Favorite Photos

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Category: Uncategorized Uncategorized

Published: 06 March 2012 06 March 2012

 

Walking Bird, Monterey, CA

Canon 300D, EF 24-105 F/4 L

 

 

Corner, Sacramento, CA

Canon 300D, EF 24-105 f/4 L

 

Fence, Amador, CA

Canon 300D, EFS 18-55 f/3.5-5.6

 

 

S, Sacramento, CA

Canon 300D, 24-105 F/4 L

 

Monque, Porto, Portugal

Fuji F30

 

Horse Portrait, Amador, CA

Canon 450D, EF 100mm f/2

 

Peeking, South Lake Tahoe, CA

Canon 300D, 24-105 f/4 L

 

 

Boat and Fisherman, Philippines

Canon G9

 

 

Moonrise, Crater Lake

Canon 450D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6

 

Arlene, Sacramento, CA

Panasonic Lumix LX-3

 

Street Dancer, Sacramento, CA

Canon 450D, EF 100mm f/2

 

 

Comments, questions, suggestions? You can reach me at: contact (at sign) paulorenato (dot) com 

About

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Category: Uncategorized Uncategorized

Published: 29 December 2009 29 December 2009

 

Photography and technology are my passions. Some might say it’s an odd mix, but I always felt comfortable with art and science; I see no conflict. In this site I write about things that interest me. Though I have many interests, photography and electronics are the two “hobbies” I keep coming back to, so I’ll stick to them for the most part in these pages. Photographically, my preference is for strong, minimalistic shapes and compositions. In my photography, less is more, black and white beats color, simplicity is sophistication. I also have a knack for finding the ironic and the "out of place" around me. Not sure if I find it or if it keeps finding me, but I seem to be surrounded by ironies and contradictions. Maybe it's what we are made of. It might also explain why I listen to Vivaldi and Techno music, and why I can watch Ken Burns and "The Soup" in one sitting. It keeps me balanced. When not photographing, building gadgets, or spending time with family and friends, I can most likely be found at a neighborhood coffee shop where I like to read and indulge in the endless pursuit of the perfect double-espresso.

Disclosures

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I participate in the Amazon.com affiliate program and may earn a commission if you buy something through links on this site (Yay!). Purchases made through affiliate links don't cost you any more, but do help support the site.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. 

The owner of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If I claim or appear to be expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

Comments, questions, suggestions? You can reach me at: contact (at sign) paulorenato (dot) com

What's New - paulorenato.com - photography, electronics, reviews

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Category: Uncategorized Uncategorized

Published: 10 June 2008 10 June 2008

February 2016

- How to build an overhead camera mount that is also a slider (includes Youtube Video).

- New article on how to create a lens distortion target (Also includes Youtube Video).

- Reviewed the book "The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality"

- New quick-tip article and video: "Making Multimeter Alligator Probes"

January 2016

- My latest review; the Zhongyi 'Lens Turbo' adapter:

December 2015

- Posted an article showing my experience with several old 50mm lenses adpated to Sony E-mount.

November 2015

- Reviewed the book "Five Golden Rules: Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematics-And Why They Matter"

October 2015

- Sometimes a table-top dolly such as the pico-dolly is very useful for video work. In this how-to video, I show how I motorized a standard pico-dolly:

- Introducing the YACS - Yet Another Camera slider. This is a DIY tutorial explaining how to build a slider for video applications. The YACS features variable speed control and automatic reversal.

September 2015

- My review of the Canon nFD 85mm f/1.8 lens is now online:

August 2015

- My second video lens review. This time, the OM 24mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens:

 

- Big news! I just started a new YouTube channel dedicated to lens reviews. Please check my first video below. If you enjoy it, please support the channel by sharing and/or subscribing!

July 2015

- Reviewed the book "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood"

June 2015

- And for something different this month, here's a DIY cat scratching pole idea...

May 2015

- Posted my favorite photography quotes, along with some of my personal favorite images.

April 2015

- Today I'm posting my new photo gallery "American Automobile"

March 2015

- Published my review of the book "Poincare's Prize: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest Puzzles"

February 2015

- How big is your image? A study of photo sizes when formatted for HDTV projection.

- For those interested in learning statistics online, there has never been a better time. Today I published an article on learning statistics through online video courses.

January 2015

- Published an article on using the statistical package R to find-out if a file is encrypted.

- Reviewed the photography book Photo-Wisdom Master Photographers on Their Art.

December 2014

- Reviewed the excellent book Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics.

- Published a new article on how to model a LC power filter using the open-source R programming language.

November 2014

- Ever wondered what are the best times of day to book your flights to avoid lengthy delays? Today I published a study for two local airports trying to answer that question.

- Using the R statistical computing language to compare air pollution levels in California.

October 2014

- Ever wondered how one can calculate the number of f-stops between two apertures? Here's how you do it.

- For those interested in Mathematics, you owe it to yourself to read the excellent book "Journey Through Genius". My review is here. 

September 2014

- Reviewed a vintage Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens adpated to a Sony mirror-less camera.

- Published a comparison of various vintage 50mm f/1.4 lenses.

August 2014

- The analysis of a transistor circuit at high-frequency can be somewhat challenging. I developed an Excel-based, common-emitter and common-collector transistor amplifier calculator for high-frequency operation that you can use to simplify this task.

- Published my review of the excellent book "Longitude".

July 2014

- My impressions of two 135mm manual focus lenses adapted to Sony E-mount Cameras.

- Published an article on Rent Prediction Using Linear Regression and Cross-Validation with Excel.

- Added a new photo Gallery: "Fort Ross".

June 2014

- Published my review of the Canon FDn 85mm f/1.8 adapted to a Sony E-mount (NEX) mirror-less camera.

- Wrote a review of Malcolm Galdwell's latest book: David and Goliath.

May 2014

- There's a new photo gallery in this website: the Flora gallery.

- Added an Electronics related article: A capacitive T network calculator in S-math Studio

- New article on Inverted Black and White Conversion.

April 2014

- I developed an Excel-based Depth-of-Field calculator for photography applications. The article can be found here.

- I've been having fun adapting old lenses to my Sony NEX camera. Today, I publish my findings on using 200mm telephoto lenses: "The battle of the 200".

March 2014

- New tutorial on how to use small flash units in manual mode.

- Posted my impressions of the Metabones Speed Booster, Canon EF to Sony E-mount (NEX) lens adapter.

- Added a new "Time" photo gallery. A series of composite images on the meaning of time.

February 2014

- Reviewed the entertaining book "A short history of nearly everything".

- Added a new "Color Portraiture" photo gallery.

January 2014

- Reviewed the excellent book "Excel 2007 Power Programming With VBA".

- Created a new photo gallery: Old Sacramento.

- Published a review of the Rokinon 8mm fish-eye lens for Sony NEX cameras.

December 2013

- Published a new article on "Diode temperature sensor calibration using Arduino and SHT15 module"

- Published my review of the surprisingly good book "The Happiness Advantage".

- Re-organized my "Photography Galleries" and added some new ones, including "Point Lobos" and "Coach Junkyard".

November 2013

- My first Arduino project: "Arduino Astronomical Clock for Automatic Light Control"
  UPDATE: This article was featured in:
  hackaday.com
  lifehacker
  freetronics 

- Published a review of the book "Isaac Newton".

October 2013

- In time for Halloween 2013, check-out my new electronic pumpkins project. (Featured now also in hackaday.com).

- Published my review of the excellent book "Supercrunchers".

September 2013

- Published a review of the book "The Story of Mathematics: From Creating the Pyraminds to Exploring Infinity".

- Published a review of the book "All of Statistics: A Concise Course in Statistical Inference".

August 2013

- If you own one of those analog CRT oscilloscopes, you may have trouble taking photos of the screen. The "OscilloCam" comes to the rescue.

- Published a review of the book "The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900".

July 2013

- It's been a "chaotic" summer here at paulorenato.com. Two new articles on Chaos:

 A review of the book Chaos: Making a New Science 

 A new article on Excel based Chaos

June 2013

-Two new and related articles:

 New Life for an old Drill.

 How to measure rpm with an oscilloscope

May 2013

- Reviewed a biography of the great American Physicist Richard Feynman.

- There is no direct way in Excel to implement integration for a continuous function. In this new article, I explain how to approximate the integral for a function using a neat technique know as "Gaussian Quadrature".

- Posted a review of the Olympus OM 200mm f/4 lens adapted to a Canon Digital Rebel.

April 2013

- Published a new article analyzing how combining many resistors improves the overall tolerance of the equivalent resistor. A fun little problem that actually required some mathematics:)

- Reviewed the book "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Busines".

March 2013

- New article on how to build an ESR meter to find defective capacitors.

  UPDATE: This article was featured in the hackaday.com blog.

- Reviewed the excellent book "Abundance - The Future is Brighter Than You Think".

February 2013

- Published two new and related articles

  - A new article on how to build a A Karaoke mixer and amplifier for the iPhone

    UPDATE: This article was featured in the hackaday.com blog.

  - A transistor amplifier calculator that many electronics hobbyist may find useful

    UPDATE: This article was featured in the Dangerous Prototypes blog.

- Reviewed the book: "RF Circuit Design" by Chris Bowick.

January 2013

- Published a new article on how to build a high-bandwidth "Lo-Z" probe.

- Reviewed the book: "The Mystery of the Aleph".

- Starting the new year with a book review:  "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport.

December 2012

- Tis the season for singing. Today I publish article on how to build a (very) simple mixer for a Karaoke system based on YouTube streaming.

- Added a new review for the book "Makers" by Chris Anderson.

November 2012

- Added a new book review for the excellent book "The Signal and The Noise" by Nate Silver.

- New article: How to make a cheap panel voltmeter from a dollar-store pedometer.

UPDATE: This article was featured in the hackaday.com blog

October 2012

- New article: Fume Extractor for the Electronics Workbench.

- Added a new article on how to build an adjustable constant current load. 

UPDATE: This article was featured in the hackaday.com blog.

September 2012

- Added a new book review for the excellent book "Energy for Future Presidents" by Richad A Mueller.

- Published a new article on how to build a LED fader for home lighting applications with two-level settings. It uses a notebook supply to feed a light strip with Cree XM-L power LEDs.

August 2012

- Completed a new article on how to build a battery operated light-box. Useful for product photography, macro shots and photographing small objects in general.
UPDATE: This article was featured in the hackaday.com blog:)

- Added a new article on how to build a flood detector from a dollar-store "panic" alarm.

July 2012

- Added a new article on how to build an AC-powered USB charger for toys or other devices by re-purposing an old cell-phone charger.

- Added a review for the very entertaining book "Moonwalking with Einstein".

June 2012

- I was recently in the market for a new car and also selling an old one. My experience resulted in two related articles now online: "How to Photograph a Car for Sale" and "How to Negotiate a Car Purchase Online".

- Solar energy experiments can be quite fun. In this new article, I show how to build an important component for many solar powered systems: your own solar charge controller.

May 2012

- Added a new book review for the excellent book "Looking at Photographs".

- Posted a review of the Olympus OM 24mm f/2.8 lens coupled with the Sony NEX-5N.

April 2012

- Ever got frustrated when cleaning your camera sensor? Using  a sensor lopue can make the whole process so much easier. In this new article, I show how you can build one yourself.

- Proud to announce that an article I wrote is now published in the May 2012 edition of the Nuts & Volts Magazine. The article is titled: "Sound Activated Laser Parking System". Be sure to get the Magazine!

 

- Tired of those uncomfortable "neck straps" for your camera? Today I published an article showing how you can build a much better camera strap yourself. Introducing the "Rapidinha Camera Strap".

- New article reporting my experience using an "old" 50mm f/1.4 Olympus OM lens with the Sony NEX-5N.

March 2012

- New article with some thoughts on panoramic composition.

- Added a new article showing how to build a simple sound activated DSLR camera trigger.

January 2012

- Added several new photos to the "Latest Work Gallery".

April 2011

- Added several new photos to the "Latest Work Gallery".

January 2011

- Point Reyes is one of my favorite spots in Northern California. Today I'm posting a new Gallery from Drake's Beach in Point Reyes.

November 2010

- Following a snow hike in Northern Italy near Lecco, I'm posting a new Gallery.

July 2010

- I'm happy to announce that my photography work is on exhibition at the Butch & Nellies Coffee Shop in Midtown Sacramento (corner of 19th and I Street) from July 4th to August 8th. The "official" opening will be on July 10th on the second Saturday art-walk from 6PM to 9PM so please come on down to see the exhibition.

June 2010

- California's Death Valley and Alabama Hills are some of my favorite locations in the state. Following a weekend trip, I'm posting a new gallery.

Read more: What's New - paulorenato.com - photography, electronics, reviews