Minotaur Rock Star, Bellingham 2012-05-05 [wallpaper]
This guy (or gal) was rockin’ the scene at the 2012 Procession of the Species.
minotaur @ bellingham procession of species 1920×1500 2012-05-05
Picnic Table [wide desktop]
![Picnic Table [wide desktop]](http://bitratchet.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/2012-11-22-ravenna-park-4000x1280.jpg?w=590)
Ravenna Park 2012-11-22 The more of these macro panoramas I stitch together, the more limitations I learn about. First, getting the most coverage on a subject is hard to concentrate on (notice gaps at bottom). Second, shifting laterally left and right makes lining up control points difficult because you can’t match up the images. Third: the un-focused areas are hard for Hugin to match up.
Split Bark macro panorama [wide wallpaper]
This one came out probably wide enough for four panorama monitors.
cracked bark panorama
Samish Bay Log
This is an attempt at a macro-panorama. I found an unexpected bit of color in the enhancement which gives it a bit of a wild edge. I might post a b+w version, let me know if you’d like to see it.
Samish Bay Panorama
From Camp Kirby
Two 3x Monitor Backgrounds from Deception Pass
I had good fun with my camera on Memorial Day. Been a while since I filled up a memory card.
Since I have such a nice computer at work, I’ve decided that I refocus my photography towards landscapes, and put out multi-desktop wallpapers.
Bellingham Air Museum
I like the phrase “starter crank.” I loved planes as a boy, but now I’m bitter about the symbolism. Is this an attempt to poke at jingoism? I love the tone of the shiny metal, truly.
HIgher res available.
Alley Van, Bellingham, 2010
The side of a van I saw tonight. I’ve got another picture that shows how tidily this van is parked, patching a hole in the fence of it’s yard.
Alley Van, Bellingham, 2010
Whatcom Creek, 2010
I was able to prop the camera against a signpost and get this 1 second exposure with my 28mm lens. Sometimes I’ll start some post-processing, get a bit frustrated, and come back to it after puzzling it out in the back of my head after a while. It getting texture I visualized for the water involved playing with grayscale layer for a while, coupled with a dodging layer on the top to restore the level of the mist that morning.
Whatcom Creek Bridge 2010
I’m going to start making all the desktop pictures 1680×1050 now.
Grass Pod, Razar State Park, 2009
I really like this one. I was able to get a good, distant background and multiplication darkened it easily.
Grass Pod, Razar State Park, 2009
Thistles, Bellingham, 2010
I enjoyed the tiny bit of “sun” today and cruised some alleyways. I’ve gained a used Vivitar 28mm f2.5 M42 lens. This is the first lens that I’ve noticed a big difference in “quality” of the light. I mostly use modern lenses with smooth aspherical properties that make a picture seem evenly bright. The low-exposure areas drop off pretty steeply, and it meters the highlights differently. So with my Sigma zoom, I’ll get a 1/10th exposure at f2.8, but it will appear brighter than the 1/15th f2.5 exposure with this Vivitar. (I’m sure you think I’ve been swindled.) There are some homely reasons I like this vivitar lens, though. It’s focusing is stiffer, and the minimum focusing distance is about 4 inches…I can treat it like a macro lens and I’m not so afraid I’m going to wear this lens out as with the Sigma. The Tamron and Sigma lenses I have feel very fragile.
Thistles, Bellingham, 2010
This is also the first picture I’ve used a map/distortion filter on. I mapped the picture to a tilted plan in order to reduce the parallax in the picture. That was my biggest problem with the composition, the “looking down at” point of view in the picture made it look a lot cheaper. If it still looks cheap, let me know…I can take it.
Grass Blossom, Razar State Park, 2009
A bit more colorful than some of the others. I really like how my 50mm can focus in pretty close without needing to use extension rings.
Grass Blossom, Razar State Park, 2009
Grass, Razar State Park, 2009
I think this was one of the better desktop pictures, I think.
Grass, Razar State Park, 2009
Branches, Razar State Park, 2009
This “short walk” turned into a mini photo-safari. When I got back to camp, I had to pack everything up.
Branches, Razar State Park, 2009
Bark #1, Razar State Park, 2009
This is one of about a dozen pleasant images of bark. I was having fun with my shallow depth of field. Razar State Park was pleasant, except for the droves of mosquitoes.
Bark #1, Razar State Park, 2009
Driftwood, Point Roberts, 2006
I don’t clearly recall this trip. I think I was on autopilot the whole time, getting used to a life of small kids, constant server failures, lots of caffeine and less sleep. It must have involved crossing the border. I wonder if this was the trip we tried visiting the UBC campus and got lost trying to get back to Freeway 1 to get home. Probably. The signage in Vancouver BC sucked. Miracle we made it out with our lives.
Driftwood, Point Roberts, 2006
Is there something wrong with the balance of this photo? How would you crop it differently? I find a lot of interesting elements, but I think I study it too much. Should it focus on the rock, or the shadowy face it paints?
Gears, Semiahmoo Spit, 2006
I have visited Semiahmoo Spit twice. Each time, I’ve been impressed with the amount of driftwood along the spit. I took lots of photos of the driftwood. Few of those pictures seem interesting to me now. However, a fun experiment with some pictures of old machinery on the spit still shows sparkle. I often don’t use edge-detection techniques, but in this case, it gave the geometry of the gears a crisp punch that I like.
Gears, Semiahmoo Spit, 2007
Sunset, Iron Springs, 2009
A nascent family tradition is to spend a weekend at Iron Springs. I was quite pleased that I was able to get some sunset pictures out of it. I don’t often take my camera near a wet beach. This time I was, and running around wildly shooting up the landscape.
This one makes a better desktop background I think.
Sunset, Iron Springs, 2009, 2
I make a black border around the print versions for framing purposes. Often the cropping of the image doesn’t match a premade 8×10 or 10×14 matte. It also allows me to not worry about aspect ratio. The black can be trimmed or cropped however.
Sunset, Iron Springs, 2009
Boats, Morro Bay, 2009
My father’s parents lived together for many years near Morro Bay. I visit there to see grandma Mary and bring the kids. Morro Rock is an impressive piece of geology, but it’s not in this picture. I was able to capture the weathering of the boats at the dock that day. I also got some blurry pictures of harbor seals, too.
Boats, Morro Bay, 2009
While this might not make the smoothest desktop background, I think it makes a great print. I upload the print pictures at around 14×12 inch 300 dpi resolution.
Log, Samish Island
This was an early morning shot from Samish Island. I like the “inverted” lighting from the low sun angle. I was impressed that I could get the depth of field just on the log and the trees in the background were out focusing range.
Log, Samish Island, 2009
While I was on Samish Island, I was present for some very interesting conversations about bicycling. I found a few people there that had done quite a bit of biking, from Alaska and other parts of the nation. I have found that talking about cycling is so much more fun than talking about computers and software.
Bell Telephone Sign
I saw this at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California. Jesse was just getting over a cold and Liam was getting badgered by me to drink water. It was only about 99F that day. I got to see the inside of a diesel train, that was neato.
Bell Telephone Sign, Orange Empire Railway Museum, Perris, CA, 2008
Once again, angles and geometry. The Bell System is the forefather of my work…Unix and Linux and what.
