Last week Google announced that it would no longer charge its usual $149 for the Nik Collection of image-editing plugins. Now, you can download it for free.
Category: Hands
The category, Hands, is for posts that make us skilled.
The Travel Paradox
I recently attended a talk by the maritime photographer, Kas Stone, during which she mentioned in passing the so-called travel paradox. Most photographers share the experience of traveling to outstanding or exotic locations only to return home with images that are meh at best. There may be a number of reasons for this but one, she speculates, is that we travel with (typically) non-photographer companions who cramp our style.
Getting Made
Getting Made is that magic moment when you discover that despite your best efforts to maintain your cover as you photograph in the street, the people in your frame know exactly what you’re doing.
Playing with MacPhun Software
I recently bought a suite of photo “enhancement” apps from MacPhun. I use the word enhancement in quotes because I feel conflicted about such tools. They make it easy to inflict an endless array of cheesy effects on unsuspecting photos.
Canon 5DS Sample Images
It seems everyone who has their hands on a 5DS has been posting samples so people can download giant image files (50 megapixels) to see how giant an image file can get. I’ll offer a couple images here (just to get it out of my system), then side step the whole giant image thing which, after all, is nothing more than a photographic pissing contest.
7 (non-photographic) things you can do to improve your photography
The following are suggestions (not prescriptions) and are highly personal. They reflect what I would describe as an emerging philosophy of seeing and engagement with the world. In particular, I preach a holistic gospel of photography: photography works in service of the whole person.
Wildlife As Street Photography Training
I don’t regard myself as a nature or wildlife photographer. For one thing, I don’t have the proper equipment for it, namely a fast long lens. For another thing, I live in downtown Toronto and so most of my photo opportunities (and my love) belong to urban spaces. Nevertheless, one kind of photography doesn’t preclude the other.
Yes You Can Break A Carbon Fiber Tripod
Another gear mishap. The last time was a lens dropped on gravel with a scratch that rendered it unusable. This time, it was a broken tripod. On Monday, I was up to my wazoo in snow as I tramped through the sugar bush at Williams Farm (see yesterday’s photos).
Shooting Into The Light
The rule of thumb is: shoot with the sun to your back. It’s a good rule. It means your subjects are well lit and your colours are more saturated. You don’t have weird lens flares or washed out subjects. And yet, sometimes, rules need to be broken.
Competition Results
I’m a relatively new member of the Toronto Camera Club which has been operating continuously since 1889 and is one of the larger camera clubs around. There are advantages to being big. One is that it draws decent speakers for its lecture series. Another is that there is a large pool for its internal competitions.
Snow Flakes & Long Exposures
Yesterday, I got up before dawn and walked up Yellow Creek in David A. Balfour Park to a place where a small dam has crumbled.
10 Rules for Managing a Photography Twitter Account
I maintain a photography-based twitter account @dabpix. It’s a great way to see what other people are doing, discover new resources, get ideas and inspiration, and to share my own work.
The Camera Sees More Than The Eye
Here are a couple photos I took because I wanted to capture a general feeling, only to discover well after the fact that I’d captured something else in the photo that completely undermined the feeling I was after.
Printing a canvas “mosaic”
Earlier in the summer, I visited Elizabeth’s Art Gallery in Goderich with a view to printing some of my photos on canvas and arranging them on a large stretch of wall.
Shooting Lightning
This is my first and, so far, only experiment with lightning. I feel like Benjamin Franklin.