Photography sites worth a look
www.luminous-landscape.com
www.photo.net
www.dpreview.com
www.earthboundlight.com
www.acecam.com
www.doubleexposure.com
www.fredmiranda.com
www.PhotoFriday.com/calibrate.php ~ monitor calibration
www.photonotes.org
www.johnpaulcaponigro.com
www.takegreatpictures.com
www.photoimaging.com.au
What are our rights?
I’ve been watching the developments and doing a little reading of my own around this topic. I must admit I haven’t kept up-to-date on the laws that threaten our hobby/profession but I’ve been surfing the web looking to change that.
I won’t duplicate the information here, but rather link to it. I’m also not an expert in legal matters by any stretch of the imagination.
As photographers, we should be informed on what the law says we can and can’t do. Not so we can run rough-shod over everyone, but so we can debate intelligently and in an informed manner should we ever be confronted by someone who has decided to take exception to us taking photographs of something/someone.
I think it always a good policy to ask for permission first. If confronted, be polite and if there is any doubt, put the camera away and leave. I doubt anyone wants that burly security guard confiscating our equipment and perhaps damaging it, even if we are perfectly within our rights to be there. That would be more hassle than it’s worth--as far as I can tell.
Here is some excellent information:
http://www.4020.net/words/photorights.php
http://www.artslaw.com.au/legalinformation/StreetPhotographersRights.asp
http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Photographers_Rights,_General_Privacy,_and_Copyright_in_Australia
You an also order this book
http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/bookfaq/B120faq.htm
If you have any other information that may be useful, let me know and I’ll link to it here.
Motorcycle ride to Longreach
Photos can be found here.
My blog of the trip can be found here.
I took my entire photographic kit as a test. I now know exactly what not to take in the future. I have decided to make up a separate camera kit just for the bike as a lot of wear and tear was sustained by my DSLR’s.
Colour profiles for photoshop on a MAC
HD > Library > ColorSync > Profiles
Incidentally the canvas printing company I’m about to try out is called Genius Printing. I’ll get a print done and report back.
Linux and Photography
I’ve been checking and watching the Linux world from time-to-time to see how photographers are faring with this OS. The one thing I found in the past that was a real bug-bear was colour management in Linux. It was one of the reasons I went to OS X over Linux 12 months ago. The other being no photoshop for linux. (Yes there is The Gimp but...)
I have a ColorVision Spyder II that I use on my MacBook for colour management and it does a rather good job. Today I decided to do a search to see if there had been any developments.
I came across this site:
http://jcornuz.wordpress.com
This site is full of excellent information on how to get your Linux machines up to scratch with colour managment, along with lots of other usefull information.
Joel Cornuz has done an excellent job putting it all together.
Happy Australia Day 2008
Canon 5D
I have only taken a few 10's of photos with the new tool, but will be posting more as I get them on my gallery site.
Exposure with my 550EX is superb as is the ISO performance. I have yet to test all my lenses and am hoping that because most of them are "L" class, they will still perform as well as they did on the 10D.
More news on the 5D as it comes to hand.
Scooting through the dust
I've had my new bike now for about 4
months and the only dirt its seen is the 1km I have
on my way to and from work. So I decided to check out
a back track that I hadn't been on for a number of
years and then only once. The two wheel track runs
over Mt. Buggery out the back of Borumba Dam via
Bella Creek Road and takes you the back way to Land
Cruiser Park and the Jimna forestry. There is a
reason the mountain is called Buggery... Now my
little scooter is not a trail bike. It's a DL 650
which is part road bike and part tourer. A trail bike
it is not. This became rather obvious once I left the
tar. Two things immediately came home to me, 1. the
bike is front heavy and 2. the tyres are for the
road.. slicks and useless on sandy gravel. However,
not one to let a challenge go um.. unchallenged,
rocks pinging off the oil filter I charged forth.
The final approach to the summit of Mt Buggery is
rather steep, so much so I was rather concerned as I
came upon it. But being far to late to turn around I
stamped down to 2nd and wristed it. Rear wheel
spinning and front wheel skating over the road like
it was ice I arrived at the top of the goat track
with heart pounding. Suddenly out of the corner of my
eye I spied a weedy sapling that was in dire need of
some hydration so I came to a halt in a cloud of
dust, marched off into the scrub and rendered
assistance. Feeling rather like a super hero I
climbed back aboard my steed and carried on. 1hr and
10mins later I arrived at the entrance to Land
Cruiser Park. Piece of cake.
Decision time, take the left and go to Jimna/Kilcoy
or take the right and head into the unknown. I chose
unknown and 15 mins later realised I was low on fuel,
Doh!
Just when I thought I'd be spending the last hours of
my life stranded miles from anywhere I found a road
sign. It was in english, so I was still in Australia.
It said Kandanga (get down and say praise the Lord).
Thinking I was home and hosed I headed off down this
yellow brick road to civilisation, visor up, bugs
ricocheting off my teeth.
New sign.
Permit required.
Large fines.
Cursing, I pulled up to check out the largest carpet
snake (carpet python for the city slickers) I had
seen in quite some time. Easily 8 feet long and as
thick as my calf through the middle. As I watched the
critter search for a warm place in the sun, along
came the park Ranger in his Land Cruiser. He nearly
ran over the snake as he considered if I had broken
down and how best to render assistance. Some skillful
braking, sliding, spinning and sphincter clenching
brought him past the snake and up beside me. Moments
later, he's telling me that the road I was heading
down was much better than the one I had taken over
Mt. Buggery and to disregard the permit signs.
With a sigh of relief and waving thanks, I headed off
with visions of paved freeways racing through my
head.
5 minutes later I almost came back to earth with a
large thud. What followed was an hour of white
knuckle riding that saw me almost on the bike the
whole way. Never in my life have I been so close to
falling off for such an extended period of time.
Sheer drops off the road, near vertical sections of
rocky switch backs. The Ranger said the views were
spectacular. I didn't notice. With the words of Banjo
Patterson's Man from Snowy River running through my
head I landed at the bottom of that 'Terrible
Descent' and just shy of kissing the ground I
dismounted.
After a few deep breaths and couple of moments
counting my blessings we headed home, along paved
road. My trusty steed, pluck undaunted, courage firey
hot, snuffed the battle with delight and thought
nothing of the ordeal. It's rider on the other hand,
will not be riding that road again.
I can laugh about it now, safely home, bike in the
shed nibbling some well earned hay.
No. I didn't take a camera. More fool me. I'll be
turning left next time.
RapidWeaver 3.6.2 released
A Starving Photographer
Mahesh Thapa is the Starving Photographer. His website is one of those where you'll lose hours in if you're not careful. His images are extremely well crafted and the colours positively jump off the screen at you. If you have taken the time to calibrate your monitor you'll be even more impressed.
His photography is the only reason I want to visit the United States (sorry to any Americans reading this), and wander through their National Parks.
I recommend you take a stroll through his images, I especially enjoy the Yellowstone and Grand Tetons gallery. Keep a look out for "Tree Bottoms" and "Teton Fall Puddle".
Mahesh sells his work and it is printed on archival paper with archival inks, expected to last over 90 years. The refund policy states that if the print fades during your lifetime it will be replaced free of charge! ..gotta love that.
After you've seen the quality of his work, you'll want to live for at least 120 years just so you can get a 2nd print for nix.
Check out his work at www.starvingphotographer.com