Where is everyone?

Its a warmer day, the surf is glassy and its the school holidays.

It is that day in September. It is late in the third quarter of the grand final, the hawks are beginning to make there run and the beach is deserted.

Worth the wait

The beta version of picasa 3.0 is now available to download, and there are quiet a few new features in the picasa web album to go with it (I'll report on those in later blog posts). There is one features in the new picasa which pleases me a lot. It is the addition of a clone like tool, called retouch. Having to use a clone tool which copies texture from elsewhere on your photo to cover dust marks or remove unwanted distractions is the one thing I seem to routinely do outside picasa these days. Best of all this new tool is really easy to use.

I took this picture while concentrating on the snooty tern, as it went into a dive so did a pacific gull, both spoiling each others approach. No fish diner for either I'm afraid. Unfortunately when I looked afterwards there were a lot of dust particles on the image spoiling it. So it was a perfect photo to test out the new picasa retouch feature.

 

The retouch tool is on the basic fixes tab, that appears when you select a single photo. The tool is very simple to use, there is a brush width slide (which opens up or closer a circular target zone) every thing else is controlled from the mouse. Move the circle to the desired place on the photo and click the mouse to select that area to be fixed. Now the move the mouse again to select an appropriate replacement area( the area under the mouse, will be supper imposed in preview in the target area). Clicking the mouse again will paste that retouch in place. The mouse. if you have a well mouse you can use it to zoo in and out. Well almost everything is mouse controlled, you have to hold down the <Ctrl> key as you move the mouse if you want to pan on a zoomed in section of the photo. Unlike most other photo editors (and like most other tools in picasa) the original photo is not changed just your view of it, and changes can be undone at a later time. You can always store the change by exporting the photo.

A final step was to use the standard tuning feature in picasa to enhanced contrast a little (using the highlights and shadows sliders) and "cooling" the colour (making it slightly bluer).

Lens flare

The bigger your lens and the more glass surfaces in it (zoom lense have lots), the more likely you are to suffering from lense flare when you point towards a strong light. Shadding the lens with a lens hood (often supplied with the lens) can help a bit, and not pointing close to the light source usually avoids flare, but then you will probably miss the interesting lighting you wanted to catch.

Cern Concerns

Well the world didn't end, not that I was worried, but a sundowner on the deck seemed a good way to record the event

Nice Bridge, but ...

Yes the new pedestrian/bike bridge across Dandenong creek between Jells park and Chesterfield farm is nice.

 

But did it really cost that much!

Afternoon delight

more synth-ony

This is my "over the top", attempt at a "full immersion" photosynth, which has not worked out quiet as I expected. A lot of the obvious connections between the panorama sets haven't connected and there are some large jumps in the flow. I took 16 separate multi-image panorama (see below, click on them to see more detail), while walking through this picnic pavilion and along the edge of the lake. Still it is huge, 171 images in all, and gives me encouragement that a "deep" experience may be possible. I'll just have to research more how to handle seeing around corners!

 

  

 

 

 

Demarcation Dispute

 
This feisty little eurasian coot (Fulica atra, or more commonly water fowl) was giving it to the larger pair of mallard ducks to get out of his/her territory.

Taken during the photographing of several overlapping panoramas for my next photosynth project, if you look carefully you can see the battle progress in the synth.

Photosynth'ing

Microsoft's Live Labs have released a new free photo service called photosynth. It is a photo splicing service with a difference, its uses lots of images with lots of overlap to create a convincing 3D view that you can zoom in and out "smoothly" around pan around the scene. Such facilities are not new to the web many real estate site now use walkthroughs, but this is pretty impressive and you can create your own, without much effort. there are two technologies involved the first is the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs, and the second independent technology, called seadragon, that allows seamless scrolling through 100 of MB over the Internet.

There are two parts to creating your own synths. You must first register at the service, (for which you need a windows live ID) then download a small uploaded application, that not only help you prepare the images and upload them but monitors the splicing process.

 

There are a few crucial limitations. All syths become public (ie can be viewed by anyone via the internet) but you do have the option of setting the licensing (full copyright or a creative commons) during the upload process. Results can only be viewed on PCs running XP or Vista, which must run the direct-X photosynth add-in for Internet explorer. The 20GB of space seems generous, but you will use this up fast.

One downside is the bandwidth required, I have downloaded it, set it up and uploaded my first project using free wifi at an airline lounge that dropped out a few times so I had to be very very patient!

Low bandwidth travel

Whilst more and more of the world is getting wired to the broadest-band width, the places I often find myself seem to be less connected at slower rates. So here a few more tips and revisions about trying to travel and upload photos & blog.

1) Turn off automatic updates (found under control panel). This avoids a really long delay before you can even get connected.

2) Resize your photos, for blogs and to emails others, your photos only need a lower resolution and considerably smaller file size (eg 600 by 800 pixels is generally plenty) see earlier resizing post

3) Use the no frills methods, the normal flickr web portal for your web browsers is a bandwidth nightmare (I just had a week of hell trying to use flickr in indonesia, usually  waiting 10 minutes plus just to load the log in page! Other times I get a flickr is taking to long to respond message or it crashing out my net connection. You can also access flickr via the mobile portal (http://m.flickr.com/) from any computer and this is a very stripped down version. The biggest trouble for me is this portal does not have access into flickr groups. I also find that the standalone flickr uploader doesn't work on low bandwidth or from internet cafes. If it does work it takes for ever, so I end up using the http://www.flickr.com/photos/upload/ old fashion web page uploader, and patiently waiting.

4) Use offline set up and editing, there are many tools that let you set up blog posts using an off-line editor. I am using Windows Live Writer now to edit this post. Picasa lets you set up local albums of photos n your notebook and then upload them to you web album when you get a good net connection

5) Use email to upload photos. Most services. like Flickr, Photobucket and Blogger all offer email upload facilities. Some do take a while (several hours) before the updates are posted.

Finally another warning about mobile phones and global roaming. Whilst global roaming is handy for phone calls and you can get yahoo mail, gmail and even flickr tools on your mobile phone and these will be able to roam with you but check the cost before you start using them overseas (data roaming charges are normally just straight up daylight robbery).

Jakarata Dawn

Reflecting Progress

Construction reflected in new building, Sudirman Central Jakrata

morning moonset

dusk moonrise

panorama from the top

Looking north (towards the equator), a sunny day in paradise.
See also my synth of this scene

Autofocus Problems

These beautifully camouflaged crabs where all over the beach this morning, and I though they would be easy to photograph with my telephoto lens (with macro feature). Well not exactly easy, because the translucent crab on sand gives little contrast for the autofocus to fix on and the camera was whirring away shifting the lens back and forth aimlessly. It was not until the crab crossed into my footprint that the camera had enough shadow contrast to focus properly.

South Pacific, West Papua

Passing the lighthouse at sarong

Preparing for a trip to Waimisi