Monday, November 10, 2008

No naked lady on a scooter ...

While not much to report, I've had some great photographic challenges come my way during recent passage through Suez Canal. It's not a place I actually enjoy going back to and I truly believe someone should write a book on world's mentalities. I would even publish it in the For Dummies series. Imagine that title: "World's Mentalities for Dummies". Not meant to induce pain or disrespect in any of the known to human sarcastic ways, just plain simple shot at getting someone to publish some sort of user's guide on "How to deal with the other side of the logical spectrum".



But back to the topic at hand, which is often on this blog about photography. Egypt, as most places in that part of the World, is kind of dull looking. Don't expect dramatic skies, rapid weather changes, and especially a naked lady on a scooter zipping through town. Do however, expect limited contrast and a harsh sun. Learn quickly how to take an unattractive scene into the "promised" land of photographic opportunity. Also expect to employ the power of digital manipulation to get things in tune with your vision. Here I bring my own.


The photographs in this article are from the same single image, manipulated in Picasa (now in version 3), which I use exclusively for my current web work. The reasons for this are simple, but I'll write something on that in another piece.

The two images above have had some tonal and focus changes applied. The two below deal mostly with framing, or cropping if you will, although selective focus is also tried.






You be the judge they say, but use your imagination and play with Picasa (as I see no need to use anything else, especially in earlier stages of getting your hands wet in digital manipulation). But most of all, pick the right image.

You can read a bit more on Picasa's another feature in this article about "focus B&W"
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Monday, March 10, 2008

Evening clouds

Shot on the way up to Port Arthur, TX.
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Thursday, February 28, 2008

New blog and a mention of Plogger

Just started a blog Mad Pontoon dedicated to web site design with focus on photography presentation, but also delving into general issues of site design. I'm a definite novice in the field of "pure" web design (pure as in - hand coded in it's entirety). The pure approach, while quite a chore for a newcomer, produces more manageable results, cleaner code, and helps in site updates down the line. Those who can afford a professional services can sure do that, others like myself, who would rather do the whole thing on their own, need to stick to the learning process.

Mad Pontoon will become my link between actual design work and resources I find necessary to get the results.

While on the subject of web photo presentation, I'm all into open source model. There is several choices that make gallery creation easy and nearly painless. Some are too elaborate for my taste, but there is a few, that get it "right". In some cases customization may get a bit overwhelming at first, but if a gallery is to be integrated into the rest of a site, it better match its overall look.

So here, let me mention Plogger, a free server side script that produces a simple gallery, that has a lot of customization almost built in. I will be creating a test gallery soon, and will report here when it's completed.
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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Today was a good day ... for photography

Most of the day today there was an ever flowing fog throughout much of the lower Mississippi. Hard to argue with it.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

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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Saturday, February 16, 2008

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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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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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Sunday, February 3, 2008

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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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Chimneys, ver. 2

Chalmette, LA. Playing with Picasa again: color shot with "filtered
B&W", "tint", and "sharpen".
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Monday, January 21, 2008

Tall & proud

Lots and lots of chimneys.
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Sunday, January 20, 2008

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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