Photos of our neighborhood in Penang - 1

Low-light photography

Not the greatest, but here are my first experimentation with low light using my new 50mm lens. Dancing at Atlantis.

Playing with 50mm

I have been lusting after a 50mm lens for my camera, and I have decided to go ahead and get it.  But while I'm waiting, I'm practicing a little with my zoom lens set to 50mm.  What I'm finding is that I love it for close up & macro shots, but for most other things I'm seriously missing a wider angle.  I had no idea I even used the wide angle so much!  But apparently I really do. 

So here are some of my shots during my play:

And here are some I shot out of a moving car window (hence the odd framing).

Some of you may be wondering why I'd want a fixed focal length when I can have so many more options with my zoom.  Well, my first reason was, for the cost, I can have a much higher quality 50mm lens and I would be spending at least 10 times as much on a zoom lens with anything close to the same quality.  In addition to that, the 50mm lens goes down to a f1.8 aperture, meaning it can let in a LOT of light, which means I can shoot more low light level stuff, which I love.  I'm a big fan of available light.  F1.8 also allows for much shallower depth of field.  50mm is also close to human vision, so there is no distortion like you'd get from wider shots, or flattened perspective like you'd get with telephoto.  So there are so many reasons to want this lens. 

For these reasons and probably more, there is a whole faction of photographers out there who believe that 50mm is the one true mode of pure photography and that is all you should use.  Of course, they're mostly using film.  For reasons I'm not sure I fully comprehend, every focal length on a film camera corresponds to a narrower angle of view on a digital camera, so if I were using film, 50mm might not feel so frustratingly narrow.

Secret Garden, Near Fort Cornwallis, Penang

Photos from Little Penang Street Market, July 2008

Photography skills?

I can't believe I would have been soon pushing a year since my last post.  Outrageous!  Well, I've been so distracted from my art what with having a baby and moving overseas.  I had hoped that I would be able to devote myself full time to my artwork once I got here, but no, it's pretty much the same as in the States.  We still can't afford that much childcare.  So the only art I'm really doing a lot of is photography, by necessity.  I'm compulsively documenting our stay here in Penang, and spending hours upon hours trying to keep up with the photo editing so I can keep sending photos home, and so I don't end up with several thousand unedited photos when our year here is up.  Anyway, on a recent excursion, I snapped these shots.  I'm working to increase the drama in my photos a smidge.  Enjoy!

I'm not sure why, but blogger seems to make my photos much darker.  That first one especially.  I can't figure it out.  Sigh.

Sleeping Babe

I'm completely obsessed with cell phone photos right now. Here are a couple I played with today...





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Illo Friday - Emergency

Tada! My first Illo Friday in forever!

Emergency -- Pen & Ink Wash

When my baby cries this hard, it's an emergency, I can tell you. At least that's how he sees it!

I bought one of the famous moleskin journals recently. I wanted to make a fresh start and encourage myself to start drawing again. The quality of these journals is supposed to be just the tippy tops, so I finally plunked down the money for one, and I love it. It does ooze a little bit with quality. The warm tan tone of the paper will be something I need to get used to, it make it especially difficult to scan in accurate colors, but I do love it. I also decided to branch out just a tad with my usual style and use colored inks for my washes. Single colors, mind you. Not sure if I have it figured out yet, not to the degree that I had the B&W ones down. But it's not bad. Below is my first attempt, and above is my second.

Tree -- Pen & Ink Wash


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