial work.

Maybe you think I am like my dad asking you to join the “Nut House” by carrying your camera.

Most people think of packing the camera to take it on vacation, as I did to St. Thomas this summer with my family.

We now have photos of my wife and daughter on the same beach, Caneel Bay at St. Thomas, where my wife’s parents went for their honeymoon.

Why not just use your camera phone?

Today’s camera phones take beautiful photos, but there is a reason all the pros are not shooting jobs with them. The images do look great under ideal light and on your phone. However, for me, a photo is not a photo unless you can make a large wall print of the image, and this is where most smartphones fall apart.

I want to put a print on my wall at home, and I don’t want to miss out because I decided my camera phone will suffice.

We put our photos on our walls to enjoy all the time and help us remember those places we have gone in our lifetime.

For our anniversary dinner, we took one of our daughter’s friends to Tokyo Boat, where we had a Hibachi dinner. The girls ordered Ramune. Ramune is widely known for the distinctive design of its bottle, often called Codd-neck bottles, after the inventor, Hiram Codd. They are made of glass and sealed with marble; the codd head is held in place by the pressure of the carbonation in the drink. We are pushing the marble inside the neck of the bottle, where it rattles around while drinking. Therefore, the glasses are sometimes called “marble soda” outside Japan.

Having my camera helped me capture the excitement of opening the girls’ bottles and treasure the moment forever.

I looked around the restaurant’s walls and realized they, too, celebrate using photographs of customers. I like this more than just the famous people that come to a restaurant and put those photos up. A restaurant is a place that celebrates everyone person.

Of course, I captured the volcano created using an onion on the grill. We discovered this was our daughter’s friend first time eating Hibachi, and she was enjoying the show.

Isn’t all of life worth recording? So while we didn’t plan where to go for our dinner all week, I got to capture slices of life with my camera with me all the time.

What all these snapshots of life are doing for me is keeping my eye fresh. Of course, I am not taking a lot of time when we are going somewhere to take photos, but by always shooting and reviewing my work, I am building a library in my mind.

What about each of these moments is nostalgic to me? Can these photos carry the same meaning to others who were not with me? If I were to go back, what would I do differently if this were a commercial job?

I love to play my trumpet, and I played in the band and orchestra for most of my school years. Then, when I went to East Carolina University, I played in the marching band and played in the Jazz Band.

I had a lot of talent but never practiced enough to play professionally.

I work with Dan Cathy and love talking with him about the trumpet. Dan almost became a professional musician before joining the family business Chick-fil-A. Here is a link to Dan playing.

Today he is still playing for fun. Dan knows that he cannot just leave the trumpet in the case, and when he decides to play, pull it out and play. So Dan plays his trumpet every day for about thirty minutes to an hour.

You see, photography is very similar to music. Ansel Adams, a concert pianist, was doing photography on the side just like Dan Cathy played the trumpet while being the CEO of Chick-fil-A. This discipline Ansel Adams brought to both made it possible for him to excel. He explored Yosemite for years shooting it over and over before he finally had a breakthrough. He applied all the years of shooting to turning the corner and learning how to capture what he was pre-visualizing rather than just capturing what was in front of him.

Do you want to get better? If so, where is your camera? You need to shoot every day; just like a professional musician, you must practice so that when you perform, it is at your highest level of ability.

By the way, when you shoot daily, you now have something to share and connect with others through social media, newsletters, and blogs. So now you may know why you haven’t been successful on social media; you don’t have anything photographically to share because you are not shooting regularly.

Fuji X-E2 Manual Focus

by Stanley LearyPhotography

Here in this photo is the setup I am using to demonstrate the manual focus of the Fuji X-E2.

When you switch the focus mode selector to M (manual), you can turn the focus on the lens.

The switch is on the front of the camera, as you see. It would be excellent for you to override the Auto Focus and grab the focus, but that isn’t possible now with the camera. Overriding autofocus is something I would love for Fujifilm to add as a feature in the next firmware update.

When you look through the finder or on the back with the LCD screen, the view will look like this before you touch the focus or push the shutter release halfway down.

When you start focusing, the camera will zoom in if you have the MF Assist turned on. I highly recommend using it because it is better than the traditional DSLR because you cannot zoom in and see the details to focus on this critically.

By pressing and holding the center of the command dial, you display the MF Assist menu. You get to choose between two options: Focus Peak Highlight or Digital Split Image.

The Focus Peak Highlight–highlights the high-contrast outlines. Rotate the focus ring until the subject is highlighted. Focus Peaking works for me the best or most of the time. For example, I used it to get the image below here.

Digital Split Image: Displays a split, black-and-white image in the center frame. Frame the subject in the split-image area and rotate the focus ring until the three parts of the split image are correctly aligned.

Here you can see the Digital Split Image. The clue that you know which one you are using is the Digital Split Image assist in B&W.

Press the center of the command dial to zoom in on the active focus area during shooting, which also works in AF Mode. It will show you the focus point where ever it is in AF Mode. Just press again to return to full frame. Focus zoom is unavailable in focus mode C or when PRE-AF is on.

My Fuji X-E2 travel kit

by Stanley LearyPhotography
The Fuji kit looks like what is becoming my go-to system. Unfortunately, I am missing the new 10-24mm ƒ/4, which will not be out until March.

If they made a 28-300mm equivalent to the Nikon system, I would use this and maybe just a super wide zoom like the 10-24mm slotted for March. Right now, the X-E2 with the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm will have to suffice. They do a great job right now.

I see replacing the 18-55mm with the newer 16-55mm ƒ/2.8. I can also see replacing the 55-200mm with the 50-140mm ƒ/2.8. I think that the faster ƒ-stop will improve the camera focusing in low light and give me a shallower depth-of-field.

I am very interested in learning more about their flash system. Imagine if they could develop a plan with a radio remote built into the flashes and cameras in the future. Of course, I am dreaming but I also hope Fujifilm is paying attention to the pro’s desires. I think they are close to taking a chunk of the business away from Nikon and Canon.

The one thing I hope they continue to do, leading to them ultimately dominating the camera market, is updating firmware on cameras. They are doing a better job updating older cameras with newer software capabilities.

The XF lens lineup that Fujifilm has planned for the Fujifilm X series through the end of 2014. Zeiss is making two lenses right now for the system.

Fuji X-E2 AF Settings

by Stanley LearyAF Settings

There is a learning curve with every new camera I get. Changing to another brand increases the learning curve a great deal.

Auto Focus with the Fuji X-E2 has been a challenge for me due to learning how the camera works the best. This was true with I learned all the settings for my Nikon D4. When shooting sports, I used different AF settings than for regular photojournalistic shooting, which I usually do with the storytelling style I use.

This is what I am finding to work best for the photojournalism shooting style.

First, go to the shooting menu and the [camera 4] part of the menu. The top 4 menu items in that submenu all deal with AF.

For the AF MODE I am finding I like to use the Multi-Mode

In the AF Multi-Mode, when the shutter button is pressed halfway, the camera detects high-contrast subjects and selects the focus area automatically.

It is generally pretty quick and usually picks the closest object with high contrast to the camera.

For the most part, I am leaving the Face Detection off. I might choose to have this setting on if I am shooting portraits or a group photo. Intelligent Face Detection sets focus and exposure for human faces anywhere in the frame, preventing the camera from focusing on the background in group portraits. Choose Face Detection for shots that emphasize portrait subjects.

If PRE-AF ON is selected, the camera will continue to adjust focus even when the shutter-release button is not pressed halfway.  Note that this increases the drain on the battery. Generally, this is off for me.

You must return to the first menu item AF Mode and pick AREA to use the focus points. Once this is selected and you are not in Face Detection mode, you can move this green box around on the grid points.

You will need to push the AF button to activate the screen you see above.  Then you can toggle around the screen using the four buttons around the Menu OK Button to navigate.

When you select a point, you can increase the size of the green box to take into account more area to determine the contrast to pop the camera in focus.

Here you can see I increased the size of the box for focusing.

All these functions work with AF as long as you choose C [continuous] or S [single] on the front of the camera.

The one thing Fuji needs to do in a firmware upgrade allows you to override and grab the focus ring and adjust the focus. This is where Nikon and Canon are superior, for now.

In the M [manual focus] setting, you can adjust everything manually. I will not go into those setting right now.

AF Setting Tip

Once you have everything set the way you like it in the menu, then go and save the setting in Custom settings.  That can be found in the three menus>Edit Save Custom Setting.

I am using a few of these custom settings. My hope is Fuji will do a firmware upgrade allowing the user to change the naming of those settings rather than being stuck with “Custom 1” when I might like to call it “Portrait” or “Sports,” for example.

Sound Tidbit

Beeping noise is the default setting for the camera. So when the camera locks in the focus, you hear a beep. Please don’t make the mistake I made by choosing to turn the sound off.

Do not use the Silent Mode to turn the sound off the beeping. When you do, the flash will no longer work. This includes the internal and if you use any external flash.

You can turn the sound off by going to the Sound Set-Up screen.

The next thing you choose in the menu is Operation Vol.

I put my setting to OFF. Now the beep I no longer hear, but the flash still works. Hey, I missed a bunch of photos because I had the camera in Silent Mode and never could figure out why my moment stopped working. I thought I had broken the camera. I had to wait and read the manual to find the reason why.

Photographer’s Devotion: Fighting Depression

by Stanley Learybusiness

You can have what everyone else would say is a mountain top experience and still, be depressed. I know I have been many times in my life.

1996 Olympic gold medalist Derrick Adkins used running to help deal with his depression. When he wasn’t feeling good, he just went out and ran, and his feeling of depression helped drive him to be the fastest 400m hurdler in the world.

Adkins had professional help and, with prescription drugs, could find a balance that he could not see before. One of my friend’s children started taking a yellow pill prescribed by a psychiatrist and immediately noticed a difference. One day the child said to his mother, “Everyone could benefit from a yellow pill.”  They didn’t want their child on medication, but this was their last resort, and to see the child’s mood change so drastically brought tears to her eyes.

The old saying about your glass being half empty or half full is a key to fighting some types of depression. You can see your drink, but the choice can be life-changing.

Purpose Driven Life

When you feel depressed many times, it is from a lack of purpose in your life.

Rick Warren is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch in Lake Forest, California, the eighth-largest church in the United States. He wrote the NY Times bestseller Purpose Driven Life.

I believe it was a runaway bestseller because so many people are depressed because they lack a purpose. Why am I here?

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

We are here to do good work. While this sounds simple, if you are dealing with depression, you are unsure what your gifts are and how to use them, or you may feel that your skills are unnecessary in this world.

Good Night’s Rest

While everyone benefits from a good night’s sleep, sometimes our bodies are not working correctly. Sometimes the chemicals that get replenished in a healthy body are lacking in those dealing with depression.

Seeking professional help can be a lifesaver. Sometimes people can benefit from drugs to help them find balance. This is similar to a person with diabetes who takes drugs to maintain sugar balance.

Now, even if you get those drugs and they help with suicidal thoughts, you still need to have help with learning how to live life to its fullest.

Importance of Community

I can get caught in a thought loop. Just like a record that skips, I can have unproductive thoughts. Because I am stuck in a circle, I can’t move forward and get better. I have found that sharing my fears and struggles with others gives me insights on how to move forward.

Often it is not because of what people say to me, but just the process of putting words to my emotions and saying them out loud helps me see the flaws in some of my thoughts.

We all have gone through those moments when either we or we see someone else come upon an obstacle and struggle. How many times have you tried to open a door and realized instead of pushing, you should pull?

How often do we need someone to show us how to do something on our computers?

When you embrace your flawed condition and live within a community being open and honest, you discover we are all broken and need each other.

Throughout my life, those who have helped the most in my times of need were those who revealed their struggles. I think this is why Alcoholics Anonymous works so well. It is when they open up, admit their efforts and help one another as they recover.

Genius and Insanity

There is an excellent line between genius and insanity. We find many of those who were highly creative would later take their own lives.

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” 

― Aristotle

Vincent van Gogh battled mental illness and died from what was an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

I believe if you are an artist, you will often find yourself on the edge of depression. I think the reason is that to capture the mood, you must be highly in touch with your emotions. When you start to feel at this depth, it can encapsulate you. You struggle to communicate to others your deepest thoughts and fears.

It took Ansel Adams many years before he had his creative breakthrough where he was able to finally pre-visualize and master the craft enough to know how not to capture what he saw but what he felt.

Many war photojournalists return from the war dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. The best therapy for those suffering tends to be when they journal. It is the process of moving those thoughts from one side of the brain to the other through writing that many can “process” their ideas.

After 911, the news media helped America process its trauma. The media was helping us to write our story as a community. We were able to heal because through all this madness; we saw the silver lining of our society. We saw the community come together, as many have never experienced.

As the media told the stories of rebuilding families and communities, we all felt much better.

Importance of Journaling and Community

Take the time to write down your struggles as best you can. Write down all the crap you are experiencing. Find a group where you can share your efforts.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference. 

– Serenity Praye

So take the time to go back through your journal. Make two columns and put all the things you have no control over in one column. In the other column, but those things you do have the ability to change.

Make an action plan of the things you can do today.  No jobs today, then list those people you can contact. What if you don’t know who to contact? Take the time to contact someone and ask them how I find leads.

Sit down with a few friends and hopefully find a mentor who can help you sort out your list and thoughts. They can help you find the wisdom you need to make it through the day.

Help someone else today

I think you should have one last action item on your To-Do List for the day. Always find some way to help someone today.

I recommend making a list of people you will contact once a week. Each day plans to get 3 to 5 people.

While you may think you need to contact all these people and get them to help you, I challenge you to listen to them. Ask questions and get to know each person and where they are right now in life.

Do they need a word of encouragement? Do they need you to help them make a connection? Did you take the time to be able to listen to them?

Your depression and hopelessness will help you be compassionate to another person who is struggling as well.

Resources

If you feel like life is too difficult, please reach out to professional counselors. Every community has mental health centers where you can go and talk. They will help you navigate your road to stability. Many houses of faith have counseling centers.

Be sure you are meeting with a trained professional counselor. I recommend you talk to a licensed clinical social worker, a licensed psychologist, or a psychiatrist. Remember, only the Psychiatrist can help you if your body is chemically imbalanced.

Be a resource as well. Be willing to listen to someone today. By just acknowledging someone, you can be the difference between life and death for them.

Photographers we are part of a community

by Stanley LearyPhotography

A few days ago, Dave “Mullet” Martin, Associated Press photographer based in Montgomery, Ala., died after collapsing on the Georgia Dome field after the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Tuesday night.

Dave Martin is on the left wearing the blue shirt in this photo of photographers covering the Chick-fil-A Kickoff earlier this year.

In the days following Dave’s loss, people are telling stories of “Mullet” and “Vern.” Of course, he called just about most other photographers Vern.

Sean Bush commented on the Facebook Tribute page:

“Hey Vern, one of my members so an so is sending you this can you get it turned around for so an so’s deadline. Oh and by the way Vern yer still ugly.” I had a great admiration for Mullet not only as a photographer but as a person. Dave had a drive like no other, a love for what he did, and the ability it teach by example and kindness.

Mark Lent said:

I have many things to thank Dave for… He encouraged me and always treated my abilities as a photographer as equal to his own, even though they were not.

There were many stories about Dave, and the theme I continued to hear was how hard Dave worked and competed against everyone. You also heard how much he mentored so many. What was also special is how he often gave others shooting for him a better angle but always came away with great shots from wherever he was shooting.

He loved to joke and give everyone a hard time, but he also respected others in the profession. He was not putting you down to elevate himself. What he was giving to all the photographers that knew him were respect and acknowledgment.

Tami Chappel, Reuter’s photographer, posted on the Dave Martin Tribute page that a gathering at Manuel’s Tavern occurred this past Saturday night. As she said, Dave had a restaurant in every town he loved to go to, and Manuel’s was that place in Atlanta.

Tami printed some pictures of Dave that we put on the tables as we gathered to tell our stories with Dave.

We all stood up together and toasted our friend and colleague who brought us all together in his honor in his death.

Here is a photo of Michael Schwarz showing a new camera to David Murray and David Tullis. Sharing is typical of Dave’s friends. We love to share what we are learning and know that while we all compete, we are also close because we have so much in common.

You can see the joy on everyone’s faces as they share experiences. We enjoy not just telling our stories but listening to one another.

I can almost hear Dave giving John Bazemore hell for the photo on John’s computer in the image above. “Why did you shoot that photo?” I could listen to him say.

Then I guess Dave went back to editing, thinking I didn’t get that photo that Bazemore got. Later I can hear him complaining that pictures of John’s ran everywhere. Sometimes he was joking, and other times, he was trying to figure out why that photo worked with more editors. He would then beat us all the next few times.

While John Bazemore was shooting with every other photographer at the end of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, competing for the space to get the shot, he noticed it wasn’t as tricky, and that is when he saw Dave was not there.

Every year, we notice that it is easier to get that photo. I hope we all realize it is because Dave is gone and remembers a class act.

I am sure Dave “Mullet” Martin would tell me, “Just Shut Up and Make A Picture!”

Fujifilm X-E2 testing the 18-55mm and 55-200mm with Test Chart

by Stanley LearyPhotography

I bought the Large High-Resolution Test Chart for Camera Lens off eBay for $27. Here is a link if you choose to do something similar.

Here is the setup where I had two soft boxes at 45º. I did a custom white balance using ExpoDisc.

Put the chart on a music stand and then moved the camera back as I zoomed in.

I made all the photos at ƒ/8, 1/180 @ ISO 200. I also used a tripod to be sure I didn’t introduce any camera shake into the pictures.

Below each photo is a link where you can download the high-resolution JPEG as the camera captured it. The color space is ADOBE RGB, and I chose the standard color setting comparable to the Provia color space.

Fuji 55-200mm @ 55mm [High Resolution]
Fuji 55-200mm @ 135mm [High Resolution]
Fuji 55-200mm @ 200mm [High Resolution]
Fuji 18-55mm @ 18mm [High Resolution]
Fuji 18-55mm @ 23mm [High Resolution]
Fuji 18-55mm @ 35mm [High Resolution]
Fuji 18-55mm @ 55mm [High Resolution]

My conclusion is that both of the lenses are sharp. Now, this is at ƒ/8, and later I will test the lens at all the apertures, but this is to give you a glimpse into how nice the lens performs.

Fuji XF 18-55mm ƒ2.8-4 and XF 55-200mm ƒ/3.5-4.8 at the Chick-fil-A Bowl game

by Stanley LearyPhotography
[Fujifilm X E2, 18-55mm, ISO 640, ƒ/2.8, 1/60]

I am not entirely comfortable enough to shoot an assignment with the camera alone. The reason is nut the camera’s capabilities but my knowledge of how to use it. Shooting with the Nikon D4 is second nature.

I must get to this point with the camera where I am not hunting for the control to change something on the camera.

[Fujifilm X E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/105]

I set the camera to shoot on Auto ISO RAW. So the lowest ISO would be 200, and the highest is 6400. I also set the shutter speed to 1/60 and would change that to 1/250 and 1/1000, depending on the situation.

[Fujifilm X E2, 18-55mm, ISO 640, ƒ/4.5, 1/220]

For every camera I have owned, the autofocus has so many options that if you choose the proper setup for a situation, you get incredible results. Autofocus issues are why most pros ask other pros if they are having trouble with a similar camera. Then if they are not, they ask them what settings they are using for a situation.

[Fujifilm X E2, 55-200mm, ISO 2500, ƒ/4.8, 1/500]

Mostly, all these photos were custom white balanced using the ExpoDisc.

[Fujifilm X E2, 55-200mm, ISO 4000, ƒ/4.2, 1/500]

I like the skin tones with the Fuji X E2. I also think their lenses are super sharp and have great dynamic range and color.

[Fujifilm X E2, 55-200mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500]

All the images I processed using Adobe Lightroom 5.3.

[Fujifilm X E2, 55-200mm, ISO 4000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500]

I had just bought the new Fuji 55-200mm, my first time using it.

[Fujifilm X E2, 55-200mm, ISO 2500, ƒ/3.6, 1/500]

I loved how the lens felt in my hands. It was well balanced and well built.

[Fujifilm X E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/500]

Shooting the coin up close with the 55-200mm and shooting from the press box were two extremes where the image stabilization showed how good it worked. In addition, I was pleased with the results of handheld photos in both of those situations.

The reason I am so excited about the Fuji is its weight. My wife took a photo of me in the press box shooting.

Photo by Dorie Griggs

I was carrying all this on me using the backpack, and the ThinkTank modular belt system from 1:00 pm to 1:30 am.

  • 2 – Nikon D4 cameras
  • Nikon 14-24mm ƒ/2.8
  • Nikon 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6
  • Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8
  • Sigma 1.4 converter
  • Shure Wireless lavalier microphone system
  • Nikon SB900 with spare batteries
  • 2 – Spare batteries for the Nikon D4
  • 10 – CF, XQR, and SD cards
  • Fujifilm X E2
  • Fujifilm XF 18-55mm
  • Fujifilm XF 55-200mm
  • Manfrotto MonoPod
I could cut this down to 20% of what I was carrying if I just added one more Fuji X E2 and let go of all the Nikon gear.
I will keep my Nikon system until I can comfortably shoot sports and videos with the Fuji system as I can now with the Nikon D4. There is a chance that some of this is just my ability to use the Fuji X system.
I can tell you I will be shooting a lot more with the Fuji system.