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Showing posts from July, 2012

Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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Infrared

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A couple weeks ago I mentioned I was waiting for a new filter an infrared filter. Well it came in, and for the most part it doesn't disappoint. Without getting too technical infrared is a type of radiation that is just off the visible spectrum of light that the human eye can see. For the purpose of my photography it is not the type of imaging that gives thermal images, which requires a very different setup. What has always drawn my eye to IR photography is the different look and feel that can be shown. This has been a type of photography I've always wanted to try but wasn't sure how to get into it. Essentially there are two ways to get into it. The easiest and cheapest way is to get an IR filter that fits on the front of your lens. The drawback to this are long exposure times. Since most modern cameras have an anti-IR filter over the sensor inside of the camera you have to leave the shutter open longer to allow more IR light to hit the sensor. And longer exposures mean mo...
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Bomber Panorama

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My last (for now) shot from the  Wings of Freedom  set is a 2 shot, 5 exposure each HDR panorama. It was impossible to get all three planes together, without a level of Photoshopping skills that I don't have, so I had to go for just the bombers. Overall these shots have been some of my favorite for this year and are currently on my desktops and tablet as wall papers. You should definitely click on the photo to see it larger. Bomber panorama
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Week 29 GPlus Project 52

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Infrared road The theme for this week was winter or summer. With this photo I'll let the viewer decide for themselves. Is this a winter scene? Something else? The true answer is it is an infrared photo. Infrared photography has always interested me and coincidentally to the theme of this week I happened to order a cheap 720nm filter to see how it would work out. The idea behind IR photography is to severely limit the amount of visible light to hit the sensor and allow as much IR light in. This can be difficult with modern digital cameras because there's an anti-IR filter usually applied over the sensor so shots using an external filter need to be long exposures. This shot is a full 60 seconds, which explains why it's not as sharp as it can be. A converted camera, one that has the anti-IR filter taken off and an IR filter put in it's place, would be able to take sharper photos, but at the obvious negative of only being able to take IR shots. Below you can see how t...
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B-24 Liberator

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The last of the 3 planes from the Wings of Freedom Tour , the B-24 Liberator. To me it's not the best looking bomber of the World War II era. The names on the side of the plane are all the people who have sponsored/donated to keep the plane flight worthy. This is the only restored and flying B-24J in the world, which is pretty impressive and expensive. Apparently the operating costs are over $4,000 a flight hour. In talking with some of the people associated with the group the US government is trying to close down their operation through various tax hurdles. There's no clear reason given why this is, but many believe the government would like the public to forget about WWII. I hope that isn't true. The shot is another 5 shot HDR. Witchcraft
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B-17 Flying Fortress

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Continuing from last week's post here is the B-17 Flying Fortress from the Wings of Freedom tour. This is a 5 shot HDR. As a photographer I wish I could tell the people to get out of my shot, but that probably wouldn't go over too well. I occasionally attempt to get rid of them in post processing, but that can be more difficult than it's worth at time. And I think my skills doing that aren't that great. I liked this shot because although it looks to be a very cloudy day the sun was shining down on the plane. I'm excited for some new filters to come in that I just ordered. An infrared filter and a neutral density filter. The IR filter is supposed to filter out the visible light and let just IR light in. Since most modern cameras have an anti-IR filter long exposures are needed. This should produce some very distinctly different photos. The ND filter lessens the amount of light coming in to help smooth running water. Both should be fun to play with and I expect to...
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Week 27 GPlus Project 52

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Red, white (green), and blue This week's theme was red, white, and blue. I assume this was to pick up some July fourth action, but the timing really wasn't going to work. With photos due July second it was just too early for me to find some patriotic scenes. Luckily, while looking for something else, I stumbled across this. It's red, white, a little bit of blue (the sign) and green. You can view this, and the rest of my Project 52 photos here .
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Popular posts from this blog

Running... Again?

Image
  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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The Pros and (Mostly) Cons of Upgrading to a 4K Monitor

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I'm in the process of getting back into photography which will mean a new camera, more on that in a later post. But the first step for me was a new computer, one with the horsepower to handle a modern day camera and its RAW files. Along with the computer comes a new 4K monitor. 4K is great for media consumption, right? Your characters on your favorite show or movie really look detailed and realistic. Scenery looks wonderful. Everything looks great, right? Wrong. You know what doesn't look great? That photo I took in 2012 that I thought was sharp but is very much not. I transferred over my past catalogs of photos over to Lightroom Classic and eagerly began opening up some of my favorite photos. At first I was happy with how the colors looked and how the scene was composed. Then I noticed it was a little soft. Well I had just gotten a new contacts prescription so that must be it. Changed to my glasses and the photos were even blurrier! I went through photo after photo and most ca...
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