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.