FABIANS PHOTOGRAPHY JOURNAL

I'm a prime lens kind of photographer.

2010-08-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I was able to use the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Zoom Lensseries lens. For a $1300.00 lens I personally wasn't completely blown away. Yes it is a nice lens but what I learned about myself is that I'd rather shoot with prime lenses. It's a great lens for the event photographer when they probably don't have the time to swap out lenses and they need something on the fly or someone who likes to walk around and shoot without swapping out lenses. If you do you the time to swap out lenses or are doing a shoot that is more controlled and not under serious time constraints then I say invest that $1300 dollars in a series of prime lenses. Usually you'll get a better F-stop and in some cases a better overall image but again you'd have to spend more time swapping out lenses.

Now I took the above image with a the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Zoom Lens. To compare to another image I took the below image with my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens which ran me about $100 bucks. The above was taken at 57mm and the below was taken at 50mm so around the same focal length. I would argue that the 2 images below are about the same quality and I was able to make them equally vibrant when I went to post process in Lightroom.Both images were also taken in my backyard in the same grassy area on very sunny days here in Southern California. I would recommend sticking with the 50mm lens because if you know how to shoot with it and post process you can get an image that looks just as good as anything shot with the L series lens. This is a classic example of knowing how to use the gear vs just having the best gear and thinking it makes your images look better. Also the obvious reasons for sticking with the 50mm F1.8 lens because it's a much cheaper lens than the L series lens and you can produce amazing results that are on par with the L series lens. Then of course if your more of an event photographer or like to have a zoom lens to walk around then you'll probably need a zoom lens means so go ahead and get the L series lens. It's a great lens but I discovered that for me personally I enjoy shooting with primes.

4th Of July Light Painting

2010-08-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Disneyland and The 25 pictures of Christmas

2009-12-27T00:41:00.000-08:00

On my Flickr Stream for the 25 days leading up to Christmas I uploaded one new image that dealt with anything Christmas. I uploaded various decorations around our house, our family Christmas cards of our dogs, but the most important ones came form Disneyland. Now before I get into the bulk of this post let me say that Disneyland is a huge part of my life. I grew up on Disneyland and all things Disney I’ve been going since I was probably 5 or 6. Disneyland during Christmas is like New York during Christmas for my fellow east coasters. It’s magical and breathtaking. It just puts you in a great mood. More importantly it is an extremely photogenic place to shoot with lots of history that unfortunately I feel goes highly unnoticed nowadays. Disneyland prides itself on their amazing decorations, Holiday shows, and decked out Castle, Haunted Mansion with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme during their Holiday season. It’s simply an amazing place to shoot. So when the idea of the 25 pictures of Christmas came up I knew I had to make my way out to the self proclaimed Happiest Place On Earth.

Now, regarding photography at Disneyland it can be a very tricky place to shoot at. Since you don’t want to be the one a**hole with a tripod during their Christmas season making it even more congested than it already is causing traffic jams just to get that perfect shot (some will but I don’t want to deal with those hassles) you have to have either a camera with a high ISO and a pretty fast lens or get some good prime lenses with low f stops but the downside is you have to carry more and swap out lenses for different shots. For a lot of my shots I used my trusty old Canon 50mm f1.8. It worked well in places like the Haunted Mansion because they have neon lights and the lens responded well to it and at a fast ISO it performed like a champ. I only pulled that lens out once it got dark or for of course the dark rides. For my daytime walk around lens I used my Sigma 18-150mm, which performed decent. We arrived around 4 so the sun was starting to go down and gave me a lot of grain and even more so at 6400 ISO. Had we arrived earlier I would have gotten much better shots because I know my Sigma lens can perform well in broad daylight it’s the only lens I used on my Europe trip. Any zoom lens will perform well in broad daylight but once the sun starts to set you better be equipped with some fast glass.

It was only my second time shooting at Disneyland but I think one of the biggest things that I have realized is that you need either a tripod with long exposures or if you don’t want that hassle I am looking into purchasing a Canon L series lens probably the 17-55mm f2.8. I do plan on renting the lens specifically for my next visit so I can really test it out and make sure it works under low light situations. Even though the low light isn’t extremely low light. Disneyland is very good about providing you a lot of surrounding light that you can rely on like on Main Street they have light posts that give you a little help or Tomorrow land lots of neon lights to work with.

In all I am still trying to work out the kinks of getting great shots and finding the right lens to shoot with so I can continue with my Disneyland Project that I initially announced last year. I do hope to find that decent lens and become a Disneyland Photo factory because I am an annual pass holder and do get out to the resort once every 5 or 6 weeks. I haven’t even begun to shoot at California Adventure and lastly there are a few images and concepts that I have that have special meaning to me about what Disneyland means to me and what I feel it represents. Stay tuned.

My Photography Blog

2009-12-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my "photography blog" I have tried this several times but lets see if I can keep this one going. I am going to attempt to keep a photography journal and update talk and review all things photography. I have my filmmaking blog on fabiancorrado.com/wordpress that will still remain intact but this is for photography only. I have if you haven't noticed started a 25 pictures of Christmas. My goal with the project is to take pictures of things that represent Christmas. So please feel free to check back to see what I am up to. I look forward to sharing my experiences and photography with others who enjoy my work.

The Disneyland Project

2008-12-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

After visiting the self proclaimed "Happiest Place On Earth" I realized that I simply can't have every image I want after one visit. Nor can I have every image I want after 2 or 3 visits. Its an on going project. That is where the Disneyland Project was born.

I was raised on many things Disney. It is a part of childhood and it still is apart of me today. I love Disneyland and most things dealing with Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company. The Disneyland Project is something I have wanted to start for a while. Every visit I make will consist of me taking my DSLR. I wan't to capture as many images of Disneyland as possible. As Disneyland changes so will my Photography.

Part of the reason for this project is because I will always be looking to buy new gear. With that new gear comes a different way of seeing things. It really makes you think about the small details that lie within the entire park. Friday was my experimentation phase. I already have TONS of ideas of what I would do differently and how different lenses will give me what I want. So please without further ado Here are a few images from my first set in my Disneyland Project. Enjoy.

Also I will be blogging multiple post's on my experience of shooting at Disneyland and the do's and don'ts and what I will do differently. Lastly, I still have many more pictures to go through so more is coming. Good Day.

Welcome

2008-12-02T22:59:00.001-08:00

As the image says. Welcome, or to quote the great Walt Disney "To all that come to this happy place: Welcome." I will be heading out to Disneyland this coming Friday and hopefully I can manage to get some great shots. It's a place that I have always wanted to shoot at and hopefully will be able to get some nice night photo's since that is what I am looking forward to shooting the most. If I can't get some good night photos then most likely I will have some day shot's and later on in the future I will get some night ones once I learn the ins and outs of night photography. For now I say welcome and wish me luck on my night photography.

Christmas Is On Its Way

2008-11-30T17:18:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is done and now Christmas is coming followed by New Years. Join me as I take loads of pictures from this Holiday Season and into the New Year. Please check back often as I will be updating often. For now heres a picture of a Snowman Decoration that we have up. Check out the rest of my Flickr pictures here.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and now its time to have a Merry Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving and New Photography

2008-11-27T16:20:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all and with that I will share some new photography I just put up.

Have a great Weekend everybody and do your part to stimulate this economy.

Photography Projects

2008-11-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

These last few months I have gotten more and more into photography sometimes I am more into it than film making because its much quicker to get into. I can just pick up my camera and go shooting. I have really been inspired by Photographers like Thomas Hawk to get out their and start capturing the world around me. I think what he does photography wise is truly amazing. I aspire to be on his level.

That's why I have started to think about some photography projects that I can take on and start building different bodies of work. The bulk of my photography on Flickr are of my house pets because they are always around and its easy to capture photographs of them. I am now starting to push myself to begin shooting things like neon signs, landscapes, buildings at night, architecture, models even, different objects like candles, holiday decorations, cars, anything and everything is fair game for me. I just want to create images that people hopefully can connect to and maybe even inspire them.

I am still undecided about what my first Photography Project should be but when I figure it out I will share it here of course. I have the day off tomorrow so I will get out and shoot some stuff. Also please thank a veteran for their dedication to our amazing country. Good Night.