Friday, January 11, 2008

Urban planning


Why do the biggest projects always happen on the days when I have my lowest energy?

Actually, this was a perfect distraction for Dr. S from the fact that she was cranky from staying up too late the night before. We pushed back the sofa, rolled up the living room rug (the only large enough area in the apartment) and built ourselves a cityscape, complete with a park, farm, tall buildings, train station, and of course a MoMA. Funny how small it looks in the photo; it actually take most of S's toys and our apartment!

But what I really wanted to tell you much I'm enjoying the external flash for our camera. Most photographers seem to advise against the use of a flash, but with our dark apartment, taking photos in the winter is nearly impossible. I love this flash because I can bounce the light off the ceiling or walls or I can attach it to the camera with a cable to achieve a variety of other lighting effects, similar to having a studio light. Let me know if you want specifics on it and I'm be happy to provide the details on brand, model, etc.

I'm still no professional photographer, but I think this gadget will actually help me to take photos every day (even on a rainy day like today) and will ultimately improve my photography as a result.

7 comments:

  1. oh wow - i hate the flash look to my camera so i'm curious what you are using and if can you use it with any digital?
    i should know this stuff but i don't

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  2. Hmm, I think you need an SLR camera for an external flash, Nancy. We have a Nikon D50 camera with a Promaster 7500DX flash. They're both big--not something to stick in your pocket--but the quality of the photos makes them worth the size, I think. And I don't usually take the flash anywhere; it's mostly for use at home.

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  3. Thanks for giving the flash details. I used an external flash until it conked out several years ago. I've been lazy in using the flash mounted on the camera which takes absolutely horrible photos. I hadn't even thought about bouncing it off the ceiling or wall, great idea.

    I generally use my 50mm lens that has an aperture setting of 1.4 with the camera set to 400 ISO. That works well for stills but it's no good at night.

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  4. Your little city is so cute! What a great idea. I'm going to do this with my little guy tomorrow.... this would keep him occupied for a couple of hours.

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  5. What is a MoMA? I looked at your cute photo but I still don't get it. Is MoMa an acronym?

    I'm not a mom so maybe that's why I'm clueless.

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  6. I really want to build a city in my living room now. We only have Lego, will that work?

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  7. How Fun! I loved the MoMA!!! Really sweet way to spend some time together.

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