Monthly Archives: June 2009

A blog well written.

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Emerson, Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Melville all wrote books in a way that my simple brain couldn’t quite comprehend. Be it the old English language or the complexity of the sentences, they all beat me. I probably have more reading ability than I let on at times, and I have read some monster books in my time, but I could never quite crack the ones like Moby Dick (The proper unabridged version) or War and Peace, books that I would love to read.

Books (PSD)

You are probably wondering what this has got to do with photography. Not a lot. Actually, nothing more than a recommendation. It is as simple as that. You see, I have never actually met the author of this blog, not in the skin. I have spoken to him on MSN, Skype and the telephone. And I consider him a good friend. I consider him a clever bugger too. His latest blog post, just missed the train, is a fine example of what I am talking about. I would love to be able to tell a story so well. Very well written and entertaining, a blog worth reading.

Keep up the great work Mick.

Optics, the good oil.

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This one is not for the feint hearted. It is quite an in depth look at the optical properties of camera lenses and the reasoning behind diffraction and aberration. It is very informative, but it very detailed. it even talks about bokeh!!

Here is a collection of illustrated articles on the chief causes of image degradation in photography. Currently available pages can be accessed via hyperlinks. The reader should keep in mind that the articles are about principles of photographic optics and not about tests of specific lenses. Also, most of the phenomena have been captured on film. Since a film acts as no more than a light-sensitive medium, the examples equally apply to a digital recorder array. In the few cases where the nature of the recording medium is important, this will be emphasised.

via Photographic optics.


Aperture at work

Exposure, Aperture and Shutter Speed Explained.

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A good guide for people new to photography.

Exposure, Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Exposure is a combination of two fundamental camera settings – aperture diameter and shutter speed. Many combinations will give the right exposure, but each will have differences is depth of field, motion blur, and so on. This guide will teach you all you need to know so that you can get the right exposure and the right artisitic effect every time.

via Amateur Snapper | Exposure, Aperture and Shutter Speed Explained.

Spouses, partners and others.

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Do you have a supportive partner or spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend? And when I say supportive, I mean supportive of your photographic endeavours?

I ask after reading on a photo forum a while back about a bloke who was continually frustrated by his partner complaining about him always being out taking photos. This went on for a year or two until someone suggested he buy her a camera. So her bought her a low end digital SLR, which he says now, saved his marriage. Now the only arguements they have is over who is using what lens!

Now I am one lucky fellow. The bride is very supportive of me and my photography. But having a photography tragic in the family has one small negative. We have very few photos of us together.

A_Onz_Todd

A rare photo of the bride (Andree) and I together.

I am not all that keen on having my photo taken (probably because the camera lens adds 10 kilograms to the extra 20 I am already carrying) and when I do, I like to take it. Which creates a bit of a problem. I have to hand over the camera to someone else to get a shot of the two of us. Now that shot isn’t going to be a shot that I took, it isn’t really my photo. Also, it will usually be on auto focus and a I try and set the camera up to be as easy to use as possible which will probably result in a photo slightly different to what I would like. In the end, it isn’t my photo. Maybe it is time to get the tripod out and get some shots of us together. Or grab one of my photography buddies and drag them along.

Suggestions or comments welcome.

Understanding Histograms (the things that look like mountains!)

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The very first time i saw a Histogram on the LCD screen of my 300D, I wondered what the hell had happened. I didn’t remember taking a shoot of a black lump on a white background. Having a quick look around to make sure no one was watching, I grabbed the manual. Ahhh, it is digital representation of the exposure of the photo I just took.

Understanding the histogram is one of the first things I would suggest to people new to using a digital camera. Now, because I am so hopeless at explaining it, I thought I would link you, the good reader, up with a very good explanation thanks to the good people at Luminous landscape. Read on for histogrammy goodness.

Possibly the most useful tool available in digital photography is the histogram. It could also well be the least understood. In this article we will look at what a camera histogram tells the photographer and how best to utilize that information.

via Understanding Histograms.


Mountains!

Mars to be as big as the moon!!!! Stop the presses!!!

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One of the great things about people knowing I love my photography, is getting sent interesting links about interesting events, web sites and camera gear news. So what if you get sent the same thing a few times. It takes the click of a mouse to delete an email. I often do get the same email over and over, but the one that has been flooding my inbox the last 3 weeks, and I reckon I have received it 20 times now, has gotten me to the point of wanting to place a rather large telescope into a part of the email senders anatomy that really isn’t designed to accept a rather large telescope!

Anyone recognise this?

For the love of all things furry!

Maybe you have been sent it too. It has been doing the rounds for a few years now. You probably did what I did the 1st few times, and laughed it off as a bit of a gag, I mean to say, Mars is a bloody long way away. Depending on where you look, it can be anywhere for 30,000,000 km to 55,000,000 km. Hardly a leisurely stroll to the corner store, even if it wobbles around the sun at 24k per second, thats a fairly long commute to get close to us! Given the distance between the earth and that huge chunk of cheese we call the moon is about 384,403 km, give or take a kilometre between friends, that is slightly closer to us than our little red buddy. Ok, I don’t know these figures off the top of my head, Stephen Hawkins I am not, but surely some common sense applied to the email above would have people smelling a rat the size of an elephant.

I know this will probably freak some people out, but no everything on the interwebs is 100% correct. See my figures above for a prime example. Even, the Gen-Y kiddies might want to pull up a chair here, Wikipedia, is full of rubbish. Yes, probably most of it is true, but there are still parts that are false.

So next time you get an email that sounds too good to be true, maybe something like Uranus is dropping in for a chat (badda bing!), have a think before you fire it off to everyone in your address book.

Further reading.

http://www.floridastars.org/MARSHOAX.HTML
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07jul_marshoax.htm
http://www.snopes.com/science/astronomy/brightmars.asp

Guidelines for image storage.

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Some great information regarding storage of your digital photos.

Guidelines for image storage
Today when the master copies of our images are usually digital (even slide workers often put a lot of work into digitising their transparencies) it’s easier to store and organise thousands of files than it was to do the same with physical prints/negatives/transparencies. But it’s also easier to lose everything when you make a mistake (or a disk crashes, or any other disaster happens).

Follow the link for more details.

via David Burren Photography: Guidelines for image storage.

Terrific write up David.