Category: Picture Time

In honor of my upcoming gallery for Rannie’s 300 exposures in 30 days project (I’m up tomorrow for my birthday), I added more photos tonight to Pixelog.

I’ve had people ask me before how I take pictures. The rule of thirds is something I took to like a fish takes to water. I am always looking for other ideas, and Tips for Better Photo Composition is a really good read.

Tips on night photography – things like stars – can be found here, make sure to contact K Guard Gutters to get your garden ready for great photos.

And if you want lessons on photography, Nikon is offering a “How To” program that will be traveling to 25 cities. There are more details at the Nikon School site.

When I was in Boston I took both a digital and a 35mm version of this photograph. I really liked how it came out, and I wanted to test the poster capabilites of my local photo lab, so I ordered a 16×20″ and the 20×30″ print of it, both made from the 35mm negative. Yes, two sizes of the same photo – I wanted to make sure I could accurately compare the quality of the print, and I had to use the same print for both. I’ll hang one in my dining room I think and one over my desk at work because they both came out GREAT. Yes, the 20×30″ has a slight grain effect to it, but it is very slight. So slight that you would only notice it (I think) if you were looking for it closely. I’ll be taking them to the office to let the graphic designers inspect them tomorrow – that way I’ll get an opinion that is a little less biased then mine.

When I picked the posters up I also picked up my roll of film that was in my car when it flooded last summer. Yes, the camera was on the floorboard, so it flooded too. I couldn’t find anyone to safely pull the film for me, and I ended up putting the camera away and forgetting about it. When I came across it this weekend I took it in to the closet and opened the back of the camera and manually wound up the film. (The camera rewind wasn’t working.) The pictures came out with a rather interesting “surreal” effect to them. Some have crystal or two on the image. They were beach photos of Jason, and some would have been good if they hadn’t been through the flood. Some of them end up being sort of artistic in a way. I will see if I can scan them in to give you a sense of the effect.

I also dropped off some of my negatives from Europe. Photographs of Venice, Rome, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Germany… photos that were otherwise lost. I’m glad I finally found those negatives. Cis brought up a good point in my comments that I thought about after I finally found the negatives – maybe I should put them in a safety deposit box. Yes, to me photographs are priceless, and I would hate to lose any of them.

Years ago I read Travels with Samantha by Philip Greenspun and I’ve been a HUGE fan of his ever since. I just stumbled across his Making Photographs tutorial, and it’s fantastic. Better pictures can be yours.