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Definitely try changing the URL’s for your photos from “https://” to “http://” and see if that works. There’s absolutely no reason to use SSL encryption for referencing publicly available images. I have no idea why Picassa would even suggest using them. In addition to the extra complexity, it takes more CPU on their servers and defeats caching. Weird…

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millera9 your Salton Sea shots are absolutely stunning!

2nd’d

3rd’d

I really like those shots too but i didn’t realize they were Salton Sea. That place is bizarre, creepy and feels like slow death. Those photos manage to keep the eeriness but show the drama and beauty as well. Given how LITTLE beauty there is, that’s particularly impressive.

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They are both really nice, but the color on the second one is exceptional. It looks almost too clear and orderly to be real, like some OCD magical elf family lived there and keep everything IN PERFECT ORDER!!! 🙂

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Wow, nice shots folks! And lots of different styles too, from super sharp close-up’s of fireworks, to long exposure composites to intimate shots. Some of them really jumped off the page and spoke to me. But since I’m having one of those days where a couple hours after I say something I realize it came out wrong and I look like a moron, I’ll hold off on offering more specific compliments. Given how things have gone today, I’d probably end up insulting someone relatives when I meant to say the crop of a particular photo was intriguing.

Anyway, this year I was at a relatively big party with lots of people hanging out, drinking and eating on a wooden deck way up in the hills of Belmont California. The fireworks were quite far away and at sea level by the SF bay. So the shots are not sharp (no tripod + drunk people + cantilevered deck = the wiggles) but the perspective is interesting IMO. We were looking down at the fireworks with spots of lights all around from streets, cars, train tracks, buildings and a bridge across the bay. Here’s a full, uncropped shot as an example. The other photos (all cropped) are in the preceding pages of that gallery if you want to see more blowed up things.

I also got some shots before the sun was completely gone of planes descending into SFO, with fog rolling into the bay, backed by silhouettes of San Bruno mountain, Twin Peaks radio towers and some San Francisco buildings. In other words an an overload of Hallmark cliches but I like them. 🙂

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Research continues . . . I see several tripods with a multi-position center column. Is this something worth having? I am not sure that I will need this capability but I often underestimate my needs when buying stuff. I’m probably going to buy a ball head w/quick release if that makes a difference in the answer.

Here is an example that I am considering.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/733656-REG/Vanguard_ALTA_PRO_264AT_Alta_Pro_264AT_4_Section.html

I have a “good not great” Slik tripod and have been very happy with it. It’s a pan head not a ball head because the guy at the store where I bought it (there’s a really good camera store in Palo Alto, Ca) said what other people have commented above. Meaning, if you spend the $$$ for a very nice ball head you’ll probably like it a lot. But until you get to the high end, the pan heads outperform equivalently priced ball heads. At this point I’m very used to adjusting the two different controls at the same time and can get the camera where I want pretty quickly. So I don’t think I’d be interested in switching anytime soon.

But the real reason for this post is to ask about the “Multi-Angle Center Column (0-180?)” feature mentioned on the page you linked. I can’t image why having the center column tilt would be desirable. It sounds unnecessary to me since you can effect the same thing by making the legs of the tripod different lengths, or setting the legs to different locked angles (or both). I’ve taken shots on step hills where I had to put legs in strange configurations to hold the camera at a stable position to take a shot. So unless I’m misinterpreting what that feature means, I think you could spend the money for that feature on something else.

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I like Levitations better.

Yup, I agree.

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FWIW, I don’t think any creative artform should be constrained to specific technologies. So I don’t understand the hostility towards people that like cheap cameras or other methods that introduce odd, sometimes random, uncontrollable, unpredictable effects. I like them, but also like high quality, very accurate cameras too. But I don’t see the conflict in having and using both.

And while I find just about any artificially inflated market for a art (or products in general) absurd, if makes people happy to buy Lomography prints for too much money, it’s no skin off my nose. If I ever run into some smug SOB copping an attitude about cheap camera superiority, I’d certainly make it clear that I thought they were an ass. But I wouldn’t accept the smugness the other direction if I was using a Lomo or showing photo’s I’d take with a Lomo.

Well said.

horse shit. if i have a D3X and one of these $10,250 lenses i am obviously superior in many ways. my photos will simply reek of “art” and be virtually priceless.

your Lomo OTOH reeks of “hipness” which we all know is absurd on it’s face.

🙂

Exactly! That’s why I want BOTH.

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FWIW, I don’t think any creative artform should be constrained to specific technologies. So I don’t understand the hostility towards people that like cheap cameras or other methods that introduce odd, sometimes random, uncontrollable, unpredictable effects. I like them, but also like high quality, very accurate cameras too. But I don’t see the conflict in having and using both.

And while I find just about any artificially inflated market for a art (or products in general) absurd, if makes people happy to buy Lomography prints for too much money, it’s no skin off my nose. If I ever run into some smug SOB copping an attitude about cheap camera superiority, I’d certainly make it clear that I thought they were an ass. But I wouldn’t accept the smugness the other direction if I was using a Lomo or showing photo’s I’d take with a Lomo.

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Amazing… A aerial circus in your own backyard. Nice shots!

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My biggest barrier to using film cameras more often is how irritating my current scanner is. I bought it on a whim at Fry’s without doing enough research and then found out it’s not supported on Linux. And since my Windows system is seriously underpowered, that makes me a grumpy negative scanner… If/When I get a replacement scanner I’ll start using the film cameras more. Digital is just too convenient for me to ever switch back for good. But I love the uncertainty and occasion randomness of film, especially with oddball cameras that are prone to distorting images. I bought two Lomo’s on vacation in Prague years ago and I’d definitely start carrying them in my gear bag again.

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Don’t forget that Oklahoma is OK! It says so right on our license plates.

I wonder if they got the same marketer as Prince George’s county in Maryland that decided to make the welcome signs as you enter the county say “Prince George’s County – A Livable Comminity”

Having lived in PG County until I left for college I’ll just note that it’s a big, long, bizarrely shaped entity and it’s “livability” is highly dependent on where you are in the county.

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I’m having trouble narrowing down my selections for this contest. I’m looking for a second opinion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21883298@N08/sets/72157624748996078/

so far I’m leaning towards the banksy, the cards and the last one (called running for mayor), although I like the dog walking one, the ‘punk rock’ tape and the chess pieces also.

There’s a lot of great photos in that set and some of them work on different levels IMO. So picking which ones to post depends on what your goal is. And while it might be cynical thinking on my part, if you want votes then I think ones with the “hot babe” factor have a better chance (all other things being equal). So these,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21883298@N08/5538771020/in/set-72157624748996078
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21883298@N08/5541532062/in/set-72157624748996078
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21883298@N08/5538772322/in/set-72157624748996078

are worth considering. I think they are really good graffiti and photographs too, so it’s not just the content. The Banksy and card shots are fantastic too IMO, but you already listed them.

My personal favorites include some of the really simple text only ones, like the “We All Fall” and “This Is Vandalism” but I don’t think they will get votes in a Fark contest.

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In the interest of getting a representative sample of community opinions, I’ll just note that I’m not opposed to prizes and I don’t think it would have a negative impact on the way people participate in the contest (either the voters or the people submitting entries). There might be some initial flurry of weirdness at the beginning, but as long as the prizes are consistently given out over and it’s sustained over time, I think any shenanigans will die off. I said pretty much the same thing when this came up in the PSAEF. But I’m also not overly excited about adding prizes either, so I’m not going to protest strongly either way.

But I did want to register the opinion that as long as it’s small prizes, sustained for awhile, and it’s not overthought or overcomplicated, I don’t think it would be disruptive.

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Bees: Some I figured, even given the theme, were just too artsy-fartsy for fark voters
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orionid/5590990700/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orionid/5590974204/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orionid/5590973068/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orionid/5590968452/

Wow, I like all of them, but the purple fence is so insane it deserves an explicit mention. The photo is composed and shot well, but it’s only just bizarre to think someone painted a fence that color on purpose! My first reaction was that it was some oddball camera you built to mess with colors. 🙂 Also, I’m glad you posted the full res image so I could figure out what that damned yellow poster was.. If I ever find myself in New London looking for a musical venue, I now know to go to the El ‘N’ Gee club.

Also, the weird old, hazy, monochromatic images in the other three above a very nice too, especially with the annotations about how they were created. The work required to prepare to get those photos is just as cool as the photos themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear you got a call from Mythbusters at some point to help test some random “can you make a photograph with FOO” theory.

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I too had a hard time deciding this week, b-sides here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42385982@N06/sets/72157626007121333/

I’m hoping to do better than our last arty theme, Artistic Bent, where my “best” was 130th place 😳

Voters, one big hairball of chaotic unpredictability… I do check the votes every contest I enter, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t take the results personally anymore.

As for your b-sides, I love, love, love the Rusty Sail photo. But I’m a sucker for images that show signs of age and have a strong pattern/geometric component to the composition. So that one just pushes my “like” buttons by design.

And I think Light Bomb and Green Taps are both really nice too. I could see them working for an “arty” contest, but there’s also something creepy about them too. So I think you could use them in other contests.

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