Pittsburgh Architecture

Those folks who have been following my Facebook page (just click the icon in the sidebar or click here) know that recently I have been doing a bit of urban architectural photography. In fact, I have been shooting in downtown Pittsburgh for the last several weekends along with two friends and have been enjoying it very much.

I find that I approach city shooting in much the same way that I approach nature and landscape photography, which is to say that I find myself attracted to graphic lines and shapes and generally simple compositions. I can easily see this becoming a small project, so I thought I would offer up two recent images from our outing to Union Station, which was built between 1898 and 1903 by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham.

Union Station II
Copyright Howard Grill

Union Station I
Copyright Howard Grill

I will likely post more images of Pittsburgh architecture as I slowly process my favorite shots from these weekend forays.

The Camera With You

One more post about my new Droid smartphone. I had mentioned in the past that while many people are able to have a camera with them at all times, I have found working in that way to be very difficult. I have also previously written about Chase Jarvis's The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter) and his website about the same subject called The Best Camera.

Well, I can now attest to the fact that it is fun to have a camera with you all the time....now that it is light and not something that I wouldn't otherwise be carrying. And I find it useful, not so much for trying to make a serious photo, but, rather, to exercise one's vision and to keep in practice.

So I might, from time to time, post some of these spontaneous photographic exercises that I do on the Droid X phone. This one involved trying to make a few creative images from the window of my office, something I never would have lugged my regular photo gear around to try.

"Triangles"
Copyright Howard Grill

"Floating Cloud"
Copyright Howard Grill

Way Off Topic: Smartphones

On some occasions I allow myself to go off topic on this blog.....and this is one of those occasions. I have never owned a 'smartphone' in the past....I never thought I needed one and, frankly, wasn't sure how I would use one. However, my cell phone contract was over last week and I thought I would give a smartphone a go. I was originally planning on an iPhone, but the ATT coverage where I live isn't all that good, at least all I hear is complaints from those that use ATT around where I live. In addition, the iPhone 4 has gotten some bad press and, finally, my family already has 4 cellphones on a Verizon plan. It was time to try out a Droid.

So, last week I got myself the most recent Droid incarnation, the Droid X. I have to say...I love it. After just a few days I can see that it will be very useful and is far more like a computer on which you can make phone calls than a phone on which you can do other things.

The apps are amazing. Sure, a good many of them are just cool or for fun, but many are extremely useful as well. I have to say, I am very pleased with the purchase. My only concern is that it does use up the battery much faster than a regular cellphone. However, my iPhone friends say that the same is true of their device as well.

So how can I make this somewhat relevant to a photography blog? Well, it doss have an 8 megapixel camera...and one that will always be with you and ready to take a picture (see my older post The Best Camera). And there are some very interesting photo apps as well. Here are my four favorite photography apps so far:

Photo Tools :A great set of tools for multiple types of photographic calculations. This app is really a favorite because it can be helpful for photography in general and not just allow you to be creative with the phone's built-in camera like the next three. This app allows you to calculate reciprocal exposure values, tells you sunrise/sunset time based on your GPS coordinates, lets you calculate hyperfocal distance etc.

Vignette: Add all sorts of film and border effects to photos taken with the cameraphone.

FX: More camera effects.

And of course...Photoshop.com Mobile

Book Of Birds

Book of what? Book Of Birds!

Book Of Birds is a British band that is led by musician and songwriter Robert McCracken. Their music has already been intermittently played in the US, but they have not had a formal album release until now.

I will be honest with you......I hadn't heard of them either. But having now heard their music, I am a fan. The style is wide ranging from alternative rock to almost ballad-like. Their first album, which was just released, is now on my iPod.

Well, what does all that have to do with a photography blog, you might ask. I am very pleased that during the summer I was contacted by Rob McCracken to see if I would be interested in selling the non-exclusive rights to my photo "The Burning Bush" for use as the cover art for their first CD release. McCracken felt that the image conveyed the mood of his music and was hoping to be able to use it. So there it is: my 'Burning Bush' image is now the cover art for the 'Book Of Birds' first CD entitled "Luthiern Lullabies".

"The Burning Bush"
Copyright Howard Grill

So, check it out. Here is the band's website with a shot of the CD cover and an option to by the release. Want to listen first.....check out the band's My Space page or Facbook page, both with audio samples. Or, for a more complete sampling, wait until August 2nd, which is when I understand they will be debuting their music on iTunes. So go ahead, why not buy an album :>)

Oh, and I get absolutely no royalties or payment.

EOS Documentation Project

I recently lost the instruction manual for my Canon TC-80N3 Tiner/Remote Controller and could not recall how to use some of the functions. I might have been looking in the wrong place on the Canon USA website, but I could not find a copy of the instruction manual there either. After some Googling, however, I found the EOS Documentation Project, a website that makes available instruction manuals for all things related to Canon EOS. Well, maybe not all things, as the site seems not to have been updated in a while. For instance, there is no information on the 5D MKII, thought the 5D is there. The 1Ds MKIII and 1D MKIII is listed, but not the 1D MKIV.

However, the manuals for newer Canon items can be downloaded from the Canon website. The EOS Documentation Project, on the other hand, seems to be a good resource for older Canon items. It helped me and perhaps it might come in handy for you too. Check it out here.

As to why this post is written in bold text.....blogger seems to have an issue and I can't get it to come out any other way.

Chris Friel

Having recently acquired a Canon tilt-shift lens, I have been avidly trying to learn how to best use it. This includes using the shift mechanism to avoid converging lines for architectural photography as well as using the tilt mechanism for altering the plane of focus to allow front to back sharpness while making landscape images.

But I was also interested in other creative ways in which to use the lens. And that is when I ran across Chris Friel's work.Chris uses the tilt-shift mechanism to create images with selective planes of focus. Rather than utilize tilt to try to bring everything into sharp focus, he often uses it to make most of the image, save a small area, out of focus. In addition to the use of tilt-shift lenses, much of his work is abstract and involves hand holding long exposures (sometimes in conjunction with tilt-shift lenses). His photographs are very powerful, pulling the viewer in and really making them think about the image.

Copyright Chris Friel
Taken With 24mm Tilt-Shift Lens

Copyright Chris Friel
Long Exposure With Camera Movement

Chris's Flickr stream can be found here. His formal website can be found here. Spend some time...these are remarkable images.

photoMICS At Manchester Craftsmen's Guild

I am very pleased to announce that "Two Trees", on of the images from my "Scene In Stone" portfolio, has been juried into an exhibit co-sponsored by the Associated Artist's of Pittsburgh and the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild.

The exhibit entitled "photoMICS" will be displayed in the Guild's Connie Kerr Gallery from July 16-September 3. The theme of the show was to incorporate photographic and/or ceramic elements which convey the bridge between the world's of art and science.

Two Trees
Copyright Howard Grill

This image is an abstract photograph of the cut surface of a slice of stone and was taken using cross-polarized light, which removes all glare and allows one to see the color and texture of the underlying rock surface. And therein lies the science connection.