PhotographyBanzai.com

Let's take a walk through the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago! I went there with friends and I also wanted to capture some of the trip. The easiest way to do that is usually with a smartphone. I also had a GoPro with the max lens mod for video.  Photography can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of the time, just using a phone is fine, and I enjoy it. You might not get as much control as with a high-end interchangeable lens camera, and the photos will be of lower quality, but I still enjoy the process as well as capturing memories. I don't need perfect photos all of the time.  The grand hall of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, with its high, domed ceiling illuminated in blue. For me, with photography, memories are often more important than the technical perfection of the results. I really enjoy a documentary style of photography, just going out, taking photos, and trying to get some context. Years down the line, I can look at those photos and be like, ...

Get out there and enjoy photography. It doesn't always have to be about taking amazing works of art… The video where I attempt taking photos in the bitter cold for 10 minutes with a phone. Technically I had two phones and spent time filming the video. If you want to get some photography practice in, but have limited time, then I think this could be a fun photography challenge. While I was out for the day, I brought a small kit that included my main phone for photos (LG Stylo 3), an older one for b-roll (XG L Power), and a small flexible tripod. It was 17 degrees F and I didn’t have a set goal in mind until I thought of limiting it to 10 minutes to see what I could manage in that amount of time.  This park has fun lighting at night. It’s great to experiment with. This isn’t about quality or taking perfect images. It’s about pushing yourself and always trying to learn, practice, and grow in your craft. Always try to keep moving forward. In my case I’m usually doing a mixture of photo...

With the release of the Fujifilm X100V, they featured the well known street photographer named Tatsuo Suzuki (similar to Bruce Gilden in style) in a promotional video giving viewers a look at his process of making images.  A still frame from the Fujifilm video... He and others of the same style appear to often have an in-your-face method of getting photographs of people. After public backlash, Fujifilm took the video down.  Clips of the Fujifilm video in question are shown on this website and in the video to describe the issues being talked about that directly relate to said video. Only what is necessary to critique is displayed. Fair Use: Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Fair Use Definition: Fair use is a doctrine in Unite...

I’ve been going chronologically through my photos for posting on Instagram and came upon one from 2008 in Tokyo Japan that evoked an emotion.  I’m tempted to buy an old used G series camera again to mess around with. Looking further into it I noticed that there were multiple pictures of the same overall subject that told a visual story about the area. The camera used (Canon G9) wasn’t anything special, but it did the job.  Links are potentially affiliated in this article, I earn from qualifying purchases!  What do you often do when you see a subject you want to capture? One goal might be to get one great photo. Maybe that means photographing it from different angles or featuring aspects of the subject in many photos until one clicks? The images had a mixture of different focal lengths. The intended focus or theme for each individual photo was also different. Whether or not there was intent, we could be creating a visual story with multiple images. It gave me a glimpse into what I was ...

My friend James Dewitz was in Thailand for many years, but recently returned to my area for a short time. I’ve been wanting to feature photographers on this channel for a while now and I didn’t want to pass up this opportunity. In this first of two videos we will take a look at part of his camera gear kit interspersed with information about his photography as well as tips he has based on his experience. He has a focus on oral history, photo journalism, and street photography. He also does other types of photography, but we only focused on the street photography work. See his work here: https://www.instagram.com/j.dewitz/ https://www.facebook.com/jdewitzphoto/ You can find a list of all equipment here: Camera kit on Kit.co I also have the full kit on Amazon.com with newer equivalent items: Camera Kit on Amazon.com Let’s go into more detail… Most of the information here is provided by James.  Olympus O-MD E-M5 Mark I If you don’t want to spring for a better or newer camera, the EM5/1 is...

Yesterday, I met up with a group of friends to visit Chicago’s Chinatown area of the city. This was the first time I had been there, so I was pretty curious about the place. I decided to bring along two cameras and a backpack. Specifically, the Nikon D7000 and Optio WG-II. I even brought along two RF triggers and a flash as I thought I might have the chance to practice with it. 😀  In retrospect, I took too much with me, which ended up just being added baggage that I had to carry around. There just wasn’t enough time to use the D7000 and still keep things casual. I ended up just sticking with the WG-II because it was quick to access and weather resistant. As you will see from the photos, conditions were dreary and included bouts of rain. The clips were taken with the Pentax Optio WG-II (1080p 30fps with SR on). Taking decent clips hand-held is extremely challenging and I need a lot more practice. The WG-II camera generally did well with the still photos I took, especially consid...

A group of people I know from the convention scene went back to an abandoned church in Gary, Indiana recently. This was a great opportunity to try out some off-camera flash, so I went all the way and bought another Cactus V5 and a middle-weight tripod for a setup I was planning. Here are some highlight photos from the excursion:  Here is the lighting setup: The strobist lighting setup consists of: 2x Yongnuo YN460-II flash units Custom Brackets CB-Mini flash bracket 1x Cactus V5 trigger A flash extension wire (has a hotshoe on both ends) A Manfrotto MKC3-H01 tripod The flash extension takes place of a second trigger or using the optical slave method. Both of which would have either a downfall in expense or usability.  The optical slave method could cause issues with orientating the flash heads away from each other and, of course, having two triggers would mean more cost and more batteries to deal with. I used this setup most of the time and it worked quite well. With cosp...