Think About The Presentation

When I am out shooting pictures I typically am thinking about what I intend to do with the pictures, what my presentation will be. Are they part of a generic picture gallery containing similar pictures from various sources and time frames (for example, flowers) or are the pictures intended to be in their own picture gallery? I have a post that speaks to how I go about taking my pictures, and the methodology that I use. If you care to read the article click here. As I have mentioned I like to have a point of view that starts with GPS, and then drops down to a picture giving you an idea of what the surroundings look like. During a recent trip to Canada I went to the Gerrard India Bazaar located in Toronto. It is a series of shops that stretch along a single street for a few blocks. Pointing the camera straight down the road wasn't all that interesting. There really wasn't a single shot that looked good through the lens. Looking around I suddenly got my inspiration from a phone pole. The street names were on the pole. That caught my attention because the street signs mark the area for the bazaar, and the signs had a lot of character.When taking a picture like this you have  lot of liberty on how you can present it. You can really punch it up a notch and bring out the character of the signs and utility pole.

The "street signs" picture is the first photo in the Indian Bazaar photo album. Not only is it fitting, but I will remember where it is located the next time my wife and I visit Toronto.

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Mixing Photography With Our Subaru Car Purchases

I like photography and cars, and the two mix very well! So naturally when I buy a car I take my camera along to get a few pics (it is never going to look better than brand new and never driven). I decided I wanted to buy a 2012 Subaru so my search started in November. My wife is from South Africa where there is no snow and Ohio weather was quite a shock to her. The first time she slid in the snow I got the panic call! Once she drove a Subaru she actually started to get out of the house more during the winter. With AWD she found freedom from the snow covered streets.

I debated back and forth about buying another Outback or perhaps trying out a Forester, which I was planning on buying when I bought the Outback. The big benefit with the Forester is that my wife would be more likely to drive it, she has an Impreza Outback Sport which is the perfect car for her. The Outback is just too big for her liking. The local Subaru dealer is Waikem Subaru located in Massillon, Ohio. Low pressure environment and when I walk in the door I am greeted by everyone. However, the biggest plus is that they put up with my picture taking. I have taken a lot of pictures at Waikem Subaru and never get hassled by anyone. The guys in the service department put up with me too.I decided on a 2012 Forester and when it came in, my sales consultant Rick Spieth even offered to take a picture of the car on the truck before it was unloaded. When I picked up the Forester it was a very busy end-of-year day and  sales consultant Rick Ballas jumped in to help out. So in my photo collection are a couple of hundred photos of cars taken at the dealership, along with several pictures of the employees.

I take a lot of pictures of my cars, and I have found that very helpful. In the winter of 2010 I discovered that my rear washer fluid sprayer was damaged on our 2007 Subaru Impreza Wagon. I thought the damage had been done at the airport or perhaps during a recent visit to the shop for an oil change. By looking at my pictures I was able to see the damage was actually there months before I had noticed it. I figured the damage probably came from a car wash with the hanging material that drags along top of the car. With digital, all it cost me is the disk space it resides on. You never know what picture you have that will turnout to be of value to you.

Feel free to leave a comment below about your car buying experiences. When did you buy your first car? When did you buy your first brand spanking new car?

And remember, get out there and take a few pictures. It couldn't hurt!

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Hiking To The Top of Golconda Fort - Part 2

This is a continuation of the Part 1 post where we had just started climbing to the top of the fort and stopped a few times along the way to show you the sights. In part 2 we have made it to the top of the fort, and all we need to do is go to the top of the building on top of the hill! From the top you might certainly think of yourself as king! One of the most important features of the fort is its acoustics. The construction of the fort is such that any sound made at the entrance can be heard throughout the hill on which the fort stands. No sneak attacks! In the first post I mentioned the outer wall and moat. However, after the outer wall it has also a double wall that runs around the foot of the hill where the citadel stands.

Looking at the top most left area of the map above is where we have arrived, Darbar Hall. I took a few videos of the view from the top of Darbar Hall. From here you could also see the entire layout of the fort and where the cannons had been placed for the protection of the fort.

Golconda Fort - At the Top from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

A few more scenes from the top before we head back down to ground level. Darbar Hall was actually very cool inside compared to outside.

Golconda Fort - Enjoying the View from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

If you are in Hyderabad then Golconda Fort is definitely a stop you should make. There are a lot of steps to climb-up and then climb-down, so you will need to able to handle that.  You will also want to have some bottled water with you before starting the trip, you can get pretty thirsty climbing all those stairs in the sun. If you go later in the afternoon there is a light show that takes place after dark, you might want to consider that when planning your visit. Look for Part 3 with a few videos and pictures that I took as we headed back down to the grounds below. Get out and see the world!

 

Hiking To The Top of Golconda Fort - Part 1

My wife and I visited India for the first time in 2010. Our first stop was Hyderabad. On Saturday January 23rd we drove to Golconda Fort (a few miles west of Hyderabad). The city of Golconda was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Golconda. The city at one time was the center of the diamond trade. The fort dates back to the 12th century and was ruled by various kings throughout the centuries. There are actually 4 forts that make up Golconda. The forts are built on a granite hill and is 400 feet high. It was a three tiered fortification, protected by a moat, had eight entrance gates and a water supply system. I spent an 87 degree Saturday afternoon climbing the stairs to the various levels, stopping along the way to admire the architecture and imagine what it must have been like 500 years ago. On the way up to the top of the fort I shot all HD video, and on the way down I used my wife's Kodak Z1485IS to capture some still shots. The Nikon D90 stayed at the hotel for this jaunt. Just too much to carry, considering the climbing I was going to do.

In this video we have just entered into Golconda Fort through the main gate and we are following the pathway through the courtyard headed for the climb to the top of the fort. My friend and colleague Mohan was our guide for the day, but my wife kept worrying about me, so no matter  how many times I said not to keep looking back for me, she kept doing it. Kind of ruins the effect!

Golkonda Fort - Getting Started from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

In this next video you can see the long climb we had to do, and we aren't at the top yet! You can also see more of the fort structures and outer walls. I would like to have spent an entire day there. Next time I will have someone drop me off and pick me up after dark, and most important be there by myself.

Golkonda Fort - The Climb from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

Well, we aren't done yet, but we decided to take a break and enjoy the view from half way up. As you can see the city has crept up right to the fort walls edge. To take the video and pictures at Golconda Fort you have to pay an extra admission fee. Well worth the small price.

Golkonda Fort - Continuing The Climb from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

We had just started to climb the stairs and trails again when we arrived at the Sri Jagadamba Mahakali Temple. Geeta went into the temple while I took a few videos of the temple and surrounding area. The Hyderabad Bonalu folk festival begins here at the Mahakali Temple inside the fort. On the festival day, women ware silk sarees and jewellery, and some of the women carry pots filled with flowers on their heads. This is done in a procession.

Golkonda Fort - Mahakali Temple from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

If you found this post enjoyable look for part 2 soon. The view from the top of the fort is spectacular, and as you can see it is a play ground for a photographer. The fort and surrounding area is rich with history. You could do an entire photo shoot on just one section of the fort. If on the other hand pictures really aren't your bag but you love travel, then I highly recommend Hyderabad. Everyday is an adventure with thousands of things to see. You will be in an area of the world where it's people, traditions and religion date back thousands of years.

 

Lunch at Gervasi Vineyard and the Sony DSC-H70

In the summer when the weather is nice my wife and I like to go to a restaurant and sit outside for lunch or dinner and enjoy our meal. Unfortunately that typically means looking out over a parking lot as cars drive by. Not so at our local winery, Gervasi Vineyard. For the past 2 years we have been able to relax near the lake, enjoy our meal and never once see a car drive by.  It also gives me an opportunity to take a few pictures and post them to my photo site, and send some to Facebook from my iPhone (hey, this site is about photography). I recently bought my wife a Sony DSC-H70 camera and decided to give it a try after lunch. It replaced her Kodak Z1485IS and I wanted to see what it could do. Right off the bat I noticed that the colors of the Sony seemed to be a little more true to life and the amount of color noise in the pictures was significantly less. Of course low light pictures and small cameras just don't get along so don't expect miracles. I also liked that the LCD was bright and easier to see than the LCD on the Kodak. I am not going to bother with all of the camera specs, you can find that elsewhere on the net.

So, let's take a look at a few pictures from the Sony DSC-H70 all shot in the 16:9 aspect ratio.

The picture above was taken at ISO 80, focal length 4.25mm, f/8 at 1/200 second. Notice the distortion on the 2 structures at the bottom of the picture. Both structures are leaning toward the center of the picture.

The picture above was taken at ISO 80, focal length 4.25mm, f/8 at 1/125 second.

 The camera also has built in skin smoothing which I was curious to try. I have to say that it can do a very good job with excellent results on both light and dark skin. However, like most technologies randomly applied, it can also give some very plastic looking results. Our friend took this picture of my wife and I, it is a little soft on focus, but skin smoothing has been applied to both of us by the camera. Judge for yourself if you like it.

The picture above was taken at ISO 80, focal length 10.09mm, f/4.5 at 1/60 second with flash. I adjusted the contrast of the picture, because it was a little washed out from the flash.

The camera also has a panorama feature that I tried out. You push the shutter button once, and then you move the camera from left to right and the H70 does the rest. To use it properly you have to get the timing down a bit, as to how fast you move the camera from left to right. My first couple of pics ended before the far most right pictures were captured. For those pictures I just cropped out the blank area on the right and made a smaller panorama.

Here is an example of a full panorama picture the Sony DSC-H70 can capture.

The picture above was taken at ISO 250, focal length 4.25mm, f/8 at 1/160 second.

Overall I like the camera, but I always end up comparing everything to my Nikon D90, and so I am always hoping for more in a small camera. Lets hope all manufactures stop with the megapixels and concentrate on better lenses!

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ScanCafe: Give it a try!

I have done a lot of picture scanning over the years and for the most part I am happy with what I have done. I do make a few adjustments while scanning, trying to get a better scan, but that doesn't make me an expert. Most of the pictures I have scanned were from the 1930's through the 1960's. They were are all in family albums, and most were black and white. Scanning them required taking the albums apart. However, when it comes to my 35mm pictures I have the negatives and slides available, which make for better results. Fantastic, except for the fact that this can take a lot of time and money to get a decent result. After scanning you will probably still want to process them through your favorite editing application, but that is optional of course. I prefer Lightroom and Photoshop. Then key wording, captions and posting to my website are the final steps. So the time invested adds up very quickly. Working with the RAW,  jpg or tiff pictures for publication to my site is where I want to invest my time. If I could find someone that did a decent job scanning my pictures and then I worked with them after that point, that would be perfect for me.

Based on the above a friend and I decided to send some slides to ScanCafe and see what they could do.  I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about shipping costs or wait time. That is posted on their site and has been commented on by a few people. I read all of the ScanCafe site very carefully and read a couple of reviews. I was not surprised or shocked by anything that occurred, and I didn't go bouncing off the walls with wild speculation waiting on the delivery of my photos and DVD. The slides and a few prints were processed and returned in less than 2 months. In total we sent just under 600 slides and prints. It was their $130 plus S&H box that they provided to ship everything in. We bundled the slides into groups of 50 and numbered them. When they were returned they were still  in the bundles of 50 that we had sent, and all fit onto a single DVD. Each numbered bundle was on the DVD under a directory with the same bundle number. That made it very easy to identify each bundle and what it contained. I did not see anything that was damaged and the scans were well done. The 4x6 paper prints looked about what I typically can achieve and unless I had a lot of prints with no negatives, I wouldn't have any prints scanned. A few slides had some scratches and dust that had not been removed, but most were in good enough shape that not much repair work was required in my editing apps.

Some people will probably be concerned about their photos, negatives and/or slides being sent to India, but regardless of where your photos are sent, there is always a chance of them being lost or destroyed. Even if they never leave your house there is a chance of them being lost forever. A real world example dates back to the 70's when my friend worked for a well known department store. A courier would drive to each store and pickup the film that had been dropped off for processing. One day the courier accidentally left a bag of film in a restaurant and it was mistaken for a bag of trash and was thrown into a dumpster. It was never recovered. My friend was instructed to tell the customers that their film and the courier had been killed in a fiery car crash to keep their customers from pursuing the matter further. It actually worked. So there are no guarantees with anything you do.

Seeing is believing and so here are some examples of slide conversions done for me by ScanCafe. The photographs of the bridge were taken on the July 4th weekend in 1977. The trio is a lounge band called "Something Different" and was photographed around the same time period. They were filmed in the basement of my friends house and the yellow cast is how the slides looked back then. All were stored in plastic cases that were provided by the processing lab.

Most of the digital versions of my slides were color balanced properly, had low noise and minor spots and marks on them. Next time I will try out there pro services to see how they compare to the standard service. ScanCafe offers a great value when it comes to digital transfer of slide film. Next up will be some negatives as well. Give them a try and be patient. It takes a few weeks to get your photos back.