photographyphotography

how to have fun in walla walla without winehow to have fun in walla walla without wine

Posted Wed, 10/29/2008 - 10:30pm by dave

Anne and I spent a couple of days in Walla Walla earlier this week. We intended to visit wineries - an industry that sprang forth in 1977 and how boasts nearly 150 entities. However, we were quickly seduced by the history of the area. Much of the "old town," near Whitman College, was built before 1900. I managed to snap a few interesting pictures as we wandered.
I'll post a few more pictures from the area later this week, but I'm posting these as artifacts of a new post-production tool I'm using on my photographs. Previously, I've used an inexpensive (now discontinued) tool from Microsoft: Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006. While I enjoyed using the suite, it didn't provide the best conversion of my Nikon "raw" camera files to JPG and I had outgrown it's photo touch-up capabilities.
Since I shoot with Nikon equipment, I decided to give Nikon Capture NX2 a try. As you might expect, it does a dandy job converting the "raw" files into JPGs. Beyond the normal photo touch-up fare, it includes some interesting tools to address image issues at the base color level. I'm just beginning to understand some of the power of this tool set.
I'll continue to work on the images from the trip, and a short travel-log (for the history buffs), for posting later this week. For the photography phans, these are a quick peek at some of my early attempts to manipulate images with Capture NX2.

a new way to present imagesa new way to present images

Posted Mon, 12/24/2007 - 3:25pm by dave
Okay, this should be an interesting test. Normally, clicking on an image that is attached to a blog article will show you a new page that host the picture. However, I've now installed a new module into the Drupal engine that will allow you to browse all of the pictures on the page without leaving. It's called, "Lightbox." I really like it. Mouse around the picture to find the navigation arrows - the "X" at the bottom-right will close the image and return you to your starting location.

photo toolkit upgrade for the sitephoto toolkit upgrade for the site

Posted Mon, 12/17/2007 - 9:16pm by dave
Now that I'm on a host that supports the common website toolkits, I've started turning them on for Gracevideo. Today I enabled the ImageMagick imaging toolkit. This should provide better quality preview / thumbnail images than we have had previously. It shouldn't cause the images to be radically larger, but perhaps a tad bit. There are several options I have not enabled (such as sharpening) and I may toy with those later. For now, we should have better images on the site when they are resized to fit.

photographing friendsphotographing friends

Posted Mon, 12/10/2007 - 10:16am by dave
My friends, Gretchen and Harry, asked if I would snap a photo for their holiday cards this year. The photo session was very informal, with no special equipment - just me, my Nikon D70s, and an on camera flash. The resulting image isn't bad, although I would have preferred if the depth of field was a tad longer - perhaps one stop. Still, for an ad hoc shoot, it's not bad. I thought the photogs might enjoy the picture. I'll tag the photo entry with the original camera information.

photo flash testsphoto flash tests

Posted Sun, 09/16/2007 - 2:42pm by dave
Today I tried some interesting photo tests with my external flash. I discovered that I can fire the flash remotely, so that the flash can be in a different location than the camera; I also learned about slow shutter curtain exposures and how they effect the resulting image. Click here to view the gallery of images associated with the test.

high dynamic range (HDR) imageshigh dynamic range (HDR) images

Posted Mon, 05/28/2007 - 1:04pm by dave
I've started messing around with high dynamic range images. Multiple pictures are taken of the same scene, with different exposures. Computer software is then used to merge the pictures into a single image. Usually, a photograph does not have the ability to expose correctly for the darkest and brightest areas in the field of view. The goal of HDR is to achieve an image that mirrors the natural compensation achieved when viewed by the human eye.

take a picture?take a picture?

Posted Fri, 08/11/2006 - 8:03pm by dave
Sometimes a friend will ask for a printed copy of one of my photographs. I'm always flattered when they ask! I don't print my own photos; I can get cheaper (twelve cents), much higher quality prints using an on-line company. I've chosen to use WinkFlash. I've used them for snapshots and enlargements.

early color photographyearly color photography

Posted Thu, 07/20/2006 - 5:21pm by dave
Prokudin-Gorskii PhotographyI've decided to begin blogging some of the more interesting, unusual web sites that I find. I'm hoping that you might find them interesting too. The site I'm blogging today is part of the US Library of Congress. There I found an online exhibition of photographs taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii... there will not be a spelling test later.

the rhodies are a bloomin'the rhodies are a bloomin'

Posted Sat, 05/20/2006 - 4:37pm by dave
The rhododendrons started blooming around Seattle about a month ago. We have a cluster of three plants in front of our living room window. They're on the north side of the house, which has caused them to bloom late. I managed to snap a couple of pictures today of the blooms for our friends who don't live in the Pacific Northwest.
The flowers aren't as dramatic as a hibiscus bloom, but their clusters of color are pretty amazing.
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