Umbrella

The North Koreans have been in the news a lot recently. What with launching some missiles, withdrawing from the Armistice they signed to end the Korean War.  Now they want to add to our July fireworks by firing a missile towards Hawaii.  Since there’s not much I can do about it, I’m not going to get too excited.  If I were in charge, I’d simply tell the North Koreans I’ve got some bunker busting bombs with Kim Jung-il’s name on them.  Which will get delivered if any missile came within a thousand miles of Hawaii, Alaska or any other part of U.S. territory.

As a result of this the Pentagon has sent out the sea based X Band Radar that has been sitting in Pearl Harbor docked at Ford Island.  Its been getting work done on it for the past few months.  In January I visited the Utah Memorial.  It’s an out of site – out of mind place because it’s on the opposite side of Ford Island from the Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri.  The radar built on top of a twin-hulled oil-drilling platform was tied up at a dock next to the Utah Memorial.  I’m sure those who work on the radar couldn’t help but consider the juxtaposition of the rusting hulk of a Navy Battleship destroyed for want of an early warning system. 

 

 

Why Digital Photography

I’m reading the book Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography If you’re considering going beyond point and shoot I recommend this book before others because of the way he covers the subject.  Typical intro books start off with “How to choose your camera” and go from there covering basic how to take a photo information. That can be what you need to start. But, once you got one of those books you don’t need another; even though there might be one or two chapters you find useful. Johnson’s book is like having all those additional chapters in one book.

Reading Stephen Johnson’s book is like having a friend who “knows” digital photography.  He’s the person you go to when you don’t understand color management for instance.  “Here’s what you need to know to start with.” He says.  By the time he’s done you feel comfortable about the subject because he didn’t overwhelm you with a lot of detail. The creative process, printing black and white, photography as art,scanning are just some of the subjects he covers.  This is the kind of book I looked for 8 years ago as I began using a Nikon Coolpix 800.

A typical discussion on photography is digital versus film.  Here’s how Stephen Johnson covers it.

Why Digital Photography
Immediacy: Seeing as you go is a core reason for the digital craze.  Sharing the moment captured, being sure you have it, immediate gratification accounts for as much of digital camera sales ascendancy.
Connection to the moment: With digital, photographs can be more connected to the moment than ever before.  You can see and understand your results while you’re still on site.  It’s the difference between comparing the image to the experience, instead of the memory of the experience seen weeks later on a screen back in your workplace.
Control over results: Rendering of the photograph can be more effectively controlled with digital.  You can easily remake your photographs until you are satisfied.
Versatility: You can do almost anything you want with a digitized image, and very quickly.  The photo can be used on a web page, burned on CD or DVD, printed and framed, or transmitted around the world, in only minutes.
Accuracy: The digital camera sensor can be matched to the scene to record light similarly to the human experience of vision and color.  This is a major improvement over film. (Although often not recognized as many of the automatic camera settings actually reduce the potential image quality.)
FUN: The “Gee Whiz” factor. “Wow we can see the pictures right now!”  That is a good reason: for the play of it.

Windows Live Writer

  This afternoon I downloaded the new program from Microsoft that’s part of their Windows Live Essentials Suite.  My initial impression is how easy to sync with my WordPress blog.  The layout is clear ,uncluttered and all the commands are easy to see or find and use.

When you set it up it allows you to download the blog template you use on the blog.   Inserting a picture is easy.  Once inserted you can control the size, the type of border (this one has a drop shadow). a margin, text wrapping, and add a watermark.  You can also change the picture to black and white or sepia; add sharpening or gaussian blur; and a few more effects.

I certainly like this over directly posting within the Dashboard or using Scribefire (my Firefox Add-on).

Plus, I can do something nifty, like add a map just for the heck of it.

You can also add plug-ins.  Give it a look you might like.

Technorati Tags: windows live writer,images,inserting,hang gliding,Honolulu,Oahu,Kamehame Ridge,Windward,Waimanalo Bay,Waimanalo

Printed snapshots vanishing?

As printed snapshots vanish, we’re losing more than shoe boxes full of mementos – The Boston Globe.

The above article notes the loses and gains of digital photography. I tend to agree with those photographers who feel you haven’t actually created a photo until you’ve printed it. Indeed this is why I like digital. I can take the picture, process it, and then print it on my own printer. If I had an unlimited budget my walls would be covered with prints. Cost restrains me.
Unlike the writer I’ve never particularly liked having to wait to get my prints back from the photo lab. I see no virtue in waiting to find that some number of the printed photos were junk and shouldn’t have been printed in the first place.
I do enjoy being able to post my pictures for the enjoyment of others and see other photos in return.

What about you?

Happy New Year

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

As  2008 closes out and 2009 begins I hope the readers of my blog have found useful information or been entertained by my pictures.  The Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise I’ll be posting more interesting items and pics during 2009.

Aloha and A Hui Ho

Tim

Beam Me Up Scotty!

The Top 100 Photography Blogs – Photography Colleges

If you can’t find help and/or advice you’re not trying!

The Top 100 Photography Blogs – Photography Colleges.

Why I am grateful for Lightroom

In March 2005 I upgraded to the Maxxum 7D from the Maxxum 7. I made the leap to a DSLR. I looked forward to taking as many pictures as I wanted and only printing the ones I wanted. I quickly learned it wasn’t quite that simple.
Photoshop CS and ACR allowed me to process my RAW images. However, ACR was clunky in it’s ability to help me review and pick the best images. It’s one thing to take alot of pictures. It’s another to find the best of them. Then after finding them, I had to go into Photoshop to complete the process. So an 8 meg RAW file turns into a 10 or 20 or more PSD file. It was all so ungainly and not a great encouragement to go out and take alot of pictures so I could learn to make better images.
Then out of the blue Adobe announced the beta program for Lightroom. As soon as I started to use it. I knew this is what I’d been waiting for. Easy to learn and quick to use.
Why do I write about this? For the past several days I’ve been going back thru my pictures from the first year of using my DSLR. Beyond the obvious bad images. I never culled my pictures for the marginal ones. It was too tedious with Bridge-ACR-PS workflow. LR is soo much faster. Plus I can easily work with a marginal image. Play with the WB. Work in B&W or Split Tone. Easily make a creative crop. With the latest version of LR you can do selective adjustments that before required using PS.
Now I go out and take hundreds of pictures knowing I can quickly distill it down to just the ones I want. All keyworded and organized into collections that I can upload to my website.
For the average JPEG Point and Shoot user LR is more than you’d want to pay for a software program to process your images. However, if you’re making the transition to a DSLR add Lightroom to your purchasing plans. You won’t regret it. If you’re a MAC user than you’ve also got Aperture to consider. Either program will allow you to effortlessly examine your images. Learn what worked and improve yourself thereby. Helping you to present your best to the viewing public.

Kitesurfers in Maunalua Bay

“Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away”

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I saw my father spend more than a few winter evenings going thru his slide pictures. He put together several slide shows for the local historical society of pictures he had taken in our community. Trips to Gettysburg, Mystic Seaport and the Cape were preserved on transparencies.

I don’t know what happened to the projector but I still have the carousels of slides. I was once a scrawny kid. I have the slides to prove it. He shot mostly Ektachrome. With the ascendancy of digital photography has come the decline of film. Here’s an AP article on the fading (no pun intended) of Kodachrome.

Is the rich-hued Kodachrome era fading to black? – Boston.com.

I love the advantages of digital but it isn’t film. I grew up holding a slide to the light to see the colors glow on the transparency.

Portraiture Gone Wrong

On Friday PDN posted an item about the October cover picture of the Atlantic with John McCain.  PDNPulse: How Jill Greenberg Really Feels About John McCain. It revealed how Greenberg sneaked additional pictures for the purpose of creating additional images.  Images she could use to present McCain in a negative light.  No matter what your political leanings. I hope you think using your access to a client for one purpose so you can create an image to put the client in a negative light is wrong. Such an action is a breach of trust.

Some commentors are willing to excuse her because she’s an artist.  As if being an artist gives her licensce to behave in an unethical manner.  One commentor related the story of the late Richard Avedon’s portrait of Richard VIII and Wallace Simpson.  Avedon wanted to get past the typical happy face and present the real them.  He told the couple he’d run over a puppy and got a picture of them showing saddness at the story.  The first time I heard how Avedon got the picture it disturbed me.  He used deception to elicit an emotional response and then presented it as something it wasn’t.

Greenberg got a picture for political propaganda reasons not artistic.

Are you a Purist?

In the latest post on RAW – an amateur photography site, featuring a monthly photo contest and much more -the photography site at Boston.com. The article on the featured photographer begins with this sentence “Arnold Kaplan doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the image you capture in the camera is the image you have to end up with.” Okay!? So who does?

Occasionally I run across this notion that merely reproducing what you see is the start of the photographic process. As if the “merely” is as simple as pressing the shutter button. As Mr. Kaplan put it “just making a copy of what Mother Nature has created.” I didn’t know reproducing the three dimensional world on a two dimensional surface was so easy. Therefore, true artistry is manipulating what you saw into something “more”.

Am I disparaging the person who wants to do more with their images? Beyond adjusting Hue and Saturation,dodging and burning or selective sharpening, for instance. No. It’s a constant source of amazement what people are able to see. And create what they see. Sometimes I like what they create and sometimes I don’t. If I don’t does that make me a “Purist”?

It seems to me the only criteria for a good image is the “wow” factor. Such as when Scott Kelby chose the winning photo for his recent Photowalk. Photoshop Insider » The Challenge of Finding a Winner For My “Worldwide Photowalk” (and the winners are revealed!). How much artistry you apply to an image is of no consequence without that final effect.