Wind

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I wanted to try to photograph the wind.

Pentax K-x - 1/4 sec - f/32 - ISO 200 - ~63mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to slightly adjust the levels and scale.

It didn't turn out like I had it in my head, but the wind was quite gusty and inconsistent. I later tried with a pair of polarising filters (acting as a varible ND filter) to enable me to use even longer shutter times, but that made my hair go way too soft.

Hut in the Early Morning

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I got up early to catch the sunrise, and got this photo of the hut, by the light of the full moon.

Pentax K-x -30 sec - f/3.5 - ISO 400- ~27mm

Lit by full moon.

Used GIMP to clone out backpack in foreground, scale.

Mountain With Cloud at Sunset

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I went for a tramp with my family.

Pentax K-x - 1/8 sec - f/11 - ISO 200 - ~27mm

Post sunset.

Used GIMP to clone out a couple of flies and scale for web.

Replacement - Shocking

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.


I went out and took photos for 02/04/2010 and the selected picture from that day is posted here. When I got home I found that UK photographer/blogger Elizabeth Halford had issued a weekend challenge on her blog - make a creative image of a power point...

"As per the laptop screen, Elizabeth Halford's first weekend challenge had to show an electrical outlet. I thought through ideas connected with power points (that's what we call them in Australia), and thought of electricity being wasted, and how this could be visualised as leaking out of the power point. I figured it'd look like water and so grabbed a glass of water and applied it to the outlet.
As you can see, this didn't work so well."

This image is a replacement for the lack of one posted on this date.

In preparation for a tramp I formatted the memory card, before realising that the photos I'd taken on the 28th had not been uploaded. I'd grabbed a few snapshots of my family standing on the balcony as the sun set. They were pretty last minute grab shots anyway, but I'm disappointed. I might work out some sort of make-up deal, but I don't want to extend the project into 2011, and I'm not sure how I'll work around the plan to require only one photo per day, so as to force selection.

So using this image here seemed like a good way to manage things.

The photo was lit by tungsten balanced energy saver bulbs.

Gimp was used to add "water" both dribbling down from the outlet and pooling from the cup. The cup stuff is barely visible even when there's not a water mark over it, since the cup was out of focus. The stuff coming out of the outlet is a pretty weak attempt, but it was about 2am at the time, and I just wanted to go to bed. I'm going to call it a learning experience, but all I really learned was that I don't know how to add dribbling water into a photo in post.

It occured to me afterwards that I should have added some scorch marks to the power point. Ahh well.

Moss

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Some moss on the side of a tree.

Pentax K-x - 1/39 sec - f/0 - ISO400 - ~75mm

Canopy shaded overcast daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, sharpen and scale for web. I Think there's a specific sort of sharpening which is best for the web, but I don't think I've got it in GIMP. There's probably a plugin for it though.

Water

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

View off a bridge.

Pentax K-x - 1/2 sec - f/13 - ISO 200 - ~27mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust the curves (I've got some articles lined up to read, but even without really knowing what I was doing, I manged to get what I wanted) and to scale.

Took a series here, with different shutter speeds. I liked this one for having just the right amount of water movement.

Squish

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Spent the night in a tent that was too small.

Pentax K-x - 1/80 sec - f/0 - ISO 200 - ~75mm

On camera flash!

Used GIMP to adjust levels manually (auto made my hair look black!) and then scale.

Splash

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Youngest brother coming off the end of the slide.

Pentax K-x - 1/500 sec - f/5.6 - ISO 400 - ~53mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels (used auto) and scale.

Leap

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

My youngest brother dives from the top of a spillway.

Pentax K-x - 1/1250 sec - f/7.1 - ISO 1600 - ~120mm

Overcast.

Used GIMP to crop, add border, adjust levels and scale.

Little Purple Flowers

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Just some flowers in the garden.
And if you look closely you can see an ant.

Pentax K-x - 1/640 sec - f/0 - ISO 800 - ~0mm

Afternoon shade.

Used GIMP to crop. Adjusted levels manually and found the results much more pleasing than the auto adjustment (hooray). Scaled for web.

I'm posting this quite some time after actually taking it, but I think the reason the exif data says that the focal length was 0mm was probably because I was using my 50mm lens held backwards. Not certain though.

Not the Birthday Boy

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

One of my cousin's sons blows out the candle for his younger brother's first birthday.

Pentax K-x - 1/30 sec - f/0 - ISO 800 - ~75mm

Indoors, fluorescent bulbs.

Used GIMP to crop, adjust levels, clone out highlights on spittle on his chin and scale.

Race

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

My nanna playing a car racing game on someone's iPod.

Pentax K-x - 1/250 sec - f/2 - ISO 400 - ~75mm

Indoors, with window light.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, just brought the black point up a bit. I was quite pleased to see that auto adjusthad about the same effect. Also scaled for web.

Little Fellow

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

My cousin's son. This little fellow is so cute I'm sure a blind photographer could get a good photo.

Pentax K-x - 1/250 sec - f/2 - ISO 200 - ~75mm

Late afternoon shade.

Used gimp to crop and adjust levels (my manual adjustment made him look purple, so I stuck with auto) then scaled for web.

Sugar loaves

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Went with the cousins for a scramble up a local volcanic formation. Took these photos after exploring down in the bay beside it (there were seals to visit).

Pentax K-x - 1/2000 sec - f/8 - ISO 800 - ~27mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels (tried manually and automatically, liked the auto settings better, wish I knew what they actually were) and to scale.

House at Sunset

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Photo of a house to the east, at sunset.

Pentax K-x - 1/20 sec - f/0 - ISO 1600 - ~300mm

Ambient light, sunset.

Used GIMP to adjust levels (recent discovery, produces significant improvement, particularly when the original exposure was off) and to crop and scale.

I was trying to take a photo of my parents' house, based on the strobist guide to photographing christmas lights. It didn't work, and I think its because I was shooting west just after sunset. This photo is of a house to the east at sunset is more like what I was hoping for. I plan to get up early some morning and get a photo of my parents' house before the sun rises, rather than after it sets. We'll see.

Sunset

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Took the dog for a walk, and took the camera with me. Its a pretty ordinary shot, but this is about quantity. Quality will hopefully be an end product (not by-product).

Pentax K-x - 1/120 sec - f/0 - ISO 200 - ~75mm

Ambient light, sunset.

Used GIMP to scale. Considered trying something with saturation, didn't seem to have much effect.

Night time

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Went for a wander with my middle brother and some friends, took this shot in a sports field after it had gotten dark.

Pentax K-x - 1/25 sec - f/0 - ISO 6400- ~75mm

Ambient light, after dark with stars just starting to appear.

Used GIMP to rescale. I don't know how one would use GIMP for noise reduction, or if I should use a different program. I'm sure if I ask google I'll be able to find out.

I couldn't even tell at the time whether everyone was in focus, and thought they looked over-exposed (because of the sky). I probably should have turned them around. I took some more photos under street light afterwards, and had crazy white balance adventures. It was too dark (I think) to get custom white balance to work, and no matter how far I adjusted using manual white balance there was still a cast (could be my fault, not knowing how to set it). When I did get something that worked the light would randomly change (noticeable in burst mode photos).

Pouakai Run

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I went for a walk with my brother, who is training for his adventure races.

Canon A720is - 1/60 sec - f/4 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

Ambient light.

Used gimp to re size.

Not sure about this picture's merits. It sort of leads quite well into the middle, but is overexposed there.

Milly

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Milly is my cousin's other cat. She's a lot less photo friendly, being rather black, and shy.

Pentax K-x - 1/400 sec - f/10 - ISO 800- ~82.5mm

Ambient - sun.

Used GIMP to rotate image (cat was leaning at an odd angle), crop and scale.

I didn't like the background much, but the cat wasn't interested in my suggestion of posing elsewhere. I should have opened the aperture further to blur the background, and dropped the ISO. On the other hand, I did get sharp eyes this time (autofocus lens).

Jester

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.


Jester belongs to my cousin and her husband. I was suprised that this one (shot through a glass door) turned out better than the shots that didn't have that extra layer of glass to add reflections and such. This is because the only time the cat stayed still with me nearby was when it wanted to be let in.

Pentax K-x - 1/125 sec - f/0 - ISO 200 - ~75mm

Ambient sunlight only, shot through a glass door.

Used GIMP to rescale image. Tried to sharpen left eye, but it looked weird, for little improvement.

Got sharp focus the tinniest bit forward of the left eye. Only apparent when viewed full size, but noticeable then.

Shake

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Littlest brother, demonstrating how quickly he can turn his face back and forth.
This was taken with one of my old f/2, 50mm lenses, probably wide open. In my exif lines I convert the focal length to 35mm equivalent.

Pentax K-x - 1/800 sec - f/0 - ISO 1600 - ~75mm

Ambient sun from behind.

Used Gimp to clone out a floating cat hair that had caught the light, then cropped the image. Cropping as first action is more sensible.

The backlighting was perfect for highlighting the spittle released by his crazy face wobbling.

Rebel

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I agonised for several months over what camera to get, and a Rebel (the canon 450D) was one of the main contenders. In the end I bought a Pentax K-x with 18-55mm kit lens. This photo was taken while getting a feel for it.
I'll be using manual lenses with it, so the exif data may be missing a couple of details from time to time.

Pentax K-x - 1/5 sec - f/4.5 - ISO 1600 - ~57mm

Ambient sun through window.

Used GIMP to scale for web (seems better than compressing, which is what I'd been doing).

Married

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I attended the wedding of two friends from Church. Her father (in the middle there) took them through the vows and stuff. There were a lot of smiles.

Pentax K-x - 1/40 sec - f/0 - ISO 800- ~135mm

Ambient Light, indoors.

Used GIMP to try to correct for white balance, managed an improvement. Scaled image.

I'd bought the camera on the way t0 the wedding.

Scribbly Gum

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

A trail left by a bug on a tree in the camp grounds.

Canon A720 - 1/60 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 100 - ~37mm

Overcast daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark for web.

Looking at it now (months afterwards) I think I could have done better to get a shot showing more context (many tress had scribble all over them) rather than going for this detail shot.

Red and Rope

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

There were a number of particularly interesting trees around the camp site, with textures, colours and patterns. This one turned my nice new volleys pink from climbing them to set the ropes and pulleys for the activity.

Canon A720 - 1/60 sec - f/3.5 - ISO 100 - ~37mm

Daylight, overcast.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark for web.

I'm not really happy with the woody rubbish on the rope. I need to pay more attention to details like this when taking photos.

Cones

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Beach activities equipment laid out and ready for everyone to arrive.

Canon A720 - 1/1250 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 100 - ~37mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark for web.

Green and Brown

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Two of the same sort of tree, one alive, one dead.

Canon A720 - 1/200 sec - f/3.2 - ISO 400 - ~75mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels manually, scaled and watermarked for web.

Lego, punchtabs

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Things that were on the floor during the debrief / next-day-brief meeting after the first day of camp (I was part of activities staff).

Canon A720 - 1/3 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 400 - ~37mm

Indoor lighting.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, which got rid of a yellow tint that the photo had. Scaled and watermarked for web.

The foot wasn't in the composition until it's owner noticed that I was taking photos, and decided he wanted to be in it.

Assembly

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

A couple of mates putting together a giant mural easel for camp activities. I've got a unique view here - they can't see each other, and so are not entirely certain about the hole being drilled in the right spot.

Canon A720 - 1 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 100 - ~37mm

Overcast daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, resize and watermark for the web.

I should have upped the ISO, and I think I had the exposure compensation on one or two stops of overexposure, from something I'd been doing earlier, which made things worse. On the other hand, I was supposed to be holding the near end, instead of running off to grab the camera and taking a photo for the day.

Token Abstract

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

There are plenty of abstract photos that are well thought out and meaningful. This one exists because I made a commitment to take one photo per day, and on this particular day the only thing that I could come up with before dashing off to camp was the back-lit blinds above my bed.

Canon A720is - 1/101 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

Backlit by sun.

Used GIMP to somewhat fix lens distortion, crop, compress.

Hello, World

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

I thought it'd be good to start off with a self portrait. This is one subject who's dependency will mean I'll make use of him a lot.
For this project my rules will be:

• One photo taken per day
• Where possible, that photo should be processed and uploaded that day
• Every photo must be opened in GIMP at least once
• No other photos to be shown on this blog

Canon A720is - 2010:01:01 20:55:27 - 1 sec - f/5.6 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

No ambient, Nimslo Optilite flash, triggered using test button.

Used GIMP to save with heavy compression for uploading, rub some distracting elements out.

Photographing myself was a hassle. Composing and focusing was difficult using improvised bits and pieces, would be easier with a decent stand-in (such as a stand with a focus pattern). I wasn't really happy with the background.