Bridge

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

The bridge that gets me to university. I quite like this bridge.

Canon A720 is - 1/1500 sec - f/6.3 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to desaturate blue and cyan, which resulted in it appearing black and white (as above), then scaled and watermarked.


The reason I only had to saturate the two blue channels to get it black and white is that a couple of days ago while photographing the yellow light coming through my window I'd run a custom white balance on the scene. I forgot about this, and when I took this photo it was still on, turning the whole thing massively blue. I seem to be slow to learn my lesson about checking my settings each time.

Labcoat

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

Cycling home from uni late at night, I realised I was yet to take a photo. I noticed the shadow of my lab coat flapping (due to my high speed) looked somewhat interesting.

MOTORAZRV9x - ? sec - f/? - ISO ? - ~?mm

Street lights.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark.

Certainly not a stunner, technically, but this project has no quality requirement...
Oh, and I did this on the bikeway, not on the road.

Flower

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

A flower hanging in the backyard.

Pentax K-x - 1/60 sec - f/5.6 - ISO 800 - ~75mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels (image was overexposed), scale and watermark.


By memory, I'd left the camera in manual, but didn't check the exposure, leading to rather overexposed images.

Glow

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

The sun through the stained glass side-panel of my window.

Canon A720 is - 1/20 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

Daylight

Used GIMP to scale and watermark.

Gate

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

Close up of the texture on the gate of one of my carabiners. Shot using a pinhole.

Pentax K-x - 30 sec - f/0 - ISO 6400 - ~pinhole

Dim artificial lighting.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark.

One of the features of pinhole photography is that the very small aperture makes the depth of field (distance between closest focus and furthest focus) huge. So huge, in fact, that objects on your sensor (like dust) are in focus. I'm not quite certain if this allows you to focus on objects really close to your camera as well, or if there's a different effect causing it, but it does seem to work well with really close focus shots (such as an object that is really small). The lighting wasn't great to start with, but the small aperture also required a long exposure with very high ISO, causing a lot of noise. Also, the pinhole wasn't very good, so its a bit blurry too.

Pinhole

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

Rather than a lens, there was a sheet of alfoil with a little hole in it. The streak over the cars on the left is another car coming down the hill.

Pentax K-x - 10 sec - f/0 - ISO 200 - ~Pinhole

Late afternoon daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark.


Taking photos with a pinhole makes dust on your sensor suddenly show up. This is because you tend to have a really small apperture. I didn't measure it. If you don't make it the right size and shape you get blurry pictures (like this one).

Misty

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

A rocky outcrop in the morning mist.

Canon A720 is - 1/1250 sec - f/4 - ISO 400 - ~35mm

Overcast daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust the curves.

Peeking

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

The morning sun slips through my blinds.

Pentax K-x - 1/3 sec - f/18 - ISO 400 - ~42mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to auto adjust levels, scale and watermark.

Window in the Morning

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

My bedroom window has stain-glass side panels. Also blinds with little knobs on string to adjust. And palm trees outside.

Pentax K-x - 1/40 sec - f/2 - ISO 200 - ~75mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to auto-adjust levels, scale and watermark.

My Half

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

A shot of my half of the room, using my very wide angle lens.

Pentax K-x - 1/8 sec - f/4 - ISO 800 - ~15mm

Florescent bulb overhead.

Used GIMP to scale and watermark.

Studying at Night

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

A student sits reading in a courtyard at the university.

Canon A720 is - 8 sec - f/3.2 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

Night time, assorted artificial lights of unidentified type. Not as yellow as a lot of the lights around here though.

Used GIMP to crop, scale and watermark.

I had a wander around the arches after this, taking some test shots to get some ideas for next time.

Test

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

Preparation for an experiment.

Canon A720 is - 1/40 sec - f/3.2 - ISO 200 - ~60mm

Overhead fluros.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark.

Technical Comments

Dreamer Bug

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

I like to think that this bug is aspiring to greater things.

Pentax K-x - 1/5000 sec - f/0 - ISO 800 - (50mm lens reverse mounted)

Backlit by window.

Used GIMP to crop, scale, watermark.


I'm still not much good with reverse-mounting lenses for macro shots. The macro function on the point and shoot is much easier.

Vine

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

A vine, sneaking into my room from the garden.

Pentax K-x - 1/200 sec - f/3.5 - ISO 400 - ~27mm

Window light.

Used GIMP to scale and watermark.

The properties view in image viewer even shows the 35mm equivalent of focal length for my pentax.

Backwards Camera

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

The view through the wrong end of a camera.

Pentax K-x - 1/15 sec - f/3.5 - ISO 3200 - ~27mm

Energy saver bulbs in the room.

Used GIMP to auto adjust levels.


I found how to get the aperture data in ubuntu - right click>properties while viewing in image viewer rather than while in nautilus.

Original Piano

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

A friend at the piano. The paper in front of him has the music he's playing, which he wrote.

Pentax K-x - 1/15 sec - f/0 - ISO 400 - ~75mm


Window light to camera right.

Used GIMP to adjust levels (individually, red and green since the white balance was way too cool).

Need to take more care with the white balance. The reflection was much clearer once I dusted the piano.

Orange Bike

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

As someone who relies on my bicycle to get about, this sign makes me very sad.

Canon A720 is - 1/500 sec - f/4 - ISO 200 - ~88mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels slightly, scale and watermark.

Butressed

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

The creative architecture of the building in which my Lab is.

Canon A720 is - 1/80 sec - f/4 - ISO 16t00 - ~117mm

Natural light, early night.

Used GIMP to adjust the levels a bit, darkening the sky (which was overexposed). Then changed the colour of the sky from grey to blue (actually a bit of a purpley blue) and cleaned up a tree which looked weird after that.


I'm not so much pleased by the results of this post-tinkering as I find it an interesting exercise.

Shipwreck

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

A ship, wrecked at the edge of a bay. Taken a little after sunset.

Canon A720 is - 15 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 100 - ~35mm

Early evening light.

Used GIMP to crop, adjust levels (adjusted individually to warm it up a bit).

Hairy

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

A hairy caterpillar with a strange hairstyle (the tuft up front and the spikes along the back).

Canon A720 is - 1/40 sec - f/2.8 - ISO 200 - ~35mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to auto adjust levels, scale.

Red Leaves

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

Taken on a kayaking trip. I liked the colour of the leaves.

Canon A720is - 1/320 sec - f/4 - ISO 400 - ~35mm

Daylight.

Used GIMP to mess with the colours. I moved the blackpoint of both green and blue channels in levels. This darkened those colours, causing red to be accentuated, without changing the colour of the gum tree. The whole photo got a funny look though, which to me is reminiscent of an old film photo.

This might have been better up close, since the thing I was really interested in was the leaves.

Oh Zero Hundred Hours

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

I was still packing for a kayak trip when midnight rolled around, so I took the opportunity to have another crack at my eleventh hour photo (though at the opposite side of the clock, this time).

Pentax K-x - 3 sec - f/? - ISO 200 - ~ 30-83mm

Lighting, strobist info.

Used GIMP to scale and watermark. Could have done with a levels adjustment.

I didn't use the flash for this one, instead I used bulb mode, zoomed in to compose, zoomed out, then started zooming back in, starting the exposure immediately after I had begun zooming. Once I reached fully zoomed in I left the exposure running for a second (approximately) and then released the shutter.
The result is that some light registTechnical Comments ered on the sensor while the lens was zooming, but more light registered while it was stopped at the end (more for any one spot, anyhow).
I like this one much better than the first, but there's still a lot that could be improved. I think next time I'll try half filling the frame with the watch, and then zooming in further. This should put the white streaks from the writing bursting out of the watch, rather than into it. I'll also put a lot more effort into centring the lens (all the trails point to the bottom left of the watch in this photo).

Just Chilling, Under the Bench

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

I bought a second hand camera from a guy going to america. There was a roll of film in the bottom of the bag. Driven by curiosity I got the film developed. This is one of the resulting images (I'm experimenting in using my camera to digitise film, as getting a roll developed is 5 times more expensive if you get them to scan it for you).

Pentax K-x - 1/2 sec - f/? - ISO 200 - ~83mm

Achieve 300DX shot through the foam-board to which the film was taped.

Used GIMP to invert colours, scale and watermark.

I set the white balance in camera, using the space between images on the film. This meant that when I loaded it into GIMP, all I had to do was invert (film has an orange tinge to it otherwise). If I get my act together and start shooting RAW, this sort of thing would be even easier (and could be done more precisely).
One problem I encountered shooting this way was the grainy appearance of the bubbles in the foam. On this scale they're actually significant. To get around this I could mount the film on something very transparent and rigid (like clean, unscratched glass) and place the diffuser further back. I was also shooting at the closest focus on my kit lens, which does not make full use of the sensor. I'd get a good improvement using a lens that can image the film on the whole sensor, and maybe for really awesome film frames I could rig a set up to take multiple images of the one film, and assemble it for a 24MP image.

XRay Tomato

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

Inspired by this tomato image, and preceded by the apricot and the onion images.

Pentax K-x - 1/2 sec - f/ - ISO 200 - ~83mm

Achiever 300DX triggered manually, shot through a styrafoam sheet, on which the slice of tomato was resting (also a layer of gladwrap).

Used GIMP to remove surrounding foam, replacing it with pure white, scaled and watermarked.

The photo from the daily snap has much higher contrast, possibly post processing, but also perhaps due to the thickness of the cut (thinner). Might investigate sometime.

Baked Beans FROM SPACE

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

The bachelors breakfast. Except that I identify more as a student, and had these as a sort of lunch/snack. They're handy anyhow.

Pentax K-x - 1/60 sec - f/? - ISO 800 - ~83mm

Window Light

Used GIMP to separate the can of beans from the table they were sitting on (helped by placing a bit of white styrofoam behind the subject when photographing) using paths and a bunch of other selection tools, and saving the bits to channels. Used gradient fill and perspective tool to make the background, and added a burn layer to put a shadow in (hidden behind the watermark).

The background does look really tacky, yes.

Artist

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

My Grandfather, painting.

Pentax K-x - 1/400 sec - f/0 - ISO 200 - ~75mm

Window light.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark.

Asking people to let me photograph them still freaks me out. Hopefully each time it will freak me out a little less.

Big Dog

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

My uncle's dog, at the dog park.

Pentax K-x - 1/320 sec - f/? - ISO 200 - ~15mm

Shady daylight.

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark.

I was angling for the enlarged head look, so didn't bother to include anything for scale, which would be another interesting way to shoot this dog. Its huge.

Zap

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

Light painting depicting electricity escaping an electrical outlet, because of this weekend challenge.

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

Made a tin foil scoop to redirect the light from my pop up flash toward the ceiling, to get the exposure of my left hand, then left the left hand in place in an attempt to line up the electricity lines (drawn in with an LED keyring) with my fingers.

Used GIMP to adjust levels (probably), scale and watermark.

Still need to work on lining things up for my light painting. I had a lot of trouble drawing the forks for the lightning.

Moon Behind Hadware Store

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

I was taking photos of an intersection, and the light trails left by cars, when the light of the full moon glowing behind the this hardware store caught my attention.

Pentax K-x - 1/30 sec - f/? - ISO 200 - ~27mm

Foreground lit by street lights, full moon behind the building.

Used GIMP to adjust levels. I tried tweaking the result of auto, but found I liked auto better.

The long grass in the foreground has blurred over the long exposure, which I like.

Botched Light Painting

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

It was supposed to look like he's firing a tommy gun. It was the best I could come up with in the ad breaks. Which is a terrible excuse.

Pentax K-x - 30 sec - f/? - ISO 200 - ~27mm

Lit by a couple of differently-balanced florescent lights.

I used the auto function in levels as a starting point and then wound back both red and green channels to fix the terrible white balance. I need to get around to shooting in RAW.

To make this a learning experience I'm going to note that I need to coordinate multiple lines better (the muzzle flash should have been drawn at the muzzle) and work at aligning them better with the physical objects they're supposed to be interacting with, need to compose better, arrange for a better background. Probably also need to put more into the pictures if I want them to be good.