Greg Moss Photography Blog

My Review of Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM AutoFocus Telephoto Lens – USA

Greg — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:05:42 +0000

Originally submitted at Adorama

Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM AutoFocus Telephoto Lens – USA

Love It

By Greg from Seattle Wa. on 9/5/2011

Pros: Nice Bokeh

Best Uses: Portraits, Weddings/Events, Indoors/Low Light

Describe Yourself: Semi-pro Photographer

Was this a gift?: No

This lens has great background blur and is super sharp. It seems with the great background blur the contrast can be a little lower with this lens. I am not saying this is a problem, in fact for portraits a lot of times it is a plus. I always adjust my contrast in post processing any way. I have a 5d mark 2 and a 40d, for me it is not near a useful on the cropped sensor of the 40d.
Overall I love this lens!

(legalese)

Vip Reception – Caramelized Pineapple with Mascarpone and Shipwreck Honey

Greg — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:52:10 +0000

It was very exciting this week, I got the chance to work with some Shipwreck Honey http://www.shipwreckhoney.com/. This honey is so balanced and flavorful I wanted to feature it with a drizzle and not bury in another ingredient. I gave this recipe some thought because after tasting the Shipwreck honey I wanted to do it some justice.

I think the Caramelized Pineapple with Mascarpone and Shipwreck Honey did the trick.

To caramelize the pineapple I peeled and sliced the pineapple then dredged it in some sugar. The next step off caramelizing the pineapple takes a little patience. Put them in a medium heat pan and cook them until the sugar turns a nice golden brown, turning occasionally to coat them evenly with the caramelizing sugar.

These spoons were perfect for the presentation.

For the whipped mascarpone I took a little heavy cream and whipped it with the mascarpone until it started to form soft peaks. I then piped it onto the pineapple with a pastry bag.

The caramelized pineapple with the whipped mascarpone.

The finished pineapple spoons drizzled with the Shipwreck Honey and garnished with some fresh mint

The reception was on the Patio of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Downtown Seattle http://cphotelseattle.com/ . It’s a wonderful site for an evening reception. Jesus on the BBQ did a outstanding job cooking the other local itmes:

Manila Clams with Tarragon and local ale

kumamoto Oysters with Apple Cider Mignonette

Lamb Brochettes

Fresh Corn on the Cobb

My Review of Bogen – Manfrotto 055XPROB Black Tripod Legs (Height 2.76 – 70", Maximum Load 15.40 lbs)

Greg — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:32:39 +0000

Originally submitted at Adorama

Bogen – Manfrotto 055XPROB Black Tripod Legs (Height 2.76 – 70", Maximum Load 15.40 lbs)

Solid tripod with good Feature but….

By Bossmoss from Issaquah Washington on 1/12/2011

Pros: Good Stability

Best Uses: Food photography, Portraits

Describe Yourself: Semi-pro Photographer

Was this a gift?: No

This is a very solid tripod. A good height. The only drawback is when extended horizontal you need to use a remote shutter release to ensure no camera shake. When the column is extended all the way to the side pushing the shutter button was enough to make it bounce.
It is still a very handy function if shooting food or other similar shots. Just remember to have your remote release or shoot tethered.
Overall I love this tripod.

(legalese)

The lazy Days

Greg — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:00:26 +0000

I love this black and white Portrait of the two girls watching The Prince and the Frog. That’s what relaxing is all about

Katie has such a amazing head of red hair. She certainly loves the camera.
A good way to spend New Years Day.

Salish Lodge Santa Photos

Greg — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:12:38 +0000

Wow!

The Salish Lodge is such a Beautiful Place. I got the opportunity to shoot some Santa photos. Very cool!
Santa looked amazing and the staff and the lodge were great.
The carolers not only sounded amazing their outfits were from a different era.
Thanks to My assistant and sister in law Michelle, she is the one in the love shirt, and to Santa as well.

If you would like to view all of the photos click on the link below,

http://www.gregmossphotography.printroom.com

Black and White Potrait

Greg — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:41:37 +0000

I shot this with the Black and white picture style in the camera in jpeg format. I typically never shot this way, but I was playing with settings straight out of the camera.
Okay, this was not straight out of the camera. I boosted the contrast a little more, added a vignette, and turned it from a horizontal to a vertical.

It was with a bounced on camera flash and 50 1.2 lens at about F 2.0. I adjusted the lens in my 5d mark 2 with the micro adjustment, I am hoping the focus is a little more spot on.

I loved her outfit, super cut. Any comments are always appreciated.

Testing new upload

Greg — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:51:18 +0000

Testing a new upload straight from lightroom.

Food Photography and Styling class

Greg — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:02:38 +0000

I had the opportunity to attend a food styling and photography class last week http://stilllifewith.com/ . It was taught by Lara Ferroni and held at www.spareroomseattle.com. The studio it was held in had some wonderful lighting from some seriously huge north facing windows. I certainly walked away with more information than when I arrived. It was a very casual environment where we had plenty of time to interact with and ask questions of the instructor.

We shot some whole wheat pasta with a little sauce. We each setup our own shot and then got feedback from Lara as we shot tethered into her laptop. I do agree with Lara that shooting still life photos tethered is certainly the way to go. It gives full size feed back right away. Also this is one of the few times when I use the live view mode on my camera. This allows you to zoom in 5 or 10x to check your focus, very handy indeed.

Here is the shot I finished with, I like the simplicity of the arrangement.

Chloe high key photo

Greg — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:20:33 +0000

I would like to tell you how I shot this photo, and then I will describe how I would have shot it with more time.

The majority of the time I shoot in manual exposure mode. One of the times when I may go to the aperture priority mode is when the lighting conditions are changing as it was on this day. I was shooting with my 50 1.2L lens pretty wide open ( 2.2. ). Chloe Stepped in between the house and 2.5 foot deep pillar. The sun was hitting the outside of the house and the pillar but not much light was bouncing in between the two. I wanted to get the shot, but I knew I had just seconds before she would move, I also knew the cameras meter would drastically underexpose Chloe, since there was a lot of light bouncing off the front of the pillar facing me and the camera would try to expose that to 18% gray. Had I been in spot metering mode it would have helped my exposure greatly

So I dialed up the exposure compensation all the way, +2, and took the shot. This helped the exposure on Chloe but as I figured it was not enough. I ended up boosting the exposure in lightroom by almost a stop, adding little fill light adjustment and adding a light vignette. I did blow out most of the details in the pillar ,which I figured would happen, but I think it added to the photo help draw attention to the subject.

If given a subject that would stop and pose here is how I would have shot the photo.

I would have been in manual mode. I would have exposed with a handheld light meter next to the subject and then dialed the exposure in on the camera. This should have got me the exposure I wanted in one shot, but since correct exposure is subjective I might have stilled bumped it up a bit because I was looking for a high key feel to the photo.

Could I have added a flash? Yes if I had one with me, although the look of the photo would not have been the same.

Sunny day in Seattle ( Issaquah)

Greg — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:12:04 +0000

Winters in Seattle are not harsh but dreary. How does that relate to photography? Well if you love natural light photography it is a bit of a challenge in the winter. There is very little light to work with and like the rest of the country not a lot of light in the day either.

So I get a lot of practice with indoor flash photography and work hard to make it look natural, which is great but there is a nice freedom to shooting with just a lens, good sunlight and no flash.

These were taken about a month ago when it looked like spring was coming early. It was definitely nice to get some sunlight.

So here are a few photos all shot wide open at 2.8 with my favorite lens the canon 70-200 2.8 L IS.