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.  Check out the video on YouTube with more photos and other talk:  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 som...

I’ve started making “first person” style excursion videos. Basically what I do is take a camera and lens combo with me as I explore a place and also get some much needed exercise. I record as normal with the camera such that you see what I see instead of the camera facing me. I try to add some commentary to the videos, which often is my opinion or comments on the equipment I’m using. I’ll try to mix things up even more in the future to make things as interesting as possible. The major benefit to these videos is that they are great motivation to get out and do things to stay healthy and just enjoy the simple things in life. The most recent video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSNnUSQ6Dlk That video was taken at Rock Cut with the 10-17mm fisheye lens and K-01 camera. It’s a great combo for videos and I’d like to use the fisheye more often for that purpose. I’m sure the fisheye look doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I personally l...

Here is another learning series article and video. This time I go over the camera lens aperture. Check out the video on YouTube: The camera lens aperture is the variable opening inside the lens that lets more or less light into the camera. A small aperture has a larger number. See a full technical description of aperture on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture Also important is the f-number that explains what the aperture number means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number f-number = focal length / diameter of the entrance pupil So if we want to know the entrance pupil size of an 100mm f4 lens we calculate it like this: Diameter = 100 / 4 Giving us a 25mm front lens element. An 85mm f1.4 lens results in a 60.7mm front lens element (85 / 1.4 = 60.7143). Aperture size vs. depth of field. The most important statement I didn’t cover in the video is “the aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,” so a small aperture has very collimated rays of light getting throu...

This was partly taken from my most recent book titled: “The Handbook of Photographing Arizona,” but I just made a Youtube video to supplement the information. I want to do a lot more learning and tutorial based videos in the future! Let’s take a look at the exposure triangle. Watch the video on YouTube:   The exposure triangle: All current cameras can manage exposure pretty well, so it isn’t bad to let your camera manage the details while you focus on proper composition. However, taking full control isn’t that difficult with enough knowledge. Images speak louder than words, therefore the graphic above should be very helpful in explaining the relationship of three key camera settings: ISO value, shutter speed, and aperture size. Each camera setting is also responsible for different properties you can expect to see in resulting photos. For example, a high ISO value will have more image noise, a slow shutter speed will cause more motion blur, and a large aperture value will give you t...