dSLR Dad

by Chris Mampe

Today is the Day for dSLR Dads everywhere. How did you celebrate?

NatureScapes.Net has announced the winners of their 2008 Images of the Year.  The winning photos were selected as the best from the 5 image critique galleries. You can view the entire slideshow here.

via Rob Galbraith

Photographer David Bergman made this Gigapan image from the north press platform during President Obama’s inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009.  He details how he created this panorama on his blog:

I made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama’s inaugural address. To do so, I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

You can view and zoom around the entire 1,474-Megapixel Photo over at Gigapan.org.  You can find out more about David Bergman on his blog.

The Boston Globe has a great collection of 34 photos of all things frozen. You can view them all over at The Big Picture.

"Mother and Child" by Julie Falk

Popular Photography Magazine has an article by Julie Falk on how to photograph snowflakes:

Shooting snowflakes is easy — just follow these tips:

Get in as close as the camera will let you — usually about 2 inches. Hold the camera steady, and shoot from as many angles as possible.

Aim for snowflakes that are on surfaces with clean lines and that are positioned at an angle so early morning or late afternoon sunlight can bring out details. And, Falk adds, “It also helps to find flakes in the ‘twilight zone’ areas of the snow — not in full sun nor quite full shadow — so the background of the sunlit flake is the cobalt blue shadow that snow has on sunny days.”

Large, soft flakes photograph better than small, bright ones. Falk has found them at diameters up to 5mm. “You need to have a lot of moisture in the air,” she says, “and it needs to be bitter cold.”

Nearly windless days are ideal for snowflake hunting, to up the likelihood of finding crystals intact. Colder temperatures help “to keep their little arms from melting off before you can get to them.”

You can read the entire article over at PopPhoto.com.  You can also view more of Julie Falk’s photography at flickr.

I am not much for year end reviews, but The Boston Globe has some truly phenomenal photographs published from 2008.  You can view Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 over at The Big Picture.

digital Photography School has posted eleven very creative photographs involving Lego characters from Flickr.

Have you ever met a Lego enthusiast? They can be a lot of fun to talk to and will open up a whole world (or perhaps ‘culture’ is a better word) for you around the little colorful bricks that many of us stop playing with as kids. Many Lego lovers are also keen photographers who love to document their work, fun, humor and creativity. Here’s just a quick sample of some of the hundreds of thousands of Lego Photos on Flickr.

You can view the rest of the photos here.

Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand is bringing his latest aerial work over to New York City.  His latest exhibit, Earth From Above will be on display at the World Financial Center Plaza and along the Battery Park City Esplanade from May 1, 2009 to June 28, 2009.  You can view 10 of his photos over at The Big Picture.

You can also download 2000 of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s free wallpapers from his own site.

Sports Illustrated has published a slideshow of the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies in Beijing.  You can view them all at SI.com.

Photographer Jamie Squire details how he and Matthew Stockman collaborated to get the killer victory lane shot at this years Daytona 500:

I was on the flagstand for the race and for the finish. Matthew Stockman and I set up the remote before the race. I chose the location. I climbed up the 20-ft ladder and positioned the camera. I came up with the exposure.

It was shot with at Shutter priority -1 stop. (1/30th to be exact.) The camera data shows the aperture at f9. The star effect was a happy accident.
It worked as planned…..

You can read his entire explanation over at the Strobist.

You can see more of Jamie’s Sports Portfolio here.