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Wailea Beach, Maui
11 May 2010, Tuesday

07   08    09    10    11   12    13    14 May 2010          Tech Details

Today we went to the beach at Wailea. The babies loved it!

 

String Cheese String, Breakfast, Wailea, Maui. 7:13 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose 1/40 at f/2.8, no flash.

I used a curves layer to bump up the contrast a bit, and a second curves layer with an adjustment layer mask to dodge (lighten) Ryan's face. Roll your mouse over the image to see it without these changes.

 

Filling a silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:07 AM.

Filling a silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:07 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

Ryan is filling one of tto silly straw cups we got at Wal-Mart on Saturday.

 

Blowing in the silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:12 AM.

Blowing into the silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:12 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

Here Ryan is experimenting with improper use: he's blowing air into it instead of drinking from it.

 

Blowing looking at his bubbles in the silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:12 AM.

Blowing looking at his bubbles in the silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:12 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

 

Ryan squirting his silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:13 AM.

Ryan squirting his silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:13 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

A few seconds later, Ryan realizes that if he blows into it and holds it sideways so that the water covers the tiny air hole at the top, water squirts out! It took daddy a while to get him to stop that.

 

Ryan emptying his silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:21 AM.

Ryan emptying his silly straw cup, Wailea, Maui. 8:21 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

 

Katie walkinf to the beach, Wailea, Maui. 8:54 AM.

Katie walking to the beach, Wailea, Maui. 8:54 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/7.1 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

Wow! Perfect colors and light again, care of my automatic 5D Mark II, 220EX flash and 1/4 CTO warming gel taped over the flash. This, like everything, is all shot in P auto mode.

 

Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:07 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/7.1 at 1/200, no flash.

I snapped this as we walked to the beach to show an example of the 5D Mark II's highlight recovery mode. I also dodged (lightened) the darker parts. Roll your mouse over this image to see it as it came out of the camera.

 

Palms, Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:19 AM.

Palms, Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:19 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/11 at 1/500, no flash.

 

Palms, Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:19 AM.

Arri lights and ballasts, Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:21 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 50, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/7.1 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel, -2/3 stops exposure compensation.

Hollywood was shooting the movie "Just Go With It," with Jennifer Aniston and David Sandler with Brooklyn Decker, on the same beach.

 

Chapman dollies, Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:22 AM.

Chapman dollies, Grand Wailea, Maui. 9:22 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 50, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/7.1 at 1/100, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel, -2/3 stops exposure compensation.

 

Ryan and hat, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:37 AM.

Ryan and hat, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:37 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/16 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

Without flash, this shot would have been dead.

 

Ryan running, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:39 AM.

Ryan running, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:39 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/16 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

Next go-round I should crop this image, so Ryan is bigger.

 

Ryan running, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:39 AM.

Ryan running, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:39 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/16 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

 

Ryan in the ocean, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:54 AM.

Ryan in the ocean, Wailea Beach, Maui. 9:54 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 200, Canon 100mm f/2, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/8 at 1/800, no flash.

Ryan and mom are about a mile away. I cropped this from the middle one-eighth of the frame, meaning I used only one-sixty-fourth of the total area or pixels. My 8x crop gives me the field of view of an 800mm lens, without having to carry it. This is another advantage of the 5D Mark II's crazy resolution, and to some extent, the great sharpness of the 100mm f/2.

Today's cameras have so much excess resolution that I don't need to carry no stinking zoom lenses or long teles.

 

Ryan in the water, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:06 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 200, Canon 100mm f/2, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/8 at 1/640, no flash.

I dodged (lightened) Ryan's face, and to a lesser extent, his jacket (mom thinks the life preserver will make him less tasty to sharks). To see this snap without this dodging, roll you mouse over the image. Technically this image would have been better with fill-flash, and I forget why I didn't use it. It may have been because Ryan was far enough away that my 220EX and the slow (1/200) sync of the 5D Mark II couldn't keep up with the fast firing rate I needed chasing Ryan.

 

Ryan in the ocean, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:06 AM.

Ryan enjoys the water, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:06 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 200, Canon 100mm f/2, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/8 at 1/640, no flash.

 

Katie enjoys the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:20:01 AM.

Katie enjoys the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:20:01 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/14 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

Perfect lighting as usual with fill-flash. Want to see how bad it looks without the flash?

 

Katie enjoys the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:20:03 AM.

Katie enjoys the sand, no flash, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:20:03 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/9 at 1/400, no flash.

Fill-flash is everything in daylight; this is what you get without it.

 

Ryan and Katie playing in the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:30 AM.

Ryan and Katie playing in the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 10:30 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/16 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

 

Katie playing in the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:17 AM.

Katie playing in the sand, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:17 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/16 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

See how natural it looks with fill-flash, as used here? The 5D Mark II is doing a great job of just getting the flash levels to balance perfectly.

 

Katie and Dada among the paparazzi, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:21 AM.

Katie and Dada among the paparazzi, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:21 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/14 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

The paparazzi were snapping away at the actors. By the time we got back to our room and I researched the commotion, the paparazzi had already published their shots here, here and elsewhere.

I have all my gear in the gay bag around my shoulder, so I don't look like a photographer, and got to wander around anyplace I wanted. When I leave my wife's picnic bag on the beach, it doesn't look like it has cameras, it looks like it has diapers!

The biggest compliment we got was as my wife was walking back up from the beach along a path with Ryan. (I was trailing behind with Aunt Lisa and Katie.) A golf cart with some lady who looked a little like Jennifer Aniston was coming the other way, and as my wife went to move out of the way, the lady said "oh, no don't bother, and OH MY GOSH, WHAT A CUTE LITTLE BOY!"

When my wife researched who was there, it turns out that it really was Jennifer Aniston looking just like this. Great; big-time movie stars are already chasing after my three-year-old. Lo and behold, in my wife's People magazine (prescient 24 May 2010 issue), there's another shot of Jennifer Aniston in Maui holding what looks like a Nikon D700 and 24-120mm VR (OK, maybe its a D200). You know she's a star because it's obvious to anyone observant that she has not a common Tiffen, Nikon or Hoya filter on her lens, but yes, a B+W F-PRO filter.

 

Colorful Katie, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:23 AM.

Colorful Katie, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:23 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/14 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

 

Colorful Katie, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:23 AM.

Katie hoses off, Wailea Beach, Maui. 11:23 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/10 at 1/200, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO warming gel.

 

Ryan playing, Wailea, Maui. 11:23 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 250, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose 1/40 at f/2.8, no flash.

The artificial lighting looked awful under auto white balance, so I manually set 2,500K and then trimmed it with Amber 4 and Magenta 2, easy to see looking at the LCD after each shot.

The light is coming from above, so Ryan's face is in shadow. I dodged (lightened) Ryan's face, and burnt (darkened) the lighter parts of the travertine to bring out Ryan. I use curves adjustment layer masks to do this. Roll you mouse over the image to see it without this burning and dodging.

 

Ryan and Dada, Wailea, Maui. 7:29 PM.

Ryan and Dada, Wailea, Maui. 7:29 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 2,000, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose 1/40 at f/2, no flash.

Self-portrait. The artificial lighting looked bad under auto white balance, so I manually set 2,500K and then trimmed it with Amber 4 and Magenta 3.

 

NEXT DAY > >

 

07   08    09    10    11   12    13    14 May 2010          Tech Details

 

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