Matt J. Olsen

Getting creative at the book store

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:34:00 -0400

Chamblin’s Bookmine in Downtown Jacksonville

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 1/3s
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 17mm to 50mm
ISO Speed: 200

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 1/3s
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO Speed: 200

The camera phone

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:23:00 -0400

Well, it finally happened. I posted iPhone photos to my Flickr stream.

I honestly never thought I would. “Flickr’s for my real photographs,” I always said. “For photos that were shot RAW, put through Lightroom and Photoshop — you know, real photos.” But I forgot where I started with photography — with a cheap Canon Powershot point-and-shoot and an open mind. If it was worth sharing, I shared it. The source didn’t matter. And that’s still true.

The great thing is the camera phone is with me all the time, everywhere. Inspiration strikes sometimes when not armed to the teeth with a DSLR. For those moments, I shall bow to the convenience and genius of the camera phone. The iPhone camera is good enough that, like my old Powershot and almost any other camera, a good subject and composition can make a photo worth sharing.

And so it’s not the effort put into the photo nor the equipment used to create it that makes it a “real” photo. It’s the inspiration and the content that makes it real.

It's in the eyes

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:39:00 -0400

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: 50mm f/1.8D
Exposure: 1/400
Aperture: f/2.2
ISO Speed: 200
Lighting: Natural, outdoors

Jacksonville cooling towers, Part 2

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:44:00 -0500

These guys are two of my favorite subjects in Jacksonville.
Part 1 can be found here.

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 6 s
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 30 s
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 34 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Wrestling with Google Places

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:00:00 -0500

I’ve come across many folks who have encountered an error when trying to add a business to Google Places. Even though the business you’re trying to add might look like it has the correct address, such as “Jacksonville Florida 32257,” the following error is seen:

Obviously, Florida is indeed a state in the US, but Google cannot recognize it for some reason.

It seemed the only way to fix this error was to manually edit the location and select the correct state from the drop-down menu. This is acceptable, I suppose, if you’re only adding one or a few locations. However, I was encountering this error when trying to add more than 400 locations using the bulk upload and verification feature. It’s essentially a spreadsheet with multiple fields that Google reads automatically. But, it was not reading the “State” field properly, returning the error above for every single location.

So I found a solution: Simply use the state’s postal abbreviation instead if its full name. Google recognized the state names easy peasy and I’ve had zero problems. For your reference, here’s a link to the official USPS state abbreviations: LINK

Yes, it’s a shame Google has not corrected this error yet. There are help topics after help topics of folks encountering this same problem, but no response from Google that I can find. I realize Places is a consumer-level application so Google doesn’t offer support, but they need to fix this obvious error, especially when it’s affecting a large number of businesses.

I hope others with this issue come across this post and end the frustration!

Perspective (and some more symmetry)

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:29:29 -0500

Sometimes, it’s not necessarily the subject that makes the photograph; it’s the perspective.

As usual, click the images for a larger version on a black background.

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Exposure: 1/500
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 22 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 w/ circular polarizer
Exposure: 1/60
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Helvetica on Windows

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:11:00 -0500

I like Helvetica. It’s a nice san-serif and has its place in many design projects (not as a tramp stamp, though). However, Helvetica looks really bad when rendered in web pages in Windows unless you’re above 18-pt. or so. The only browser where it looks good, of course, is in Safari, because it uses the Mac method of font smoothing. And apparently Macs are the only computers capable of properly rendering Helvetica. Keep this in mind next time you decide to use Helvetica as body type for a web project…

Here’s my blog with Helvetica on Windows 7 in Chrome (click for larger example):

This is 13-pt. The kerning/tracking is wacky and all over the place, and the font smoothing is very uneven and unattractive.

So, I find myself constantly installing and uninstalling Helvetica on my system; installing when I need it for working on a project, and uninstalling when I’m done because it looks like crap in web pages.

Looking up

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:24:00 -0500

Strobist Info:
Vivitar 285hv, 1/16 power, camera left, shot through 45” brolly

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.8D
Exposure: 1/80
Aperture: f/2.5
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 26 mm
ISO Speed: 800

I love symmetry

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:41:00 -0500

And I love capturing it in my photography. Sometimes it’s easy to spot, and other times the perspective has to be forced. Finding that symmetrical pattern or “center point” of a subject is an exciting challenge to me, and one that pays off in personal satisfaction.

Some recent examples:

Sisters

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:56:00 -0500

It’s so easy to photograph two people who genuinely love each other.

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 34mm
ISO: 200

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 24mm
ISO: 200

Natural light is best

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:29:58 -0400

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 1/500
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 500

Dynamic range & why you should shoot in RAW

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:52:00 -0400

This before and after comparison of a very contrasty scene shows the amount of information the D90’s sensor was able to capture and keep in its RAW files. Check out all of the detail and color that I was able to recover in both the highlights and shadows that weren’t at all visible in the original, using Photoshop’s Shadows/Highlights adjustment tool. I could have easily pushed this image more. This is why I shoot RAW; this would not have been remotely possible with a JPEG out of the camera.

Click the image for a larger view.

Natural light portraits with Brooke

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:28:00 -0400

The garden at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens makes a perfect location for some portraits. The sun was low this time, at around 5:30pm, which was a perfect angle to add some sun highlights and rim lighting to the model.

On a side note, that “thrifty fifty” lens performs surprisingly well at f/2.2, and produced sharp images at f/2, as well. For under $150 new, you can’t go wrong.

Camera: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikon 50mm F/1.8D
Exposure: 1/400
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Camera: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikon 50mm F/1.8D
Exposure: 1/640
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Camera: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikon 50mm F/1.8D
Exposure: 1/500
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Portrait session with Brooke

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 21:54:00 -0400

Strobist info:
Vivitar 285HV, 1/16 power, through a Lumiquest Softbox III, camera right
Sunpak 433D, 1/16 power, through a Lumiquest Softbox III, camera left

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Strobist info:
Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power, bare, behind model
Sunpak 433D, 1/16 power, through Lumiquest Softbox III, camera left high

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 34 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Click here to see more photos from the session

My music...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:03:00 -0400

This isn’t going to be a regular part of my blog or anything. I just wanted to make a quick plug for my musical side project, Magical Skinny. It’s just me, and it’s just for fun. Anyways, check it out, download the songs, tell your friends and visit on Facebook.

Capturing the right moment

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:34:00 -0400

Sometimes it’s just luck.

Picture this:

There’s a program that gives free, professional, certified hospitality training to underemployed and unemployed adults. This program provides a valuable opportunity for folks who are “at the end of their rope,” so to say, and have pretty much hit bottom. Classes include recovering drug addicts/alcoholics and people who have lost their way in life. Some have lost custody of their children and others are losing their home. Most have never been to college, and some maybe have just recently earned their GED.

But the one thing they all have in common is that they’re enrolled in this program voluntarily; they have made the conscious decision and dedication to lift themselves up and turn their lives around.

In this class, folks learn not just housekeeping, front desk and food service skills, but they get interview practice and learn life skills too. They learn how to make life decisions, gain confidence, manage money, interact with their family and friends, and create a relationship with God or another spirit to help give them faith and hope for the future.

Now picture all of these people, their families and their supporters at a formal graduation ceremony. Most of the graduates have never finished anything in their lives, let alone certified job training. The classmates and instructors have become a family and have shared good times and bad times. Some students have already turned their lives around, regaining custody of their children or reconnecting with other family members. Some grads already have jobs at nearby hotels, and others are planning to continue their training, as the program has given them a spark of hope and motivation. To put it simply: their lives have changed.

Now picture this: As the grads are called up one-by-one to receive their certificates, we see their unabridged emotions. Tears are very common. The next name called brings up the class favorite and everyone erupts in to applause and cheers. Her name is Prayer and not only is she beloved by everyone there, but she bought a graduation gown and cap with her own money to celebrate this occasion. She jumps up and jogs toward the front. I’m the event photographer and have only seconds to react, and get this:

With a little Photoshop, Prayer and her high-fiving friend are cut out and now used in nearly every promotional piece about this training program. It is a hallmark symbol of what the program represents and strives to create.

The head in the way is unfortunate, but moments like this cannot be planned and composed.

Last photo from Colorado… This is a very partial view from...

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:36:00 -0400

Last photo from Colorado…

This is a very partial view from our campsite. (Be sure to click on the photo for a larger view!) We camped on a rocky, mushroom-shaped peninsular outcrop in Lost Creek Wilderness at around 8500 ft. It’s hard to tell, but just beyond the big boulder behind us, the rock ledge dropped a few hundred feet down to Goose Creek. On the other side of the canyon were the mountains and rock formations you see in the background. The peak in the top/center was 11,000 feet or so.

{More map context here}

The neatest part about our campsite was that there was pretty much only one direction from which you could get to it; more than half of our campsite was surrounded by a precarious and unnavigable drop down into the valley that surrounded it. (We did manage to scale down the steep rock face along the tree line to the creek and back for a bath and some much needed relaxation after setting up camp; it wasn’t easy, though.)

That’s it for Colorado posts from me. Moving on…

Color or Black & White?

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:54:00 -0400

Some photos just look better in b&w, but the proper mood and contrast has to be there first.

The photo below is only in b&w because someone suggested it and I wanted to entertain the idea. The reason this person gave? ”The fog looks cool and moody.”

But we have to look at the photo as a whole. Here, color looks best in my opinion, because the sky is bright with good color contrast, the sun is making the yellow-green grass glow, and well, it’s a happy and inspiring scene. It’s full of life and makes me wonder if I maybe just missed an elk walking through that field.

Taking the color away takes away 90% of the emotion and meaning. Yes, the fog is moody, but that’s not the entire shot. Also, the sense of depth I feel from the background mountain ranges goes away when the color is gone. Basically, the photo becomes boring.

Let’s look at another example.

Here, b&w makes a little more sense with the right crop. In the color version, I framed the photo to include lots of color variation and contrast to show off a beautiful scene from high in the mountains. From right in front of my feet all the way up to highest parts of the sky, I wanted it all to be seen and taken in at once in the photo.

However, when cropped to exclude the foreground rocks and the upper portion of the sky, I ended up with a photo that focused on the slow advance of the fog into the valley, surrounded by desolate mountains beneath a dark sky. From 14,000 feet, it was somewhat humbling and revering to see the land slowly become swallowed by the clouds.

Here, a b&w conversion makes perfect sense because I’m trying to illustrate that mood (which is what I always try to do in my photography) and isolate 3 particular objects: the mountains/foreground, the fog, and the sky. In my conversion, I increased the contrast and lowered the green levels a bit. This resulted in dark (but still detailed) mountains, a bright and powerful fog, all beneath a medium gray sky.

In this instance, b&w enhanced the feeling of the photo instead of taking away from it.

Another b&w example from Colorado:

This shot was almost completely b&w all by itself without any processing. All I did for this photo was just suck out the orange hues from the midtones. The mood and tension I felt while driving through this scene on the edge of a mountain could only be represented through the simplicity and graduated grays of b&w.

Creative Print Typography Layouts

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:32:44 -0400

via Smashing Magazine

A rainbow emerges after a storm at Mount Evans in Colorado. My...

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:38:00 -0400

A rainbow emerges after a storm at Mount Evans in Colorado. My girlfriend and I were driving up to the 14,000+ ft. summit for sunset. It was pouring rain most of the drive, and we were worried there’d be no sunset to see, but we knew we had to risk it because we were flying back to Florida the next day. It wasn’t until about 11,000 ft. or so that the rain cleared and we looked out over the range to see what Mother Nature was rewarding us with for risking the drive up there. The scenery that evening continued to astound us…

Click here for more photos from Colorado

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 34 mm
ISO Speed: 800