Digital Photography, a short rant..

My biggest concern is this area is that a number of people seem to feel that they have to tweak a photo by applying what seems like all the features of their photoshop equivelent and turn what may have been an average picture to something that just doesnt look natural..

Its very much personal taste, and sure, I think there are some awsome pictures made by tweaking maybe an average photo and making it awsome, but in the wrong hands (perhaps such as mine) but Ive seen so many pictures turn into down right ugly, or they got highlighted, shadowed, sharpened, bits added, taken away, to the point that so little of the picture seems in there now..

For example this (work safe) takes an average photo to a striking picture, but, its just not a photo to me any more..

Also, another example here (also work safe) this site doesnt seem to really have anything that looks remotely real on it.. Im not saying its not awsome what hes done, but, to me, thats too much..

IMHO..

If you took a poor shot, keep it to yourself, dont try and photoshop it to within a pixel of death and pass it off as "art".. please, learn to take a better photo.. Make the most of your scene with the camera, dont use photoshop to make up for the fact you didnt bother to start with..

Sure, many of my pictures wont be winning photo of the year 2008, but, I can at least sit here and know that I took them with my camera, not made them up.

On the left is a link to some recent photos, keep an eye out, or go visit other online photos I have there, you're always welcome to drop me your thoughts on some of my photos (and yes, some are kinda ugly I know that)

All gone green..

So, after many months of swear, tears and a couple of bits of blood..

I finally got my green belt yesterday, I get the impression the regional guy was not happy to do it, but, kinda didnt have any real reason he could give to stop me. So, finally, my green belt.. RAR! I worked my feet off, I lost blood and feeling in one foot and had extreeme pain in the other.. I sweated like a man in a forge.. it was not a great grading I felt terrible, I was tired, drawn out and there were only 14 of us, not the 100+ that there had been at my last grading, so, I felt rather on show..

My friend who made the orangey/pink and red blanket for? got her blanket today in the post, and is dead happy, which is excellent news..

Its my mothers 61st birthday (assuming shes still alive somewhere)

My Dad phoned he has a new furry friend..



As you can see, shes a big ball of black fluffy fur, shes 11 months old, and called Rosie! Currently weighing in at a monsterous 33kg, so, shes only going to get bigger!!!

More photos...

So.. the photos continue..

Saturday saw Charlie and the revenge of the pink flower.

Today saw me back up the hill but the other side.




Theres plenty more :P

A bit long winded.. but.

So, after going on holiday, and cursing my camera for its pathetic battery life.. I took the decision to get a new one.

For most people this would be a simple task. Price vs use is usually a good decision point, features, too..

I ended up with an odd decision.

A canon EOS 400D or, a Fuji FinePix S9600.

The later is a newer version of what I had, the EOS is really semi professional...

For every good point a camera had, it had a down point, and both ended up in my eyes, equally balanced..

Having had a great holiday but returning with few usable pictures, I was determind to get the new one soon. I researched, and read, and bored the living snot out of everyone I spoke to.. (They must be so relieved today)..

The sweetest, kindest man, one of whom listened to my tale of turmoil over the cameras, turned out to be a camera man too.. He had in fact only very recently bought himself a new camera.. A Canon EOS 400D.. This amazing person turned round and offered to let me borrow his for 5 days, in fact till next monday if I wanted.

I got home, I played. A lot of what I produced was blurry.. (Ive since found out why.. I had asked it to create the greatest depth of field, pretty much at all cost, as a result it often picked the background as its starting point, or, the shutter speed was so slow anything including wind, made something move, or I breathed etc.)

But, my decision became clear, it had the most potential.

So, I ordered it on the "GIVE ME IT NOW" option on amazon - not the cheapest, but arguably more reputable than a number of Ebay sellers.. and the tomorrow option even if it was 5.30pm seemed good.

Today came, the call arrived.. It had come.. My kind hubby placed it on charge so when I got to it I could play..

As if in celebration, the sun came out.. I attach 2 photos I took today. I have shrunk them, but in no other way did I alter the picture.



Oh, Ive taken 70 photos so far, so with flash some without, and the battery hasnt even shown signs of not being full yet.. My last camera was doing about 8.....