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Category Archives For Photography

Today’s Boston Photowalk

Some days I just need to get away and shoot some photos off on my own! Today was one of those days… so I headed down to my favorite destination, Boston, and strolled around.

Looking Up

View more photos from my walk in the gallery.

Happy New Year from C and E

I love my girls. Such great photographic subjects! They, along with Rebecca and I, wish you a healthy, happy new year!

Nikon SB-600: The Missing Link?

Perhaps some people think I’m the “missing link” between Gorillas and Photographers:

But for me, the missing link in my photography kit was a good external flash unit. This weekend I finally had the opportunity to purchase one.

I purchased a Nikon SB-600, Nikon’s middle-of-the-line flash. It currently sells for a little over $200 and sits in between the ~$450 SB-900 and the ~$100 SB-400. This flash provides a great deal more power than the flash built into my camera, can be rotated and angled to many degrees, and can even be positioned off the camera and remotely controlled. One of its greatest features is the ability to bounce the flash off of a wall or ceiling. This provides much more flattering light for portraits than a direct flash.

On top of being a lot of fun and great for personal use, this flash will be a great asset for Peter R. Wood Photography and will allow me to offer more creative options to my clients. Head on over to photo.prwdot.org to check out my services and pricing.

You can also see some samples of other shots I’ve taken with the SB-600 in the Test Shot Gallery. (Also wanted to let people know that for some reason, SmugMug is making my photos look a bit darker when viewing them in the resized versions. To see what they “really” look like, you’ll need to click on the “Original” link that appears when you are hovering over the resized photo in the gallery. I’m working with SmugMug Support to figure out what’s going on.)

NECCC: Photography Galore!

UMass

On the weekend of July 11-13, I traveled to UMass Amherst to attend the 63rd annual conference of the New England Camera Club Council. This was my first time attending a photography conference of any kind, as well as my first experience with anything camera club related. Here are my reflections on the weekend in 5×5 format.

Five things I liked:

Opportunity to photograph models outdoors, with signed model releases, so I can use the photos in my portfolio. Unfortunately, most of the models didn’t really fit what I’m looking for in my own portfolio, but I do think I got some good shots that I’ll be able to add.
Session called “Behind the Scenes of Nature Photography” with David Middleton. He showed various iterations of a scene until he reached the “final shot” and described how he got there. It was pretty cool to be able to hear his thought processes, and the criteria he used to decide what to eliminate and what to keep in various shots. As a bonus, David was a very entertaining and listenable presenter. Great personality.
Session called “Modeling Perspectives” with Peggy Arbene, Skip Hoyt, Paul Smith, and Gordon Yu. They went over how to do lighting, backgrounds, pose models, and how to assess and plan for a portrait shoot. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with portrait photography, and I got a lot of useful information in this session.
Session called “Digital Workflow: The Rest of the Iceberg” by Jim Craner. Offered some nice tips on how to organize and manage large collections of photos, and how to plan for various conditions out in the field. Jim also had excellent presentation technique (as he said, thanks to his many years of teaching middle school), and wasn’t afraid to demonstrate his technical knowledge in an educational and palatable way.
Opportunity to to essentially immerse myself in photography for a whole weekend. I carried my camera around with me everywhere, and stopped at any opportunity that I felt like photographing something.

Five things I didn’t like:

Didn’t receive the pre-arrival packet until after I got home from the weekend. It contained such useful information as where to park, a map, a parking pass, information on extra things to bring to the dorm, etc. This would have made my arrival and time on campus a bit less stressful. It took me about an hour from the time I drove into the campus to the time I settled in to my dorm room. I realize that I registered late for the conference (July 1), but still, that should have been enough time to get a packet out to me before July 11. Perhaps in the future they could send the contents of the packet via email, as a PDF or something. That would be more expedient.
NECCC website wasn’t very useful during the weekend. They should have kept it up-to-date with information on schedule changes, happenings, photos from the events, and information on the models. In general, I didn’t get the impression that the NECCC is a very internet-savvy organization. They should be using things like Facebook, Twitter, flickr and some sort of Wiki software to help organize and distribute their information, build an online community, and draw in the younger and more tech-savvy crowd. It also wouldn’t hurt for them to hire the services of a professional web designer and developer. I can recommend several good ones.
There was a wireless network on campus, but the NECCC didn’t promote it in any way that I could see. I had to ask about it at one of the registration desks and then get a slip of paper with information on how to access the network. This would be another thing that could help draw in the tech-savvy crowd.
The dorm and dining hall were located on one side of campus, while the conference was located in another part of campus. This required either a long walk or a bus ride, and the bus rides and bus stop locations weren’t strategically placed. For example, I would have expected a sign right outside of the dorm that said “Shuttle Bus” along with information on the schedule and route. I eventually found one of these posted somewhere inside, but this was after I had already gotten through most of the weekend. Even more annoying, at lunch breaks, I had to walk all the way over to the dining hall and then all the way back to attend the next session.
Most of the models that they hired to do the model shoots were not dressed very tastefully, at least in my opinion. I don’t know whether that was the models’ decision or the organizers’, but in any case, I don’t think I’d care to use most of the model shots in my portfolio. I realize that other people may have different goals and tastes for their own work, and if the reactions of the other photographers were any indication, it seems like most people were okay with the models’ choice of wardrobe. Still, I would have preferred some of them to wear more modest and/or classy outfits.

Five things I learned:

Photographers who are trying to take photos to be entered in a contest are a very tense bunch. Always concerned about the subject appearing exactly the way they want, getting into conflict with others who are trying to photograph the same thing. Sure, it’s nice to get a good shot without distractions in the background, but have a little patience. Lighten up a bit and enjoy!
Perhaps as important as a photographer’s skill in image capture is his or her ability to get to the right place at the right time. Many an impressive photograph are impressive in large part because the photographer had the funding and wherewithal to get to an incredible location at the right time.
I’ve definitely learned that my interests in photography tend toward photojournalism. For example, I was more interested in photographing the photographers who were photographing the models, than I was in actually photographing the models themselves. I just don’t have the interest in setting up a perfect shot with everything in the right place. I prefer to capture situations as they occur, and try to tell the story of what was happening as I saw it, and usually that doesn’t involve waiting until everything is just right.
I’d rather take photos of regular people like friends and family than photos of professional (or semi-professional) models. They tend to have more personality and are more fun to work with. There were a few exceptions to this, however, most notably Audra, who is a recent mom.
I learned how to observe and prepare subjects for portrait shoots, how to interact and how to give direction and suggestions on how to pose.

Five photos of models:

Five photos of other things:

You can see a selection of other photos I took over the weekend in the gallery.

Father’s Day Weekend, 2008

This past weekend, Rebecca, Catherine and I traveled up to Quechee, Vermont to see the Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival. We camped out at Ascutney State Park, as the Quechee campground was full, but most of our time was spent in and around Quechee and Woodstock. It proved to be a very enjoyable weekend for all of us! Read on for more details and photos!

Continue reading…

Next week’s forecast: relaxing!

I’m liking this forecast for next week:

We’ll be heading down to Florida on Saturday for a week with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. Sun, sand, warm weather, a house on the beach, nothing to do but relax. (Kudos to Tripit for the extremely usable, well-designed, and feature-packed website which produced the above forecast, among other things. Just forward an email confirmation to plans@tripit.com for airline tickets, car rental, hotel reservation, etc, and Tripit will automatically build an itinerary with all sorts of useful info.)

In the meantime, I just have a few days of work to wrap up, some packing to do for the trip, and an Apple Store opening to attend tomorrow night.

Finally, if you haven’t already, please stop by Peter R. Wood Photography for some new photos, journal entries, and general photography information. I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions you have for things you’d like to see on that site!

Bertucci’s and Beaches

On Sunday, we met Ken and Dianne at Bertucci’s at the North Shore Mall for dinner. Due to a variety of trips, we won’t be seeing them until early June, so we wanted to have some time to hang out and chat.

Luckily, Catherine took care of the bill for us. You can see some more pics from the trip here.

Today we were gifted with very nice weather, so we once again headed to Dane Street Beach.

More pics from that trip here.

Peter R. Wood Photography

I’ve been interested in photography for quite some time, but over the past few years I’ve been thinking about how to take it to the next level; how to share my passion for photography with more people. I’ve had many ideas, but the one I eventually settled on was to create a unique combination of in-person photographic services and online photography resources. After several months in the making, I’m pleased to announce the launch of my photographic website, Peter R. Wood Photography:

Head over to the Journal to read the inaugural post, wherein I give thanks to the many people who have helped me out along the way. I’ve had a lot of fun getting the site set up, playing around with some cool new technology, and discussing the design and content with various folks.

For our long-time readers here at World Wide Wood, don’t worry – nothing is changing on this site! You’ll still be able to find all of the photos of me, Rebecca, and Catherine, as well as photos from all of our adventures with family and friends. But please do check out at Peter R. Wood Photography, where I will discuss photographic subjects in greater depth, as well as show off some of my best photos. This doesn’t mean that I’m quitting my day job; rather, I’m simply devoting more time towards my favorite hobby.

So, if you’re in the Boston area and in need of some photo shooting and/or training, please keep Peter R. Wood Photography in mind! And be sure to follow the Journal for photo news, tips, and insights.

Dane Street Beach

Today was a simply gorgeous day, so we headed to Dane Street Beach in Beverly for dinner and some playtime.

Catherine digging some sand

Catherine had a blast on the beach! We’re really looking forward to summer time and more trips to various beaches in the area! You can see more pics from today here.

Historic Churches of Boston

Today I headed in to Boston to meet up with 20 or so other photographers to take in some Historic Churches of Boston. I had a terrific time, walking around Boston all day, photographing churches (and other things), and talking to other photography-minded people.

There were an overwhelming number of Nikon DSLR shooters there, which was quite surprising. I expected it to be fairly even, but everywhere I looked I saw the telltale black-and-yellow straps! Talk about branding!

I met some terrific people, and got to see how others used their cameras. I also doled out a few helpings of advice, particularly to people with compact cameras. Those little things are pretty powerful once you get beyond ‘Auto’ mode! I’m really looking forward to seeing the photos everyone came away with, particularly where we were all taking photos of the same things. Should be interesting to see some different perspectives.

As a follow-up for those who I talked to at the meetup, here is some of the information I promised:

People I met:

John Donovan (lots of hockey photos)
Kris QuiÃ±ones (may be showing some of her work soon!)
Meng Yang (ate the biggest plate of ribs!)
Dana Pearson (has a home gallery in Somerville)
Roger Ramirez (ask him about his domain name)
Drew Bennett (has done a photo a day for the past four years)

Stuff I recommended that people check out:

Tips From The Top Floor (digital photography podcast with Chris Marquardt)
Discover The Top Floor workshops (run by the above, one to be held in Portland, ME)
What The Duck (photography comic strip)
Ken Rockwell (opinionated, no-holds-barred Nikon photographer. Site has lots of great resources, and he writes his own in-depth user guide for each Nikon DSLR. You’ll either love him or hate him.)

As I mentioned to a few of you, I am working on my own dedicated photography website. Stay tuned to this website for more details on that. Hopefully it will be launching soon!

Last but not least, here is a link to the photos I took during the course of the day!

If you were at the meetup, please leave me a comment and say hello! Also if you’ve got a website, feel free to share it here. I hope to attend another one of these meetups and see some of you folks again!

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