The sun rises over Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in northern Los Angeles County, CA.
Archive for the ‘photograph’ Tag
Here Comes The Sun 1 comment
California Juniper 1 comment
That Ol’ Creepy Moon 1 comment
Shot with a Nikon D90 on a tripod. 1 second exposure, f/4.
Baby Albatross Leave a comment
A baby albatross, hanging out in a public garden in Kauai. Taken near the north shore, 2011.
A Bad Hair Day 3 comments
Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus). Roadrunners are relatively tolerant of people; this shot was taken while the bird sat on our back fence. Roadrunners are aggressive predators, though, and eat small mammals, lizards, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions and even small birds. This bird does not go “meep meep” … but it does beat its prey to death on rocks.
And here he is doing what a roadrunner does best.
Are Lines Always This Blurry? 1 comment
Every Sci Fi fan’s favorite hand held device, of course, is the tricorder. Those are almost a reality today, thanks to a $10 million prize offered for the company that develops one. Here’s some recent news coverage. So, real tricorders are just around the corner!
Who knew that a tricorder would be proven to be too large and too inflexible just 40 years later?
We’ve had several handheld devices compete to be your favorite. We’ve had PDAs, personal audio recorders, watches with news feeds, and many more. There was a time that an operations manager at Six Flags Magic Mountain had to wear a pair of two-way radios and a beeper (remember those?) to stay in communication with staff. Thankfully, those days are gone.
I used to know what a camera was. You know, the kind you put film in? I did that, a lot. Those were good days.
Today, a phone is a camera. Oh, and a flashlight, a thermometer, a compass, a level, a phonebook, a clock, a game console, a two-way, a juke box, a radio, a book, a computer, an alarm … and I’m just getting started.
Dedicated cameras have survived in ways that beepers, PDAs and wristwatches have not. However, it now appears that smartphones and their ever-improving features are having a negative impact on digital camera sales … down nearly a third in England over the last 5 years, for example. Smartphones have put millions of cameras into consumers’ hands, and in some cases, those phones have replaced cameras.
Since dedicated cameras have better photographic functionality … what should you do? Carry 2 devices, or “make do” with just your smartphone?
Note: the idea of only carrying a camera is just not possible today!
In the latest twist, according to this article, Nikon may soon introduce a camera that uses 3G to connect to the web and use apps. Instagram on your camera? Just wait a couple of weeks, and it appears that we’ll be there.
I guess it only figures. I mean, an e-reader can use 3G, so why not a camera? Or will the camera just be WiFi capable, as with the lower models of the Kindle or iPad? Time will tell.
In theory, this means that Nikon’s extending their CoolPix series with a ‘net capable camera … so that means we’ll have the option of a better point & shoot that runs onboard apps for processing and uploads pix directly. Just like your smartphone … but with better optics? It’s hard for me to believe they could deliver better processing, too.
Will that encourage you to carry a web-capable camera in addition to your smartphone? Or is Nikon barking up the wrong tree?
For today, my vote is with a high quality camera (which is why I carry a DSLR). I seldom shoot with my smartphone, which, I know, just means that I’m too old to understand.
But I don’t wear a watch anymore. That’s some progress, right?
This party pic belongs on facebook, right? Immediately, right? Unfortunately, I shot it with my DSLR, uploaded it to my computer, opened processing software to edit and downgrade the file, and THEN I uploaded it. Maybe Nikon does have a good idea!
In My Backyard Leave a comment
Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
– Ferris Bueller
Please enjoy some backyard pictures from around our house and over the fence on Pinterest.
In 2006, the yard was just dirt. It’s changed a bit since then….
The Death of the Photograph 2 comments
Facebook is killing photography. I cringe every time I see a blurry self portrait, or a snapshot that is oh so cute … that’s being consigned to the digital scrap heap of someone’s newsfeed.
William Henry Mowry, circa 1864. This tintype photograph is the earliest photo I have of a family member.
Photography is a relatively recent invention. Aristotle contemplated how images of the sun projected through a hole in 330 BC. The first practical, long-lived photographic image appeared in the 1830s, the Daguerreotype. With the invention of flexible film by George Eastman in 1889, handheld cameras became possible … and mobile media soon followed.
This photo of Simon and Maria Chucalovich’s family was taken by an itinerant photographer, selling his services door to door in about 1922. Photography — much less mobile photography! — was still unusual in this era, and quite a crowd gathered to watch this photograph being taken on the front step of the family home.
Today, if you believe the hype from digital journalists, you might think the only cameras being used are smartphones. There’s no doubt that the iPhone has changed the way that we think of and use cameras. Today’s camera phones wirelessly upload your pictures using your favorite app, and they give you instant gratification when you share your snaps and friends see them NOW.
The best camera to take a photograph is the one in your hand … so the more accessible smartphones are, the more likely they will take more pictures.
However, smartphones currently deliver pictures that are generally lower in quality than even low priced “point and shoot” cameras. The phone manufacturers are certainly improving the qualities of their cameras, but they have a long way to go before they will truly compete with the quality of dedicated handheld cameras.
So, here we are today. We have more pictures being taken by lower quality cameras. To deepen the problem, those pictures are almost never saved in a traditional sense … they’re uploaded to Facebook or Instagram or Flickr (and usually shrunk & degraded by the site’s algorithm). Once on a social media site, the photographer loses control of the image (and those implications will be discussed in a later post).
So if you take a picture that’s important, what do you do with it? Family photographs are heirlooms. They are passed from generation to generation. They are proudly displayed in their owner’s homes.
Unfortunately, today’s smartphones just aren’t up to that standard. Make no mistake, those smartphone cameras are improving and mobile snapshots can be wonderful. They are seldom, however, first quality photographs.
If your goal is to capture memories in photographs that last longer than your Facebook newsfeed allows, then you’ll want to find a way to take high quality photographs, display them and store them.
Here’s a resource for the key issues in purchasing a digital camera.
Here’s a “how to” resource for displaying and storing heirloom photographs.
The family of Phillip Patterson “PP” Shull, circa 1905. This hundred-year-old photograph has been passed through many hands for you to see it. Note the dog at the corner of the house, which must have been nailed in place to stay still long enough for the long exposure necessary for this photograph! Click on the photo to enlarge the image and see the dog carefully watching his master.
