10-12-11 – Infrastructure

…set your camera on the lowest iso and tightest aperture. put your lens cap on. set exposure to bulb. tape down your shutter button, line up your shot, remove lenscap, count a few seconds, replace lenscap, line up second frame, remove lenscap, count a few seconds, replace lenscap, release shutter button. tada.

I did exactly this for one of my images in the “A Show of Hands” contest. It works, but it’s tricky to get right.

It’s loads of fun, especially in the dark! I did it on “Emotion,” when I had Mr. Oddmind’s Devil and Angel persona each peering over his shoulder at the same time. Hmmm. Could this be a future theme??

How about the barb wire fence separating BLM land from the rest? I can even find a section with a sign I think.

So, my Nikon has a multiple exposure setting in-camera (must be shot with RAW). I can’t currently use that, if I somehow figure out how I’d use it?

Just for clarity.

While I haven’t done anything much with the on-board stuff, there’s a freakin’ butt-load of software on-board. What’s in, what’s out?

(It won’t apply to this contest… I got some really good shots today of a train trestle over falls, and some other recent shots of stuff I’m fixin’ to use… just seems like the place to ask the question now that it’s being discussed).

If it mimics film techniques like my Nikon (drop-menu asks how many frames, the next X times you press the button get added to a single RAW file just like they’d build on a single negative) that’s perfectly fine.

If it lets you go back, pick two RAW files, and merges them for you (like stacking/sandwiching negatives, which happens to be pretty much the only outlawed darkroom technique), that’s not fine.

As far as other stuff, like ‘Guine said, if it’s too much software on the computer, it’s probably too much software in the camera. Anything applied after the fact is right out. Program modes, EV shifts, manual settings, white balance, etc.; they’re all kosher.

lokisbong: BLM land in and of itself isn’t really infrastructure since they’re the caretakers for all the government owned “empty” land. If the land is actually being used to support human civilization somehow (watershed land, federal prison system, abandoned mine shaft field – historic infrastructure – or a wind farm, etc) then it’s fine. Fences in and of themselves aren’t infrastructure but if they’re connected to something that is (a prison fence, a fence around a power station, highway medians, etc) then they’re fine.

So, I am doing a little research on the ole Wikipedia looking for ideas and I am now compelled to ask: the idea of this theme is Hard Infrastructure, correct?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure#.22Hard.22_versus_.22soft.22_infrastructure

Roads, railroads, power lines, aqueducts, that sort of thing are the intended subjects rather than government buildings or banks, that sort of thing?

So is anything listed on that wiki page fair game for this week? Or is it limited in some way?

lokisbong: BLM land in and of itself isn’t really infrastructure since they’re the caretakers for all the government owned “empty” land. If the land is actually being used to support human civilization somehow (watershed land, federal prison system, abandoned mine shaft field – historic infrastructure – or a wind farm, etc) then it’s fine. Fences in and of themselves aren’t infrastructure but if they’re connected to something that is (a prison fence, a fence around a power station, highway medians, etc) then they’re fine.

So the fence surrounding an abandoned mine shaft would be cool? The one I am now thinking about the whole fence stretched straight would only be maybe fifty feet long. With signs warning you not to get any closer even. there are abandoned mine shafts every where around here on both sides of the BLM fence I was thinking about. Some of them barely visible until you get up to the edge of the shaft even and some with no warning fence at all.