Craig January 16th, 2008
Been playing around at home with some strobist techniques lately. The light is provided by off-camera speedlights - a 550ex and 420ex for the strawberry shots, and a 550ex, 540ez and PE-28s for the strawberry and melon shot. The PE-28s is an optic slave, the other speedlights were triggered with V2 radio frequency flash triggers. Enjoy.
Craig January 12th, 2008
A couple of weeks ago Ashish from Tumbling in Taiwan posted about a recent trip he made to Changhua. In it he mentioned seeing a sign at the train station that said “fan-shape garage” and was wondering what it was. So, with today being a beautiful winters day with clear blue skies, I decided to take a walk down to the fan-shape garage and take a look around.
Dating back to the age of steam, the maintenance garage at Changhua is the only one of its kind in Taiwan. Changhua station used to be an important midway point of the western rail line, and is the southern meeting point of the mountain and coastal lines. The rails radiate out of the garage like spokes and a single turntable is used to position the trains. Today there are three old steam engines located in the garage, and it is also used as a maintenance depot for diesel and electric trains. I was unable to find out any more information about the garage, so I’ll leave you with the pictures.
Craig January 11th, 2008
Coffee beans and chili’s. A 550ex on a stand camera right at a 45 degree angle, connected with an off camera shoe cord, and a 420ex camera left and forward at a 90 degree angle set in slave mode and triggered by the 550ex.
Craig January 7th, 2008
If you’ve ever read Modern Photography or Popular Photography, you’ll know the name Herbert Keppler. Keppler, former publisher of Modern and Popular Photography magazines and one of the most respected and influential figures in the history of the camera industry, died Friday night due to heart failure after a brief illness. He was 82.
He was an early and tireless champion of the single-lens reflex camera (SLR), writing an extremely popular series of SLR columns explaining their numerous advantages over the then-dominant 35mm rangefinder cameras, including their upside potential for future development. By the early 1960s, it was clear that Keppler had been right, and the 35mm SLR became the camera type of choice among serious enthusiasts and professionals until the dawn of the digital era.
Keppler was also one of the first to recognize the potential in Japanese manufacturers. Starting in the 1950s, Japanese camera quality improved to the point where SLRs made in Japan eclipsed those made in Germany in both features and sales. Much of this success can be traced to Herbert Keppler. A frequent visitor to Japan, Keppler was sought after by all camera and lens manufacturers for his advice, and many popular cameras produced in the second half of the 20th century incorporated designs and features originally suggested by him. Many of these improvements helped change the perception of Japanese products from shoddy to high quality.
Over the years he was widely hailed as “Mr. Photography” and “The Conscience of the Industry.” He was among only a handful of Americans to receive one of the highest awards to be bestowed upon a foreigner by the Emperor of Japan for his notable contribution to the Japanese photographic industry and its phenomenal success in the U.S. He was also presented with “The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette” at a splendid conferment ceremony held at the Japanese Consulate in New York on December 9, 2002, by Ambassador Yoshihiro Nishida, Consul General of Japan.
Herbert Keppler is survived by his wife, Louise, and his children, Tom and Kathy.
admin2 January 5th, 2008
Another slideshow, this time from the pods I blogged about a couple of days ago. The photos in the slideshow are from both trips I’ve made there, and the music is Wolf by Mister M, used under a Creative Commons license. Enjoy.
Craig January 3rd, 2008
Last May I blogged about the abandoned pod development in San-zhr on the north coast of Taiwan. It has proved to be one of the more popular posts on this site, so last week a friend and I headed out there for a photo shoot. The first time I was there, I stayed outside as the pods are decaying and a little unsafe. I was there alone, so I opted for a safety first approach. This time I ventured inside, as I had someone to rescue me if the need arose (it didn’t). All photos were shot on a Canon 40D with 17-40mm f4L and the interior shots also had a 420ex with softbox attached with an off-camera shoe cord, with the speedlight held above my left shoulder.
