Nothing is more frustrating to me when someone takes 15 minutes to explain something that could be done in 1 minute.

Recently, I was making some animated GIFs and looked up tutorials online that were very slow, the most-viewed one on YouTube takes over 6 minutes to explain!

So I decided to make one of my own and do it 3x faster than that one! Above is my tutorial on how to make an animated GIF in less than one and a half minutes.

I took the photos with my Canon 7D which can shoot 8 frames a second which is perfect for GIFs, but I use it to catch action shots normally. The other time I’ve used an animated GIF was for a wedding party jumping.

I recently made the trip from Vancouver to San Francisco and I stopped at two flying sites to hang glide, Dog Mountain and Mattole. Both were incredible. Check out the video above to see what these sites look like.

I finally bought a GoPro and am very happy with how convenient it is and all the hang gliding shots in the video were shot with it. Below the photos were taken with my trusty 7D.

Dog Mountain

Oregon coast

Lost Coast

Mattole

Redwoods

Mount Rainier from the road

Well, I finally did it – I bought a GoPro! Because of my hang gliding videos many people assume I’ve always had one, but not until this week!

So far I’m enjoying it. It’s definitely convenient and compact. I bought the extra LCD screen for the back too and I’m glad I did! It allows me to frame my shots, no guessing!

First day into the road trip I met up with some great pilots who fly Dog Mountain, WA and had a nice little flight. Thanks to Aaron for helping me coordinate the visit. I hope to pass back through and fly with everyone again! It wasn’t a bad place to camp out either.

It was about 11 years ago I was traveling down the same road to go climb Mount Rainier, but this week I was in the area to hang glide instead of mountaineering. Recognizing the same road snuck up on me like deja vu with memories from 11 years ago resurfacing.

I actually tried out twice to be a guide for RMI and made the final cut both times, but it was some tough competition and I didn’t get the job. I think there were around 40 of us trying to get 2 jobs shoveling frozen crap at camp Muir. It was a fun experience nonetheless and enjoyable to remember. It was quite an intimidating job interview to sit at a round table, being 17 years old, and answer questions from some of the most accomplished mountain guides in the world.

Dog Mountain Launch

Dog Mountain from the air. Launch is clearing on the peak in the top right and the LZ is in front of the cars in the bottom right.

Facing away from Dog Mountain.

The moon rose right behind launch

Once into Oregon the plan was to run on the infamous Hayward Field track that Steve Prefontaine ran on and has been the venue for many incredible track meets, not to mention the 2012 Olympic Trials will be there! But I was denied! So I went to Pre’s Trail not too far away and had a great little run.

This trail was created after Pre traveled to Europe to compete every summer and saw all the amazing, soft trails in the European cities and he wanted to have that in Eugene.

Now it’s off to the Redwoods and a hang gliding site on the northern California coast!

Hayward Field

Pre's Rock

I love this affect of seeing trees from overhead, how everything splays out from the center.

Here are some of the images I took from my two hour flight today at Mount Woodside. It was a great little flight. Mainly ridge soaring.

The highlights were playing in the clouds, watching a family of eagles fly around, flying around with them, seeing two eagles grab their talons and tumble together, and meeting new pilots and flying a new site. I love any site that lets you see or fly over some water and this one has a gorgeous view of a river convergence.

Since my car wasn’t able to make it up the mountain I had to leave all my expensive camera gear behind and I just used my old trusty Canon PowerShot SD870 for these shots. I used this same camera to win my first YouTube contest back in the day too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZfJjRrEb4

Launch is to the right in the photo.

A Bald Eagle going into the clouds.

My favorite moment from today, even though I felt like the ugly duckling trying to keep up with them.

My second favorite moment.

The scenery from this site is terrific.

Always enjoy finding terrain like this while flying. It's like looking at a painting . . . while flying a hang glider.

My original idea was to make a video tutorial on how I made mine, similar to the custom bokeh tutorial. But as many DIY projects go, this one did not go according to plan. That’s why I wanted to make a blog post so you can learn from my mistakes.

So if you enjoy cutting plastic, and want to save about $60 and not buy one from Amazon, then read on and good luck!

[box]You’ll need the following:

• plastic terracotta round pot (I used an 18″ one)
• empty DVD or CD case
• spray paint for plastic (black and white)
• 3″ convex mirror (you can get from auto parts store)
• gutter attachment piece
• super glue
• knife/scissor
• velcro

I also used a drill to put holes through the pot and dvd base that will match the ones in the gutter piece.

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For more details on how to make the beauty dish visit this great strobist blog post. I’m going to spend the rest of this blog post letting you know what I did wrong and what you can do to avoid it.

THE BIGGEST difference between the one I made and the one from strobist blog centers around the gutter piece.

The gutter piece DOES NOT fit a Canon 580 EX2 speedlight. That meant I almost gave up. I tried to buy this thing to replace the gutter piece but they canceled my order because they wouldn’t let me order it by itself.

So the masacre begins.

This is the correct way to attach the gutter piece

I had to cut that gutter piece into 4 pieces to fit the 580 ex2. Then I put it in backwards, so instead of the long part sticking out the back, mine is sticking in towards the inside. Make sure the long end of the gutter piece is sticking out the back.

One other thing to consider in making your center cuts for the hole, is that the middle of the light comes out lower than the outline of the speedlight head. That’s due to the diffuser and catchlight pop outs that are stored at the top of the speed light head, so adjust your cut accordingly.

My way still works, but there’s a gap created at the back of the pot where the speedlight enters the pot, which makes it tilt a little and not shoot straight into the beauty dish.

Inside my beauty dish, without DVD mirror cover. The gutter would do better if it was facing out of the pot, like the other photo.

One of the other issues I ran into was the glue. I first used a hot glue gun and that simply didn’t work well binding two plastics together.

Then I used super glue which did well binding plastic to plastic, but it is incredibly runny and some how got all over the place inside the DVD case which made the transparent DVD cover look cloudy on the sides where it ran over.

Also, on the DVD cover, I cut the center portion of it out so I could get a flush surface to put the mirror on. Similar to most of the project, cutting plastic was a nightmare. The case cracked in many places (hence the glue mentioned above) from the cutting. That’s also the reason I decided to paint over the front part of the dvd outer case, to cover up how hideous it looked.

Center of dvd cover cut out so creates flush surface

The other problem I ran into was the paint. It peeled which could have been because I had it drying outside in colder temperatures. I think if I was to sand down the plastic pot before I painted that may have helped the paint adhering to the surface.

In conclusion, buy the one off amazon. You save hours of your time, not driving to home depot, not getting frustrated by wasting a Sunday afternoon cutting yourself while you attempt to make precise cuts into stubborn plastic on a project that may or may not turn out at all, and you won’t have a piece of photography gear that stinks like spray paint.

With that said, it is nice to have a beauty dish. Even with the flaws in mine, it creates some fantastic light.

first attempt at using my beauty dish (self-portrait)

In all her glory, here she is. You can see the light isn't coming out completely balanced because the speedlight gets tilted slighty because the gutter piece was doomed form the beginning as mentioned above.

The second is the oldest building in downtown, constructed around 1836. It is currently being renovated, which is awesome.

I am amazed at the potential of these downtown buildings and the incredible value they hold that seems to go untapped, which I’m sure is like many old downtown’s of small southern towns.

There’s a building downtown that apparently was a skating rink, and it’s on the third floor! But it is also vacant.

I know I have a great deal of naivety about a subject like this, but it’s hard to restrain my imagination at what an incredible added value even these two buildings would be to such a small downtown. Think of having a beautiful banquet or wedding reception with 15′ tall windows pouring in soft light on the third floor overlooking the downtown fountain. Meanwhile, straight across the square there’s a roller derby event going on 20′ above the ground in another restored building.

As pie-in-the-sky as that dream may be, that would be incredibly unique that could not be replicated in our current linear way of building and expanding towns. I applaud people like Mayor Elaine Walker who strive to preserve and restore charming downtowns like the one Bowling Green is so lucky to have.

The back side of the door peep hole. This thing is awesome, press the latch at the top and the wood slides down. I can imagine this would be useful during private parties back in the day.

The front of the peep hole door.

The old ballroom with massive windows overlooking fountain square downtown.

Some timber framing in the attic of the oldest house in downtown

A true craftsman, preserving and restoring the windows in the oldest building.

See the 4 notches in the wood? That was because in 1837 each window was custom made. This is window #4 in the room (hence 4 notches).

Have you ever seen a water heater like this? I'm sure this was an incredible luxury at the time when it was first installed. You can see the burner at the bottom that heats up the water in the coils.

[box]This month is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and for the last month I have been busy taking photographs of the bras that local individuals and businesses decorated that will be auctioned off tomorrow at Olde Stone. In addition to the auctioned bras, these photographs will be for sale at the event to benefit the American Cancer Society.

If you are unable to attend the event you can visit http://pictage.com/929265 and purchase prints of these, which the proceeds will also benefit the American Cancer Society. You can buy everything from a 4×6, to a greeting card, to a wrapped canvas, to a coffee table book there, so check it out.

[button link="http://pictage.com/929265" type="icon"]Donate and Buy Prints[/button]Also please share this on [facebook] to help spread the word.[/box]

[learn_more caption="About My Photography Experience with these Bras"]I used my Canon 7D and my 28mm lens for almost every one of these shots. I tried to take into account each designer’s theme and decorations when I was finding locations to shoot these.

Each one was shot on location. I didn’t photoshop in any of these backgrounds you see in the photos (except one, but I’ll let you figure out which one). Driving around and trying to find places to photograph the bras was probably the most time-intensive aspect of this project.

One day, I parked my car, which was full of these bras, at Office Depot to grab something. When I came out, I noticed a note on my windshield. I looked at the other cars parked near mine and I was the only one with a note . . .

I turned it over and it was a note with a Bible passage on it about Jesus saving me.

So, I guess I was perceived as the local perv while I had these in my car, which I’ll gladly ‘take that one for the team’ if it means raising money for the Cancer Society.

Wherever I had to talk to someone to try and photograph a bra at their location I made sure I first explained the entire scenario and left mentioning the bra at the end. I didn’t want to scare people away: “Hey, um, can I take a picture of this crazy looking bra in your shop?” So I tried to be very delicate how I introduced people to the idea of what I was doing before I asked their permission.

I found a barber shop with these awesome chairs I wanted to shoot that pink Perm one in and started my schpeel with one of the barbers. As soon as I said the word ‘bra,’ he said, “Yea, but this is a barber chair, they wouldn’t get a perm in a barber chair.”

“Yes, sir, I realize that but I like the vintage look of these chairs, they’re great.”

“Yea, but this is a man’s chair, a woman doesn’t get perms in this kind of chair.”

“I understand that, I just think the look of this chair is very cool and would like to take a photo of it.”

“Yea, but it’s a barber’s chair, it doesn’t make sense for a perm . . .”

You get the idea. I have never seen or heard someone turn into a broken record so quickly. There was no way I was taking a photo in his place, I think he even felt insulted that I had asked to photograph a bra there, even though I had explained, like I always did, this is for the American Cancer Society raising money, etc.

That was the only difficulty I had with the locations, and I’m actually glad I ended up taking that Perm picture where I did instead, I think it turned out better.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to donate my time and creativity to this project and I hope I did justice to these bra designs. Enjoy, and feel free to leave a comment here on my blog about them.[/learn_more]

All of the images below are low-resolution versions of the originals, please visit http://pictage.com/929265 to buy hi-resolution prints.

[box]A big thanks goes to all those who donated their time and creativity to creating these bras:

• Susan Begley
• Greer Bohannon
• Gloria Carrico & Denise Mitchell
• Charm Circle Book Club
• Ann Covington
• Diane & Earl Crawley & Family
• Kelly Davidson, Citizens First Bank
• Mitzi Dooley
• Shonna Galloway, Western Kentucky Diagnostic Imaging
• Susan Carr Gardner
• Mark Hood
• Cammie Kirkwood
• Paula Kirby & Cindy Shelton
• Laurie Kwok
• Kama Liberman, Elan Hair & Skin Nashville
• MacKenzies
• Faye Christian Phillips
• Christy Schuette & Friends
• Kellie Steen & Kim Simpson, Junkyard Gypsies Home Consignment
• Gayla Warner & Laura Jones, Runaway Rabbit
• Vette City Roller Derby

And thanks to those in the event committee: Barbara Lally, Jeanne Marie Patterson, Debbie Vance, and Gayla Warner

[button link="http://pictage.com/929265" type="icon"]Donate and Buy Prints[/button][/box]

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But this post is dedicated to those of you who were in the same position I was just two weeks ago.

You are about to shoot your first wedding and you’re scouring the internet for any tips and help that you can get. This is video is for you.

While there are way more than 10 things to think about while shooting your first wedding, these are a couple of simple ones that I wanted to share to try and help you on your first shoot:

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1. Continue to do what you’re doing now: Research!
2. Find poses! You’ll want a few to fall back on if you start running out of ideas
3. Only positive comments! Do not say anything negative when shooting the happy couple, even if you think you’re making a joke.
4. Practice now. You are going to have to be johnny-on-the-spot with your exposures. Go outside and test yourself and take photos, well-exposed, as quick as you can.
5. Shoot more photos than you need.
6. Make sure you get the shot, then move on. Don’t keep shooting the same thing over and over when you already have it in the can.
7. Get reaction shots. Make sure to look around whatever the main focus is (usually the couple) and get photos of other people reacting to them.
8. You can stay in one location for the first dance and get many different angles of the couple because they will twirl around!
9. Back button focus – especially for portrait oriented shots because of all the head room you’ll give them when you accidentally take a photo instead of only focus if you are using the shutter. The back button focus eliminates this problem.
10. Get a wider composition. This will allow you to rotate the image and get the horizon straight in post, and just give you a little more room to play with later. Also – people move! so if you’re too tight on them, then they may move out of your frame by the time you take the photo. Give them some room in frame.

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I also talk about the vertical grip: you can hear Louis Torres talk about why you should get one on his podcast “Buy a Veritical Grip Now.” Click HERE to go to his podcasts.

Below is the vertical grip I use and the R-strap that is so comfy and nice compared to the normal straps that come with the camera:

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Fresh off of my first filming of a wedding this was my first photographing of one. I was nervous leading up to it, but I knew I could come away with cool shots. I also knew I would make mistakes and just flat out miss some things. To be honest, I think I did better than my expectations. I did hit some goals I had set: I shot 3,000 photos and edited it down to about 700 for the couple.

I have even more respect for wedding photographers now! It is definitely a lot of work and have major appreciation for those wedding photographers that are so skilled at what they do. I appreciate the help of so many of those wedding photographers who have active blogs that I’ve followed (Jasmine Star, Joe Elario, Rosie Hardy, Jamie Delaine, among others) and those that have given me great advice, like Leslee Mitchell.

I plan to create a short video that will give advice for those people shooting their first wedding, not because I’m an expert now because I’ve done one, but because I have done my first one and want to share while it’s fresh on my mind. Also I may do a post comparing doing video and photography for a wedding.

Technical stuff: I mainly shot with my 28mm for everything but the ceremony, which I used the 70-200mm. I love the 28mm lens, that’s my go to lens now on the 7D and I just zoom with my feet when it’s on. When it came time to get down during the reception I threw on the 15-85mm with the flash and stofen diffuser and rocked it out!

More often than not I found myself ditching trying to put the flash off camera and just ran with it in ETTL on the hot shoe for all the dancing. It did a better job than I expected, but couldn’t have been possible without that diffuser on it.

With my big ole battery grip I did not change my batteries once! I was really surprised by that. The other piece of gear I would highly recommned and made my day a lot easier, was the R-strap. The strap that comes with Canons are pretty worthless and get in the way more than it helps, and it cuts into my neck. The R-strap is very cumfy and gives your arms a rest while not tweaking out your neck.

Since it was a wedding beach it gave me a nice 360-degree playing field so I could run all the way around the ceremony, but that also meant that everyone was pretty tight together and it was hard to get some shots. The wedding party shots went by in a blur, I’m glad everyone was there on the lookout to get all the pictures in. It was hard to keep track of everyone and all the different combinations of people. The bride was on top of her game for that – thanks Rachel!

The portraits were a blast and they were so easy going about it. We basically did 3 different portait sessions, one before the ceremony around the time we did the wedding party pictures along with the first look. Then straight after the ceremony, and then again at sunset. I think that allowed us to get many different looks and locations and it spaced it out for the couple so as not to stretch their patience.

Shooting in full sun on the beach was not as brutal as I had expected. Although, when the groom first walked up he was in the shade of the arbor with his bride in full sun. Luckily he didn’t stay in it long, otherwise it might have been some very contrasty pictures with her really bright and him kind of dark. I will talk more about some things I learned when I put together a short video – stay tuned!

I met Clay probably in Junior High, but we didn’t become really good friends until he convinced me I should quit football in high school and run track. Once I joined the team we got to be really good friends and spent a lot of time together training and racing. My first year running, as a high school sophomore, I ran a 4:38 mile and knew he was right, so I quit football. If it wasn’t for him I would not have accomplished so much in my running career – thanks for making me see the light buddy!

His older brother, and best man, was also the first person to take me rappelling, which helped give me the bug at a young age to get into climbing, and later, mountaineering. So their whole family has had a positive influence on me and it was great fun to hang out with them and their new extended family over the weekend.

Clay is a terrific guy and Rachel is a very sweet girl. I know they are great for each other and it was beautiful to watch their love glow on their wedding day.

The trip was great fun and I think I spent more time in the ocean at night than during the day. I haven’t googled it yet, but we were amazed at whatever phenomenon makes little glowing dots in the water at night. I’m assuming it’s some kind of plankton or something – anyone know?

Below are some of the photos I took at the wedding, to see all 700+ of them and to order prints go to http://pictage.com/920800

Here’s a little music from a great musician Ry Cuming to help set the mood, hit Play and scroll on down through the pics – enjoy!

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