What makes you happy ?

Gallery finally annoyed me to the point of rm -rf
It’s gone, all trace of it has been removed and it will never ever be back. Nasty horrible stuff. I’m sure some people think it’s wildly intuitive but the wall to my left just couldn’t dent any more. So it’s nuked. And everything – almost – lives on flickr.
It was a very pleasant experience uploading the just over 500 images and organising them. So much so that by the time I needed the 4th set I was really happy to go pro. I’d played with Zooomr last week but the ‘smart sets’ there drove me nuts, as did the individual deleting. The fact that site gives you no clues / help as to a lost password is also astonishingly bad.

All the UPB photos are in a collection, the bodyart ones are there, as are Hotel Orquidea from holiday, some chaoscope images (must do some full size ones). No work ones yet but they are planned as are more of the dog. The photoblog I have will continue because that’s where I’m playing with the photo software more though I need to redo the tags there.

I’m on my way into the city on the bus. Talking to J on the phone, holding pen and holding notebook open for information. Bus hits a bump then stops. A loud thudding, then some rolling noises later a woman at the front of the bus pointed and said “Look at that camera”. I was at the back of the bus and the batteries were in between. This camera has failed to learn to fly and/or learnt to land gracefully before and the batteries always fly out. I managed to get it all back together and did the “No it’s not broken” “No it’s not expensive” “Yes I really must buy a strap..” on the way back to my seat. All very embarrassing.
Took a fair number of photos in town but when I got back none are in focus. They aren’t a messy blur and I’ve taken worse but there is a fuzzy edge.

One pile of parma violets sitting on a post-it. So the macro works. But nothing gets sharp without that. Difficult to tell with ‘inside light’ so tomorrow it’s outside and take heaps. The zoom/un-zoom is working but the AF lock isn’t kicking in. Hopefully nothing is wrong – I thought that if it broke it would just break completely – but I shall discover this in the am.

Been playing with the camera. The Corel XI upgrade I bought from a guy in Italy arrived and as a thank you from Corel they installed some spyware as they installed the software itself. I found this because I happened to check the machine as I do weekly anyway. So thanks to the link above I got rid of the garbage – I did buy the software and I’ll be damned if I’ll be checked each time (WGA is a separate discussion) and screw the EULA. That’s the EULA that does not explain precisely what happens, why it happens and given the response the person above got – none – they don’t seem to hot on actually talking to people. That’s a benefit when you need to install it for a second time of course.

So, been playing with the camera. First stop was RAW. Huge files! I’ve a 1gb and a 2gb card for the camera and wondered how you could fill them given the camera images are usually ~2mb. I took 4 RAW images and they came to over 40mb. Corel XI can’t handle Fuji .raf files though which isn’t so hot. Graphics Converter on the mac can but that’d involve moving the images back and forth so that’s a no. (It’s better on the MBP because it’s the same machine of course). So RAW is a no go and I’d need more techy camera knowledge anyway. jpg it is.

I was playing with ‘fast’ shots but it seems there are 2 elements that slow it down – the ‘mechanical’ movement (as far as it is on a digital camera) and the speed to save to memory. So my efforts haven’t been so good. It’s probably other factors too like lighting, focus – I know it’s the workman’s fault in the main.
The software is pretty good though – it’s amazing just what I’ve been able to do to some images. Mostly flowers of course (I’d love the fox we get to stand still….). And all I have to do now is tag the pictures I now have in Picasa. No time limit there, it’ll take months.

My first challenge submission at http://dpchallenge.com/ is currently scoring 4.8980 after 49 votes. (Max score 10, site ave seems to be about 5.2-5.5) It was around 4.7 before a very nice score was added by a certain gent up north. Thanks!
It’s a strange place is DPC. Part of me really likes it because of the range and artistic skill in the images, and part of me hates it because there is so much image editing that happens. I swear I could take a picture of a black cat in a coalshed at midnight and yet with the wonders of an image changing program turn it into some well lit composition involving humming birds and a setting sun – and still win praise. So it becomes photoshop skill in the main. Which is no bad thing exactly. If that’s what you want.
I might have tried to manipulate the image but I don’t like Gimpshop and on the PC I’m waiting for my Paint Shop Pro upgrades I’m between progs (I know I could get it elsewhere…but this way is legit). I’d not really know how to manipulate the images either but that’s all learning I suppose.
And I can’t show you the image because you need to be registered to see it.
Anyway, go check the site if you like photos / images / photoshop skills.

Photos. Take lots and hope you get a good one. That’s the general philosophy I suppose.
In the electronics shop across from the hotel I happened to remark that a Canon EOS he had was meant to be a nice camera. He sniffed a sale and went on a full charm offensive. His end price – complete with 2gb card, protective lens, case was 500 quid. I declined this marvellous opportunity as I could get it through Amazon much cheaper and with no risk of tax on return to the UK. It got me pondering though.
I have a FinePix s5600 which by most reviews (1 2 3) is pretty good so not only is there no point in me getting another camera, there is also every point in looking more at what I have and how to use it. While I’ll just point’n'shoot most of the time there is no reason why I can’t look at things like white balance, field depth, wide angle stuff, macro images and more of the options in the P A S M buttons. But pressing the button is only one part of the deal isn’t it…

I’m pondering taking a photo, publishing it and all the EXIF data then inviting constructive criticism.

A macro shot could cover lighting, angle of the shot, probably other stuff.
A not-macro one could cover white balance, composition, cropping out a good detail and again other stuff. (See how little I know!)

The aim is to not just take a shot but learn from it. Taking a hundred pictures and hoping to get 1 good one is not a problem, but learning a bit so the chances rise to 2 good ones could be worth it. It would be interesting…. and I’ve already bought a domain so it’d be a shame to waste it :)

Keeping the thing – the photoblog – going would also be easier because of the feedback and the desire to keep experimenting.

I’ll probably set it up over the weekend.