Small web site about skansens in Poland

I have put together a small web site about open air museums (skansens) in southeastern Poland. I will add more images in a near future.
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Houston skyline

It's an odd view in a way and you get to smell a lot of different
stuff before you see it - Houston skyline.
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Houston ship channel

An otherwise average shot got some help from a low light angle from rising sun and the "holes' in the sky made the upper part more interesting too. Unpromising scene delivered in the end quite a bit more.
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Power of smoke in Houston harbour

Every time I go by, I can't hold myself from not taking a shot... . The beauty lies in the white (or nearly so) smoke coming out of the stacks in contrast to a dark sky. Best time to wait for the moment is during thunderous weather, which brings along quick cloud pattern changes and lets the sun in and out. Amaizng how proper timing changes the mood of a photograph. In this instance, each of the multiple frames taken at about one minute intervals, had little resemblance to the others.

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The line-up

These are ships that have been laid-up or almost put to rest. In times of war, they can still be manned and deployed into war zones for troop transportation/support and other military sea-lift operations. A great photo opportunity.
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Tools of the trade

Shot in skansen in Sanok, southeastern Poland.
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Houston "skyline"

Entering port of Houston is always about getting that front-seat
glance at what it takes to make our cars go.
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Chimneys, ver. 2

Chalmette, LA. Playing with Picasa again: color shot with "filtered
B&W", "tint", and "sharpen".
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Tall & proud

Lots and lots of chimneys.
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Nostalgic New Orleans

It's 17:45 on January 20th, 2008 and sun has set again.
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Photo with Picasa adjustment

As I'm working with Picasa, new ways to play with photos keep popping up. Here is a function called "focal B&W", or a simple way to convert to B&W with an area left in color.
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One more photograph from previous set up

This is another one from that $70 2-"cool"-light set up, slightly toned.

What I'd like to see in the digital progress

I'd like to see sensor improvements in noise handling far more than a pixel count (which has already reached an above-needed level, especially in small cameras). Call it "Qaulity over Quantity".

There should be a focus on cutting down the noise AND some strict standard of testing for such, by which ALL manufacturers would have to go by - well, that's a pipe dream.

I'd like to see serious effort on manufacturer's part, to put some R&D into a DSLR (for starters) that has replaceable guts, especially the sensor, CPU, and buffer, so we stop spending money on the box, instead we upgrade what really counts. And while at it, why not make it an OPEN standard so third parties can come in and HELP along the way.

There should be more focus on file format development, so JPG is scrapped entirely (and ANY lossy format prohibited from ever reaching the market). Here I do believe, that there is no reason to continue with JPG for any longer than necessary. I'm not talking RAW as we know it now (and forget TIFF altogether), I mean a format that does not loose or restrict anything from the original and NEVER will. Here may I mention the OpenRAW effort (which it seems has gone nowhere). What I'd like to see is a format that gives me what film always has - I shoot, I take care of archiving with best methods available, but what I shot is accessible to ME forever, no camera maker, no software developer will EVER have a chance to change that. NONE of these things are currently true.

A simple portrait in B&W

This simple portrait was shot using a $70 2-"cool"-light set-up with umbrellas. Ideal? Nope, but quite satisfactory nevertheless.

Book review posted on elusivefoto blog

I have posted a short review of a wonderful photo technique book titled

Elements of Black and White Photography by George E. Todd. Check it out, especially since it can now be had for very little.

I'm running my two blogs in parallel for the moment, hence this announcement. This blog has a different ultimate target as it will focus largely on my own photography and related essays. On occasions I will post links to "elusivefoto blog" for obvious reasons.