One quickie from this past week. I was out at a local park trying to get some candid portraits for a class I’m taking and this was my favorite from the evening.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve juried into the upcoming 40th Annual Hoyt Regional Art Exhibit, which runs from May 7th, 2013 to May 31st, 2013 at the Hoyt Center for the Arts in New Castle, PA. This is the 4th year in a row that I’ve got work into the show (shown above), and every time I’m always happy to be a part of it.

As is usual, I’m always interested in seeing what other work will be on display, plus this time my own show, 「光 : Hikari」, will be running concurrently in the Ballroom Gallery, so May looks to be a big month for me I’d say. Opening reception will be Sunday, May 19th from 2p-4p, so certainly it’ll be worth your while to drop by and have a look I’m sure.

Update: I got a chance to snap some photos of the exhibit before my class this past Tuesday in order to give you a preview. It really is a good show, so please come and see it.

UPDATE: 「光 : Hikari」has been extended through the month of June.

I wanted to announce the opening of my 「光 : Hikari」show in the Ballroom Gallery of the Hoyt Center for the Arts in New Castle, PA. Dates for the exhibition are May 7th – 31st and the reception will be on Sunday, May 19th from 2p-4p. That also happens to concur with the 40th Annual Regional show, which I have work in as well, so you can kill two birds with one stone by coming and seeing both (reception is the same day as well).

I got a chance to check out the show yesterday when I went to teach my class and I have to say it looks pretty good. I’m really happy with the flow of it and how the work is presented. I also took some snaps which are presented here, so I really hope you can come out, have a look, and perhaps make it to the reception.

Not sure if i ever mentioned it, but for a while now I’ve been a member of the Ag Works photo collective, which is a group based in Pittsburgh consisting mostly, but not entirely, of Filmmakers students and alumni. When I first joined I was neither, but since I took a class there last fall and will again this summer, I guess I qualify now. In any case, we have regular meetings every 2 weeks, which for me I use as a chance to also grab a camera and go shoot for a while prior to the meeting.

Since we meet at University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning I spend time wandering around the area shooting whatever catches my eye. This has produced some of the images from the first test rolls I shot with my Canon A-1, as well as these images I shot with my D3 and 80-200 f2.8. Since I’m just wandering most of the time, there’s no set pattern to what I shoot, but that’s fine. At some point when I go back over all the images from the area I’ll probably start to see some trends that I can  work on in more depth if I want to, but for now it’s just a relaxing way to kill some time and keep tabs on my shooting skills.

Finally, spring is here. Took long enough, but it seems a done deal at this point. Like a family ritual, we tromped out to Fellows Riverside Gardens a week or so back to enjoy the fresh air and flowering trees. Very beautiful, but the trees are still a bit barren as their leaves are just coming into their own. Irregardless, I took some decent snaps from the day, which I’m posting for your enjoyment.

As a photographer, it’s simply enjoyable to take photos when out and about, even if they’re not entirely serious with regards to being artful. Any photo taken is experience gained and useful visualization practice, so there’s no reason not to take photos I feel. Sure, there are more than a few times that I get tired of the same scenery and wish for something new, but even then you can challenge yourself to try and see things in a new light. No matter what though, if I come home from a day out with a few good images then it was an enjoyable day, and sometimes that’s all that matters.

Was out killing a bit of time at Cascade Park here in town while waiting for my son to finish his karate class. The weather has been very pleasant and warm the last few days, so I took a camera with me while I walked the park and mainly took some snaps of the creek and falls. Apparently I’m not the only one out enjoying the evening air based on the pics. Only sad thing is that there’s no foliage on the trees yet as they’re just coming back to life for the spring, so the pics are a bit barren. Still, it’s just good to be out in the warm air for a change. And with that, here’s the evening’s faves.

Unfortunately, the park has a dark side as well, though it’s interesting too in its own way.

Spent the day yesterday down at the Pittsburgh Strip District. We were in the city for a meeting earlier in the day and then headed down there later for lunch and some shopping. Since the weather was planned to be warm and relatively clear, I took a camera with me because the Strip always has something happening and there’s usually good photo ops more often than not. This time was so-so, but here’s some of my more favorite images from the day.

Camera was a Nikon D3 w/ 50mm f1.8G. I bought the lens as an upgrade to the 50mm f1.8D I had before and this is one of the first real chances I’ve had to shoot with it. So far, it seems an excellent upgrade, with fast AF and excellent clarity and contrast. It’s very sharp from looking at the files, though softens up a bit below f2.8. That’s pretty much the same deal as the D version, but the newer lens isn’t nearly as soft at those wide apertures and I think they’re more useful then they were with the old lens.

Let’s start off with some shots from the Allegheny Coffee & Tea Exchange:

Primanti’s, and no one was lined up and waiting, which seems unheard of.

Fanmobile? Not surprised in the least.

A little gardening action.

A quick stop at Lotus Foods.

Not everything is quite so appetizing unfortunately.

But at least there’s Unbelievable Butter, so all’s well in the world.

Cheers!

Took a quick snap of my current stable of SLRs the other night. Nothing fancy – I was simply curious about how they would compare size-wise to each other. As you can tell, the D3 dwarfs the rest of my stash by a fair margin. There’s no denying it’s a big camera, and with the Nikkor 24-70 f2.8G AF-S on it, it’s pretty imposing. The rest of ‘em, however, are somewhat more comparable to each other. The T2i is a little narrower and taller than the A-1, but much thicker and weighs about the same, while the little Pentax Program Plus is the baby of the family and a very compact, handy thing to have around.

Despite the various sizes, however, I find all of them comfortable to shoot and have no issues whatsoever in using them interchangeably. Some people get really caught-up on ergonomics and size, but I’m not too picky and as long as I take the time to get familiar with a body, I’m typically good to go.

Anyway, just a quicky gear porn post for the fun of it. And remember, the camera is only part of the equation for getting good photos, so don’t get too sidetracked wallowing around trying to find the perfect setup. You can use just about anything if you put the effort into learning it, and you’ll find most accomplished photogs do just that and are very brand agnostic more often than not.

Got the second test roll from my Canon A-1 back a little while ago and thought I’d post a few more of the test shots. As you can see, these are in color, so a bit of a change of pace this time through. All of these are with the Canon 28mm f2.8 FDn lens I picked up shortly after getting the camera. It really is a decent lens with excellent sharpness and reasonable speed. Can’t beat the price either. For a while I was always of the sentiment that 28mm is too wide for me as a general purpose lens, and in some respects it is, but seeing the shots come back like these here and I’m beginning to change my mind. I still think a 35mm is a tad more useful as a walk-around lens, and if I had to choose only one to carry for an outing that’d be my preference, but the 28mm is quite handy, especially indoors, so I’m glad I have it in my kit.

University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning:

These are a few snaps from the open house and art exhibit in the new Jameson Hospital Emergency wing:

Got notice that the first issue of Camera-9 is up and live in the iBooks store. I downloaded a copy of it and it’s very good with some wonderful work by a number of well-known local Pittsburgh photogs. In fact, Sue Abramson was my teacher for the Experimental Camera class I took recently at Filmmakers (great class BTW!), so I’m very happy to be included with her in this issue.

Content-wise, there’s a variety of genres represented – abstract, documentary, conceptual and more, which means there’s bound to be something to appeal to your taste. The best recommendation however, is to simply go have a look for yourself, which you can do by clicking on the image above. I think you’ll enjoy it very much, and the price is very reasonable.