To New York and Beyond!

As I write this I am waiting for my flight to New York. We are going for 5 days (until Boxing Day) and then two days after I get back I am off to Sable Island for work. So I would imagine that I will not be on the blog until February when I return.

I have my camera with me so hopefully I will capture some decent New York images for the blog.

See you all then,...

Damian 

Something from the Market

I always have my camera with me when I am selling at the market and am always looking. So I saw this. The girl was walking around with this brilliant yellwo scarf and the green cat grass. The contrast was startling to me. Then she came over to my table and POW...I took her down.

Shot with my great and most beloved fixed 50mm, 1.4 lens...

D

A couple of Venetian images

Both of these were taken in 2004 using my old Nikon Coolpix. Crap camera - although it did do RAW - but somewhere as beautiful as this can be captured with a disposable camera and still look good.

They were both early morning, before the crowds. I like the one of the shadows under the arches, with the solo figure walking away. Also, I tried to get a new take on the tired theme of Venetian gondolas. Did I succeed?

Ivan

Just a little something...

Well, not much to offer this week. Shot this while in St John's, Nfld during the summer. Its kind of fun with the plant pots and the broken pot and the various fun colours, typical of houses here. Lots of lines up and down.

Damian

Dolomite Flower Meadow - Part 2

I posted the sister image to this quite a while ago, but I found this one - which is portrait rather than landscape format - while browsing my back catalogue. I think I prefer this one to the landscape image.

Comments?

Ivan

A Venetian "Before and After"

This one is quite radical, and from the days (about 4 years ago) when I used to make really big changes to images, including new skies, colour temperature, adding/removing elements. I don't really do that these days, but I do like the change from the original to the manipulated image in this before and after.

Below is the original. It was taken at/near sunrise, so it's nice and quiet, few boats and NO tourists. But, the feel was cold and not what I pictured in my mind.



The manipulated image has a new sky, selected with the characteristics to match (i.e. light coming from the right direction etc). The buildings and water were warmed up to match, and then the two carefully put together using layers and layer masks. Took a bit of time, but I think the effect is quite convincing. I wanted an almost painting-type of quality, as I thought it went well with the classical scene.



Thoughts welcome as ever

Ivan

More night shots...

Ventured out again a few evening ago with a Cambridge chum (not Gareth). My friend, Bob, has a new Nikon D300 - man that camera has great high ISO sensitivity and low noise. Awesome. Make the 450D look a bit shit, actually, in that regard, but I was able to get both shots below at ISO 200-400, 30" exposure, f8-9. I have also just got a remote control, so I can move to bulb (i.e. >30s) exposures with mirror lock up, so hopefully I can swap high ISO performance for longer exposures at lower ISO...

Anyway - here are my shots:

The first is looking from Garrett Hostel Bridge towards Trinity Bridge. It was a long exposure (30"), and I may have overcooked it a bit, but there's nice softness on the water, and check out the movement of the tree on the left. It was quite blowy, which has captured a nice effect, I think. What you don't get from this is quite how dark it was - it was very dark, and I only managed to focus by setting one of the focal points to a distant light, then recomposing and pressing the shutter (2 second delay, mirror lock up and then 30" exposure).



The next image is Cambridge's newest attraction. It's the so-called "Chronophage" (time-eater) clock, which forms the corner of the newly refurbished Corpus Christi college. See here or here for more details.



I took this from across the street, with the telephoto on a tripod. I wanted to get the whole thing in the shot, and avoid reflections too. I'll revisit this to get some detail shots sometime also. As it moves, a long exposure led to some very blurry shots, and the beastie couldn't be seen. So, I went for about 1/20 second exposure, to get a mostly-frozen image, and capture it as it looks, backlit in eerie blue. Interestingly (geekily), the shutter speed can be verified, since the second "hand" LEDs do one revolution per second, and there are 3 of them illuminated in the shot, 3/60 = 1/20. Also, note the time - 10:45pm, just before we headed to the nearby Eagle pub for last orders.

Ivan

Now for something a little different...

A few months ago I received permission to spend hours in our local natural history museum photographing bird eggs. Bird eggs have amazing intricate patterns, and they are of different sizes and shapes. Anyway, here are three eggs from a guillemot (seabird for those who are not ornithologically gifted). They are pointed so that they don't roll out of the cliff nest but rather spin on their axis.

Anyway, I shot the eggs using a tripod and some lighting with the eggs on either a white or black mat. I used photoshop to remove the background and create a pure white (255,255,255) or pure black (0,0,0) background. I have lots of images to work through but thought I would share one with you. Damian

On The Road - Mile 2,226

This picture is a crop of a larger shot of the Mexico's Gulf. I burned the blacks to remove the sea. I also wanted to have a minimalism feeling. The lines of the clouds are supposed to give a feeling of movement, the shot being a part of the "On The Road" series.



Here is the original shot :