Pano Award - Bronze?

So I entered one of my photos into some contest. I rarely do this. Why? Not sure. Usually it's because of cost. Most contests require an entry fee. I hate paying those fees. Besides, I just can't face rejection.

So, like I was saying, I entered this photo, the one on the right. It was taken on one of our trips to China. It's an HDR image (requires special processing) and it was more or less of a grab shot.

Within a few weeks I got a message in my inbox. You won!

They told me to login to their website to see my score. I was excited and couldn't get my password right. Finally, I was successful. What did I win? A bronze star.

A What? A bronze star?

Are you kidding me?

Okay, before i wig, what does a bronze star mean in practical terms?

Did I win any prizes? Any money? How about some photography equipment? Not sure. Can't tell from the website.

So I write the judges and he responded:

Hi Dave,

We’ll be posting the winners and top 50 in each category very shortly…thanks for your patience.

Well done on the Bronze! The judges were firm so bronze is an excellent score.

There are no prizes for Bronze I’m afraid…just category and overall winners.

Kinds regards,

David Evans
curator
The Epson International Pano Awards
www.thepanoawards.com

Wait a minute. A bronze? No gold? No silver? No prizes? Are you serious? Were you guys looking at the right picture? The one brought back all the way from China, with the waterfall and mountains in the background?

Are you sure?

Later I discovered that half of the photos entered received a bronze. I'm glad the judges were firm, otherwise everyone would have got one.

Sheesh.

...dave
A photograph is a portrait painted by the sun.

A New Member Joins The Family

We went driving around yesterday for a bit, looking for a place to live that is smaller, requires less overhead, and costs less to maintain. Ruth paused at this Townhouse entry and I had to grab a shot of the waterfall.

This was taken with my new machine.  While the Nikon D70 sat at home alone, the D300s come out with us for the day. It's true, my D70 was an extension of my brain, I didn't have to think much to use it.  I've been shooting with it now since 2005. It's easy to flick the buttons on the back and I'm quick on the draw for a shot. I'm as fast on the controls as my previous manual Nikon FM2n.

But this new machine is another matter. It's built like a G-Shock watch and has got more tools hidden inside than a swiss army knife. I don't know what half of the controls are for or what they do. However, I do use the the auto-bracketing. This thing flies through 7 frames a second. Yikes! If I hold the trigger down it will blow through 100 frames in less then 15 seconds. It sounds like a jet.  But I didn't get it for speed.

In the old days (back in '77) my camera was just a light box. I could mount a great lens on a cardboard box loaded with Kodachrome 64 and take great pictures. (For example take a quick scan at this fuchsia flower. It was shot with an empty toilet roll stuck between the 50mm lens and the body of a Fujica.) Photographers spent their money on glass and bought the best they could afford. It was all in the glass.

The cameras today are much more than a box. They are really computers with the processing power of my MacBook. The computer in the camera studies the scene and compares it to thousands of images in it's memory bank. It adjusts for white balance, ISO, 51 focusing points, and more. What all that really means is that it can do the thinking for me.

With manual cameras the photographer had to think about what they were doing. Those were the days when cameras were metal, not plastic.  The lenses were made of brass and stainless steel.  They were fast (could see in low light) and razor sharp. There were few zooms then. The ones that existed were heavy and unclear.  Today's zooms are better but often are slow (need a lot of light or flash) and are mostly made of plastic.

Yep, them were the days. Those bodies could take a beating.  If your camera looked like it came off the store's display shelf you weren't really a shooter. You were just a poser. But if the camera was dinged and dimpled and the brass was showing through the black top and bottom plates, you were for real. My  F3/MD4 looked like this one when I sold it five years ago on eBay.

Yeah, back then cameras were cameras, men were men, and women were men.

Where was I...oh yeah.

This is the first digital I've had that is manufactured of metal like the old days.  I often treat it like a my F3 and put everything on manual and shoot like it was a film camera. It's just a lot easier than overriding everything. I'm not normal. I'm a control freak.

For the shot of the waterfall I leaned against the tree, let out half my breath, and squeezed the shutter softly. The machine inhaled five images in a blink. That was it. It was painless.  Afterward I merged the frames using Photomatix Pro. No overrides.

I also used a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lens.  This thing can see in the dark.  Compared to my Tokina 12-24 f4 it's sharper. What's more important is that it's sharp wide open. It is sharper then Nikon's 12-24 in all apertures. In fact, it is the sharpest wide angle zoom lens on the market today.

The camera itself, the D300s, can capture scenes lit by a single candle. It can be set to 64,000 ASA. That's 40 times more sensitive than an average camera. Whoa! I try to avoid flash whenever I can and this in combination with the lens will do it.

Of course, it's going to take me a while to figure out all the doodads this crazy machine has, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I'm going out shooting now.  But first, I need to hammer a few dings in the body, maybe even drag it behind the car for a block or two.  I don't want anyone thinking I'm just a poser.

...dave
You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it. ~ Author Unknown

Theoretically Related Posts

• Dave's HDR show
• What a D70 can do
• Scanned Slides circa 1980
  
• Going Digital
  
• More Pictures
  
• Macro Pics
  
• Photo School
  
• Eric's Multi-Body Pphotoshopped photo
  
  

Hawaiiscapes

I've been sort of busy doing nothing, you know, vacationing.

Doing nothing gets pretty tiresome because I can't stop to rest.

Hawaiiscapes from daveterry on Vimeo.

...dave
A vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer. - Anon

Callaway Garden

Callaway Garden bugs
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

We took a day trip to Callaway Garden, about two hours south of Atlanta Georgia. It was 68 degrees and perfect weather for a five mile walk.

The highlight of the garden was the Raptor Show (raptors = day active hawks, eagles and falcons).

Did you know that hawks see 80 frames a second? That means that television will never interest them. The TV paints images 30 frames a second, fast enough for our brain to think we are seeing moving images. But to a hawk the images look like a slide show, a very slow slide show. Their ability to see 80 frames a second means that it can see a humming bird's beating wings as still images.

Some other interesting things about the hawk:

• It eats 6-7 field mice a day


• It can read a newspaper from a football field away. (However, it's comprehension isn't great.)

Callaway Gardens - Georgia
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

That day they happened to have a barred owl. Some interesting things about the owl:

• It's eys are shaped like mushrooms (stem side out) so they can't rotate them like ours.


• It's neck has 14 vertebrae, which enables it to turn in a 270 degree radius. (This is important, see above.)


• If our eyes were a big as an owls they'd be the size of grapefruits and weigh five pounds each.


• Barred owls make the sound "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" when it calls. (So don't get it confused with your mom's challenge.)


• Their ears are asymmetric (not in the same place in their heads). The left ear is low on their head and faces downward, the right side ear is high and faces upward. They can hear your heart beating from hundreds of feet away.

A big thrill of this bird show was feeling their wings swoosh by, just a inch above our heads.

Callaway Gardens - Georgia
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

The butterfly exhibit was very peaceful. You can't chase butterflies. You need to sit and let them come to you. I think of them as the cat personality of the insect world.

Toward the end of our tour through the garden I snapped a few frames and created some HDR images from them. (HDR = High Dynamic Range) You can see a slide show of some HDRs here.

Callaway Gardens - Georgia
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

Callaway Gardens - Georgia
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

...dave
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. - Carl Sagan

Motivator

Motivator
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

Make your own motivational posters with Bug Huge Lab's motivator and a picture of your own. I used my own photo of a koi pond I took some years ago while living in Hawaii.

...dave
Doing nothing gets pretty tiresome because you can not stop and rest.

CNN Towers

CNN towers
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

Here a shot just after an incredible storm. It passed through the center of Atlanta last night.

I love to watch storms. My dad used to tell me about my grandfather who would stand right up to the picture window during violent storms in New York. The lightening would crackle and it's flickering light would cast his shadow long across the floor and up the back wall behind him. I don't like to get that close to storms.

And I don't want to get rained on. And I don't like megawatts shooting through my body. But I love to see the clouds after the storm. They make great photos. And the digital camera is fantastic. After I take the picture I see my photos right away. I don't have to wait for film developing only to discover that I didn't get the right exposure. I get to see it now. I'm from the Now Generation. I want my news now, my coffee now, and my fun now. I don't want to wait.

Which brings me to the last few days of meetings at the Enterprise. I've learned that everyone wants their stuff now. The Business wants their software solution now. Software engineers want their requirements now. Project Managers want their deliverables now. The Business wants the vendor to deliver NOW without requirements. That's as crazy as eating a cake before it's baked.

Talking about half-baked, during the meeting one of my associates suggested an impractical software solution. Lots of people were in the room. Big people. Important people. What he said was very crazy. But everyone knodded in knowing agreement. I leaned over and suggested another solution. Let's call it Solution B. Minutes later he said: "I was just thinking, we could do Solution B."

I keep telling myself that, like a storm, his popularity someday will pass.

It's the clouds after the storm I like the best. I like to stay away from lightning and thunder. I'm a quiet sort of guy.

...dave
There is more to life than just increasing its speed. - Mahatma Gandhi

Photo Collage

Since returning from our trip to China I've been wanting to get some of my pictures up on our wall. Our hallway now has track lighting which works well for a sort of gallery space. The idea is to have a theme for a wall. The left wall is dedicated to China.

So here it is: The China Photo Collage.

I bought four 20x30 black foam core boards and mounted three 10x12, seven 5x7, and nine 4x6 pictures to them. I then built up the pictures in various depths. The hardest thing is achieving three dementional balance. I had to balance the depth, the picture sizes, and their colors. Distributing the colors across the canvas of pictures is key. If I put all the grey colors in one side, it looked strange.

Now I'm ready to tackle a book.

...dave
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

Talking Candid Pictures

Here's a how-to on taking good candid pictures.

First: Use a camera that immediately responds to the press of the shutter release. The inexpensive point-and-shoot digitals usually have a delay that works against taking good candid pictures. The better digital SLRs (single lens reflex) cameras with interchangeable lenses work best. If you can't afford them, test the point-and-shoot's trigger delay before you buy.

Second: Keep your camera near your shooting eye. Keep shooting after the initial picture. Usually the first picture is posed and stiff. If you keep shooting, people will return to their discussion and ignore you altogether.

Third: Talk to them as you hold the camera up. Ask them questions about what's in front of them. This will help them relax and focus on the things they enjoy.

Here's a few pictures I've taken at several parties. The table discussion was happening as I walked up to the table. I walked up with my eye behind the camera and started shooting. Since they were in mid-conversation they continued on while I kept shooting.

The little boy covering his eyes was the second shot. The first shot was too bright and on reflex he covered his eyes. I still had the camera up to my eye and and quickly squeezed off another picture.

The third shot of little Erin doing the cutesy thing with her cheeks happened because I was talking with her as I walked up. I put the camera up to my eye and said: "What is it you want to eat first?" And rather randomly she posed for me. I wasn't expecting it. Sometimes you just have to be ready for anything.

...dave
A camera is just a mirror with a memory.

A Walk in the Park

ParkWalk
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

After work I met Ruth and we went walking in one of the parks nearby. It was a little cool but no bugs.

Lots of people jogging, biking, and walking. No one is very friendly. I'd nod or say hello but none responded. Ruth likes that. She like the anonymity. A simple "hi" though might have been nice.

I shot another image I thought might make a good HDR. You can see the results here. Actually I shot three images. My D70 has auto-bracketing. I've got it set for three images at 1.5 f-stops apart. I'll take the right exposure, then one and a half stops above and below that. When I got home I merged the images. This is the result.

We walked about two miles and got back to the car before dark. We felt safe, although someone reported a car break in. The police were there photographing and taking statements.

...dave
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

HDR Photography

I've just been learning about HDR photography. Great stuff. Here's my first image. You can read all about it online. But here it is in a nutshell.

Film and digital photography are not as sensitive to light as your eye. If you expose for bright spots your dark areas will be too dark to discern the details. If you expose for the dark areas, the bright spots will be "blown out" or in other words, just white areas lacking detail.

HDR photography merges the best of three or more images together through software. I'm using Photomatix Pro. (Just the demo version that's why you see their watermarks in the images.) You can take the three images yourself (one under exposed, another with the proper exposure, and the third over exposed) and merge them together. Or you can take a single RAW digital image and make the three or more exposures. You can only do this with RAW since it has recorded all the details of dark and light areas in the image. Therefore it can render properly the under/over/proper exposure.

I took one of my existing RAW images (I only took RAW when traveling China) and created the HDR images.

Check out the Longji village home and the Cloisinne factory above. We visited this factory while in China just after the Great Wall trip. (Click on the images for full screen images.)

Here is a favorite image of a friend of mine.

...dave
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. -Dorthea Lange

Sunset

The other night it rained hard and then suddenly it cleared. I glanced out at the sky and discovered a beautiful sunset. I never tire of sunsets.

Our house faces the west so we just glance out at the sky from our office. The rain clears the air so the combination of after the rain and a sunset makes for a beautiful picture opportunity.

I wish I could have ran to a different spot for a simple view of the trees and clouds but as it turned out I got a little glow from the house down the road. It adds warmth to the picture.

I like the way our home is situated in our subdivision. There is no house across the street. This gives us an unobstructed view of the sky and some trees. Since our backyard it thick with trees, we have a little bit of privacy around us but with the safety of other homes nearby.

...dave
I think that I will never see, a billboard as lovely as a tree. Indeed unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all. -Ogden Nash

Serendipitous Photography

I guess that when you take as many pictures as I do you tend to discover great approaches really by accident. Not to say that good photography doesn't require thinking about the end result and doing the right things that will get you there. But sometimes great things just happen. Like this photo of the boys.

I wanted an unencumbered background. The sky works good for this sort of thing, especially at perfect light. Perfect light is a few minutes after sunset. So I positioned the boys against the blue sky and a few clouds. The light in their face wasn't great because they were facing east, while the sun had just gone down in the west. I was asked to take this photo just moments before and didn't have a lot of time locating a good spot. We were just out on the front lawn. I posed them as I wanted. Then I set out to work.

I took a few bad pictures that I won't show you here. I wasn't satisfied with any of them. Mainly because the shutter was so slow. This blurred the guys. I kept shooting thinking that I could hold the camera still enough for a good shot. I was loosing light fast and didn't have time to get the tripod. After each picture I'd look at the screen on the back of the D70 to see if I got what I wanted. After several frustrating shots, one image looked great. Why was it so different than the others?

Then it struck me. While I was shooting, others with digital cameras liked the look and began snapping pictures. One of them just so happened to shoot while my shutter was open. Using their light and my camera we got a decent shot. It's a little ghosty but I like the look.

So there you have it. Shooting slow and having someone else flash their digital works for a good picture. No tripod, no flash from my camera. A kind of digital symbiotic relationship going on here.

Cool.

...dave
"The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes." -Frank Lloyd Wright

What's in the bag?

Observations on camera gear I used in China.

Here's what I brought:

1 D70
2 D70 batteries
3 CF cards (one 256 and two 512s)
1 12-25 Tokina
1 70-210 Nikkor with step up (62-77)
1 55 macro Nikkor
1 remote
1 polarizer
1 sky filter (for inclement weather)
1 3216 Bogen mono-pod with 3262 ballhead
1 small Jansport backpack
1 leather fanny pack
1 swivel-head flash with bounce card
1 iBook with neoprene slipcase

I used each and every lens on the trip. I only recharged the camera battery once. I shot an average of 80 pictures a day.

Often the 70-210 lens was too powerful for a portrait lens especially for the small villages. I just couldn't get far enough back. The 70m is the equivalent of a 105 on a film SLR. In the woman and son in the window shot I used it but I had to squat on the stair outside the home to frame the shot. I actually wanted more of the window in the picture but couldn't get far enough back.

The 55m micro was nice to have. It took many portrait pictures but also doubled as a macro for some of the flower and fern shots. The other great thing about it is that it's light. It worked great for taking photos of my sketches and the Chinese writing that the old men did for me.

I only used the mono-pod on the terrace shots in Longji and even then I could have done without it. On the boat trip up the Li river I got out and placed the D70 on my backpack as a tripod. It worked great to get the long exposure for the foreground water. I could have done without the mono-pod.

This range of lenses gave me the variety I needed to take sweeping wide landscape pictures. The 70-210 and 55 gave me great portraits and full frame shots. The 55 gave the close in shots of the fern. It's important to include a wide range of focal lengths in travel pictures. The wide angles establish place while the zoom gets people and close ups which add interesting details.

I learned that it's very important to talk with people first before raising the camera to take their picture. They become relaxed and begin to trust that you'll put them in the best light. You'll get a better expression from them and you'll come away with a picture and a story. Next time I'll bring candy for the kids. They really warm up to you if you have candy.

I used the polarizer many times but the sky filter only once or twice. I purchased the sky for inclement weather. If it was raining, I'd place it over whatever lens was on the camera. That's why I purchased a step up ring. That way I could buy one filter and screw it to whatever lens was on the D70.

Carrying the Gear

I typically carried all my gear. I never left anything in the hotel room. Only in Qingdao was the safe big enough to leave the iBook behind. I just didn't think I could afford to loose any of my gear.

I put the iBook in the neoprene slipcase and placed that in the backpack first. On top of that I slipped in the flash. It just settled to the bottom. Next, to one side, I put the 70-210 protected by two thick socks. Inside the fanny pack I placed the 55m macro and placed that next to the zoom. The camera and mounted 12-24 I placed at the top of the backpack. Sometimes I carried my Chinese dictionary or sketchbook. This made the pack about 20 lbs.

When we got to our destination I'd wear the fanny pack with the big 70-210 zoom and macro and carry the D70 over my shoulder. The backpack then only had the iBook and flash. I made a shoulder strap for the mono-pod so that I could hang it on the shoulder too. It often slipped off and most times I just left if behind.

All in all I carried the right amount of gear. It's always a compromise. I want the gear I need to take the shots I see but I don't want to become so exhausted carrying the stuff I no longer feel up to taking pictures.

...dave
"Look, I'm not an intellectual - I just take pictures." -Helmut Newton

Photo School

In preparation of our trip I decided to get some photo schooling.

I went down to the library and picked up lots of books and even a video on photography.

The video was entitled: The Absolute Best School of Photography.

It wasn't. I didn't learn one thing! I fell asleep watching it. That's how absorbing it was.

How can a video say it's the last word on photography?

Even the example photos were horrible. I've seen better pictures on a Wheaties box. It was ridiculous. It was painful.

It's not like the guy wasn't trying. He was. He talked about bounce flash, focal lengths, f-stops, apertures, depth of field, golden squares (although he didn't call it that), and what to carry in your bag.

There was one point in the video where he had all his lenses out on a table and one by one he placed them in his huge bag. He must have had 20 lenses. It must have weighed 30 pounds when he loaded up the bag. But the painful part was picking up each lens and telling us what focal length it was and how he'd use it. It must have taken 10 minutes to run through this little monologue.

He could have been teaching us about double exposures, cloud painting, light painting at night, cityscapes, panning, neutral density, split neutral density, and motion capture.

Instead I saw star filters and multi-image filters, neither of which I ever use.

Maybe I should do my own video. It would at least be more entertaining to watch.

...dave
Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.  ~Ansel Adams

Super cool lens

Just bought a 12-24mm lens for the D70. Wow! You could take pictures from inside a thimble! This is basically a 18mm on a regular 35mm camera. Most 35s come with a 50mm (which is like the "normal" eye).

I've always liked wide angles. It gives me a feeling of being there. I feel as though I'm right in the middle of the action.

The National Geographic photographers use a lot of wide angle lenses. You'll see an image of a guy in a row boat or people in a tight Italian street or cafe. THAT was taken by a wide. You can't shot a picture from the bow of a rowboat with any "normal" lens. It needs a wide. The wides give a feeling of intimacy.

Anyway I thought I'd upload a few images taken tonight to give a feel for the lens. This will be a great lens for the China trip. There are so many people there and lots of crowds. Should come in handy.

...dave
Yikes! In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday!

Macro Pics

Here are some macro shots using my new D70 and a reversed 20mm Nikkor lens.

The first image is of the threads on a bolt. The others are of a quarter. If you click on the photo, you'll be able to see scratches on the quarter.

There is special mounting hardware you can get for your SLR that will allow you to reverse your lens. The wider the lens the larger the image. This lens allows me to get 12x the image size. In other words, if you lay the quarter on the film it would be 12 times the size.

With macro photography you'll need plenty of light and a small f-stop. The depth of field is narrow.

This would work for some good bug photos, as long as they are dead. I can't imagine a bug staying around long enough for me to set up the light and tripod.

It's amazing what new things you can see with a macro.

...dave

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Ruth and Eric have been gone these past few days. They went to the snow to have fun. I'm home alone, nuking old dinners and doing laundry. Poor me.

So after work I decided to check out the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. They've got some awesome orchids. I went with another photographer who grows orchids and knows their origins and scientific names. He visits so often he has a membership.

John took me through the hot houses. The temperature in Atlanta tonight is in the 30s but once I walked into the conservatory I felt as though I deplaned in Hawaii. The fragrance in the Tropical Rotunda is absolutely hypnotizing. I hear cars and trains outside, noises of the city, but when I close the door behind me and immerse myself into this orchid world, nothing else matters. I've entered paradise.

Everywhere I look I see orchids in ever color, purple, orange, red, peach, and multi-colored. Some are large and spindly, others are small and trumpet shaped. What an amazing variety.

I set up to take some pictures. What's cool about the new digital is, I immediately see what my picture looks like. I can even use the "loupe tool" built into the camera for zooming in on key areas to ensure sharpness. Very cool. I didn't even have to pack film! Nor did I even worry about how many pictures I'm taking. Looking down at the controls tells me I have 373 more images available on the 512 memory card.

Just for fun I snapped on my manual focus macro lens for a close up. It worked fine. After selling all my prime lenses, my bag has gotten much lighter too. The only snag I can see with this digital stuff is battery power. If I run out of battery, I'm sunk. Touring without a camera is like swimming with baggy clothes on. It's possible but extremely difficult.

...dave
"I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything." -John Steinbeck quotes

Selling Manual Stuff

It's a sad time for me. These lenses have been like family. They've hiked up mountains in Hawaii, been to the snow in California, and gone on a cruise. So you can imagine that I'm parting with them in great sadness. So many lenses and so little time to use them.

Interested in a lens? Check them out here:

35mm 1.4 Nikkor Lens
55mm 2.8 Micro-Nikkor
105mm 2.5 Nikkor Lens
75-150mm 3.5 Series E Nikkor Zoom Lens

Or maybe you want to add some accessories to your collection of Nikon gear. Got just the thing for you:

TC-200 2x Nikon Teleconverter
Extension tubes for Nikon
MD12 Nikon Motor Drive

Truth is, this stuff is great to have in the bag if you are built like Andre the Giant. But frankly the digital stuff is a lot lighter. All the new gear is plastic so it may not last as long but then, I won't either.

I'm looking forward to lightening the load in the bag and having just two lenses for all the needs. This make the China trip so much more enjoyable.

...dave
I am NOT paranoid. Who told you that?

Fixing Picture Posts

Just trying to clean up the mess of posts of pictures. Now here they are in one place:

Some recient pictures.

Some scanned slides (circa 1980).

My two best shots and how I took them.

...dave
Speak the truth but leave immediately after. - Slovenian Proverb

A Too Cute Site

This is almost too cute to deal with. This picture was from the site. The site? cuteoverload.com.

It's SO sweet, I'm feeling a little sick.

...dave
Cats have nine lives. Which makes them ideal for experimentation. -Jimmy Carr