Expanding into DSLR video shooting, I realized that focusing on “live view” can be very tricky. Accurately focusing using a 3-inch monitor is problematic. I found the solution to that in the “Hoodman cinema kit pro“.
Today’s technology, allows pro photographers to produce high-quality videos, with the equipment they already have, and feel comfortable using. The attachments that will transform your DSLR into a movie-making machine are many, and choosing the right product was not easy. While searching, I found that many of the magnifying viewfinders required gluing an attachment to the camera’s body. I don’t like gluing things to my camera, These glues have a tendency to soften in hot weather and leave a sticky residue. Another solution offered is a fancy rubber band, It may be the cheapest solution but it didn’t feel very solid and may get in the way.
What first attracted me to the Hoodman cinema kit Pro was the concept. It’s a solid rail system that’s attached to your camera’s hot-shoe and allows you to accurately place the rubberized viewfinder over the LCD panel, in seconds. Focusing the viewfinder on the screen took a slight rotation of the eye-piece. As soon as you’ve aligned the viewfinder, You’re free to move it up and out of the way, and then back in place, It’s consistent, fast and easy.
This kit can be moved to another camera as fast as you can move a Speedlight flash from one camera to another. It took about 5 seconds to remove from the package, and about 30 seconds to set-up and master!
I really appreciate solidly build, modular equipment, not to mention great German optics, It looks like this unit will serve me for a long time.
These impressionist sunflower images are favorites of mine. Wherever I am, There’s always something that catches my eye as frame-worthy, And even when I don’t have my SLR camera, I always have my phone with me.
Using a smart-phone to capture quality, memorable images is challenging because phones have fixed wide-angle lenses, It makes every little move more critical to the composition, I always work until I get what I want. after all, The best camera is the one you have at hand and I made sure I’ll have the best phone camera I could find! Looking at these images later, I’ve seen the potential for making Impressionist artwork of them and so I worked the images to express this style.
I shot these beautiful sunflowers at “Hopewood”, At my friend Jamie’s new concept B&B in Hollywood, California.
I was shooting a project in downtown LA this week. It’s a wonderful area to hunt for compositions. Using a smartphone made it very easy to snap this image while crossing the train rails to the other side of the river, I processed it the next time I had a couple of free minutes.
Smartphone photography is fun, I stopped using my snapshot camera a year ago, shortly after I started using a smartphone. Up to that time I always carried a compact camera with me, even when I had my Professional DSLR camera with me, it was usually a Canon PowerShot. Now I always have with me my phone/snapshot camera/music library/phonebook/portfolio/…. well, you get the idea.
Thanks to Steve Jobs for refining the concept, and thanks to all the rest who picked up the ball and started running. The best is yet to come.
The smartphone images are about as good as any snapshot camera, less the zoom capabilities.
I never use the phone’s digital zoom, I prefer to crop an image after taking it, that’s if I really need to. In order to satisfy my kink for constantly framing the world around me, the smartphone is a great solution.
The huge variety of cool apps out there is a bit confusing at first but I narrowed it down to two apps that I find are fun and helpful. The one I can’t do without is Thamba photo editor, it’s a feature-rich “Photoshop” substitute, the other is LoMob which allows me to mimic different film styles. Here’s a couple of recent shots.
I shot the first one at my doorstep this resilient little thing was growing from the concrete two feet in front of my door. I consider it lucky even though it has only three leaves. I shot he fire hydrant a couple of blocks from my house.
