The Last Bit of a Great Weekend

March 25th, 2012 Thomasso

Parting is bitter sweet, but it was great great to finally have a Sun filled weekend with no interruptions of clouds, even though the nights were brutally cold. Now, the clouds have moved in, high clouds, but nonetheless this qualifies as overcast, but it seems to be trapping in the heat. So one last push to get outside and enjoy the weather, and do some photography in the good light as it could be another long stint before we see unobstructed skies like this again.

The above image was taken down by the railway tracks in Fort Langley. The pile of metal bits looked cool, as I have walked by these things so often. I thought why not take some abstract shots of patterns and weird composition?

The image was also the first of three editing procedures I have never done before either. First, I converted and did post-production editing straight from RAW. Second, I saved this into a JPEG, as normally I save my images in PNG format. Lastly, I re-added the EXIF metadata tab back to the image, so that it displays only my copyright information embedded within the image.

I will still put my coveted water marks on my images, but now I can also make sure that the metadata is also correct too showing me as the copyright holder. You know, that owner’s paranoia thing that everyone is so freaked out about when uploading content to the Internet.

With shooting so many photos this weekend, I may spend the rest of the week going through them all, and perhaps posting a few  then on the blog. I estimated that I took over 300 images in the last two days? Wow!

Posted in Around Town, Art, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, General, Photographs, Software | 1 Comment »

Last Day for Playing With My Camera Shooting Water

March 22nd, 2012 Thomasso

Being that it was so dark outside, as the clouds beat me home from Langley and covered the Sun up, I went and set up my bowl of water so I could continue to master my new flash and photographing splashes of water with it. I also brainstormed an idea that I had kicking around this morning when I  found a really good water-dropper that works great, an old bubble jet refill cartage. Now that I had the perfect delivery system for a water dropper, I felt like I was going to capture that perfect shot of a water splashing. I also set up my camera slightly different than before, hoping that I could getting better light and faster shutter speeds. Off I went catching those water drops as they fell into the bowl–see below.

I started moving my flash around to different positions from the bowl of water. This above shot, I had the flash just over top of it, set to 1/36 (low power) to get this shot. I was now going down the right path I wanted.

Above–sadly I had the flash pointing away from the bowl of water and almost lost all off the light, but because the splash turned out so great I kept this one to post. It is a really cool splash!

Above, I used a 30mm macro lens, f2.5, ISO 100, leaving the shutter wide open and using the flash to freeze the moment. Focusing the lens was the most challenging task of getting these shots as the depth of field is so narrow. The focus was just off by a little bit.

Way too much flash, but the splash turned out good. Again, focusing was a problem. To get these shots I have to use manual mode on my camera, shut off the auto focus, and run my flash wirelessly. So setting everything up and getting it perfect was the hard part. Then there is hoping that when I press the shutter button, I get the drop in the right position, capturing that perfect splash. It was hit and miss! Out of 20 shots, eight images had good splashes in them.

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I Asked for More Light, and I Got It

March 20th, 2012 Thomasso

I am in sheer delight. I was not expecting my shipment from Hong Kong until next Friday. With less than Four days since I, with the help of my friend, made those few clicks with the mouse on the Digital Rev website, I got the call just a while ago that my flash was here, waiting for me. It showed up this morning.

It is hard to believe that this flash was sitting on a shelf in Hong Kong, China, just a few days ago. And equally hard to believe at much money I saved buying it there than here in Canada. And, even more unbelievable is how fast this company, Digital Rev, shipped it out to me–across the Pacific Ocean!

Regrettably, it is too late for me to write more about the Flash, and what it can do while attached to my camera, so I will save that for later on this week. For now, I have it, and I will be learning, reading, flashing it over the next few days. This is a Sony HVL-F58AM Flash.

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The First Day of Spring 2012 – Yuck!

March 20th, 2012 Thomasso

I am at home now, just got in, which is about 4:30pm, and I am looking around outside seeing more of winter than spring. The day was showing a little promise of spring, teasing us with some Sun in Langley City, but that came and went within minutes. When I got back into Fort Langley, it was trying to rain. The air was still very chilly, still feeling like winter with no hint of spring.

Hard to believe that today marks the time in the year for the planet Earth when the Sun is shinning right over top of the equator, calling this the Equinox. Due to the forces of nature, we here in the Western half of North America are still in winter’s grip. Even more sadness, is what some meteorologists are saying that our winter like weather will last up until April. April! Come on, give us a break! Two more weeks of this crappy weather!

Well, at least it is spring. I am hoping that the Sun does make an appearance, even if it is just for a little while. Here are some photos that I took when I just got home. A very Grey day out, eh?

I guess too, if you have noticed, I changed my watermark for my photos for spring 2012. Instead of doing it with the 3D rending program, I cut to the cheep and did the logo with the 2D vector programs called Inscape, which is a very cool program in its self. I was hoping for the some really nice bright photos to mark this day with, and to go with my spring logo, but obviously that did not happen. The weather is constantly changing, so who knows, tonight, perhaps, it could all clear up, or snow.

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Friday Is Here

March 16th, 2012 Thomasso

Finally, Friday has arrived, and none too soon, as I have waited for the end of the work week to get here with so much anticipation. Although tonight I have a volunteer meeting to go to, just having time off from my day job is welcomed. I like my job, my regular employment, but this week was extra difficult with the new demands being placed on my employer to meet all of the requirements from our new contract. The added glum weather and co-workers stressed out, made for a situation that none of us wanted to be in. The great news is, I have two days in which to forget about that and focus on other entirely different stresses. What would life be without a little stress in it, eh?

Although I consider clouds to be cool for photographing, this one is currently parked over top of Fort Langley spewing out rain with no end in sight. This is the typical weather pattern from over the last three days: rain, sun, rain, sun with wind, rain with gusting winds, then more rain topped off with a short burst of sunshine–then repeat this pattern. Someone make it stop.

Anyway, it is the weekend. Time to unstress.

ADDED:

I just had to add this shot from the same batch of shots I took of that storm cloud. I edited this one from the RAW file, trying to clean up some of the noise from using a hight ISO.

The details: 160mm (285mm at 35mm format) f13 1/500 ISO 400.

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about weather, Bitching about work, Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs | Comments Off

Going Back to Black and White: For the Moment

March 15th, 2012 Thomasso

With a freak storm that lasted for fifteen minutes, and weather that changed from hot and sunny, to cold and pouring rain, the only thing worth photographing today were clouds and a rainbow.

I converted the above image from my RAW format, into black and white image, using Dark Table, software that works with RAW files in Ubuntu 11.10. This was shot with my 200mm, f11, 1/400, ISO100 (300mm in 35mm formate) using my Sony A33.

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After the Storm – Pretty Rainbow Shot

March 15th, 2012 Thomasso

I just thought I would share this with you all. I also posted this on Twitter too becuase this is the first time I got a shot of a rainbow like this. I almost can see the entire spectrum of light in this shot.

The storm left as fast as it came, all within about fifteen minutes. We had lightening and thunder along with it; rare around these parts. The rainbow is pretty with this lens. The shot was taken from my back yard.

I shot this with my 50 to 200mm lens, at 50mm (78mm at 35mm standard) on my Sony A33.

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Daylight Savings Time, the Birds and Photographically Happy

March 11th, 2012 Thomasso

Today I am generally feeling good, although there are a few gripes that popped up, but I am busy so they do not really count as being blog worthy. “Busy,” seems to be my most common adjective describing 2012 so far for me. I am staying home today to catch up on personal things that I have ignored for weeks now. There a some family matters that I need to deal with before time takes them away and they end up forgotten. I also want to spend some time reading more literature about my camera, and make a list of what else I want to buy to feed my photography bug before time and money make it impossible to do in the short term.

So far today the Sun made a brief appearance through the clouds, and I hopped outside to photograph some really neat looking storm clouds, but the light was too strong, so I may have to wait until later on in the day to shoot them. I did shoot some tree branches that have started to bud, sending the message that spring is here!

Black and white photos seem to have a look and feel on their own when taken from the same colour image. I always believed that a black and white photo was a waste of pixels taken from a colour camera, but now I am seeing the artistic value they make, especially when shooting clouds. Clouds really stand out from a blue sky. However, in this case, I was not shooting in black and white, but I was using one of the cool photo effects Sony has on this camera where it only shows a selected colour, as in this case, blue, and leaves the rest of the image in black and white. After taking it, I thought, “wow, this is really cool.”

Other than my watermark, there is some blue in this photo–right at the top of the tree on the left.

As proof that spring is here, I did not have to go far from my doorstep to find a branch of a tree that is budding. This is a branch from a Walnut tree that grow along the property line. Fort Langley is populated with many of these trees. And yes, they produce walnuts.

Other sure signs of spring are Daylight Savings, which I hate, and Robbins (birds in general) going into spring mode. This morning the chirping was so loud I woke up at 6:00am listening to them doing their business. Yelling, “get a room” makes no difference to them; and they do not care whose watching, or listening to the racket. But that is O.K., as I had to get up anyway becuase the shift in time due to Daylight Savings.

ADDED: Last minute photo.

Above–I shot this one with my 200mm (300mm in 35mm format) but it had a really high ISO on it, so I saved it in RAW, and edited it into a black and white JPEG image.

I think we may see some lighting after all tonight? I would love to shoot that! Possible lighting photos coming up!

Posted in Around Town, Art, Diatribe, Events, General, Humour, Photographs | 1 Comment »

Need More Light: Homemade Photo Studio Project

March 10th, 2012 Thomasso

Yes, I am the first one to admit, I need more light if I am going to create my fantastic photos inside my home. At this point in my armature quest for prefect lighting, I am using two small desk lamps which are so poorly suited for studio photography that the effort to make seemingly good photos has put my nerves to the breaking point. I see in my future buying some half decent light stands, or a combination of flashes with soft-boxes.

With the light that I have on hand, my working area is about 20cm by 20cm; not very big. I am also using two different types of light: one incandescent light source, and the other, a compact florescent light; both are about 40 watts. My poor White-Balance indicator is not happy with me.

I am using white typing paper as the background. With this set-up, I am surprised at how much control I have over the lighting! I like the soft look, and by justing the paper I have over the lamps, I can get some really nice soft light effects.

And yes, I went back to my apples. This time I went with all three apples instead of the one, to see if I could improve on my composition and lighting skills. This is where I seen the need for more powerful lights. I also wished that I had a better key light source, and one additional  light lighting up the background.

I finished off taking some more shots of my pencil, which is the perfect model–never moves, and never complains. This shot is perfect for summing up how I felt when finishing my homemade experimental studio–having a bad hair day.

Have a great weekend. I am off to Chilliwack/Abbotsford, BC with some colleagues from KPU heading over to the Corrections Canada Parole building for some lectures on Halfway Housing in the future. Should be fun.

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Google Wants to Customize Ads for me?

March 6th, 2012 Thomasso

While I was sitting listening to the seminars that I attended this last weekend, my mind wondered off into the world of the Internet, and my day to day interactions with it, such as how much personal information I put out there for all to see. Google popped up, as they have been posting their new policy to anyone who is going to use their services with respects to their wanting to track where you surf, so that they can “customize” or “tailer” ads to your specific interests.

 I hear many concerned with this idea, but I feel most have jumped the gun as far as not understanding what it is Google is trying to do. You use Google’s many web services, and they in turn track what you have looked at, and they sell that information to prospective advertisers or marketing companies. So they give you the choice of many options, from not using Google at all, to switching services for your Internet surfing. I only use Google for my Twitter, You Tube and Search Engine. I do not use Gmail, or anything else that Google runs.

But, Google’s venture is only as good as long as you read their ads. I block most of the ads that Google (and other web providers) dump on websites. This, almost anyone can do, but you will have to search that yourself–on Google! I very rarely see ads, unless they are actually placed in the text of the website, or posted in GIFs (banners) that are specifically endorsed by that website. Almost all of the Flash can be controlled, so I simply turn everything off, or create an ad block list, and leaving the good Flash banners up and running.

I am not sure if I call Google’s attempt at marketing a huge threat to our privacy, nor do I see this as something that everyone should be weary of. If you have the choice to turn it off, or go around it, than this is perfectly acceptable to me. But, If I cannot do neither of these things, then we have a problem. I personally jump from one computer to another, often between five workstations and portable devices in one day, so tracking my habits would be almost impossible. Google would only get on a partial gimps at what I do on the net. Now with our shift towards encrypting our cyber communication and searches on the net, I can see Google challenge getting even that much more difficult to do.

Good luck Google, and I hope you make lots of money selling your data to advertisers!

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