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Showing posts from January, 2012

31/365 Photo Project - Up or Down?

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Up or Down? Is this staircase winding down or crawling up? I like the repeating pattern here, just wish their were more than 6 stories in this Boston office building for the pattern to continue off in to the distance. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS in Portrait mode in an attempt to keep the stairs in the distance out of focus. No post processing.

30/365 Photo Project - Boston Snow Squall

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Boston Snow Squall This is shot of this morning's snow squall that passed through the Boston area this morning, blink and you missed it! Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS in Landscape mode right before the battery died so it was this shot today or nothing ;) Sharpened and levels adjusted slightly in PhotoShop.

Infrared revisited at Spy Pond

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A 20 second exposure with Hoya infrared filter of the sun With the weather being mild still for this time of year I just couldn't contain myself and decided to dig out my old Hoya Infrared filter and try some infrared shots from the bike path near Spy Pond in Arlington MA today. This was accomplished with the following equipment Pentax K200d DSLR Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL lens (kit lens) Hoya RM-72 Infrared Filter Pentax Electronic Cable Switch Samsonite Tripod One Eager Amateur Photographer Check out my Flickr gallery for more. I'd love to have your feedback and any other tips you may for getting the best out of the infrared world of which I find so intriguing.

29/365 Photo Project - Apple or Moon?

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Apple or Moon? So this week my new photographer toy/gadget arrived from Amazon, a Light Cube . If you haven't heard of what a light cube is or why you might need one check out this article which talks about how to make one for under 10 bucks. I didn't have the confidence in my DIY skills (or the free personal time) so if you don't either you can source an inexpensive one on Ebay or Amazon for less than 20 bucks as I did. My first attempt at taking shots with it was this morning with only 1 light source, I grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and shot away. The finished photo for today was taken with the Pentax K200d and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens , handheld, with on-camera IS, no camera flash was used. The subject was simply lit by one lamp through the right side of light cube. Converted to sepia in Photoshop. Light Cube setup side lit here by a desktop light Here's a look at my setup, I really need to source another lamp so that harsh shadows aren't b

Free February 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

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Get your free February 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper. Simply click on the above image to get the full size version and right click to save it to your picture directory (depending on your browser). Once saved locally you can set it as your desktop background. For instructions on how change your desktop background on a Mac or a PC click here or here .

28/365 Photo Project - Backlit Cyclamen Macro

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Backlit Cyclamen Macro Here's a tip for any aspiring amateur photographer - always have a spare battery with you. This morning while out for a walk around the neighborhood I had my point and shoot camera with me (as always) and although I had checked the battery life indicator before leaving the 35F degree temperatures had apparently been more than the lithium battery could handle. So I missed a potentially great shot of some local area wildlife (ok, grey squirrels) because I didn't have my spare with me. So instead here's another macro shot, this time of a potted cyclamen which is backlit by natural light here. It's not quite as dramatic as yesterday's narcissus shot but I do like the veins that have been captured which if I had used flash may have been blown out. This leaf in real life is about 1.5 inches in diameter. Taken with the Pentax K200d and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens , handheld, with on-camera IS.

27/365 Photo Project - White Narcissus Macro

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White narcissus with yellow stamen, macro One of the main challenges I've found of undertaking a 365 photo project other than finding something creative to snap each day is the weather. Whether the weather be good, or whether the weather be bad a photo needs to be taken. Today was one of those days which means an indoor shot. I turned my old reliable macro lens on one the flowering bulbs we have displayed in our dining room that are slightly past their prime. These little flower heads are about an inch in diameter to give you an idea of just how close up this shot is. With just the over head dining room light it was a little too dark to be hand holding the camera so I used the on-camera flash which gives an ethereal theme to the out of focus areas here I think. The non-flash frames I took were a little too noisy but had a very different look, maybe I'll post them in a 'rejects' gallery ;) Taken with the Pentax K200d and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens , handhe

Canon PowerShot SX230 HS - Great for Low-light Photography?

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Low-light shot taken without flash to demo the Canon HS system The question I set out to answer here is 'Does the Canon HS System really take good (usable) low-light photographs with minimum noise?' Over the past almost 10 months that I have used the Canon PowerShot SX 230HS I have been very happy with it's overall performance, from it's amazing X14 zoom (and relatively wide starting point of 28mm), it's miniature toy mode, Also it's stitch assistant has helped my panoramic cravings and of course let's not forget the many manual control options not just of ISO and WB but Aperture and Shutter priority modes in particular which I have found invaluable when taking macro shots where control of depth of field is essential, others who take portraitures will no doubt find these useful too. However the stand out feature most trumpeted by Canon of this camera is it's High Sensitivity (HS) after all it is included in the name of the camera itself. From what I hav

26/365 Photo Project - Broadway Station

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Broadway Station Heading in to Boston for lunch today lent itself to taking today's photo of the Broadway T Station on the MBTA Red line. The difficulty here was capturing the length of the platform and the repeating columns while trying to ensure no commuters were in the frame. Looking back at this image I wish I had paid more attention to the recycle newspaper bins and positioned myself so they weren't in the shot. C'est la vie! Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS in Auto mode. No post processing.

25/365 Photo Project - Dawn Flight

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Dawn Flight An aircraft coming in to land at Logan Airport is nearly covered by the morning sun as the South Boston industrial buildings are silhouetted here. There's been a lot of news this week about solar flare activity, if you look hard enough I think you can see it in this photograph ;) Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX 230HS in Auto mode and levels adjusted in Photoshop.

24/365 Photo Project - Abandoned

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Abandoned I guess with the recent warm weather we've been having in the Boston area after our last storm these boots were surplus to requirements. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS . I created a new layer in Photoshop converted it to B&W and then using the feather tool highlighted the boots and cut them out of the B&W layer thus exposing their pink color.

23/365 Photo Project - Mixed Nuts

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Mixed Nuts Leftover snacks made for the subject of today's photo positioned on the kitchen granite counter top. In the low-light of the kitchen a compromise of Aperture and Exposure had to made. Taken with the Pentax K200d in Av mode, aperture set to f4.5 (any larger aperture proved to be too much for hand holding) and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens with Manual Focus, cropped and contrast adjusted in Photoshop.

22/365 Photo Project - Why snow?

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Why snow? This weekend's snow storm gave me a chance to experiment with the White Balance settings of my Pentax DSLR, instead of opting to go with the camera's Auto White Balance setting I adjusted to shade for this shot because it was very over cast and the afternoon sun in yard and long since gone behind the neighbors house. The same shot take with AWB was decidely darker, the snow had been exposed as grey rather than pure white. Taken with the Pentax K200d in Av mode, aperture set to f2.8 to highlight the tree in a shallow depth of field and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens with Manual Focus, I still had to correct for tone in Photoshop to bring out the details in the tree trunk.

21/365 Photo Project - Best way to start your day

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Best way to start your day Cappuccino brewed by my wife at breakfast this morning. Taken with the Pentax K200d in Av mode, aperture set to f4 and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens with Manual Focus, corrected for tone in Photoshop.

20/365 Photo Project - Snow on my car

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Snow on my car My wife said it best 'not every one's going to be a winner' ;) This photo of the snow on my car I was too lazy to clear off today (because I was rushing for the bus instead!). I wanted to see how well the camera would cope with the bright snow on the very black finish of the car. Taken with the Pentax K200d in Av mode, aperture set to f8 and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens with MF setting. Cropped slightly and corrected for tone in Photoshop.

19/365 Photo Project - Bokeh Bulbs?

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Bokeh Bulbs? Today's photo proved to be a lot more complicated than I first thought. The goal was to capture the flowering bulbs (indoors) using a small aperture to ensure that background dining room furniture was suitably blurred out to not distract. Some 30 attempts later and I feel I accomplished only 66% of what I wanted to, I was hoping for a closing zoom with more of the flower petals in focus than they were. The problem I encountered with selecting such a small aperture (in Av mode turning the dial to f2.8) is that only a minimum amount of light is being allowed in to hit the camera's senser. So a compromise was needed and I unintuitively switched off the camera's inbody camera shake compensation, upped the aperture to f4.5 and turned up the dimmer on the dining room light as far as it would go and decided on camera flash was needed. The result is above. Taken with the Pentax K200d in Av mode, aperture set to f4.5 and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens with MF se

18/365 Photo Project - Cold Winter Sun

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Cold Winter Sun, South Boston MA Today's photo breaks the rule of taking a photograph in to the sun but certainly captures the brisk feeling of a Winter's day in South Boston MA. This image certainly could benefit from the vertical correction technique of my previous blog post, note the lampposts and fence leaning inward. Taken with the LG Rumor Touch phone. The GPS co-ords recorded by the phone camera for this image (embedded in the uploaded JPEG) are GPSLatitude 42.340278, GPSLongitude -71.048889.

Photoshop #2 - How to correct vertical lens distortion

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Image taken at street level has visible vertical convergence We've all been there, out and about walking (or driving as was the case above) around town and we see it, a tall building or structure that stands out and we want to capture it's vastness. As was the case for me in the image above the Financial District of Boston demonstrates what we end up with due to perspective of the lens to what it is shooting is tall lines of the buildings converging together at the top of the photograph as if falling towards each over as the buildings height increases. Those of you who are fortunate to have a small fortune to spend on such equipment as a tilt-shift lens don't need to worry about such concerns. Such a tool mechanically alters the plane of the camera's lens to match the perspective of the building thus preventing those converging lines, if however you are like me you will have to rely on post processing techniques to deal with such problems. How to correct vertical lens d

17/365 Photo Project - In Camera added Fake Tilt-Shift

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South Boston, MA - In Camera added Fake Tilt-Shift Using the Canon SX230HS's built in 'miniature effect' mode the shot above was captured from the 6th floor of an office building in South Boston, MA at 7.20am Tuesday January 17th 2012. If you are at a loss as to what 'fake tilt-shift' is, check out my previous posts here and here . This photo shows the first snow fall of the season that actually had any accumulation, for January this storm was very light. As a boy I would have loved a toy truck like this one for Christmas but no doubt if I had been given one from Santa my Dad would have taken it off me before I had a chance to 'damage' it and he'd have put it back in it's original box for safe keeping. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS

16/365 Photo Project - Macro Planetoids

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Macro Planetoids For today's photo I broke out my Macro lens and decided to try to take a close up shot of the filament inside one of the bulbs in the vanity mirror in our bathroom. Little did a realize that off centering my focus would allow me to capture the other worldly vision above. The craters are actually collections of dust on the bulb (note to self, I should clean the bathroom mirror more often!) Believe it or not this is taken in full daylight, however, because I am using spot metering and the filament of the bulb is so bright the background is exposed as near black which saves me from having to edit out any unwanted background highlights. Hint: Use manual focus when trying to take shots like this, the AF can often be confused about exactly what you are trying to focus on and can spend precious seconds 'seeking' the correct focus. Taken with the Pentax K200d in Av mode and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro Lens with MF setting and cropped to be the ratio of my lap

15/365 Photo Project - Eye see you

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Eye see you Turning the lens on myself for another self-portrait, this time of my eyeball, not creepy at all right? This took several shots in continuous shooting to get anything anywhere near in focus, I set the camera in Av Priority, chose macro mode and extended the zoom to half its maximum focal length. I used the natural light from the window (which you can see reflected in my iris) to light the shot, I didn't want to blind myself by trying any on camera flash ;) Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS , no digital zoom, cropped for size but other than that no post processing.

Free January 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

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Get your free January 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper. Simply click on the above image to get the full size version and right click to save it to your picture directory (depending on your browser). Once saved locally you can set it as your desktop background. For instructions on how change your desktop background on a Mac or a PC click here or here .

14/365 Photo Project - Tomatoes at Whole Foods

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Tomatoes at Whole Foods It's the weekend and it's early morning, that can only mean one thing, a trip to the grocery store to stock up on fruits and veggies. I couldn't resist taking a snap of these tomatoes that look very appetizing stacked in the aisle at Whole Food's. This starts a theme that I'll be using for photos on this blog of 'filling the frame'. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS

13/365 Photo Project - Asta

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Asta With a busy day of non-stop work and the bad weather continuing I had to resolve to finding the subject for today indoors and luckily one of our cats was indifferent to posing for this shot. I moved the cat stand to be under the overhead light in the hall and shot in 'Kids and Pet' mode on my P&S, no post processing needed. Despite my best efforts to gain her attention she was more interested in a dust bunny floating by that I disturbed by moving the cat stand. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS which I think did a great job in this low light, hand held situation, there's no blurriness and I particularly like the sharpness of her eye.

12/365 Photo Project - Sunburst Molly

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Sunburst Molly Today certainly was a day for indoor photography with 60mph wind gusts and none stop rains pounding the pavement I wasn't going to subject my camera equipment (or myself) to those elements. Instead I focused my Pentax K200d mounted to the Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL lens on the wildlife of our aquarium. With my Pentax K200d in macro mode using a tripod and on camera flash I set the sweet spot of focus on the bottom of the tank and waited for the fish to come in to frame. I certainly wish I had more patience to stand there longer, this still took over 20 frames before getting anywhere close to a fish in focus and framed decently. The on camera flash makes the shadow very contrasty here and the depth of field is very shallow - for instance the fish to the left of the frame was less than an inch closer to the lens but is completely out of focus. Perhaps a lesson on photographing fish is needed.

11/365 Photo Project - The Moon, Medford MA

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The Moon, Medford MA at 7.19am Jan 11th 2012 This photo of the moon taken this morning during my commute to work. I have to reiterate what I have said in previous posts that although this was taken from my car at the time it was taken I was at a traffic light (a very long traffic light on rt16, if you are familiar with the area you know the one!) and the car at a complete stop. No steering with my knees here! So, disclaimer out the way I am finding that taking my camera with me everywhere certainly does lend itself well to finding opportune moments to capture a point in time that might otherwise have been missed (at least by me because my phone cam would not have been able to capture this result). Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS at 7.19am in Landscape mode to maximize the area in-focus. I'm not sure how far the moon is off in the distance but I'd say the camera did a pretty good job in low light, hand held and without much time to focus before I headed off on the remain

10/365 Photo Project - Prudential Center, Boston MA

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Prudential Center, Boston MA Staying with my theme of the Boston Skyline the above photo, taken in vertical perspective of course, if of the Prudential Center, taken this morning from the office building where I work, no post processing needed. Although the first snow fall of the year had swept through the area the skies were clear and crisp for this shot. I particularly like the composition in this one, the street light, center plaza and finally the Pru tower itself. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS

9/365 Photo Project - One Financial Center, Boston MA

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One Financial Center, Boston MA This photograph of the Boston Financial district was taken from my car while waiting in traffic through the windshield. The photo has been corrected for vertical perspective so that the vertical lines don't converge, this has the side effect of losing some of the width of the photograph so it's more square than normal for a photo taken from my Canon P&S cam. Also a small spot of dirt on my windshield has been removed with the Photoshop clone tool, you'll not be able to tell where (I hope). A tip for all aspiring "through the windshield" shooters out there - keep your windshield clean and it will save a lot of time in post processing. I may post a 'How to correct for Vertical Perspective' tutorial at a later date explaining the technique. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS

8/365 Photo Project - Reflections on Christmas

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Reflections on Christmas As my last hurrah to Christmas before taking down our decorations I decided to take this self portrait. I really like the reflections of each of the baubles inside each other. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS in Macro mode with Shutter Priority (Tv), handheld and lit from below by a simple floor lamp. Image has been cropped for size, no post processing.

7/365 Photo Project - Rusty Sign

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Rusty Sign What a great day it was in New England today for getting out and about. I can't believe it's the middle of Winter and we're able to get outside and walk around our neighborhood without hats, gloves, scarfs and boots. I'm sure it won't last but while it does I'm going to make the most of it. Today's photo was taken of a rusted old sign hanging on chain link fence on a town building in East Arlington MA. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS and cropped with some background blur added in post processing.

6/365 Photo Project - Old tree in Oak Grove cemetery

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Old tree in Oak Grove cemetery I'm going to keeping this blog post short since I've already posted about HDR photography today. Today's photo is of a grand old tree in Oak Grove cemetery in Medford MA. I like how the camera managed to expose the detail of the tree bark as well as keep some of the highlights of the clouds in the sky instead of washing them all out. Taken with the Canon PowerShot SX230HS The GPS co-ords recorded by the camera for this image (embedded in the uploaded JPEG) are GPSLatitude 42.429436, GPSLongitude -71.133169 and a GPSAltitude of 36m

How to take HDR photos with a point and shoot

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Not happy with the source images I used in the my earlier HDR attempt I wanted to try again with an outdoor scene that hopefully lends itself better to HDR. This afternoon I had a chance to try again with a scene this time with a point and shoot camera rather than a DSLR. The first thing you need to know when using a Point and Shoot camera (at least with many models available today) you don't have the option to automatically 'bracket exposures' with just 1 click of the shutter. Therefore on my P&S camera I elected to take 3 shots in Tv (Shutter) priority mode adjusting the shutter speed to let in more light with each subsequent shot in the hope that when combined this would allow the shadows of the trees and reflections in the water to be correctly exposed as well as the bright sky. See the source images below. Shutter speed 1/640 s Shutter speed 1/60 s Shutter speed 1/5 s Using a trial version of the HDR Expose software the source images were imported and combined to

5/365 Photo Project - Ghosts on Summer St

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Ghosts on Summer St, Boston Ma This evening while heading out to Jerry Remy's Seaport for a few beers after work I took this shot at dusk using my cameras 'night scene' mode on my Canon SX230HS. This mode takes 3 quick consecutive full resolution shots and combines them in to one image in camera, no post processing necessary. The Canon manual recommends using a tripod but I have a very steady hand and found that resting against a electrical box on this sidewalk helped hold the camera steady as I shot the traffic passing by. I found this a fun option to play, as shown in the photo above using this function has the side effect of showing 3 ghostly images of any subjects in the frame that have moved between each shot. In this case the mini bus moving off at high speed to the distant horizon. I look forward to playing some more with this option and see if using it during the daylight could possibly be a cheap man's HDR mode (be sure to check out my previous HDR blog post fo

How to take HDR photos with a DSLR

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If you are like me (and if you are there's no helping you!) you may have noticed a lot of buzz about HDR photography in the past 12 months. Having been suitably impressed by the results obtained by others using several multi-bracketed shots and combining their images of different exposures together to make one High Dynamic Range image I thought I would give it a go. How to create an HDR image using a DSLR Step1 What you'll need to follow along at home is a camera with the ability to take multiple shots at once (or very closely together). This is called exposure bracketing on my Pentax K200d camera this option is available by hitting the fn button then up arrow, and right arrow to select. Check the manual of your DSLR or if you have a newer advanced P&S you might have a similar option. No such option exists on my Canon SX230HS however so I think most P&S photogs are going to be out of luck. Note: You could still try your hand at HDR photography if no 'bracketing