Road to know (where?)

I would give you a decent prize (post card of one of my pictures) as a prize for being able to figure out what road it is, but i don't feel like it. In the future I may do that....I DO have a postcard that i purchased with the leftover balance from a debit card that i used to purchase another year of flickr with (stupid expiration date; could have gotten two years if I knew about it).

But really, if you do a little research this road shouldn't be hard to name.

Well...let's see...

A) leaving for a summer photography camp on sunday! It's a 4 week program (yuck, school in the summer?...) but it will be nice. I'll bring the laptop around, but I'm not sure what my flickr activity will be like while I am there. I may be active on other peoples streams (commenting and what not) but i am unsure how many photos i will be uploading to my account. I will be living on campus so I wont be near my usual backyard suspects or really anything I know well. Well, let's see how that all goes.

B) S.F giants= team's looking good, horrible loss to the A's today however.

C) I'm happy my crab picture I uploaded a few days ago was popular (got to like 224 on explore which isn't a good measure of "goodness" but it is a good measure of how popular the photo was.) Well, maybe one of these days I can get a really "popular" photo taken.

D) hint on picture location= think Maui.

Oh and the post card...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ascirc/3190138846/

That's the photo it is of. I will do a 'studio' shoot of it one of these days when I have good lighting and a bored state of mind. It's a five dollar post card (ok, GREETING card as the website said) and it's printed on EXTREMELY fancy paper. Only downside is the ':(' on the back, which looks like a frowny face (it is) but it was just the title of the picture.

But like i said before, I may give it away as a prize....It came with an envelope and i'll probably just buy a stamp and then send it to someone as a prize for some contest....i'm really not sure what for.

Next photo project= edit my waterfall pics!

My photo terms

While it's on my head...i'll make a list of photo terms that I use myself and that i've created.

• "Reverse Digital Zoom"= interpolarization (In my mind it's reversed because you get the same effect as digital zoom without zooming. Your head is hurting now.) It's also been called " Inter-modual-sensitivy-polarity-polation" before.

• "HCR"= High Color Range. In RAW, two photos are edited with different white balance settings, then they are mixed like a selective hdr would (like in the case of a fake ND graduated filter)

• "Qual-check"= I don't use this term much, but it's basically a folder on the computer that I store images that have been deemed "ok but need editing".

• "j-pegage", "jpegage", or "jpegging" (as in, to jpeg a picture). J-peggage is the negatve and obvious downsides you see in photos that are saved in J-peg file formats, and are usually compressed to the point where you see little dots where dots should not be. Try zooming in (you can do this on fire fox or internet explorer) on a small photo on google images. Soon that picture of a sleeping cat looks like...say, what is that? I usually use it to describe a photo i intentially "j-pegged" for security reasons, or I'll just use it because it sounds cool. It can also be used to describe non-RAW noise reduction.

• "keep or kill" (not used often) Keep or kill is a game i play to determine what photos go in portfolio. You go through it and either say keep or kill (or maybe) with a post it note. "keeper" also works for naming photos.

• "Campagins"- used in the same way as an army battle would be. I usually use it to reference a vacation, and in particular summer vacations. On flickr photo descriptions (future blogs?...) i will usually reminence on past summer vacations and my photos as if there were past battles fought in a war. Even if i don't specifically call it a campaign, it's usally told with the point of view of something of that significance.
• "CPOS" I hardly say it that way, because it's an offensive comment. I'll say it to my own photos some times, but CPOS is just short for "centered piece of ****".
  
• "Questionable editing"- usually what i say when I edit something beyond what looks natural or what could appear natural.
• "Disney land color"- usually not said in that phrase, but it can be used in that context. It's basically the same as saying a "crayon explosion" or something like that...basically describes super saturated photos.
• "(number) deadly sin" (must go beyond 7). Whenever I say something is a deadly sin and it is above the number 7, i usually am referencing something that is cliche or kitsh in the photography world. Like...oh, this photo has commited the 54th deadly sin= shooting wide open and isolating a blade of dead grass and making it slightly desaturated. And yes, this is more towards the insulting side.
• "Macro curse"= it basically means you get addicted to macro for an entire trip out, or for a period of time. You find that nothing outside of your macro focus is deemed ok. It just one of those phases.
• "Sunset Rule"= this is my own rule for photography. It states that when photographing a sunset, you can't simply take a picture of it. The sunset is a background, not a foreground (unless you know what your doing.) At most, it is an extremely glorified background, and should be though of as such. Too many stale sunset go around- while amazing, they need substance. That's where the other object/subject comes into play.
  

Yeah.

32MB of PURE AWESOMENESS.

Ok, so you may be wondering about this picture. It's not 32MB of write speed it's...well..32MB's of storage. Here's the deal= I started out with a 2GB card...works fine. Great, even. With RAW I get around 200 photos, with large J-peg I get around 500. With the 4 gb...well, it's 2x so you can do the math. I bought the extra card (the 4gb) because I wanted to make sure that I always had room to shoot just in case something happened like I lost a card (I'm usually good about the number of pics I take...If I'm outside I never fill the memory card).

This weekend posed a problem (last weekend that is..) I was going to spend the weekend doing this= spend time with Dad, and take pictures. I spent the later half of saturday scouting the ocean and beach for a good area to do sunset photography. I finally found a place around 7:30, and had to run home to eat dinner and get my camera ready (sunset was to be around 8:30). My dad said he would drive me over...but...when i got my camera ready I realized I didn't have my memory cards! I had left them somewhere else (friend's house) and didn't have time to get them. So I told my dad there was no need to rush out and catch the sunset, as he tried to find some solution to my problem.

Then it hit me. My dad, a few months back, had brought an old, old, old digital camera from work that was no longer in use. Inside was a state of the art 32mb compact flash card (from the 90's or something), so i hijacked the card and went outside to catch the last bit of sunset colors. With RAW I could only get 2 shots off, and with j-peg I could get around 12.

Well, this 32mb card has a little piece of real estate in my heart now...i'll probably keep it somehwere in my bag and KEEP IT THERE jusssstt in case.

p.s= the write speed on these things is slooowww.

AP TESTS

gnnnn....

do not want to take those things.

But after that, the year finally takes a downhill..uh..path. It'll be easier. :)

First step

I think I should have changed the f/stop a tad/ It was a "in the moment" picture though. Well, ok, I admit that only applies to moving or changing objects, not static ones.

Well anyways, I kind of like the editing on this/kinda dont. It basically has this slight red overcast to it, that's suppose to make it feel vintage and all. I'm not a huge fan of this style, but I do realize that now that I am not shooting as many living things, I can't really go "all natural" if you know what I mean.

Also, I admit the framing is kind of poor, but I will work on it.

As far as the picture goes, I'm trying to learn how to play it. I don't see myself really doing anything with it (bands or stuff like that) but it is really just something I can use when I don't feel like taking pictures, or stuff like that.

There are going to be lots of other cool shots coming, I can feel it.

-KD

Style project

Over the next few months, until the school year is over, I will be doing a variation of a 365 or a 52 weeks. Instead, i will simply change my photography style...why? It is my way of branching out, i suppose.

More in the description here= http://www.flickr.com/photos/ascirc/3249754164/

help!

For blogger.com...

how do I get it so that when I type a lot of stuff, the blog entries will only appear to have a few words.. like it will have the first paragraph of stuff then have a "..." at the end, and when clicked on you can read the entire thing.

How? Please help@!

oh yeah...

i need to learn how to use this whole blogging thing too.. :)

http://flickr.com/photos/ascirc/

(shhh!)

Well, it's the first friday after coming back to school....hm...

In baseball some players are marked "second half" players because they perform better, statistically, after the 1/2 mark of the baseball year (all star break/game.) I'm not sure if that really applies to myself as far as school goes. I kinda tend to fade during the second semester...I'm not sure why. I suppose it's because everything feels like it is downhill from here. Well, luckily I was able to get some good grades this past semester (sorry, I wont share them) but that only means that the "standard" has been set pretty high. Let's just say that if I want to improve this semester, I'll need to get straight A's...hmmph.

Well anyways, this semester looks pretty difficult as far as school work goes. Not a good sign, because other things like track and final projects will be going on. There are a tonnn of stupid projects I have to do for some of my classes. Lots of work ahead...

So this photo. I hope you can see my little secret...I'll admit I edited rather quickly. Can you notice it? (but don't point it out!!!)

Oh yeah, I've also realized that I wont get as many google hits now that I do blog-flickr comments. You see, before I wrote so much diverse stuff on photos that if one types in "how to finish homework" on google you will get one of my photos. It's kinda cool to see what google searches turn into hits for my photos.

Well, the only one I don't like is that I get lots of "blow job" hits from flickr....oh well.

My Gosh, She Has A Macro Lens!!!

Back at the Academy of Science in San Francisco. Despite not having a lot of stuff, it's still quite an amazing place to shoot if you have the right equipment.

IF you have it.

I feel sorry for the point and shoot users who can't get an exposure in the aquatic areas. Ah, what a shame. I was in that position once- with the E900 at the "max" settings, exposure was still hard.

Problem? Most people don't put their P+S in manual mode (Unless your really into photography.) So, therefore, they resort to the flash, which hurts the animals.

I also found that in general, photography was rather difficult there. In the "amazon room" where there was a collection of free flying butterflies and birds, they were usually pretty far away, except for a few "feeding areas" where they would go. I did not see many telephoto lenses either, and I know that at 200mm it was still quite short. In reality, 400mm would have been great but...well, who brings a 400mm lens to a place like that?

And there are the "caged" animals (plastic boxes or nets). That may be the only time the P+S may shine- but still, a good macro lens makes a huge difference. This photo is quite sharp.

I think they need to add some more birds and butterflies to the exhibit- that would be awesome. In a similar place in Canada, they had some amazing birds there (here they were these kinda small-ish finch looking birds) and also things like turtles, and other mammals like some monkeys, a sloth..etc. Well, still a fun place, and it's not too far away.


And more on the photo:

Not much editing done actually! I noticed the fella was under a spotlight so I just framed it in such a way that the background was mostly dark. Meter away at the top of the head, and the effect is done.

I could have pushed this picture to the max and done a super-HDR type of thing, but I decided to leave it be. No reason in making it look too unnatural.

As always, there is a lot of editing to be done to perfect the image. Namely brightening the areas around the eyes as the shadows there are killer.

-indeed, a flash would have helped...

Well, if it means not hurting the animals I am down with that.

Today:

Lots of work to do :( Homework over the winter break...horrible! Well, it is raining outside and my family is pretty much going to stay inside for the day, so I can;t really venture out or anything. Well, I could, but I would get yelled at for not doing homework ;)

Hah!

I just realized I can change my blog name any time. Sweet! Time for a new name for 2009. No more 5 am blogs...

Etceteration Federation. I've had that name in my head for a long time. And "blue ivy" but that's for the band name that lives in my head.

well, maybe I shouldn't use that as my blog title. Well, sure, why not. I can change it later..

New year!

Jan 1st is my flickr birthday. It's been one year.

One of my resolutions is to use this blog more! I will officially start using it this year. Yay! It will include my photo descriptions and other such things. Sweet!

Oh...

and the title of my blog...

I don't think I'll be waking up at 5 am like I use to this school semester. Oh well, the name is still nice.

-just don't expect a lot of 5 am posts, ok?

:)

-KD