Reckless in charge of bandwidth.

Setting up this blog from a remote location, where there are heavy restrictions on net access, has highlighted the issue of bandwidth. It can be a very precious resource. Further there are hidden internet and website police that will stop you doing all sorts of useful things. Like having a link that points to and displays a photo on a different site. For some reason these self appointed law enforcers seem to think you might be pirating their bandwidth. I don’t know all the ins and outs I just know I keep getting pulled over.


“Yes officer, I was sending a photo, but I like to think I am a photographer”

Digital Photos can be real bandwidth hogs, particularly when you don’t have a broadband connection, or your email site is finicky about attachment size, or your best friends anti virus software just trashes anything with an attachment. Yet there is no great need for all that detail if all you want to do is view the image on a computer (or TV) screen.

• Most computers are only set to 800 by 600 pixels, and granny will he very happy with a 640 by 480 image of new baby Bradley. So find out how to resize and store your photos in .jpeg format. Its easy, you can even compress the file a lot before noticing any difference in the quality of the image.
  
• Photo can be embedded in HTML format emails, so they don’t have to be attached and run the gauntlet of the attachment and anti-virus patrol. You just make sure you are setting up the email in HTML format, then look for the insert picture button (it normally has a framed picture icon, well thats what I think it is supposed to be). It is just like an insert you would do in a microsoft word document. If you are emailing with outlook, it is word! But don’t embedded massive files. 800 by 600 is probably the biggest you need to go. And only send one or two photos at a time
  
• Finally there ate lots of on-line photo album sites where you can upload your images and then just email a link to aunt mable. One such service I like is Ofoto, which is now run by Kodak.
  

You probably will want all the detail when it comes to printing but that can wait for another day.

Hamamas - Day two

Another big photographic morning at day two of the hamamas celebrations for the primary school children, this time a traditional singsing. The batteries last another 150 or so photos so I was pleased. Even though most of the photos were of groups, I found this close up striking.


For PhotoFriday: Topic Portrait

Also now geotagged in Flickr so you can see where on the Lihir Island Group the photo was taken.

Juxtaposition in time

One thing I noticed after looking at the photos from yesterday, is something you see often in new guinea and take little notice of. It’s the ancient side by side with modern technology.



Here a group in traditional bilus (bush clothes, leaves, reeds and little else) paddle ashore in their dug out canoe,(only wood and a little coconut fibre rope, no nails or glue) among the modern fiberglass banana boats, with their yamaha outboards.

Gutpela Hamamas De!

Today is Independence Day in Paupua New Guinea. Lots of photographic opportunity (I'd taken 592 photos by lunch time is that a new half day record?, and all on one set of batteries). It is the kids that were the most fun to capture, all excited and eyes full of wonder.



If you click on the image you will get a higher resolution version.

55 cents worth

I’m a geologist, a scientist/engineer type, so I like to evaluate things. Naturally I undertook an extensive,(hey I’m joking!), evaluation of my photo taking during the HP on-line course. I picked up my camera to start the first assignment on the 1st. September and finished uploading stuff just before midday on the 14th. I had taken 2031 photos, a massive total of 1.16 gigabytes, that’s an average of 150 photos or 83mb a day! And I thought I only had a 40mb a day habit..




I also went through 3 and a bit re-changes of my batteries, so that’s about 600 photo per battery cycle. Which is pretty pleasing because one of the early things I noticed about my digital camera was that it can be pretty demanding on the batteries.

The cost of such photographic extravagance you ask? Well I already own the camera, smartmedia cards and battery charger. So the likely consumable cost will be, either 2 conventional CDs (maybe Aus$8) or one DVD with plenty of room left for other photos (maybe Aus$10). That’s a damn lot of fun for around 55 cents a day.

HP online courses

I have just completed a course of digital photography, from the HP online courses

I really enjoyed the course and message boards, and I'm quite inspired to continue my adventure exploring the creative possibilities of digital images on the net.

In praise of the new way to record the world around you

I’m a geologist, an occasional cartoonist and now a digital camera enthusiast, well actually I might be an addict. Anyway one of the first things I realized about digital photography was something no one had felt worthy of a mention not in shops not in magazine, and not in general discussion over a beer at the club, it was the more creative side of the technology. Perhaps the message is there but overwhelmed in the hype. I definitely won’t be much help to choosing the best camera. My advice to you is very simple, buy a camera you are happy with and learn how to use it.

I hope this collection of ideas and photos lets you see some of the magic of digital photography.