Photography – Page 40 – a sibilant intake of breath

Wales 2007 photos: second batch

Keeping my hat on was a constant challenge, given the lack of a chin-strip and the strong winds.

Because the winds on the second day prevented us from going up any peaks, we visited this nature reserve instead. It was nice to see some trees.

In the reserve, some of us climbed along a steep hillside to see a large waterfall from above. We also got some nice views of the valley below and the seashore.

The Welsh landscape is dominated by bare rock, separated by grassy sections. Often, you see veins of quartz in the shale that look like snow, from a distance.

Wales 2007 photos: first batch

Shed beside a Welsh lake.

All over the Welsh countryside there are walls and paths made of slate. The amount of labour involved in building them all must have been colossal.

Our first group photo, in front of the view we had from all three peaks on the first day.

Climbing Snowdon was a foggy business.

On the third day, we hiked up to a ridge but found it too windy to continue. On the way down, we walked around this lake.

Zoom confusion

A quick question for fellow photographers: Continue reading “Zoom confusion”

Studio photography on the (very) cheap

Something useful learned tonight: using standard height white ceilings, a glossy white St. Anthony’s College laundry card, and the on-camera flash on a Canon Powershot A510 digital camera, you can pull off some tolerable bounce-lit flash photography. A hand-held mirror is even better, though I would recommend using a relatively matte ceiling, with that arrangement. The flash is only really adequate for this role in the wide-angle range, due to a low power rating, but this does make it dramatically less unflattering, through the dual benefit of eliminating white patches that have been completely overexposed and removing the unnatural shadows that arise from a flash too close to the lens.

Attempt to make diffusers out of Sainsbury’s receipts, onion-skin paper, and other miscellaneous translucent materials were less successful. I look forward to eventually having a proper off-camera flash with diffuser, not to mention the chance to do some real studio work. If only this pesky thesis wasn’t getting in the way of various hobbies.

More published photos

First, it was The Oxford Student. Now, the 2007 Wadham College Gazette, produced by the college and distributed to students past and present, features two photos that I took and posted on various websites. The back cover is a photo I took of the flowers behind the cloisters last spring. Happily, they credited me for the images. Unhappily, they called me Milan Llnckyi.

Now, I can understand how a person sees Smyth and writes Smith. I cannot see how someone sees Ilnyckyj, just wings it, and writes ‘Llnckyi.’ Every single website from which these photos might have been taken (blog, Facebook, and Photo.net) includes my name in full. Incredulity aside, I have invented a mnemonic for the aid of future generations:

I
Love
New
York
City.
Kate (Happy Birthday)
Yodels
Joyfully.

Add this to the pronunciation guide, in Ilnyckyj lore. Still, I am flattered that the college found my photos worthy of printing and distributing.

PS. I really can’t be too scathingly critical. I have been double and triple checking this entry to make sure I haven’t committed the spectacular gaff of misspelling my own name.

Black and white Turkey photos II

Here are a few more of the scanned black and white photos from Turkey. I have started posting the best ones on Photo.net, but the copies available here are larger.

Topkapi palace second courtyard.

One more shot of the Blue Mosque, what an elegant structure.

Ship on the Bosporus.

Suleymaniye Mosque.

Domes outside a mosque.

Black and white Turkey photos I

I got back my scanned black and white (T-Max 400) photos from Turkey today. I have started posting the best ones on Photo.net, but the copies available here are larger.