Les Jones

Biology Blogging: ID These Six Plants

I downloaded pictures from the camera today and found some good ones. Can you name any or all of these plants? Post your answers in the comments. (Later: I added more hints.)

You can click on any image for an enlarged view

Fruit or Vegetables
I found this plant growing beside the corn in Melissa's Aunt Stella's vegetable patch. It's the one with the large, pointy leaves. Here's another view. Hint: this plant produces beans. Oil from those beans is a traditional herbal remedy. (First correct answer goes to Tess. See her answer and others in comments.)

Wild Things
This tree has not one, not two, but count 'em three vines growing on it. One is an exotic invader, common in disturbed areas. Hint: part of it is edible, and the edible part isn't the root, the flower, or the leaves. The other two are native species found in any wooded area in Tennessee. Hint: they have three leaves and five leaves, and the one with three leaves should be familiar to anyone who goes camping. (First correct answer for the three-leafed plant came from Chris Range at Celtic Grove. Tess got the five-leafed plant.)

The single-leafed plant is air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera), a relative of the yam. It produces an above-ground tuber. The ones around here are small - not much bigger than a jelly bean - but some species and varieties grow to a pound or more.

Flowers
Melissa and I grew these gorgeous annuals in our garden from seed. There are two species shown. One has the large, robust blooms in the center of the photo. (First correct answer: tie between Justin at Elephant Rants and Deb at Sugarfused.) The other species has small, delicate flowers, and frilly, Seussian leaves. (Botany goddess Tess correctly identified the smaller flower.) Both occur in a wide range of colors and varieties. You can find them at any garden center.

Name That Caterpillar

Ellie May Melissa found another critter. This is a caterpillar she photographed in the flower beds. Click on the picture for a higher-resolution image.

Those yellow and black warnings stripes almost certainly mean this caterpillar is poisonous to birds. Warning colors - such as the black and orange of the monarch butterfly - in invertebrates announce to predators that the potential prey is poisonous. Poisonous, incidentally, means toxic when eaten. Venomous means capable of injecting toxins. Monarchs don't manufacture toxins. In their caterpillar stage they eat milkweed and other toxic plants to which they are immune and store those toxins in their body tissues.

Caterpillars, like butterflies, try to confuse predators about the location of their head and tail, using eyespots, or - in this case - antennae-like appendages at both ends. In this picture, the head is on the left. You can tell by the presence of true feet on the left. The leg-like appendates on the right are pseudopods.

This was an easy identification. The picture in the field guide looked identical to the one Melissa took. Know what it is? Post your answer in comments.

Caption This Photo (Mushroom Van)

I had some ideas for this:

ALCOA, TN - The A-Team's orginal van from the '60s was found on a side street in a small southern town Friday.

or

ALCOA, TN - GM has scrapped plans to re-introduce the Kidnap Cargo Van in favor of the Shroom Mobile.

But I'll bet you can write something funnier.

Cool Time Lapse Photography

Plants in Motion is a collection of amazing time lapse photography. I'm a sucker for this stuff. Even that old Disney movie is cool (earn net.fame by posting its name in comments). Requires QuickTime 5.

• Coleus fighting gravity
• Corn worshipping the light
• Morning glory opening and closing
• Velvet leaf going to sleep
• Venus flytrap closing
• Mimosa curling in response to heat
• Morning glory climbing

Longmire

I've been a Mark Longmire fanboy for a while. The other day I was visiting his site and realized that I've only been reading the blog, while there's even more fun with Ye Olde Photoshoppe on his main page.

Rejected Wheel of Fortune Puzzles.
That's the gameshow I want to be on most. I totally kick ass, though any bravado that might come from that it is ameliorated by the fact that the show is pretty geriatric.

This would be even more fun combined with the Chuch Sign Generator code.

Vacation Photos.
"Our dad's funny. Sometime's he's funny ha-ha, and sometimes he's funny strange."

Longmire and Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe.
Dude! If I'd known Longmire was tight with the mayor I'd have asked him to fix my parking ticket. 'Course Longmire's met everyone on the national scene, too.

Phun With Photoshop and Phone Cameras

Melissa and I took the dogs to the Maryville Greenbelt Sunday. They had a great time. Shorty likes the ducks, and Sparky likes the squirrels.

While we were there I snapped a few pictures with the cell phone camera. (I just shipped my regular digicam to the factory for repair.) This shot turned out the best of a bad lot. It has really soft focus, which is a shame because it's a nice composition: a creek running diagonally across the foreground, trees in winter, and the county court house set against a blue sky with clouds. (Click on the thumbnail to bask in its 640 x 480 glory.)

Rather than tossing it, I deciced to use Photoshop filters to create something that would be a keeper.

Keeneland Race Track in Lexington, Kentucky

These are photos from our trip to Keeneland for the horse races last year. Enjoy.

Mt. Airy, North Carolina

Last week Melissa and some of her kinfolk went to Mt Airy, North Carolina for the day. Never heard of it? Me neither. It apparently has some connection to The Andy Griffith Show. I went to the town's Web site to see what the connection is, and found this FAQ (Frequently Avoided Question):

Is Mount Airy really Mayberry? Explore Mount Airy, the hometown of actor Andy Griffith, for the Mayberry parallels, such as the Snappy Lunch, Floyd’s City Barber Shop, the Old City Jail, the Andy Griffith Playhouse, Wally’s Service Station, Andy’s Homeplace, and the famous Andy Griffith Museum, which is housed at the Mount Airy Visitors Center. The owner of the Mayberry Motor Inn, Alma Venable has a collection of Frances Bouvier’s – better known as Aunt Bee -- personal belongings, which can be seen by appointment. Mount Airy hosts an annual event called Mayberry Days, which is a celebration of The Andy Griffith Show’s anniversary. Mayberry Days is scheduled for Sept. 25-27, 2003.

It's at this point in The Simpsons when Lisa exclaims "But that doesn't tell me anything!" The real Andy Griffith apparently did grow up in the area, and "incorporated names of places and people from Mount Airy on 'The Andy Griffith Show.' "

The area's other claim to fame is that Eng and Chang, the original Siamese twins, lived there.

DarkPassages.com

Via email from Marty Clemons, DarkPassages.com.

A dangerous and entirely unscientific application of archaeological principles to inspect evidence of previous human habitations and demises, preferably involving an amateurish and histrionic analysis of human relics, case and site assessments based on children’s diagrams of parlor games, and palindromic investigations of imaginary crime scenes. Equipped with expert witnessing skills and third-grade chemistry sets, we are always ready to take the stand.

If you liked the story of the Russian woman exploring Chernobyl on a motorcycle, you'll like this site. Incidentally, that story was part truth, part hoax. She did visit Chernobyl and the pictures are real, but the part about her riding through Chernobyl alone on a motorcycle is fictitious. She and her husband went there as part of a tour group.

Friday Photo Blogging: The Lost Sea ca. 1976

I remember going to The Lost Sea as a kid, but I totally don't remember this picture. It turned up in a photo album my mom put together for my birthday last year.

That's me on the front row with the striped shirt, black socks, and Beatles haircut. I tried to use Photoshop to get more details, but no go. The flash was pretty strong, and it reflected off of the white t-shirt of the kid next to me and washed out my face. Click for a larger version.

LATER: SouthKnoxBubba tried his hand and sent this version of the photo, which, as he points out, trades some detail for noise. (Unlike TV shows like X-Files and CSI, in real world photography you wind up trading one thing for another.) He used Photoshop CS and used Image-->Adjust-->Shadow/Highlight, along with Unsharp Mask to get these results.

Note for them what ain't from around here: The Lost Sea is an underground cavern and lake near Sweetwater, Tennessee. East Tennessee has a karst topography, so there are underground caverns and interesting rock formations all over the place. See, for instance, Rock City.

ATTN: Canon Digital Camera Owners

I'm not bragging by saying I know this. Hell, it took me a year to notice it, fer cryin' out loud. But if you have a Canon digital camera, when you're downloading images there's an option to prepend the file name with whatever you like, which is a tremendous mneumonic-type aid. A word to the wise daft. (And in my own defense, I don't think this was an option in the Macintosh version of the software I used until last Christmas.)

Hummingbird and White Pickup Truck

Taken from the porch of a restaurant at Muddy Pond.

Jacked-up Lincoln Town Car

Seen at Cedar Bluff Road in Knoxville, Tennessee. Thanks, cell phone camera.

Live-blogging Katie's Birth, Part 5

Katie's First UT Football Game

Saturday night was UT vs. Louisiana Tech. After Melissa's mom came to the hospital, I walked down to Cumberland to get us some pizza from Stefano's. Here's what I saw on the way. Click the "Continue Reading" link to see all the pictures.

Lisa &Catherine's Commitment Ceremony

Congrats to Lisa and Catherine. The ceremony was at River John's Island in Maryville. I grew up in Maryville and never heard of this place, but it was pretty amazing. It's a large island on the Little River. To get there, take Wildwood Road to Cave Mill Road. It's half a mile or so on the right. It's privately-owned, but it's available for private parties.

See the slideshow. I should probably mention that there was a luau theme.

Photography question: I'm occasionally getting some fuzzy ass pictures. Why? I think it's the ISO setting, but I'm not sure.

Starke and Amanda's Wedding

Pics from tonight's wedding at Ridge Valley Farms in Blount County outside of Maryville. The mountains in the background are the Chilhowees, though most people would call them the Smokies. Higher resolution versions available if anyone wants them. Congrats to the bride and groom.

Pictures from Starke and Amanda's Wedding

James Lileks, Eat Your Heart Out

James Lileks isn't the only one whose momma dressed him funny back in the day. But with my David Cassidy hair and my Donny Osmond eyes I make this leisure suit look good.

These Guys Should Be More Positive About Their Tournament

Time to get the big crappie fishing pole, throw it in the big crappie truck, go down to the big crappie lake and get in the big crappie boat for a big crappie day of fishing.

Topside Road, Louisville, Tennessee

Attn: Friends of Jay

Here's a picture of the Jay bird in his rare mustachioed phase. From last week's hike to White Oak Sinks. Click for a larger version.

Guitar Town

We spent the day wondering around downtown Nashville and Music Row. Went to Ernest Tubb's Record Shop and bought a copy of John Hartford's RCA Recordings. Good stuff. Talked to the people at the shop. The clerk is a guitar major at Belmont University named Justin Schafer.

Tubb's has a great set of autographed photographs of country legends, and I told Justin about Roy's Record Shop in Maryville and their collection of autographed pictures of country music stars from Dolly Parton to Freda Parton. Roy has an autographed photo of John Hartford that Roy told me he got when Hartford was at the Musuem of Appalachia in Norris. Hartford had truly beautiful calligraphy, BTW. He was really an amazing guy.

Slideshow of our Nashville rambling below. Guitars, Cadillacs, etc., etc. UPDATE: Added captions at Countertop's request. Mouseover the pictures below for a description and comments. Click on any picture to enlage it. We found out why there was such a big line around the Wild Horse. American Idol contestant Josh Gracin was playing there.

Aw, He's Just Doing it to get an Instalanche

Instapundit has started a Carnival of Digital Cameras. There are ever more encouraging things being said about the Panasonic Lumix FZ5, which is what I've got my eye on. It's $330 for a 5MP camera with a large, 12X Leica lens with electronic image stabilization, and all the reviews are glowing.

Franken Fridge, the Fridge of the Future (attn: Steve K.)

So my house has an attached apartment. When I bought the place from Steve K. the apartment had an impressively old Coldspot refrigerator. About five years ago I sanded it down and painted it appliance white. Last year my mom moved into the apartment and we remodeled. We replaced all of the appliances and gave the fridge to Tony and Allison, who wanted to fix it up and use it as a beererator for the garage.

Here's the result. Tony and Allison did a great job. Besides sanding, painting, and refinishing, they replaced the door seals and the door insulation, which had collapsed over the decades.

Check out Antiqueappliances.com in Clayton, Georgia, and their refrigerator page for cool old restored and re-imagined appliances for sale.

Playing With the New Camera

I bought a Panasonic FZ5 camera for a family Christmas present and I'm just now learning how to use it. I kept using the old camera in part because it was familiar, and in part because I already had the accessories for it - memory, case, and spare battery - that make a camera handy. Now that I've picked up some accessories for the FZ5 and gotten my first good pictures, I'm stoked.

I used the FZ5 for the Alleghany Falls trip and got decent pictures using the Simple mode (marked by a red heart on the mode ring), but nothing to write home about. I got much better pictures (especially this one) at the zoo using the P mode (for programmed automatic exposure) - it's basically all of the ease of Simple mode, but with generally better results.

• The self-timer has a 2 second mode that's great for taking vibration-free photos. It's a software equivalent to a remote shutter release.
• Likewise the focus lock works as a replacement for manual focus. Focus on an object, hit focus lock, and re-center your picture. The camera will maintain the original focal length you locked in.
• The burst picture mode is handy for taking high speed action shots, like the pictures of Katie in the swing.
• Pushing the cursor down takes the camera into Review mode. It's a great way of reviewing pictures without making a trip to the mode dial to enter Playback mode.
• The SCN (Scene) mode has presets for a number of challenging situations, including Fireworks, Portrait, Party, Panning, Night, Sports, and Snow (which might have improved these snow pictures taken in Simple mode).
• Spare batteries on eBay are cheap. I bought a new battery for $9.98 shipped.
• Note to self: experiment with Auto Bracket. It takes three successive pictures, and I think they're at varying exposures if I'm reading the manual correctly.

I decided to try Picasa's Create Movie feature (under the Create menu) using the swing pictures. I assumed Picasa would make a flipbook animation in animated GIF format, but it goes beyond that. Picasa presents the first still picture, then pans around it. Then it shows the next still picture, somewhat offset, and pans around it. It's a soft focus effect I'm sure I've seen on Dateline and similar shows. While I was watching the movie I expected to hear tinkly piano music.

The movie is a .AVI and takes up a fair amount of disk space - about four megabytes for five photos using Cinepak compression with the smallest frame size of 320 x 240. Watch it here.

Question - The swing pictures were taken on a sunny day around 1:00. They're a tad dull because they're overexposed. How do you know when to reduce exposure, and by how much?

Shooting Tight with Digital Cameras

The other day I posted about the new camera, and asked why these photos of Katie at the park turned out sort of dull.

R. Neal noted that the mid-day light was sort of colorless, which is a good point (but not the one I want to talk about right now). Ben had another explanation: "My guess is that because the background area is large, and darker than your intended subject, the camera increased exposure for the background and your babe was a casualty."

He's totally right, and that's what I want to talk about today. Those pictures of Katie in the swing are great pictures ... if you like looking at playground mulch. They're not so great if you want to see the baby. There's too much background and not enough subject. That's a lesson I have to keep learning.

Last year I found out about Lomography from reading Jason Kottke. In a nutshell, Lomography uses Lomo's cameras and plays to their strengths and weaknesses by shooting close shots of colorful subjects.

The Lomographic style seemed like a good match to the strengths and weaknesses of low-resolution digital cameras, so I gave it a try when we went to the world's longest yard sale. The pictures from that trip turned out really well.

So why did those pictures look so much better than others I had taken with the same camera? A big part of the story is that the tight framing encouraged good composition. I'm thinking the other part has to do with the digital part of the camera, and what Ben alluded to. With a broad framing the camera is more likely to choose the wrong object for focusing or light metering. Pulling in tight makes things easier on the camera's tiny little brain.

Exposure for Camera Dummies Like Me

Tonight I've been reading the Panasonic forum at Digital Photography Review. I found this excellent tutorial that explains exposure in a very simple, intuitive way. Great stuff.

In another thread someone suggested going into P mode on the Panasonic and changing the ISO setting from auto to 80. Otherwise the camera will set itself as high as ISO 400 on some modes, and introduce too much noise. I'm going to give it a try and see if it makes a difference.

52mm UV Filter Karma

I bought a 52 mm UV filter yesterday and now realize it won't fit my camera. Need one? Post in comments and it's yours.

Neat Photo Effect

I was shooting pictures on the subway and accidentally got this effect of people moving and disappearing. I was very lucky that the guy in the picture was standing stock still between photos.

I'll try use this effect on purpose in the future. It might work with larger groups of people, but I'm guessing it will work better with smaller groups where the movement of one or two people is more noticeable. A tripod would be really helpful for getting the most out of the effect.

Stock Photo Cliches

One day I'll have to make a Web page using shitty stock photos of boring people in a boring office doing boring office things. On that day, you're welcome to kill me. Meanwhile, check out stock photography cliches. Via Kottke, who also has links to The Adventures of Vagisil Girl.

One Gripe About Picasa

I've mentioned before how much I like Picasa, Google's free photography software. One thing that bugs me though is that pictures look better in Picasa than they do in reality. That is, I can view a picture in Picasa and it looks one way, but it won't look as good in Photoshop or my Web browser in terms of sharpness and color. Imaging software needs to be WYSIWYG, dammit.

Happy Fourth of July

"Everyday With Rachel Ray" Here I Come

Got this email today:

I work in the photo department at Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine, and I came across your blog while looking for photos of the world's longest yard sale. We are running a small blurb about the sale in our August issue and I'm looking for a photo to run as well. I thought some of your photos were really interesting, and I would like to show some to my editors for consideration. Are the ones you posted all the ones you have? Would you be open to having one run in the magazine? Let me know when you get a chance. Thanks!

I said yes. Here are the photos.

Dang, My Camera Lens is Filthy

I thought I was seeing some smudges in the birthday photos. Then I posted the Sunlight Gardens photos and man oh man is my lens dirty. You can see big smudges on the left and right edges of the photos.

How often do y'all clean your camera lens, and more importantly how do you do it? I think I've got a synthetic lens cloth from my optometrist around here somewhere.

Digital SLR Info

I'm researching a camera for work and found the CNET Digital SLR guide helpful. Parts of it are thin, but the sensor discussion was extremely helpful.

I'm leaning towards the Canon Rebel XTi. It's $601 at Amazon with a base lens. If that gets shot down I'll try for the previous generation Canon Rebel XT for $460 with a base lens.

Any other suggestions for under $460?

P.S. - On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're looking for an inexpensive digital snapshot camera the Samsung S630 is less than $100 and people seem to like it.

Correcting Photographic Perspective

A couple of people pointed me to Ken Rockwell's photography page, which is outstanding. One thing that blew me away was his simple technique for correcting perspective.

Here's a photo I took last week in downtown Knoxville. (It's the East Tennessee Historical Society, which my wife tells me used to be the Customs House.)

That's the before picture. You can tell I took it standing at the base of the building looking up. You can avoid that with a $2,000 tilt-shift lens, or you can use Rockwell's simple Photoshop technique. Here's the after picture, which looks like I took it while floating in mid-air in front of the building:

During the correction the bottom of the picture shrinks, so I had to crop the sides to get rid of the empty bottom corners. I tend to shoot pictures tight so that I don't have to go back and crop them later, but this is a good example of a time when I should have left extra room around the subject.

First Wildlife Pictures from the Moultrie Game Camera

Last month I bought a Moultrie game camera to capture pictures of animals on our property. The game camera is a weatherproof, motion-activated camera with a flash for photographing nocturnal animals and bungee cords for attachment to a tree.

At first I was trying to catch the dogs or whatever that were getting into our garbage cans. They stopped coming as soon as I set out the camera and have never been back.

Next I tried using the camera in the lower part of the property. No luck there, either.

Finally, I moved the camera down the tree close to the ground with the bottom resting on a log. Using the built-in laser pointer I aimed the camera at a small rise a dozen feet away. Then I baited the rise with oranges, stale bread, and grease from the turkey fryer I used at Thanksgiving.

That did the trick. In this first batch of pictures you can see a possum, a raccoon, squirrels, and a cardinal that seems to be curious about the camera. The dog in the pictures is our Chow-Corgi mix, Shorty.

Mouse over pictures for captions. Click on any picture to see a larger image and enter the slideshow.

There's a mystery animal in that last photo. It must have been just inches in front of the camera lens looking away. I think it's a mammal, probably a squirrel or possibly a chipmunk, but it could be a bird. There's something on its head that almost looks like plumage. What do you think? Here's a full resolution crop:

Camera notes

• The camera seems very waterproof. I left it outdoors for a month with no condensation or leaks.
• Picture quality is nothing to write home about. I used Picasa to adjust the contrast and apply sharpening, but the pictures still aren't terribly clear. Given that the purpose of the camera is to confirm the presence of game animals and when they're active in the area I guess the quality is acceptable. If you're hoping to capture stunning wildlife photos, look elsewhere.
• The camera took 35 pictures over the course of about five days, the best of which are shown here. At that point the onboard 16 MB of memory was full. I've now dedicated a 256 MB SD memory card to the camera so it won't fill up again.
• After a month the batteries still had 50% of life remaining, though if the camera had taken more pictures the batteries would be more depleted.
• The order in which the pictures are downloaded from the camera is not always the same as the actual chronological order, as seen on the timestamps at the bottom of each picture.
• I'd prefer the camera to be camouflaged so that people would be less likely to see it and steal it. (The suburban animals in my yard didn't seem to mind it.) The camera is separate from the waterproof housing, so one possibility would be to apply camo tape to the housing or paint it a camo pattern.

Second Wildlife Pictures from the Moultrie Game Camera

[Imagine a bunch of low-res pictures of my dog eating food in the yard]

Note to self - the next time you bait the game camera don't take the dog with you. Otherwise you'll wind up with like 40 pictures of Shorty eating pizza and Christmas leftovers.

See also:
- First Wildlife Pictures from the Moultrie Game Camera

Took the Plunge on a Nikon D40 and a Photography Class

I did it. Today I signed up for an eight week non-credit photography class at the Univ. of Tenn. that starts next Monday.

I also ordered a Nikon D40 digital SLR. What persuaded me to go with the Nikon over the Canon was Ken Rockwell's recommendation. He's a pro photographer who owns much more expensive cameras but uses the D40 for most things. He especially likes the small size and weight, nice LCD, re-programmable menus, and color histograms. He also likes it better than the newer D40x, which saved me two hundred bucks. (FWIW, it's about time for Nikon Canon both to release new cameras in this class, so the lower price on the D40 is probably a pre-closeout price, which is OK by me.)

His explanation of histograms and their use in getting correct exposure was really persuasive, since exposure is so critical for taking good pictures. The D40 has color histograms that are easily accessible. Ken also has a free Nikon D40 guide.

The only other extras I bought were a $9 UV filter to protect the lens and a $13 wireless shutter release. I'll eventually buy some other lenses, a camera bag, and a speedflash, but I'll wait until I take the class and have a better idea of what to get.

Photography Class Looks Promising

I enjoyed the first class tonight. After all of the introductions and such we dipped into the basics of exposure and metering. For the first four classes we're doing everything in manual mode to force us to learn the basics.

P.S. - There was a center aisle in the classroom. The students somehow managed to segregate themselves almost completely, with Nikon owners on one side of the aisle and Canon owners on the other. There was roughly one each of Sony, Panasonic and Olympus cameras present.

Photo Class Field Trip to Downtown Knoxville

I haven't blogged about my photography class. We had our first field trip on Saturday morning. I took over 300 pictures and boy is my index finger tired. Here's the highlight reel.

I learned tons about photography in that one morning. I'm starting to get the hang of proper exposure.

One lesson I took to heart when I got home is that practically every picture looks better after a little judicious cropping.

LATER: Added more pics.

LATER2: You can see slides from the entire class here with the instructor's narration and his recommended changes with before and after photos. That second photo showing the Knoxville Convention Center is a cool composition. Lots of good field trip pics by Randy Sartin here.

Lenten Roses

I've always loved these ever since I was introduced to them at Ijam's Nature Center around the old cottage.

Note to self. Lenten roses are naturally droopy. Try to get down low next time and shoot up for a different perspective.

Photography Class Was Totally Worth It

Last night was the last night of the UT non-credit photography class. Sometimes you don't know how much you don't know until you learn a little. That was the case with my photography aspirations. In eight weeks I learned about proper manual exposure, handling high and low light reflectance lighting, setting custom white balance, photographing moving water, on- and off- camera flash, composing portraits, posing subjects, and much more.

Highly recommended. Tom Geisler of Tom Geisler Photography taught the class and he's aces. Tom is teaching an advanced followup class starting in four weeks. The Thursday class is full, so he's opened a Monday class. If I can make the time I'll take it. I also really, really liked my classmates and I'd like to take more classes with the same bunch.

See also:
- Took the Plunge on a Nikon D40 and a Photography Class
- Photography Class Looks Promising
- Photo Class Field Trip to Downtown Knoxville

Photographer's Rights

Downloadable flyer explaining photographer's rights.

Via Chris Wage in comments over at Music City Bloggers, discussing JP's run-in with Officer Friendly over his outlaw shutterbug ways.

Photoshopping the Curves
Cropping the hills
Someday the exposure might get him
But the law never will

Behold the Power of Cropping Photos

Since I took the photo class I've become a convert to aggressive photo cropping. Not just cropping out empty space, ugly utility poles, and random passersby that wandered into the frame, but actually cropping meat out of the picture with an eye towards improving the composition. I crop my photos now and so should you.

Here's an uncropped photo of Katie:

It's an OK picture, but there's boring space around the edges that can and should be removed. There are no utility poles here, but the camera caught the blue and white tips of my tennis shoes at the bottom. There's also a little bit of a white boat intruding at the top edge that's distracting. Let's crop all of that out:

Much better, and by cropping the useless stuff the subject (Katie) gets bigger because I'm still exporting the picture to the same 500 pixel size. That's a big advantage of cropping digital photos - you see more of what's important.

In principle cropping a digital photo throws away pixels. In practice most people rarely use the full resolution of today's multi-megapixel cameras. You're usually reducing the photo for email or the Web or 5 x 7 prints.

That first crop is an improvement, but it still lacks punch. It also has a very wide aspect ratio. Here's another crop that cuts away peripheral subjects on the left to improve the composition - hasta la vista little fishies:

That second crop moved Katie's noggin to the upper left powerpoint, and that gives the picture more impact. The powerpoints are the intersections of the grid that define the rule of thirds. Moving subjects from the center to one of the powerpoints will often improve a photo.

The Four Powerpoints

You can also crop pictures to move subjects or horizon lines away from the vertical center or horizontal center. The picture usually looks better if you put the horizon line (the ocean, a field, the top of a mountain range, etc.) either one-third or two-thirds of the way up the picture rather than putting it dead center.

Here are some even more aggressive crops:

New-to-me Photography Web Site I Like

Thom Hogan.

The Premo Dope

• Filtration 101
• Correcting Optical Distortion
• Meters Don't See 18% Gray
• Best explanation I've read of active vs. regular VR modes on Nikons
• Review of Nikon D40 and D40x
• Carrying the Camera 101

Took the Plunge on a Photoshop for Photographers Class

I really wanted to take the advanced fundamentals class at UTK, but I couldn't commit to the eight weeks and two field trips right now. Instead I signed up for a four week non-credit Photoshop class. I've gotten a glimpse of what I can do with Photoshop and I'm looking forward to learning more.

Oddly enough the four week Photoshop class is actually slightly more expensive than the eight week class, I guess because the classes are held in a university computer lab and Computer Services likes to get paid. Still, no complaints. Both classes are a bargain at under $200.

Henley and West Clinch, Downtown Knoxville, TN

Camera Makers Introduce New Features

TOKYO- The new quarter is bring a fresh crop of cameras at the Japan Photo Expo. Canon's vice president of sales Kim Natachi explained the challenge this year. "We asked ourselves 'how can we assure people that they won't regret purchasing a new camera no matter what happens to the economy'." That's why the new Canons have presets for eBay Auction, Foreclosure Party, and Insurance Fire.

Nikon, meanwhile, is taking a more fun-loving approach. "We're keeping up with America's changing taste in leisure time activities," says Nikon USA Marketing Director Mike Lowry. "We're adding to our traditional scene modes like Sports, Fireworks, and Night Party with a dedicated scene mode for Sex With Paris Hilton. It completely eliminates green skin tones and raccoon eyes during poorly lit romps with hotel heiresses."

Why I Love Nextag and Other Price Comparison Services

My day job is running an e-commerce operation. As part of that job I advertise on price comparison services. It's well worth it - I get great ROI by advertising our products on price comparison services. The people who visit those sites are in the final stages of buying. They want a reputable company who can deliver the product at a good price. Selling to those people is the easiest, quickest, most straight-forward transaction between an eager buyer and an eager seller.

Likewise, I use those price comparison services when I'm shopping for my personal use. I've used them to buy computer equipment, stereo equipment, and, lately, camera equipment.

My favorite of the bunch is Nextag.com. I've been shopping camera lenses on Amazon and Nextag. Amazon lists the features, has reviews from people who have bought the lens, and even has sample images taken by customers who bought the lens.

What Amazon doesn't have is the best price. One lens I'm looking at sells for $479 on Amazon. Checking the price on Nextag I found several online vendors offering it for around $400.

Nextag also offers user reviews of the products. Better yet, they have user reviews of the sellers, so you know who to shop with and who to avoid. I also like their price history graph showing the change in price over time:

I sometimes use Nextag's price alert service. Enter your email address and a target price and Nextag will email you when the price drops below that amount.

One little-noticed feature of Nextag is a record of the date the product first appeared on the site. I've occasionally used that to get a ballpark estimate of when a product was introduced.

Tip for consumers - The price search results are not sorted by price. That's typical of price comparison services (but not Google P