One shot forward, Three years backward: dltphoto

Here, in the dead or winter, I find myself going back through endless folders of images from loaned camera's and random shoots.I came across this image from my brief experience with the Nikon D3x during August, 2009. At one point Nikon's flagship Camera, with both Mega-Pixels and Build performance. Paired with my excellent Nikkor AF-S 60mm macro they were a match made in heaven. Anyways, this image I have chosen I can't really decide on.

320th sec, F5.6. 400 iso

I like the idea of it visually, it's pleasing and easy to look at. Howeve it doesn't inspire me since I am not a avid flower photographer.  When I  look at it as though it isn't a flower I go back to liking even more. I am very drawn the the shallow depth of field behind the centre of the flower, a sense of explosion of both colour and movement.

Alternate Route TO :dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/TkYKdMq3-L/

If you can't join them, beat them: dltphoto

My earlier attempt of "faux-laroid'ing"  looked too good, too sharp and nothing like a real crumby Polaroid. So here are my new attempts but now I have upgraded to "3-D" Faux-laroids...

dltphogr.am webpage:dltphoto

I am loving the new webpage that instagram has provided for its users!

Check it out here (discoduncan)

Happy Christmas, 2012: dltphoto

To all my friends, family and blog stalkers!

"have a good time, all the time" ( Quote: Carter USM and maybe someone else).

Random Film Images: dltphoto

On rare occasions I stumble upon images I shot a while ago. Often it takes me a while to figure out what I was doing at the time and why did I shoot them.

I was just wandering through some folders and came across this image and thought how lovely and warm the image was and then the thought process commenced and remembered where I took it.

This was shot at the end of summer, during the our first Worldwide Photowalk participation in Abbotsford. I remember I went out with two camera's, one of which the Film batteries died and I recall I had some other issue with my DSLR and ended up fooling around with flash for other peoples shots....!

Here are the few I just found.

APAC Pre-Submission Fun Game: dltphoto

I have decided to ask my readers, all 6 of you (ha), to please pretend you are an Photoclub Adjudicator ( judge) and Score/ Critique my images that I am going to post into the Club in the very near future.
This way I can get a rough idea of what I could face with a real Judge/ Adjudicator.
Scores are from between 5 and 10 (10 being the best) and for this fun post feel free to use  half points, such as 7.5 etc... Also If you can come up with a better Title, I would love to know it!
This is purely for my fun, I am not going to rant at you if you think its a score of 5 that's your choice. If you want to elaborate on what I can do better then great. Base it on Impact, content.. whatever!

I will do a follow up post with the official scores once they have been entered into the real exhibition. Then you can all see how closely you scored my image to what a professional scored it.

You can comment anonymously if you don't want to hurt my feelings... really they cannot be hurt!

"every building has a yellow lining"

"the great Pyramids"

"Reflections"

November 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

Here is my choice image for November. I will remember it as being a dreary drizzly day with a walk on the local trail with Lucy as her and I took photos with our cameras. The image itself has some pleasing aspects but this is secondary to how great I felt spending time doing the thing I enjoy with a person I helped create!

APAC Photoclub Submissions, December 2012:dltphoto

It's punishment time again.... hahahah (just kidding). The December month sees a previous judge (an artist/ painter), umm adjudicator, from last year, the same adjudicator who gave me a 10. Not knowing this before I submitted my images, I sadly uploaded them a day before we were informed who the judge would be. So, I was stuck with the images I chose. I may have been a little more daring had I have known. Its all good though.

Experimental, "Night Watchmen", score 8

This is one of my first "Over edited" images. Basically, I had an image I really wanted to work but I didn't enjoy the lack of overall depth in the image. The initial shot (below) was impossible to get at the time since the only method of keeping the sky in the shot would have been to flash the subjects which clearly was not possible. So I had no other option than to "fake" a sky.

Crows at Barkerville, original shot

After trying several rich blue sky and cloudy shots in the background from my stock of sky images, I felt no impact with any of them.
Then I recalled some images I had just shot with a Lensbaby and thought I would try it with that sky ( an image I won't share yet as its to be a future submission). The effect was much more dramatic. It appeared much more "moon-lightish" with the Crows. Not the perfect blend of images but I thought it created a nice mood and something that you might not normally see. Crows in the dark would be pretty hard to spot and shoot. The light I had on the roof worked nicely simulating  moon glare on the roof top. Overall. I was quite pleased with the final outcome.

Second image for the night.

Open, "20th Century Rock Music",  Score 8

This is a very simple Lensbaby shot of a discarded CD I stumbled across on a bike ride to work. The light fell on it perfectly and created some nice colour tones. The blurring was the lensbaby effect. I had shown the image to a club member previously and they could'nt figure out what they were looking at, so I thought they might need help determining the subject matter, hence the title.

Finally I submitted a print for the assigned topic "People at Work". Challenging.
Scrolling through my hoards of images and I found a Barkerville shot of which the people dressed in character dress, were working the streets... I threw a quick aged action over with with some nasty lens vignette on it to make look super old-school, since its a "period" style shot.

* Addition, The Adjudicator, Janet, actually critiqued this image during the post let-down. She enjoyed the interaction, the movement of the people. She also enjoyed the dark bottom left-hand corner which compensated for the lighter top right hand corner. She also felt the people's heads angle lead you nicely down to that dark left hand corner. I can see the appeal of that. none of which was intentional, at least I don't think my brain saw that, but maybe it did.*

Assigned, "Barkerville- Still working", score 25 (3rd place)

Thanks to Colin for helping me with the title for this one. I hate titling images... hate it.

File 13, "Recycle Bin": dltphoto

A follow up to a previous post "the ones that don't make the cut".

These are some of  the new "File 13's"

Composition Fail

Weird Shadow= Wrong

Lucy loves Red leaves: dltphogr.am

http://instagr.am/p/SZT-ZMq30f/

Not always ideal, but we manage: dltphoto

The one thing about photography is that the picture doesn't always tell the real story. Photographer's have found ways to "sugar coat" the shot to make the viewer believe everything was ideal!

And now the real story...Wedged in a corner.

And then factor in that all the persons to be photographed come all at once and are enjoying "coffee morning", whilst your juggling families and catching falling $1000 studio lights.....
It might just send some people a little Crazy!

Black Friday Special: dltphoto

Just wanted to point out a nice sale at Lens & Shutter for the next 5 days... Lots of good deals to be had especially the Canon Powershot 520HS which was featured by me in a previous blog post. Perfect for an Android phone user or someone who wants a super small compact with great zoom.
The other one I thought I would suggest  as a good deal is the Panasonic TS20 ( Shock proof and Waterproof), great kids gift for the budding photographer

Check out the Full Special list at Lens and Shutter

Web-site :dltphogr.am

http://instagr.am/p/SG9O8bK31I/

Christmas is coming....:dltphoto

This year I am going to inform you that all the camera's are great. All of them, really. Every manufacturer has caught up and everybody is producing a decent product with wonderful image quality.

This year I believe is the year that the Mirrorless Camera will emerge as the dominant product people are after. Since they are so small and so capable, plus we are seeing some nice price reductions due to some newer models being announced. This is the best time to pickup some great deals and still get a camera that is very new in the world of technology. First the Nikon 1 series of camera's are being switched to a new model which has had a very soft upgrade to the new version (series 2). Olympus Pen E-PL3 is one of my fav's in the Olympus lineup.

As for the Compacts.. again, they are all good. A feature that I have enjoyed is the Sweeping Panoramic system. Available in most of Nikon's upper end models with the 16MP Sensor.
As for the styles that seem to be most popular are the Shockproof, Waterproof models. These  models are fantastic for butter fingers, too many times have I seen camera's with "impact" damage. The same applies to how many times I have watched a Cell Phone hitting the ground and dispersing into 20 glorious pieces. The need for these camera's is evident! Nikon AW100 or Pentax WG-2 and both excellent for under $249.

Then we hit the serious enthusiast Pocket Camera's. Canon has an impressive lineup at this time, includes the Powershot S110 ( now with WiFi and Raw capable). Sweet little 5 X Zoom and sweet customizable Ring Feature. We can kind of slip the Fuji X10 and the New, but not yet available Fuji XF1 in this category also. All very well made camera's with a whole bundle of capability and great for creativity.

Lastly, the DSLR's. All looking very impressive. Best value for a DSLR designed for our dreary weather system is Pentax's K-30. Soooo weather sealed. It's insane. None of the other sub $900 DSLR's have any kind of weather sealing like this. So give it a thought! All offer HD video, some now offer WiFi capability such as Nikon D3200 (WiFi adapter required for $70), Canon EOS 6D (built in WiFi)

Probably some of the best-est bets this year will be accessories. Bags, tripods, filters..... FLASH'S, Yes. As a wise man once said " Flash is your friend"... oh, that was me! Without light you are powerless, unless you have F1.2 lenses, but who really can afford them! If your current camera can take an additional flash then get one that can change the light direction. Starting at $100 the Metz 24 AF-1 (available for all manufacturers in TTL), simple, powerful. Makes indoor shots nicer.

Then wrap up all the Christmas presents with a One on One Lesson with yours truly  Then they can have a nice camera and I can start to teach them how to use it.

You are not a fish, Lensbaby Scout: dltphoto

Caution. You are Not a Fish. Not to be used for extensive periods of time. Please use wisely. Seek medical guidance if your Fisheye habit becomes out of control! (Lensbaby Scout)

Seriously, This lens is ridiculously fun. I don't know what I enjoy more. The nasty "toy lens" vignette or the ability to be SO close focus to your subject. This Lens is a must have in my books, although you can get very tired of the fisheye look. So don't overdo it on your first day.

Red vs Yellow :dltphogr.am

http://instagr.am/p/R2sG8Uq35h/
Strong, bold colours. I love the feel of this image, the leaves fell perfectly and the early evening sun provided nice shadows.

Faux-laroid #1 :dltphoto

Since I don't have any Polaroid camera's, nor do I have any film for them if I had any camera's, I still want to play the fun game of being retro and hip.

P7K (Nikon Coolpix P7000): dltphoto

Big Thanks to Mr Koopmans for babysitting the "snail-like" slow Sigma DP1s whilst I get to play with his "F1" performance Coolpix P7000. I have had this camera before, at least I had the Nikon reps model. It has since had a pretty wicked firmware update which has brought it up to the speed of its younger brother the P7100. Now the youngest sibling is the Nikon P7700 which is yet to arrive on the shelf. It should be 'oh' so much improved, but will it really be improved? The P7100 in all its glory has only some minor upgrades to it over the newly updated P7000, features such as Zoom burst and artistic mode and other than the tilt-able screen it isn't much improved from what I can tell. We will see the vanishing act of the optical viewfinder on the P7700, which I see as no big loss, since I never used it on the P7000 anyways.
 The best option for me on this camera is the RAW file, it's not the normal Nikon NEF file I have been accustomed too. Sadly, I couldn't open them on my Lightroom Version so thank goodness for Nikon's View NX2 free software. It's not pretty, but it gets it done.
Here are a few shots, the original in jpeg form and the edited version through ViewNX2

Edited Raw

Original

Now having seen these two images at a relatively low resolution on this blog, check out what I spotted accidentally when zooming into the file to check for sharpness.....

Spiders are always lurking!

Road Carrot, dltphogr.am:dltphoto

http://instagr.am/p/R0Gvg6q3xE/
Now you can see all my dltphogr.ams here

Pirates of the Fraser Valley: dltphoto

If either of these fiendish pirates held you by sword point and off'd with some candy swag then consider yourself lucky. Better than being sent to Davey Jones Locker!

APAC Photoclub Submissions: November 2012: dltphoto

Last month saw the massive APAC Seminar here in Abbotsford. I enjoyed it, it's great to see all the reps and all our customers, at least a good hand-full of them all in one place. Also this year I had one of my images showcased and printed by Lens & Shutter. So proud! hahahahah

"motion blur" which was supposed to be titled "when two atoms collide"

First up for the evening was the assigned category "wheels". A previous shot which readers may have seen in a previous post from Barkerville. maybe.. I don't recall if I posted this shot... anyways. Its pretty obvious. It's a Wheel. Purely the title is the only thing that can save this shot! "It's got some wheel flare"... Wheel. Get it? Real Flare?...ha hahah. no. sorry. I wasn't expecting any great numbers and got punished suitably.

Assigned Topic  "Wheels",  "It's got some wheel flare" score 22 ( from 30)

Next up, A Phone shot. ooooooooh. Curses!

Abstract, "New Horizons". score 6

 It was a shot that I thought was kind of interesting. I did apply a cross-processing action to it to give it this interesting cyan/ greenish look. It was featured more recently in my "favourite shot" for September, which I showed the original capture along with the cross-processed version.
Architectural, Abstract and kinda Artsy. Perhaps the type of shot a designer may use in a Loft space to create form and interest within the minimal space.... Something like this!!!

Image ripped off from google images... thanks whomever you are.

"Abstract:  images extracted from a larger reality or subject. An abstract image is, usually, independent of pictorial references and reduced to form, colour ,tones, texture and line." ( APAC Guidelines for Category)

Since I got such a low score for this image I quizzed the Judge at the end as to why it didn't do well. Apparently it didn't fit his description of Abstract. Really. So I asked him what he thought the photo might be of and after 4-5 attempts of guessing it wrong, he then suggested that this image is an Abstraction, not an Abstract. Oh Dear and Really?? An ABSTRACTION not an ABSTRACT. This should be the point where I storm out and knock over some chairs in disgust.
This fills all the criteria that I can see.

Images extracted from a larger reality, CHECK ( its a big building)
Independent of pictorial references, CHECK ( no story line here)
Form, Colour, Tones, Texture and Line, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK and CHECK MATE!

Someone suggested I submit it again, since another Judge might lap it up. Personally, I want to show new images. I dislike seeing the same image re-posted.


My third image for the evening is definitely one my readers have all seen before. I was testing the theory that things in three's always do well, according to CAPA rules and other fellow club members. For the sake of attempting to score well, which apparently didn't work, I did remove some items from this image in order for them not to be distracting for the judge. It would appear to be necessary if you don't want to get caught out, point wise, with irritating things they don't like in the image. It can make all the difference to some Judge's, but apparently not this ummmm Judge.

 This happens to be a "real camera" shot from my Nikon D200 with the "Highlander" lens.

Architecture, "get to the point", score 7

"Architecture: images depicting  buildings, structures, interiors and  surroundings, whole or in part, that
emphasize design or functionality." (APAC Guidelines for Category)


It would appear that the Projection system for the club has been fairly bad recently so I may have to start printing to get the right image judged. Although, It probably wouldn't matter and at the end of the Day it makes no difference to me. I still enjoy all three images. That guy wants to look at nasty overdone HDR's and overly PS'd images... that's his choice, have at it.

Congratulations, it's a Girl. I think. No, wait... :dltphoto

Being an owner of the Lensbaby 2.0 for quite some time, I am more than familiar with the challenges of it. I have had the chance now to play with another Lensbaby of which I have been pleasantly surprised with the new handling capability. The Composer Pro with "Sweet 35" optic. The Composer series is much less awkward than the original series. Basically my 2.0 is fully bendable (springy) and should you let go of it, or breathe, move etc.. the shot will be out and you'll have to try, try again. With the Composer's they still have the same moving function but they aren't springy, more sticky?. Thus meaning once you have found your desired effect it will remain in it's "sweet spot".... marvelous. Check out the Video.

It's Triplets! Awwwww Cute!

One nice option they have now added is the optic swap system. Now you don't have to buy multiple lenses for different effects, the Composer will allow you to switch out the insides. Now, for a much lower price you can change the look of your Lensbaby. Optics such as Single Glass, Double Glass, Sweet 35 and Fishyeye and more I didn't get chance to play with.

Sweet 35

Sweet 35

Sweet 35

Winter is coming :dltphogr.am

http://instagr.am/p/RirfJ9K3_I/

October 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

Here is one from our camping trip to Alouette Lake. A little stream that I assume runs into the lake.
Shot the annoyingly slow and frustratingly poorly screened Sigma DP1s. It darn well creates beautiful files but couldn't be any worse of a camera. Maddening... but I shouldn't complain. Not many have the unique Foveon Sensor to fool with!
Shot on a Gorilla Pod SLR zoom, Sigma DP1s, 50iso, 13seconds, F11 with two cokin ND filters stacked.