Experiments with Wide Angle Lenses

So, it's been quite a long time since my last post, though I have an excuse.  I started a new job and it occupies quite a bit of my time.  However, though my blogging has slowed considerably, I still find the time for my photography hobby and have had a few new developments since my last post.

I'm not a frequent "upgrader," but recently I bought a Canon EF-S 10-18 mm f/4.6-5.6 STM lens to provide me the opportunity for more wide angle shots--whether they're landscapes or close-ups.  The lens was around $300 on Amazon, which is more than I usually like to spend, but it's actually a steal in the world of wide angle lenses.  I've wanted a wide angle lens forever, but was never willing to settle for an edge-darkening, piece-of-junk $20 lens attachment OR to shell out the ridiculous $2000 for a "real" one.  I was browsing Amazon--probably to placate myself after a long day of teaching--and I stumbled across this reasonably priced lens.  My first paycheck was days away, so I thought "what the heck?" and bought it.

So far, I've been pretty pleased, though there's a bit of a learning curve for figuring out which situations are best for this lens.  So far, most of what I've done have been landscape shots, though I would like to use it more for macro shots to get more background in the photo.  I'm getting a little better about figuring out when/how to use it, though I probably won't have time to hone my craft until a major break in the school year.

Below are a few of the test shots I've taken in the month that I've had the lens.  As I said before, I'm still not great with it, but I'm still happy I made the purchase.

Starting a Photography Website

Historically, Facebook and Flickr have always been my standbys in terms of sharing my photography with the world. While both of these sites have been fantastic for getting feedback as to what people do and don't like, they have their limitations.  Facebook is a highly personal site that I keep on lockdown, so I have an extremely limited audience.  Additionally, Facebook photos are not the highest resolution and become somewhat disorganized and hidden in my myriad of albums.  Flickr is great in terms of getting feedback from more serious photographers and sharing with a wider audience, but it can also become easily disorganized.  Good (but older) photos can get lost as more and more are added, and I haven't always done the best job keeping my albums well organized.

So, I decided to make something more attractive, personal, and public by creating an online gallery.  I chose Weebly because I was told by several people that it is more user friendly than many other free website-hosting options.  Having worked with the very unwieldy Google Sites for a class this spring, I was eager to find a better option.

Here is the finished project:

http://tiararae.weebly.com/

I'm quite happy with the layout and gallery options.  I feel like I achieved something that looks cleaner, simpler, more professional, and offers better showcasing of my favorite photographs.  Though I chose to stick with the free version, you can choose to pay to get rid of the "weebly" name in your site title and to unlock various more advanced settings.

I would recommend getting an account and tinkering around if you're looking to create an online gallery like this.  There are dozens of other layout options and infinite opportunities for personalization, including slideshows, blogs, surveys, etc.

Good luck and happy website-building!

Easy Watermarks

As my photography hobby has progressed, I've started to worry about the "safety" of some of my better shots.  Not all of my photos are good enough to be sale-worthy, but I've started experiencing an uptick in local businesses and universities asking me if they can use certain shots for brochures, websites, etc.  I'm generally fine with providing a photo if someone asks for permission (though I have begun to question doing this for free), but I know that there are many people lurking on the internet trying to make use of others' content for profit.

For this reason, I started to seek out quick ways to watermark my favorite shots.  There are several websites out there for this purpose, but the one I'm partial to is Watermark WS or https://www.watermark.ws.

This site allows you to upload a logo or simply use text to protect your photos.  You can also adjust opacity and color (though a logo's color would have to be changed in a different program prior to uploading).  It also (awesomely) allows you to save a watermark as a template, which can be easily applied to photos on subsequent visits to the site.  Finally, you can chose to have a single or tiled watermark depending on your preferences.  Examples of watermarked photos are shown below:

Here is an example of a logo that was uploaded and applied via Watermark WS.

Here is the same logo using the tiled setting.  I can't say I use this setting often, but it's probably the best in terms of protecting your photos.  It's a lot of work for someone to attempt to Photoshop out all of those watermarks.  If they're too lazy to take their own pictures, they're probably too lazy to do that much editing.

Here is a text-only example.  You can see that a copyright symbol has been added.  There are several other copyright/trademark symbols available on the website.

One slight bummer to the free version of this website is that you will only be able to upload one or two photos at a time due to very limited (10 MB) file capacity.  For bulk watermarking, you may want to upgrade your account.  I wanted slightly more storage, but I'm not "big time," so I chose a Plus account for $5/month.  This allows me 250 MB of storage and batches of up to 100 photos.  This is more than enough for my needs.  If you're looking for something to service huge batches of photos and large file sizes, they also have plans that allow up to 5000 MB of storage.  More detailed information on the specifics of each plan is available on the website.

In summary, here's my overall take:

Pros:

-Attractive fonts
-Unlimited color options
-Copyrighting/trademarking symbols
-Opacity controls and tiling options
-Logo upload capabilities
-Ability to save templates for future use
-Signup and basic plans are free
-Next level plan is still cheap $5/month

Cons:

-Free version allows very little file space
-Download batches will expire after approximately a week

As stated before, this is not the only online watermarking site available, but I feel that it's a good one.  Comment with any websites you feel are superior!

New Bokeh Kit

In past posts, I have mentioned the "poor man's bokeh kit,"  which involves creating your own bokeh shapes from simple construction paper and scissors/hole punches.  While this DIY trick works, I am not particularly patient about making my own bokeh shapes, so I had essentially abandoned this trick out of laziness.  However, I received a cheap bokeh kit from Photojojo for Christmas (it is only about $25: http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/bokeh-kit/) and have been messing around with it for the past couple weeks.

So far, I've been pretty impressed with the results, though I'm still working out a couple technique issues.  I've actually had more luck using this kit with my telephoto lens than my regular kit lens, which seems odd, but the shapes themselves are very crisp and clear compared to my shoddy homemade ones.  Some of the shapes are a little strange, but they're fun and whimsical nonetheless.

My next goal is to move past blurry Christmas or street lights to having subtle bokeh shapes in the background with a perfectly in-focus subject in the forefront.  Hopefully, I can find a lighting situation that will allow for experimentation in that area.

Here are a few of my initial attempts: