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.

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).

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!

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.

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 3: dltphoto

the last of the DSLR Pics, Sorry to bore you all!.

Wells, BC

Somewhere in Wells, BC

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 2: dltphoto

Here are some shots from my DSLR, Nikon D200.

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 2":dltphoto

So as I mentioned I had at least one blank roll.. well darn it I ended up with two! That means that the Voitlander will either undergo surgery or it will have to be retired. Everything seemed to be operational! Alas, that's the biggest loss of frames I have ever had... as I said I am not too cut up, i did shoot most things with a couple of cameras. Its disappointing but I will live.
We opted for not staying at one location this year and headed from Green Lake to a place called Barkerville, another 5 hours from Green lake, up past Quesnel in the Middle of NOWHERE. Currently Its the furthest I have traveled within BC since I have been here... This province is pretty darn big!

Williams Lake Tourist Centre

All of our Rigs...

Camping 2012, "Nostalgic Version, Part 1": dltphoto

So since I have been so amazingly nostalgic since getting the two cameras from the UK, which were my dads, I thought it be fitting that for this holiday I would use the Cameras that my dad would have used for his holiday time. Now, as mentioned before, the film processing and film technology is far superior than back in his time, so the results I am getting maybe far greater than he ever got. Not to mention that I have surpassed my father in the art of photography. For him it was a hobby, the guy who was always relied on to take pics, not that he was a wealthy man who could afford many cameras, in fact quite the opposite. The Turners were a very stereo typical working class family were dessert at dinnertime was a massive luxury. I still see the little house my dad lived in back in Taunton with Uncle Norman and Granddad Sidney and Grandma Daisy, sadly I can only remember growing up seeing Uncle Norman, I have no recollection of my Turner Grandparents.... anyways.. i got off track!
So, I am using his camera's to record our holiday! Again, I am likely to be a little less frugal with the amount of shots during the vacation than he might of been, being that film and other costs would of have been maybe out of his reach.
The two camera's I used are the  Pal M4 and the Voitlander BL. I grabbed some of the oldest film I had in my fridge in the hope that I might add a bit more character to the shots with some fogging and discolouration, but alas that didn't seem to effect anything, also I used a little black and white also...None of the images are edited anyways on the computer, just scanned and saved low enough rez for the blog.

Barkerville BC, Artistic View: dltphoto

As you saw on the previous post a few of my "Promotional" style shots, well here are just some of my more artistic renderings...

Thought I would throw a B&W in here...

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 1: dltphoto

The first of this years camping trip was to one of our favourites, Green Lake. Since I holiday with several different cameras, perhaps about 10, i find I am able to post a few times just using some of the different camera formats. This years I have a full spread of varying digital ( compact and DSLR) and film ( manual and automatic).
  Having so many formats and being able to still use them all makes it all a little bit more fun for me, after all it is my holiday too! In this entry I will be displaying some of the digital compact versions, since I have an awful lot of images I think I will just bore you with a few!

The beach

My Cycling Shadow

Barkerville, BC: dltphoto

Somewhere way up in the middle of nowhere on the road that takes your hours to get there is this wonderful little town called Barkerville, Established 150 years in a time when Gold was in them there hills....
This is an excellent place where people have restored an old Gold Rush town and have made it into a wonderful destination for  people, willing to do the drive, to mooch around and look at some of the old buildings that made up this Western style town.To make it even more enjoyable they have capped it off with people in full dress for the time period wandering around pretending to be characters from that period, really quite the photographers paradise!
Since I hadn't really read to much up on it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I certainly didn't imagine it being as large as it was. The buildings were wonderfully rustic, not like the good old brick I am used to from good ole England. The Only thing I missed or would have liked was the occasional tumble weed to go rolling down the main street!! that would have made it priceless

Here are some of my favs to give you some character feel to the place

June 2012: Favourite Shot: dltphoto

This months epic was a "straight outta the Fuji" compact shot... I just love the "busy"ness of the shot and its somewhat abstract nature..really since there is no distinguishable scale for size it could be a huge water fall or an incredibly small one??

Pal M4, Part Two : dltphoto

So since I had so much drama on the first roll and that I fixed it or at least hoped I had fixed it, I thought it fitting to give it another roll. Having seen the results when I got the film back it reminded me of how wonderful film really is, this is a process which has been around for such a long time and to this day is still amazing. It really can stack up against digital. Don't get me wrong, digital is soooo convenient and cost effective and easy to delete and and and... but film has never lost its appeal.
This little Pal M4 is very, very capable, in the right hands of course. I am quite enjoying it! As I mentioned before I have a little wide angle lens with it, here's to show you how little extra the wide angle offers. I have yet to determine exactly "how wide" it is, no literature on it that I can find at this time. I guess its around 35mm wide equivalent from the cameras native 45mm.

Firstly.. you need to FOCUS it... duh!!!

With the wide angle lens on

Without the extra lens (45mm)

 So the scene is fairly different you see more of the cars and more of the poles in the background. Since I am also using the Wide Angle viewer on top of the camera I am sure my alignment is off a tad, I didn't use a tripod like I probably should for this experiment, but really who reads this and does it really matter???? heheheheh

Pal M4: dltphoto

Another treasure that I have recently inherited from the UK is the Pal M4, back in its day it was the worlds smallest full-size 35mm camera. As compared to the the Voitlander it is a little smaller, but with this treasure I have another component.

So as stories go, this one started off well. Having been in my Dads camera box for eons, it has since been given to me. Figuring its not just a shelf piece and everything seemed to fire I decided to put a roll through it to see if it really was all still operational. So we went on a little visit to Seattle and around Abbotsford and I shot the roll though. I sent it off during the vacation with great anticipation to check the roll, when pickup time came the roll was not there... Eeeeek! I waited impatiently for another week but alas all seemed doomed. So I decided to give it one more roll and the camera trigger decide to give up. After some encouragement and a "technical tap" in several directions it freed up and decided to work again. Then by some stroke of fortune I found the missing roll...Joy of all joys...So now I have a working camera and the first roll through it in maybe 20 years.... or maybe more!!

enough now, here are the results.

Yellow, Yellow and yellow

Holiday Time= Shooting Time:dltphoto

Cotton, not Snow

Colours

 

Othello Tunnels, BC

Seattle, Downtown

Grey and Blue

Ground view to the Market

Othello Tunnels and Museum Of Anthropology