Get CRAZY sharp photos | Stoke-Ness
If you are not thinking about the trips you want to do this summer, pricing out gear and looking at plane tickets, then maybe you live where the snow hasn’t started to melt.
I am non stop researching on the internet all the details for this summer’s trips.
This months issue features an interview with a commercial photographer, a cheap and powerful light for video and photo and giving away $2 million dollars.
Be stoked,
Isaac
New Places
Kofa Mountains Quartzite, AZ
You may have seen photos of the impossibly tilted mountains surrounded by cholla and ocotillo cactus. I stumbled across an image of them while looking for areas to camp for free on my 2 month long trip in the desert this winter. They are striking and reminiscent of a Dr. Suess illustration.
The road to get close is a bit of mystery if you don’t know where to look. After some google maps sleuthing and making a best guess, we slowly bumped up the road to camp under the peaks. The camping is free and you can set up anywhere within 100 feet of the road. That means nearly unlimited areas to camp and not many folks to bother you way out here.
Some of the peaks are deceptively small (600ft) while others are some of the highest in AZ. The forced perspective here tricks your mind.
It’s about an hour away from the town of Quartzite where you can fill up with water food and gas, then head out to the desert for as long as you can.
See it on Google Maps Here
Gear
LUME Cube
I recently found Lume Cubes after looking for water proof lights for an upcoming project. I reached out to them and asked if I could try some lights. They over delivered 10 lights and loads of accessories to try.
The lights are rugged in a way that a tool feels rugged. The Lume Cube original is made with an aluminum body and is brighter than most headlamps or flashlights while only the size of half a GoPro. It has 10 levels of brightness to dial in the lumens for your scene and they sent a cage that allows diffusers, color gels and temperature gels.
The Lume Cube light seems to be made of plastic but still feels solid. It feels about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the weight of its big brother (Lume Cube original) and is a little smaller as well. It also comes with a rubberized diffuser and warming diffuser.
Both lights are compatible with the Lume Cube app which lets you take photos with the Lume Cube as a flash and change the brightness remotely. Both lights are also waterproof, with the original being capable of more depth than the Lite version.
Lume Cube also sent me mounts for my Mavic 2 Pro and I was impressed with how they fit and how easy they were to use. Both models fit, though mounting 2 of the heavier original Lume Cubes made the drone drift under the weight.
I’ll be using these lights in my studio, outside during night video shoots and will be experimenting with them mounted on the drone. My impressions are the Lume Cube is the perfect light for creators that want light without size.
Buy them HERE
Who I'm loving on Instagram
To be honest, there are more travel adventure photographers out of B.C, Canada than almost anywhere else and I sometimes get them confused from one another.
While I had heard of Nate, I had never looked at his account until I met him in Chile last month. I had assumed he was one of the many, but I was dead wrong. Nate’s photos and perspective are new and deep in an area where most photography is carbon copied from what got the most likes.
I especially love his images of real people living and playing on the B.C coast.
Give him a follow Here
Music I'm Diggin'
Manifest by Andrew Bird
If you're feeling a little worn out out by the latest EDM track with squirrel voices, builds to beat drops and full synth tracks, you are ready for a little Andrew Bird in your life.
This new release from the folk, violin and whistling virtuoso is the kind of song that gets better with more listens. The first time you listen to it you might like it, but by the 7th time through you only want to hear this song on repeat. You will be humming it and find it is on your most played tracks soon enough.
If folk is not your vibe you can skip this one, but you will be missing out.
10/10 would recommend
Give it a spin on Spotify here.
Videos, Movies, and TV
$2 Million in 12 months, the price of Mr.Beasts Success by Casey Niestat
I’m sure many of you have seen this video, but for those of you that haven’t this one is a must watch.
Casey and Jimmy (Mr. Beast) talk about success, what it means and what you have to sacrifice to get it. The techniques that Jimmy used are not magic, but what we all know it takes to succeed.
It’s a refreshing encouraging story of how to obsess and have fun with what you love until it becomes a “success”.
10/10 would recommend.
Watch it here
Reads
Blue Hour by Max Marty
My friend Max is releasing a collection of stories and photos. I’ve seen the pre production book and it is amazing. Max is doing great things and I have a feeling he is just getting started.
He needs $500 more to have his kickstarted fully funded. Give it a look.
Photo/Video Technique
How To Create Crazy Sharp Photos with Photographer Mike Seehagel
Mike posted photos from a recent trip to Jamaica and I was instantly curious. How had he created such liquid, sharp and realistic images. Every image had a depth I’d never seen before and I was so impressed I had to find out his process.
Here is my interview with Mike.
-How did you create the sharp images in your Jamaica set?
For the photos you are referring to (the photo of Shango on the swing specifically) my settings and set up was:
Canon 5D Mark IV body with Canon 24-70 f2.8L ii lens
ISO 800, shutter speed 1/500 and f6.3
I like to shoot from 1/1200 to 1/2000 normally in this type of situation to be sure I freeze all the movement and the water. At 1/2000 water is completely frozen. Looking back on the settings from this particular image, I might bump up the ISO and shoot faster shutter speed. Because Shango was moving on the swing I wanted to make sure my aperture wasn't wide open so the focus was a wider range. This gave me a chance to still be sharp if the focus wasn’t perfect.
I almost always shoot moving subjects with starting an ISO of 400. This means that I can set a fast shutter speed without thinking about my ISO and instead focus on adjusting only aperture and shutter speed for what I want to accomplish.
I also re map my camera to have back button focus. I completely remove focusing from the shutter button and instead use my thumb on the back of the camera to activate focus. This helps with nailing the focus and holding it while shooting.
-How do you edit for sharpness without making it look fake?
After I balance the color for the full set of images, I’ll do a few things that enhance the depth of the photo.
I like to Dodge and Burn around the subject to add a “focus” on the subject. I also add Sharpening in Lightroom, using the “mask” feature (hold alt/option to see a preview of the affected pixels) to only sharpen the edges of the subject until it looks good.
-What are some things you see other photographers mess up when they have unsharp photos?
I see people actually over sharpen in post. They will sharpen the entire image instead of just select areas and I can tell it’s fake because it looks unnatural.
When I edit, I want my images to be just a little sharper than the expected natural. I enhance the details of only part of the image to create depth.
Mike Seehagel is a commercial Photographer based in Vancouver, BC.
To see the full set of Shango as well as his other projects at his website Here.
Give him a follow on Instagram here.
I’m back home and catching up on all the office work I put off while we ran around the desert the last 2 months. Two things are clear, I’m going to be mountain biking and riding motos as much as possible this spring. Hit me up if you want to join.
Be stoked and have a great month,
Isaac
