Joel's Life » Photos

SONICFLOOD Christmas Photos

JSmith — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:29:19 +0000

I had the privilege of snapping a few photos of the November 12 Sonicflood show. The show was for the taping of a Christmas special as well as a send off for lead guitarist, Phil Baquie who was just deployed to “Operation Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan. You can see the photos HERE and if you have fast access, you can also see a HD VIDEO CLIP of the show HERE.

Enjoy!

My Dream for a Digital SLR iPhone

JSmith — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:41:26 +0000

I love my iPhone and I’ve taken more pictures and video with it than I ever thought I would. The pictures are not great, but their convenient and easy in part because I have my iPhone with me all the time. But the iPhone is no digital SLR. But before I share my iPhone dream with you, let me give you a little of my photography background.

Through the years I’ve had a handful of cameras. When the kids were born we moved into the digital world with a little 3 MP Kodak point and shoot camera. It took great pictures and I took thousands of them. When the kids were toddlers, I realized how many photos I was missing because of the slow response of the camera. It was then that I moved to a Digital SLR. I started with a Canon Digital Rebel, moved to a Canon 30D and now shoot with a Canon 5D. Here’s more on my current rig.

Aperture 2

I shoot RAW and process my photos in Aperture 2. In the early days I use to do most of my correction with Photoshop, but since moving to Aperture, I can’t tell you the last time I’ve used Photoshop. Aperture is simple, fast, convenient and easy to use. I use it for all of my processing. The edits are non-destructive and I use the vault feature for my back-ups.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Why do I love the Canon 5D?
• It has a 21.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor,
• A beautiful 3 in. LCD TFT monitor,
• It’s fast, shooting up to 3.9 fps,
• It supports an ISO Range of 100-6400 (expandable to ISO 25600),
• It offers Live View shooting,
• It can shoot HD video.

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens

This is my primary lens and is image stabilized, which gives me another stop or two in low light environments. I probably shoot 98% of everything with this lens. It’s very versatile.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens

When I need to “reach out and touch” a subject, I use this telephoto lens. It is more than twice the length of my “everyday” lens.

EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens

I use this prime lens for macro and portrait work.

Speedlite 580EX II Flash

This is my flash or choice as it offers a lot of flexibility

SanDisk 16GB Extreme IV UDMA CompactFlash Card

This card allows me to shoot 1080 HD video from the camera

Lexar Professional UDMA Firewire 800 CF Reader

This reader supports data transfer rates of up to 800Mb/sec via Firewire 800, which comes in handy when your files are 21 MB each.

Now, if I could only get the optics of the 5D into my iPhone my dream for a digital SLR iPhone could be fulfilled!

A Photo Tour of Copperfield

JSmith — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:07:24 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve broken out the camera and decided Saturday was the time. So this morning early, my daughter and I went out in the neighborhood to snap a few pictures. Katie used her little Kodak point & shoot camera and I used my Canon 5D with a 28mm – 135mm IS lens. Fortunately for us, it was a perfect morning with beautiful light and Copperfield has a lot of great architectural features that made for some FUN PHOTOS. We hope you enjoy!

Katie & Dad

Smoky Mountains

JSmith — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:42:01 +0000

Not too long ago Lorri and I enjoyed a weekend getaway in the great Smoky Mountains. We stayed at the Berry Springs Lodge, which I would highly recommend. I took the camera and tripod and got some of our favorite photos of this beautiful setting. Enjoy!

Photos – Downtown Nashville

JSmith — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:21:10 +0000

Here are some recent photos I snapped of downtown Nashville with friend Steve Gumm.