Freestylers Revisited

With the new posting pace (which I approve of), here is a shot from April this year when we had the three Freestylers in town.



Taken on a slate grey afternoon, taken unsupported and at a little bit of distance, tight crop. Small blurring, however I quite like the motion freeze and crowd blur. B&W worked better than colour.

Comments? Suggestions?

As a small background to this shot - the footballer doing this trick is Jeremy Lynch who after being in Dubai went on to the semi-finals of the TV show "Britain's Got Talent" with his freestyling skills. (Youtube clip)

Commenting just got easier..

..as I decided to remove the need to plug in the code before you can comment. We got a bit of spam before, hence why I put it in in the first place, but it's a pain in the ass.

If we get more spam comments, we can put it back on again no worries.

Assume you lot are OK with this?

Ivan

A new post: revisiting the puppy

OK, here's my initial effort to contribute more. It's the puppy again, but taking into account some of the suggestions from the previous time I posted this image. I tweaked the levels a bit, and tightened the crop with the dog on the right (sorry Dam, I prefer this side...) but still wonder if I should try get rid of that back leg. Same for the b&w. Your thoughts?

A Proposal

We all have, I'm sure, thousands of images on our computers/macs. Even if we are not out taking loads of new ones on a daily basis, there are likely loads of good images we've not "discovered" yet.

So, I have this proposal. Whether old or new, can we try to post 1 image or discussion topic each per week (image preferred), and comment on all the images posted? Doesn't have to be deep in depth critique (although enough to guide the recipient would be great, a few lines would suffice), and the image doesn't have to be a competition winner, but I really like seeing work from all you guys, old or new, and look forward to commenting and being commented on. No one will be made to do this, but it would be great to get a reasonably constant flow of images or discussion posts to keep the blog vibrant.

There's 6 of us, so we should be seeing a new image or 2 every day if we put 1 in each a week.

Let me know what you think - I know it helps me check my back catalogue and could provide me with more entries for this years internal competitions.

Ivan

A cloudy day

I took this photo a few years ago. I really like the moodiness of the sky. The tower in the bottom is called the Dingle Tower that sits close to the entrance of the Northwest Arm that runs into Halifax. Originally shot in colour and converted into black and white in PS 3.

Damian

First DSLR with video capability..good news or bad?

Link to this news item on The Luminous Landscape.

I initially thought "bad", but it looks like the increased quality of DSLR sensors, the lenses and ISO handling capacity would lead to far improved creative potential for video too. There's also news on this on the Digital Photography Review website too.

Only a matter of time before Canon and the other big manufacturers follow.

Thoughts?

Flickr

Do any of you chaps use Flickr? If so, what do you think? I posted a few images on there a while back, and go very little feedback. Then, I put a couple of monos up there, and there was a flurry of comments, and "awards" (basically invites to post on a certain group and encourage you to give awards) and invitations.

Have a look at what I mean at my photostream.

The march of technology

This'll be on you boys' Christmas lists, no doubt...

Colour Management in Firefox v.3

Just pulled this from Tim Grey's email blog...

"[Regarding a prior DDQ email about color management in web browsers] Firefox 3 does have color management built in, but it comes turned off by default. Here's an article about it that shows how to turn it on:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-9311-9478"

==========

"You're absolutely correct. I tested Firefox to see if it was indeed respecting embedded colors, and found that it didn't. But as several DDQ readers let me know, version 3 of Firefox does indeed support color management -- it is simply turned off by default. The logic for this is that the browser performs a little faster if it doesn't have to translate embedded ICC profiles. Not ideal from the perspective of visitors to your site seeing your photos accurately without having to adjust settings for their browser, but at least the support is there. Hopefully with time more browsers will add this support (it is still missing from Internet Explorer), and users will become more savvy about the subject."

Damian

Barcelona Trees

I found this image while trawling my back catalogue. I remember taking this because I loved the nature of the light on the trees, and the shapes made by the trees and the elegant lamposts, all set against a beautiful pastel backdrop of some very smart houses. Perhaps means more to me as a memory than as a great photo, but I'd love to hear your comments.

Ivan

Eye of the..er..Horse

A close up shot of a horse's eye, from the recent horse trial. Love the 450Ds extra resolution (12.2MP v 8MP). Shows up in these cases.

Ivan

Peek-a-Boo

A recent shot of our little one, as we played that classic game Peek-a-boo. I used the 450Ds live view to frame the shot, as I couldn't put the eyepiece to my eye to see. Very useful. Cropped it a little, but left the height to exagerate her smallness and I think it works.

The colour image is nice and subdued tones, so I may put that up at sometime too, but since the excellent mono presentation of last week, EVERYTHING is mono..!

Ivan

At the Horse Trials

Taken last weekend at Burghley House Horse Trials 3-day eventing (daaahrlings). We went with some friends for the middle day, the cross-country. Lots of thrills and spills, and more horsey folk than you can imagine. Snapped this candid of someone snapping the impending action. Mono seemed to suit the feel.

Ivan

Footbridge

Last one for this evening's dump..

Nothing especially special about this one, just like the bridge on the Meadows. This one uses my super wide angle, so the whole of the bridge is in there, and there's a sweep of the path as it follows the river too.

This is a blended exposure, two RAWs, processed for sky and foreground, blended in PS. High ISO.

I also utilised the noise reduction (chrominance and luminance) on the new Canon RAW software, which worked a treat. In an upgrade from the software with the 350D, there's even a shortcut to export the processed RAW to Photoshop, thereby making the workflow as seemless as having Adobe Camera RAW. Perhaps the latter is more powerful, but the Canon software seems fine to me. Perhaps I'll hold off on CS3 for now...

Ivan

Swan

Taken on the river Cam, as dusk approached, on Grantchester Meadows, out the back of Newnham. Hand held, hight ISO, so a bit grainy, which I think is nice. I used a gaussian blur layer to smooth it out a bit, painting back some of the grain with a layer mask, to accentuate the ghostly feel. Cropped, colour desaturated a bit (except the beak) to finish.

It has flaws, but I like this one.

Ivan

Yellow Caravan

It was the colour of this old caravan that caught my eye. I have mixed the RAW file to make it look more saturated and kind of under-exposed in a film sort of way. I like the effect and the interplay of the colours and the fuzzy tree to the right. A bit of fun if not hight art...

Ivan

Crab

You wait months for one, then loads come along at once...

Another new pic from me. I was attracted to the weathered wood and paint on this old boat hull in Norfolk. Tried to make a feature of the word "Crab" that someone had etched on the side too. Really liked the feel of this, the shape of the wooden slats and the flaking paint, rusty nails and lichen. Great colours.

Ivan

Roman Vase detail

Hi

I grabbed this particular shot very quickly. There was nice, late evening light falling on this vase, and the colours, shapes and textures on this particular part caught my eye (God, I sound like Damian now...).

Anyone out there?

Ivan

Grantchester Grasses

Hi

This is likely one of the first pictures taken with the new 450 D. Not sure of this one, but I have tried to emphasise the light and texture of the grasses.

Comments welcomed, as ever.

Ivan

White Peacock

A picture taken a couple of months ago at a wildlife park in Kent. Loved the textures of this creature's feathers.

Comments welcomed.

Ivan