This is an antique compass that we have which also doubled up as a navigation device. The list of natural sines on the back would help in calculations of a sailor’s position on the globe. I would also rather have GPS, but it just doesn’t have the same romance, does it?
H/ware: Canon 7D, Canon 500D close up lens
S/ware: Nik filters
Another image from Coconut Island. It really is one of our favourite places, a great spot for families or just a tranquil place to see off the end of the day. The children especially like to come and entertain themselves, and any onlookers, with their antics as they jump off the <…. what is that thing? …> into the waters of Hilo Bay.
H/ware: Canon 7D, Canon EF-S 15-85, Tiffen and B+W filters
S/ware: Nik Software filters
You might notice some softening of the trees and the water. This is because I stacked a neutral density filter (6-stop) with a graduated filter (3-stop) to bring the sky even further down, which enabled me to capture a 6-second exposure in the late afternoon light. I rather like the softness this gave the image.
H/ware: Canon 7D, Canon EF-S 15-85, Tiffen and B+W filters.
S/ware: Lightroom and Nik Software tools.
While the rest of the island was being deluged by the storms this weekend, we decided to go on an excursion along the Mana Road. This is a road which skirts around the northeastern edge of Mauna Kea, between Waimea and the Mauna Kea Access Road. We went to Waimea, joined up with some friends and spent a few hours driving and exploring along the Mana Road.
I know that the first lensbaby abstract that I posted was a hard one and I realise that I never posted an answer. It is a picture of a rainwater drain on a corrugated roof taken from our house.
So for this abstract, and given that we are rapidly approaching Christmas, I think I have a really easy one for you. Can you guess what it is?
I don’t know where John Nack finds these videos but they are great. This is no exception, a video from the New Zealand Book Council to remind people that books are still very much alive and carry more character and personal involvement than an e-book device. I’m not saying that I agree or advocate books over e-books or vice-versa (but think of the trees we could save by not printing books…). What I am saying is that I am amazed by this video. The artistry, craftmanship, patience that must have gone into making this video is to me just, and I hate to use this word, awesome. But what other word can I use? I am in awe of whoever can do this kind of art. Enjoy.
Please click here to see the video, it is worth it!
(Unless I’m doing something wrong, WordPress will not allow me embed this video into the post which is bloody annoying and stupid if you ask me (I know, you’re not asking…). It seems that you can only embed youtube and google videos, even though the web site hosting the video is freely giving the embed html code to include into your web site. When I try it here, it’s not parsed by the WordPress engine. Blah!)
It’s amazing what tricks your brain can play on you. I’m pretty sure that the diamond being moved around in this video has just one colour. But, as this optical illusion demonstrates, the brain likes to see order and pattern in the world around it and so it recolours the diamond cut out for you so that it fits into its perception of what the world should look like…. what else is it doing for me?!
Thanks to John Nack for this.
I finally had a chance this weekend to play with the Lensbaby that I received for my birthday this summer. As well as making interesting photographs of flowers etc, I find that it is quite good at making abstract, things that are mundane.
Here’s my first attempt at what I hope will develop into a series. Can you guess what it is?
I enjoyed a sunny weekend in Puna and Hilo this weekend with my daughter. Mum was away having fun with her girlfriends so it was just me and Mira. We went down to Puna on a beautiful Saturday to collect some water samples, for Mira’s science project, from the hot ponds at Ahalanui Park and from the tide pools at Pohoiki. These are great places and we always enjoy them when we go, but for me the highlight is always driving through the countryside and especially the tree tunneled road.
The images here have been hdr processed (4 images, each 1-stop apart). I used LR/Enfuse for the top one and Photomatix for the one below. But the soft and glowing look I gave to the images comes from filters within the Nik Software Suite (Color Efex Pro). That’s some cool software!
No, I’m not going to do all photography from around the interweb – ya think I got time for that?! Here I have just two links (both of which I stumbled upon on Rob Galbraith’s blog) which I found interesting for different reasons.
The first is from Time magazine: The top 10 doctored photos. They show the before and after. Normally this wouldn’t attract me – people do this sort of manipulation in Photoshop countless times every single day. But each of the photos shown have a historical importance which makes them worth looking at. Two things which I found fascinating. First, is how good the “art” of photo-manipulation was more than 100 years before Photoshop. The older photographs are the ones which interested me most. Secondly, I can’t believe that we have modern-day governments still doing this sort of thing (see the last image)!
The second is from the Smithsonian: The 6th Annual photo contest. There are 5 categories and you can see the finalists and category winners from each. The overall winner is from the travel section, and although I think it is a great image, I do not think that it is the best one. And therein lies something else to learn about photography, it is very subjective.
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