Inspirational Photography... in Lego

A friend of mine sent me a link to a flickr album the other day which totally blew me away. As I've said before, I both love and hate flickr. This is a reason to love flickr.

One of the things I often say when viewing other people's photos is "I wish I could recreate that shot". Well, Balakov has recreated some of the most famous photos of all time in Lego. His Classics in Lego set contains macro photos in which Lego figures are posed to recreate a famous picture. Not only does Balakov give you the Lego picture, but he links to a copy of the original, and shows the setup of the shot too.

One of my favourites of his collection is the recreation of the Tennis Girl photo from 1976 (seen on the right). I unfortunately, never bought the poster as a kid. I certainly knew of its existence. There is a great story about the photo on wikipedia, which, for me, gives it even more importance in the world of photography.

 

Balakov's most recent (re-)creation is of the 1967 Bigfoot sighting. This is yet another image which has been in and out of sight during my lifetime. Every time someone announces they have seen bigfoot, the news/documentary/magazine drags out this famous still for comparison.
In this picture, I particularly like the fact a Chewbacca figure was used. I think it adds a certain irony; one picture contains a fictional furry character from a famous film, the other contains Chewbacca. :-)

The only problem I have now is that I see these images and say "I wish I could recreate that recreation of that shot"...

All images were used in this article with prior permission from the author. Thanks Balakov.

Getting Back to Posting

Having been back from honeymoon for a couple of weeks, I expected to be back to full speed on my posting, but I haven't got myself in gear for posting any of my pictures.
I have been attempting to go through the many photos of my wedding day and from the honeymoon. One thing that has been indispensable when viewing pictures online has been PicLens.

PicLens is a browser add-on which enables you to view, in full screen, any pictures or videos which are on whichever website you are viewing. You can also search flickr, picasa, youtube,facebook, and other sites directly in PicLens. Definitely worth a look.

Why I Love to Hate Flickr

Like just about every other photographer who publishes their photos on the internet I have a Flickr account. In fact, posting my photos to, and exploring Flickr was what really got me back into photography. I loved putting my photos up for friends, family, or anyone to view and hopefully comment upon. I also loved the inspiration I got from exploring other people's photos. Many a better photographer than I uses Flickr as a showcase for their photos.

After a while, I grew less enthusiastic about Flickr. One of my  main problems is with the comments which people leave on photos. Quite often, all they say is "Great shot" or "You have been nominated to post this photo on [group xyz]". These kind of comments annoy me. Why did you like the photo or feel it should be nominated for a group? Which part was it? How can it be improved? If a photo moves you, say so! There is not one photographer I have met who would not appreciate praise of criticism of his/her work.
The other thing I dislike about Flickr is their map; although this is only since they changed it (about a year ago now, I think). I feel that it is not user friendly. It's default is a semi-working pseudo-tag-cloud. It is only once one plays around with it a bit (quite a bit!) that it becomes clear how to change the map to something useable (tip: click on the three pink dots in the top right). The map may have got me into geotagging my photos, but why change a main feature of your site to something less useful?

Finally, Flickr has come under attack recently for being overzealous with its censorship. Because the company is owned by the big monster that is Yahoo!, it must toe the corporate line. However, my personal feelings on this are that it is not so much a problem with people putting content on, it is that Flickr does not have decent enough filters. Why not have a level of censorship on the searches akin to SafeSearch where the user must adjust their search settings to be less stringent? It is not a perfect solution, but it would be a lot better than having "Flickr are censorship bastards" pictures everywhere.

10 Reasons to Like Flickr:

1. Put your photos somewhere for your friends to see them.
2. View other photographer's work and comment on it.
3. Have people comment on your photos.
4. Join Flickr meetups/scavenger hunts to meet other photographers in your area.
5. Browse by tags for similar photos or inspiration.
6. Surf a world map for photos taken in a particular area.
7. Find your digital camera model and see pictures that other cameras have taken with theirs.
8. Ability to specify permissions and access on a per picture basis (compared with Picasa web album).
9. Organise your photos quickly and easily.
10. Whatever your style of photography, there has been one taken for you to look at.

10 Reasons to loath Flickr:

1. Users who comment with "Nice shot".
2. Users who comment with "I have chosen your photo for group X" and don't tell you why.
3. A world map user interface which is difficult to understand and therefore off-putting to the less technical user.
4. If you don't have someone jumping in your photo, you probably won't get to be on the front explore page.
5. A very small limit of 200 photos and 3 albums (compared with Picasa web album).
6. "Hot Tags" always containing the same thing (pic-a-day).
7. Too many pictures being stolen by people who do not know international or local copyright laws.
8. A blog whose only real purpose seems to be to advertise Flickr's latest affiliation/marketing campaign.
9. Tag clusters; why can't I just drill down through tags?
10. Groups cannot be browsed for, just guessed in the search box.

Post Processing Fun

Part of my enjoyment of photography is the thrill of the hunt. I like trying to find a good shot, and then playing composition/exposure/aperture roulette to get the film to see what I see. I have taken many photos which I thought would look good, only to see I could have used a different aperture to reign in the depth of field.

Nowadays, in the digital age, this isn't as big a problem as it was during the 35mm days. One of my pictures of the last entry was a little red flower. When I brought it up on my monitor, I felt that the picture could have benefited from a shorter depth of field. Just one stop would focus the eye in on the flower, and hide a not so exciting background. So I went about trying to do this manually.

I use GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) as my photo processor mainly for the fact I cannot afford Photoshop. The advantage of GIMP is that it is free and contains many of the features of Photoshop.

So, a quick bit of searching lead me to GIMP Guru's tutorial. I followed the instructions and came up with this:

So, from this:

We get this:

I think it works quite well. Click on the pictures to see the larger versions.

New Camera - Welcome to the Digital Age

Since starting this blog, I have become more enthusiastic about taking pictures. This resulted in me brushing off my 35mm camera (and getting a new body for it), and using my N95 more often for snaps. Well, this weekend saw the dawn of a new age. I finally went and got a decent digital camera. One which will (hopefully) enable me to take higher resolution digital photos, and become more creative with my pictures.
Typically, this weekend past was one of the worst weekends for running around with a new camera. It was cold, windy, and snowy.

So, about the camera. It is a Canon PowerShot A720 IS. I actually bought it without knowing quite what I was buying. I had wanted an A550 for a while, but did not even know the A720 existed. But having bought it, I am continually impressed with the features and cannot wait to get to know the camera better. Some of the features of my new camera are:

Aperture Priority
Shutter Priority
Manual Focus
Manual Flash Power Output
Panorama Mode

This isn't an impressive list of features for a DSLR. In fact you would expect them as standard. However, the A720 is a compact rather than and SLR. Having aperture and shutter priority it almost unheard of in all but the higher end of digital compacts. Certainly pricewise, this is not the most expensive, nor is it the most fully featured. But it takes excellent photos, so watch this space!

Police Seek Man After Assault on Amateur Photographer

London Transport Police are seeking the man in the above picture after he assaulted an amateur photographer on December 12th 2007. It appears that this person did not like his photo being taken:

"The photographer told him he could not delete the shot as it was not a digital camera. The man then attempted to grab the camera and punched the victim in the face. The victim suffered cuts and bruising to his face as a result of the incident."

Quite amusingly the picture that the photographer took, and that the man was so keen to get hold of, is now being used on his wanted poster. Read the full article by clicking on the photo of following the link here.

As both an amateur photographer, and one who uses 35mm film, I understand the predicament. From my point of view, if I take a photo of someone and they do not want me to have it, I can only assure them that I will honour their request, and would offer to send them the negative and photo for their piece of mind. The article does not say if the photographer had offered this option. I can only hope he did.

As an interesting aside, one of the places linking to the story is the blog Going Underground. It is an excellent blog and well worth a look. One of the questions in the comments on this article was if photography is permitted or the London Underground or not. The reason for this is that the London Underground is private property, and therefore the owners can decide on the rules, rather than the area coming under a general 'public places' rule. Anyway, John B read through all of the info and it appears that amateur photography is allowed provided flashes and tripods aren't used.

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas

One of the blogs I read is called Digital Photography School. I only recently discovered it, which is a bonus as Darren (the owner) has recently written an extremely useful article. 16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas does exactly what it says on the tin, it describes sixteen tips for taking better photos over Christmas.

Beware all those who cross in front of my camera this Christmas!

Photos I Want to Retake

One thing that has helped me continue to rekindle my love of photography is taking photos with my mobile phone. The more photos I take, the more I find myself looking for photo opportunities. This has lead to me having quite a few photos which were taken in good places, just badly composed or out of focus.

West India Quays At Night

This photos is one I would like to retake given a chance. This is the view along West India Quay at night taken with a Nokia N73. I think it is a very nice photograph but would look better taken with my Minolta. Maybe one day I will revisit the area to recapture this view.

Even More Photos for Sale

I haven't written about my For Sale photos for a while. That is because Photo Nation have been taking an age to approve photos. According to their news page this is because they have so many submissions that they are having a hard time getting through them all. In a way it is quite frustrating that it takes so long, but I am happy to sit and wait since this is in no way my main income (just as well with no sales so far!).

So, the following photos are for sale from Photo Nation. Feel free to click on the images to take you through to the site. 

Chicago Skyline

Graffiti Cat

Lights at Night

Disabled Access

Abstract Fan Surround

 

 

 

Scams: Avoiding fake photography contests

I've just read the article below about photography contest scams.

Scams: Avoiding fake photography contests (Photoethnogrphy.com)

Given that this article was originally posted in May, 2005 and it is still receiving comments in November 2007, it is an issue that is not disappearing.
One of the main sites mentioned is photo.com (deliberately not linking to this site). If you are 'lucky' enough to get through to the finalist section of the competition, you will be invited to their gala for about $1000. You are also invited to order the 'coffee table' book with your photo in it for about $60. All this isn't bad, but the small print of the contract you sign you waive all rights to your image. In short, you should stay clear of this very expensive scam. Apparently, you will get your book eventually, but it may take years.
Some comments mention that bananabana.com is running the same type of scam with baby pictures.

There is mention of another scam involving stock photographs on a CD but I do not think this kind of scam catches as many people out if the comments are anything to go by.

In conclusion, if you are going to enter a competition, read all of the small print. If you have to pay to enter a photography competition, make sure it is as legitimate as possible; the Photoethnography article mentions that these competitions sometimes name the judges so you can research their credentials.

Thanks to Clockworkpink2 for linking to the original post.

Testing Windows Live Writer

Today I was told about Windows Live Writer. I am taking a look at this tool as a way to blog without having to use the blogger web interface (which is not the easiest to use). I was recommended this by Hoshisoto, who uses Live Writer as his main blog updating tool.

First impressions are that this is a pretty clean bit of software. The user interface looks as though it has been given a bit of thought. I haven't had a chance to check out all of the features, having just installed the software.

The main thing which will keep me using this is how easy photos are to insert and manipulate using the software (this being a photo blog and all that!).  
So far, I am impressed. It was easy insert the picture on the left and manipulate its position to enable the text to wrap around it. Could this be the beginning of a beautiful relationship? Watch this space!

Hoshisato - Travel and Photo Blog

Hoshisato is a friend and colleague who, like me, has a passion for photography. Actually, his knowledge and skills far exceed mine!

Hoshisato's pictures vary in style and subject, quite often due to experimenting with a new photo or processing technique. For example, panoramas feature quite prominently at the moment due to experimentation with PTGui and Photoshop. I particularly like this Southwark Bridge Panorama as it has quite a fish-eye look about it and draws the eye along the whole length of the bridge.

Panoramas aren't the only, or indeed main, style of Hoshisato's photos. Many of the photos on the blog are of the reportage genre; people going about their business unaware they are being watched and photographed. I am quite fond of this type of photography, although I don't generally take many photos in this style. I enjoy the natural poses which can only be captured when people are unaware they are being photographed. My favourite reportage photo from the Hoshisato blog is of a forklift driver in the Tsukiji fish market.

This photo is part of the Japan collection which contains many travel photos from a recent trip out there. The reason I enjoy this particular photo is that it gives a sense of urgency which one could imagine being the general atmosphere in a fish market where the freshness of the produce is everything. The choice of black and white seems natural for this type of scene. Colour would probably dilute the crispness and contrast which gives this photo its busy feel.

Finally, if you click on any of the images on the blog, you are taken through to Hoshisato's Webshots page. Here you will find many more photos which aren't on the blog. Go there or click on the link on the right for the main blog. Both are well worth an explore.

Photo For Sale

I now have a photo that is available to buy from Picture Nation! It is a picture of the Scarlet Ibis which was taken that last time I went to South Africa. So follow the link to see my picture on the site.

Link to Scarlet Ibis

And yes, it is the same one I mentioned in one of my first posts here.

Royalty-free images from Picture Nation

R.I.P Minolta Dynax 2xi - Long Live the Dynax 500si Super

I dusted off my 35mm camera two weekends ago. I have a Minolta Dynax 2xi which was given to me on my 18th birthday. I hadn't used it in a couple of years, but recently bought a new battery for it and thoought I would take it for a spin. There were three photos left on the old film, and I had a new film in my pocket.
The scene for this photographic resurrection was to be the Horniman Museum in south Lonodon. I cannot recommend this place highly enough. Go and visit it.
After taking the final three photos, I waited to hear the familiar whirring of the camera as it rewound the film ready for the next one. This didn't happen. I got a bit of a whir, and then nothing. Silence. I was very disappointed as we were only half-way through the museum, and I had so many more pictures I wanted to take.
The next day, I took the camera to Jessops where they used a dark bag to open the camera up and rewind the film by hand. It was possible that the emulsion from the old film had degraded and stuck to itself on the spool so I put another film in to run it through. I took some closeup photos with my +4 macro filter (not sure how these will work out, but if any look good you will definitely see them here). Upon getting to the end of the film, the same thing happened, a small whir, then nothing. My beloved 35mm Minolta Dynax 2xi was dead.

One visit to Ebay later...

I have bought a Minolta Dynax 500si Super body. Because it was only the 2xi's body that was kaput, I only needed to replace that. The standard 35-85mm lense I had would work with any of the xi or si range from Minolta. This weekend past I was able to take it out on the town with me, and it was a joy to use. The 2xi was the feature-lite model of the Dynax family. This 500si has lots and lots of features to play with like:
Exposure modes (portrait, landscape, sport, night portrait)
Double exposure
Continuous exposure at 1fps
Apperture and shutter priority
Best of all, the camera has a built in flash. My last camera didn't have one which could be quite annoying having to carry around a hot-shoe flash.
If my new camera takes photos at the quality if the 2xi I will be mightily pleased.

Watch this space.