A moment in time

Waving in the air, the moment, the ribbon, the feeling

From People

Conspiring Moments

These two girls had just bough a small box of chicks at the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia. I remember when I was a kid, such times were magical.

The Martial Arts Series

In the martial arts exhibition at the Queen Victoria market on the 2008 Mooncake Festival, I grabbed some studies concentration with the reliable 40-150mm Zuiko kit tele lens. It was a lot of fun.

From People

From People

From People

From People

The content rules

I was reading Mike Johnston's "Why the 40mm" and it emphasises some good points. Whilst I am insanely addicted to ultra wide angle views, it's good to separate the content from the effect. Food for thought.

JPEG Quality

From time to time, Kodak digital camera owners query why or how much JPEG compression is set by Kodak in the Full Auto mode of the Point and Shoot cameras. Invariably, I point them to Mediachance's JPEG Quality Estimator, which reads a JPEG file and figures out how much compression was used. It's a useful tool.

A Fascination for Benches

I kinda get attracted to benches. Don't worry, it's not some object fetish - I just like how they evoke a feeling that they're waiting to be sat on. Here's my most recent one, with a little bit of faux Tilt / Shift treatment.

Topical

I had been neglecting my Kodak P880 - so I took it out to Kmart with me. Chanced on this topical licence plate. What can I say?

From Odds and Ends

Going Chinese

It was the Mooncake Festival celebrating Autumn 2008. Brandon gave me a last minute yell to trip down to the Queen Victoria Market - I missed the Lion Dance but managed to meet Brandon for a nice photo shoot.

From People

Related articles by Zemanta

• Bostonist Photo Gallery: August Moon Festival in Chinatown
• China sends festival greetings, Taiwan songs from moon
• Celebrate the Moon Festival Tonight in Chinatown

Empatico

More important than sheer Image Quality of a photo is the photographer's Empatico - with the subject. Explains why there are so many vignettes floating around, or water colour style renditions of ordinary scenes that lift them above the ordinary. I tried a personalised treatment of the grafitti scene below - it was Photoscaped with a dose of Velvia-like colouration.

From Melbourne

This scene was very much in the air when these girls came with their point and shoot flash.

From Melbourne

The Beemer in the alley was mysterious as well.

From Melbourne

Challenge/Assignment: Shoot a DSLR on full AUTO

The Background

We see lots of detailed lab reviews on the web, by professional reviewers and labs. Online Web Reviews are typically in four parts - the camera specs, a tour around the camera body and menus, optical and lab shooting tests, a humanised summary. That's worked for a long time, particularly when the audience has been veteran camera fans - pros and amateurs. However, more and more newbies are turning up to read, encouraged into the DSLR market by all the brands.

The non DSLR digital market has often been cash and carry, impulse buys. But the DSLR looks bigger, looks more expensive, so the newbie wants to research and understand what they are getting in to. Thing is, they're not going away enlightened after reading the reviews and even getting responses from veterans. It's been so long for many of us veterans, that there is huge gulf of approach, culture and knowledge between us and the newbie.

The case

As veteran photographers we will happily switch to the A or P or the M in PASM, choose the time of day, choose our camera position, choose the light or even manipulate the light. Some of us shoot JPEG, others shoot RAW and nearly all of us Post Process. Yes, cropping, lightening, darkening, adjusting contrast and saturation is called Post Processing. Let's not talk about those who carry out layering, exposure masking and so on. Even clicking on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" in Picasa counts as a Post Process step.

Now, the newbie willl start off by touching nothing except the shutter release. That's right - Leave the camera on full AUTO, point and shoot. And refuse to Post Process, disdaining it like the plague. And so, the recurring questions titled - "Which camera gives THE BEST IMAGE QUALITY?". We often reply that the YOU accounts for more than 50% of the IQ (Image Quality) but the newbies don't believe us and won't believe us. They feel they're buying a machine like a better car, a hifi, lawn mower, power saw. They really don't understand from where they stand, that the camera is only one factor in their quest for a better photo.

How do we solve this impasse?

Well, camera reviews and user reviews need to step back a bit and look at the world through the eyes of the DSLR newbie. That's right, Answer The Question They Ask, NOT tell them that their question is wrong.

The Challenge

1. Take the DSLR you have.
2. Put it on full AUTO.
3. Take off your fancy supersharp wideangle or supersharp tele.
4. Put back the kit lens. Yes, do you still have the kit lens?
5. Take some shots - Ok, you can choose the content, the time of day, the light and whatever tricks you have up your sleeve.
6. Do not crop, no lighten, darken, adjust contrast, de-noise, de-purple fringe, de-barell. Just shoot as if the newbie would shoot the first few shots.
7. Now, let's see's see a few of your shots - post them on your gallery, put a link to them in comments to this blog article. Or you could start / join a thread at a DPR forum. Just let us know, ok?

Shopping for dried flowers

We came across this shop. The presentation is gorgeous - dried branches on the top and all. I tried a few perspectives and really got upset when a couple walked past, the man in a tall Jewish hat - they would have completed the scene so well. Unfortunately for some reason, the E-510 decided not to shoot - I lost time holding down the shutter release with no action, then flipped the On/Off switch and it worked too late.



This was one angle that I liked. The detail at the foot of the door, the random squares on the grills make it for me.

Waiting for a fare

Melbourne cabbies now feature drivers from the Indian subcontinent. They are often students making money driving when they aren't studying. Here are some, waiting for a fare.

From Melbourne

Looking Up

There I was, shooting with Janina and John for the first time. I didn't get to meet Brandon, and the weather was fine, then drizzly, then fine again. Janina introduced us to this building interior and I had the 7-14mm Zuiko Digital on the floor, then just holding up.

The lighting in this area was just magical.

Art Deco - Your Assignment

Terry Lane highlighted the Art Deco exhibition currently being held at the National Gallery of Victoria. A lot of Art Deco buildings in Melbourne can be enjoyed, he says, by looking up. Seems a good enough motivation of us Melburnians to go shooting this month. The exhibition is entitled Art Deco 1910 to 1939, running from 28th June to 5th October. You're encouraged to shoot some buildings and join the Deco Detectives, by adding the photos to their mashup interactive map - with the possibility of winning a double pass to the exhibition each week until the 3rd of October.

Or, simply enjoy shooting Art Deco buildings and post them via Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio. How about it?

Things to read from the NGV:

• Clues to help identify Art Deco (pdf)
  
• Melbourne websites for more information (pdf)
• Visit Victoria list of buildings
  
• Visit Victoria info
• Walking Melbourne Art Deco Building Search
• Art Deco Building Preservation by the Art Deco Society

From Melbourne

From Melbourne

 

From Melbourne

From Melbourne