this, that and the other
If you get a chance to visit the Natural History museum have a look at the stuffed animals part where there are all sorts of mammals, literally stuffed to the gills. This one of a horse running really captures the movement and power of the animal.
Taken without flash, hand-held, using a Ricoh GRD set at auto, whilst waiting for people to stop wandering past. Touched-up in Lightroom to add a bit of punch and interest.
I have no idea where this image came from but it’s a great Photoshop job. You could almost believe it were true - except perhaps it should be Diana or that bloody Fergie woman. The Queen (for it is her) had no more choice about her family than I did of mine. The other two did, though.
I think it’s supposed to be a comment on the shithole that is the UK economy and how those loyal Royals are going to roll up their sleeves and pitch in. But who will be able to afford fries with anything?
If anyone knows where I might have found this please let me know and I’ll give a link. I found it one night after having a few glasses of wine and idly clicking through clicks. And although the caption fits I don’t think I was the first to think of it.
This is an odd one. Taken through a dirty window on a camera phone with the reflection of a fluorescent light looking like some weird alien jet vapour. No Photoshop required.
If you click the picture for a larger version you can see how filthy the window was.
I think this was taken with a Motorola clamshell phone at about 2 megapixels.
For the next version, please could you stop adding features and work on performance and stability instead? [Dear Adobe]
Following on from my gripe about the international price of Photoshop yesterday I see that there is a whole web site devoted to this gripe and many others. I fear that most of this is ignored by Adobe. It’s marketing after all. A new version requires some ‘killer’ features by which the product can be pushed: a gimmick. Saying this version is just a consolidation means most people will ignore buying it, having coped with the existing version already.
I was standing on the platform wanting to take a photograph of an approaching train and not knowing what picture I wanted. I hesitated, and then again, and in the end I lamely held the camera to my waist to steady it and pressed the shutter.
I remember telling me to stand back. I’d almost been hypnotised by the train’s lights as it got closer. The driver did give me a hard stare. I’ve played with this in Lightroom to give it a bit of edge.
I’m at last upgrading to Mac OSX 10.5. I’ve been putting it off ever since it came out. My iMac G5 is about 3 years old and is running very well. It’s not particularly speedy but I’m running Lightroom and Photoshop well enough. It’ll do for another few years. What put me off was dealing with the change in the operating system and some software not working - in particular Photoshop, which doesn’t run on the old G5 systems. Such is the price gouging for non-US purchasers of Photoshop I’ve decided I won’t be upgrading my copy and will make do with Photoshop Elements. I’ll miss some features but they’re not worth the extra costs - especially with another PS update on it’s way.
I was also a bit perturbed about learning 10.5 when, really, nothing is wrong with 10.4. But I note that a lot of software either requires 10.5 or runs on 10.4 with some features missing.
Here’s a photo taken by a friend of mine. The original is in colour and clearly shows the flesh tones. The eye takes in the colours, the blush of the cheeks and throat. It sees the orange and grey clothing. It scans the image before considering the content.
The copy I have de-saturated the colour from and added a bit of contrast to create a black and white image. I think, modesty permitting, that the B&W is the more effective image.
The eye sees the content rather than the aesthetics, It now sees mono tones, and the subjects.
To me it is a much more rewarding photograph and conveys a lot more about the characters, their relationship, their passion, and tells more of a story about what may be going on between them than the colour image does.
This is just my point of view of course and there is a continuing doubt in my mind that I might be wrong. I seem to prefer mono but obviously it’s not always appropriate. But even a sunset can look good in mono.
You know when you get bored of life and nothing seems to excite and you realise that what you see is what you’ll get and you forget what it was to be excited about something and so you wipe out what you’ve done and you try to start it all over again? That’s where I am.