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32. Monday 27th June 2011
This project is semi-annoying as it means that I have to actually go and seek out people to take pictures of. Which means passenger areas, and annoying uniform changes.
Luckily, I had other options. This is taken from the funnel/ roof of deck 16, looking down on the sports deck.
Giant chess sets have a special place in my heart, after many hours spent playing in Gran Canaria. This wasn't a proper game I don't think, but it looked a little like a father-son lesson in tactics.
Today, I traced the air start system. It was actually surprisingly fun. Probably because it didn't involve crawling. We were in Ketchikan today but I was so tired that I didn't even bother attempting to go ashore.
Late one night a friend decided they wanted to know how I transform my pictures into custom art creations, like the ones posted in my mental leakage set. The idea was to watch me work through one from start to finish and learn enough to create their own. (it happens every few months, I gave up trying to talk people out of it a long time ago....)
I took a deep mental breath and started playing around while trying to talk them through what I was doing. Where we ran into problems (as almost always happens) was when I could tell them what I was doing, but not why. When I am free-flow playing I tend to go from step to step on instinct and curiosity. I will keep building layers, turning them on/off, rearranging the stacking order, changing opacity, etc etc as my mind wanders. I just go with the flow, rarely do I ever start with an idea and end with that product, it always evolves and changes as I go along.
This time they hung in til the end with me (instead of giving up from overload part way through), and want to do it again. They decided to get a copy of photoshop and play around a bit for a while, then once they understand more of the basics come back for more. That's fine, I'm game whenever they're ready.... I'll use the time as a lesson in patience for me. Lord knows I could use more patience... :)
slow shutter......
well, i tried, but i screwed :)
i wish i could blame it on the super-slow traffic of oxford, but .....
naaah, that wudnt be fair i guess :D
Ok, here's a panorama that I shot that did not turn out as I planned. It does show the awesomeness of the storm. But....
I learned the hard way to not use a circular polarizer when taking a panorama. I was using it to get more contrast between the clouds and the blue sky, but where the edges blend it creates those dark ares.
This is three shots, thus the two dark areas. I've been trying in vain for three hours to fix it. I give up.
Plus I chopped the top of the clouds off. I have enough trouble with one shot sometimes, much less three put together.
HP 800 B&W high key edit.
Marie from our 2025 shooting - here on the bed captured with the Leica Q3 28mm
I believe I used pencils 8B, 6B, 2B and HB. This took about 40 minutes. I also completely forgot that I didn't have to shade it. xD
Printer paper, HB, 2B, 5B pencils
I realise I messed up in a few places, such as the cat's chin. It was to fat at first, and when I tried to make it skinnier, I left the original lines because they were too dark and I didn't want to ruin my eraser... Shame on me I suppose. :P
The eyes are too big, as well, I think. I need to work on drawing more realistically, I know that much.
Any other critical comments help and are appreciated. :)
When in wildlife territory always have your tele lens on the camera, landscapes give you time to change lenses, bears don't. This is OK, but if I was ready I could get a dream shot of this bear.
I took this a couple weeks ago but thought I would share while I am looking for more victims to shoot!!
Tree Climbing Lesson. Yosemite National Park, California. June 7, 2009. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
Two black bear cub and their mother climb trees in Yosemite National Park, California.
I was very fortunate to be able to watch this bear family a couple of years ago - and to have a long enough lens to do so without intruding on them. The mother bear seemed to be alternately letting the "kids" play around and do whatever they felt like, and then offering them "climbing lessons" on some of the trees. The cub with black fur seemed the most comfortable at this, quickly scrambling straight up the trunks to surprising heights, moving with agility that reminded me of monkeys. The brown-fur sibling seemed a bit more cautious and "mama" seemed to have to offer a bit of encouragement and support, much as a human parent might do. Her actions at this point reminded me of my own experience with my kids the first time they climbed something (that seemed to them to be) dangerous - I followed close behind with my "front paws" around them, ready to catch if necessary.
While the brown cub initially hesitated quite a bit, before long it also took off and quickly ascended way up in the tree, and before long the whole family was 20 or more feet off the ground.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
From 'Dark lessons' series. See more pictures from the series here: www.flickr.com/photos/125042204@N05/albums/72157664129080006
This was a shoot from my first air show put on by the Navy Blue Angels. A fantastic show. These planes (for the show) are flying at speeds ranging from 150-450 mph, so high shutter speed is important to get sharp images and is not really difficult to achieve on sunny days like this one. The Blue Angels have a predetermined spot at which they perform some of their maneuvers like this one in which they pass by one another at a very close distance (remarkable) so here, shutter speed, aperture, steady camera and knowing that sweet spot where they pass is important to get sharp images. Here, I didn't know where that center point was so I panned with the number six plane and shot at 5 frames a second hoping to get the image I got, but because of my panning the number five plane became blurred (traveling the opposite direction of the pan). The show was wonderful and I learned a lot.
This image was shot with a 70-200VR lens at 5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/2500 sec.
Momotus lessonii lessonii
Birding Paradise, Paraíso, Chiriquí, Panama.
What was formerly called Blue-crowned Motmot is now six species. Lesson's is found from southern Mexico to western Panama.
416A_0258
Was given a lesson today about camera care.
Rushing to get a few shots in before the tide finally receded too far to be of any use, I placed my tripod down, loaded the camera and was just grabbing my filters when the wind made the most of me not taking greater care in placing the tripod. I had to watch on helplessly as it launched forward, my lens heading first into the sand. Several curse words later I inspected the damage and it didn't occur to me immediately that the large scratch the fall had created was actually on the UV filter not the lens itself. A few people told me early on to fit a UV filter to protect the lens - I'm thankful for that advice.
As it happens by the time I'd recovered my composure what tide there was had left the subjects I hoped to photograph. So as not to feel a total waste I moved back to the car and took this, partly as a reminder that I need to go back and visit. I really like this as a subject and unusually I've decided to retain the colour. I've also had a go at merging two exposures to recover some of the details on the post.
Definitely a place I'll revisit - with a bit more care.
The second lesson was to adjust the levels on an image (I didn't know how to do this!!) and to add text, changing the opacity and type of layer. Kim Klassen also asked us to work on a light image and a dark image. Here's my lighter one, complete with a rainbow from the other night! (And also with textures from Distressed Jewell/Cheryl Tarrant and Kim Klassen.)