Sometimes its just Fail, all the way around~

So, long time no see, again. Yes, yes, I know. I fail at this writing thing. It’s not so much the writing as it is the keeping to a posting schedule instead of visiting wordpress and getting lost in other blogs. It’s the same thing on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and FB for me. No it’s not ADHD…. it’s more like easily distracted, believe me I am not hyper about anything… well except chocolate and new camera gear, and maybe cute puppies.

Anyway to the good stuff! On the list are two new photo sharing apps.

One is very specific and unfortunately for me doesn’t have an android app yet. Just a mobile website, which is fine, just lacks some of what you would expect. But it is a relatively new app. Know as Pack, it is a photo app for dogs! Only dogs. I mean you could take a selfie, as long as it is with your dog. Visit the website or check out the app for ios here. It is a great way to share the love of your best friend and not feel guilty about spamming your social networks with photos of your dog. If there was an app for android I would use it more as the mobile website doesn’t quite offer everything I like in a photo app yet.

On to my second, and I dare-say my Instagram replacement! Not that I really even use Instagram much, it is way, way to messy. EyeEm is my newest photo sharing app obsession! Oddly enough you can also connect it to your Instagram. You can also connect it to your Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare, and Facebook. I am still waiting for a G+ hookup, please please please give me a G+ hookup! EyeEm offers a nice selection of filters and all those other things you like about a photo sharing app but it does offer more, a lot more. First there are missions, much like how Foap had events you can join and win money or prizes so does EyeEm, however, I don’t need to take a picture of my passport or drivers license to compete. Secondly unlike other photo sharing apps like Instagram where the plethora of tags is staggering, I am limited to 4 tags. It is amazing!  The limit of 4 tags helps a lot, and cuts down on the messiness. When I search for #Cute dog, I just get cute dogs, not random selfies tagged with cute dog. EyeEm also has two great features that deal with geo-location.  The first is if you photo has geo-location information you can tag businesses, locations, etc directly, much how foursquare used to work. The second geo-location feature is like something from 500px but much better. Photos tagged with a geo-location close to where you are with your phone now show up. A great little feature called “Photos around you” will bring up any photos tagged with geo-location in the area you are currently in. It’s great for last min photo ideas, photo walks, and inspiration in a neighborhood you may no longer see anything new in. So if you have the desire to leave the little square box behind check out EyeEm.

In photo trip news August should be a decent month. I plan on going to Yoro Park in Gifu and hopefully climbing Mt. Fuji this vacation! It will destroy a pair of shoes though… it did last time. So I will need to get a new pair. I am in need of a new pair of Vibrams anyway 😉 September is looking pretty bland but I am saving for the Kouyou season so I can hit Kyoto, Wakayama and Nagano this year! I am taking part in Color Me Rad in Tokyo on the 23rd of September but I have been reading the horror stories of the cornstarch in the lens! So now I am seeing what I can do to protect my camera and if it is worth the risk…. One can hope! It looks like it may involve a lot of plastic wrap, plastic bags and maybe some duck tape to keep it all sealed up tight.

I did make it to the last day of the World Cosplay Summit which will be up in a post hopefully next week! So keep an eye out for those photos!  It was amazing! I just wish I had taken the days off in advance and gone to the whole thing! Next year that is the plan! I also became an official contributor to Yokoso News! Check it it here!! Get your Japan fix from the Chubu area!

 

 

 

 

Mejiro!

That title most likely tells you absolutely nothing… Unless you googled it already. (On a side note, my post order got mixed up so scroll down to find my sakura plans~ They had already been posted before the last post. Fail on my part sorry! Anyway,) Mejiro are small green, with a dash of yellow, birds that have a white circle around their eyes. Also known as White-eyes or Japanese White Eyes they are omnivorous little birds. During sakura season they enjoy plucking the little bugs right out of the pink blossoms making for some interesting pictures.

What they don’t tell you is that these little guys are fast! Always hopping around and quick to flit away~ Which makes getting in focus shots difficult! Especially if you forget to remove your filter….>.>….

Today was the first time for me to actually see them in real life! I have seen many pictures of the little guys but have never seen one until today~ Now I just wish it had been bright and sunny so their colors showed up brighter and not as dull looking. Just wanted to give you a bit of spring from Japan wherever you are in the world~

Armed, but not dangerous, at least not yet….

So as I have said in an earlier post my camera is coming along more often. As much as I love my camera bag and everything that I can bring along sometimes it is just not as shoulder friendly as I would like it to be. So I am trying to cut down on what I bring and trying to go camera only. Half the time it feels as if I am walking around naked, I miss the bag that much. While it took a little bit of getting used to it made it easier to get some shots as I didn’t have an unwieldy bag to haul around. Fully loaded for a day trip my bag probably weighs more than it should and I guess that is my fault for wanting to be prepared for everything. I am horrible at packing suitcases too, not just camera bags.  With just my camera, my 18-200mm lens, a few filters, and lens cloths it is a much lighter load, so I can get around a bit easier and stay active a little bit longer as the weight doesn’t drag me down. I went to USJ and hit the local park like this. Even forgoing my tripod! I have to say on one hand I am happy with some of my shots, while on the other I was longing for the bag and every little bit of magic it contains.
So since there is a little blur in Mel’s diner, don’t hold it against me! Shot in the cold, without a tripod, shaking hands were kind of a problem.

I also hit up my local park and was able to use my Kenko Pro 1D AC CLOSE-UP #3. The effect it gave was varied and it created a kind of “slice” of focus which was very hard to work with. I think I really need to hit the gym more also to help take care of this shaking hands. Not sure if it’s just me or if everyone’s hands get shaky after holding up the 7D for long periods of time. Needless to say the tripod would have probably came in handy again here but I didn’t have it on me.

As you can see very little is actually in sharp focus. So this little guy will take a lot more work to get decent at.

While I like the effect on flowers, I’m not quite sure what else I will use it on.

So while I have been using it more and going to try to get it out even more often I find that I always want my bag when I don’t have it. And and I don’t want to carry it when I do. Such is life I guess.

New Gear~

I just published a post that I thought I had already published. Fail on my part. So now this is going to seem a little weird. Three maybe four posts right in a row!

I have been bringing my camera with me more often. Not as often as I like, but more than usual. So I have been getting more shots and have also gotten a few new pieces of gear to go along with it. So I thought I would share the goodies first! I gave in after many mad reviews from my photog friends and got a Black Rapid strap! I can’t say I’m disappointed! Besides costing me a pretty penny….. 8000yen, rough equivalent is about 80$. Definitely worth it though. It saves on time and energy also my neck. I’m able to get the camera up faster and it doesn’t bounce as much as when I have it around my neck. Haven’t got to try it with the backpack yet but sakura season is almost here! I will let you know how it goes after that.

Since Sakura Season is coming up I went ahead and got a diffuser! A nice big one! If I remember right it’s a 52″. This year I will be attempting to do some photos of my friends frolicing among the blossoms. So that is a challenge in and of itself but hopefully it will turn out okay. One of the reasons I got this is I watched RC Concepcion’s video on doing shoots in midday sun. You can watch the video here! Definitely worth ten minutes of your time. Now what I really wanted was one of these, but was unable to find one at Bic Camera. May have to order one soon.

Finally I have had it for awhile but haven’t really gotten much play out of it yet. That should change here quickly. So last but not least I got a Canon 430 EXII. I have been goofing around with it and working on settings and that sort of thing. Though ttl is pretty easy to use and it doesn’t require me to do a lot of thinking, I would really like to get manual flash down. So more studying is necessary!

The previous post is SAKURA SEASON PLANS 2014!!! Let the frolicing commence!

Sakura Season Plans~

YEAH! It’s that time of year again! Sakura Madness! If there is a busy but beautiful time of year it is during this season. Spring has come and around the end of March, beginning of April everyone and their dog goes out to view the symbol of spring here in Japan, the Cherry Blossom!

I am no exception. This year however instead of just taking pictures of gorgeous flowers I am hoping to do a bit of people work too. It will be the first BIG challenge this year. I have my diffuser, reflector and my speedlight and will hopefully be able to capture something worth posting. However…… If you want to send me something… I am in need of an Orbis flash ring ^_^~  As for where I am going in the Nagoya area and beyond, I plan on hitting a few locations.

Tsurumai Park – mainly for people partying shots, gonna try getting some of that in~ not so much the flowers.

Iwakura~Gojo River – This location is for the flowers and river, may do a frolicing session here~ it’s gorgeous!

Yamazaki River- This will probably be night shots and few frolicing as it is in Nagoya

Kyoto- Flowers and buildings! What more could you ask for~ I’m just hoping it’s not as goofy as the Kouyou was.

Yoshino Mountain- LOOKS AMAZING!!! If things go well might hit up here with great friend~ More landscape-ish

Those are the big plans this year! If you are in the area and want to meet up I am all for it! Hit me up on here or G+ or FB! I have one more paid day off so I will be saving that most likely for Iwakura or Kyoto~

The blossoms are set to open around March 27th here in Nagoya~ are you ready? I am!

 

Bonbai~

Bonbai? What is that you ask? Well it is a bonsai ume(plum) tree and I got one!

I went to Nagahama to blow glass and also happened upon a bonsai exhibit. Now being American it is always interesting to see things that are, well, older than my country. I know that sounds weird but hang on a moment I shall explain. Japan, China and some parts of India have some of the longest, static, by static I mean continuous culture/tradition/history, which I find fascinating. Of course some things have changed but as a whole compared to the rest of the world there hasn’t been and huge revolutions to the heart of the culture and tradition. So when I saw these little trees that were 400 and some years old it made me stop and think. This art, this piece of culture has survived so much and has been passed down successfully that it makes one want to be part of it, to be a small piece in the bigger picture. So, I bought one and will attempt to not kill it!

 

Its actually quite a bit of work once every 3 years or 5 years. The repotting process is daunting but I will attempt it this December. In the meantime I get to enjoy the lovely blossoms this year and will have to prune and water only until December. It also makes a great subject for photography~ So there shall be many more photo experiments to come that include this new little member of my family.

My first experiment was with time lapse. I know, I don’t start small. So for my first ever time lapse I would have to consider it a success! It was actually much easier to do than I assumed it would be. As you know, I have a Canon 7D and thats pretty much all I really needed. I didnt have to purchase any special software. I used the EOS Utility and iMovie, as I have a Mac but I am pretty sure you could do it in just about any regular movie editor.

Using the timer in EOS utility you just have to make sure your live view is off. Set your camera up on a steady tripod and fix the focus, DON’T use autofocus as it may search each time for a new focus point or be unable to find it. I ran my camera in Manual but you could also do this in AV, TV, P or B. Depending on the length of time you need between your shots or the length of your shots I have read you may have to have it in B, given that I was throwing mine together before work and have yet to attempt another one I am not sure if this is true or not. I set mine to take a photo every 30 seconds and just let it go. I had originally had it set to take 500 photos but it only took 372 as the light and my camera both died. I highly recommend starting with a fully charged battery! Mine was down to the last little bar when I started, fail on my part.

I stuck around for the first ten or so actuations and then left for work. Came home and threw all of the photos into one folder and then imported them into iMovie. Set the display time to 0.1 seconds and fixed the crop so I didn’t have that goofy, ahem, I mean supposed cinematic effect. All in all 372 photos became about 50 seconds of movie. So not overly long but considering I didn’t do a lot of work on my own not bad. Now I did take all of these photos in RAW so I could go in and batch edit or fix a few if it seemed necessary, however, as this was my first attempt I was more worried about it actually working rather than the quality of the images. Bad, bad, bad Anne! I know, but now that I have this part down on my next one I can work more with the quality of the images. My biggest worry was to do a lot of intensive work and then have it fail somewhere along the way. Now that i know the first few steps I feel more comfortable putting more work into the next one. I would like to try a night time lapse but we will see how it goes. I would need to get out of the city and into the countryside to actually be able to see the night sky. But when i get this down I have a new reason to climb Mt. Fuji this year, because there is this great little spot near the top that I think would look great in a time lapse with the stars.

Watch the video here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31tlGQNuQR4

Windmills~

Sometimes it’s easy to forget where you are. It’s easy to forget what you set out to do. Instead taking a tilt at the windmills you become lulled by the motion, it soothes you inexplicably. I fear recently that this has happened me. In my photography and life in general. It’s easy to say I’m good enough or that it whatever it may be is good enough for me, I can produce decent work, I know the basics and the rules and I seem to no longer challenge them. I used to laugh in the face of challenges! Now I cringe and spend more time and energy thinking how to avoid them. I’ve realized I do this more and more.

This really hit home for me when I took a trip to the Nagoya aquarium with a friend. I had to look at my controls! As in physically remove the camera from my face and look at the controls! And the light, ahhh the light! I read it wrong! Some of my pictures turned out decent and yes by decent I do mean workable and just toeing that line of “looks good”. Examples below. But more than half of the pictures I came home with were to be honest… Crap. With that capital C, as in no amount of Photoshop or Lightroom will save you!

I’m so lucky I don’t shoot film. I will also save your eyes from the horror that occurred and not post any of those instead a few more decent ones. So the goals for this year have a new sub-article? Yes again! I plan to see this one as a lifestyle change not just a photography one. I think they go hand in hand in my case so I expect that as one changes so will the other. At least that is the logic I’m applying to this constant problem.

Some of my new year’s resolutions have fallen under the lull of the windmills. I don’t need to go for that run or I can have an extra bottle of soda because well I look good enough, I don’t NEED to run…… See where this is going? So hopefully with this new point added I can focus on doing stuff. And doing stuff better ^_^ at least that is the goal. I’ve even downloaded the couch to 5k app and will be starting that Monday. I plan on bringing bigger and better and also more frequent photos to the table. But, gotta walk before you can run I guess. As to that I’m am going to need a lot of practice before sakura season starts so I’m going to see if I can rope someone into being my shadow model. I hate taking photos of people but I’m curious if I can do a shadow series where all they are are shadows/silhouettes. Stay tuned to see if I can convince anyone to do so. In the meantime I convinced Koyo to model a little bit. She was too sleepy to object.

Unfortunately she awoke with the first actuation. So only one of her really sleeping~

Other than that I am off to Kurokabe Square on Sunday and going to attempt blowing my own glassware. I’m going with a friend so hopefully she will allow me to take pictures of her but we shall see. I plan to get more of Koyo as she is my constant companion and therefore makes a great model~ We had snow on the 14th which was really nice. I was actually able to make a snowman! He lasted a total of maybe 5 hours though all said and done. However, Koyo was able to play a bit in the snow so I got a few good ones of her out running around.

Working on it

So with my last post deciding what I should work on I have started working! You should feel proud! I feel proud! However as I have been sick for going on about two weeks now I haven’t gone out and gotten new shots…… How am I working you ask?  That is a good question! Youtube and Adobe tutorial videos and such! Yeah for the computer!

Everyone knows that the camera can’t see what you see in fact sometimes it’s way off~ way way off sometimes if you are me. If you are working with a DSLR, welcome to heaven and purgatory! Better known as Photoshop and Lightroom in my case. One I have trouble getting it just right in but when I do it’s great and two is fantastic for organizing and non-serious edits but I hardly get any photos out of it, they just sit in limbo. More of a personal problem I know but I would like to believe that it happens to all photographers at one time or another.

So what have I been doing about it you ask. Well first I watched The Grid: How to be a better Photographer in 2014 and as you know I scrapped my 365 project, we had that lovely discussion earlier. I decided I needed to learn PS and LR better than I already do, which involved me buy Scott Kelby’s book covering Lightroom 5 because I like his writing and his book usually covers enough to get me going into the extras that I can later explore on my own. So started flipping through that learning some new tricks and tips. I headed online and watched a bunch of educational(FREE) videos because I wasn’t going out in the wind and cold. So with my hot chocolate I sat down to absorb all I could in about 3 or 4 hour segments.

I realized that I did not know as much as I thought I did. So then I decided to delve into all the photos! I mean ALL THE PHOTOS… I hate deleting, that just in case always gets me. So I decided to start just randomly and closed my eyes and clicked a folder. It happened to be my Shirakawago trip. I then picked a photo I really liked but I couldn’t get to work/look the way I wanted. This was the photo I started with….

So as you can see it’s kind of flat, a little boring and not really at all how that morning looked to me. The snow is rather gray and a little dirty~ Not really the pristine snowy landscape I saw. So using all the wonderful information I has absorbed I took it all into lightroom, took 3 of the different exposures, bumped them over and into HDR in photoshop and then SURPRISE, SURPRISE I bumped them back into LR as a 32bit TIFF! Oh the things you learn… So about an hour or so later, yeah I’m still learning LR, I had a final-ish product.

Now I tried to crop it so those little branches on the side disappeared but the crop looks funny and as much as I don’t like them I have started to like them. Not sure if that is good or not. So what do you think? Let me know! More and more the work continues. So much more to do and learn and hopefully when I get over this stupid sickness I will be able to get out and get more shots.

A need shutter actuations~

Kyoto and things~

I am back, I’m back again…. It’s been a day and an age I know but I swear the older you get the faster life goes…. It doesn’t feel that long until I look at a calendar.

Anyway, Life is continuing to happen. Just when you think you got everything set and laid out… well Murphy’s Law, I hate Murphy and his laws.

But onto photog news~ I went to Kyoto for the Kouyou/Momiji season! ONCE! I was planning to go twice but I got sick. I have never been as sick as I have this year. I give you odds if you took all the sick days from the first 29yrs of my life and added them up I would still be leading by a long shot for sick days just this year alone.

So anyway, I went to Kyoto and I learned 3 valuable lessons! #1 You need sleep to operate your camera, I am not as young as I used to be and my hands just aren’t as steady. #2 FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. USE LIVE VIEW AND CHECK YOUR FOCUS >.<* and #3 Kyoto is a little sparse on bathrooms. I blame all of my problems really on #1 I just cant pull a 48hr no sleep go at it anymore without side effects.

So I had decided it made much more sense and money sense to go to Kyoto after my shift on Monday. (I have Tuesdays off) So I roll into Kyoto around midnight~ YEAH! and Cheap A$$ that I am you know that I am not going to throw down for a hotel so what do I do? What the smart traveler who doesn’t mind smelling vaguely cigarettes usually do? A net cafe/manga kissa of course! Now if this traveler also happens to be hauling around more gear than they are comfortable falling asleep with out in the open they should stay at the OWL net cafe. It’s at most a 5 min (2min) walk from Kyoto station and has private rooms that have a door and LOCK so you can go about reading manga, visiting the drink bar and the bathroom without bringing everything with you! Now it’s best not to ponder what exactly has gone on in these rooms before you showed up but other than that its great~ I recommend the VIP cushioned floor room! Its just like a giant mattress on which you lounge, read your manga, and dont think of what might have happened before in the spot that you happen to be reclined in. Its in Japanese for the most part but check it out here. It is pricier than a regular manga kissa but that door and lock are worth the extra price for me.

After spending 3 hours there… I decided to WALK to Arashiyama…. not my best decision…. but I wanted that sunrise picture… that was ruined by clouds. By then I was cold, shaking and tired…. oh so tired… but press on! My feet were also ice blocks…. it hurt to walk. I love my Vibrams, dont get me wrong, I think they have helped me a lot… but they aren’t really made for standing still in about 0 degree temps on cold stone. So after a few not so spectacular shots at Togetsukyo Bridge. I minced my way to Tenryuji! Surprisingly enough it was open! Most places in Kyoto don’t open until 9am so I am still not sure if it was a special day/event or I just got lucky and was able to walk in with everyone else that was holding a camera. So I got a few nice pictures~ It was very picturesque. However due to  lack of sleep, and my body unable to regulate my temp into anything of the warm variety a lot of the pictures were blurred by shake. Whip out the tripod you say? Ah my friend, you have never been to Kyoto have you? In most cases and places tripods are prohibited. As in they can kick you out and request that you delete your pictures. Also as a bit of random information. You can’t/should not sell your pictures of MOST temples in Kyoto. Unless you want to pay a big fine…. Most places fall under “important cultural property”… That’s translated and I have no idea where to find it in English… But here it is in Japanese. Quite simply you CAN’T that is right, CAN’T sell photos of certain temples/buildings/and grounds without it falling into a dark gray area… in which if they catch you, you must pay a big fine.

So temples and shrines and temples upon shrines later it became very apparent that the trees were all confused this year. Where Tenryuji had some rich gorgeous colors, a little down the road everything was still green. Even the hills around Kyoto hadn’t decided if it was time to change colors or not. So all in all the though it was a nice trip it was a little underwhelming. Luckily I was able to meet a friend there and get a little off the beaten path! Unfortunately, #1 struck again. By 5pm I was dead tired. Like falling asleep during conversation tired. So had to call it an early night and head back to Nagoya.

I had a great time but if there is anything I took away from this go around its that I need sleep before attempting a full day photowalk. I also need to start using live view and concentrating on getting the focus on the first shot. So I don’t come home with 500 photos to sort through and only find around 50 nice shots~  So here are some of the shots I got~

 

Golden Doorway

 

Bamboo and Momiji~

 

Tenryuji in the Morning~

 

As you can see even in these three live view auto focus would have greatly improved them~ Sad 😦

 

So now I am contemplating what to do for my next photo trip. Maybe Takashimaya xmas display, Nagoya xmas town, or maybe the illumination in Nagashima~ Decisions, Decisions. What to do and where to go. If there is anything you would like to see in the Tokai/Chubu area comment and tell me where to go and what to shoot!

Impromptu Hiatus

Alright, so, we’ve been absent from our blog as of late.  We promise it’s not you, lovely readers.  It’s us.  Well, more specifically, it’s life.  Life happened.  And it kept happening.  It happened so much that we were unable to keep up with posting here at Written Shots.  But we made life sit down and drink some calming tea and now life’s willing to work with us again.

Anne will talk about her life below (or whatever she chooses to add), and if you’re super interested in reading about what life and I were doing this past month or so, you can check out my personal blog.  But we’ll be getting back into the swing of things in the next few days, so prepare yourselves for more Written Shots goodness!

Still pushing that trigger,

-Kate

 

Aww life, you just had to go and happen just when I thought everything was going great…. I do believe it’s called Murphy’s Law.

So as you may have guessed life happened for the space of two weeks and left a disaster behind for me to clean up. Now that the cleaning is mostly done it’s time to get back on the horse and ride out for better pastures. Just joking! Kate and I will be back to posting as soon as we are able and I finally got my Tumblr up and active (in other words I queue it up about once a week). Check it out at Chimeric Reflections. Otherwise you can follow what randomness and photos I post about my daily life and trips on my Facebook: Anne Vornbrock or if you are here for just the photography you should check me out on G+ and if you are here for the photography and you are not on G+….. YOU SHOULD BE! I have been thinking of starting a personal blog…. but thats one more thing to the list. I will think about it some more and let you know if it ever bears fruit.

Keep a camera ready, but dont forget to enjoy the moment~

~Anne