[Choc-Ful-A]

Here’s a couple of b-sides in case you need more birds…

loved the raven pic.

Thanks that one was a lucky shot, but I’ll take what I can get. 🙂

[Choc-Ful-A]

Here’s a couple of b-sides in case you need more birds…

Vulture on the Russian River

Night Heron staring me down

Kormorant’s roosting in Santa Cruz (check the bright blue throat on the nesting one)

Conga line of ducks

[Choc-Ful-A]

If you’re not in a diabetic coma from the three candy pics I posted in the contest, here’s a b-side from the same set of sugar crazed photos. This one shows gumdrops lit from below on a glass platter. I didn’t like the way the body of the gumdrop looked a little gold under the sugar pearls for a “white” contest, so I passed on using it. But I still like the shot because it reminds me of some overdone photo from a food magazine.

And while I’m posting… I agree there are a lot of creative and inspired postings already tonight.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Wow, those pics are a very nice combination of abstract images, beautiful landscapes, and mini “time capsules”. They really do tell a story, especially as a set. Plus that’s one happy looking dog.

[Choc-Ful-A]

I found a page with a discussion of zoom lenses for Canon Rebel cameras that might be interesting. Comment #8 in particular is worth a read and contains a bunch of links to lens reviews. I have one of the lenses they talk about, the Tamron 70-300, and like it a lot given that it cost ~$120 when I bought it. I hear the AF is horribly slow (I use manual focus) and it does require a lot of light. But if your friend is going to be shooting outdoors,or at least it very well lit indoor events, it’s worth considering as a first/learning lens.

I’m using it on a Nikon D80, so it’s not quite an apples to apples comparison. But I took these kite surfing shots with that lens zoomed all the way to 300m on a very windy day. I was using a tripod though,which helped a lot.

[Choc-Ful-A]

With all due respect to your family, then you should have said “fuck” FIVE times not just three. 🙂 That is, unless each cousin only got 1/3rd of an expletive since they aren’t as closely related?

PS – My father and brother are commercial fisherman, so know about the water/cursing connection. But honestly my sister, who owns a couple daycare centers, curses more often and more colorfully.

[Choc-Ful-A]

If you’re running linux, Gimp generally included with the installer. yum (Fedora) or apt or the installer for your flavor should be able to get it for you.

Windows has an installer that works well, as Choc-Ful-A said.

just kat and I use Gimp as well.

FYI, the GIMP download page has cut-n-paste commands for a couple Linux packages that do what olavf mentions. And it’s definitely the way to go if you’re using one of the listed Linux variants.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Thanks for replying, linguine. I’ve heard of GIMP, but I checked it out and that site says I have to “compile” all the files. I am not sure if that means there is more than one thing I have to download, so that’s why I came here, to see if there is an easy way to get GIMP or some other program. I’m used to nice user-friendly downloads with clear and simple instructions. I would like something that I can click once to download, and then click that program to install. Any site that throws around phrases like “pre-built HTML per language” or “may contain untranslated strings” is over my head. Please help this ignorant savage!

The GIMP install is pretty painless unless you’re running some oddball operating system. If memory serves, the prerequisite package (GTK) is included in the Windows installation at this point. Try this link to a SourceForge download page if you are running Windows. It’s linked off GIMP.org downloads page once you click the “show other downloads” link. There are also Mac download links there as well. The various :Linux downloads are available even before you click the “show more” link.

[Choc-Ful-A]

All the things I posted to contest and all these b-sides were from the same last minute photo session on Sunday. And after that I realized I take lots of pictures of decaying, broken or otherwise worn out things on a regular basis. So I’d vote to make this a recurring “classic” theme if other people are into it.

Anyway, the b-sides are some more from the old military buildings rotted into the dirt in Marin County. One of them, a two story lookout tower, is definitely getting dangerous. Since the last time I was there, the concrete ceiling buckled and partially collapsed. So now the roof is a diagonal slab resting on the front wall. I’m amazed it’s still open to the public.

Crack through an entire building

Vandalized roofless building from above

Horizontal and vertical shots inside a broken down building

And lastly, coastline view from the ground floor of an observation tower

I really like that last one, but it one only looks good on monitors with very good contrast ratios. Having been burned before, I now always check how things look on my laptop at work (a true torture test). And that last picture looks awful (way too dark and muddy) on the craptastic monitor.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Someone already mentioned it on the Flickr comments, but I still want to say the way you captured the light in the shot is beautiful. The floor looks translucent, almost like it was lit from below. Great shot!

[Choc-Ful-A]

Yeah yeah yeah. Every other brass instrument is for the other hand. But nooooooooooo French horn has to be different.

Well, to be fair, they *were* being played with the right hand until someone came along and stuck valves on them…

Exactly! The right hand in the bell isn’t just for looks. 🙂

[Choc-Ful-A]

Add me to the band-geek list too. I started with trumpet in elementary school (I wanted to play sax but the only choices were clarinet, flute or trumpet). But I switched to french horn after 2 years and loved it. As far as I know it’s the only brass instrument where the primary controls for the instrument are for your left hand. There’s a historical reason for that, but I’ll spare you from a total band geek out… I always wanted to play percussion (timpani! marimba!!) and double reed instruments (oboe, english horn, bassoon) but never got the chance. The mechanical complexity of flutes, clarinets, and other woodwinds was fascinating to me as well. Basically I wanted to play everything except piccolo, baritone, or violin/viola/cello.

I guarantee that there’s a guitar in my future, we just haven’t made each other acquaintance yet. The ones John Hiatt plays, shallow depth, hollow body acoustics with pick-ups have haunted me ever since I saw him play live…

[Choc-Ful-A]

I’m fine with any interpretation of the rules. So if selective multiple exposures (some areas partially transparent and some completely transparent) are overkill then I’ll skip posting the ones I did that way. I just got the impression that combining photos was OK for this . If someone can clarify before the contest goes live that would be great.

[Choc-Ful-A]

so we can’t add things to the image, but can we take out? say I just want a plain background so the subject stands out more, is that allowed?

My understanding is that you can effectively “add things” by stacking photos together and select the parts of each you want visible by cutting things out (or making them transparent) from top images to show parts of the ones underneath. So what you’re talking about, taking content out of the image, is the same thing. The only difference is that you don’t have another image underneath you’re trying to partially expose. So that area would just be a solid color instead.

Or you could put another image behind the primary one with a background you would like to see. As long as you took both photos and you aren’t moving the elements of each image around relative to the rest of the photo I think it’s within the rules.

If that doesn’t make any sense to anyone (but me!) 🙂 then have a look at this image I made for the contest. The original sources are in the gallery as well.

Sailboarding

[Choc-Ful-A]

Wow, I loved all the photos tonight! And I may have voted for a higher percentage of the entries then in any previous contest.

I have a couple of b-sides in case anyone wants more monochromatic goodness…

Old medical center in Silver Spring Maryland

Sun rays shooting through clouds

Cypress tree on a seaside cliff warped by the wind

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