Happy Birthday Flickr

Today marks the eve of Flickr's 20th anniversary, a milestone that brings back memories of its inception in 2004.  They have a nice article about their significant moments and time-line on their blog

Reflecting on my journey with Flickr, I recall how I initially turned to it as a platform to upload and share photos for this blog, which started out as "things they forgot to tell you about digital photography". It was a time when the concept of cloud storage and HTML image links felt groundbreaking. Moreover, Flickr's community features, such as groups and commenting, added depth to the experience, fostering connections among photographers worldwide. Introducing their "interestingness" algorithm brought exposure to countless talented individuals, while Flickr’s commitment to Creative Commons licensing set a standard that others struggled to match.

For me, Flickr and digital photography have been intertwined since I acquired my first privately owned digital camera in 2003. Over the past two decades, I've amassed a collection of cameras, each holding its own story. It's been a little embarrassing laying out the number of cameras and estimating the money spent! While I no longer use most of them, I cherish the memories and photographs those cameras enabled. Most are still operational, though finding the right memory card for my original Olympus Camedia or a battery charger for an early rechargeable, may prove challenging.

As a consulting geologist, I purchased a Canon Rebel DSLR for video capabilities which has served me well for filming professional videos over the years. I still use that Canon today with a tethered setup to photograph my art on a copy stand. Over time I had invested in two Pentax digital SLRs as megapixels increased into the 12-16MP range, though I seldom use those models now., there were and still are great cameras just a bit heavy.

The two sleek Olympus mirrorless cameras have re-ignited the joy, fun and passion for capturing moments. Despite the evolution of technology, these cameras continue to serve me well, each with its unique capabilities and charm.

As we celebrate Flickr's anniversary, I can't help but acknowledge how my own photography journey has evolved alongside it. While changes of ownership, lockdowns and changes to Flickr's account limitations have impacted my activity, I remain loyal to the platform, eagerly anticipating events like the upcoming worldwide photo walk in Jells Park.

To Flickr, I extend my heartfelt gratitude for two decades of inspiration and community. Here's to many more years of creativity and connection in the digital realm. Cheers from down under

Keeping your gear clean

When you get out to exercise, I trust you are taking your camera, or at least your smartphone, to take the opportunity to also exercise your photographic muscles. There is then the issue should you also disinfect your gear when you get home, The answer especially now is yes,  cameras and phones are something that you think nothing of bringing up to your face, for some time and there a couple of other important issues.

1. Do not share your phone or camera with anyone you meet.
2. Just putting it back in your camera bag is not enough.
3. Wash your hands (thoroughly) as soon as you get home (you are more likely to be a source of infectious than your camera).
4. Avoid using liquids to clean or disinfect any gear. (alcohol wipes may be out but probably unnecessary)

So when you get home take all you gear out of the bag and wipe it down with a microfiber cloth (the type you get from the supermarket as fine, they don't have to be black with a camera manufacturer's name on them. Take the opportunity to clean any lenses you used. It is not necessary to clean your sensor unless you change lens on a windy dusty day,, and that's not recommended anyway. You should wash the microfiber in soapy water, rinse and dry thoroughly before re-using.

Derrick Story goes into a lot more detail in his podcast "How to Disinfect Your Gear." The link goes to his show notes as well the podcast, as he has a some important sources of information there.

My (Repaired) Camera Bag

I have my much loved ThinkTank Mirroless Mover camera bag back in service (with a repaired zip). It is perfect for my little OMD 10 mkiii Olympus mirroless camera plus two extra  lenses. (I also acquired a forth lens along the way which also fitted in easily). It was never overcrowded and very light compared with carrying my older Pentax DSLR and just one lens.

The big bonus for me is I have enough room to carry an A3 sketch book (or two) and also my mini Cotman sketchers palette and a couple of pens and water brushes giving me the ability to sketch anytime I was out with my camera, which was always. Even if I just sat down for a coffee or waiting for a lunch order, I could sketch.

View this post on Instagram

Hervey Range Tea Rooms :: #sketches in #watercolour (#waterbrush & #cotmansketcherspocketbox) & #pencil

A post shared by Norm Hanson (@normhansonart) on Aug 17, 2019 at 5:00pm PDT

As I was only carrying one camera body I made sure I had my smartphone and the old but reliable pink FujiPix compact camera as backups (not required). Again I can report that I used everything I took (see my Flickr posts)

The small tripod is really small and just ok for my light Olympus, importantly it fits in my suitcase, as does the various chargers and cables on the pink microfiber cloth. I didn’t normally carry them around.

Looking at Photographing Art Works (again)

I have known for a while that my conventional flatbed printer/scanner doesn’t do a particularly good job of photographing coloured art works. (BTW Its fine for ink line drawings such as cartoons)

Last night I went to a great talk by Wayne Degenhardt at the Watercolour Society of Victoria, about Photographing Art. This inspired me to take some photos of my multimedia sketch I created at the Discover Nature through Drawing workshop last week, because I was a little disappointed with the scan, it was flat and very pale.

The results shocked me!

I haven’t gone to a lot of trouble to make this a scientific comparison, the cropping and rotation are inconsistent for a start. Further, the results are all jpegs, straight out of camera with only cropping but importantly all taken under the same lighting conditions. Upper left is the conventional scan (on a HP 8110 Photosmart printer) The apper left is my Android HTC 11 Cameraphone. The lower left is camera on my HP Spectre Tablet. The lower right is the jpeg from my Olympus OMD EM10iii.

So which is best?  Well, none really! If I had to choose one it would be the cameraphone but i’d have to lighten and correct the colour f the background. I can see further investigation is required here.

Cleaning up the Gear Shelf

I have a shelf in my studio that I keep my camera gear (that I am not using). The gear I’m using is usually in one of three camera bags. It has become full of stuff (mainly empty boxes). So I decided to get rid of the really broken stuff, some of the broken stuff could be repaired and/or has sentimental value (like my first spotmatic) so it can stay. I’ve put a lot of older lenses back in their boxes and thrown out boxes that don’t match up to gear. I’ve keep a couple of camera sleaves/covers but damaged and cameras bags are going. I will keep the boxes of my working gear as that might help resale. I have created a lot of space! This reduced my cameras to just 7. Four Pentax (the original spotmatic hasn’t worked for years), leaving a 35mm film and two digitals K100D & K20D) Two canon, a compact 35m film camera and a Canon EOS digital Rebel. Finally a much loved Olympus digital compact (till works fine but the card reader is now very unreliable).

Given that this range of camera gear has covered my photography well since 1970, I’m pretty happy that I’m getting good use of what I have. Ok I don’t take 35mm film anymore, but I could if I really wanted to. The important part is I have not been chasing the shinny new things really focussing on what works for me. I do have an affinity (or maybe muscle memory for the Pentax cameras, But really I just loved their colour capture back in the 35mm silde days and like their colour capture now.

 

I haven’t got into micro four thirds or Mirrorless cameras, which doesn’t mean I won’t, I and just still happy with what I have. I will resist the urge to fill the clear space I created. Well until there is a compelling case to do so. Yet I wonder what my collection of cameras might be like 46 years from now?

FYI: If you have any camera that takes batteries and you are storing or not using it it for a while (eg 3months plus) take the batteries out (this is what kill my original pentax Spotmatic). Used batteries tend to leak strong and corrosive acid and salts.

Sketching my digital cameras

In a bit of self reference fun I have been sketching by journey through digital photography, Starting with an old Logitech webcam (last used to make a short stop motion film), then my first real Digital Camera the little Olympus. Compact then my first Pentax, the Canon and now the bigger Pentax K20D. It just happened that when I was looking around for something to sketch they where there.I could see then a-fresh not as complex instruments/tools with lots of knob, buttons and dials by see them objectively as items catching the light. Perhaps there was a bit of objectivity creeping in as I love using these things. These represent almost 2 decades of digital imagery

You can see the latest incarnation of my daily sketches on instagram @oz_endless_summer

 

 

PhotoProject :: Recursive Self-Reference

It is close to a decade since I last attempted the one image three cameras trick, this time I wasn’t looking to create a screen wallpapers just a creative way to build some self-reference into an image about the changes in camera technology. Yesterday’s daily photo was a camera taking a set of selfportraits of itself as seen in the screen of my new tablet. A kind of spiraling droste effect of recursion, as much about composition as the cameras (the picture duplication devices) or use of layers in the post processing (the technique).

 

I decided this photo needed to be reproduced through the eyes of other cameras, a self-referencing recursion,  a photographic quine, where each generation reflect the previous within its own bounds, a self coping replicant project. All you need is a camera that can display the photo it just took, and another camera to take its photo … … …

 

And so on, till I reached today’s daily photo.

For a change there is more detail on the cameras used back in  my flickrstream

What is Lytro?

One of the hotter social network topics at the moment is Lytro, which is a camera that takes in a lot more information than what we now call a photo. I like the concept and think there is enormous potential in the approach and the technology but I do share trey ratcliff’s  google+ opinion post that the user click to focus feature is just a little banal and twee.

So lets begin with what it is? Lytro is basically a zoom lens on a single aperture camera (its a wide aperture equivalent to F2 so it takes in a lot of light). The sensor is an array of sensors that can all record the vector of the light (angle at which it has left the subject and arrived at the sensor). Most other parts of a cameras hardware are replaced by smart software then prepares an image as a light field (Lyrto’'s term), actually it seems to be 9 versions of the image.This is in effect a new format of digital negative that can be further processed at viewing time, either in the camera or on a computer. It is a representation that is much more 3D than a current 2D photo we are used to.

Check out the Cnet first look video on You tube for a “Gee Whiz” style review.

If you want to play with the click to focus feature have a look at the light field picture of the spider above some autumn leaves, on the Lytro photo gallery. Just click on the part of the picture you want to see in focus. It is pretty amazing.

Does this mean you will never have to focus again? I DOUBT IT.
Does this mean we will soon be able to do some amazing things that being photos to life, in a much more 3D way? I suggest YES
So what will drive this technology forward? Putting it on MOBILE PHONES! I do not think specialist hardware will get enough users into the technology. It is firstly the zoom lens that phones can’t or don’t do at the moment, plenty have limited aperture infinite focus lens and there is plenty of computer power on some models. After that it is licencing the technology and getting the light field sensor into the phones form factor.

I look forward to watching developments in this area. I probably wont be buying the camera right now, I still get joy focussing my camera on my subject.

A couple of surprises

I’ve been searching the blogosphere, vodcasts & twitterverse looking for social web photograph inspiration (not to copy but to colour my blog customization) I was struck by all the black & grey (a la lightroom) and such vitriolic warfares between nikon .vs. canon or the the apple mac .vs. windows. Then I realised I was looking at the past, “so 2010 really”.

The vast majority of those that have read my blog last month where using windows (and the same ratio goes back forever). And what is this one person used an iPhone  and another an iPad? Is this a new trend?

The most popular camera for uploaded images on flickr is about to become the iPhone 4, not a nikon or canon!

So here’s the rub I’m neither a nikon or a canon fanboy, I have windows computers and thus use and write about windows software, I don’t have an iPhone and I think black or grey backgrounds make what I write very tedious to read.  Call me “uberly unpretentious” but I think I’ll stick with the simple blogger template (with a couple of personal touches on the header) and just keep writing about the same stuff that I find interesting about digital photography. With a few photo projects thrown in for fun. Alas the new blogger page view graphic is reading about 40,000 views light but it looks neater and I’m not so worried about view counts anyway.

If you think that was cool...

Following up on the cool projector camera idea, check out what MIT labs are working on. Some neat Wearable technology.

Truth can be stranger than fiction

Nikon has just announced that they are releasing a camera with a projector inside. No this is not science fiction, it really has a camera capable of a meter plus image on the wall. The most unusual part, in my view, is that it is being used as an add-on feature to a camera within the Coolpix point-and-shoot range

The all too obvious comment

“Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, You’re my only hope.”

What does “internet friendly” mean?

It was time for a family member to get a new camera, and there are so many around. It just had to be a camera and take nice pictures (and be easy to use and see the pictures), which narrowed the range down to a few hundred compact cameras! There is a pretty good range available now and most are not so expensive. After looking around for a camera that used SD cards (a card standard I like), used standard batteries and had a decent screen that was readable in sunlight, I was leaning towards the Pentax E60. So we choose the Fujifilm Finepix Z30, reason: it comes in a hot pink colour!

What got my attention first was the sticker that announced it was internet friendly. What the heck does that mean? I scoured the manual (which is in PDF format on one of the two CDs supplied). The interent is mentioned only 8 times and as shown below it warns you, you will have to pay for internet, actually it is very legal about it “the user bears all applicable fees”. Like most other compact cameras it comes with a USB cable that connects it to a computer, and presumably then onto net friendliness.

It did give me an excuse to revisit an old theme of the self referencing screen wallpaper.

The little pink camera is already well loved, takes great photos (and movies)

Digital Cameras on planes

you know the announcement

All electronic devices, including PDAs, laptop computers, handheld games and toys must be switched off during take-off and landing.

Looking back on my photos of my last trip I can see several of the better ones where taken out the plane window, so I got to wondering whether a digital camera is one of those electronic devices that must be turned off during take off and landing. I must admit I assumed it is but as I started to look on the net there is certainly a lot of angst about whether things such as mp3 players and games are really a serious threat, but blogsphere opinion isn't very official is it! I am happy to assume that devices that pump out radio signals may be a problem. So I decided to checked out the restrictions on the qantas website, and maybe all these restriction and particularly ban on using mobile might just be a thing of the past soon.

Well despite a reasonable look around I can not even find mention of a ban on using digital cameras (well assuming they are not fitted with blue tooth wifi or GPS). So happy snapping in the sky.