Coastal engineering in Essaouira
These odd looking six tonne objects constitute some kind of coastal defence, possibly from erosion.
This cat is peeking out from one of the windows of the flat we rented.
Loom in an artisinal school.
Spinning wheel
Category: Photography
Equipment, examples, history – all matters photographic
Morocco photos, fourth batch
Some projected art at the Gnawa Festival.
Cloth and sky.
Painting at an artisinal school.
The sea wall in Essaouira, complete with canons.
West African fish, partaken of by the other members of our caravan.
Morocco photos, third batch
The edge of the Djemma El Fna at night.
The three Norwegian women I met in Essaouira.
Gulls over the Atlantic.
Essaouira harbour.
View from atop the sea wall.
Morocco photos, second batch
Some of the detail from the Ali ben Youssef Medersa.
Mosque in Marrakesh. It’s interesting how different they look from the ones we saw in Turkey.
Shine in Marrakesh
For some reason, I like the look of donkeys. They seem dependable and worthy of respect.
Marrakesh has a large wall around the whole of the old city, as well as smaller dividing walls inside.
Morocco photos, first batch
The Koutoubia mosque is the largest in Marrakesh, standing out prominently near one corner of the Djemma El Fna.
From the terrace of my first hotel, you could get a glimpse of the old city from above.
This is a courtyard inside the Marrakesh museum, which I found by accident while I was completely lost in the souq.
The largest open space in the Marrakesh museum is a great place to have a rest and read.
The Ali ben Youssef Medersa is very open for a museum, allowing you to wander all over the place.
Paris photos IV
These are the shots taken on film, hence their late emergence. As has often been the case in the past, getting back the photos from my expensive film camera has been a reminder of just how good a deal my cheap point and shoot digital camera was.
Getting interesting angles sometimes involves hanging out windows, alarming the guards, and looking a right fool.
Parisian coffeehouse
Boat in the Canal St. Martin
A kind of shabby encampment beside the canal.
A510 backup battery
Every time I turn on my Canon Powershot A510, it now asks me to enter the date and time. This suggests that the backup battery, which is used to store that information, has died. Having the right time programmed in is valuable, because it helps to organize thousands of photos. Do any of the A510 owners who read this blog have the manual? I need to know (a) where the battery is located and (b) whether it is user-serviceable.
Thanks a lot.
[Update: 18 July] I got a new battery from the key cutting shop in the Covered Market. It seems to have dealt with the issue.
Photography beyond Bayer
[Photograph removed – 21 October 2012]
The individual pixels in the sensors inside digital cameras cannot collect information from across the entire visible spectrum. To get a full colour image, it is therefore necessary to combine information from several different pixels, each of which has a coloured filter in front of it that acts to establish which part of the visible light range it observes.
Virtually all digital sensors rely upon the Bayer Pattern, invented by Kodak. This allocates half of all pixels to the green portion of the spectrum, with 1/4 devoted to red and blue, respectively. The process of combining the data mathematically is fairly resource intensive. This process is called interpolation. It can be done either using a generic of-the-shelf processor, which is cheaper per unit but not very fast or energy efficient, or with a custom chip, such as the DIGIC chips in Canon digital cameras.
Today, Kodak announced a new pattern for use in CCD and CMOS sensors. The new system uses both filtered and unfiltered pixel elements. These will record brightness data from across the entire spectrum. The new interpolation algorithms then use this panchromatic data to create a luminance channel, to which colour data is added using data from the filtered elements. Doing so may require much more processing power, which suggests that new custom chips will need to be designed.
The benefit of the new pattern is that it will supposedly double the sensitivity of sensors, allowing for better performance in low light. Given how small and inexpensive the lenses on cheap cameras and camera phones are, this is a very important design parameter. Of course, all this constant development in digital photography makes one a bit wary to invest $1000 or more in what is available this year. Chances are, the offer next year will be rather better. For this particular technology, it will probably be necessary to wait until the first quarter of 2008.
Lakeland photos III
Compressed walkers.
Sheep are never far away.
One third of the way around the Kentmere Horseshoe.
If you are in a proper place for walking, the landscape will dwarf you.
Dry stone walls take a lot more effort to build than to climb over.
Lakeland photos II
Once you reach a peak, a bit of a rest is surely in order. Actually, Rob and Sarah were ill during the whole trip, so their fellwalking demonstrated particular persistence.
Walkers atop Wetherlam.
The hiking boot: noble symbol of our determination.
Which isn’t to say we never take them off…
If you can shear a sheep, you can arm wrestle two humans at once and win.