Seattle in Miniature :dltphoto

One clever little feature that has been added to cameras for sometime now is "diorama" or "tilt 'n' shift" mode. A clever technique of selective in focus and out of focus portions making the image seem like its of a little scale model of a city or scene. Ultimately as good as this option is on a camera, the scene is really the make or break to a successful fooling of the eyes. My initial attempts from my recent one night visit to Seattle have given me some better insight of how to approach future diorama shots and there will be more, I promise.
My new Olympus TG-850 has this diorama mode as one of its "art filters". So I am basically shooting the scene and the camera is doing all the work for me. The key to a realistic fake City picture is having a high view point of a street view with people and cars, ideally not moving  fast that they are blurred. No fake city model ever has fast moving static cars, got it??!!
Here are some of my attempts.

Just for fun I wondered through the city mall to see if that's viable too. One thing I lacked in both scene's was people. I managed to convince 3 'random' persons to wander through my mall scene though!!!

Sunsets through a Lens :dltphoto

So, we have all seen beautiful sunsets. Many times they are so incredibly hard to photograph and you really just can't capture on camera what your seeing. Also as a creative photographer how do you make this sunset be something that someone wants to look at. How many variations of a sunset can be done before its all been done??

I just found some images from my camping this year and I remembered that I had attempted to change my normal view to something more creative or did i just something crap and should I delete it?

 I have shot through these trees a million times and I am sure I have dozens of images like this on previous posts. Can I do something more to make this some thing everyone will want to look at? What if I make it out of focus?

At the time I thought this looked pretty cool. I have never done an out of focus sunset before. At least not this intentional! So I pushed it a little further...

How abstract can one now start to get? Is it now a beautiful sunset on the lake or just some computer generated file from some paint program?? What now? Can I really show this? After all now it has no context. No obvious signs that its a beautiful moment in time by a lake with a camera..

Did I create a design piece?

Hmmm, Or is it just a orange blob with some vague reddish blobs???

Can I use the two images together?

      Original                                                   Out of Focus                                  Combined

Perhaps I should just stick to my day blob!!!

The End

Slint, Vancouver 2014 :dltphoto

Thanks to a friend a went to see an excellent band called Slint.They are fairly artsy with their stage lighting and I only got one shot of any worth with my Nikon 1 V1 with the 18.5mm 1.8 lens attached.

Still, Not an Addict, D's Choice :dltphoto

Some of you music lovers may have come across a Band from Belgium called K's Choice who have some brilliant music and a classic track called "not an addict".



Well I am not an Olympus "dramatic tone" addict, it's a lie.

Raccoon left a hand print. I hope he didn't burn himself.

I didn't realise it until after the fact. A little bug friend invaded my shot.

Side by Side, Lenses:dltphoto

OK, so this isn't exactly a side by side comparison but it'll help you understand why some people buy the bigger, more expensive lenses.
Here are two images shot as close to being the same as I could by hand holding it etc... one image with the Nikon 1 V1 with 30-110 4.5-5.6 1 series lens attached, the other with my ancient Nikon D200 with the 70-200 2.8 VR1 version lens.

I think both have great characteristics, I really see the "bokeh" come forward in the D200 image. Since the Nikon 1 lens doesn't have the 2.8 capability I think it makes it obvious which is which.
Having said that the Nikon 1, 1" sensor, stacks up quite nicely against the older  APS-C sensor.
Both please me from a composition point of view and both have an equal opportunity to make it framed on the wall.

Lost Souls: dltphoto

Not that I have any morbid pleasure of death but I have always had a bit of a thing for shooting in graveyards. Because I thought it odd I have never really published anything about it, or that I want to upset people incase I intrude on someone's afterlife beliefs.
However I found a grave site that interested me. I didn't actually walk on to the site itself, I walked around the fenced area to respect the proprietors of the land.
Anyways, this one had a really distinct selection of headstones ( mostly made from wood), some extremely simply wooden ones and some more elaborate. Creatively its interesting and I wonder if the higher quality headstones reflect wealth and stature? and the opposite for the weathered basic headstones?

Camera's used : Nikon D200, Nikon 1 V1, Olympus Tough TG-850 and Sigma DP1s

Some Addictions are Tough to Break :dltphoto

So I have come across my new addiction. It's kind of like when you first get that fisheye lens you always wanted. You've dreamed of all the crazy things you're going to shoot with it, then after a few weeks you realise that damn it's cool but then the cool drug wears off. Your worst fear. They love has dried up and you have lost the ability to creatively use it or that you have just about "done" everything you think you can do with it. You retire it to the shelf, it gathers dust until your next creative fisheye dream.

Well I mentioned about the Olympus Tough TG-850 I acquired, I have had the same "fisheye" experience.
I suggested I wasn't going to use it for everything, but well, I lied. It's so addictive. Especially for sky images. It's adds mustard to your hotdog, it's the rum to your coke. It's the filter for your art.

It's simpler in Black & White :dltphoto

Once upon a time everyone's images where pretty much in black and white, even TV's where once only black and white also. Sometimes its nice to step backwards, which is also why I used the Sigma DP1s ( the stigma) since it's like stepping back in time because it's sooooooo slow.