Seen through my lens

Don't call me Barbie

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:16:41 +0200

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I spent the past week on leave (using all my leave up prior to resigning from my job today - anyone want to offer me work?). One of the things I did was drive out to Skeerpoort in South Africa's North West province.

I did not actually go to Skeerpoort intentionally. I got into my car and drove from Gauteng province to North West and wandered about the area aimlessly, looking for rural areas and hoping for something to photograph. I can recommend this kind of aimless wandering - you get to see things that you might not if you had gone somewhere intentionally. That way, you don't have any preconceptions.

In any case, I did find quite a number of things to photograph, and I'll post a few here over the next few weeks.

The subject of this photo speaks for itself. How did it come about? As I was driving, I noticed that there was a lot of barbed wire in the area, preventing livestock from vanishing from the farms I suppose. Suddenly the thought presented itself - why not take a photo? And here it is.

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Veiled effect on a waterfall

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:06:33 +0200

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The soft appearance of the water in the photo above is known as a veiled effect. Used on waterfalls like this one, or on flowing rivers or the ocean surf, the effect can be quite pleasing.

The main requirement is a slower shutter speed. Different environmental lighting conditions will require different speeds, so you should experiment with your shutter speed and aperture to find what works. Generally, though, you'll want to avoid full midday sunshine, as the light will be too harsh to get the desired result. The above photo was taken mid-morning, and the waterfall was nicely shaded, so I didn't get blown highlights resulting from a slow shutter.

While you're experimenting, try out a polarising filter as well.

For those who like to know locations, I took this photo in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa.

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Photrade gets new features

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:14:20 +0200

I used to put my photos on flickr until I discovered that, despite my activating the site's security options, some of my photos were appearing on commercial Web sites. I speedily deleted my flickr pro account and high-tailed it out of there with all my photos.

I don't recall exactly how, but I think it was through one of the social networking sites, I discovered an alternative site called Photrade, which offers more security, including watermarks. As an added bonus, you can sell your photos through the site (although I have yet to make a sale through the site) and also share in ad revenue (a few cents) when one of your photos is used in an advert and clicked on.

So far, I have been impressed. The staff are friendly and helpful (OK, it is in beta and there are probably not nearly as many users as there are on flickr, so let's hope it stays that way), the site is easy to use and the security features live up to the hype. Certainly there are the usual happy snaps that you wish people would not share, but there are also some quality shots by some highly competent photographers.

This weekend several new features were added that should please ex-flickrites no end: groups, events, and competitions. This takes Photrade to an entirely new level and means, I believe, flickr should be concerned.

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Tiger - the artistic treatment

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:09:17 +0200

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Just every now and then I get a little artistic. I took this photo in the zoo in South Africa's capital city, Pretoria (tigers do not live in the wild in Africa). There is nothing wrong with the original - in fact I have that version on my Photrade page too - but I thought a more artistic treatment would also be interesting.

I created a custom brush in Photoshop, changed the colours, did some burning, and there you go. I think it worked out rather nicely. What do you think?

I'll show the original in the next post.

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The moon

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:41:05 +0200

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The moon is not easy to photograph. Because the sky is dark, many novice photographers set their cameras up for night photography, which generally means wide apertures and long exposures. But since the moon itself is bright, the result is a blown highlight - a white, glowing circle with no features.

When photographing the moon, I use manual settings. That means I set the aperture, shutter speed and focus myself. With this kind of photography, automatic settings are the enemy. I use a reasonably fast shutter speed and a higher f-stop. Although all my camera's warnings go off (all the indicators go red), I ignore them. The result is that I end up with a photo like this.

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Photopreneur

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:45:01 +0200

How do you make money from your photography?

Ah, the question to which we all want the answer! One of the most useful sites in this regard is without a doubt Photopreneur. It is one of the few photography-related sites to which I subscribe in my RSS reader.

Rather than photography itself, the site focuses on the business of photography. It is not there to teach you to take better photos, but rather to teach you how to turn your photography into cash.

I have found it to be a straightforward, no-nonsense resource and I'm happy to recommend it.

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Eddie the Cheetah

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:10:17 +0200

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Eddie is one of the cheetahs at the Rhino & Lion Reserve, located in the area known as the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site in South Africa's Gauteng province. Unlike the wild cheetahs in the reserve, Eddie was hand-reared, and so he cannot be rehabilitated.

He's a beautiful animal, though, is he not?

At the time I took the photo, Eddie was wearing a harness for being exercised. I used Photoshop Elements to remove the harness from the photo. Maybe it's cheating a little (pardon the pun), but I think within acceptable limits.

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Digital Photography School

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:40:01 +0200

So you spent so much on building up a decent set of photographic equipment that you now can't afford to pay for a formal photography course. After all, they are usually not cheap! So what now?

At some point in the near future I'll write a review or two on some books that I recommend getting your teeth into, but for now let's assume that your kit set you back so much that you can't even splash out on a good photography book.

One of my favourite resources happens to be completely free of charge (if you exclude your Internet fees, of course). But it defies the old adage that you get what you pay for. Digital Photography School is a wonderful resource that has helped me immensely. It is packed with information and tutorials that are just about guaranteed to improve anyone's photography. Just work through a couple of the tutorials and see if your work doesn't show an immediate improvement.

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Extreme close-up cheat

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:25:32 +0200

Video from Digital Photography School

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African wild dogs with meat

nobody@vox.com(Scotty) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:41:36 +0200

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The Rhino & Lion Reserve is such a great site for wildlife photography that I returned this past weekend to get some more shots, this being one of them. The photo is of African wild dogs feeding. The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is a carnivore found only in Africa. It stands about 75cm at the shoulder and weighs between 17kg and 36kg. African wild dogs hunt in packs and can reach up to 45km/h during pursuit.

I don't often use selective colour in my photography, but I did so in this instance. The dogs' colour is very similar to that of their background, so having them in black and white enhances their visibility. However, making the whole photo black and white would have taken away the impact, as the meat would also have been greyed out. Leaving the meat in colour provided the best effect in this instance.

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