Ryan Yorde Photography

D300s Experiments and Equipment Review – October 2009

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:17:39 +0000

In an effort to get back on schedule, here is a post that is actually on time. Over this past week I rented A LOT of gear to test before I purchase my own equipment. Among the rentals are a Nikon D300s with a MB-D10 grip, a 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, one 24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S, a 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S VR, one 105mm f/2.8G AF-S VR, and one R1C1 macro lighting system with SU-800 and an SB-600. While this did not come cheap, It was an excellent opportunity to get my hands on the equipment in a variety of situations. Its always good to know what you need and what is just plain overkill. For example, I would really like to own an army of 12 SB-900s. However, at $500 per, that would rack up quite a tab. On a more realistic note, it would be far more economical to simply own three SB-900s, and do the rest of the work with SB-600s at less than half the cost. The R1C1 macro lighting kit is cool, however it is somewhat useless in most situations. Even while doing macro work, a RayFlash would not only be cheaper, but produce better results. The SU-800 is nice, and in most situations cheaper than controlling your army of speed lights with Pocket Wizards, the line of sight and range limitations make it too unreliable outside of the studio. As for the lenses, I love every one of them. The D300s is a fantastic body especially for the price, and offers only a few minor setbacks from the larger D3. The only shortfalls of the D300s are: one, it will not shoot 14bit RAW faster than 2.5fps. If you understand binary then you may see why this is a problem. Two, one CF slot and one SD slot. It is a little annoying to me that I have to carry two different types of media with me at the same time to get the added redundancy made possible by the dual card slots. This is an especially large problem when you cannot find SD cards as fast as the CF cards you are using. Third, full frame field of view. While sometimes this can work to your advantage in the form of a focal length extension, its drawbacks in low-light sensitivity make it a slight handicap. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here are a few of my test shots from this week. (Also, my last two post were also shot entirely with rental equipment)

Stonewall Golf Club Pro-Am Tournament

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:31:34 +0000

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to shoot the Stonewall Golf Club Pro-Am Tournament to benefit the Cancer Center at Lake Manassas with Noah Hayes. The job was this; between the two of us we had to get at least one team portrait of each of the 26 teams of 4, as well as all the detail shots and standard tournament play coverage. It was a tall order for just two photographers but we got the job done with a divide an conquer scheme. While Noah drove around the course from hole 1 to hole 18 capturing details and normal play, I drove from hole 18 to hole 1 getting all of the team portraits and what details and normal play I had time for. We rushed to capture, filter, and process the images into a slideshow before the tournament was over, so when all the players came off the field the slideshow was already running on all the TVs around the clubhouse. Here are some of my photos from the day.

Stacey & Todd – Washington D.C. Wedding

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:06:23 +0000

As are most of the posts here, this one is a little behind. Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting Stacey and Todd’s wedding with Armin DeFiesta as a second shooter. It was a beautiful day in the district for a wedding. The ceremony was held in a small chapel on 36th street, with the reception just a few blocks away at the Washington Club on Dupont Circle. All images in appearing in this post are/were shot exclusively for Armin DeFiesta Photography. All Images are copyright ©Armin Defiesta Photography.

Gabe & Susie’s Wedding

Ryan Yorde — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:09:49 +0000

I am WAY behind posting this, life at home has been hectic lately. I have known Gabe for some time through working for his parents. I had just learned of their engagement a few days prior to the wedding, and when Gabe’s mother called me a few hours before the wedding and asked me to be their photographer I jumped at the chance. It was an honor to be among the few to witness this very special event. While on the technical side of photography, this ranks as one of my greater challenges considering the late hour (Just past 7pm) and standing on the west side of a mountain shooting into the setting sun with only a 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 and a single SB-900, I think the pictures turned out well. I will remember this day for a long time to come. Congratulations Gabe and Susie!

Benjamin Mark Yorde

Ryan Yorde — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:00:35 +0000

The newest member of the family! I will post more pictures as soon as I can.

Great Falls Park – MD

Ryan Yorde — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:03:48 +0000

In keeping with the recent nature photography theme, I took a trip back to great falls park last week to try to improve a few shoots after learning from my mistakes in round one. Just to change things up a bit however, this time I went to the Maryland side of the falls. It was a beautiful trip and I wish I could have spent more time on site. But when even 30 seconds is not a long enough to properly expose a shot, its time to go home. Enjoy.

Great Falls Park

Ryan Yorde — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:10:27 +0000

This morning Noah Hayes and I took a trip to Great Falls Park in Mclean, VA. Our time there was short by most standards, but fun was had by all. I plan a return trip very soon, perhaps early next week with some additional gear and get a few of the shoots that I missed on this trip. (Note: the vignette on a few of the wide angle 16mm shoots was intentional.)

Quiz Of The Day

Ryan Yorde — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:16:55 +0000

Can anyone tell me the make and model of the car pictured below?
Winner to be announced next week!

RSS

Ryan Yorde — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:31:12 +0000

I have moved all RSS traffic off-site to feed burner. Everyone that subscribed to the old on-site RSS feed should redirect their reader to http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ryp. Thank You!

Internet Explorer 8

Ryan Yorde — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:02:11 +0000

I have been made aware that there is a problem with some of the scripting on this page in Internet Explorer 8. We are working to resolve this issue. In the mean time, turn on compatibility view for the best viewing experience. Thank You.

**UPDATE**

This issue has been resolved.

Udvar Hazy Center

Ryan Yorde — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:59:46 +0000

Disney Hilton Head Resort – 2009

Ryan Yorde — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:54:59 +0000

Brownie Beach

Ryan Yorde — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:13:27 +0000

Today I was invited to join a large group of photographers at Brownie Beach in Chesapeake Maryland. This was a great time for me because I am already familiar with the location. My parents kept their sailboat at Harrington Harbor South just three miles to the north. This particular outing was more for fun and networking than anything else. We had a few models meet us there and as time went on separated into groups. Most of the photographers went with Ivonne (The model wearing the wedding gown), so I went my own way with one of the other models (Kelly) with the hopes of getting a better shot with out having to work around the other photographers that are better than I am anyway. My lack of additional lighting equipment shows, as some of the pictures below fail in comparison to those of Armin and Noah who had 580EX IIs and SB-900s to play with. I had a lot of fun working with the other photographers and learned a ton. It all goes to show how much more I have to learn. The pictures posted below are not all the pictures of the day (I took 742, 655 of which I kept) however they are a few of my favorites. More pictures will be up in the days to come. Enjoy!

A Quick Walk Through Spring

Ryan Yorde — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:17:48 +0000

My apologies for neglecting the blog for so long. Its been crazy these last few weeks so I am going to roll a little bit of a lot into this post. With luck, I will have time to embellish on the events and post more pictures soon. Enjoy!

Spring Break 2009

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:19:37 +0000

My friend Chris is home this week on spring break from JMU. We decided to take the afternoon and see how long it would take some random government agency acting on behalf of the Homeland Security Agency to arrest us for photographing aircraft from the ground without a permit. Needless to say, we were not even questioned (TSA Fail) and had a good time driving around in his dads new Mustang GT CS looking for better grounds to shoot from. It was a overcast day which meant that many of the pictures of the day failed miserably, but a few came out looking good enough to post. (Polarizer & UV filter WIN)

New Logo

Ryan Yorde — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:52:22 +0000

I have finally settled on a new logo. Let me know what you think, I promise that I will not take offense if you think it is gay.

Recording Project – Are We There Yet?

Ryan Yorde — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:08:30 +0000

Here are a few pictures from Friday nights recording session with Wayne Leriche and Semisi Timpeni.

The SB-900 Rules

Ryan Yorde — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:38:12 +0000

Here are a few pictures that I took with a SB-900 that I borrowed from Wes. Keep in mind that almost all of the light used to expose these shots came from the SB-900.

Family Candids

Ryan Yorde — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:55:38 +0000

Here are a few family candid shots along with some random “looked good at the time” shots.

More Recording

Ryan Yorde — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:48:07 +0000

Today, Bob Blankenburg came in to lay down bass tracks for the new album. With luck we will start with guitar lines by Friday.

The Recording Project Continues / First Shoot With D90

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:14:35 +0000

As the recording project at CFC continues to progess, I continue to take pictures while everyone else works. Not that there is a whole lot of work for me to do with Wes as the engineer and Paul as the producer. In this session held last Wednesday, Reuben Maher came in to lay a few more drum tracks before Bob comes in on Monday to do the bass tracks.

My New Nikon D90

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 04:11:09 +0000

I got my new gear from B&H on Wednesday, and have been shooting away ever since. I was a little disappointed at first with the 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G VRII lens that B&H shipped me was not functioning properly, but the wonderful support at B&H shipped me a replacement overnight and everything has been great. So far I am very impressed with many of the great features and innovations with the D90. The 16-85 has also impressed me with very little chromatic aberration and great flexibility outdoors. I wanted to get an SB-900 as well, but have been pleasantly surprised with the performance of the built-in flash with a diffuser. As expected the boda bag is as awesome as everyone said it was, storing my D90 with the MB-D80 attached & 16-85 lens, batteries, charger, flash diffuser, filters, white balance cards, SDHC cards, and even my external hard drive and card reader. I look forward to many days of photography with this camera.

Almost There!

Ryan Yorde — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:15:26 +0000

At last I think I have the website/blog looking the way I want. And with a few tweaks to some javascript and a integrated photo gallery it should be finished! I have a temporary gallery up and running right now, that is currently being managed by Adobe Lightroom but I’m not quite happy with it yet. The lightroom gallery currently lacks the organization that I would like to have with the finished product.

Temporary Gallery URL: http://www.lightroom.ryanyorde.net

Camera Gear

Ryan Yorde — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:41:28 +0000

At last, I have ordered my new camera equipment so I can stop borrowing Wes’. After weeks of the age old Canon vs. Nikon debate, and input from various photographers, I have decided to purchase a Nikon D90. I only purchased the body at the recommendation of Noah Hayes, with the intent of purchasing the 16-85mm in place of the 18-105mm kit lens, that I have found to be less than stellar. Everything is scheduled to arrive this Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, the 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, 14-24mm f/2.8G AF-S ED, and the 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S VR IF ED, will soon join my collection along with a SB-900 or two. I also purchased the Boda Lens Bag to carry everything with me. Reviews to follow!

I Need a Logo

Ryan Yorde — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:15:56 +0000

Let me start by saying that I am not a very artistic person. Therefor, the first person who submits a Ryan Yorde Photography logo that I like wins! I would also like a version that could be used as a watermark on pictures posted to the web. Prize to be announced…..