Photography and Music

Canon...ised

At last the digital World has come to help
me improve my photography.

I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel.

The name is a suitable metaphor.

ISO 400 should not be used in Bright Sunlight, if you want a smooth image

I mistakenly uploaded a large version of the runners in the last post.
However, the grainy texture is a useful reminder of how it is best to use
100 or 200 iso on sunny days. I have many grainy photos, having set out
in Stygian gloom only to have the sun burst through the clouds... or "vice versa".

I had anticipated well on that day, as it turned out for the rest of the walk.
We were mostly under tree cover and the film choice was overall the best.

Runners in a Wooded Landscape

We turned up at Avondale in County Wicklow
two weeks ago, on a Sunday, to find that
a cross country event was is full swing.
Sports photography is for those of a less
indolent temperament, I think, but I got some
shots as the runners moved along a well taped
course.

The filter brings out the line of the tape,
negative spacing in the middle makes me feel
a bit bewildered, but that might be in keeping
with the event. The metaphors of sport are
always very obvious.

Also, from what I have read, a fast lens
is a must for lively sport shots.

Mine is a slow lens and in ways the figures
seem a bit frozen on the spot.

The Beautiful... and the Sublime

Edmund Burke's wonderful thoughts on the Sublime and the Beautiful have influenced
aesthetics for the past two hundred years. Proust's description of the optical
illusion of the towers of Martinville reference Burke in many ways.

Photographers carry these received ideas with them wherever they go,
especially when in the countryside.

What makes a pleasing landscape?
Must it carry a sense of foreboding to be truly impressive?
Is it possible to be actually sure what the eye is seeing?
And, if one insists on platonism, what is "reality".

No wonder I left a friend pacing the terrace at Powerscourt
recently as I tried to get The Sugar Loaf Mountain
from the best angle.

Time had stood still.

Travel Photography

I came across a question recently:

"What makes a good travel photo?"

This I cannot answer, as leaving the house
seems to be a venture into a new and complex
World where novelty is everywhere.
Does one "travel" to the shopping centre?

The Travel Photography genre has a long
and complex history.
Dramatic landscapes
seem to be part of the package.

I feel that recent photos taken in
County Wicklow fit in nicely,
if that is so.

Through a Glass Brightly

Saint Paul, who often blighted my childhood thoughts with his gloomy ideas and whose prescription for female attire led to keeping the post WW2 economy in Europe afloat as millinars plied their trade, would love my new monitor. I may have spent an anxious few days while dealing with indigo becoming purple in the new srgb light, but this has been overcome.

And Saint Paul will probably forgive any unintended slight on his trojan efforts around the Med. No more tinkling cymbals (or dodgy pixels) for me.

J'aime.

(In fact, cymbals should clash, but I thought tinkling sounded better. I wonder what the original Greek is.)

Photography and Drawing

This outline of a horse's head, made with a graphics filter,

is a reminder of how useful
photography is to those of us
who do not enjoy drawing with
a pencil or pen.

Runners in the Woodlands

The Canon Digital Photo Professional histogram system helps
to make photos a bit more vivid.

The Society of Ducks

Fools Rush In

Being the very first to rush in to congratulate
Donncha of Inphotos on reaching Number 1 on
the Technorati blog list for Ireland may seem
extravagant.

It may also look self-serving,
because wherever one posts a nice
link to one's own blog is there for
all to click.

However, since I really like this blog
it seems to do no harm at all to remind
my visitors to take a closer look at Inphotos.
Donnacha uses digital and has some very good
insights into technique and how to choose
a good subject.

Probably that's quite enough Blarney for the time being.