Something I can’t get enough is gas lights. We have them at work alongside our parking garage and I have taken many photos of them over the years. I love the warm glow and romanticism of the the lights.
I processed this photo through Topaz Impressions using their “Colored Pencil” filter.
I own a lot of cameras. Three of them are pretty good the rest are just plain weird. At least to some. One of my favorites is the Takashi Digital Effects 521 camera. It is a 5 MP digital camera with fixed focus, several special effects modes, and most intriguing, no shutter. Yep, that is right no shutter. You press the button and the sensor scans the image. So what you say? I’ll tell you what. If you get the camera moving while the sensor scans you can get an interesting effect named the Lartigue Effect.
So I can make all the buildings sway to the left.
And I can make them lean to the right.
Or I can make them shimmy in place.
The camera can take regular pics. They are kind of fuzzy just do the low fi nature of the device. I have to tell you that I love the look of the photo above.
Or I can make it shoot in a negative mode.
I have fun with my funky little low tech over priced camera.
What do you have fun with?
At least that is where my mind is!
I am a picture taker, not a photographer, I don’t give a flip about f stops, RAW format, and shutter speeds and all the rest. I just want a decent photograph. One thing that I find a really difficult is taking decent photographs when the subject is in a shadow, or when there is a lot different shadows and sun on the subject. It drives me crazy. I found out something this past weekend about a way to overcome, at least partially, these problems.
I am really happy with this. Everything looks better. I’m sure that there is software out there that can do the thing a lot more handily than the web site. I’m not into software though. I like to do everything on the cloud. Software requires updates and then moving the software to a new computer is always a hassle. I’m intrigued by the Photoshop model now where you kind of rent the software. I’d love to hear from somebody who is doing that to see how it is working. I notice that Paintshop offers HDR tools and you can buy it for $80. I have an older version that I could upgrade but it was verrrryy slooooooowww. I have a new computer but I don’t want anything that drags.
Feel free to correct me if I have the whole HDR thing wrong. I’m just now getting into it. Also if you have information about other websites or software that can do HDR I’d love to hear about that also.
Below are some more pics from Philbrook that I did the exposure bracketing and then processed them through the Foto HDR site.
Red and very dark purple tulips.
This is a good example of a subject that is hard to take a photograph of due to its shadowy setting.
The Tempietto is the signature structure of the gardens at Philbrook.
This is Philbrook built by Tulsa Oilman Waite Phillips in the late 1920’s and then donated to the City of Tulsa in the 1930’s. It houses an outstanding art museum. Check out the Philbrook Museum of Art‘s web site for more information.
Anyway, I feel that I have discovered a great tool that anybody with a rather modest camera can use. I’d love to hear from other people who use HDR imaging.
I’m linking up today with Our World Tuesday.
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| How can a place be sunny and dark all at the same time? |
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| Kid has never heard of Bob Wills. Did you know that Bob Will’s grave is a virtual geocache here in Tulsa? |
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| We never figured out what the deal was with the shopping carts. We liked the color though. |
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| How do you like my new girlfriend? She certainly has a full set of teeth. |
(When she says no photos cuz she isn’t wearing makeup, she is not kidding. I don’t think she needs makeup btw.))
We had storms starting Saturday night and all day Sunday. I lost track but I think we pretty much had it all. Snow, Freezing Rain, Sleet, and Ice, we even had some Thunder and Lightning. Of course this being Oklahoma we were just glad we didn’t have a tornado. The only thing Heather knew to do was get some paint and clean rollers and start painting. She is good at it.
My blog friend East Gwillimbury Camera Girl intrigued me with a “Tiny Planet” photograph of hers. She told me that she uses Photoshop to make hers. I’m lazy and I’m too cheap to buy Photoshop so I found a Tiny Planet App for my generic android phone and I’ve been trying it out. Above is a dawn scene at Orange Beach Alabama. All this snow has me wanting to go get my feet wet in the Gulf of Mexico again. Seriously go check out East Gwillimbury Camera Girl. She is a very good and prolific photographer.
This is my favorite brick wall in downtown Tulsa. All rotated and Tiny Planeted.
And here is the view out my old cubicle window.
And just when you can’t stand any more, I have more. This is sunset on the banks of the Arkansas River. I promise, no more. Today at least.
I found another app for my Ipod Touch. It is called Diana. It is about double exposures with different filters. Its fun to play with but it takes a while to find pleasing results. I like the trail through the city above.
And this is our neighbor’s big willow tree and son Logan. (Not my neighbor’s son you understand.) I like how the willow drapes around his shoulders. I’m not much for the SOOC concept. I don’t think it means much with today’s cameras. I don’t think it ever meant much.
Anyway, paint, snowstorms in March, and new apps are the only changes around here. I’m getting about that age.
The past few months I’ve had some lesions froze off my face and hands. Monday I got a persistent little bugger scraped and burned. Wasn’t that big a deal except a big headache after the local wore off. I have a tiny little bandage. The nurse said if I wanted she wrap my head with layers of gauze to get more sympathy. I told her no thanks, I’m with a tough crowd. So I got the little bandage. A plain one with no cartoon characters. And no sucker. Thanks Obamacare, thanks a lot. You took our suckers away.
So I’m going to upping the defcon level on SPF and wide brimmed hats and long sleeve shirts in direct sun. I’ve worn sun screen 365 days a year for over twenty years and I always wore hats. But they were ball caps. The front of my face, including the world’s biggest solar collector nose is fine. It was the side of my face that the ball cap didn’t cover that was the problem.
Hey so what’s new with you?
Last week I noticed one evening that the moon was setting down our street so I went and grabbed the “good” camera and a tripod and set it up for some delayed shutter action and took some shots. I think they are okay for what they are given the world’s brightest street light was lined up with the moon.
When I zoomed in my superzoom things got a little better but still kind of grainy. I think you call this a waning crescent moon because at the time the crescent was getting smaller every night. Then of course we get the new moon and then the crescent starts growing until we get a half moon and then when over half the moon is illuminated it is the gibbous moon. I have gone my whole life and not noticed the word “gibbous” until recently and now I see it everywhere. Stuff like that happens all the time to me. I see a word that I swear I have never seen before and after I look it up I see it everywhere. I guess it means that I’m either really slow or I’m still learning, or maybe both.
MoonConnection.com has some excellent material on the moon and moon phases. Check them out.
I’ve been experimenting some more with my new pinhole camera. This time I loaded it up with some ISO 100 speed film which is pretty slow. Some of the shots required up to 45 seconds of exposure time. Sunny shots required about two to five seconds. Needless to say a tripod is required. Keep in mind there is no lens. Instead the camera has a whole 0.25 mm in diameter. Which of course is pretty small. So it takes a while to get enough light in there to take a photograph. The PinHoleMeter iphone app that I have on my Ipod Touch is invaluable for this process.
First I went to Centennial Park on Friday. It was quite overcast and so the exposures were taking a while. I know the pics are fuzzy but I like them anyway. I am not saying that they are good, just that I am seeing some possibilities. I think they have a timeless quality about them.
Another pic that makes me think that I need new glasses.
I’m kind of in a bare branch tree mood these days.
They next day was Saturday. The sun was out Saturday and brightened up everything. Plus I had a cable release in addition to the tripod. I was having to hold the shutter open before and that adds to the unclearness. Anyway Saturday I was at Swan Lake Park in midtown Tulsa. With the extra light the colors pop out a lot more.
And again, I like the timeless touch and feel to these photographs.
And I like the deep colors.
Anyway, I’m still having fun with my new camera. It is amazing to me that one can get photographs without a lens just a tiny hole.
Lessons learned so far. I think that I get far better results with the 400 speed film rather than the 100. So I’m going back to the faster film for my next roll.
Have you been amazed by anything lately?
My MIL Nana gave me another film camera for Christmas, a Holga 135 PC. It doesn’t have a lens, it has a small hole (one fourth of a millimeter) where the lens is supposed to be. This is getting back to basics on photography. It has a manual shutter also. The shutter opens when you press the button and closes when you release it. This is because very little light gets through the pinhole and thus the shutter needs to be open for an extended time.
In bright sunlight you just open and close it as fast as you can. For shots in shade it may require up to 10 seconds. Inside shots can require a minute and a half.
(This is our dove nursery. We always get at least one dove nest here every year. Last summer I think we may have had three. Not all at the same time. We try and leave them alone and not stress them out.)
These cameras are known for making soft dreamy shots. Also, there is no focusing as it has a large depth of field.
The hard part is figuring how long to expose the film. A lot of chatter on the web about buying light meters and blah blah blah. Fortunately there is an app called PinholeMeter that I downloaded to my Ipod Touch. It uses the Touch’s camera along with the fstop and film speed to give you an exposure time. It worked great. Complicated light situations like the above are fun. I took readings on the rock wall, the shadowed glass, the wreath, the hedge, and the shadow. I got widely different exposure times so I used the wreath setting. As a result the rock got a little overexposed. It makes me appreciate all the ciphering that a digital camera does when it sets the aperture and exposure time.
(My tree shadowed on my neighbor’s wall. So you legal experts out there, who owns the shadow?)
All I need now is a “Take the Lens Cap Off” app. I took about ten shots before I realized that the lens cap was still on. Oh well.
(I love garden decorations. You don’t have to water them for one thing.)
I took the first roll of shots in and around the house just to test it and the app out a little bit. I am really pleased with the results.
(Neighbor’s willow tree. Pretty but I hate those long strings that fall in our yard. They don’t mulch very well when I mow the yard. They don’t rake up very well either.)
Of course this camera requires a tripod because of the exposure times. I am also going to get a cable release for the shutter. Anything to cut down movement of the camera is helpful.
(Old school red wheelbarrow. How do you store your wheelbarrow?)
These images were made with 400 speed film. I have now loaded it with some slower 100 speed film and will be taking it out and about a little bit.
(I see lots of opportunities for double exposures.)
I love my digital cameras but there is something about film that really gets me. The richer colors of film, the nostalgic look, I don’t know exactly what it is but I just love film. I know that film in general and pinhole cameras in particular are pains in the butt and the effort is worth it to me.
(Hey, how about a shadow selfie. Holding down the shutter.)
What did you get for Christmas? Tell us about it.
Here is a big ole artificial tree downtown next to a temporary ice rink. I wandered over there during lunch one day to check it out and decided to take a shot with my small Nikon point and shoot. Don’t ask my why I tilted it like that. I’d have to tell you that I felt like it and that may strike some people as being a little cheeky. So don’t ask. I do promise you that I hadn’t been drinking though. Note the shadow of the tree to the left. I’m telling you that for a reason, so take note of it, please.
So then I went to the other side of the tree and using one of my plastic film cameras, the Lomography La Sardina I took another pic. Note that the shadow of the tree is to the right. Got it?
So, then I thought, “What can I do with this tree?” So I went and stood in the shadow of the tree and took a picture of the tree with my film camera so that the sun was behind the tree. Then, without advancing the film, I turned turned the camera ninety degrees and took a pic of some ornamental grass nearby. So I got a double exposure of the grass on the tree.
Just what you always wanted right, a brown tree. Boy, I can tell you can’t wait until you see my next invention. You have to admit that the sky in the first pic was pretty.
Okay, well check the link below and check out some Skywatch Photographs posted by people who actually know what they are doing.