Zelda Halloween Costume

Well, I had fun with making this and some good comments, so I’d thought I’d post a bit about it.
My son Gabriel is a big fan of retro gaming…he loves anything old. So we have a Sega Master system, Super Nintendo, Game Boy Advance, and of course lots of games on the Wii from the Virtual Console(old games that you can download and play on the Wii.)

So, when coming up with an idea for a costume for Halloween, he wanted to do something Nintendo related. We just recently bought the Wii game Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess, and he had downloaded some of the older Zelda games as well, so he though he’d like to go as Link (The hero of the game for those who aren’t/were never gamers or don’t have kids…)

It just so happened that the element in our oven had died, and the box was sitting next to the kitchen table…and the idea came. Why not go as a Nintendo cartridge?

Since I didn’t have any Nintendo cartridges kicking around the house, I went to Google and found some photos of various cartridges. And of course I came across the Legend of Zelda gold version of the cartridge…which I had completely forgotten about. So we had our idea.


So then I had to make it look like a cartridge.

Also wanted to try to get it to scale, so I measured the photo of the real cartridge, then did math (i hate math) to scale it to the box size.

There was an indentation on the top of the cartridge where your thumb was supposed to go (how many of you got bruises from banging your thumb on the top of the open in the NES?), but I realized that creating that would mean Gabe probably wouldn’t fit into the costume. Same thing goes with the indents that should be on the bottom.

For the ridges on the cartridges, I took a box of alphabets cereal, measured out the right dimensions and cut a bunch of rectangular strips.

Then, gold spray paint! Did almost three coats as for some reason, the writing on the box kept coming through the paint. Sprayed all the little ridge strips as well.

Originally I was going to try to draw the label, but decided that wouldn’t look great..but I was able to get a higher resolution photo that had the label nice and big, so I just printed that off to scale. It’s not the exact label, but it was the only one that was high enough resolution to print, so it’s close enough.

Glued on the label, glued on the strips. Cut the holes for Gabe’s head and arms (had to cut the head hole twice, he’s got a huge noggin…)
Last step was to use one of the cut holes to make the triangle on the box. Glued it on, and we’re done!

The costume didn’t need any extra safety additions as the entire costume is reflective.
The only problem…the width of the box meant he couldn’t hold his candy bag with both hands!
Oops…

The whole thing completely ties in with the fact that this year is the Legend of Zelda’s 25th Anniversary, and the newest game they are releasing for the Wii (Legend of Zelda-Skyward Sword) comes with a gold colored Wii remote.
http://www.zelda.com/skywardsword/

Noel

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Fundy Discovery Aquarium

Hello all!
Spent some time at the newly opened Fundy Discovery Aquarium in St. Andrews, thought I’d pass on some info on getting great shots of the new exhibits! For the month of September, the admission is half price as all exhibits aren’t complete yet.

WHEN TO GO
First off, to get the most shooting opportunities, you must go when it’s sunny outside. The tanks are on the sides of the building, and the water cuts a lot of light out. If it’s overcast, there won’t be enough light to get shots.
I would suggest going sometime between 11am-1pm. That way the sun will be high in the sky shining right down.

SHOOTING THE TOUCH POOLS
The aquarium has two touch pools, one that is full of Little Skates, and one that is full of all sorts of aquatic life!

The problem is that the light is not bright enough to shoot handheld. So you have two options-tripod, or using flash.

If you are going to use the tripod, the Skates are out. They are moving around too much to get a sharp picture. The touch pool however would be fine. I would suggest using a polarizer to remove glare from the surface of the water. You’ll have to shoot completely still objects however.

The BETTER method is to use flash. However, there is one problem with flash…


Yep, pretty harsh.Not to mention if you shoot from directly above, the flash will reflect back at the camera. Not pretty.

To fix this, you want to use the flash off-camera, either through a off camera flash cord, or trigger your flash wireless.
Just compare the difference: Images on the left are done with direct flash, the right are done using the off-camera flash cord.


Off camera flash cords are about $100 or so. Buy one.
If you have a pop-up flash, you’ll have to try to avoid shooting directly from above to avoid the reflection…but you’ll still get the glare.

I used MANUAL mode on my flash, but you could also use TTL. You may need to use the flash exposure compensation and turn it up a bit as the water will cut the light.

CAMERA SETTINGS WHEN USING FLASH
ISO-400. You will be using the flash to light the tank

SHUTTER SPEED-You can use your highest sync speed (usually 1/200th of a second or slower) to ensure anything that is moving won’t give you a bit of blur.

APERTURE-Since you are close to the objects, and your flash is close, you can use F11/F16 to get lots of depth of field.

SHOOTING THE SKATE POOL
Skates are really awesome…they will actually come up to the surface to greet you and allow you to touch them on top, and below!
Shoot with the same flash techniques as above.




SETTINGS FOR SHOOTING THE LARGE FISH TANKS
You should use MANUAL(M) shooting mode, because every other mode is just going to blow the exposure because of the darkness of the water.

ISO-As long as the sun is shinning into the tank, 400 is fine. Otherwise, you may have to jack it up to 800/1600.

SHUTTER SPEED-The occupants of the tank don’t swim too fast, so 1/250th of a second will be fine to freeze them.

APERTURE-Pretty well you’ll just have to try an aperture and shoot until the exposure looks good. Because of all the dark water, the meter’s going to give you the wrong exposure.
F8 worked great for me. But the exposure will change based on the light. Both photos below were taken at the same exposure, 1/250th at F8.


I personally preferred the darker light!

You can also play with the exposure a bit for different effects with the light. If you want more detail on the fish, open up the aperture more. The following spiny dogfish and the salmon were shot at F5, which gave me a bit more detail on the fish as well as some nice light coming through his fins.



You can also use the interior window as a nice framing element.


You can also try some nice close ups too!


WHITE BALANCE
The water filters the sunlight, giving it a very green cast. I used DAYLIGHT(SUN) balance, because I didn’t mind the cast. To me, it says “underwater”
Since I was shooting RAW however, I knew I would be able to adjust this later if I didn’t like the results.
To to see what the images would look like, in Camera Raw I tried a few different balances. Basically none of the presets gave me anything nicer…so I tried AUTO, and voila! The image on the left is with DAYLIGHT, the one on the right is AUTO (5750 temperature, +30 magenta). While it shows the color the skate would be out of water, it doesn’t show how it looked to my eye.


WHAT ABOUT FLASH?

Flash is not going to work very well, as it will reflect back at the camera. My only suggestion is to try to put the camera lens right on the glass, that way it’s less likely to reflect. I tried some shots with the flash off-camera, but the light just reflected everywhere.
Flash can be used however to get a good photo of your family in front of one of the tanks…use the same shutter speed/aperture as above, then pop up the flash. To avoid the glare off the back, I put my tall daughter in the middle!

just watch out for…

cue Jaws music….


THE OTHER TANKS
Most of the other tanks are very poorly lit…with the non-moving life like the lobsters, you could try shooting on tripod. I tried some shots with off-camera flash, but the light just bounced everywhere. You can try putting the lens right up to the glass, but the results I was getting was disappointing.

WHAT ABOUT THE SEALS?
Well…i personally don’t really like the new set up for the seals from a photography standpoint.. It’s great to be able to see them under the water, no question…but it’s really hard to photograph. I’m not sure if the sun shines down into that side tank…if it does, you will get the same light as above. It might happen more in the morning. The above viewing area doesn’t give you the same view as the previous one…it might be that the seals can swim underwater more now so they do…I don’t really know.

So if you get a chance, head down to St. Andrews and check out the new Fundy Discovery Aquarium!

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I’ve been pretty lax with assignments, I apologize…Today I had an assignment to shoot a glass of Guinness…and had some fun with it. So i thought, why not make it an assignment!!!

So, the assignment is to photograph your favourite beverage in a creative way!

A couple of suggestions:

LIGHT
This is the important one. Depending on your drink, you may be able to get some really cool effects by shining light through it.

The photo above was taken with the flash directly behind the glass. You’ll need to be able to trigger your flash off camera (I used pocketwizard’s to trigger the flash)

Here’s another one with the flash pointed downward a bit more:

You may want to try using cardboard or a snoot to focus the light on the beverage so it doesn’t spread around too much.

You could also achieve this effect by putting the beverage in front of a window.
Make sure you meter for the inside light on the glass when using NATURAL LIGHT.

I also did some interesting shots with:

Flash held directly above:

Off camera flash cord, bounced off the ceiling:

Again, with the off camera cord or wireless triggering, but this could also be done using a lamp or spotlight with the camera on a tripod.

This was a cool one I did for a story about water quality:

You could also try some slow shutter speeds and zoom, pan, rotate.

There is a folder under assignments here:
http://www.learnphoto.ca/gallery/v/group/assignments/myfavbev/

Create a new album and upload your pix!

Have some fun, if you have any questions, fire me an email! nchenier@nbnet.nb.ca

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2010 Learnphoto.ca Photographs of the Year-Public Vote!

Just for fun, I’ve decided to have a separate voting for the 2010 Learnphoto.ca Photographs of the Year and let the general public vote!

head to: http://www.noelchenier.ca/GALLERY/2010photosofyear

Take a look, and vote for the four shots you think are the best! Forward this to anyone who enjoys photography and might be interested in casting their ballot, tell your friends to vote for you pix, even if you’ve voted in the contest for members of learnphoto, feel free to do so again!

I’ll have voting on until Sunday February 13th and announce the winner on Monday Feb 14th!

Noel

———————-
Photographer and teacher
LEARNPHOTO.CA, Noel’s online photography learning community!
http://www.learnphoto.ca
Portfolio
http://www.noelchenier.ca
Noel’s Photo Tips Blog
http://noelchenier.blogspot.com
Work Done by My Students!
http://www.learnphoto.ca/gallery
Contact Email:
nchenier@nbnet.nb.ca
Contact Phone:
608-6424

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Entering a photo contest? READ THE FINE PRINT

A while back, a photographer on a discussion forum posted how happy he was that a photograph he had taken was in the running to be published in National Geographic Magazine in their YOUR SHOT feature.

On first glance, who wouldn’t want the opportunity to be able to say they had a photograph published in one of the most well known magazines in the world that features work by amazing photographers?

A closer look at the rules and terms at the contest however, should give you pause.

Read the FAQ on the contest (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/faq):

When I submit a photo to Your Shot, do I retain the copyright to the photograph?

By submitting a photograph to Your Shot you will always retain ownership of the copyright. What you will grant National Geographic is a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license for that photograph. Please read through the Your Shot rules for more information on the rights you grant when submitting a photograph to Your Shot. ”

Followed by the terms of service (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/community/terms.html):

5. For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in material you upload, comments you post, or other content you provide to the Site (“User Content”). By uploading User Content, you grant National Geographic (which includes its subsidiaries, affiliates, joint venturers, and licensees) the following rights: a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license to display, distribute, reproduce, and create derivatives of the User Content, in whole or in part, without further review or participation from you, in any medium now existing or subsequently developed, in editorial, commercial, promotional, and trade uses in connection with NG Products. National Geographic may license or sublicense, in whole or in part, to third parties rights in User Content as appropriate to distribute, market, or promote such NG Products. An NG Product is defined as “a product of National Geographic, a subsidiary, affiliate, joint venturer, or licensee of National Geographic, in any language, over which National Geographic has “Editorial Control.” For the purposes of this Agreement, “Editorial Control” means the right to review, consult regarding, formulate standards for, or to exercise a veto over the appearance, text, use, or promotion of the NG Product. You also agree that National Geographic may make User Content available to users of the Site who may display and redistribute it in the same way that National Geographic makes all other Content available.

Basically, this means that you are giving National Geographic the right to use your image as much as they want, however they want, whenever they want, make as much money as they want off the image, as well as allowing anyone else they give the rights to as well…
So you could submit an amazing photograph that gets published in the magazine, a book collection, advertisements, put on t-shirts, mugs, etc, and all you get is a tear-sheet of your image in National Geographic and bragging rights.

Contests like this are a way for National Geographic and other magazines, websites, etc, to get free content to exploit as they see fit.

To make this particular rights grab even worse, they have put together a bunch of YOUR SHOTS into a special collectors edition!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/custom-cover-home

And it costs $11! So even if you had a shot published in it, you get to PAY for a copy!

And for an extra $8, you can upload your picture and have it on your specially made edition!

Check out the international photo competition and it’s the same thing… even the kids contest for crying out loud!

ENTRANT LICENSES/RELEASES

By entering the Contest, all entrants (and their respective parents and legal guardians) grant a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to Sponsor, its designees, licensees and affiliates (“Authorized Parties”), to reproduce, distribute, display and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in connection with the Contest and promotion of the Contest, in any media now or hereafter known, including, but not limited to: Display at a potential exhibition of winners; publication of a book featuring select entries in the Contest; publication in National Geographic Kids Magazine or online highlighting entries or winners of the Contest. Entrants consent to the Sponsor doing or omitting to do any act that would otherwise infringe the entrant’s “moral rights” in their entries. Display or publication of any entry on an Authorized Party’s website does not indicate the entrant will be selected as a winner. Authorized Parties will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use.

Any time you want to enter a contest, check the rules and terms..you might be surprised what you find…in some cases, you are actually giving up the FULL COPYRIGHT on your image, meaning the contest holder could SUE you if you put the image on a website or sold it. nice huh?

Mark Loundy writes about the photo business and posts a regular column relating to rights and photography. In his column he has the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY. Some of the uglies just make me shudder!

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WORST…. ASSIGNMENTS….. EVER!

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People tend to always ask me “What is the best assignment you’ve done as a photographer?” and I have to think about it, since I have been fortunate to have so many great experiences that it’s hard to pick one as the best. I can pretty much guarantee the worst….the house full of cats.

Read more

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Canada Games Portraits-Chef du Mission Jennifer Bent Richard

The final shoot in the series of Canada Games Athletes is of chef-du-mission Jennifer Bent Richard.

As she wasn’t an athlete, but more the head of the whole New Brunswick team, I asked that she bring some NB stuff, including a flag.

Started off with some simple shots of her holding the flag out. I knew before shooting that the grandstand would provide excellent shadows, again allowing me to set her up in front of nice blue sky(that we had on this day, unlike some others). She would be in the dark shade, allowing me to add flash the way I wanted to light her up.




Then I decided to try some shots of her wrapped in the flag.




I switched the angle around so that Jennifer would be in front of the Canada Games Stadium letters, something to give a bit of context. So in this case, both are in the shade. I underexposed the background a bit more, allowing me to light her up with mainly flash.

I wanted some shots of the flag completely unfurled out, so I taped it to a low fence around the stadium. Both Jennifer and the flag were in shade still, so I exposed for the background and used flash(in this case, the three headed monster, shooting into an umbrella for a bit softer light) to fill her in.



I noticed that if the flag was backlit by the sun, it really made the flag colors show nicely. The shot below is just metering from the ambient light on the flag.


And of course it put Jennifer in the full shade, allowing me to add the exact light I wanted onto her. You can see the arm of my assistant Tanner Cheeseman, who held the flag up, then dropped it when I said “GO!” and pulled his arm back quickly.


And voila, the perfect shot! Well, almost perfect. I really liked the image at the top of this post best, it had the nicest flowing to the flag.


I also tried a few with some blue sky behind, pretty much the same set up as above.

So that’s it! It was a great series, and I hope these posts have been the right combination of informative and fun. Any questions at all, please send me an email nchenier@nbnet.nb.ca

To see more in this series, head to my Canada Games Athlete Galleries on my site that contains more images from this shoot.
To see the full series of posts in the Canada Games Series, click here.

 

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Canada Games Athletes-Beach Volleyball Player Jill Blanchard

Today’s athlete portrait is of Canada Games women’s beach volleyball player Jill Blanchard. This was the final shoot done for the series, and it was a great way to end it.

Before you get too exciting, you won’t see the normal photographs that get taken with women’s beach volleyball. If you don’t know what I mean, just type “beach volleyball” in Google images.


Again had the idea to have the subject flying through the air, diving for the ball, ball in perfect position, subject looking at the camera, but logistically, couldn’t make it work. I had my assistant Tanner tossing the ball and Jill diving for it, but it just wasn’t coming out.







So I decided to do some portraits at the net. Again, set up so the subject is backlit by the bright background, and filling them in with the flash.




Of course there were a few of the old toss the ball up trick too!



I found the light a bit cool and wanted that sunny beach look, so I set the WHITE BALANCE to CLOUDY/OVERCAST, which added a bit of warmth to the image.




Looking the images aftewards, I really liked this composition below, but wished I had of moved the light so it was more on Jill’s face and not so side lit.


Tried a few set-ups framing Jill with the net. One of the issues with the location at Market Square is in one direction, the background had the lovely bouys on the Coast Guard site, and the other direction is Market Square.



Also tried some shots of Jill bumping the ball. To get high up, I climbed onto the referee chair. To get the ball in the right spot I tried getting Tanner to throw it to her, but it was just as easy for me to drop it from my perch.


Then I decided to try some portraits having Jill sitting on the sand.


Then I asked Jill to lay on the sand, and rest on the ball. I also got low, laying on the sand to get a better angle. By getting low, it minimized the distracting backgrounds with the Coast Guard site.





To see more in this series, head to my Canada Games Athlete Galleries on my site that contains more images from this shoot.
To see the full series of posts in the Canada Games Series, click here.
That is it for the athlete portraits, but there is one shoot left, chef-de-mission Jennifer Bent-Richard. It’s a cool one!

 

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Canada Games Athlete Portraits-Baseball Player Sean Silliphant

Today’s portrait is of baseball player Sean Silliphant.

Similar set up as many of the other images. Set the subject up in front of a bright background, expose for the background to make them a silhouette, and add light on them with the flash.


Sean plays a number of positions, including pitching, so I started off with him on the mound.


The light on Sean was a bit too contrasty, so I moved the light to the right to shine more onto his face.

An idea I had from the start for this shoot was to have his face lit up by a flash in his glove. The problem was that I couldn’t really fit a flash with a pocket wizard into the glove, so that left me with two options.

1) Attempt to use the Canon wireless flash system to trigger the flash in the glove. I did not bother however, because one of the main problem with the Canon wireless flash system is that the off camera flashes have to be able to “see” the flash from the main on camera flash to trigger them.

so that left me with option

2) Use my Nikon Sb800 flash, which has a built in optical slave that will fire off of any flash it detects! I angled the sensor towards Sean’s face, and used the Canon flash on the camera at very low power, and the light reflected off his face enough to trigger the Nikon.



Also tried a few with the TUNGSTEN WB/Warming filter on the flash trick to get a bit bluer sky.


Then I decided to try so head on shots using the flash in glove technique.


Did some experimentation with the shutter speed to make the ambient light darker. Picking a higher shutter speed made the sky go a bit darker.


I ended up with some shots of Sean as the shortstop, and figured the neat play to shoot would be him tagging second base and throwing to first for the double play.
Flash was set up to my left, the sun was backlighting him(notice the double shadow)



To see more in this series, head to my Canada Games Athlete Galleries on my site that contains more images from this shoot.
To see the full series of posts in the Canada Games Series, click here.

To read the story by Telegraph Journal sports editor Randy O’Donnell, click here.
Next up….beach volleyball!

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