"Backlit Macro Pro" you say....: dltphoto

Recently a friend of mine watched an upload on the mytubo site and instantly reported the image as being mine since he noticed it as being my style, which I later found out to be "backlit macro pro"... hahahahah
 "my Style?"... I dont see it! I think he's mad!

Happy Christmas:dltphoto

Happy Christmas to everyone.
Feel free to download this as your desktop. its sized to 1920x1080.
Enjoy the BNL's Green Chritsmas

Mushrooms: dltphoto

Just Mushrooms. That's all. Carry on please.

November 2011, favourite shot: dltphoto

I have decided to post my one, and only one, favourite shot for each month. Its going to be tricky... here is my November 2011 pick.

its 1024x rez incase anyone wants to steal it for a desktop...

Serious Fog,dltfogo: dltphoto

Pretty wicked fog hung over Abbotsford a short time ago. Not quite the same view as normal!

Testing 123..Nikon Coolpix AW100: dltphoto: duncan turner

Some would say I am fairly fortunate since I am able to play with cameras old and new. Currently I have had the opportunity to use the new Nikon Coolpix AW100...

Below is a cropped version of the above image.... just so you can see the detail I see.

Seattle Images ( part 3) Samsung Galaxy S: dltphoto

Here are the last of my fav's from the recent Seattle trip from my Samsung Phone

Camera vs Phone Camera: dltphoto

not really too much to compare against and not that anyone really cares...even I will admit that the phone does well, considering its a phone and sometimes its all I have on me!!

Seattle Images, part 2 ( Digital, Sigma DP1s) : dltphoto

Here are some shots from my stunningly slow Sigma DP1s, did I mention it was slow? Now considering renaming it to "sloth" instead of  "the stigma".Its really too bad as the image quality and design of the camera is quite nice. If it wasn't as slow as the first digital camera that was ever made it would for sure be one of my favourites...

Seattle Images (film, Nikon F100): dltphoto

This trip was all about me getting to watch, for the first time live in an official regular season game, my Washington Redskins playing against the somewhat local Seattle Seahawks. Oddly, this weekend had so much going on... such as the CFL Grey Cup which featured our unbelievable BC Lions (eventual winners) playing against a decent Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Black Friday ( America's Biggest shopping day of the year), American Thanksgiving, Seattle Marathon, Seattle Tree Lighting ceremony and a bunch of other minor happenings! Wow... we never expected all of that!
Anyways I finally caught a break in Seattle and had some pretty decent weather to get out and shoot a little. I had a brief run-in with the Seattle Police Dept which saw me sitting on the front of a Police car whilst they checked me out....ooooop's but I had done nothing wrong, I just happened to be taking pics outside of the police dept ( unknown to me), they were just being overly cautious!
Anyways, enough with the waffling... picture time!

Photoclub Submissions, December 2011: dltphoto

For this months submissions I chose to enter two actual prints instead of the digital file, since I work in Lens & Shutter and I have all these printing capabilities.
My first  print into the Film Category was a sweet little shot I did on my Agfa Isolette 1 ( 1952 camera), using a Kodak E100VS slide film cross-processed in colour development for more interesting contrast and colouration. I happened to catch a scene just up on the top of my street. Since the camera has no metering system I winged the exposure and pretty much nailed what I wanted!

"hands down"

I thought it an interesting composition although originally it is a square format since the Agfa uses 120 (medium format) film.... I cropped it to a more workable 11x14 for the more common 11x14 mattes that I have. I was expecting this to score poorly but apparently I got a middle of the road 7.

My second printed image was a autumn shot I just snapped with my Nikon D200 and my 70-200 2.8 VR on my drive home one day. The trees on the street were wild with colours. I cant pass up an opportunity like that. Usually people would tend to shoot the tree from a distance with a wider lens, this time I wondered under the trees looking upward hoping to catch some more unique angles and colours from a different direction.... clearly this was my downfall!!!

"Autumnal Rainbow"

Now I haven't quite gotten used to naming my images yet....and I dont think I ever will. Apparently it makes a big difference for scoring with the Judges or at least it can do. Maybe I titled this one poorly since I only got a lowly 6 ( which your pretty much guaranteed to get for just turning up). Since I couldn't be at the club that evening due to parenting responsibilities I didn't get the chance to find out why it scored so poorly. I thought it one of my better submissions so far!

So what I have learned so far about submitting prints for a competition? Not a heck of alot. So far my best scored image has been a shot right out of the camera, time invested workmanship hasn't gained me a lot extra and the technical ability of being able to use a 1952 camera successfully hasn't really paid off either. Back to the drawing board  for me.


As I suggested before, don't ever be discouraged by what another person thinks of your images, after all they no nothing about the story behind the image or maybe they lack the artistic ability to understand the shot you have created. I personally really like both shots, composition of both for me are great and both have eye-catching points within the image. I thought the colour popping of the autumn shot would have been more well received.

Next months submissions should be interesting!!

Circles all around us: dltphoto

Recently I had a somewhat puzzling moment.Why are all camera lenses round and yet all photographs are square/ rectangular?..... Shouldn't Lenses be rectangular?

Anyways...Circles are all around us, even when camping!

The ones that don't make the cut...:dltphoto

As professionals it is just assumed that we nail all our shots all the time, everytime. Funny thing is when we are trying  so hard to "get" that shot it often this leads to epic failures, which then visit the "delete" button. Oh how we love you delete button...
This little post is a "Raise Your Glasses" to you whom were scheduled to be deleted for whatever reason or are sitting in the recycle bin clinging to lifes last moments. For being a bad exposure, flash didnt fire, out of focus or just simply the shot didnt work.
 Heres to you, Failures!
Cheers ( raises glass)

editing , good or bad? : dltphoto

Many people have been drawn into this amazing world of editing since it has become soooo easy using multiple software's now that are free and quite spectacular. Does over editing take away from the original image that the person captured, clearly when the original shot was taken the person unlikely "envisioned" the shot after editing at that time! We are all guilty of slapping a fancy filter or dramatic effect onto images. What would the original pioneers of photography thought of this capability? does this wreck the moment? after all that isn't what was in front of you.... hmmmm!
Many of the film pioneers where masters in the darkroom, that is where all the magic happened with dodging/ burning with filters for different contrast techniques ( an old skool photoshop in essence)...clearly the importance of getting the information on the film was paramount but many of the greats found ways to enhance their film format to create masterpieces...
Here are a few of my recent shots, the before and the after editing... did they need editing? maybe not but the Image has been changed dramatically to create a different mood... maybe that's good or maybe not... waffle waffle waffle

On a side note these are shot and edited on my phone. How lame am I? Just to let you know I am breaking out my Nikon F100 for some sweet film shots... hold your breath people, they will be epics!

Photoclub Submissions APAC: November 2011: dltphoto

So I recently signed up for the local Photoclub (APAC) to try my hand at some competitions, see how other people would judge my images. Clearly most professionals think their images are wonderful and perfect, obviously others have different opinions. Judging someone elses images is incredibly awkward. Everyone has there own tastes, some people like landscapes, some like portraits and some like experimental. So I submit my images fully expecting to get scores/ results that I don't expect would be favourable, but some other days who knows what they might score....
Here are the first images I submitted and here are the surprising results, at least surprising to me!
My best score this month was a 9/10 for a images shot right out of an Olympus E-PL2 with the 14-42 lens. I used the fun ART filters ( dramatic tone) they have built in to the camera for easy effect. I was able to shoot this shot with the original Raw file and the edited Jpeg at the same time. Here are the two images below so you can see how effective the filter really was.

"weathered"

Here is the un-edited " as Shot" version which has a terribly uneven exposure due to the dark land and bright clouds... a graduated neutral density filter here would have been ideal....

Score #1 for the $699 mirrorless Pen Camera with no editing or computer ability needed!!

The second image was a sweet little Mushroom shot I found whilst on my last camping trip in the mossy, damp low-light confines of Alouette Lake, BC. The little guy was perched all alone on the side of a fallen tree. I was on all fours in the wet moss with a couple of wireless flashes set off by my Nikon D200 with Nikon AF-S 60mm 2.8 Macro. After experimenting with the flashes and using different flash location I ended up with this result straight out of the camera, again no editing required.

"on the edge"

This image scored a lowly 7/10. Hard work and effort didnt pay off this particular time!!.. A loss for the digital SLR... boooo! However, after talking to others I may have  put it into the wrong category, I assumed it would have been deemed a macro shot but the rules for macro suggest I would have to have filled the frame with the mushroom a lot more, but for this shot had I have cropped it down to the mushroom you wouldn't have seen the mushrooms situation.... you live and learn!

Lastly for the assigned category for that month was "glass". I happened to shoot a little glass scene in a junk store with my little Sigma DP-1s, it was low light and tough lighting I nailed a decent shot with those tough circumstances with only the fixed 28mm f4 and lousy high ISO but the detail of the shot was pretty magnificent due to the wonderful Foveon Sensor. Minimal editing was done and I was really pleased with the final outcome.

"Empties"

I believe it scored a combined aggregate of 19 which means three people scored it 6.3-ish each.... Not very good, but they are not notified what camera was used, etc... and its also competing against other peoples images...But try, try again... don't ever be discouraged about when someone else judges your own art, art is subjective. As long as you are happy with your product and that you fulfilled your creative expression within your chosen media, sleep well!

Overall I am enjoying the process and I look forward to my next batch of images to be uploaded.

The Heartbreak of Johnny Canuck : dltphoto

This is brilliant and painful....so so painful!

Golden Oldie: dltphoto

I was going over some old pics from quite a few years ago, 2005, and came across one classic image which I dubbed at the time "the Batman Shot".

after 6 years and would I have processed the images any differently??
Inititially I went black and white again but after playing I came out with a slightly aged effect...

When its what you have on you at that time!: dltphoto

As some of you may or may not know I have been anti cell phones for many years now but finally I got with the times and have a fancy Android smart phone... sadly the thing i use it for the least is ringing people. Actually I find myself shooting pictures with it almost emphatically.. here is a few from the amazing fall season we have been having, and remember these are straight out of a phone!

Somersets Finest, Cotleighs Beer: dltphoto

Recently, a very good friend of mine, from here in Abbotsford, frequented my home county of Somerset, where he used to live once upon a time. Needless to say that he picked up a little teasing treat for me whilst he was there. Some of the many things Somerset is known for is its fine Ale, Cider and Cricket ( I'm sure theirs alot more things but that'll do for now!)

The Ale is the hot topic for this Blog post! Cotleighs is a very well known Somerset treasure along with the world Famous Taunton Cider .

As mentioned before the teasing gift I received was a  "Beers of Prey" combo with a Tawny and a Golden Seahawk

A popular past time of Somerset folk is to travel from pub to pub sampling many of the different Ale's and Beers brewed and made in the west Country, its purely for educational purposes!
I can only suggest that you all visit Somerset one day and try the Ale first hand.... just knocking down the Tawny as we speak.... fantastic.

My Robot Nation: dltphoto

A little project I was working on for Offload Studios, visit My Robot Nation and do what all the other cool kids are doing. "make it real".

Here are some of the teaser images I was working on....