My Favorite 10 Photos of 2010

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#1: Expose The Train

This photo is my favorite of 2010 for a few reasons. The main one being how incredible it is that there is no shake evident in the photo. At the time, I had a terrible tripod. When I say terrible I mean TERRIBLE, like got it for $20 terrible. At the time I was excited to try out my new intervalometer on some long exposure photography. This shot was a happy accident. I set the exposure time for 45 seconds and the train happened to end up like this.

#2: Tax Dollars

If there’s one thing I enjoy about a photo, it’s when symmetry plays a large role in what makes it visually pleasing. This photo was shot at Gail’s Harley Davidson. Every year they do a motorcycle ride in honor of those who died on 9/11. In order to keep things running smoothly, the police help direct traffic and lead the ride. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of all their motorcycles lined up.

#3: Mullets

This one’s probably one of my favorite photos shot on my iPhone. The camera itself is not very high resolution, but apps like Cross Process allow you to play with the colors and processing in very interesting ways.

#4: Starry Night

This one was one of my first shots while on vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I’ve been in the country plenty of times, far from the city life. However the view of the stars there was incomparable. The view made me painfully aware that I need faster glass. However I think this shot definitely gets the point across.

#5: Love & Hate

This one was another adventure in long exposure photography. The results of combining sparklers with long exposures has never let me down. Thankfully I had a few friends on hand who drew these shapes with a good guess!

#6: Antelope

One of my favorite trips this year was to South Dakota’s Black Hills. I was lucky enough to see an antelope near the road, which I’m told doesn’t happen very often. This one was not very jumpy – I didn’t have anything beyond a focal length of 55mm, combined with the crop factor of 1.6 on my T2i.

#7: Motorcycle Madness

This shot was also taken on the day of the 9/11 motorcycle ride at Gail’s Harley Davidson. There were so many great bikes there I could, and did, shoot photos all day. I picked this one mainly because of how I processed it in Photoshop, and the beauty of the bike. If there’s one area I’ve advanced much this year, it’s how to properly process photos taken in RAW.

#8: The best thing one can have…

I’m a bit biased here as I know the photo subject and she is wearing my favourite sunglasses…but I still think this is one of my better photos. Taken in Custer State Park. In particular, I liked the lighting of this shot.

#9: For Good Measure

This one was also taken at the 9/11 ride that started at Gail’s Harley Davidson. The military landed an Apache helicopter there, which was what attracted me to it in the first place as I was driving by. This gun is attached to one of the most amazing cameras I have ever seen. The camera is helmet-mounted and responds to the gunners head movement. This gun follows suit. While I am anti-war, one can’t help but admire the engineering effort that went into such a system.

#10: Dead Hills

This moment was one of the more surreal and reflective moments of my trip to South Dakota. This was taken from the top of Mount Moriah. On one side, there’s these hills. Lifeless and barren trees – which I found quite interesting as a new sight I had never seen. On the other side directly behind the direction I took this picture is the famous town of Deadwood. The view from the top of Mount Moriah is nothing short of majestic.

Photo of the Day: Tax Dollars

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The story behind this photo is simple, but interesting. A friend and I were on our way to see Machete. While driving down the highway, passing Gail’s Harley Davidson, we saw an Apache helicopter landing. I used to be a huge nut for planes and helicopters, so naturally I was pretty excited. We had our cameras with us, too, as we were planning on shooting a timelapse after the movie. We immediately pulled over. This particular photo is the police escort part of the ride. A lot of bikers showed up for the 9/11 ride, in memoriam of the tragedy. These cops, and their beautiful motorcycles, helped keep things orderly.

Photo of the Day: Burros

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Sorry I’ve been pretty mum on this blog for some time! Things have been pretty hectic. This picture comes from a trip I recently came back from, taken in the Black Hills of South Dakota. A friend of mine took me through Custer State Park. There, wild burros will literally come up to your car and beg for food. By beg, I of course mean stick their face inside your car, try to eat your camera, and lick the windows if all else fails. Pretty funny, honestly – this particular burro thought my lens was some sort of tasty treat.

Lift Your Eyes

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So, I’ve been pretty mum on blogging, and even doing daily photos. This little side project is the reason for that. I would entitle this “a vast learning experience” if I was trying to be more truthful than clever. The art of timelapse is something I have yet to master, but love learning more and more about. Newcomers to timelapse should definitely head over to the timescapes forum. You can check out my first timelapse video below.

Lift Your Eyes from Tom Baurain on Vimeo.

All of these locations were in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The only recognizable locations are the ones shot downtown. I didn’t set out with a certain “goal” or subject in mind- I just wanted to capture interesting scenery in timelapse form. When was the last time you sat out and just watched the sunset? Yeah, I’m with you there. A big part of my love of timelapse is it makes me feel productive while I’m watching a sunset, or just watching interesting clouds.

I’d say one of the biggest learning curves for me was just setting the right settings on Manual mode. A few of my first ones were complete throwaways. One huge eye-opener for me was how much of a difference using great glass really makes. Granted, I’ve heard and believed many much more experienced than me on this, but it’s not until you do it yourself that you truly have that “a-ha” moment.

I used a variety of lenses on this, including the infamous 18-55 kit lens, 24-105L, and Tokina 11-16. It’s painfully obvious to me which is which.

I rented the 24-105L and 11-16 from LensRentals.com, an online camera/lens rental service that I’ve been recommended on Twitter before. I had a commercial shoot this weekend I needed gear for, so I decided to try out LensRentals. I must say it was exactly as advertised. The gear arrived fast, and cost of rental was less than local camera rental shops here in Kansas City. I’m all for supporting local business, but if an online service gives me everything I’m looking to rent, plus great customer service, then I’m not going to support mediocrity and higher prices. If you read this and you’re a local camera rental shop in Kansas City, please, don’t be offended – you’re just not advertising in the right places because I haven’t found you.

That being said, I hope you enjoyed the video. Please comment even if you did not- if you’re seeing a newbie error or have good constructive criticism, chime in! Cheers.

Photo of the Day: Timelapse Emergency

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Ever have a “timelapse emergency?” I had one when I looked outside and saw an opportunity going to waste. Tonight’s sunset was quite beautiful. I should get an iPhone 4-this doesn’t do it justice by a long shot.

Photo of the Day: My Office

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Now you might be a little confused, but don’t be-I’ve been spending a lot of my evenings here. I’m putting together my first timelapse video, so most of what you see this week on my blog will probably be related to that. Hope you enjoy the picture!

Photo of the Day: Surprise!

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Sunsets like this one really remind me why I love summer so much. The sky in this sunset was already very beautiful, but just before it went too dark the sun lit up the clouds burnt orange in this picture. I shot this one with my iPhone 3G and Camera+. If you haven’t noticed, I use Camera+ a lot on my iPhone 3G.

Photo of the Day: Sunlapse

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Today’s photo comes from my iPhone 3G, taken with the lovely app Camera+. Camera+ is a well-rounded photography app designed by Lisa Bettany. This shot was taken during a timelapse I was shooting with my Canon EOS Rebel T2i while out in the country. It turned out pretty good, and is apart of an upcoming timelapse project I’m working on in my spare time. Cheers!

Painting with Light: The Basics

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Lately, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve developed a new obsession: long-exposure photography. I love it for a lot of reasons, mostly due to how many forms it can take. It’s a really fun thing to get into, and if you’re like me and own a DSLR, there’s really no reason not to. This post is mainly targeted at beginners, and helping people not make the same initial mistakes I made.

The Essentials

The basics of long-exposure photography you hopefully already have, but here they are:

• DSLR
• Tripod
• Remote Timer
• Flashlight or any light source

I’ve been using my Canon EOS Rebel T2i for my adventures in long exposures. This will definitely work for you as long as you have a DSLR, though it doesn’t have to be Canon. I love my T2i because even though it produces great images and video, it cost only $900.

The night I got pictures of this train, I almost learned a hard lesson about getting a quality tripod. Right now my tripod is pretty cheap and chinsy. I make do with it but its a miracle I get good shots with it at all. The first exposure of the train I did that night was set a bit too close to the tracks. The wind from the train knocked my T2i over and I almost died inside as I thought the sum of my tax return was about to be sucked under the tracks because of the tripod legs. Bottom line, I’m saving up for a quality tripod and you should too. Quality brands I personally trust are Manfrotto, Vinten, and Miller. The Manfrotto 501 HDV head in particular has been good to me in the past, and happens to be the one I’m saving for.

As far as remote timers go, I personally use the Opteka MC-36b. Funny story- Opteka technical support says this remote timer does not work with the T2i. They are of course wrong, and I bought it anyways as it was one of the few things Philip Bloom recommends that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. If you have something else, I’ve heard good things about the Canon TC-80N3.

Let’s Get Started

So you own all that stuff, eh? Good for you- we can begin. Let me first say that I’ll be addressing common mistakes towards the end so that you don’t repeat my stupidities.

What I love the most about this is how you get started largely depends on you. Your imagination is your limit. What you create with this can take on any form and personally I can’t wait to try stopmotion with this.

The very basics of getting started is setting your DSLR to an extremely low shutter speed. I usually set mine to BULB. If I have it set on anything higher on my T2i it tends to get a little wonky when I set it to exposures longer than 30 seconds.

Take a test photo with a short 15 second exposure. If you’ve got your f-stop set to something low, in the single digits, and an ISO over 200 the first thing you’ll notice is how blown out everything is. This is due to the shutter speed being extremely low.

Personally I think the most interesting photos utilizing long exposures are taken at night. Most often with the low shutter speed involved the camera will let in more light than your visible eye can see. Experiment with your ISO and f-stop, see what works for you! I love it when the camera lets in so much light that night almost turns to day, but your tastes may be different.

Lighting Conditions

As with any photo, lighting is the key. How much or how little you let in can give it a whole new look. Even though I am writing this, I still consider myself a beginner. Generally you can’t mess up too bad with how much light you let in, and as with all photos I highly advise shooting in RAW. Practice makes perfect, if you learn from your mistakes and keep it up there’s no way you can’t get better.

One thing to keep in mind with light and long exposures is that it isn’t necessary for it to be completely dark when doing this. Sunset and near dark are definitely ok for doing this. If you’re doing light graffiti the main thing to keep in mind is the light source you are using to make whatever you’re setting out to make MUST be bright enough to stand out in the photo. If it’s high noon and the sun is blazingly bright then obviously your flashlight isn’t going to stand out much. Make sure your light source stands out.

While we’re talking about light sources, let’s discuss what to use to “paint with light.” A lot of the time, I just use a standard flashlight. My friends and I have also had some great results with sparklers. Sparklers are great, but just as a safety warning take great care with them so you don’t burn your subject, if you are outlining their body. Have fun with this- experiment! Use different colored lights, and different types of lights. I plan on experimenting with LED’s, rope lights, and other light sources soon. As I’ve said before, your limit with this is your imagination.

What traffic lights and lights from all modes of transportation can do for your photos is amazing. Headlights and taillights in particular from cars can change night to day, as seen here. Trains are even more interesting to me when it comes to light.

Here is an example of a 45 second exposure where the exposure stops so that the lights coming off the train stop.

This one is the longest exposure I’ve ever done, coming in at 3 and a half minutes. It’s literally an entire train passing by.

Lens Choices

Nothing that holds true for choosing a lens is any different with light painting. Wide angle lenses will get you the most room to play with, and telephoto will get you the least. Higher quality lenses as usual will get you better quality pictures. My personal preference is wide angle, so I have the most room to play with. See what works best for you!

Essential Tips

• GET A GOOD TRIPOD. Bottom line, use what you have, but make getting a good tripod a priority. The last 2 photos I posted? Can you see the difference in camera shake? The vibration from the train shook my tripod quite a bit more because of a few things. The first is how long the exposure was- a lot more of a chance to have vibration from the train distort the photo. The second is how cheap my tripod is-the low weight of it meant less stability.
• Don’t rely on what others have done. I’m not against looking on the web at cool photos others have done for inspiration, but the best weapon you have in any form of long-exposure photography is your imagination, not imitating cool things that others have done.
• Experiment, experiment, experiment. Use different light sources, and get your friends involved! You can create more complex shapes and images with different colors and more than one light painter.
• Use a remote timer. You can do long exposures without it, but if you want blur-free images a remote timer is absolutely necessary.
• You have more room than you think.When trying to draw anything in light graffiti, whether it’s your name or some kind of creature, you usually have more room in the frame than you think. One of my early mistakes was not utilizing all the space I really had.
• Do it with a group of friends! In the past, I’ve done light graffiti with 2-5 friends. Having friends help you definitely ups the possibilities on what you can accomplish. You can help each other have a better idea of how much space you really have in the frame. It’s also good depending on who you invite because 5 people with ideas are usually better than 1.

I initially got my DSLR to do video, but this convergence has had other effects. I hadn’t really considered doing light graffiti or any of that when I first bought my T2i but it’s great fun! I hope you try it out for yourself. The possibilities are endless.

Photo of the Day: Expose The Train

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In keeping with what I said, today’s photo is another adventure in long-exposure photography. This was the first time a train came by that night, and my exposure comes in at about 45 seconds. It was pure planning sheer luck that it stopped when my timer did to get the look of this photo. A lucky guess that happened to turn out well.

Also, for those interested-a blog post is on the way about how to get into light painting, graffiti, and all manner of long-exposure photography. The post will be primarily targeted at beginners. Look for it early next week.