Seaweed - light & shade

 

Flickr versus Hello in wide format

P4160703
Originally uploaded by Imageo.

I love wide format for natural and lanscape photos. In this one I just cropped out the sky and reeds in the foreground. They added nothing!

Looks like wide format is ok through flickr just a bit tiny


 
This image was transfered using Hello and BloggerBot, and it did gives more control over the size. Both ways had the pictures posted on my blog within 1 minute. Which means they both definitely passed my "anything to reduce the tedious stuff" desirablity test.

Digging deeper into Flickr

Whilst is was very easy to use the posting to blog technique in flickr, it wasn't what I was looking for to help repair all the dammaged links back in the archioves of my blog.



Then I found this autogenerated HTML code, deep in the viewing options. It still take you to flickr to see a more detailed image, but it will make the editing task so much easier.

My first flickr to blog post

P3060125
Originally uploaded by ímageo.

This is a photo of Cape Litrap, and is my first attempt at sumbmitting a photo to this blog from flickr.


VERDICT: it is easy & it works, but where are the formating features?

So if you are happy with this style of post, it did save quiet a few keystrokes compared with the Picassa2/Hello/Blogger combination I use at the moment. Also the link to the larger image takes you straight back to flickr (good marketing, i guess). Further if you are into technicalities, there is a link called more information link beside the photo there, that displays the EXIF information embedded in my Jpeg file when I took the photo. Pity they can't spell my name

Be daring in composition

A semi-candid shot of my son & his girlfriend


I must admit the vast majourity of "people at a function" photos are boring, everyone lines up and looks at the camera (and smile or at least try to smile). Thousands if millions like that are taken daily. It might be time to dare to be different cahnge the composition, use nice available lighting, let the picture tell a story. It will be the photo people likeand remember!

Net based photo sharing

I did follow up the comparison in wired magazine in the link to Thomas Hawk's blog last sunday (ie look below) It compared smugmug, a conventional looking photo sharing service, that would have cost me money to investigate so I didn't, with flickr.

I instantly liked flikr, from the intro "this isn't your grandfather's photo sharing site". To me it nicely differentiates this site from the first generation of awkward photo sharing sites and the very tolerant user base they have appealed too. Flickr does seem different and nice for photographers, for example being able to store and see rthe EXIF data( EXIF stands for EXchangeable Image Format and is information such as exposure seedings that is embedded by most modern digital cameras into jpeg format files), there is good contol of privacy & public accessability, some nice blog friendly features and some easy to setup phone camera stuff.

They offer a free trial account so I'm going to investigate it as a simple way to fix up all the broken links way back in my blog. This occured when XPPhoto turned off their free accounts. I'll keep you posted

PS Their flickr blog is a good example of what I was staying about authority and up to date relevance on the Net in my post last week. It has hints and some pretty inspirational photos so worth a look

Using In-fill Flash

Strongly lighting contrast on your subject is something that most digital cameras find very hard to correctly expose. A lot depends on the type of light metering you have in your camera, some use spot metering, other center weighted, there are lots of methods. They all the adjust the average exposure to get that light reading to become a mid tone. When your light is very contrasty to may end up with black silhouettes and/or totally waste out detail in the highlights

Renata in the backlighting


Since I knew this strongly backlit view would sufferer from such a problem I turned on my flash. My Olympus has a Slow flash setting. It works like the back curtain/shutter mode setting you can get on some up market SLR camera. The picture is exposed normally then just before the shutter is close a single flash burst illuminates the subject. Without the flash renata might have been a black cut-out, rather than an angel.

Better Than Flickr, Better Than Picasa... it Just Doesn't Exist Yet, Photohawk

I came across this blog posting and thought it perfectly sumarized how I see a lot of people becoming overwhelded with lots of digital photos and looking for something to manage them, something that doesn't exist yet!

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: Better Than Flickr, Better Than Picasa... it Just Doesn't Exist Yet, Photohawk

Actually I pretty much just use picassa all the time now. for everything to do with collating cropping, rotating and uploading all my photos to blogger.

Digital Photography Authority on the Net/BlogSphere

There are way too many sites on the net to just pick few of the best links and offer them as the definite source of truth and all things knowledgeable. yet I suspect personal blogs are much better sources of insight that many of the commercial and supplier websites. how do you find such places? I'd use a search engine, like google, and add blog as a keyword. Remember the information is not all of the same authority

There are however a few magazines/ezines like Digital Photography Now, that have External Links to good places, that will have probably have been selected because they are well informed, but in some sites they may just be those that pay to advertise.

The places I think are best are the many photo sharing forum poping up, and I am a memeber of Sharing Digital Photography Worldwide forum. Here you can interact with other photographers, and look through their forums, beacuse most of the things you are looking for are sure to have been worried about by someone else.

What I'm saying is it is hard to establish Aurthorative sites about didgital photography on the net, so beware. In any event you can expect to see a few more links from here to other bloggers, because they are also at the coal face, and a lot more up to date and therefore relevant

Slowing to the Rural Pace

Near Screw Creek

Near Cape Liptrap


I know I haven't posted here much lately, its not that I'm lacking photographic inspiration. I love the country around Venus Bay, and I am taking photos of it all the time. I've even moved up to broadband, and its great. The problems is I have been busy on other things when I'm at the keyboard.

A mirage at sea


You may need to click on this image to view it at a higher resolution to see the mirage. It is close to the horizon and most visible in front of the headland (Cape Pattersom)

Old Lime Kiln Ruins

I liked the backlit tea-tree through this doorway, but to keep the photo interesting I spent some time framing the door off center in my view finder, and letting the light through the doorway lead your eye up to the opening.



Old ruins can make great subjects, but experiment with composition, move in close and take the detail, or find an "unusual" view, from below above or the side. Find the photo that describes the place.

The old Lime Kilns are situtated just of the beach at South Walkerville, Victoria

venus bay beach

Sea & Sky

Towards Wilson's Prom

Waves at Cape Liptrap


I have selected these for their strong almost abstart compositions. I lowered the horizon to emphasize the clouds and lost it entirely to focus on the patterns of the white water.

The horizon in the center of a landscape can really reduce the drama

Available Light Outdoors

Avaialable light, is a term usually applied to intimate indoor and/or artificially lit subjects. Normally you have to open up the aperture and extend the time of exposure. However digital cameras are pretty notorious for not doing well in low light, the long exposure usually introduces a lot of "noise" into the photos and strange colour casts.

Squall in available light


Some cameras (like my Olympus) do have preprogrammed settings, usually called a night scene mode, that try to get the best reults with extended exposure times. This mode normally turns on white balance filtering and noise reduction and adjust the cameras effective ASA rating, to give best sensitivity in low light.

Using this night scene mode, I've found I can get some very usual landscapes (and seacapes) by using this mode just after it turns dark. The resulting photos usually have very rich, but slighty artificial colours.

The above image was actually taken in the dark with only just a slight after glow in the sky, but it looks like an errie twilight. The other amazing thing about this photo is how the lines of breakers have merged into a contious boiling mass of foam. That is because the waves were moving and must have covered the distance between each line of breakers within the 4 seconds of the exposure.

Get My Drift

Western Port Sunset

Dusk on the Mudfalts, Grantville

Grantville Pier

Blooms in the sand

Full moon, Melbourne (5 minutes ago)

after sunset

Full Moon, over Andersen Inlet (yesterday)

After Sunset, Venus Bay

Tooradin Market Day

Mark & Renata's Engagement Party

Mark (my son) and Renata had their formal engagement party today at Beate's at the Studley Park Boathouse, Kew . It is a magnificent location for such an event.

And there were digital cameras a plenty (you'll be sure to see more later). From the frequently telltale "memory card full" beeps I estimate around 60 to 100 Mega bytes of photos were captured.

post modernist spider

This spider had found a broken piece of plastic and somehow haulled it up into his about to be constructed web. Being on the inside of my window I decided he should finish the web outside, but he just ran away.






I think this is pretty amazing, and I assume he is a "curve leaf" type spider with a more modern outlook.

The modeling power of low angle light

This is just a simple photo of a single footprint in the sand in late afternoon sunlight. Yet the low angle of the light and rich colour gives the impression a sculpture, like a strong bas relief carved out of stone.

Is this a depression or raise footprint?

sunset after-glow over Bass Straight

The Passing Landscape

Taking a photo from a moving car, is in generally not recomended. Especially with a compact or digital cameras because of their "delay" (the time taken to meter the light and get autofocused). By the time you press the button and wait the image you wanted to capture is 100 meters or so behind you. As you probably realise I like the challenge to break all those "well meaning" rules in the introduction to taking good photos guides & booklets. So here are a few photos I have taken from a moving car.





I was after the wide open spaces feels so I have cropped the photos above in a more panoramic aspect.



When you moving in relation to a subject, it frequently helps to pan the camera and follow your main subject (as in the group of trees in the distance). The part of captured image close to you may be a little blured or out of focus, but the subject should be nice and clear. I've also kept the horizon low in the frame again to enhance the feeling of open space.

What are the chances?

The other day I was taking some photos of the south Gippsland country side. When I decided a photo of my wife in profile as she drove against the backdrop of the meandering Tarwin River might be a good composition. I took about half a dozen, unfortunately none quiet captured what I was after. Thats the beauty of digital photography, its inexpensive to experiment and so you should.

BUT

Look at the reflection in the car's mirrors in this shot. What are the chances of getting seperate compositions in both mirrors from a moving car? I particulary like the fisherman. Maybe its time to buy a tattslotto ticket.

A sweeping bend in the Tarwin River

Yet another sunset

Faded memories

I think I've stumbled on a deep dark secret of digital photography. The permance of Ink & Paper maybe not be quiet as good as you may expect.I first noticed a few snap shots on the fridge seemed different. Then I noticed a print I made some time ago looked bluer and the shadows a little washed out. Then I realised, "They were fading"

Ink jet print test (note fading on right hand side after only 3 weeks in the sun)


So I did a little test. I had printed this photo as a test on standard paper, in the normal setting for my printer. This gives reasonale images for report but not quiet photographic quality. I cover half of the photo with a card and place it on the window sill of a north facing window (the sunny side of the house here in Australia). After only 3 weeks in a not so hot summer I was totally amazed at the results (the right hand side is the exposed side). I've since been researching the issue of fading of ink jet printers, and I'm unimpressed with the lack of information. Reading the product information carefully I'm discouraged that permanence is hinted at on the papers and ink literature, more as a disclaimer than helpful advice.

I can see some further investigation is required.

Not so faded elegance

The beach boxes of Brighton are in some ways a relic of the past and at the same time a vibrantly colourful part of the cosmopolitan modern Melbourne.





Fortunately there is only one piece of grafitti, and hopefully the last but somehow even that looks artistic.

sunset 7 minutes ago (nearly)

I have just taken a few shots of the sunset, which was quiet spectacular here in Melbourne, after a couple of very wet days. My plan was to see how fast I could get the photos published in the net, using picasa and hello. Well they performed beautifully I had loaded my photos from memory card and had selected two of the better shots which I wanted to edit a little. Then I pressed the blogger button, and selected the images and typed in the captions. All in less than seven minutes.

Then I watched the message "Uploading image (this may take a few seconds)"
It took 5 minutes! Still it shows time to publish on the net is now, virtually no time at all. Finally a couple of minutes to edit this text and its still not dark yet.

This photo was "straightened" (rotated to horizontal)


I cropped this photo


Now to remember, is a red sky at night really a delight, not a warning!

off shore breeze

These Kangaroos were Photographed by My Wife.