Holiday Photos Creating Keepsakes

Hey! Blake Murphy here! The holidays are right around the corner and that means it’s time to capture that favorite photo for your holiday cards. But why not change it up a little this year and send a video slide show? You can see the photos I took last year here: Tis the Season and the new video slide show I have to offer this year here: Happy Holidays

Google+ Reunited Owner with DSLR After a Year on Ocean Floor

Wildlife photographer Markus Thompson was scuba diving in Deep Bay outside Vancouver recently when he stumbled upon a rusty Canon Rebel DSLR at the bottom of the ocean floor. After taking the SD card out and cleaning it, he was surprised to discover that it still worked, especially because the photos on it revealed that the camera was dropped back in August 2010. Thompson then turned to Google+ to find the owners, writing,

Actual story: found off the end of a wharf in Deep Bay, BC while I was diving on a job for the harbour. I removed the SD card, cleaned it up, stuck it in a card reader and after being underwater in a corroding camera since August 2010 - it works! Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation. If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter - let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos :)

Thank you to everyone who responded with ideas (some listed below) - proof that the google+ 

hive-mind can be utilized to complete a simple gesture like returning someones photos :) Did I mention that I love Google+?

three pics were posted in the album from the SD card (photos aren't mine, so the child remained anonymous).
exif data was examined.
Kamloops Fire Rescue and Firefit were contacted.
Canon Canada was contacted re: camera serial number (reply received - no record of the serial number).
photos were dropped into google search and specific websites mentioned in the comments (no luck - nothing matching the exif serial online).
camera serial - canon eos rebel xs: 0520213746
SD card (for those who inquired): Sandisk Extreme III 20mb/s 2GB (it's not uncommon for SD cards to survive underwater - regardless of brand).

 

After receiving thousands of comments and shares, he received an email from a friend of the owner. You can see more photos of the DSLR here, in case you’re wondering what a year of seawater can do to a camera.
(via Markus Thompson)

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Image credit: Photograph by Markus Thompson

How to distribute your G+ to Twitter & Facebook

How to distribute your G+ to Twitter & Facebook

1. Create an RSS feed of your public G+ posts by entering your Google Profile ID number after http://plusfeed.appspot.com/%5BYOUR

Here's mine: https://plus.google.com/112726412224552205610/


2. Set up an account over at http://feedburner.google.com/.


3. Enter your G+ RSS feed and then connect them to your Twitter

1.



2.



3.

Now you're done linking your G+ to Twitter.com. I'm sure at this point you're asking yourself why you don't just use the more well known Twitterfeed. Well my reason for using Feedburner is that it uses Google's url shortener goo.gl


Which you can use for analytics.




Now we can add G+ to Facebook

4. Do a search for the app RSS Graffiti. It should look like the image below





5. Add RSS Graffiti to Facebook and it farily simiular to Feedburner to set up. Add your G+ RSS http://plusfeed.appspot.com/%5BYOUR Hit save and now you are posting your G+ posts through your other social networks.






Blake Murphy is a Thousand Oaks photographer specializing in portrait and event photography throughout Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura County, and beyond.

Copyright 2011 Blake Murphy MpireMedia

How To Photograph Fireworks

It’s summer and July 4th is fast approaching. That, of course, means some fantastic opportunities to capture stunning images of fireworks. Photographing fireworks can seem a daunting task if you’ve never attempted it before (or attempted without receiving your desired results).


Equipment needed:

Camera (of course)
Tripod
Remote Release
Blanket (optional)

Aperture

Contrary to most low light photography, you’ll want to use a low aperture between f/8 and f/16. The fireworks will provide a lot of light in comparison to the sky that surrounds the display, and you’ll want to take advantage of that. The darker the sky is, the more those colorful bursts of light will “pop” in your finished image.

ISO

You’ll also want to use an ideal ISO for your camera. Most digital cameras are actually at their best at 200 ISO but you can definitely do this at ISO 100. This is so that you get the least amount of digital noise and your images will turn out cleaner.

Shutter Speed

Here is your most important factor in getting great firework photographs. My preference is shooting in bulb setting and using the remote release. You’ll want to open the shutter right before the firework explodes and hold it open as the explosion occurs giving you long trailing light. If you are wanting to capture multiple bursts you can use a black card to place in front of the lens between bursts. If you go this route, know that too many bursts will overexpose the image if the fireworks overlap too much and this will cause your finished image to look overcrowded or cluttered.

Manual Focus

Cameras can have a hard time focusing in the dark so be sure to use manual focus and set it to infinity. If your camera won’t do infinity then use the landscape mode which is essentially the same thing. Another good tip if your using a point and shoot is to set your focus either before the show starts (if you have a reference point) or on the first set of explosions.

Focal Length

Using a wide focal length will help you capture the fireworks’ explosions in their entirety. This will help prevent the fireworks themselves from running off your frame. You can of course try some tighter crops by zooming in and get some really great abstract type imagery, but that can be hit or miss as it’s hard to tell exactly where the fireworks will actually burst and which direction they will head.

Framing

Vertical or Horizontal? It depends. Most often vertical is going to work best as fireworks are shot up into the air and fall back down. Often times, however, there will be a shorter wide series of fireworks that would do good to capture horizontally. Experiment with both so your options are open.

Other Good Tips By Jared Polin