A Mobile Changing Room For Your Models

One of the vexing issues of on-site or outdoor photography shoots, away from your studio or away from viable seperate rooms, is the lack of private locations for models to change their outfits. This can be a sensitive issue, if the location where you are shooting is fairly public.

However, even if the location isn't public, there is the issue of personal privacy for the model in regards to the photographer and/or anyone else present at the shoot.

While you can always make use of a large vehicle, like a van/suv, or make use of natural obstructions, like bushes and groves of trees, due to potential safety concerns, it really would be best to provide a clean and safe place for your model(s) to change!

As always, insist on someone to accompany your model(s)!
» Read More »»

Going Large Format With Cardboard, Foamcore, Tape, and a Magnifying Lens

Let's face it. I like tinkering. And with the Anime Expo event coming up, I have found that other than photography, I really enjoy finding something creative and involved to do with my brothers. This year, it will be to build a relatively medium to large format camera with a digital scanning back.

The catch, of course, is that the digital scanning back will be a scanner and the camera "body and lens" will be a literal mishmash of cardboard and foam core. I'm very curious as to what it will produce. More on this later!

Some rough specs for what the camera will be like:

• USB Powered digital scanning back:
  • CIS (Contact Image Sensor)
  • Imaging Sensor Native Resolution: 1200x1200 pixels
  • Max imaging surface area: 8" x 10"
  • Max effective imaging surface area: 7" x 9"
  • Max effective pixels: 90,720,000 ( 90.72 MegaPixels )
  • Fastest Scanning Time: 16 seconds
• Foam Core Back Plate
• Wax Paper Focussing Screen
• Magnifying Glass "Lens"
• Cardboard Aperture Plates
• Electronic Shutter
• USB 1.0/2.0 bus
• USB Power source

I'm hoping to build one for myself and pickup a scanner down there so that my brother can build one as well! I'm hoping that this will serve as a cool way for him to photograph, in painfully high resolution, his various other art related projects, as well as taking some interesting landscape photograph of his surroundings.

I certainly intend to!

Making Use Of "Moving Pictures"

Okay, it's simple. There are video feeds about photoshoots out there. Finding them is a bit of a pain, but while working on one of my other sites, I realised that it wouldn't be too hard to add video feeds to the site, which are targetted.

So, please take a look and enjoy!

Video Stream Resources!

• Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting: Emerging Media Tools for Business Communication (Hands-On Guide Series)
• Producing Video Podcasts: A Guide for Media Professionals
• Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Audio and Video Podcasting, Second Edition (Solutions)

Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting: Emerging Media Tools for Business Communication (Hands-On Guide Series) author: Lionel Felix,Damien Stolarz asin: 0240808312

Producing Video Podcasts: A Guide for Media Professionals author: Richard Harrington,Mark Weiser asin: 0240810295

Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Audio and Video Podcasting, Second Edition (Solutions) author: Michael Geoghegan,Dan Klass asin: 1590599055

Getting Ready To Travel For The Summer!

Summer is just around the corner and there is beauty everywhere! Whether you are looking for dry tundra, desert sands, lush waterways, green forests, heat wave ridden cityscapes, or just the good ol'sandy beaches, you'll probably be traveling somewhere, at some point in time!

While planning your trip, keep in mind the new restrictions and regulations that are either already in effect, or which will soon be in effect, so that you can travel safe and ensure that everything you are taking along and back will likewise be safe!

Read on for some times, both practical and off the wall.
» Read More »»

Summer Is A Time To Be Outdoors!

Let's face it. It's getting warmer and more and more people are out there shedding their heavier wear in favor of revealing waterside outfits that show off the results of months of intensive exercise!

As a photographer, getting out there and shooting up a storm is something I would greatly enjoy.

Have you gotten your summer photography ideas in the works?

As the weather heats up, I'm working hard to make sure that I can keep up with the action in the heat. Camera in one hand, and gesturing directions with the other, I hope to produce some truly beautiful pictures this Summer!
» Read More »»

Switching From Glasses To... No Glasses

For most of my life, I've been wearing glasses of various levels of prescription, ranging from around 2.5 through 4.0, with varying levels of astigmatism. While I had grown used to the wearing, cleaning, replacing, and finding my glasses for some two decades, I had, since around 2000, wanted to get lasik done, but I just didn't trust the technology, given what I had heard about PRK eye surgery.

Recently, I had gotten lasik, which probably explains the lack of postings... but in truth, not really. What this post is, a short recounting of what it feels like to wear glasses, as a photographer, and to switch from glasses to post-surgery. Please, take a read, if you have been wondering about lasik, perhaps this will add to your desire or detract from it.
» Read More »»

It's Social Commentary... Like So Many Others Out There...

At some point, I realized that while this site is a great site focusing one photography related topics, I really didn't have a place where I could focus about... well, myself and my thoughts about things at large, not just photography.

Interested? Check it out at: http://www.wingtangwong.com

My first post, http://www.wingtangwong.com/blogging/wwong/blogpost100.html , is, oddly enough, about cruft. :)

In either case, enjoy!

Gobos! Gobos! Gobos! What Are They? How Can They Add Visual Interest? How Can You Make Some Cheaply?

Gobos are a great way to add some visual interest to a photograph. Whether you are trying to spice up the background, enhance the visual contours and curves of your subject, or just trying to break up space, gobos are a great way to achieve that.

However, once one discovers the usefulness of gobos for their own photography, the shopping-monster inevitably raises its' ugly head. But fear not! Let's make some of our own and use existing equipment we might have laying around, to fulfill our gobo needs!
» Read More »»

The Sony Ericsson C902 Cybershot and C702 Cybershot

Wow, all I can say is... I'm going to be on a continual waiting experience for the replacement for my current phone. Each new generation seems to be better and better. Note that I say this referring, really, only to Sony Ericsson, Nokia, and possibly LG.

What gets me about these new phones from Sony Ericsson is that they continue to offer the strong BlueTooth support, nice and simple candybar design, as well as the ability to access the high speed cellular networks, available in the United States. On top of that, they take great pictures and from the white papers for both of these phones, they will be able to take some nice video clips, and save all of it onto an expandable memory card, which expands the phones' storage ability from what is already a generous amount.

Having said that... let's look at what Sony Ericsson's two new phones have to offer the photographer who doesn't want to carry or spend on a seperate dedicated point and shoot.
» Read More »»