Alphatracks

Certainly NOT your father’s Oldsmobile.

Jan 26, 2009: I had a chance to attend BarCamp Charlotte last weekend. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, barcamps consist of a loosely organized group of bloggers, internet marketers, computer programmers, film makers, web developers and new media types. While photographers weren’t as well represented as some of the other disciplines, there were several dSLR shooters in attendance. I also met at least one other Sony Alpha owner.

The Charlotte camp was held in an art community known as Area Fifteen, located in the NoDa art district. Area Fifteen is large meandering building with artist studios, large open areas, a labyrinth of hallways and winding stairways.

With the eclectic group of people and the fascinating backdrop of Area Fifteen, there was no shortage of photo subjects. I kept the A350 busy recording as much of the activities as I could, while still participating in the individual BarCamp sessions.

The most interesting thing about covering an event like BarCamp Charlottte, is the absolute lack of
self-consciousness of the part of the participants. There were video cameras and photographers everywhere. One of the principle themes of the barcamp movement is transparency and openness. That was a refreshing change from some ofther events I have photographed.

I took nearly 300 images during the day. No one said “Don’t take my picture!” No one turned away to hide from the camera. I could have been invisible…no one was the least bit concerned that I was aiming my lens at them. It was exciting to have the freedom to photograph whoever and whatever I wanted without interference.

I used a variety of lenses for the shoot. Because most of the activities were held indoors, I wanted the Minolta 50mm f/1.7. This gave me the ability to shoot available light under most conditions. I also brought along the Sony 18-70mm, primarily for the wideangle focal length. I thought about bringing along the Minolta beercan, but I figured the weight and f/4 aperture would be a negative.

Instead, I decided to continuie experimenting with a new acquisition, a Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 screw mount lens attached to the A350 with a M42 adapter. This arrangement has its drawbacks — no auto focusing, no Super Steady Shot, no automatic exposure. It is also a fixed focal length — no ability to zoom.

Grab shot somewhere in the depths of Area 15.

On the other hand, 135mm on the A350’s APS-C sensor equates to something like 192mm on a 35mm film camera. That meant I had the equivalent of a 200mm f2.8mm, great for capturing individual candids.

I shot some available light images at ISO 400-800, but decided to use flash for most of the images. For a flash unit I went with another oldie but goodie; a Minolta 4000 AF mounted on Control Grip 1000 flash bracket. The old Minolta flash was connected to the A350 with a Sony FA-CC1AM Alpha Off-Camera Cable. Not exactly state of the art, but extremely capable.

So how well did this somewhat primitive setup work? Quite beautifully. You can check out the BarCamp Charlotte gallery I assembled here.

I wanted to get the images online as soon as possible after the event.
I did very little post processing, other than converting the RAW images in Adobe Lightroom. Thankfully, very few of the images required any retouching, including the images from the old Vivitar.

I converted, tagged, organized and exported the entire gallery the evening after BarCamp. The next day I added some links and edited some of the CSS files. I had the gallery posted to the web by noon.

I’m not trying to brag. I just wanted to point out the images I got from the older equipment required very little editing to be ready for the web.

If there is a BarCamp in your area, I recommend you check it out. You can find out about future events in Charlotte by signing up at the BarCamp Charlotte website.

All in all, I am quite pleased with how well the old M42 lens and the 25 year old flash unit worked on the modern A350. Stay tuned. I’ll talk more about the using the M42 adapter on the Sony Alpha in the near future.

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1/64 scale steam locomotive captured with Sony A350’s tilt-out live view system.

Jan 21, 2009: For the last several years, I’ve taken the grandkids to see the “trains, trains, trains” exhibit at the Kings Mountain Historical Museum. Held each December, the event is put on by the Carolinas Division of the Atlantic Coast S-Gaugers.

S-gauge is a model railroad term that indicates the scale of the model trains; larger than HO scale but smaller than the O-Gauge rolling stock from Lionel and other makers. American Flyer is the best known maker of S-Gauge rolling stock, but manufacturers like American Models, S-Helper Services and others produce compatible 1/64 scale locomotives, cars, track and accessories.

Naturally, I always haul a camera to these events. This year, the choice was the Sony Alpha A350. I figured the Live View option on the A350 would come in handy. I was, however, surprised how great the adjustable LCD screen proved to be for this type of work. By placing the camera right on the layout and composing with the LV screen, it was like I walked right into the scene. I’ve shot models at various times in the past, but the A350 Live View opened a brand new dimension for me.

The Carolinas Division of the Atlantic Coast S-Gaugers has created a large layout table, with two tracks running around the perimeter. While the trains are the centerpiece, there are dozens of buttons arranged around the table. Each button triggers an animated display of some sort. One button might cause a building to light up, while other buttons trigger railroad sounds, a plane to swoop over the layout or some lumberjacks to saw away at a fallen tree.

You can spend hours experimenting with the buttons, but for a photographer, the layout offers a host of wonderful subjects. Live View allowed me to capture some interesting viewpoints that I missed when shooting in the past.

By flipping the A350’s LCD into the horizontal position, I found I could aim directly down the track at an approaching locomotive. Choosing a vantage point outside a curve let me compose a head-on shot, secure that the train would swing away before it hit the camera.

Shooting in this manner, I did encounter one of the limitations of the Live View system. Like most electronic view finders (EVF) the Sony Live View LCD can’t show you an instant preview. There is a slight lag between what you see on the screen and what is actually happening. You can prove this by moving the camera quickly from side to side. You notice the image on the LCS screen will look smeared, because the LCD can’t refresh quickly enough.

In the case of the train heading directly at the camera, I found I had to shoot slightly before the locomotive looked in focus. If I waited until the front of the engine was perfectly focused on the LCD, the train would be unfocused in the actual image. Because of the shallow DOF, the engine would move beyond of the zone of sharpness while it still look perfectly focussed on the LCD.

Once I understood what was happening, I was able to significantly increase the number of in-focus, head-on shots using the LCD.

Shooting models (not that kind of model…we’re talking toy trains here) is always a challenge, due to depth of field issues. If you read the my basics article on depth of field, you know that the closer your lens gets to a subject, the shallower the depth of field will become. It is tempting to use a macro lens for this type of shooting, but with a macro lens the DOF is so shallow that only a very slim part of your subject will be in focus.

Even without resorting to a macro lens, you’ll probably notice very shallow DOF. Usually I would stop the lens down to create more DOF. However the trains at the King’s Mountain Exhibit were always moving. This led to an interesting dilemma. If I stopped the lens down, the shutter speed became too slow to stop the moving trains. Opening the lens up to the maximum aperture gave me a sufficient shutter speed to prevent the trains from blurring, but the DOF became too shallow to display an entire locomotive — let alone an entire train.

I tried some flash images, with a hand held Minolta 4000 AF flash cabled to the Sony A350. By hand-holding the flash I could aim it in various directions to get some interesting, shadowless light. This gave me some decent DOF and effectively froze the motion of the trains. Actually the flash was too effective in freezing the motion. The 4000 AF stopped the locomotives so well that they appeared static. If I was going to shoot with the flash, I might just as well have asked the guys from the Atlantic Coast S-Gaugers to stop the trains so I could shoot them while they were not moving.

I could have upped the ISO, which would have allowed me to shoot at faster shutter speeds with the lens stopped down. However, I was concerned that this would increase noise, which might obscure some of the fine details on the models. So I tried a variety of shooting techniques. I scrapped many of the captures because they didn’t work out. But I got a few I really liked, and there were enough interesting ones to create a nice magazine or newspaper spread.

Take a look over the gallery and tell me what you think. After shooting the layout with the Sony A350, it is hard to imagine photographing this kind of subject with any camera that doesn’t offer a tilt out LCD.

Check out the model train image gallery to see how the A350 performed.

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Is that antique sailing canoe levitating in thin air? Find out in the image gallery.

Dec. 17, 2008 A few weeks ago, we dropped in at the Bob Timberlake art gallery in Lexington, North Carolina. My wife fostered my original interest in Timberlake’s art. Then, while we were living in Wilmington, the St. John s Museum of Art (since replaced by the Cameron Art Museum) had a wonderful exhibit featuring the works of Timberlake and Andrew Wyeth. Timberlake’s subject matter dovetailed closely with many of my own interests; snow covered barns, historical scenes, seascapes and mountain ranges. Most importantly, I love wooden boats, and many of Timberlake’s subjects are wood boats.

I wasn’t sure whether my Sony A350 would be welcome at the gallery, since many similar establishments have a “no cameras” policy. Thankfully, the staff at the Lexington gallery gave me permission to shoot, as long as I didn’t photograph the artwork directly. The huge hexagonal building is filled to the rafters (literally!) with interesting stuff…artwork, antiques and memorabilia. It would be a wonderful place to play “I Spy,” because there is a jumble of things everywhere you look.

That doesn’t mean the gallery is unattractive. The interior is light and airy and the items on display are attractively arranged. There is a whole lot of stuff, but the gallery is not cluttered by any means. The modern building itself is lovely, with a large well-lit atrium, dominated by a huge stone chimney.

The highlight, other than the artwork, is the fully rigged, antique sailing canoe suspended in the main gallery. It has gorgeous lines, and it was the main reason I wanted to tote the A350 into the gallery. Although the sailing canoe is the centerpiece, there are several other wooden boats and canoes inside.

Although there are many fascinating antiques, these aren’t offered for sale. The old guns, farm equipment, fishing gear and beach flotsam are simply backdrops for the artwork, furniture and clothing.

Yes furniture and clothing. While Timberlake is best known for his art (with good reason) he has branched into designing furniture, luggage and clothing. Naturally, almost everything in the Timberlake catalog is on display at the gallery.

Because I didn’t want to use flash inside the gallery, I shot everything with existing light. Thankfully, the large overhead windows and skylights provided bright, even natural light. The upper gallery was very well lit. In the lower area the light was dimmer, but Super Steady Shot made it possible to get decent hand-held images.

The Lexington location is one of two Timberlake galleries. The other one is located in Blowing Rock, in the western North Carolina mountains. I haven’t made it to the Blowing Rock gallery, yet…maybe next summer.

View the Bob Timberlake image gallery

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