Facebook Fan Page

I decided to make a fan page for my photography. Here is a linkhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Oliver-Sholder-Photography/106283589406299

I decided to do it because I was bored at the time and felt it would be a good way for a lot of people to see my work. Not sure how it will work out, but I'm optimistic. As of now, I don't have any fans, but then again, I just created it.

I added a photo I took recently. I applied a special filter in photoshop to this.

On the Fly

I just took a sweet photo with my 450D and 28-135mm lens. The lens is by no means a macro lens - the closest I can take a photo from is 1.6 feet from the subject. Thats about how far I was from the fly. This was taken on the steps leading down to my 10 acer path. The texture worked out well in this photo. Here are my settings:

Exposure:0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:f/7.1
Focal Length:135 mm
ISO Speed:200

Bokeh

Bokeh, Japinease for blur. But as people know it in English speaking countries,tIt's that lovely thing you see when a photo or part of a photo is in focus. It becomes especially apprent with lower f stop lenses. Speaking of them, I ordered a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II from B&H photo. It will be in my mailbox and im looking forward to it, looking forward to taking photos with nice Bokeh too.

The photo on the side is an excellent example of Bokeh. The Bokeh in the background of this photo is the blurry part of the photos where you can see all those circles.

Photography Club

After talking to my good friend, Willem, former president of the photography club at my high school, Asheville High, I decided to take on the challenge of reviving the club that died. Today was the second meeting today and we had a good show up - around 10ish. Mr. Williams, the club sponsor is an awesome man who loves to talk about old cameras and all sorts of things photography. This meeting we just talked but next meeting we are planning on taking some photos of sports teams around the high school.

One thing that surprised me was the sheer number of people who brought film cameras. I thought film was dead with our great digital age, but I was wrong. After the discussions, I decided to try out film, or at least check out film cameras. I decided to check these kinds of out and lucky i had some at home - a 1970s Pentax K1000 and the wonderful 1950s Kodak Pony 135. They are cool and I like the feel, but I still prefer digital by a lot, however, I can see the enjoyment of the classical film.

A Man's Gear

This was a photographer at the Purim Carnival I shot at. I saw a name-tag thing and from it, I am pretty sure that he shoots for a local Newspaper. He wields his cameras like Clint Eastwood would hold his guns in a 60s or 70s western. Both were Nikons; on the left, i think that was a 300mm lens and on the right one of those prime lenses with a super low f stop.
Clearly, from looking at the dirt in the lens on the left, this is a man that does outdoor photography. Maybe the dirt is from shooting dirt-bikes or maybe just the sky on a windy dusty day. Whatever it is, i'd like to have his job.

URL change

I just changed the URL of this blog from "shutterboytales" to "prosphotography." I feel it's a better URL even though it's a bit ironic since I don't consider myself a pro. I checked and discovered it was not taken to I grabbed it ASAP.  I am going to stick with it since it's an easier name than shutterboytales. It also may pop up higher up on Google.

Shooting the Purim Carnival

As a freelance favor, I shot the Purim Carnival at the JCC. I was taking photos for the local Jewish youth group I am in called the BBYO. The conditions for shooting were the worst that could possibly be. It dim lights, indoors and little kids; everyone was moving around quickly and I was doing my best, mostly sticking in 800 or 1600 ISO. Overall, I got the hang of it. I kept settings around this: 1600 ISO, 1/50 shutter speed and 3.5f. I needed between 1/40-1/60 to avoid blur in my photos. I wish i had one of those uber cameras - the ones with over 100,000 ISO and that i had a 1.2f lens, that would have made it much easier and my photos better, however, i managed well with my gear (about $1500 total).Overall it was a good experience for shooting indoors.
    I have a cocktail party/dance/other things coming up to shoot. It's in a week or so and i'll be sure to blog and post photos of my experiences and encounters there, for I'm sure it will be exciting.