Category: Photography – Canon 5D Mark II

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Art and Artists HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Stanford

Painting Stanford with Donald Neff

My friend Donald Neff and I visited Stanford this morning for a fun exploration of painting and photography. Don’s quite an accomplished landscape artist and, while I rarely pick up a brush, I’ve got way too much photographic gear to just sit by and watch!

We picked a spot inside the quad and I took a “reference photo” which Don looked at briefly and then began to sketch and paint. We wanted to see a comparison of the same scene – painting and photo – more on that later! Don took this picture of me shooting our “subject” in the Quad. Here’s Don’s blog post on today’s “Stanford Shootout!”

Don and I worked together at a couple of points in our careers in the payments world. Here’s a photo of Don hard at work inside the quad at Stanford!

Donald Neff painting at Stanford University

Below is an example of one of my HDR photos (High Dynamic Range) taken with the Canon 5D Mark II using +/1 2 stop Automatic Exposure Bracketing on a monopod.

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And another HDR shot of one of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais in the Stanford Quad.

Stanford Quad - Rodin's Burghers of Calais

The full set of HDR photos I took inside the Stanford Quad are here.

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Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Lily Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Faithful Companion – Lily

Lily - Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

While over at my Mom and Dad’s place today, I was playing around a bit trying to capture a good shot of Lily, our faithful companion Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

I thought this particular shot turned out especially good – capturing her “mohawk” (her “defect” that we actually found pretty special – along with her amazing curiousity!) and her typical look.

Lily is actually short for Tigerlily – her full name which reflects her breeder’s view of that Mohawk!

Hope you enjoy her as much as we do!

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Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Springtime Fun for Photographers at Filoli

Early springtime at Filoli is great fun for photographers. Lots of bulbs blooming – in planters all around the grounds and buildings and in the huge daffodil field.

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I was at Filoli at the 11 AM opening this morning – as were several other photographers. I crawled around on the floor in the Conservatory with a woman shooting with a Konica as we tried to get the right light angle on the hyacinths.

My first few shots this morning were taken with the Canon 24-105mm f/4 IS lens on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. While admiring the hyacinths, I switched to one of the most fun lenses in my kit bag – a Lensbaby 2.0 (now renamed the Muse). The Lensbaby provides a sharp area of focus that you can manually move around while composing the shot. The rest of the shot will be delightfully out of focus and blurred – resulting in a beautiful effect with bright flowers and foliage. You can see some of this effect in the photo above. Sorta looks like I did a drive-by shooting of that plant, doesn’t it! 😉

On Canons, you shoot with the camera in Aperture Priority mode when shooting with a LensBaby. Since the camera can’t control the LensBaby lens’ aperture, you lock the aperture and the camera then must adjust the shutter duration to get a good exposure.

The full set is now available on Flickr – as is this collection of all my Filoli photos.

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Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

More about the Marin Headlands – and Treasure Island

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Late last week, I took off Friday morning for some exploration in San Francisco and, across the Golden Gate, in the Marin Headlands. See my full report here.

Today, while browsing around, I came across a great recent article by the Chronicle’s Outdoors writer Tom Stienstra that he published the Sunday before my visit. I hadn’t noticed it in the paper – but it’s a very useful reference to exploring the Marin Headlands.

You get the best view anywhere of the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond across San Francisco, and moments later, a lookout across the Pacific Ocean where it seems you can see nearly to Hawaii.

Indeed! Hawk Hill is the highest point in the Headlands and looks DOWN on both the Golden Gate Bridge as well as the Point Bonita lighthouse. A spectacular place from which to view San Francisco.

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Another great spot, expecially after dark, is Treasure Island. If you’re heading to Oakland across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and can spare 5-10 minutes, take the left exit off to Treasure Island and head down the hill to the area just before the old Navy base gatehouse.

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You’ll have a stunning view back across the water of San Francisco’s downtown skyline. It’s one of those overlooked but beautifully scenic stops that most of us just pass by in our rush to get across the bay! Here’s a daytime view from Treasure Island taken with my old Canon EOS 30D DSLR on May 5, 2007 using a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens (a great all-around lens, by the way!).

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Food and Drink iPhone 3G Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

A Late February Friday

I took a day off today for some R&R with my new Canon 5D Mark II camera. I headed up to San Francisco, spent some time in Golden Gate Park (Stow Lake), crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and headed up to the Marin Headlands. Here are some of today’s shots on Flickr.

I can’t recommend the Marin Headlands highly enough – the scenery from the headlands is truly stunning. If you go, head directly for Hawk Hill – you’ll be on top of the world, looking down on the Golden Gate and San Francisco when looking east and on the Point Bonita Lighthouse when looking southwest. Heading back from Hawk Hill, I had hoped to find the Nike missile site open – but it turned out I was an hour too early and I needed to keep moving.

Heading home just before lunch, I came through the tunnel and out to Fort Baker. Friends had told us that the new Carvallo Point Lodge at Fort Baker was a great spot – so I headed there. Amazingly, a free parking spot was open right in front of the building with the Murray Circle restaurant – so, I took it as a sign that this was where I should have lunch!

Murray Circle (also the name of the street that loops around in front of the lodge) has a half dozen tables outside on the porch – and the weather was just ideal for sitting outside today. Here’s the view from my outside table today – snapped from my iPhone 3G:

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I had the Petrale Sole – a very tasteful slice of sole served on a bed of broccolini. I brought my Kindle 2 along and had a delightful meal while reading in one of the most beautiful settings I’ve seen in the Bay Area. Almost too decadent!

But, what a wonderful way to end a delightful Friday morning away from the office!

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Blogs/Weblogs Mac Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Work

Yours Truly Cranking Away at My MacBook Pro

Carol Coye Benson, one of my partners who manages our Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp program, hired a local professional photographer (Damon Tarver) to come into our session two weeks ago in Santa Clara. Tonight, she sent along the photos – wow, Damon did a wonderful job!

One of his pictures captured me in a very typical pose – cranking away on my MacBook Pro, probably updating either Payments News or this blog in real-time! This particular photo came from his EOS-1D Mark II shot at f/2.8, 165mm focal length at 1/100 shutter speed.

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As an aside, he was a Canon shooter like me – with Canon EOS 1’s – both an EOS-1D Mark II and an EOS-1D Mark III. I had fun talking to him at our wine and cheese reception (we do this at the end of the first day of the Boot Camp to unwind and let everyone get to know each other).

The Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens that he used to shoot me is truly an amazing lens – see my Rick Steves’ Iran photos for more examples.

Turns out we are both sort of lusting after the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Zoom to round out our lens kits!

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Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Canon EOS 5D Mark II – Low Light Performance @ ISO 6400

5dmark2.jpgTonight I took another look at one of my Rick Steves’ photographs from his talk on Iran this past Monday evening.

This particular photo was shot using my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens
at 200mm, f/2.8, 1/640th of a sec at ISO 6400. Post-processed (minor plus cropping) in Adobe Lightroom 2.3RC.

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What I find pretty amazing is the relative lack of noise in the photo at this very high ISO 6400 setting! Pretty stunning performance if you ask me!

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Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Canon Camera Sales Revenues Decline 28% in 4Q2008

Amateur Photographer reports on Canon’s 2008 financial results – its camera division reported a 28% decline in fourth quarter sales in 2008 vs. 2007. I’ve certainly been doing my part (!) – like acquiring my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II (actually purchased in the first quarter of 2009)!

Most high-end retailers have also been reporting fourth quarter sales declines in the 20-30+ percent range – it’s ugly at the upper end of the market for almost anything considered a luxury.

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Menlo Park Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Birdhouse #8 in Sharon Park

I went exploring yesterday with my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR and Gitzo Monopod in-hand.

It was a pretty hazy day (we’ve had over a week of unusually warm weather and the pollutants are starting to be pretty obvious!) – so not great distant shots. But, I found some great light in the late afternoon in Sharon Park – here’s one example: Birdhouse #8.

Continue reading “Birdhouse #8 in Sharon Park”
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Monopod Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Tripod

My Tripod Update – Got a Gitzo GM2541 Monopod Instead!

As I mentioned yesterday in my post “A Tripod Novice – About to Become an Expert!“, Chris Gulker and I headed out to the local pro photo shop this morning to look at their seemingly endless assortment of tripods, monopods, ball heads for both, etc.

The basic objective was to help me find a more stable platform for some of my HDR photography indoors – at nearby locations like the Stanford Memorial Church, Cantor Arts Center, home (!), etc.

Continue reading “My Tripod Update – Got a Gitzo GM2541 Monopod Instead!”