David Griffin Photography

Monthly Archives: August 2009

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There’s just something about a 5 degree field of view

August 26, 2009 – 8:46 am

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After a recent afternoon cloudburst I thought it would be good to get out and try to get some footage and stills of our nearby landscape (that would be the backyard). The relative humidity was around 98% I had a hard time keeping the viewfinder (and my eyeglasses) from fogging up. After a couple of hours of waiting for birds that were not coming I decide to turn my 500mm lens on the “targets of opportunity”.

Maybe it’s because I spend a lot of time with this lens looking for wildlife portraits, but I continually enjoy rediscovering the world around me when I only have a 5 degree field of view.

Details: Canon 5D Mark 2, 500mm f/4 (at f/8) with 1 closeup ring attached.

By Dave | Posted in Photography, Staring | Tagged Massachusetts, Maynard | Comments (0)

Stone Mountain LIVE – August 2009

August 20, 2009 – 10:21 pm

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This was the 3rd Anniversary of the Stone Mountain LIVE show at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine, and I was privileged to both photograph the show and produce a retrospective video that was played at the beginning of the evening. The special guest performer for the show was Mary Chapin Carpenter, who asked to not have her photos posted.

A complete photo gallery of the evening is available at [url]http://smac.dmg-photography.com/SML-Aug-2009[/url] and photos from other shows can be found at [url]http://smac.dmg-photography.com[/url].

Joining Carol Noonan on stage were the Stone Mountain Boys (Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Sonny Barbato, Richard Gates and Billy MacGillivray with Chris Cote providing the vocal fireworks). Also performing that evening were Katy Noonan, Consuela Candelaria-Barry, and Eric Royer (the Guitar Machine guy). Here are a few photos from the show. Technical details follow the pix.

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Technical drivel:

With the exception of the wide-angle shot (handheld with a Canon 1DMk2) all of the shots are a Canon 5DMk2 mounted on a fluid-head tripod (basically rigged for video shooting), a 70-200 f/2.8 lens, 1.4x TC at times. The ISO was either 3200 or 4000. The shutter speeds are 1/60 – 1/50 second as I was switching between shooting images and shooting video. (If and when I do this again I will likely preprogram one of the 5D’s custom settings to be optimized for shooting at SMAC so I can then switch back to manual mode at a higher shutter speed).

For the past few shows I’ve been shooting some limited video as well as stills — theoretically one of the great advantages of the 5D and similar cameras. Of course the reality of doing this is much more than just clicking on the movie mode — stabilization, tracking, and focusing on multiple subjects is much harder for video. Compounding the problems is that having the tripod and whatnot forces me to the back of the room — twice as far as I am normally from the stage (with probably a 2-stop drop in EV — somewhere in there)… I *knew* I should have purchased that 300mm f/2.8 back when I had a “real” income….

As always the Lightroom processing is pretty minimal. Some have minor exposure tweaks. The vertical shot of Kevin Barry has both exposure (1/3 stop) and fill (+20) because the band only gets indirect stage lighting along the wall and I tend to lock the exposure down for the main performers.

I have to admit I had a frustrating time with the video… again. Despite having the nice HoodLoupe gizmo on the back, critical focus is still hard to ascertain for a live performance. Part of this may be exacerbated by my eyeglasses and perhaps I should try using the Loupe with my naked eye (cranking that diopter adjustment hard). A magnifying viewer would help the videos, but not my bank account, so we’ll wait it out a bit longer. When taking video of set subjects, the 5D is actually easier to focus than my video camera. The 5X zoom makes it simple to locate and lock in focus. Unfortunately you lose this ability as soon as you start recording… (which has me thinking hard about trying the Magic Lantern firmware, which I think lets you zoom in while recording)

By Dave | Posted in Lightroom, Photography, SMAC | Tagged 5DMk2, Brownfield, Canon 5D Mk2, Lightroom, Live Music, Maine, SMAC, Video | Comments (0)

Niki Tsongas River Day 2009

August 17, 2009 – 4:54 pm

For the past few years Congresswoman Niki Tsongas devotes a day highlighting the role rivers play in the history, economy, and scenic background of her district. The Assabet, Concord, Shawsheen, and Merrimack Rivers are flow through the 5th Congressional District and link the communities in it in numerous ways.

Last year I had the privilege of paddling with the Congresswoman down a stretch of the Concord River, ending up at the Old North Bridge in Minuteman National Historical Park. This year she visited the Thoreau School in Concord. The school has an outdoor classroom that abuts the Assabet River.

Here are a few pictures from the event. More at: [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com/2009-tsongas-riverday[/url]

Students from the school gave short speeches describing their use of the outdoor classroom and some of the challenges and adventures they and their teacher have had in bringing it to life the past few years.

After the formal program the audience visited a tent with exhibits from the school, Mass Audubon, the Organization for the Assabet River, and the Friends of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. Libby Herland, project manager of the Eastern Massachusetts NWR Complex, talks with Niki Tsongas about the Blanding’s Turtle restoration program currently in progress at the Assabet River NWR.

Peter Alden shows off his fancy Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE) t-shirt…

By Dave | Posted in Community, Environment, Photography | Tagged Assabet River, Education, Massachusetts, Rivers | Comments (0)

Water Wise Workshops

August 17, 2009 – 4:26 pm

For the past few years the Organization for the Assabet River has produced a series of workshops for young kids (age 6 to 12 or so) that teaches them about watersheds, plants and animals that live near or in the water, water quality testing, and the ecological web that we all live in. The workshops are repeated 3 times a week in different towns (Marlborough, Westborough, and Stow). For the final week in the workshops I lead a nature photography session with the kids.

I’ve got to be honest here – for this workshop photography is a “MacGuffin” (a term for a movie plot device, popularized by Alfred Hitchcock): the purpose is not so much to teach kids about photography (although we do our best to make them better photographers) but rather to show how photography can be a reason to get outside, away from the Wii, and interact with nature on a personal level.

The technical part of the workshop concentrates on the basics of focus and composition. I explain how the lens in their camera works (and why it might not work if you put it 2 inches from the subject) and why holding a camera with just your hands might not make it steady enough to make good pictures.

As a way of showing how their cameras can be made better without spending a lot of money I bring along some simple tripods: a couple of gorillapods and a bottlecap monopod (about $3 at the local hardware store) if they care to try them out.

Next I spend a few minutes presenting a very simplified version of the NANPA ethical field practices: learn about your subjects, don’t stress animals, stay on trails, respect the environment.

Then we go out and try to find interesting things to take pictures of and provide tips and suggestions as we explore. Mushrooms turn out to be excellent subjects.

The goal is to try to find a way to tie together the various lessons that were taught in the prior workshops and walking in the field with the kids creates opportunities for those discussions and thoughts to flow.

My thanks to interns Nitya and Saloni, and to OAR’s Educational Coordinator, Sarah Edwards for their help in making this year’s workshops a success.

By Dave | Posted in Community, Environment, Photography | Tagged Assabet River, Education, Kids, Massachusetts, Workshop | Comments (0)

Nature Photography Workshop for Kids

August 5, 2009 – 11:32 pm

This morning I conducted a 4-hour photography workshop with six young nature photographers at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Sudbury, MA. The workshop was sponsored by the Friends of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge (Great Meadows and Assabet River NWRs are part of the Eastern MA refuge complex).

The photo above shows Grace, Maya, Ingrid, Norman, Thatcher and Joseph seeing first-hand the effect of slow shutter speeds. I had the Canon 5D Mark 2 plugged into my projector and we could instantly review the photos as they were taken (we also attempted to show the effects of depth of field, exposure compensation, and other aspects of camera operation.)

After a couple of hours of camera talk coupled with the NANPA ethical photography rules we headed out on one of the refuge’s trails and, after getting attacked by mosquitos, retreated to the wildflower garden.

I think everyone had a good time and we were able to show how their point-and-shoot cameras can be nudged into taking really interesting photographs. We also briefly covered some basic post-processing — turning an average photograph into something really special.

I hope I’ll be able to conduct additional workshops for kids in the future. I consider photography to be an active arm of stewardship of the environment — the ability to document and communicate with images the beauty and fragility of our local refuges, rivers, plants and animals will continue to be an important tool for advocacy.

By Dave | Posted in Community, Environment, Photography | Tagged GMNWR, Kids, Massachusetts, NWR, Sudbury, Workshop | Comments (0)

Monthly Archives: August 2009