Sometime right about now, I tend to get a little down. It’s a typical thing towards fall – I tend to be less active, tend to not want to go outside. It’s just a touch of depression, knowing that the next seven months or so will be in monochrome. Already the leaves are browning, the yellows are gone. Temperatures are in the forties at best.
So no outdoor photos just yet. It’s not that they aren’t out there, it’s just that I don’t have the heart to go find them…
An outtake from today’s in-home “studio” shoot:
Bloody Orange
From the San Diego zoo:
Baby Gorilla, eating
Just a capture to share…
Specifically, in regards to Flickr and this post. A criticism that the Wired staff threw out was that they didn’t like trite comments. Now, I understand what they mean: if you can’t comment with meaning, then all you’re doing is giving me a pat on the back.
The thing is, lots of people like that. Sometimes I do, although I usually prefer conversations with more substance.
But the other thing I’ve noticed: the amount of trite comments varies, depending on how I behave and how good the photos are. If I post a photo that people can connect to, those people will put in more meaningful comments. When I communicate with people, they respond to me. If it’s merely “nice,” they’ll leave a “nice” comment. If I leave small, meaningless comments, they’ll do the same.
So in short, if you don’t like trite comments, don’t act trite and don’t post trite photos.
Just a nagging question that I’ve been mulling over, which came back to me after reading a post on the AK Muckraker today: in this whole argument of government vs. private health insurance, the Republicans keep talking about how “75%” or so of the population is happy with their health insurance. My question: who are these people?
I mean, I don’t know a single person who’s happy with their health insurance. I know many who are unhappy with government-sponsored insurance, and for great reasons: the inevitable bureaucracy, the potential for death panels, waste of money, the consolidation of power. But I’ve only ever heard complaints about private insurance.
Who is happy with their private insurer, and why? Over the past couple of years I’ve paid five figures in health care expenses out of pocket because ours has claimed that “having teeth is cosmetic.”
I have a subscription to Wired. I didn’t pay for it, it came with something that I purchased. Don’t even remember what it was anymore – but it’s almost up. I received a renewal offer in the mail the other day and thought about it – was it interesting enough to spend the ten or twelve dollars for a year’s subscription on? Comparing that to the effort to read it, the quality of articles, the disposal…
So the renewal letter went in to the recycle bin. Click to continue »
I’m reading A Photo Editor’s post from this week, and I’m finding myself a bit split on the main phrase of the post (“HDR needs to go the way of the animated gif and blinking HTML text”).
On the one hand, I agree. There’s some atrocious HDR work out there. I would know, I’ve made a lot of it! But on the other, I’ve seen people take those “overly tone mapped” images and make beautiful art. I’m not only referring to abstracts, one of the things that HDR will allow you to do is amplify barely-visible objects. Sundogs, for example, can be brought out better in HDR. Same goes for some rainbow shots.
So I’m split. But I’m also put off by the… arrogance of some of the comments. Maybe arrogance isn’t the right word – it’s the refusal to accept or appreciate other people’s tastes in imagery.
And yes, this is a link to a blog that’s linking to another blog. Somehow the circle must be completed.
On our recent trip, I had an opportunity to shoot the moon. What you see below is a 400mm lens on a tripod, manually focused on the moon. the image itself is cropped, but this is 100% of a 10 mpx file.
Moon detail
Here’s the thing about taking pictures of the moon: if you’re going to do it, you really want to wait until the moon is low on the horizon. The lower it is, the larger it appears (an atmospheric effect). In Hawaii, on the Big Island, I’ve seen it much larger and brighter. But this was pretty good, and you can see quite a few details.
Exposure is the other tricky part. It might take a few tries, and you’ll need to review carefully. Basically, though: expose for a bright day. A starting point, for example, might be f/16, ISO 50, and 1/60th (the “sunny 16″ rule). For this, I started at 1/100, f/16, ISO 100. The final exposure, though? 1/40th, f/5.6, ISO 200. All that to reduce the shake on the camera.
Sometimes you have to compromise.
On my recent vacation, I came across part of my Aunt & Uncle’s back yard that I didn’t remember. It was beautiful, with luscious green limes hanging from the trees:
It's not a Lime
One thing was strange, though – usually lime trees (lyndon trees in much of the world) have a distinctive smell. These did not, so I asked my Uncle why.
“Because they’re oranges.”
Sometimes, you just need to get away. I was just away, and now I’m getting back. Had a fantastic time, spent with quality folks. And got to play around with a 400mm lens!
I’m still processing the myriads of photos, so it’ll be a couple of days. Expect some pics soon!