Friday, February 25, 2011

The Future Draws Near ( Thoughts on Sony DSLR/DSLT cameras )

I spent a few hours at the Calusa Nature Center today(pictures coming soon!).

I brought with me the following:
  • Sony Alpha A700 DSLR
  • Sony 70-400/G ssm lens
  • Tamron 17-50 lens
I was doing my usual brace-compose through viewfinder-focus-shooting when I met a very nice couple: Danny and Niva. Guess what? They too were Sony shooters. :) They had recently purchased the Sony Alpha A580 DSLR and had the kit 17-55mm lens on. However, because the wildlife at the Calusa Nature Center were all behind chain link and wire mesh fences, you really  want something longer than 50mm to blur the fence into oblivion, so you can get a clean shot of the wildlife.

After talking a bit, explaining that the 70-400 was a pretty good lens, and that I was able to rent it from BorrowedLenses.com, I decided to do a test: I took the 70-400 off of my A700, mounted it on their A580, and took some test shots.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Some Chinese New Year Shoots and Experience with LSD Batteries

It's Starting To Feel Like Chinese New Years...

So lately, I've been doing a little bit of food photography when I can. I've found it to be a good deal of fun and a great way to test out lighting setups at home.

Chinese New Year Horns ©Wing T. Wong - Gallery
It's amazing how you can get some really good looking photographs straight out of the camera, or with some minor contrast bumps, to produce a fairly delicious looking photograph!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Working on DIY and new book via Kickstarter

DIY + Kickstarter + My Project

I was introduced to Kickstarter a couple of months ago and it dawned on me that it would be a good way to fund a project I have been keeping shelved for a while.

Like many other DIY strobists, I've made my fair share of foamcore soft boxes, salad bowl/garden pot beauty dishes, simple reflectors, and the like.

However, I've been wanting to build my own soft boxes that are more portable, and yet yielded good light. Working on that would require funds to buy the raw materials and tools, something I've not got in my budget for.

Kickstarter seems like a good way to go about achieving several things:

  • Funding for raw materials, tools, and destructive testing.
  • Compile the findings, DIY plans and illustrated instructions into an e-book and physical book.
  • Get visibility so that people can get access to the book and make use of it to make their own lighting gear and get great light.

Some of the goals of this project is to make the DIY light modifiers to be easy find parts for, put together, and make use of.

Getting Approval From Kickstarter

One of the things about Kickstarter, which I love, is that they moderate which proposals get to proceed to the detailing and funding step. I had written up a quick draft of what I intended to do, what I intended to offer, and what rewards were to be offered for folks who backed me.

So, the good news: I got approved!

The bad news: I'm now working out the details of what all is involved in what I intend to acquire and make use of in my R&D, and fine tuning what I intend to give to backers for backing me.

I've already gotten a very good piece of advice and have been working on it, making better use of the rewards to increase value to potential backers. After all, it is through their generosity and belief in the project, which results in it getting funding.

Will post more on this, once I've submitted the details, and the project has been officially launched!