Using a crop-sensored lens on a full-frame DSLR

Christopher at Pictureline, originally uploaded by calanan.

Christopher at Pictureline
Salt Lake City, UT

A sample photo of the crop-sensored (DX)Sigma 30mm f/1.4 on the full-frame (FX) Nikon D700.

The vignetting is actually not too bad on the FX Nikons. In some cases it would look OK (artsy, etc.) otherwise you can either set the camera to autocrop to DX or just do it yourself. You'll obviously lose resolution, ~3 MP-ish.

Sadly I do not own the D700...yet, these were taken with my lens and a floor model D700. I'd hold out hope that Santa will bring me the camera but I know for certain that I haven't been that nice in 2008!

More samples:

Snowshoeing Mill Creek Canyon, Salt Lake City, UT

Me and Manray, originally uploaded by calanan.

Me and Manray

Porter Fork Trail
Mill Creek Canyon
Salt Lake City, UT

Tokina 12-24mm f/4

Renee and I went snowshoeing up in the canyons today, there's TONS of fluffy snow covering everything, it looks especially beautiful hanging off the pine trees. This was our first snowshoeing of the season (and the first real exercise in a while, shame on us) and we had a blast! Some more pics:







You can find more information about the Porter Fork Trail in Mill Creek Canyon here and here (Adobe PDF).

There are more photos from the trip in this Flickr gallery

Jeepers, creamers...

Jeepers, creamers..., originally uploaded by calanan.

Jeff, with creamer eyes
Blue Plate Diner
Salt Lake City, UT

Tokina 12-24mm f/4

I have just discovered a disturbing fact and I need your help to remedy the situation.

Specifically, those kind and gentle souls afflicted with the condition known as "Creamer Eyes" are well under-represented on Flickr and I implore you to take photographs of these forgotten ones and share them with me. Please help honor these denizens of coffee shops, diners and truck stops by posting links to their portraits in the comments section.

If you're a Flickr user please consider also joining my new "Creamer Eyes" group and adding your portraits to the group's pool.

Also see my plea for these portraits in the Utata Flickr Group (membership required to view) and, if/when you join post your portrait there as well.

I'm off to get a refill...

Great Salt Lake Antics

Island hopping, originally uploaded by calanan.

"Island hopping"
Manray at the Great Salt Lake
Saltair
Salt Lake City, UT

Tokina 12-24mm f/4

Manray's cousins, Jeff and Jon visited us recently and during our tour one of our stops was the Great Salt Lake, specifically at the Moorish-inspired resort and music venue, Saltair. While we didn't swim we did dip our fingers into the briny shallows and taste the goodness that is home to brine shrimp - and not much else.

Above, Manray is hopping from island to island in an attempt (successful at that) to keep her feet dry. I had just done the same on my way back from the shoreline and I happened to turn around to see her getting ready to jump so I raised the camera, shot and hoped. Thankfully it turned out well!

Here she is at the furthest point of land, mitts held high!



During our time at the lake the lads found large deposits of salt that looked almost like frozen puddles of ice. Here's Jon karate chopping a section:



And here's the crew posing for their upcoming album cover :)



More from the visit in this Flickr photo gallery.

Runaway bride

Runaway bride, originally uploaded by calanan.

University of Utah Field House
Salt Lake City, UT

Tokina 12-24mm f/4

A little something from a recent editorial shoot. Many-much thanks to the model, who ran and jumped at least 100 times, and to the design artist for his creativity.

Strobist information:

Nikon SB-600, camera left at edge of frame
Nikon SB-800, behind and above camera

Both Nikon speedlights bare, fired via CLS

Wasatch Woman of the Year: Behind-the-scenes

Behind-the-scenes, originally uploaded by calanan.

Caffe Niche
Salt Lake City, UT

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos taken by "Unstoppable" Lindsey Rae Blau during my photo shoot for Wasatch Woman Magazine's "Woman of the Year" issue.

This year's winner is Rachel Coleman of Signing Time in Salt Lake City, UT. Rachel just posted her wrap-up of the shoot on her blog and comments:

"The art director took a look at my clothing options and we decided to go with 3 different looks, since the plan was to have me on the cover and photos inside with my story. Look #1 was some stuff I just brought from home, the art director said my collar had a personality all its own, so Marcus took that as a cue to use his toupee tape and mold that collar, forcing it to follow his artistic whims.

The photographer, Michael Calanan was great. As I am SURE you can imagine, I am a pretty demanding subject, especially because I RARELY smile. "

Thanks, Rachel, you are too kind and you were a pleasure to photograph!

Here are some other shots Lindsey took:





The issue will be printed in January, until then the photos I took are embargoed but I'll see if the magazine will let me give you a sneak preview later in December. :)

Cheers!

- mike

Follow me on Twitter (for starters)!

Just a quick update for those of you in the social network-know.

In addition to my Flickr photo sharing account I'm also active on several social networking sites, including the microblogging site, Twitter ("What is Twitter?"). While I do post photography-related updates I also post (what I consider to be) witty commentary, share local (Salt Lake City, UT) events and generally keep in touch with clients, family/friends and fellow Twitterers. Here's a little widget that displays some of my recent Twitter updates - or Tweets.

follow calanan at http://twitter.com

Follow me on

I'm also a big music junkie and you can find me on last.fm here. For example, here are some of my recently played tracks in iTunes:



But wait, there's more!

I'm also active on:







And the social network aggregator, FriendFeed



If you're a fellow member of any or all of these social networking sites add me so we can keep connected, thanks!

- mike

p.s. 'Tis the season and all that...in case Santa is reading this, here are my Amazon wishlists, too :)

My Camera Gear Wish(ful thinking)list

My Down-to-Earth Wishlist

Twitter Updates

Congratulations, Steve and Rosemary!

Woohoo! While on the train from Utah to Nebraska for Thanksgiving, our friend/neighbor Steve proposed to Rosemary and she said "yes!"

Above are a few of my snaps of these two lovebirds over the last year or so.

Steve is a.k.a. orvnebby on Flickr and @orvnebby on Twitter, send him a congrats!

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The Lager Family Christmas

The Lager Family, originally uploaded by calanan.

(I love their surname)

Salt Lake City, UT

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
Nikon SB-600 and SB-800 (fired via CLS)

I have had the great fortune of knowing and photographing the Lager's ever since Mom's pregnancy and I was honored to be asked to photograph them again, this time for their Christmas portraits. My favorite is above and here are some others from their session:







And finally, a very tired baby MQL:



The slideshow on Flickr

Wasatch Woman Magazine Editorial Meeting

Wasatch Woman Magazine Editorial Meeting, originally uploaded by calanan.

Howdy, readers...thought you might enjoy seeing a behind-the-scenes series of the Wasatch Woman editorial advisory team selecting the magazine's Woman of the Year (and 5 runners up). These were taken a local cafe (Caffe Niche, Salt Lake City, UT) one morning earlier last week. In the center shot above is Pamela Baumeister, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine and the face behind @wasatchwoman on Twitter.

More shots of the women working:









More at Flickr in this slideshow.

.p is for palinola.

.p is for palinola., originally uploaded by calanan.

Salt Lake City, UT

Sigma 30mm f/1.4

[Part of my "Drive-By Shootings" street photography series]

It's been a while since I posted one of these...

Welcoming Baby "M"

M, originally uploaded by calanan.

This is Nicki and her new arrival; Nicki and her husband, Brandon hired me to take their maternity photos and returned recently to have some portraits taken of them and their little girl.






By the way, here is Nicki's maternity portrait



...and here is Brandon's paternity portrait :)



More at Flickr