Matt McGuire Photography

Examples of great night photography

Matt McGuire — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:50:26 +0000

Each type of photography present it’s own advantages and it’s own challenges. Night photography is no different. For sports photography I am almost always enjoy the full sunlight. Low light is challenging and there is really is not advantage to the low light levels.

Most other photography I really like the lower light situations. They can still be a challenge to get a crisp shot, but the tones are generally more pleasing. Night photography can produce some very cool photos.

Here are some great photos taken by others at night.

How to take better pictures

Canon 7D Image Quality

Matt McGuire — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:44:29 +0000

I have seen a couple people complain about the new Canon 7D image quality, but only a couple. Most of the time I see people who love it. Over at Canon Field Review they have some awesome photos showing the quality this camera is capable of.

Canon scored very well is customer service

Matt McGuire — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:08:18 +0000

Canon were far and away one of the favorite brands in a PC World survey, earning high marks across the board on measurements of both reliability and service. Canon dominated the field in printers and cameras.

You really cannot go wrong with any of the top brands. Nikon, Pentax, and Sony all have quality products. If you search the web for opinion you will find people argue intensely over the brand they like. Don’t take too much of the bicker to heart. Read the reviews, but just know there are fanboys out there that will swear their brand is better than the other guys.

If you ask me what I would I would say Canon. I have been a big fan for years they have always made products I have been very happy with. Now I just need to save for the new Canon 7D.

Dofollow, CommentLuv, and KeywordLuv

Matt McGuire — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:38:50 +0000

I installed a few new feature on MattMcGuire.com. This blog is now Dofollow, CommentLuv, and KeywordLuv enabled. Here is soem information on these features.

DoFollow – Now links in comments are dofollow, really they are no longer nofollow. This simply means search engines will see the link and give the site your linking to a little credit which will help that site’s search engine ranking.

CommentLuv – This feature will automatically your your site when commenting and pull in your last blog post. It will give your site some credit without the need for you to try and spam this site.

KeywordLuv – This will allow the link back to your site have appropriate keywords in it. Now you can post your name as something like Matt@Sacramento Photography and the link to your site will look like this Matt from Sacramento Photography

All of these new features are designed to encourage and reward people for making comments here. I enjoy the interactions and it also helps the site with more content. It also has the risk of increasing spam. So just be aware that I only approve comments that are relevant to the post you are commenting on. Outright spam as well as off topic posts will simply be deleted. Have fun and comment away.

Canon SLRs get new wireless transmitters

Matt McGuire — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:03:26 +0000

Certain Canon DSLRs can not take advantage of a brand new wireless setup. Among other things you can now shoot with unto 10 linked camera simultaneously. The wireless file transmitter devices, which mount to the SLR camera bodies, are the WFT-E2 II A, available this quarter for the EOS-1D Mark IV; the WFT-E4 II A, available now for the EOS 5D Mark II; and the WFT-E5A, available now for the EOS 7D.

One new feature is called Camera Linking, which lets up to 10 cameras take the same shot, which can be useful for capturing the same moment from different perspectives.

One new feature available only on the WFT-E5A for the EOS 7D is support for the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) technology that can be used to display photos on compatible TVs or photo frames, Canon said.

The initial cost of these devices is $700. A little bit out my price range. Once I own a 7D this would be a cool addon.

The new EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

Matt McGuire — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:20:27 +0000

Yesterday Canon released news of a new EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. This is the newest model of the lens I have been saving for. It looks like they made some nice improvements.

This news lens has reduced the minimum focusing distance to 3.9 feet. The new lens incorporats a fluorite element and a fifth UD element. The result is a better image quality with improved contrast and resolution.

DPReview.com has a good pre-release review of of the new EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens.

There is no price associated with the news lens yet and the release date is scheduled for April 2010. This looks like it is going to be a winner. If the price is not out of line with the current version of this lens it will still be my next lens purchase.

Canon SLRs get new wireless transmitters

Site Update – New Theme

Matt McGuire — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:23:44 +0000

MattMcGuire.com is finally starting to come together. I am using Wordpress to run the front end of the site. Basically everything outside of the photo galleries. For the photo galleries I am using SmugMug.

SmugMug allows you to customize the look and feel on their Power and Professional level accounts. I have almost successfully matched the Wordpress theme with the SmugMug theme. It has taken me several days of playing with CSS of both systems to get everything correct. There are some additional changes I am making to the SmugMug galleries, but nothing major.

If you are interested in using SmugMug I can get you a discount off of your first year. Just use my email address (matt@mattmcguire.com) in the “Email / Coupon” field on the signup form when you start a SmugMug account. You will save $5 off of your first year.

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How to take better pictures

Matt McGuire — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:09:36 +0000

So you want to improve your photography skills and you are wondering how to do it? There is no get rich quick scheme for taking better photos. Sure better equipment will probably get you a better photo, but that is only part of the equation. A skilled photographer can produce much better photos on marginal equipment than a beginner on professional grade equipment.

If you just starting out my fist recommendation is just to take a lot of photos. Take photos of everything you can. Play with your camera’s setting and see what the photos look like. If you are shooting with a digital camera all of this practice is free. Review other people’s photos.

See what you like and what you don’t like in their photos. Pay attention to the angle they shot at and what type of light is used. If possible check out each photo and look at the aperture they used, level of zoom, shutter speed, and ISO they shot the picture at. Even if these settings don’t make sense to you at first get in the habit of reviewing them if you can.

There is a wealth of information on the internet about photography. Read, read, read. Find sites where you can read simple tutorials and where they explain all of the terminology. The more you read the more you will get familiar with the words photographers use.

And probably most importantly is have fun. You will learn so much faster if you are having fun and doing something you are passionate about.

Youth Football

Matt McGuire — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:22:25 +0000

This year’s football photography season was a bit more challenging than last year. This year many of the games were under stadium lights. It is always more difficult to capture frame stopping actions without the benefit of sunlight. It was a good season and I was able to capture some great shots for the teams. Related [...] Related posts:

Examples of great night photography

Girls Soccer

Matt McGuire — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:03:08 +0000

I had the opportunity to take a season full of photos for a local girls soccer team. With almost 1,000 photos takes over the season there is a lot to look through. Though publically I am only displaying some of the photographs. Click here for the full gallery.

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