w00d's Photo Muse: July 2013

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My First Digital Camera

FUJIFILM FinePix 2800 Zoom

Announced Sep 11, 2001 ~ MSRP $399 USD

Specifications:

2.1 Megapixel CCD, 2.1 million pixel RGB color filter

6-36mm (38-228mm 35mm equivalent) 1:2.8-.3.0 6X Optical zoom lens

Shutter speeds: 1/1500 to 1/2 second

AF coverage: 2.6 feet to infinity

No Image Stabilization

MACRO: fixed focal length working distances 3.9in to 2.6 feet

64-Zone TTL metering, Program AE

Exposure Compensation: -1.5 to +1.5EV in 1/3EV steps

Continuous Mode: Four frames every 0.5 seconds

10-second self-timer

1.8 inch color TFT LCD Monitor

ISO 100

Mode Dial: Still, Movie (with audio and image playback)

Automatic White Balance plus 6 presets in Manual

Flash: Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, Slow-Sync, Forced and Off

Viewfinder: Colour Electronic SLR equivalent

Image sizes: 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960 or 640 x 480

Records 60 seconds (320 x 240) AVI motion video with audio at 10 frames/sec

Image Storage: SmartMedia

Power: 4 x Standard AA batteries, NiMH rechargeable or AC adapter

Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom ~ Review and Sample Image
Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom ~ Google Images

Not too long ago a thunderstorm passed through the area and off in the distance I saw the clouds break showing another storm heading towards my location. This was also a perfect time to shoot as the SUN was just starting to set. We we're into the Golden Hour (WiKi) so out came the camera armed with a short telephoto zoom set to 85mm to capture what I thought would be a great shot.

It was obvious before taking the shot the rain drops on the window was going to be a problem therefor show in the picture. With no choice I proceeded and shot through a window anyway capturing the rain drops from the previous thunderstorm that was just passing overhead. That storm and it's trailing edge is shown by the gray band of cloud at the top of the photograph.

Project: Thunder Clouds ~ very little rain removed

It was at this time I decided to put my photo-editing skills to task and repair the image by removing all the distracting rain drops ... A task easier said than done, but yes I said it.

Project: Thunder Clouds ~ almost all the rain removed

Using the photo-editor and 'clone' tools three hours later with beads of sweat resembling the actual rain drops forming on my forehead gave me a image minus all the rain.

... Yes, I more or less liked the result.

But the lesson learned or what I took away after finishing the work. Due to the amount of information lost with each drop removed produced an image I thought unsuitable for large printing but good enough for the Web. Was the finished image worth the time and effort, that's hard to say but it sure was educational.

Project: Thunder Clouds ~ ALL the rain removed ~ FIN

Final Crop, full size image.

FIN

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Lyla Cohen

To my darling Lyla and the fond memories

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

French River, Georgian Bay (1987) a Digitized Print

French River, Georgian Bay ~ July 2,1987

Camping the Mouth of French River

French River, Georgian Bay (Google Maps) July 2,1987

Print copied using the Nikon D90 and Nikkor Micro 105mm 1:2.8.

French River, Georgian Bay ~ original shot

It is not often I show original out of camera shots but in this case it's worth looking. Back in the day the camera exposed for the sky producing an image where the foreground was very underexposed and dark. In nutshell photo-editing was used to brighten the underexposed areas and local contrast was worked to bring out more detail ...

Mouth of French River, Georgian Bay

Sunset

July 22, 2013

I wasn't happy with the composition but loved the colour.

- Full Size -

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Old Slides and Old Prints Digitized ...

The following images are from the day when we had of no Live View, Auto-focus, Vibration Reduction and all the other wonders of the digital age. From a day when we only had camera, a primitive light-meter and of course a ton of film. Putting a Nikon D90 and a NEW 105mm Nikkor Micro (Macro) Lens to work digitizing old Kodachrome slides, colour and Black & White prints.

Old Kodachrome:

Dandelion Mugshot - MACRO

Daisies Hard at Work - MACRO

IGGY the Lizard
My brother's pet lizard and what an attitude this guy had!

The Old Prints:

Cruising in the Omega

Memories of my best friends 74-Oldsmobile Omega. We we're stupid young, just out of High School, the year was 1976 and we had nothing better to do but cruise the streets looking for trouble. Cliché warning: selective colour image ... Complimenting the factory paint, as I remember the Mellow Yellow ...