Neewer .45 wide angle and macro extension

The Neewer .45x wide angle lens adapter has 2 parts.  When both are together it functions as a wide angle lens, if you take the lens apart you have a macro lens attachment.  Place the cap on the top portion and set aside. The small macro adapter has 58mm threads, so it will fit on any lens that has 58mm threads.  The threads are very small so be careful when you screw it on so you don't cross thread the adapter.

Once you install the macro adapter to your lens you're ready to go.  Autofocus will most likely not work, so you will have to switch the lens to manual.  Please see lens documentation for this step, but it should be a simple slide or button that indicates AF (auto focus) or MF (manual focus).

A neat trick I use to get the manual focus right is to have the camera in live view, so it displays on the large LCD on the back, and use the zoom function on the live display to check focus.  Zoom in on what you want in focus, and turn the focus ring to get everything in focus.  I don't know about you, but my eyes have a hard time judging focus in the little view finder up top.

The top two are a spark plug and the bottom is a banana.

My impression:
You CAN get some pretty cool shots with this Neewer .45x wide angle lens adapter.  And for about 15 bucks shipped, I think its worth it if you plan on experimenting with Macro photography.  I was using my 75-300 canon lens on the first two pictures and the 18-55mm on the banana.

Link to product:



I hope you found this review/example helpful.

Thank you.

I'm gonna work on some macro photography using the macro extension I got with the wide angle I got off amazon:

stay tuned...

For those of you wondering "What is this First Friday this guy keeps going to." I'll gather some information for your reading pleasure:

From RooseveltRow.org-

"Roosevelt Row Arts District (RoRo) is a walkable, creative district in the urban core of downtown Phoenix that is nationally known for its arts and cultural events, award-winning restaurants, galleries, boutiques and live music. RoRo is fostering an urban renewal with rehabilitated bungalows and new infill projects.

The Arts District connects downtown Phoenix to historic neighborhoods including Garfield, Evans Churchill, F.Q. Story, Willo, Roosevelt, Historic Roosevelt and Grand Avenue. RoRo begins at 7th Avenue and extends east to 16th Street. On the north side it begins at Interstate 10 and extends south to Fillmore Street.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Roosevelt Row has been a vital mixed use area from the earliest days of the establishment of Phoenix. Many of the concrete sidewalks in the neighborhood were poured in 1909, three years before Arizona officially became the 48th State. In the early 1940s, when there were approximately 30,000 people living in Phoenix, numerous businesses were established along Roosevelt Street. The flower shop at Fifth Street and Roosevelt has been in continuous operation since 1948.

In the 1970s, parts of the area were re-zoned as a high-rise incentive district leading to land speculation and a decline of the neighborhood that lasted until the late 1990s.

The blighted area was attractive to artists because the boarded-up buildings and former crack houses were affordable for studio and gallery space. The arts were a major factor in the revitalization of the area and crime rates plummetted as more people began to venture into the area to experience the cultural vibrancy.

The corridor is re-emerging as one of the most dynamic areas in downtown Phoenix and a valued cultural resource in the metropolitan region and the state."

http://www.rooseveltrow.org/about/roosevelt-row-arts-district/




From phoenix.about.com-
"How did the Phoenix First Friday events get started?

Here's a bit of history. During the latter part of the 1980s there was tremendous interest in downtown arts and entertainment which propelled, among other initiatives, the 1988 Bond election. The election made possible the new central library, the Arizona Science Center, and the Phoenix Museum of History. This new infusion of energy led to the Jackson Street Studios, an arrangement to accommodate artists displaced by the US Airways Center, whuch was called the America West Arena at the time. Artlink was founded with this energy, and some of the art spaces existing during that time, such as Alwun House, live on today.

The annual Art Detour, originally designed as simply an open studios tour, was founded in the spring of 1988, and has attracted hundreds of artists and thousands of art lovers downtown every year. The galleries and alternative art spaces open year-round were joined by music venues, cafes and individual artist studios and, during the 1990s, Artlink decided to organize this into the First Friday event.
How many art spaces are there at First Friday?

First Friday has grown - during the 1998 Season there were 13 spaces open each Friday. There are now more than 100 participants in the First Friday art walk. Spaces are situated from Indian School Road to Buchanan Street, from 12th Street to 17th Avenue - impossible to walk in one night. A free Shuttle-Link service allows Phoenix First Friday visitors to reach most of the spaces.

I used to post a link to an old map of First Friday routes and galleries, but after a few years it became too outdated to include here. If you aren't already familiar with First Friday's routes, just stop at Phoenix Art Museum first and pick up a current map. There's usually an ArtLink volunteer on hand who can answer your questions. Before you head out on Friday evening, check my tips on the next page.
Should I dress up for First Friday?

The downtown Phoenix First Friday event is not about glitz or champagne or cocktail parties - it is about the inner-city urban experience. Artists living and working downtown exhibit downtown. Thousands of people enjoy what is offered during each First Friday event, and several exhibitions sell half of their offerings during these openings.
When is First Friday?

The First Friday art walk in downtown Phoenix is held on the first Friday of every month, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more information about First Friday, contact Artlink at 602-256-7539.
What does it cost?

Nothing. First Friday is free."

http://phoenix.about.com/cs/enter/a/firstfriday.htm




My favorite times to go are between 6 and 8. You can typically see a good amount of stuff in those 2 hours, and I'm still home at a reasonable time. I'm not much of a "stay out till the wee hours" type anymore. Also, that time block seems to be the most active in the area I stick to (4th-6th around Roosevelt.)

Took another trip down to First Friday in Phoenix to snap some photos.  I didn't take as much time watching for pictures as I would have liked too, but overall it was another nice night out at First Friday.  Here are some that I liked.

I got some Bayco utility lights a while back from Walmart to see how they'd work for some up close product photography.  Finally got around to playing with it and took some pictures of some dinosaur toys laying around.

The Rule of Thirds

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm relatively new to this concept of the Rule of Thirds. But basically if you make a 3x3 grid on your photos, your subjects should line up with the grid lines. The Rule of Thirds basically just discourages having your subject dead center in the photo. This creates a more interesting photograph. If you look at the balloon man from my First Fridays set in April, I've lined up his body with the vertical right line, and his eyes are lined up with the top horizontal line. I don't know if consciously thinking "rule of thirds, rule of thirds" when you are taking pictures is beneficial. Art and rules don't usually go well together. And, there's always post production cropping that you can do. (I use Photoshop CS5 to crop, so I'm speaking to that example.) When you crop, it creates the 3x3 grid and its easy to adjust the crop to line up your photo to take advantage of the Rule of Thirds. Here is the full Wikipedia definition of the Rule of Thirds:
Rule of Thirds Wiki

I'm pretty new to photography but I found this rule to be pretty interesting. Looking back at some of my older pictures, some of the ones I liked followed the rule of thirds.  Although some pictures look better after a rule of thirds crop, some look better (to me anyway) prior to the crop. I think the main take away was to not have your subject dead center in the picture and it will add some interest. And that's what we all want, interesting photos.

Well, I hope you found this post useful.

Thank you and have a nice day.

The Trinity of Photography:

ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed

If you've been playing around with a DSLR, you're bound to notice these settings. Most cameras have an ISO button, shutter speed is displayed as a fraction (ex. 1/100) and aperture is represented by a decimal preceded by a fancy f (f4 for example).

First I'll go over a little of what I noticed with the three settings, then I'll attempt to give a definition of each at the end. Enjoy!

As I started playing around with settings I noticed that adjusting each of these would adjust how bright my images were. But each had its downfalls. If I slowed down the shutter speed in low light, this would brighten up the photo, but anything moving would be blurred. Lesson learned, the slower the shutter, the blur I'd have. And if I was holding the camera, as opposed to using a tripod, the image was useless. Everything is blurry; I could have taken a picture on my cell phone that turned out better! So, while shutter speed definitely helped expose a picture in low light, it would also blur the photo. And more than once I would have low light settings in a bright area, this results in a white photo, everything is over exposed.

Then I was playing with ISO. When I first started taking pictures I would always try to use a low ISO, because everything I read online said that high ISO=bad. But in certain situations, higher ISO was required or the picture wouldn't be captured at all. The only problem was, the higher the ISO setting, the more grain there was, and personally, I like crisp, clean photos. The 60d changed my perspective on ISO, and opened my eyes to night photography. I also found out that grainy black and white photos don't look too bad. Also, high ISO in proper light would blow out a photo, over exposing it.

Aperture was probably the last thing I understood out of these three. And it ends up being one of the coolest things to understand with photography. Have you ever seen a photo where the subject is crisp and everything else is blurred out, and thought wow, this is cool stuff. This is what aperture does. With a low aperture number, the depth of field is low; causing your focus point to be in focus, and everything else is out of focus. Low apertures also let in a lot of light as opposed to high aperture numbers. The funny thing with aperture numbers is a low number is a wide or big aperture, and a high number is a small or narrow aperture. Here is a wiki article if you want to learn lots of technical stuff about aperture:

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is basically how fast the shutter is. A fast shutter opens and closes... fast. While a slow shutter stays open longer. Here is the cool Wikipedia article about shutter speed:

Shutter Speed Wiki

ISO

ISO measures light sensitivity. The lower ISO numbers are less sensitive to light, the higher numbers are more sensitive to light. In digital photography, higher ISO numbers also increase 'noise'. Noise is seen as speckles in the photo. The speckles are acceptable in black and white, but generally look terrible in color. Different cameras have different ISO quality. Taking my XSi and the 60d as an example, the XSi has a maximum ISO of 1600. Taking a photo at 1600 is very grainy and overall a bad looking photo. The 60d has much better ISO performance at 1600. The 60d also has a maximum ISO of 6400.

Wikipedia article on ISO:

ISO wiki

Aperture

There are multiple blades inside a camera lens, these blades are adjustable. The Wikipedia article shows what they look like, but basically when you select a high aperture number, the blades are closer together, and the opening for light is small. This lets less light in, and creates a deep depth of field. When you select a small aperture number, this opens up the blades, letting more light in. This also decreases the depth of field, so only a select portion of the picture will be in focus.

Here is a wiki article if you want to learn lots of technical stuff about aperture:

Aperture Wiki

Well, I hope you found this post useful.


Thank you and have a nice day.

Sunsets

I think as a new photographer, everyone has taken pictures of sunsets.  Sunsets are always fun to photograph because they have a nice range of colors.  I took this one from my driveway.  Well, its not one, but multiple pictures stitched together.

I burned the photo a bit in photoshop to black out the trees and roof tops, this also brought out a deep blue on the left half of the photo.  This is one of my favorite sunset photos.  The other cool thing about sunsets is they are pretty easy to photograph.  They have plenty of light, so you can use a pretty narrow aperture (f setting on your camera) to get everything in focus without worrying too much about your focus point.  Along with the light thing, you can also use a low ISO number to reduce noise, and a fast shutter to avoid any blurring caused by shaky hands.
This one I took at Tempe Town Lake in Arizona.  Arizona is blessed with amazing sunsets pretty much year round.

Well thats all for this post. Thanks again!

We're having some amazing weather here in Phoenix!

My Gear

Camera Body:
Canon 60d



My main reason for getting this camera was the video mode.  I was reading review after review comparing this camera to the T2i and T3i.  The 60d has more cross type focal points, but other then that its the same as a T3i, same sensor, same tilt/swivel screen.  It was more expensive, but I never look back on my decision.

My old camera body is an EOS Rebel XSI

This was the first Camera body I used.  My wife uses this one because its smaller then the 60d.  Still takes great pictures.

Lenses:
Canon 18-55mm IS

This lens came with the XSi Body. This is pretty versatile lens, and, as you can see by the link, inexpensive. I use this lens for video, its the only lens I have with the Image Stabilizer (IS) and I also use it with the wide angle extensions mentioned below.
It has a minimun aperture number range of 3.5-5.6
3.5 minimum at 18mm and 5.6 minimum at 55.
The Depth of Field is adequate on this lens.  I haven't noticed the aperture setting of 3.5 being extensively soft, but the lens is definitely sharper at higher apertures.
At 18mm you get a subtle wide angle effect.

Canon 50mm 1.8

This is currently my favorite lens. Mainly due to its wide aperture. Its what known as a prime lens.  It doesn't zoom, so you have to move around alot more when taking your pictures.
Its minimum aperture number is 1.8.
1.8 is a very shallow depth of field and most of the time is unneeded.  Wide apertures have less in focus, and unless you are very accurate with manual focus, you will end up with bad, out of focus pictures.  I tend to use 2.0 and above.  It still gives you a nice intimate depth of field, and you have more wiggle room with you focus.
This lens seems to be my sharpest lens right now.  Later on I will do a comparison at different apertures to determine if this is in fact reality, or just perception.
The manual focus on my lens (MKI) is smooth and easy to use.  The MKIIs lack the range meter the MKIs have, but to be honest I don't use it.  I could see it being beneficial, but if you're walking around taking pictures, you are either going to use autofocus or manual focus looking through the camera.
The auto focus is loud on my MKI, the MKIIs seem to be quieter.
It performs well in daylight, but can sometimes miss the mark in low light.  Over all, the autofocus is pretty good.

Canon 75-300mm

Being a non IS lens, its really only good in bright daylight or on a tripod.  And being a 75mm minimum focal length eliminates it from alot of photography I end up doing.  Although I have been taking more pictures outside, from further distances, so its use has increased.  I have used this lens to take some pictures of the moon that have turned out pretty well.  Although I don't use the lens much, it tends to be very sharp.  And I find myself enjoying the pictures that come out of it.
Minimum aperture numbers are 4.0 to 5.6.

'Digital' wide angle and macro lens extension

This lens adapter I got for fun.  I plan on getting a real wide angle lens when money allows, but for now this lens is plenty of fun.  It does have distortion when you're zoomed out all the way with the 18-55mm, but if you zoom in a little distortion isn't bad, and you still get that wide angle/fish eye effect.  For less than 15 bucks, not bad in my opinion.

Now, before I let you go, when I wrote about aperture, I incorrectly listed the lower numbers as minimum.  I did this to eliminate some confusion I had when starting photography.  Saying Maximum, and putting the smallest number always threw me for a loop.  The way aperture works, the smaller numbers are know as the Maximum aperture.  If you look at the blades inside the lens, when set to the smaller aperture numbers, the blades open up, reaching the Maximum opening of the blades, or Maximum aperture.  This is probably the most confusing thing I found with cameras, understanding aperture.  I will go over ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed (the trinity of photography) in a later post.

Seeing the world differently

I have been playing with cameras for a few years now, but recently something clicked. I started seeing pictures everywhere. The way streets would line up with buildings, human interaction, architecture, nature. Everything had a more vibrant and beautiful quality to it. If you ever have your camera and think "there's nothing to take a picture of." you aren't looking hard enough :) There are pictures everywhere, you just have to look.

Why do I take pictures?

I've always liked looking at pictures. 
In high school I had to opportunity to take a photography class.  I didn't have money for an SLR at the time, so I used point and shoot cameras.  In the class I don't remember going over much of the fundamentals of what makes a good picture, the rule of thirds is something I've only recently come across.  What we did do in the class was develop film.  Nothing beat watching a blank sheet develop a picture.  I didn't really realize it at the time, but this class started a love of photography I still have today.
Since I used point and shoot cameras, I didn't have any settings to play around with, it was flash, or no flash.  I used to go through multiple point and shoots when I'd go on trips.  Some pictures turned out, some didn't, but it was always fun to shoot.  I always ran with a "the more the merrier" when taking pictures.  The more I took, the more that turned out.
After high school photography kind of trailed off.  I still liked looking at pictures though.  I was into cars so I had some car magazines and their pictures were always fun to look at.  The different cars, the angles used to make them interesting.  My wife, well, girlfriend at the time, had a Samsung digital point and shoot that took decent quality pictures.  We went and did a photo day with our cars and I liked how the pictures turned out.  I played with angles I saw them use in magazines to see if I could get something interesting going.
Fast forward a couple years and I'm married.  My wife wanted to get a good camera to document our family.  So we picked up a Canon XSI.  This opened up a whole new world of photography for me.  I remember the first things I did was play with the long exposure the camera was able to do.  I took some low light shots of bathroom soap and night time shots of the road by our apartment, making cool looking light trails.  The love of photography I had in high school was coming back.
Along the theme of low light experimenting, I played around with light painting.  I set my camera to a long exposure in the dark of my garage and painted my car with a flashlight, the picture below was the result:

Had the hood up, painted the engine with the light, dropped the hood and painted the hood.  I thought this ended up pretty cool looking.
Well I think that's enough for this post.
More milestones to come!
50mm 1.8
Landscapes/sunsets
Body upgrade to Canon 60d
Seeing the world differently

For the First Fridays night photography I recently did, I used my 60d and 50mm 1.8 MKI.  Using high ISO settings (800-6400) shutter speeds around 120-200, and aperture was 2.0-2.5.  I don't like using 1.8 too much because more often then not I end up out of focus.  I needed shutter speeds relatively fast because my subjects were moving, and I was shooting free hand, so I had ISO cranked up.  Better to get the photo with a high ISO then lose the photo is what I say!

For anyone following this blog, here are the pictures from First Friday, Phoenix

Balloon animal guy

I plan on going downtown this weekend to do some street photography.  I've never done street photography before and I'm kind of excited to try it out.  I'll post up some pictures asap

 

Ok, got some pictures lined up to post later today.  I'm a giant procrastinator...

Boom, welcome to my blog.  I'm gonna post pictures here so you can enjoy them.  I'll probably post some other stuff to, maybe some social commentary or whatever.  I'll just go with the flow and see what this turns into.

I like taking pictures of things.  Landscapes, buildings, cars etc.  Well, here goes, wish me luck!