tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44412988193618106662024-02-02T06:11:52.008+01:00The PhotoZoneby Alistair ScottAlistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.comBlogger164125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-23034071468737801232010-04-04T17:39:00.004+02:002010-04-04T21:40:14.238+02:00Moving day<div style="text-align: justify;">The PhotoZone here on Blogger is going into hibernation - permanently.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It won't vanish. I can't find any way of making it do that. But I will be posting no more here.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The posts I have made will continue to hang about in cyberspace until Google gets fed up with them and erases the lot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But, don't despair. PhotoZone still lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am moving the blog to a new and more sophisticated web server. PhotoZone has had a complete facelift and is now up and running at:</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.alscotts.com/">http://www.alscotts.com</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Why not pop over and check it out? Let me know what you think. There are some completely new posts there, but I have also transferred the first two 'Great Photographs' posts in their entirety as I intend to continue posting examples, and commenting on them, on the new site. I would like the 'archive' to be complete.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
A big thank you to all who have been faithfully following me here, and an extra thank you for all the great comments you have made. I hope to see you over on the new, improved <a href="http://www.alscotts.com/">PhotoZone</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Come on over. You'll be very welcome.</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-30386315405093159252010-04-01T11:02:00.006+02:002010-04-01T11:35:02.342+02:00April Fool!This has got to be the Mother of all April Foolings ... a report on the spaghetti harvest in the Swiss Ticino (the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland) shown on BBC Television's current affairs programme 'Panorama' on April 1st 1957.<br />
<br />
It fooled a lot of people - myself included (mind you, I was only 11 at the time).<br />
<br />
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<br />
Don't you love the plummy voice of Richard Dimbleby, prominent political commentator of his day?<br />
<br />
There are more details about this beautiful joke, and how it was created, on the <a href="http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_swiss_spaghetti_harvest/" target="blank">Museum of Hoaxes</a> website. Amazingly, it was all done on a budget of £100.Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-48062159717843090442010-03-12T15:00:00.000+01:002010-03-12T15:00:32.433+01:00He wasn't referring to police ...<div style="text-align: justify;">... when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P%C3%B3lya">George Polya</a>, a Hungarian professor of mathematics, once said: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"<i>Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery</i>."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But I think it fits well with regard to the <a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article7050481.ece">police 'interactions' with photographers</a>.</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-66811286544604174972010-03-08T19:09:00.004+01:002010-03-08T19:21:39.151+01:00How much is too much?<div style="text-align: justify;">Photographer Stepan Rudik, working for the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, took this photograph as part of a series on a Ukrainian street fighters in Kiev.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhVsr5Q7PVHgaYKjVoG2iGVRFTzpns4F-JEt6eZ_PkW4rx3KWe7fsKB4zEvdCbUDaCL7VlsagarkJY3YVwdLFh01YKslYgCxcCzlec5NzCCkCQKuDwvhrKSZib0c4EH5iDGagZUic3WTDL/s1600-h/compimage1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhVsr5Q7PVHgaYKjVoG2iGVRFTzpns4F-JEt6eZ_PkW4rx3KWe7fsKB4zEvdCbUDaCL7VlsagarkJY3YVwdLFh01YKslYgCxcCzlec5NzCCkCQKuDwvhrKSZib0c4EH5iDGagZUic3WTDL/s640/compimage1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He then cropped it by something like 90%, converted the remains of his image to black and white, added an artificial grain effect (I'd guess using a Photoshop filter) burned in an artificial vignette, whammed up the contrast for a harsher feel, and cloned out the stray bit of foot (I think it is) belonging to the guy standing behind the fighter ...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tZ993g9K8AnskcCzhhJim5vz_4xQPbZ18k-cpxwsoTTq5kFjWg7z4qg_DCtY8sT3leNpMRaAMeTaGttTjVmhJTVgp8l7bbdCGvJFqyof_JXg-iRmLS-8RZV2tmT9coXHfqWI8GOq9mY5/s1600-h/comp04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tZ993g9K8AnskcCzhhJim5vz_4xQPbZ18k-cpxwsoTTq5kFjWg7z4qg_DCtY8sT3leNpMRaAMeTaGttTjVmhJTVgp8l7bbdCGvJFqyof_JXg-iRmLS-8RZV2tmT9coXHfqWI8GOq9mY5/s320/comp04.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The result was this ...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizP7zRXF1g8Jf1GIfA3eD6AwFKJ-VfnTgqSXIkskl_VmXcTGFH60rxVi8Z0XT4IszCiGXbMHNdXg-UkDRzwDvDeIqebyOUnWFowqEgg0BK00J0fEiwKMzBSjk3JnxHBuNTYOa-qT12lQzp/s1600-h/comp02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizP7zRXF1g8Jf1GIfA3eD6AwFKJ-VfnTgqSXIkskl_VmXcTGFH60rxVi8Z0XT4IszCiGXbMHNdXg-UkDRzwDvDeIqebyOUnWFowqEgg0BK00J0fEiwKMzBSjk3JnxHBuNTYOa-qT12lQzp/s400/comp02.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">He then entered it for the 2010 World Press Photo Competition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it won 3rd prize in the 'Sports Features' category.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But not for long. Apparently the manipulation was brought to the attention of contest officials by the Ukrainian Photography Union and, shortly thereafter, anyone visiting the World Press Photo website to view the winners was presented with this page for 3rd Prize in Sports Features ...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZOQHTAC2EDDWJm9Zebw8ewxzNgqZ7S87Gx-_43oQsmg-03iQOSHXSdayjT8hbdybDiHP3LUZnA90MD32B-3po9EUo6jJ1tpQ1vacR1swB2qzluBkNL-vbCdpowlnDa4nAtaRFe30qlDQ6/s1600-h/comp03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZOQHTAC2EDDWJm9Zebw8ewxzNgqZ7S87Gx-_43oQsmg-03iQOSHXSdayjT8hbdybDiHP3LUZnA90MD32B-3po9EUo6jJ1tpQ1vacR1swB2qzluBkNL-vbCdpowlnDa4nAtaRFe30qlDQ6/s640/comp03.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Why the disqualification? On their website, World Press Photo states:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Following the announcement of the contest results, it came to the attention of World Press Photo that Rudik's story had violated a contest rule. After requesting RAW-files of the series from him, it became clear that an element had been removed from one of the original photographs.</i></div><div style="text-align: right;">(For the full statement see <a href="http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1819&Itemid=168&bandwidth=high" target="blank">here</a>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, it was the removal of the few hundred pixels of stray foot that did for Mr Rudik. The violent cropping, removal of colour, addition of grain, vignette and harsh contrast would seem to be acceptable practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know what I think.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What about you?</div><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Image credit: Photograph by Stepan Rudik</i></span></div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-33187726635671724332010-02-23T18:25:00.007+01:002010-02-23T18:43:41.553+01:00Great Photographs No. 2 – Fallen Republican Soldier, Spain, 1936<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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“<i>If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough</i>.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWLSEJ43K4G2It9RTjZQ_rWqktEBKIghKRp7GTdWpmSgJv3LpZ1x4b1A5OrR52xxBak5czC_yQC6gMAyN3OyeW5_ALDMb3RIs_4yAh7pjuZ2qP1LdvtxBPLKroCIzNE82Zjk9Vc-wVXebe/s1600-h/capa+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWLSEJ43K4G2It9RTjZQ_rWqktEBKIghKRp7GTdWpmSgJv3LpZ1x4b1A5OrR52xxBak5czC_yQC6gMAyN3OyeW5_ALDMb3RIs_4yAh7pjuZ2qP1LdvtxBPLKroCIzNE82Zjk9Vc-wVXebe/s640/capa+01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Capa/Magnum Photos </span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The truth of Robert Capa’s famous quote is borne out by his equally famous photograph. Capa was almost at the feet of this Republican soldier as the man fell during the Spanish Civil War. It is one of the most dramatic and iconic of all war photographs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Photographers had been recording war ever since the invention of photography in the late 1830s. But, from the Crimean War through to the First World War, they had had to use cumbersome plate cameras that could only take one exposure at a time. This limited war photography to relatively static shots of assembled troops, captured prisoners, battlefield views and the like.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capa was at the forefront of a revolution taking place – a revolution in photography. This was brought about by the invention of the 35mm rangefinder camera, with 36 exposures on its roll of film. For the first time photographers could move in amongst the troops, capturing spontaneous action and shooting sequences. For the first time photographers could get ‘close enough’ to record the death of an individual.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But this photograph has stirred a storm of controversy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was first published in a French magazine <i>Vu</i> in September 1936, followed by publication in <i>Life</i> and <i>Picture Post</i>. The editor of <i>Picture Post</i> called Capa “... the greatest war photographer in the world ...”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then in 1975 Philip Knightley, in his book ‘<i>The First Casualty</i>’ challenged the authenticity of this image. Based on the recollections of a reporter who worked alongside Capa, examination of other photographs from the same roll of film and the knowledge that photojournalists of the time did stage dramatic images, Knightley concluded, “... the famous photograph is almost certainly a fake – Capa posed it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnDbcMktOlVHChBRbEA80ZBk9T5l5wdQB_iQifQ9lwc7c_NSaav8wyEiJE1QXqVnjpIXeiec1RCEa2PaKZqLoLDdQkX6xGjF-4_bNfLWLFo07UUHrR_OEL5Teuz2_bAsYcTmripiiOaAp/s1600-h/capa+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="491" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnDbcMktOlVHChBRbEA80ZBk9T5l5wdQB_iQifQ9lwc7c_NSaav8wyEiJE1QXqVnjpIXeiec1RCEa2PaKZqLoLDdQkX6xGjF-4_bNfLWLFo07UUHrR_OEL5Teuz2_bAsYcTmripiiOaAp/s640/capa+02.jpg" width="640" /></a><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Capa/Magnum Photos</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Another image from the same sequence </i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
And the argument has raged ever since. A definitive answer will never be reached because Robert Capa died in 1954, and no negative of his iconic image is known to exist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But does it matter how the photograph was obtained?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if it was set up, it could be argued that this photograph remains a powerful symbol of the Spanish Republican cause. Tens of thousands of Republican soldiers died, and symbols aren’t necessarily any the less powerful because they have been staged. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are still deep scars left by that war, and Spain’s Culture Minister, the film director and screenwriter Ángeles González-Sinde, commented on the photograph at the opening of an exhibition of Capa’s work in Barcelona last year. “Art is always manipulation, from the moment you point a camera in one direction and not another,” she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That may be true, but it does matter to war photographers and other photojournalists who work in harrowing and dangerous situations. They know that their credibility depends on the trust that the viewing public has in them and their work. Photojournalists have been sacked for ‘manipulating’ their images – Brian Walski, for example.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Walski’s image of a British soldier in Iraq, motioning for a man carrying a child to get down, was Pulitzer Prize material ... except for the fact that it was shown to be a composite. (For an in-depth discussion of that image, see <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm" target="blank">here</a>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, whatever your opinion on Capa's photograph - whether you believe it is a fake and so worthless ... or staged but still great ... or true - what isn’t arguable is his courage.<br />
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Robert Capa died when, trying to get ‘close enough’, he stepped on a land mine in Vietnam. His camera was in his hand.</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-18897371464504982562010-02-19T11:26:00.004+01:002010-02-19T14:43:53.654+01:00Grime Doesn't Pay - Part 3<div style="text-align: justify;">Digital cameras with interchangeable lenses suffer from grime problem that never affected film cameras ... dust on the sensor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is different from dust on the lens. The tiniest specks on the sensor will show up as spots in your photograph, especially on large areas of plain colour, such as the sky. And they become more visible if you are using small apertures such as ƒ16 or ƒ22.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The problem is being addressed by manufacturers and many cameras now have self-cleaning sensors that vibrate at very high speed to shake dust off. How well they work is debateable. But even if they work perfectly, the shaken-off dust is still somewhere inside the camera and could possibly end up on the sensor again</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do you dare check your sensor for dust?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Close your lens down to its absolute minimum aperture, point your camera at a patch of clear blue sky and take a photograph. Don’t worry about the shutter speed. It can be as slow as an arthritic snail and not matter. Dust is what you’re looking for, and it will be sitting in the camera, so shake doesn’t matter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Having taken your sky photograph, load it into an image editing program and examine at 100% ... and be prepared. If you want a real fright, click on ‘Automatic Levels’. I guarantee, you will find dust specks, even if you have a sensor cleaning system. Even brand new cameras have dust.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7u0BaSda6omWgOdoculP7VI0izJHG9rfCVGf6yvEaLjz1EWM29Hlja5MIMJLFPVn8-YnowUF-24IVB-sxGk6Kj8OGWXKH8n5UBopJwjpoIzVGp1VGdmVd2Z9bfJek3-O8NRKNxJzVTOPV/s1600-h/Dust+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7u0BaSda6omWgOdoculP7VI0izJHG9rfCVGf6yvEaLjz1EWM29Hlja5MIMJLFPVn8-YnowUF-24IVB-sxGk6Kj8OGWXKH8n5UBopJwjpoIzVGp1VGdmVd2Z9bfJek3-O8NRKNxJzVTOPV/s640/Dust+photo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's my sky photo, taken at f40, with just a few of the dust spots ringed.<br />
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Yours may be like that, or better, or worse, but sooner or later you will have to do (or have done) a bit of interior cleaning because you will take a photo like this ...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8BAE-MK5amDlGJbTu9HDVdbQkH9Ehm1vjKxULqe8qroyISgRw3JWGnrQPzH0rAAm9gO5uO9sDaUTHveEqplVc3GlWngdOQWz5BRccNaASvHrGMcbZOpWI2CbrBzOFbTwXLmndmbrQKhE/s1600-h/dust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8BAE-MK5amDlGJbTu9HDVdbQkH9Ehm1vjKxULqe8qroyISgRw3JWGnrQPzH0rAAm9gO5uO9sDaUTHveEqplVc3GlWngdOQWz5BRccNaASvHrGMcbZOpWI2CbrBzOFbTwXLmndmbrQKhE/s640/dust.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's no big deal because you can easily clone out the spot just above and to the right of the balloon, using your image editing program. (You will probably want to clone out those annoying contrails, too). But you don't want to be doing that photograph after photograph. So, you go to your instruction book ... and find an Awful Warning about not doing-it-yourself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Does that mean sending your camera off to a service lab?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No. In the words of the late, great Douglas Adams – DON’T PANIC.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is perfectly possible to clean your sensor yourself, if you take a bit of care.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And ... incidentally ... what you are cleaning is not the sensor. It is something called the ‘optical low pass filter’, which is a little bit tougher than the manufacturers would have you believe. (Though this does not mean you can be rough with it.) I’ll call it the sensor, anyway. That’s easier than writing ‘optical low pass filter’ every time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although your ‘dust photo’ – the one of the sky – may show many specks, like mine, I wouldn’t advise cleaning unless they are regularly ruining photographs. If they’re not causing any problems, leave well alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once you do decide to take the plunge, I’d advise a three-step process checking with a ‘sky photograph’ between each step. If, after any step, the dust has vanished, then stop ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Step 1</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Make sure your camera battery is fully-charged* and, working in a dust-free location (the bathroom is ideal for this), take the lens off and lock the mirror up. Then, holding the camera upside down above your head (so any dust will fall out) use your rocket blower to puff vigorously all over the sensor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As you puff, take great care to ensure that the plastic nozzle of the blower does not strike the metal lens-mounting flange. I learned that lesson when, the first time I was cleaning, I found more and more particles of something coming from somewhere. Guess where?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Step 2</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUW31XwDrdggJLLavUQFej7Q0Lrl6jONPn_ozcF4nMfSn-TEw9ixuLs9j-d5kPPtH_R1gaWhI9pUXAuB67KQWiEhRRKo1sD7gaWxsGP4NAqFKdCD4BY6An2vUYNe4i0MQidjRvZmAgkNN/s1600-h/GPT-079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUW31XwDrdggJLLavUQFej7Q0Lrl6jONPn_ozcF4nMfSn-TEw9ixuLs9j-d5kPPtH_R1gaWhI9pUXAuB67KQWiEhRRKo1sD7gaWxsGP4NAqFKdCD4BY6An2vUYNe4i0MQidjRvZmAgkNN/s400/GPT-079.jpg" width="400" /></a>If all that blowing hasn’t shifted the dust, then use a special sensor-cleaning brush with very fine hairs. You spin this at high speed, using a little electric motor to charge the filaments with static electricity. Then draw it across the sensor once so the static attracts the dust particles.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Incidentally – make sure never to touch the brush hairs. No matter how clean your hands are, they are always slightly greasy. Your skin-grease will transfer itself to the brush hairs and thence on to your sensor. Then you will have problems.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Step 3</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If some stubborn dust specks are still present then use a swab to shift them. You can buy packs of these, together with specially-formulated cleaning fluid, in photo shops. Make sure you specify the model of camera so that you buy the right size. Take one swab, moisten it with a drop of the fluid and draw it across the sensor once.<br />
<br />
I have applied these 3 steps since I first got my camera and I have only ever had to use Step 3 once.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, I repeat, DON’T PANIC. Unfortunately some photographers do, and become neurotic about dust. They spend an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid it when they should be photographing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have seen lens changing bags on sale in camera shops. The theory is that you put your camera and replacement lens into the bag and zip it up. Then you put your hands into sort of built-in gloves, change lenses inside the bag (honestly!) and then take the whole lot out again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Laugh? I nearly died. Apart from the fact that, by the time you’ve completed that palaver, whatever you were going to photograph has long gone, the bag itself must act as a massive dust trap after a few uses. Unless you’re going to carefully vacuum clean the interior every evening, it’s a complete waste of money.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dust in your camera is inevitable. For starters, the shutter is mechanical. Every time you take a photograph, it wears a fraction, releasing tiny particles. Then your zoom lens is like an air pump. Every time you zoom in and out you pump air in and out of the camera body, and that’s going to contain dust too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dust is everywhere. Live with it, and get on with making photographs.</div><br />
<hr />* Be sure the battery is fully charged before you lock the mirror up because, if the battery dies with the mirror up ... I don’t know what happens. I don’t like to think about it.Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-22059102283032251792010-02-09T21:45:00.010+01:002010-02-10T23:33:03.811+01:00Grime Doesn't Pay - Part 2<div style="text-align: justify;">Dirt on your lens matters ... but maybe not for the reason you think.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many people believe that a spot of dust on the lens will cause a spot on the photograph.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It won’t. You can have a spot of dust on your lens the size of a small coin and you might not notice it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof ...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1GPPh1vy7KphIn4KUFm0ZOegBjPJcA_2lXdQ7IOx6hHWwD53PQKvzDNM_jL2_bc5o5aPfyNC8cpOsEv6bRA69SQmh8J9hdyrUW6btcCPswxuNaFkgsZQm3FgqNWNgwv3-ungjM36SBLbU/s1600-h/lenstest01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="497" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1GPPh1vy7KphIn4KUFm0ZOegBjPJcA_2lXdQ7IOx6hHWwD53PQKvzDNM_jL2_bc5o5aPfyNC8cpOsEv6bRA69SQmh8J9hdyrUW6btcCPswxuNaFkgsZQm3FgqNWNgwv3-ungjM36SBLbU/s640/lenstest01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>These two photographs were taken one after the other, with my camera lying on its back pointing up at the ceiling in the hallway of my house.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I didn’t move the camera between shots. I didn’t change the exposure. Both were taken with the diaphragm fully open, at ƒ1.4. But in one of those photos there is a small Swiss 5 cent coin lying on the lens front element ...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEj0Qsua9XfQJFYF8dljusT-UH96bv4WwS5042N4Y0Cxn1ucDBCWzSB_0PWLC8QGMcYMSOrK7ZhYmvW05iGk0qZ8mZWF5WXwRfmfae3PHh1bC2yb1X7D_ael4LuF1P3NLsGQ1SiXR334bH/s1600-h/lenstest02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEj0Qsua9XfQJFYF8dljusT-UH96bv4WwS5042N4Y0Cxn1ucDBCWzSB_0PWLC8QGMcYMSOrK7ZhYmvW05iGk0qZ8mZWF5WXwRfmfae3PHh1bC2yb1X7D_ael4LuF1P3NLsGQ1SiXR334bH/s400/lenstest02.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Which photo was taken with the coin on the lens? (Answer in the comments section).<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if you got it right, I think you’ll agree that it was a tough one to spot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, what’s the point of that demonstration? That it’s okay to let your lens get dirty? Even huge chunks of grot won’t make any difference?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No. The point is that dust on your lens has a much more insidious effect which may not be easy to see. A dirty lens lacks contrast and colours in the image are washed-out. The effects occur across the whole image and are impossible to correct with image editing software. Here’s a demonstration ...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizKb_cSgTBB6yzHlNeil_xIh5KGHVn72mkHLwi042HPorQTQTj43oCmIF_r_eVC0dUeJcf3FcdcUeaOlf7OAtEA6pmXjTeN3BqWJYcEqOLnMi4sm1Ho4Q40oaiWTAGlWB-dd0lBh7Y08_s/s1600-h/lenstest03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizKb_cSgTBB6yzHlNeil_xIh5KGHVn72mkHLwi042HPorQTQTj43oCmIF_r_eVC0dUeJcf3FcdcUeaOlf7OAtEA6pmXjTeN3BqWJYcEqOLnMi4sm1Ho4Q40oaiWTAGlWB-dd0lBh7Y08_s/s640/lenstest03.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">So, if you want the crispest, sharpest photographs that your lens can give, with vibrant colours, keep it clean.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Step 1</i>. Make sure that you keep a cap on your lens whenever it is not in use. One will have been supplied with the lens when you bought it. Don’t throw the thing away. And if you have lost it, buy another. Most camera shops carry a selection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Step 2</i>. Blow any dust particles off with that big fat rubber blower that you used to clean the camera’s exterior. Don’t forget to blow out the inside the lens cap. Dust easily gathers there, too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Step 3</i>. Gently wipe the surface of the lens. No, not with your shirt-tail, handkerchief or a piece of toilet paper. (You’d be surprised how many people use these things.) With your microfibre cloth. But make sure that the cloth is spotlessly clean. A tiny piece of grit trapped in its folds will play havoc with your coated lens surface. If you want to be really particular, have one cloth for the camera body and another entirely different on for the lens. Or buy some lens-cleaning tissue. Packs of it are very cheap and, unlike toilet paper or paper handkerchiefs, lens-cleaning tissue does not shed fibres. You can also use a drop of optical cleaning fluid to help the process.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Step 4</i>. Finally, give the lens a few hefty puffs with the blower to evaporate any cleaning fluid left or remove any stubborn specks of dust.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><i>Next on 'Grime Doesn't Pay' - Cleaning your Sensor </i></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><hr /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Footnote</i>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Incidentally, I didn’t actually let my lens get dirty for the photo above. I used an old skylight filter – one of those clear ones – and coated it with fine dust. The effect is the same. Then I took one photo with the filter off and one with it on and split them down the middle to make a comparison.</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-81530154837465936292010-02-02T13:14:00.008+01:002010-02-02T13:36:01.337+01:00Grime Doesn't Pay - Part 1<div style="text-align: justify;">Fact: if you use your camera, it’s going to get dirty. And if you’re using it seriously it is going to get even more dirty. Photographing interiors? They’re dusty. Beaches are gritty. Flowers shed pollen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But even if you keep your precious camera carefully wrapped up in cotton wool, the cotton wool itself is made of fibres.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There's more. Your camera is a machine, with moving parts. The shutter, just opening and closing, is going to wear releasing microscopic particles of plastic, metal, or whatever the shutter mechanism is made of.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grime is grim, wherever it’s found. So, you wash the car, dust the house and brush the dog. But how often do you clean your camera and associated gear?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Clean the camera myself?” you say. “No way! I’m going to end up with a massive repair bill.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not necessarily. Here’s a personal experience. A few years ago I took my camera to have its sensor cleaned by an authorised dealer in the UK (who, because I don’t want to get sued, shall remain nameless). The ‘cleaning’ cost me 30 quid and the camera came out worse than it went in. Since then I’ve done the sensor cleaning myself, in a three-stage process that I’ll describe later in this series.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But first, start out by cleaning the exterior. You can’t hope to get it spotless inside if the outside is dusty. This process is simple. Brush ... blow ... wipe. And here's the equipment you nedd to do the job ...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXfA2CZ4pa-YRqePF6kX_HC_A8tjN-ZSDFVfvxpZiumFeJ3mqY211DROV4qXjbMBISKTa5P1JE0elBU3pXnOlrNGFQgV3pU-Lks8EKGXJq711k-n6taZtoHkgn1s602pKJBCjH5yFUiV-/s1600-h/PHO-10-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXfA2CZ4pa-YRqePF6kX_HC_A8tjN-ZSDFVfvxpZiumFeJ3mqY211DROV4qXjbMBISKTa5P1JE0elBU3pXnOlrNGFQgV3pU-Lks8EKGXJq711k-n6taZtoHkgn1s602pKJBCjH5yFUiV-/s640/PHO-10-001.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Cleaning equipment: microfibre cloth, blower, soft brush (this is a man's shaving brush), optical cleaning fluid, cotton bud.</i></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Brush. You can get a dedicated camera brush for this, but you’ll probably pay extra for it. A large, soft make-up brush, or a man’s shaving brush (both of them unused, of course!) will do the job just as well, if not better. And will cost less. Give your camera a good brushing all over to remove surface grit and grot. Then ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Blow. No, not with your mouth. There are two ways of doing this. Either buy a big fat bulb-type blower, that looks like a hand grenade with a pipe sticking out of the end, or use a can of compressed air. Don’t bother with those diddly little puffer and brushes combined. They’re close to useless. Use a big ‘un. Puff liberally all over the camera body and front element of the lens to shift any particles that have not been removed by brushing. Blow out the inside the lens cap too, as dust can gather there. If you’re using a can of compressed gas be a bit careful. This can spurt liquid propellant if you hold it the wrong way (like upside down). Finally ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wipe – using a microfibre cloth. This is a special type of tightly-woven cleaning cloth that has a unique, silky feel to it. You can buy these cloths in photo shops and or at opticians. Get a big one. You could use a well-washed piece of cotton, but cotton tends to shed fibres. In addition, microfibre cloths are good at removing greasy marks, and they prevent scratching. Just remember, you need to keep the cloth clean, too. So give it an occasional wash.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If there are stubborn greasy patches that won’t shift – and let’s be honest, your nose against the viewing screen can leave hard-to-shift marks – then use a dab of optical cleaning fluid. These liquids have been specially formulated to ensure that they don’t damage glass, plastic or coated surfaces, and they evaporate away harmlessly. But, even so, always read the instructions first. Never ever use other solvents like white spirit. Then you may well have a massive repair bill.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clean the eyepiece of the viewfinder too. This is usually recessed and is a wonderful dust trap. A cotton bud, moistened with some optical cleaning fluid will do the job well. And, while you’re at it, check the dioptre adjustment - the little wheel or lever that sets the viewfinder to your individual vision. It can get knocked out of place during use, or your vision may have altered slightly since you last set the viewfinder. You can’t hope to take sharp photographs if you can’t view them clearly.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYhB_pswQT0ia1iI-QTu13hxTNmt1kjWYP8p0tqSc1U8hQIMev_GGmVkqEdp2jAR4GT84lG4P_tLL-P_MOk0v8W5L0Rj5dFfe2qD6LmdhyphenhyphenLNFuAAxs2K_Zo6SnlBytPZbw7QcF01nYy8zr/s1600-h/PHO-10-002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYhB_pswQT0ia1iI-QTu13hxTNmt1kjWYP8p0tqSc1U8hQIMev_GGmVkqEdp2jAR4GT84lG4P_tLL-P_MOk0v8W5L0Rj5dFfe2qD6LmdhyphenhyphenLNFuAAxs2K_Zo6SnlBytPZbw7QcF01nYy8zr/s640/PHO-10-002.jpg" width="640" /></a></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Cleaning the eyepiece. Check the dioptre seting at the same time. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, don’t forget your camera bag. It’s no good putting your lovely clean gear back into a bag that’s been gathering dust all year. Empty it out completely, remove all the interior partitions and vacuum clean it. Make sure to get the nozzle into all the nooks and crannies, and suck dust out of the various pockets, too.</div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Next time round – cleaning your lenses.</i></div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-20042995276015130312010-01-27T17:29:00.003+01:002010-01-27T22:43:52.059+01:00Seeing straightAs you get older your vision ... the all-important sense to a photographer ... can change. But these changes can happen so slowly that you are unaware of them.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'll never forget stepping out into the street, wearing my first pair of spectacles. I was in primary school at the time - still not very old - but even so, my eyes had been changing. And they'd been changing so slowly that I hadn't noticed anything amiss.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But, fortunately, my mother had been keeping tabs on me, and had dragged me kicking and screaming (figuratively, that is) to the opticians for an eye test. No way did I want to wear glasses. The other kids at school called you names if you wore glasses, and they made you look 'swotty'. I didn't think I needed glasses ...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">... until I stepped out into the street wearing them.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What a revelation! Everything was so sharp it was as if the town had been trimmed with a diamond-tipped saw. I could read the roadsigns. The trees had individual leaves instead of a blur of green. The clouds were sculpted and textured. Old peoples' faces had wrinkles and young kids smiled with gleaming white teeth. It was unbelievable. And the moment has stuck with me to this day.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Your vision can change at any time, and it's worth keeping a check on it. One way of doing this is to use an Amsler grid which may show changes that you wouldn't notice otherwise. You could print it, and stick it up somewhere in your kitchen so you'll remember to look at it ...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghgVLjTyOV0zgo_P3LzsnSyddAnpN5WTQuXyV0ZbmStcIF08b_VZxLDcif5DuGfVW187sMs5fwzZ5if4MQlXUpXY-yu6yGanKmIB8wdmhTZOD2Q-XE_lkgV3L7at0uuLRkVlxdTk2-exL_/s1600-h/amsler_grid.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghgVLjTyOV0zgo_P3LzsnSyddAnpN5WTQuXyV0ZbmStcIF08b_VZxLDcif5DuGfVW187sMs5fwzZ5if4MQlXUpXY-yu6yGanKmIB8wdmhTZOD2Q-XE_lkgV3L7at0uuLRkVlxdTk2-exL_/s640/amsler_grid.gif" width="596" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
To use it:<br />
</div><ol><li>Wear your glasses if you need them and hold the grid 12 to 15 inches away from your face in good light</li>
<li>Cover one eye</li>
<li>Look directly at the centre dot with the uncovered eye</li>
<li>Keep your eye on the the centre dot and note whether all lines of the grid are straight or if any areas are distorted, blurred or dark</li>
<li>Repeat this procedure with the other eye</li>
<li>If any area of the grid looks wavy, blurred or dark, contact your ophthalmologist immediately</li>
</ol>This is not a substitute for a regular eye check by a qualified practioner, but it could pick up problems before they become too serious.<br />
<br />
Vision is vital to a photographer.<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-55790492928346001282010-01-18T11:40:00.004+01:002010-01-18T11:47:37.322+01:00Megapixel mania mashed<div style="text-align: justify;">Here's an interesting development. The Canon Powershot G10, a top-of-the-range compact camera, has recently been superseded by the Canon Powershot G11.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"And what's so special about that?" do I hear you ask? "Manufacturers are upgrading their models all the time."<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, but get this. The G10 had a 14 megapixel sensor. The G11 has only 10. In other words, Canon's 'development' is to reduce the number of megapixels in their upgrade.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It just goes to show that the widespread belief - much touted by salespeople - that the more megapixels the better, may not necessarily be the whole truth.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The megapixel rating of a camera does one thing, and one thing only. It tells you how big a print you can make at a certain resolution. That's all.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It tells you nothing about the quality of the image - the sharpness, the amount of 'noise' (random speckles), the colour differentiation - nothing.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why? What is a megapixel? how does it work?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The rectangular sensor in your digital camera is made of rows and rows and rows of tiny light-sensitive dots called pixels (short for 'picture elements'). A megapixel is simply a million of these. The number is calculated in exactly the same way as you calculate the area of a rectangle, length x width.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, if the sensor of your camera is 2000 pixels by 3000 pixels, that is 2000x3000 = 6'000'000 pixels = 6 million = 6 megapixels. Simple.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Camera sensors are different sizes. And it's pretty obvious that an ultra-compact pocketable camera is going to have a much smaller sensor that a digital single lens reflex. Here are a few sensor sizes, drawn to scale ...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HATcEPS-YP8NZjC_BR37ZWSmk9ReV-hXIKt0SZoXRFknN6-ioyHgB76cI6Cf2tQew_LenC3Nen0qE7WpMadR29kGwyGAWnt7RxD3U5jF9r9fdNNrhogRnYiTMpKSkEbHOib483MhAUu7/s1600-h/GPT+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HATcEPS-YP8NZjC_BR37ZWSmk9ReV-hXIKt0SZoXRFknN6-ioyHgB76cI6Cf2tQew_LenC3Nen0qE7WpMadR29kGwyGAWnt7RxD3U5jF9r9fdNNrhogRnYiTMpKSkEbHOib483MhAUu7/s640/GPT+001.JPG" /></a><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's not exactly rocket science to work out that 10 million pixels crammed into the ultra compact camera's sensor (green) are going to be squished together a whole lot more tightly than 8 million in the DSLR sensor (red). <br />
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</div>And when pixels are squished together so tightly they begin to interfere with each other. Electronic 'noise' (not the same as sound noise), static charges, all sorts of interference, can spill over from one pixel to the next. We're talking ultra-microscopic dimensions here. As with you and me ... well, me, anyway ... given a bit more breathing space, pixels perform much better.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In other words, more pixels don't mean better. They can simply mean a worse photograph made of more dots.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And what about that bit "... <i>megapixels tell you how big a print you can make</i> ...".<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's right. You have to do a little bit of maths, but it's not difficult.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When you print one of your photographs, or display it on a screen, each pixel is represented by a tiny dot of colour. Look closely at a photograph in a magazine, and you'll see what I mean. The number of these pixels/dots that are squeezed into an inch (the old imperial system of measurements is still used here) determines the quality of the final image.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">High-quality printed photographs use a resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Computer monitors have a lower resolution, at 72ppi.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lets go back to our camera sensor which was 2000 pixels by 3000 pixels - 6 megapixels. In this case each pixel translates to a dot of colour when printed. So, if you're printing at 300 pixels per inch then the biggest photograph you can get is:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2000 ÷ 300 = 6.7 inches, and 3000 ÷ 300 = 10 inches.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In other words, if you go larger than 6.7 by 10 inches the image quality will start to degrade.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is the maths making your head hurt? Don't despair. <a href="http://www.design215.com/toolbox/megapixels.php" target="blank">Here's</a> a handy chart. And, notice, underneath it the authors describe several ways of 'cheating' to get larger images.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So that's why Canon dropped the megapixel rating of their latest top-of-the-range compact camera. To get a higher quality image. They ain't daft. They know that more megapixels aren't necessarily better.<br />
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</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-37075712395547442232010-01-13T12:12:00.003+01:002010-01-13T12:18:26.947+01:00Let it snow!<div style="text-align: justify;">It's been snowing here. Masses of it.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I love the snow, it transforms everything and, for a while, makes a new world of otherwise familiar surroundings.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It also gives lots of opportunities for photography.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mundane scenes, such as a garden rake lying against a flight of steps, become interesting graphic compositions:<br />
<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-B_KenZ4wv712ABjW5BDXOa4IyWQCBa46pBNpOlEgohPCmT9gMykobkTRTAIfUd2mQwjsUZ2uoForR3_7dLe-j2dKBcVDPyzwOdi9JRGi9lCXY6U5kKbfC-PL-YxQpCDQAPkaSKMfL5W6/s1600-h/SCE-10-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-B_KenZ4wv712ABjW5BDXOa4IyWQCBa46pBNpOlEgohPCmT9gMykobkTRTAIfUd2mQwjsUZ2uoForR3_7dLe-j2dKBcVDPyzwOdi9JRGi9lCXY6U5kKbfC-PL-YxQpCDQAPkaSKMfL5W6/s640/SCE-10-001.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Everyday scenes, such as this Swiss postman on his rounds, take on a new dimension:<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHaeLFJz9dBJ3BOX9qc3P03jTuXec46yjEYQjQpBrSm8GnSZ6hVlr8tam0h-CBYuI3GNBvTRgMhPKKxee1nK3BwTrBuvnM206nc89BdeFXm0QoV4bWfmsAg2MFGenFnGbAPIHgWETpeki3/s1600-h/SWI-10-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHaeLFJz9dBJ3BOX9qc3P03jTuXec46yjEYQjQpBrSm8GnSZ6hVlr8tam0h-CBYuI3GNBvTRgMhPKKxee1nK3BwTrBuvnM206nc89BdeFXm0QoV4bWfmsAg2MFGenFnGbAPIHgWETpeki3/s640/SWI-10-001.jpg" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Without the snow, this scene would be boring and dull. The postman, on his delivery bike, would hardly stand out against the grey of the road and background. With the snow it becomes a tiny story.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And you can get action shots, almost isolated on white. In any event, in the snow there is lots of opportunity for getting shots with minimal background distraction.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiunrp5DCEh3paiWd5v84cguCKLqyfKUKlZrtWYa6ZVfM5F6lWxp38LwVsJeyfK1ThZK-yu7yy5PdpkjF6Ah67JoC5RUD4TUh8pWq6XCofPEjKn4NlnTcKTIIA7ASAJ9vHffjRKcznOnSoF/s1600-h/MAM-09-026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiunrp5DCEh3paiWd5v84cguCKLqyfKUKlZrtWYa6ZVfM5F6lWxp38LwVsJeyfK1ThZK-yu7yy5PdpkjF6Ah67JoC5RUD4TUh8pWq6XCofPEjKn4NlnTcKTIIA7ASAJ9vHffjRKcznOnSoF/s400/MAM-09-026.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div>Just remember a few points when taking shots of snow scenes:<br />
<ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>Set your exposure compensation to over-expose at between 0.7 - 1.0 stop ... possibly even more. The reason is that your camera is not very clever. It is expecting you to take photographs of scenes containing a whole range of tones from black to white, and so averages out the exposure setting. If you average out the exposure for a scene with a lot of bright tones in it, such as snow or beach, and you'll get the white coming out as a dirty grey.<br />
<br />
</li>
<li>Make sure your sensor is clean. Snow being bright, will often require small apertures and, at small apertures, every speck of dust on your sensor shows. This is made worse by the fact that snow scenes tend to have a lot of plain colours against which dust shows up.<br />
<br />
</li>
<li>When you've finished photographing snow and you go back indoors, don't be tempted to transfer all those brilliant images to your computer immediately. Keep your camera securely zipped up in its bag/case for several hours until it has warmed up to room temperature. Condensation will form on a cold camera in a warm house and, whilst condensation on the outside of the camera is pretty harmless, if moisture condenses between the lens elements, actually within the lens, you could have a big problem on your hands.</li>
</ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let it snow!<br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-59457344830618065112010-01-08T13:24:00.002+01:002010-01-08T13:25:25.434+01:00Frozen BritainOne of my personal photographic mantras is 'always look for a different viewpoint'.<br />
<br />
Which is why I'm sometimes to be seen lying on the ground with my camera, or climbing up fire escapes.<br />
<br />
But, seeing as I can't yet afford the millions that it takes to be a space tourist, this is a viewpoint I'll never achieve ...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBT3IG_Oxlf513e5ZEb61a7mzME_5cvg7GT6iCuwvobAlPQ8AqADHcv3sVknp4f_2Aby54hcYPvKdcDvWGf8CJrv491UmJwkIhydYeMl5TFBL2jFNPuzQv8GbyDq9KJcNCvYvWXSZluTxc/s1600-h/_47061196_greatbritainjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBT3IG_Oxlf513e5ZEb61a7mzME_5cvg7GT6iCuwvobAlPQ8AqADHcv3sVknp4f_2Aby54hcYPvKdcDvWGf8CJrv491UmJwkIhydYeMl5TFBL2jFNPuzQv8GbyDq9KJcNCvYvWXSZluTxc/s640/_47061196_greatbritainjpg.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo: NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response </span></i><br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-26579142235690080212010-01-04T18:42:00.009+01:002010-02-19T18:56:52.219+01:00Great Photographs - No. 1 "Boulevard du Temple, Paris, eight in the morning"<br/><br />
This astonishing image has to rank amongst the 100 greatest photographs of all time ...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7LJjUzNoCHMZsuv0gygx7-GYFoV2-YsmIwjzr36TzRiZ-EkNQAMMvz4UB9dw-bbcPi4bY_VUy4UX4FTJDSuMMUKl_vnC-rwI-y7YpBfhu-yK_ke0JwofGdd6W-HUvIJp_0ywAUKaAqE3/s1600-h/Daguerreotype1839.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7LJjUzNoCHMZsuv0gygx7-GYFoV2-YsmIwjzr36TzRiZ-EkNQAMMvz4UB9dw-bbcPi4bY_VUy4UX4FTJDSuMMUKl_vnC-rwI-y7YpBfhu-yK_ke0JwofGdd6W-HUvIJp_0ywAUKaAqE3/s400/Daguerreotype1839.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Boulevard du Temple, Paris, eight in the morning (1838?)</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>by Louis-Jacques Daguerre<br />
</b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Click on the image to see it larger)</span></i><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is a daguerrotype, an image recorded on a sheet of copper coated with silver and developed by mercury fumes. Ironically the hour at which it was taken is known, but the year is not. It was either 1838 or 1839.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At first glance this may seem like a rather ordinary ... even boring ... subject. And it's badly scratched too. Aren't I saying its so great, simply because its so old?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No. Look carefully to the bottom left. There you will see two human figures, a customer having his shoes polished by a bootblack. These two unknown characters were the first humans to be photographed. Their simple, everyday transaction has made them immortal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How come there is no one else in the image? Weren't the streets of Paris busy at that time?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">They were. But Daguerre would have had to use an exposure of 10-15 minutes to get this image. So all the other Parisians, bustling back and forth, have not come out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the commentaries on this photograph that I have read speculate that these two were probably unaware that they were being recorded. And they say that Daguerre knew neither of them. One photo-historian writes, "<i>He (Daguerre) quite possibly didn't notice them as he focused his camera, but his plate remained true to nature, and one can imagine his delight when the mercury fumes revealed their presence during development.</i>"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I wonder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Daguerre would have known that people moving about would not record on his plate and I have a sneaking suspicion he planted these two. Apart from anything else, who has one shoe polished for 10 to 15 minutes? Then it's a slightly odd place for a bootblack to set up business, right on a corner, close to the kerb, and directly in the path of people walking up and down the road.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, these two are very conveniently placed close to the classic compositional 'thirds' position.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I think that it has been set up ... not that this detracts from the image in any way. Those two make the picture. I'm guessing that Daguerre knew a thing or two about composition as well as developing plates with mercury fumes. He knew that a 'heartbeat' would improve his image. But he couldn't just have a person or two standing motionless on the street corner. Apart from the fact that it would look odd to passers-by, it would also look odd on the image. So, get them to do something, and what more natural than a shoe shine?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a further bizarre twist of fate, this image has been saved for us by an invention of Daguerre's rival, William Henry Fox Talbot. Fox Talbot invented the calotype which was the precursor of modern film photography. (Film photography replaced the daguerrotype process and made it obsolete.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whilst this daguerrotype was display in a museum in Munich, in 1937, an eminent photo-historian, Beaumont Newhall commissioned a very high-quality photograph of it ... using photographic film of course. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Subsequently, Daguerre's picture survived the bombings of Munich in 1940 but, shortly after the war, an over-zealous museum curator attempted to clean it. The mercury amalgamated to the silver was incredibly fragile - likened to the powdery scales on a butterfly's wings - and the hapless curator wiped the whole thing clean.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Beaumont Newhall's photograph of it survived. And a replica daguerrotype could be made.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">An amazing story around a truly great photograph.</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-38544145694910007382010-01-02T09:09:00.001+01:002010-01-03T22:49:15.251+01:00Would you Adam and Eve it?<div style="text-align: justify;">Inspiration strikes in the strangest places.<br />
<br />
There I was last winter, soaking in a steaming hot bath, gazing at my toes and meditating on the State of the World when, out of nowhere, it struck me. Taps ... tub ... and toes peeping out of the water. What a great angle for a photograph!<br />
<br />
I won't say I cried "Eureka!" and dashed naked through the house looking for my camera. But the the next day I took another bath (no sarcastic comments please), setting it up carefully, with plenty of foam, a loofah, and a strategically-placed bathy sort of bottle. Then I placed my camera on a stool beside the tub, climbed into the water and lay down.<br />
<br />
Gingerly picking up my camera, and holding it very tight, I shot away, with the flash pointed up at the ceiling. Bathrooms are beautiful places for photography. They generally have a lot of white in them, with plenty of reflective surfaces too. The light bounces all over the place and fills in shadows giving a very balanced effect. (They're excellent for portraits too. But that's another story.)<br />
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It's an odd feeling, to be lying in a hot bath taking photographs.<br />
<br />
Cut to this Christmas.<br />
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When I got back from my jaunt to UK through a snowy France and a blocked Channel Tunnel, I found an e-mail waiting from a group called Elf Cottage Music (yes, that's their name ... I kid you not) telling me that they bought one of my photographs to illustrate a seasonal song of theirs called <i>A Stay at Home Quiet Christmas</i>. And the video of it could be seen on YouTube.<br />
<br />
What image of mine could they have used? A Christmas tree in the snow? A sprig of holly isolated on white? Skiers swooping down a wintry mountain? It surely had to be something Christmassy.<br />
<br />
Watch carefully at 1m30s ...<br />
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</div><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bteIOuEU-Ps&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bteIOuEU-Ps&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
<br />
To say I was gobsmacked is an understatement.<br />
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Still ... for once it's nice to know where one of my photos has been used. Thanks Elf Cottage Music.<br />
<br />
And always be on the lookout for new angles for your photographs.<br />
<br />
Happy New Year.Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-18773444278078936532009-12-18T14:43:00.001+01:002009-12-18T14:47:06.116+01:00What do you get a photographer for Christmas?<div style="text-align: justify;"> No, this isn’t a joke. The last shopping weekend before Christmas is on us and maybe you're panicking. Photography is so technical these days that trying to find Christmas presents for a photographer is no laughing matter.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Here are a few straightforward ideas, suitable for photographers of all levels ...<br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A polarizing filter</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> These things don’t come cheap, but a they’re a great accessory. A polarizing filter screws on to the front of a lens and cuts reflections from water, glass and other shiny surfaces. It also makes the sky a deeper blue, can cut haze in landscapes and generally enriches colours.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The points to watch out for when buying one are:<br />
</div><ol style="text-align: justify;"><li>Make sure your photographer can use one. Most compact cameras can’t take them because polarising filters screw in to a shallow thread at the very front of the lens, and compacts don’t have this. On the other hand, almost all interchangeable lenses – the sort used in DSLRs – do.</li>
<li>Make sure you get the right size. Look inside the lens cap and you will probably see a marking giving the diameter of the lens (in millimetres). If not, measure it. Remember, different lenses have different diameters so, even if your photographer already has a polarizing filter, he/she may appreciate another for a different lens.</li>
<li>If your photographer owns a digital camera make sure you get a circular polarizing filter. No, this does no refer to the shape – they are all circular – but the type. (The other type is ‘linear’). The one you want should be marked ‘Circular Polariser’, or bear the abbreviation Cir, PL Cir, or CPL. If in doubt, ask an assistant.</li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRZje91g4k1ZpBiLTqodkvt45SupCW9gUr45B5xOelJnrcjwRRNbU_Y62GFrjvkJsVXGDigCoqGIflhJBJIpfPJ7vt2LUGE3DhMaZLWPuk3hfQqH0rQ-n2bJOnuXwSy95taa1_x6o6vhs/s1600-h/polarizer-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRZje91g4k1ZpBiLTqodkvt45SupCW9gUr45B5xOelJnrcjwRRNbU_Y62GFrjvkJsVXGDigCoqGIflhJBJIpfPJ7vt2LUGE3DhMaZLWPuk3hfQqH0rQ-n2bJOnuXwSy95taa1_x6o6vhs/s400/polarizer-1.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This photo of the famous Jet d'Eau in Geneva, Switzerland, was taken<br />
using a polarizing filter to make the water stand out against the sky.</span></i><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>An extra memory card</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Photographers, particularly the serious ones, can never have too much memory. And with Christmas celebrations offering photo opportunities galore, your photographer will appreciate some extra storage.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The only question is, what sort of card? There are a number of types on the market, SD (Secure Digital), SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity), MMC (MultiMedia Card), XD (eXtreme Digital), CF (CompactFlash) and Micro SD. So check before you buy.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A second battery.</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> A camera is totally dependent on its battery. And, as a photographer, nothing is more frustrating than have it go flat just as a brilliant photo opportunity unfolds in front of the lens. By the time the battery has charged again the opportunity has long gone.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> With a spare battery your photographer has no problems. Slot it into place and carry on shooting whilst the first battery is re-charging.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A tripod</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Any photographer can use a tripod, just so long as his/her camera has a socket to take it. Look underneath the camera to find out. There should be a threaded hole on the base-plate.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> You can get tripods in all sizes, from little tiny ones that fit in your pocket to hulking great things that weigh a ton. Choose appropriately. A compact camera looks a bit daft on a tripod built like the Eiffel Tower.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The great thing about tripods is that they let you take photographs that would otherwise be impossible – long exposures, self portraits, close-ups, slow shutter speed images. A professional photographer I knew used to say the first thing you should do with a new camera is to weld it to a tripod – they’re that useful.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Camera cleaning equipment.</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Dust is the photographer’s Number One Enemy. It gets on the lens and degrades the quality of the image ...<br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0meuI1y-MQL0H9hfjiuBG7ss-Vzv-Hs7acdG904NtAzy-S3qT17iTxGkE8xgiX88qM100S-Z7J3IFd3pFtvJkdrlwRd0gmkEoCNqSfPIT7P6G6qcmXpQBEYiaRM8ZGCneeP5R9lDxeFE1/s1600-h/SWI+08-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0meuI1y-MQL0H9hfjiuBG7ss-Vzv-Hs7acdG904NtAzy-S3qT17iTxGkE8xgiX88qM100S-Z7J3IFd3pFtvJkdrlwRd0gmkEoCNqSfPIT7P6G6qcmXpQBEYiaRM8ZGCneeP5R9lDxeFE1/s640/SWI+08-008.jpg" /></a><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
This is what too much dust on the surface of a lens does.</span></i><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">... and it gets on to the sensor inside the camera and causes unsightly spots (see <a href="http://alscotts.blogspot.com/2008/10/major-dust-up.html">here</a>).<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> For dealing with dust on the lens you can get your photographer a microfibre lens-cleaning cloth, a soft brush or a blower. Just don’t bother with those diddly little blower-and-brush-combined jobbies. They’re not worth it. Buy a big one that looks like a hand-grenade with a point sticking out of the top. They’re the business.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The big blower can also be used for puffing dust off sensors. In addition, for sensor cleaning, you can get special static-charged brush sets (the brush is whirled around to charge it and then lightly brushed across the sensor to pick up the dust). Finally, for really stubborn dust, a swab set is useful. It comes with a number of specially shaped swabs and bottle of cleaning fluid. make sure you get the right size swab for your photographer’s camera (ask the assistant).<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A camera bag</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> As with memory cards, a photographer can never have too many bags. A backpack for treks in the hills, a shoulder bag for town work, an individual camera case – all photographers need bags, not only to carry the camera, but also all the spare memory cards, batteries and filters they just got for Christmas.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Last but not least ...</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> ... one of my books will make a great gift for the photographer in your life.<br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoX_DyHDsBZMQSxMZM6XBAx5R86D8gDqeKzYhsy5ykxDCbLxZ2sa9_yTozuRzRG7lf5JaIgNseC9kHqaw-5fX4h0kr-mbyWi7qYu0YSYLr2lxKCx21aciR_mtysLwiZc0TrlFngESOMmm4/s1600-h/books-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoX_DyHDsBZMQSxMZM6XBAx5R86D8gDqeKzYhsy5ykxDCbLxZ2sa9_yTozuRzRG7lf5JaIgNseC9kHqaw-5fX4h0kr-mbyWi7qYu0YSYLr2lxKCx21aciR_mtysLwiZc0TrlFngESOMmm4/s640/books-2.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"> If you’ve got time <a href="http://www.alscotts.com/gptpage.html">The Greatest Photography Tips in the World</a> can be bought from any good bookseller, or online through Amazon.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> If it’s a last-minute present then my ‘<a href="http://www.alscotts.com/fampage.html">LowDown Guide to Family Photography</a>’ is an E-book and is available to download instantly from <a href="http://www.alscotts.com/fampage.html">here</a> and will give loads of good advice.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> And if you’re a photographer, and this has given you some ideas, you may want to leave hints around the house, or direct your loved ones to this page.<br />
</div><br />
Happy Christmas.Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-43477665218088015472009-12-17T13:05:00.006+01:002009-12-17T19:25:07.296+01:00Now's the time for family photos<div style="text-align: justify;">Statistics show that more family photographs get taken between December 24th and January 2nd than at any other comparable time of year.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Me.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Okay, so I made that one up. But it sounds good, doesn't it? And I suspect that it's true. After all, Christmas is a family time, when people travel thousands of kilometres to be together with their family. And being together they naturally want to take photos of the occasion. On top of that, many people get a camera as a Christmas present - and what better way to try it out on than than to take family photographs.<br />
</div><br />
That's what prompted me to write my latest book ...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoGQc3xAmgJovZaevvuU1M7wbai24q6VJ_T1OQMq2X2yQr3upPGxLd9wDp-XEnxa5SCKDsrFDRbXjzkOqeVOqBROd7mxcpNmhGf6spf22dCGkwal7BELyHDHr-UxFvVFAycJ6R9Cf48H7/s1600-h/frontcovB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoGQc3xAmgJovZaevvuU1M7wbai24q6VJ_T1OQMq2X2yQr3upPGxLd9wDp-XEnxa5SCKDsrFDRbXjzkOqeVOqBROd7mxcpNmhGf6spf22dCGkwal7BELyHDHr-UxFvVFAycJ6R9Cf48H7/s320/frontcovB.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
In it I cover pretty well all you need to know to get great family photographs including:<br />
<ul><li>Photographing family groups in a variety of different ways, from formal groups to candid photography </li>
<li>Portraiture</li>
<li>Self portraits (because who photographs the photographer of the family?)</li>
<li>Children</li>
<li>Pets (because they're part of the family too)</li>
<li>Lighting techniques</li>
<li>Getting sharp, well-exposed shots (with trouble-shooting examples to help you identify what may have gone wrong with a shot)</li>
</ul><div style="text-align: center;">... and much more.<br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">You can find out more, and take a peek inside the book, <a href="http://www.alscotts.com/fampage">here</a>. (Please note: this is an E-book, in the form of a PDF file, which you either read on your computer or print out at whatever size you want and put into a conventional, stationery-type file.)<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, as a special Christmas gift to my faithful followers (all 24 of you) I'd like to offer you a copy free of charge. Just shoot me an e-mail, or leave a comment requesting your freebie.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Happy Christmas, and here's to getting some truly great family photographs that will be heirlooms in 50 years time.<br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-65921101431612395942009-12-13T12:54:00.014+01:002009-12-13T15:16:35.228+01:00Breaking the rules<div style="text-align: justify;">As we approached the jetty a crowd of kids converged and hung about in that nervous, expectant way that kids have when they're about to do something they suspect may be naughty.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was last summer. I was standing at the stern of a Swiss lake steamer, cruising up the Lac de Neuchâtel. The sky was filled with fluffy white clouds. The scenery was breathtaking. I had my camera out, and was looking for photo opportunities.<br />
<br />
But billions of photos have been taken of that Swiss lake with its azure waters, and the clouds, and the sky, and the mountains, and the quaint little chalets and churches.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Even as we came to a halt alongside the jetty and mooring ropes were thrown, cameras were raised to eyes and several hundred more photos of mountains and clouds and chalets and quaint little churches were taken. Was there anything different to photograph?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Maybe.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The kids. What were they up to? I tried to read their minds, and flicked my camera setting to 'burst mode', where it fires off like a machine gun. Normally I don't like this setting as using it often means that you miss the peak of the action. I still believe that human reactions and the human brain are quicker and more intelligent than any camera, so I have a personal rule not to use 'burst mode'. But sometimes you need to break your rules.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was right. As the steamer pulled away the kids leaped up on on the mooring bollards and, with shrieks of joy, hurled themselves off into the roiling, foaming water that the boat left in its wake.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I fired away - Pow! Pow! Pow!<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, disappointment. I looked at the images on the small screen (yes, I 'chimp' with the best of them) and they were all out of focus. The shutter had been quick enough but the autofocus hadn't. Damn! I was about to erase them all to save memory space when something stopped me.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I got back home and was gazing at the sequence on my computer screen, still annoyed that I hadn't thought to switch off the autofocus and pre-focus by hand, it occurred to me that they may ... actually ... just possibly ... work.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's another personal rule of mine: one part of any photograph, at least, must be in focus. Photos that are all out of focus look like mistakes.<br />
<br />
But, as I was breaking rules ... what if I put a sequence of 4 together as one image (what's a triptych when you have 4 images?). It might work.<br />
<br />
So I did. What do you think?<br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ehVZo7dAPHV7Xl1IfLt_K4Ni47cSCnh7e8yqZaFUhXizX815quAG1rps-n9RCnoUym8PwFbgaWlW9aTiA42UtTDslDXQ45AUB2Y7uZo2FpsK7Oqs0vt3dbAHkUc2H6hE9jiYWXMf54YS/s1600-h/jump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ehVZo7dAPHV7Xl1IfLt_K4Ni47cSCnh7e8yqZaFUhXizX815quAG1rps-n9RCnoUym8PwFbgaWlW9aTiA42UtTDslDXQ45AUB2Y7uZo2FpsK7Oqs0vt3dbAHkUc2H6hE9jiYWXMf54YS/s640/jump.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-11264283717205433432009-12-07T14:47:00.016+01:002009-12-15T10:41:36.765+01:00Protecting our precious libertiesSteve Bell in the UK's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" target="blank">Guardian newspaper</a>:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86Y2xdpevX0E81W2jLa2HWsIZs1-Bn4HzvBkdjk7d-z0gv8ZNvMTZtngli7BNYDFDB_okDNg2TNxHsrWqUjfXBOdeCwC2DV0hWHUkMQxLk297EjcobcYgknD94R45_KahQH1QoZdzXyvK/s1600-h/stevebellif1_071209s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86Y2xdpevX0E81W2jLa2HWsIZs1-Bn4HzvBkdjk7d-z0gv8ZNvMTZtngli7BNYDFDB_okDNg2TNxHsrWqUjfXBOdeCwC2DV0hWHUkMQxLk297EjcobcYgknD94R45_KahQH1QoZdzXyvK/s640/stevebellif1_071209s.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOtwHg8i81zWQcki6JWD3ZRIHMYJvbx8-smxQYmLqpb45cyI1gg8LOEO5l1XDJTsbtnKJHm16juXcmsDJPiiHywnzrvesQ4mUhAzagUok5o9JvQ-cYfbvzvP3_mNkvVp-mz34iTNQfNJ8-/s1600-h/If+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOtwHg8i81zWQcki6JWD3ZRIHMYJvbx8-smxQYmLqpb45cyI1gg8LOEO5l1XDJTsbtnKJHm16juXcmsDJPiiHywnzrvesQ4mUhAzagUok5o9JvQ-cYfbvzvP3_mNkvVp-mz34iTNQfNJ8-/s640/If+2.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPXM1m518WGG9GWctzf8edpFNDaAOXkq2y3tEbWNNU3t2S0RomU5l3Es6b3gXCmMzJSrCUzIpYZex4W4YImEE3ML6dKLzvLIIEw7JwtwEMqOhmub8Jqrbg3u5BTs_xZWwU6p641TMbamAS/s1600-h/If04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPXM1m518WGG9GWctzf8edpFNDaAOXkq2y3tEbWNNU3t2S0RomU5l3Es6b3gXCmMzJSrCUzIpYZex4W4YImEE3ML6dKLzvLIIEw7JwtwEMqOhmub8Jqrbg3u5BTs_xZWwU6p641TMbamAS/s640/If04.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitGZ8KlIUa46QUtKg0-zceiI6f9Yq6eJVRj9wLhtWOsHg9iEy3FLI0tH8DreXlaKCdavdE62bRzhZbomy9YTKsoMNP7NIvbG4wzfjUtd7tFeG2WbXwym-wq9emXzDF_52K4hfBCu2AqeHJ/s1600-h/If04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitGZ8KlIUa46QUtKg0-zceiI6f9Yq6eJVRj9wLhtWOsHg9iEy3FLI0tH8DreXlaKCdavdE62bRzhZbomy9YTKsoMNP7NIvbG4wzfjUtd7tFeG2WbXwym-wq9emXzDF_52K4hfBCu2AqeHJ/s640/If04.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2009/dec/07/steve-bell-anti-terror-laws" target="blank"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright </span></i></a><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Steve Bell, The Guardian, UK</span></i><br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-70068722425208683622009-12-01T21:17:00.004+01:002009-12-01T22:41:28.929+01:00Be careful. Be very careful.<div style="text-align: justify;">I'm sitting here in a cold sweat. Boy, oh boy, have I been lucky.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I bought my Nikon D3 about a year and a half ago and, after an initial 'scoot' through the manual, I haven't really looked at the little booklet since. But this evening I dug it out to find a specific bit of information.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I flicked through it I suddenly noticed the 'For Your Safety' warnings, written prominently at the beginning. The third one states:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Using the viewfinder diopter control</b><br />
When operating the viewfinder diopter control with your eye to the viewfinder, care should be taken not to put your finger in your eye accidentally.</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sheeeeesh! I didn't read that when I got the camera. Glad I haven't poked my eye out. <br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-11740462746653941582009-12-01T10:45:00.010+01:002009-12-05T16:46:15.589+01:00Got targets to meet?<div style="text-align: justify;">Plod's still at it.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few days ago BBC News photographer Jeff Overs was stopped and questioned by the police for taking photographs of a sunset over St Paul's Cathedral in London.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8384972.stm" target="blank">Here's</a> an interview with him on The Andrew Marr Show, the programme for which he takes photographs.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Listen carefully. In the middle of the interview Overs quotes the policeman as telling him, "<i>We've stopped lots of people along the South Bank this afternoon ...</i>"<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aha! Sounds suspiciously like his guy's got targets to meet. He can go back to his station at the end of his shift and report that he's 'cautioned' (or whatever the term he uses) 'n' people that afternoon. Looks great on his record. What a busy bobby he's been.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But does stopping people photographing London's tourist attractions protect the city against terrorist attacks?<br />
<br />
Or does it just make the police look daft and overbearing?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><hr style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" /><div style="color: #e69138; text-align: justify;">Note to any police officers reading this:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please, please can you try to understand that, should a potential terrorist want to photograph a potential target (already a highly questionable assumption given the free availability of detailed maps, Google Earth, Street View, etc.) they're hardly going to stand in full view of everyone, pointing a bloody great camera at it.<br />
<br />
<hr /><i>Two footnotes</i>: <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/henryporter/2009/dec/05/photography-section-44" target="blank">Here</a> (thanks to D-L Nelson, <a href="http://theexpatwriter.blogspot.com/" target="blank">The Expat Writer</a>) is a good article on this subject.</li>
<p><li>During 2008, in London, 170'000 people were Stopped and Searched. (S&S). To put that in perspective, that's 466 people every day. From news reports, posts on internet forums, etc., a number of these were photographers pursuing their hobby or business quite legally. As a result of these 170'000 S&S, 65 people were arrested. That's a success rate of 0.038%. Is it an effective method of controlling crime and terrorists? The Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Metropolitan Police were all unable to say whether anyone had successfully been charged or convicted for terror offences as a direct result these Stops and Searches.<br />
<br />
(Incidentally, there is no data on how many of those arrested were subsequently convicted of an offence. But it will almost certainly be lower, making the success rate even more abysmal.) Source <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8034315.stm" target="blank">here</a>.<br />
</li>
</ul></div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-59227290175606617832009-11-29T12:26:00.001+01:002009-11-29T12:32:16.164+01:00It takes more than an hotel ...<div style="text-align: justify;">... to keep an elephant from its mangoes.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mfuwe Lodge, in Zambia's magnificent Luangwa Valley National Park, is a popular tourist attraction. It was built next to a grove of wild mangoes that one family of elephants have always visited when the fruit ripens. The regular visits of the elephants during November's mango season thrilled the guests.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the lodge management didn't realise just how set in their ways the elephant family were. One year, when the management decided to extend their accommodation facilities, they unwittingly built the new lodge right across the herd's path to their beloved trees.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, when the elephants, led by their matriarch nicknamed 'Wonky Tusk', returned for their annual feast they found a building in their way. What did they do? No problem. They walked straight through it:<br />
</div><br />
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</div><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfjVMqibBm1pBq5oL-vs7rIBHVD7reR0D3QBBgOJePhhw9F-b1a_G3NYAYaj_DiwKm3HfFYIBlwds9Tw1FcNplwKCNMuZRdiGqywxwLwfV3A6t9LyXmu2Pvc1npiHX9hS_6O0MXVHelHqz/s1600/FwFwdFwE11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfjVMqibBm1pBq5oL-vs7rIBHVD7reR0D3QBBgOJePhhw9F-b1a_G3NYAYaj_DiwKm3HfFYIBlwds9Tw1FcNplwKCNMuZRdiGqywxwLwfV3A6t9LyXmu2Pvc1npiHX9hS_6O0MXVHelHqz/s640/FwFwdFwE11.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">And, over the years, the hotel staff, visitors and elephants have grown used to each other. The family group stays some four to six weeks and they gorge on the mangoes up to four times a day.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Andy Hogg, the lodge director, has lived in South Luangwa National Park since 1982. But in all his years there he has never seen such intimate interaction between humans and wild animals. "This is the only place in the world where elephants freely get so close to humans," he says.<br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3WGlwDBdahPWkDGoxDTmx6uFnYDsQnyPZ2qoPiN2wbYQ1TA1_vk4ZHvBl9NpRgWmnkZDZnMct3r0ChyqWoRNAjiZwHTyvOJSqeY3suYnlBXjaGsEnPs_3FFLKx9pQyA7X_FWLBzLah8H/s1600/file00466.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3WGlwDBdahPWkDGoxDTmx6uFnYDsQnyPZ2qoPiN2wbYQ1TA1_vk4ZHvBl9NpRgWmnkZDZnMct3r0ChyqWoRNAjiZwHTyvOJSqeY3suYnlBXjaGsEnPs_3FFLKx9pQyA7X_FWLBzLah8H/s640/file00466.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">According to Andy the elephants are not aggressive if they're just left to stroll through the lobby. "It's their choice to be here," he says. "There are other wild mango trees around, but they prefer ours. The lodge was unwittingly built in their path. It wasn't a design error, we just didn't know. They get reasonably close to the staff, as you can see in the pictures," Andy explains. "But we do not allow the guests to get that close. Guests can stand in the lounge but only as long as there is a barrier between them and the elephants. These are still wild and dangerous animals, so there must be enough time for people to get away." <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A rare and magnificent sight, and an authentic one too, too. This is not faked. I visited and worked in the Luangwa Valley over a period of 20 years from 1970 to 1990. On a number of occasions, when sleeping in a thatched hut, I have woken in the middle of the night to the sound of a rustling-ripping coming from above. Peering out of the window revealed a pair of gigantic kneecaps, mere centimetres from my nose. An elephant was calmly eating the thatch.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br />
</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Technical note:</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you ever meet an elephant, walking through your hotel lobby, it can be a tricky photographic subject. The difference between the bright outside light and the dim interior is huge. If you're not careful your camera will meter from the bright light and the elephant will come out as black mass. Not what you want. So use fill-in flash to give detail in the beast, as the photographer of these images has done. Most wild animals are not too bothered by camera flash. It is brief, soundless and scentless and I guess that they just take it as a flash of sunlight through the trees.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oh ... and this advice also applies to situations that don't involve elephants. Use fill in flash whenever photographing situations where there is a huge difference between the light and dark parts of the scene, your subject is in the dark part and you want to bring out some detail.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-29475686202018331682009-11-20T11:40:00.001+01:002009-11-20T11:42:55.146+01:00Always check your gear ... and ...<div style="text-align: justify;">A well-known international magazine that specialises in amazing images of natural features wanted to show some of the heroic work of the fire fighters as they battled the wildfires in the western US last year.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A photographer was assigned to cover the story and, as well as having him work on the ground, the magazine also wanted him to take a selection of shots from the air to show the extent of the blaze. So a light aircraft was chartered to fly the guy over the area. He was told to report to a nearby airfield where the plane would be ready and waiting for him.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The photographer, running late, arrived at the airfield and saw a plane warming up. He jumped in with his bag and shouted, "Let's go!"<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pilot swung the little plane into the wind, and within minutes they were in the air. The photographer told the pilot, "Fly over the flames and make two or three low passes so I can take some pictures."<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Why?" asked the pilot.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Because I am a photographer," the guy snapped. "And photographers take photographs."<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pilot was silent for a moment. Finally he stammered, "Y..y...y..you mean you're not the flight instructor?"<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-56717596395361266012009-11-14T22:46:00.015+01:002009-11-15T13:41:09.703+01:00Another Ansel Adams<div style="text-align: justify;">Ansel Adams, one of the world's great photographers, is famed for his breathtaking photographs of American landscapes - Yosemite in particular. He was a man who loved the wilderness and nature, and that love shines through in his images.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But there was another side to him. What is less well known is that, during the Second World War, he took a stand against what he believed to be the unjust treatment of the <i>Nisei</i>, American citizens of Japanese descent who, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, were suddenly uprooted from their homes, farms, factories and businesses and placed in an internment camp at Manzanar.<br />
<br />
Ansel Adams decided to use his skills to draw attention to their plight. He went to live in the camp which was, as he described it in his autobiography:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"... a dry plain on which appeared a flat rectangular layout of shacks, ringed with towering mountains. These shacks were not relieved by the entrance gate and its military guards."</i><br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40xjLs8M3dqSNmqz4kfHUkpkquHrYcfx0s4r2UPXuC_URznDHEmeKMX5PxFqL0N-m5nQjyhpdLef9nwhaiX8KdVT8_77efIlXzYI7191dvrbxFK-N7DYz3gxmfXZ2ogRKdcNYcQH8p8Ac/s1600-h/00200v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40xjLs8M3dqSNmqz4kfHUkpkquHrYcfx0s4r2UPXuC_URznDHEmeKMX5PxFqL0N-m5nQjyhpdLef9nwhaiX8KdVT8_77efIlXzYI7191dvrbxFK-N7DYz3gxmfXZ2ogRKdcNYcQH8p8Ac/s400/00200v.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>View of Manzanar from a watchtower</i></span><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">He went on to describe how these camps came into being:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"With the military's advice President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. I am sure he had no realization of its tragic implications; thousands of loyal Japanese-American citizens were denied their basic civil rights. Unfortunately this decision had the support of a great number of Caucasian citizens throughout the West, who racially disliked the Japanese-Americans as social and economic competitors."</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Adams recorded his experiences in Manzanar in the way he could best do it - through photographs ...<br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxypP-UZjfUhwJWWfZNLqDfIxmPGsO0wIqoTgarf2hUjvi4SVVu8T8RiLyCosA9Am-kc71WSzERmATFk08usosT-bXBB8DtEErNXx5MhiFcdckOfzlht6CH3Nbi3jGz6VnHhd4HDUcXpJ/s1600-h/00006v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxypP-UZjfUhwJWWfZNLqDfIxmPGsO0wIqoTgarf2hUjvi4SVVu8T8RiLyCosA9Am-kc71WSzERmATFk08usosT-bXBB8DtEErNXx5MhiFcdckOfzlht6CH3Nbi3jGz6VnHhd4HDUcXpJ/s400/00006v.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Roy Takeno (Editor) and group reading Manzanar paper</span></i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy4Ex-LPiuBIvpD9F9FhrgXXjJKtB3So89YPpcCeg6L4A5B7iVhWcnycncE1X_uynrVfo0tGVoj06TTsgh3xW4MhJWGmyLRJzJH5frTXdNFH1qWQLTfyep4lqEj45kGu4HBwPPc0mH2Wpc/s1600-h/00008v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy4Ex-LPiuBIvpD9F9FhrgXXjJKtB3So89YPpcCeg6L4A5B7iVhWcnycncE1X_uynrVfo0tGVoj06TTsgh3xW4MhJWGmyLRJzJH5frTXdNFH1qWQLTfyep4lqEj45kGu4HBwPPc0mH2Wpc/s400/00008v.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nurse and patients in front of hospital.</span></i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkikeOdkr1sTY8QAbGVRvODBCCYpJPjOjhuVTlPNoz5MVkn9HY7xKMXUgkFGQG77aJT3dZURUofO3-WJxJZ9-S3Ac1lzz3kfDbp0fabqNpyCTpO_U0nU9kGR4oLau_MAtjv9dL1YpwCN62/s1600-h/00425v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkikeOdkr1sTY8QAbGVRvODBCCYpJPjOjhuVTlPNoz5MVkn9HY7xKMXUgkFGQG77aJT3dZURUofO3-WJxJZ9-S3Ac1lzz3kfDbp0fabqNpyCTpO_U0nU9kGR4oLau_MAtjv9dL1YpwCN62/s400/00425v.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Children in the orphanage</i></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ9KBpzKD-oeDrDQyHH4xVs6kDQVorV_FX1gQ6LcGB-WIbHvRc3XyxXYnwIS7CP889f6cBkSJlwayDL6DRafWVUXI4DLg0lEj179YD1Jb_QFKaaBDMlCsA19wI8DPY0GmwpCU3pHg2C90Y/s1600-h/00374v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ9KBpzKD-oeDrDQyHH4xVs6kDQVorV_FX1gQ6LcGB-WIbHvRc3XyxXYnwIS7CP889f6cBkSJlwayDL6DRafWVUXI4DLg0lEj179YD1Jb_QFKaaBDMlCsA19wI8DPY0GmwpCU3pHg2C90Y/s400/00374v.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Despite what was happening to them, the Nisei remained patriotic </i></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UPE8seQtchMRt-dqiXHwa7534GnXx-J6AQC9jiFPXRHB9DK5aTU0cV5flR1le0k7d_YBuCb7pgKmnfNGjeiPPaE2yBv_z52REVx1esS2e_ENf7qXhs1nKHVtYVdN4BqM_a6smVtcSI3M/s1600-h/00251v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UPE8seQtchMRt-dqiXHwa7534GnXx-J6AQC9jiFPXRHB9DK5aTU0cV5flR1le0k7d_YBuCb7pgKmnfNGjeiPPaE2yBv_z52REVx1esS2e_ENf7qXhs1nKHVtYVdN4BqM_a6smVtcSI3M/s400/00251v.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ils:60:./temp/%7Epp_LWI1::"></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. Tsurutani and baby Bruce</i></span><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Ansel Adams was profoundly moved by Manzanar. He wrote:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"As my work progressed I began to grasp the problem of relocation and the remarkable adjustment these people had made ... With admirable strength of spirit, the Nisei rose above despondency and made a life for themselves, a unique micro-civilisation under difficult conditions."</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, as he captured that life in his photographs you can see how his skill shines through - the choice of composition, the way in which he has used lines and diagonals, the way in which the human figures feature.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He went on to write:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"It was very disturbing to witness the arrival of the young army-uniformed Nisei when on leave for a visit to their families. It must have been most difficult for them to be confronted by their parents, incarcerated American citizens - a severe contradiction of the principles for which they were fighting the war."</i><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After his stay at the camp, Adams wrote a book about the plight of these people. Entitled <i>Born Free and Equal</i>, it:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"... met with some distressing resistance and was rejected by many as disloyal. I could tolerate the narrow opinions expressed verbally or in the press, but it was painful to receive a few letters from families who had lost men in the conflict; they were bitter and incapable of making objective distinctions between the Nisei and Japanese nationals."</i><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">This was the image Ansel Adams used for the title page of his book:<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtaAVpxDRagE2ukCg-voWFpA20CyaAuisDEWgU19qSSj3nRRAOJxE_gYxFtPLNyFxOmJaOBXK9yjo5Uy6nPw-vAvdu3bxvsFX8bClXDkyJzgk90hMkj68uPGpXPSbBvXHf-u_f6fOIuau/s1600-h/00243v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtaAVpxDRagE2ukCg-voWFpA20CyaAuisDEWgU19qSSj3nRRAOJxE_gYxFtPLNyFxOmJaOBXK9yjo5Uy6nPw-vAvdu3bxvsFX8bClXDkyJzgk90hMkj68uPGpXPSbBvXHf-u_f6fOIuau/s400/00243v.jpg" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We know, from notes written on the negative sleeve, that the young man's name is Tom Kobayashi. But we don't know any more about him.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Judging by his age and the cut of his shirt he may well have been one of young army-uniformed Nisei, on leave for a visit to his family.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><hr /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ansel Adams donated his images from Manzanar to the US Nation. <br />
They are now in the public domain and the full collection can be seen <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?ils:0:./temp/%7Epp_LWI1:" target="blank">here</a></span><br />
</div><hr /><span style="color: orange;">UPDATE </span><br />
I have just discovered that Ansel Adams's book about Manzanar -<i> Born Free and Equal</i> - can be read, in a full digitised version, by following the link <a href="http://ow.ly/Cs7f" target="blank">on this page</a>.<br />
</div><hr />Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-74732594882169879892009-11-08T21:13:00.001+01:002009-11-08T21:14:35.747+01:00Are you a real photographer?Ask yourself these 10 questions<br />
<ol><li>Do you roll your eyes in exasperation when you see a blizzard of tiny photo-flashes twinkling amongst the crowd at some humongous great sports stadium?</li>
<li>Do you know what ‘bokeh’ is?</li>
<li>Do you genuinely wince in pain when an elderly relative asks you if you’ve taken any good ‘snaps’ lately?</li>
<li>Do you always carry a spare battery? Charged?</li>
<li>Do your friends hand you their cameras when they want a good photo taken?</li>
<li>Do you own a tripod? Not one of those diddy little things that slip in your pocket. A real tripod. That weighs a ton.</li>
<li>And do you carry it about with you? And hang your backpack from it? And know why you’re hanging your backpack from it?</li>
<li>Has your spouse/partner given up groaning in exasperation when you climb out of bed at 4am on a frosty morning?</li>
<li>Did you start asking what shutter speed and aperture was used for a photograph ... and now given up asking?</li>
<li>Do people look at you as if you’re crazy when you point your camera at a chunk of rock or similar, apparently featureless object?</li>
</ol>If you can answer yes to all these questions – congratulations.<br />
<br />
You’re a real photographer.Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441298819361810666.post-53870494626447113842009-11-03T05:04:00.000+01:002009-11-03T05:04:58.446+01:00Madeleine McCannMadeleine McCann, aged 4, disappeared without trace 2½ years ago whilst on holiday with her parents in Portugal.<br />
<br />
Here's a message about her from the UK police.<br />
<br />
She will be 6 now and their video gives information on what she may look like:<br />
<br />
<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/979u-xbPHrQ&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/979u-xbPHrQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br />
<br />
There is further information <a href="http://www.ceop.police.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2009/ceop_03112009g.asp" target="blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Please spread the word as widely as you can ... e-mail friends, post this video on your blog, Tweet it, Digg it, Facebook ... use the 'viral' nature of the Internet to get this information to as many people as possible.<br />
<br />
Someone, somewhere, may be able to help her.Alistair Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01451574506124547294noreply@blogger.com0