Been a pretty flat out day and I have run out of time to write much.
Snapped this on my GRD IV on the way home today. In post processing I added several selective blur layers in Gimp and cropped to play with the sizing perspective a little.
More tomorrow!
I got talking with a guy I sold a camera to today. Like myself, he had a collection of both film and digital cameras – the film being anything from 35mm to large format. One thing we discussed was how far the level of digital photography, or I should say its quality has come.
For the average (and non average) Joe, many of our images are either displayed on TV and computer screens, or perhaps a handful printed out. Often, they are shared on various online forums, blogs and sites at a much reduced quality than produced by the camera (for example, my first 2MP camera makes bigger prints than my resize size for my posts). Aside from some particularly nice monitors, your average TV screen is far below the quality of your average camera.
Sure, the non branded cameras can be of a lower quality, but even the average smart phone captures a decent image no days.
When specials come up on A3 and A2 photo canvases I like to grab one to print out a recent personal favourite. Looking around my room, 3/4 of all my A2 canvases were taken on my Ricoh GRD IV. Arguably it has a fantastic prime lens, perhaps one of the best for compacts, but the ‘film’ (aka sensor) is still an older CCD 1/1.8″ (larger than many compacts, but still tiny).
I guess at the end of the day, today’s rant is really just a self reminder, and a thinking point to others out there asking the question “do I/you really need to upgrade?” there are always arguments in the ‘for’ category (low light capability perhaps one), but for those of us who remember film days, we have far exceeded some of the limits film placed upon us – maybe its just a case of knowing your camera(s) and their capabilities and pushing that, rather than reaching for the next new model?
Oh – and today’s image! – Shot on my Sony Nex5N, kit lens. In post using Gimp I pushed up the saturation a little. Felt like some colour!
I’m fascinated by archaeology. All around the world you hear of digs where ancient ruins, cities and tombs lay. Whether it be forgotten, reclaimed by nature, or purposefully encased and locked away. If I hadn’t studied anthropology and sociology, I think I would have studies archaeology.
Today’s image is actually just a piece of art work at a central city park (a highly post processed one that that) that I snapped on my Galaxy S2 when taking a stroll through several days ago.
I wanted to create a scene where the building had been buried on a grass plane. The original of the photo is actually just next to a walkway, and behind that a main road and shops. I cropped out those items and cloned in grass – which worked OK if you don’t look too close. I then applied multiple layers and filters making the old building quite hard against its green background.
I wonder what our cities will look like a millennia from now?
One thing about New Zealand is you are never very far from the sea. Even inland areas are within a few hours driving. We actually have the 10th longest coastline in the world! Today’s image was taken on my Sony yesterday during my visit to Long Bay Regional Park. For anyone visiting the area, Long Bay is enormously popular in Summer as it has a long beach line and grassed area where families can set up for the day, groups can play sports, and all can cool off in the calm waters. It also has several bush and cliff top walks for those who don’t want to just laze in the sun. To top it off, the park has a decent number of BBQ’s for cooking up some sausages, steaks or what have you at lunch time. If you do come in the summer, aim to come early as car parks, although a lot of them, become scarce by late morning.
After a fairly packed weekend, I managed to take some time out later this afternoon and take the bike up to Long Bay Regional Park. The weather was nice, and a large number of people were spread throughout the beach and grass sections of the park. I went for a stroll around the nature walk area, which was void of any people!
On the way there I came across this tree, blossoming for the spring weather. Against all the other evergreens, it stood out.
In post processing I selectively desaturated several colour, adjusted the contrast and sharpness and resized.
