Maniac With Camera Blog

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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Photos from the Archives #3

Welcome to Part 3 of my archived photos...the ones that I never got around to editing until now. These are still a part of the hard-drive. Unfortunately, there are more of them that I still haven't gotten around to editing yet.

Burrard at Night © 2007 FalconRose Photography

This was taken when I was coming home from my parents' place one evening, I decided to walk it over the Burrard Bridge. Decided to tweak it in "oils filter". Still looks like a photo though.

False Creek Water Taxi © 2007 FalconRose Photography

Well, folks, I'm going to be putting these up 10 at a time so that you don't have to scroll like mad through them to see them all. That means I've still got 3 more posts with the last being 15 photos.

For those of you snapping. Happy shooting.

Photos from the Archives #2

Well, I went through my vast amount of folders of pics and tried to see what ones I could save in there after editing. Well, I found quite a few that were worth trying to edit. A few I converted to black & white, And a few I actually turned around and did some filter-effects with. And ended up with a result that was worth hanging on to. The rest I'll probably end up ditching. Anyways, no explanations in the gallery, Please keep in mind that all photos are copyrighted © 2007 & 2008 FalconRose Photography.

This was a shot which I messed around with in Photoshop using the saturation adjustment levels. I tried to take all the colors out except the green. I think it just came out black & white mostly.

Photos from the Archives #1

Here's a few pics from a second trip down to Serpentine Fen. Not as many bird shots, but we managed to get quite a few. Here's a few of them. I took about 200 shots in all, and I'm still in the process of converting them from NEF to JPG

The last picture was a picture taken of a Bald Eagle sitting alongside River Road in Richmond. Thanks to Claude Chenevert who drove me down along there before a class at London Drugs HQ, I was able to nail this shot

Claude, we still gotta get out there and do some shooting sometime whenever you and our missuses are off!

Photos from 2008

Here are some photos from 2008 that I'm transferring over from the Livejournal blog.

Why I love Birding Photography

One of the great loves that I have is to photograph wildlife, especially birds. This started back during the 80s when my "adopted aunt", Augusta Martin, sent me weekly letters containing newspaper clippings on wildlife at the zoo and monthly newsletters from the Vancouver Natural History Society which she subscribed to. Now VNHS has become Nature Vancouver. Sadly my Auntie Martin passed away in the late 90s and she can no longer see the creative seeds that she planted with regards to bird and nature photography germinate. But one of these days, I will ask my mother for the VNHS clippings that Auntie Martin gave me (they must be stored somewhere)

I remember long-time members of VNHS; such as Al and Jude Grass and Eric Greenwood who shot wonderful pictures of birds and other animals in 35mm film (I wonder if they're shooting digital now or still have their 35mm cameras that they pull out every so often). I have to thank them for part of the inspiration of shooting wildlife and nature photography because if it wasn't for them; I probably wouldn't have seen the natural beauty of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. I've often contemplated my wife and I becoming members of Nature Vancouver.

Here are some of my own photos that I shot in 2008.

This bugger decided to take off the minute my wife and I tried to take a shot of him.

These two seemed to be blissfully in their own world.

I shot a photo of this blue heron in 2007

As well this double crested cormorant

Heather and I went down to Serpentine Fen in Summer 2008 and we managed to catch a glimpse of this very accommodating white-crowned sparrow as well as another great blue heron.

I seriously wish I had been able to buy the 600mm f/4 and 400mm f/2.8. Because those lenses would have come in seriously handy for the blue-heron shot. As it was I managed to shoot the white-crowned sparrow with my 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G lens. Luckily the little guy was so co-operative.

These are some of the bird images that I have taken of birds in the wild. I kind of wonder what my "Auntie Martin" would have said of those images and whether or not she would have smiled and had that little twinkling in her eye at her accomplishment of turning me into a "nature-lover".

Thanks Auntie.

This post on my blog is In Loving Memory of my surrogate Auntie Augusta Martin; Thank you, Auntie Martin for instilling in me a love for nature photography and a respect for all living creatures that still extends to this very day.

The Essential Books In My Photography Library (Part 1)

I find that there are several books in my Photography Library that help me in the pursuit of learning photography. These help me in learning photography techniques, learning my equipment better or dealing with a specific genre of photography that I might be interested in pursuing. All of the following books are exceedingly good on the subjects that they are focused on.

My recommendation is for those who are pursuing photography as a hobby or just want to get to the next level of photography; to go and get some or all of these books.

1.

Wiley Digital Field Guides: These guides have crucial information on the usage of your camera and how to go about using those esoteric functions. Detailed step by step instructions and photographs help you to get to each function easily and quickly. When you go out shooting; buy the one for your specific camera and/flash and drop them in your camera bag. While these books are extremely detailed…don’t forget to take along your manual too.

2.

The Digital Photography Book (Books 1-3) by Scott Kelby. These books will give you the nitty gritty on photographic technique. Scott’s humor may not be your cup of tea, but I find it’s just fine to my liking. He goes through step by step on how to get certain lighting conditions and teaches you exposure/shutterspeed/aperture and other interesting techniques. Some of the stuff he covers may not appeal to you, like studio photography but overall, this book series is great. I’ve currently got Book 2, and am now going to look for books 1 and 3.

3.

The quintessential encyclopedia of photography knowledge: John Hedgecoe’s The Photographer’s Handbook. Now quite out-of-date as far as the new digital medium is concerned, it does cover a lot regarding the essence of photography knowledge. And or those who are still shooting 35mm film, this is quite a knowledge trough. Even digital users can benefit from the information contained in this book as the techniques of photography transfer from 35mm to digital.

4.

The entire Photo Workshop series by Wiley Publishing. These photography books are great to get an idea of the different genres of photography there are. And each is crammed chock full of examples and explanations of how to achieve a certain technique. This well-done workbook series is done in lesson format with each crucial bit of knowledge receiving a chapter in the book: Each author is knowledgeable in their genre of photography. I’ve currently got Exposure as well as Portrait and Candid Photography and my goal is to collect the majority of the books. This Photo Workshop book is coupled with the online website: http://www.photoworkshop.com where you can upload your own pictures as you go through each of the lessons for critique by other photographers.

5.

The Photoshop Pro Photography Handbook by Chris Weston is a good post-processing book for digital photography. Have you ever taken a look at your photos and they’re just lacking that little oomph that will give it the “professional look”? Then here is a book detailing the techniques that business oriented photographers use to try to give the photo that “pro”-look. For those of you who have Photoshop CS2-4 these techniques are great. For those who have CS there are a few things that aren’t covered like HDR (high-dynamic range) photography which is tailored more towards the CS3-4 crowd. On the whole this is quite a good book and some of the techniques that you learn in this book, you can probably tailor to Photoshop Elements as well.

These are just a few books that I’ve purchased so far in my obsessive quest to learn as much about photography as I can. However as I add to my photography library, I will do what I can to come up with a follow-up to this blog-post.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Baby and Child Photography

I think baby photography is one of my favorite pastimes. Especially with one baby almost an year old and another one on the way, I’m learning baby photography the easy way with a ready supply of infants that I personally “have”. I also have children, one five years old (6 in June) and the other one is 8 years old in March, so I have those covered and if I really need a teenager to model for a portrait, I can call on a good friend of mine who has a teenager.

Child photography has been a hotbed of controversy; with parents up in arms about having their children’s picture taken. As a parent and as a photographer I can see the viewpoint from both sides. Pictures have always been a sore point especially with the latest child-sex crimes going on. You don’t know what people are doing…and unless you go with a legitimate child-photographer, you may not know what you’re getting yourself into. I hope to let my photography speak for itself about the type of baby/child-photography I do.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Aviation Photography

I have always been a fan of aviation photography. And one of the most popular books in that genre is the "how to" book written by T. Malcolm English, who is the editor of AIR International, one of Great Britain's premiere aviation magazines. This book is one of the best I've seen and considering it has been updated in the last few years, it's switched over to color photographs and has combined film photography with digital photography. English also talks about lenses and other hardware as well as techniques for taking better photographs of aircraft.

So far I've been able to get near civil aviation (mostly airliners) but I hope to get to another Abbotsford International Airshow at some point in my life and be able to photograph fast military jets again. Some of my friends like Randy Rothaar and Jose M. Ramos are able to get into the military installations and airshows and are able to photograph some wonderful shots of F-16s, F/A-18s and other birds of that ilk. Hopefully, I'll be able to get out there at Abbotsford and start nailing some shots in the next few years.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Robert Bateman

I have truly enjoyed Robert Bateman's paintings as they have been the most vivid paintings of wildlife that I have ever seen in my life. Having seen this book in the stores, I wanted to get this book and have passed by it many times. Today when my mother dropped by our home. She left this book with me. Evidently someone had given it to her as a gift and she felt that I would appreciate it much more than she would so she gave it to me. I am truly grateful for her gift.

I am not an artist that deals in paint. I tend to lean towards photography as my medium. Wildlife appears to be my forte when it comes to photography. And Robert Bateman's natural style with the paintbrush is what I have been trying to emulate. However his talent is without compare and the best I can do is to develop my own unique photography with regards to wildlife.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Fake Chuck Westfall and Canon faux pas hilarity.

Fake Chuck Westfall. This guy is absolutely hilarious. He claims he is a Canon tech at Canon Corp and he just rags on Canon every chance he gets. As a Nikon guy, I'm in stitches every time I read his blog.

He rightfully rips Canon a new hole when he complains about the 7D. IMHO, the 7D is a noisy piece of shit that never should have seen the light of day. What camera gives off so much noise at 800 ISO that your pixels seem like multi-colored fractals. Well, Canon, that's what you get for jamming 18 MP onto an APS-C sensor. Evidently they're winning the MP race, but their quality control is taking a header down the crapper.

I feel sorry for Canon, but does that mean I'll buy the Canon 7D out of pity. No f*ng way!

Maniac With Camera Blog

This is my personal photography blog; the one that I keep separate from my corporate photography blog. This is where I keep everyday photography that I do. Whenever I go places I take my camera (either my DSLR or my point & shoot) with me. In that way, I have a way of documenting stuff at all times. Like it's said...people always wish that they had their camera with them when something happens. Well...if I keep my camera with me at all times, I'll never wish I had it when something does happen. ~ Hugo Chikamori, Maniac With Camera Blog Owner

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YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE, COPY, PUBLISH OR USE THE IMAGES OR ANY PART OF THE IMAGES IN ANY WAY WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER. YOU MAY NOT ALTER, MANIPULATE, ANY PART OF AN IMAGE WITHOUT CONSENT.

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Sims 3 Exchange: Copyright information - All FalconRose Photography original photos that are used to create CC are considered the property of Hugo Haruo Chikamori (the original photographer) otherwise known as (NikkeiSimmer on the Sims 3 Exchange) and subject to personal distribution. The end-user may however utilize the photos in their Creative Content form within the framework of their games however are not granted license to distribute the CC. All FalconRose Photography photographs used in the creation of CC by NikkeiSimmer) will be distributed by NikkeiSimmer solely. However all C# coding to create CC for the framework of use in Sims 3 is attributed to Electronic Arts and their rights within.

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act

Due to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and its ramifications world-wide, FalconRose Photography has ceased doing business with all American-based suppliers. FalconRose Photography will patronize Canadian suppliers and retailers of photographic equipment.

Also, this will result in sales of images to United States purchasers treated as if the purchase had taken place in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, and that all such provincial and federal sales taxes due will be paid by the purchaser (due to the complicated tax process involved, point of sale cannot be specified at location of purchaser.) Purchaser is responsible for payment of all US federal and state use-taxes as we will not be collecting those for the United States Government.

We are a small Canadian company and as such, we have had to take measures to protect ourselves (by removing all stain of US tax presence - being treated as a US taxable person; we are Canadian) from United States Taxation and its complicated methods of filing taxes under the United States Tax Code.

We are also boycotting any United States shooting locations and will proceed to shooting schedules in Canada only. Canada is a vast and beautiful country and there are plenty of places to photograph without having to step outside it. We look forward to continuing to bring beautiful images of Canada's wildlife and landscapes for your viewing pleasure.

Edit: upon further research into the confiscatory practices of the US Internal Revenue Service; FalconRose Photography recommends that any US based company requiring images refer to many of the talented photographers based in the United States. FalconRose Photography will not do business with US buyers.

I Do Not Critique Other Peoples' Images

I have had people ask me to critique their photos. Unfortunately, photography is a very subjective field. I don't like to give out critiques because invariably it involves "my opinion" which pretty much carries the same amount of weight as everyone else's - a very negligible weight.

I find that most photographers either want one of two things: They want me to a) praise them so that they don't feel bad about the photography that they are outputting. b) they want to be offended by minor criticism so that they can write the critiquer off as some hack photographer. So it doesn't matter how I give critique, it's a no-win situation.

If I am impressed by your photography, I will say so on my comments at your site: Flickr, 500px, or whereever you may be placing your photographs. If not, I will more than likely be silent. Remember the old adage of mothers everywhere? "If you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all."

Your photography is your photography, I cannot tell you whether or not it's good or not. If you wish instruction, I would suggest looking up a certified photography instructor. There are people out there who have dedicated their careers to training others. Unfortunately as a working photographer who is doing wildlife stock photography and getting his business off the ground, unfortunately, I do not have the time to do so on a gratis basis.

Above all, photography is essentially the way YOU see the world, not through being filtered by other people. So the only person who can really critique your images is yourself and if you are true to yourself, you will be the hardest critic of your own work.

The only people whom I've ever critiqued images or helped by instructing them on occasion are people whom I've gone personally to school with and they already know who they are on my friend's list on Facebook. So please do not send me your photos to critique, because invariably you will not hear from me.

About Me

Haruo Chikamori has been shooting photography in some shape or form since 1984 when his late father got him a Mamiya Sekor TL500 35mm manual focus SLR. Since then he has taught himself the basics of exposure, shutterspeed and aperture...and has progressed from the basics to running his own freelance photography business.

Hugo has had numerous cameras from point and shoot and SLR 35mm cameras to digital cameras (both point and shoot and DSLR). He now prefers to work with Nikon 35mm film and DSLR cameras.

Currently his photographic arsenal includes a Nikon D300s body, a Nikon D50 body, AF-S DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens, AF 50mm f/1.8 D lens, a AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 ED VRII lens and a Nikon AF-S 600mm f/4 D ED-IF II lens. He also has a SB-600 flash.

In the future, he hopes to get the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, a Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VRII lens, as well as a Nikon D700 FX (full-frame) body and a Nikon F6 (35mm film) body