Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Almost a Disaster
After I read quite a bit about DNG vs RAW (for example), I decided to use DNG as my basic photo format and abandon storing everything in RAW. The biggest reason is that Nikon RAW is a Nikon format, and they’re free to change it at any time. Yes, I know DNG is an Adobe format, but they’ve submitted it to ISO and they’ve published the spec, so it’s a lot less likely to be made obsolete.
Fortunately Lightroom 2 has a built-in DNG converter which makes the conversion fairly painless. Unless, like me, you’ve been moving files about in Explorer and putting the Lightroom catalogue out of synch with your files! The conversion stops dead when it meets an unmovable file.
The first few times this happened, it was down to user permissions. Adding myself as owner to all the photo directories quickly took care of that.
Then it happened again for missing file. They weren’t really missing of course, I’d moved them for one reason or another and hadn’t updated Lightroom. Lightroom quickly updates itself when you show it where the file is.
And then there are the missing missing files – files that I’ve deleted for whatever reason. I just confirmed that they really were missing, and removed them from the catalogue.
And that’s when the headaches begin. Because Lightroom has 2 levels of selection – all the photos you’ve selected in a subtle highlight, and the actual photo you are currently working on is highlighted in a brighter shade. And dumbwits here hits the “delete” button when there’s 700 odd photos selected.
Now it would be really useful for Lightroom to have a fool-proof dialogue that says “Hey stupid, you’re deleting more than 5 photos, are you really sure?” for example. But it doesn’t and of course neither will it let you cancel the operation. So the photos are gone from the catalogue.
Not a disaster, because they’re still on the disk. But all the metadata is gone. I don’t care about the adjustments, but I’m a keen metadater, and I can’t face having to re-work all the metadata for 700 photos!
OK, let’s think about this.
All the photos are still on the disk. So I don’t need to get them back from backup.
The catalogue was backed up before I started the DNG conversion. So that’s no good, because the catalogue won’t find the .DNG files as it’s looking for .NEF files.
Solution – launch the backup catalogue, write-to-file the metadata for the deleted photos, re-launch the current catalogue, import the missing photos and read-from-file all the metadata for those photos.
As I use a date-based archive method (photos are stored just by date and nothing else) I knew exactly which files had been deleted from the catalogue. It was simple (but slow) to write the sidecare .XMP metadata files, and just as simple to re-read the data for those files.
Phew.
This shows the important of good organization and having recent backups!
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Luci nella notte
Sonia has posted a beautiful photo of Marzamemi – taken outside the old church (bombed in WWII) this photo shows the renovation of the old piazza. Sonia remembers when it was all overgrown and was one of the main roads in the village – now it’s (mostly) pedestrianised and at nighttime it’s full of people and kids just walking about, sitting at the outdoor cafes etc.
The arch in the background is an aquaduct for bringing water from a well inside the church to the palace next door.
Photo Book!
I surprised Sonia when I got back from Dublin – with Erika’s help on the Italian, I’ve produced my very first book on Blurb!
I managed to convince her for several seconds that I’d bought a book in Dublin that had a cover image amazingly similiar to the photo of the old lady that Sonia took in San Vito lo Capo, titled Indietro nel tempo; ecco;
She didn’t even realise that the photo on the back was the one she took in Belfast, which unfortunately isn’t in Flickr, but you can see it on the book preview.
And it was only when she opened the book and saw more of her photos that she copped on. What a fantastic reaction. Made all the sweat worthwile.
Of course then she started pointing out my grammer and spelling mistakes in Italian, so we sat down, corrected it, and re-ordered a few more copies! So go to Blurb and buy some!
Tagged with Blurg, Flickr, Italia, Italy, Sicilia, Sicily,Photobook, Photography, Self-Publishing
Images of Thoughts
For once I’ve something good to write about (a lot of Sicilians complain that I write too negatively abouut Sicily, which isn’t true at all, it’s just the negative things get me worked up more than the positive things!)
So here’s to Luigi – one of those genuinely good guys that everyone likes, and a regular at Flickr Palermo meets. Obviously he’s a keen photographer and I can’t count the number of times I’ve bumped into him at various concerts and events, always with his Canon, always with a smile and a keen eye for a good photo.
So when I heard that Luigi is launching a photographic exhibition at the MiKalsa bar, I was keen to get along.
Fortunately Sonia was able to swap shifts at work so at 21:30 we found a decent parking spot nearby and arrived to find Pepe and Rojo digging into some dinner, with the rest inside. Sonia certainly considers it an unmissable event, and I’d have to agree.
He’s titled it “Le Immagine del Pensiero”, which translates sortof to “Thoughtful Images”, which sounds a lot better in Italian than it does in English. Maybe I’m just a bad translator. Luigi has based the exibition on his more recent work, reflecting his recent focus on portraits and character studies of his friends.
All the dozen or images are extremely good – some I’ve previously seen on Flickr but many are premiered at the exhibition. Each photo has a small quote from literature attached, a little “pensiero”. My personal favourite; this.
So get along if you can, and if you can’t, get onto Flickr and leave some comments!
Tags; 
ilmareintempsesta, 
mikalsa, 
flickr
My Ireland
These are some of the images A’Mio has captured on some of her many trips to Ireland. I particularly like the shot of the GPO and the Spike, which has a great angle.
A new purchase – again!
Seeing as how Sonia has been reluctant to use the dSLR (on the basis that I’m a selfish bastard and won’t let her, which is entirely true), and now knows too much to be satisfied with a compact, Erika and I have decided collectively to buy a new dSLR just for Sonia. As the D80 is more for a film SLR user who is moving to digital, I reckoned that the D40 is more suitable for Sonia, who is learning how to use an SLR. The D40 differs from the D80 in that it’s considerably smaller and lighter, has fewer function buttons (although everything can be accesed via the menu system) and is a lot cheaper.
Well, that was until Erika decided on the D40x, which is another Eur200, but has the same CCD has the D80. I tried to say that having 10 megapixels as opposed to 6 isn’t a huge deal when one’s talking about an entry-level dSLR, but Erika wasn’t buying it, so off we went to Randazzo again to check out prices.
As happens, once at Randazzo we spotted a D40x kit with two lenses, the standard 18-55mm, and the new 55-200mm VR, for Eur180 more. As that VR lens costs over Eur300 on it’s own, we decided to get that instead. The comessa was the same woman who sold me the D80 so she remembered me (who wouldn’t, after having had to wait 10 minutes while I was queuing to talk to Ulster Bank to get the transaction authorised!) and she threw in a Eur30 discount off the camera, which with the Eur90 discount that Nikon have included, means that the new lens is basically free! We did have to wait a good half hour while she chatted with a friend, and checked every piece of the camera (not wanting us to return with a busted camera and claim that it was broken when we opened it), all of which was eating into my lunch hour!
But the best moment was when we surprised Sonia with her new camera – I distracted her whilst Erika snuck the camera into the apartment. Distraction was easy as she was checking out flickr, and by complete co-incidence found a fantastic shot by some block of some dolphins, which he’d done with a D40x. After Sonia failed to pick up on some blatent hints (“Hey, maybe we should buy another lens…” “Hey, here’s my SECOND camera bag that…” etc.) I eventually said “Well if you had that camera you’d be able to take that shot…” and Sonia finally took the bait, which allowed us to make her close her eyes (and open her mouth, must be some Sicilian thing…) and I whipped out the box…
…and Sonia started crying. WTF? Emotional, these Sicilians, very very emotional!
Suffice to say she loves her new camera (possibly more than she loves me), saying things like “che carina!” and how light it is for her and how easy to use. So next, a trip somewhere for Sonia to try out her new dSLR.
Demons of DSLR
Well it’s pretty clear that using a dLSR has it’s good points and it’s bad. The good of course is instant review of the shot I’ve just taken, and not having to pay to develop the film.
The bad is taking 500 shots and not one of them is publishable. I read somewhere that anyone can take photos, the skill of a good photographer is choosing the one photo that should be published. Not having to worry about the correct exposure (as I can check it straightaway on the LCD) means that I’m snapping all sorts of crap, some of which I immediately delete, others which I delete when I download to the computer. Not having bothered to read the manual (‘cos it’s in Italian!) I didn’t initially know what the other settings on the dial were for 
But now I know. I have to say I still find the Program setting too pernickity, so I’m usually shooting in Aperture or Shutter modes. Messed up quite a few pictures at the festival in Modica (more in another post) but also got a few that I really like and will probably post to Flickr when I get half a chance.
The other thing I’m learning is that it’s really really hard for me to explain SLR technique in Italian! Sonia is keen to learn, and is quite a good shot with the Nikon compact that she has, but going from a compact to a dSLR is a big leap (unless you want to use Auto all the time) and I can’t get across important info about shutter & aperture, which is very frustrating for me, ‘cos I’d love to help her, and frustrating for her, ‘cos she sees me getting annoyed (at myself). The other thing is that I’m suffering from a serious case of new-toy-syndrome, and get all fidgety when the camera is out of my hands, worried that someone will drop it or something! 
Well we’ll just have to see how we get on.
Modica
Just back from Modica, where they were having the Palio della Contea, a festival. It’s a good distance from Marzememi to Modica, and the roads aren’t great, so it was a long trip, especially for Sonia who was driving.
Modica itself is another city which was largely rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake, and thus is hugely important for it’s Baroque architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. But we weren’t there for the architecture (I’ve had enough Baroque in Noto, thanks!), but rather the Palio, which has it’s origins in the battles between Roger II and the Arabs in the 13th century, and basically is a bunch of horsemen with lances racing up and down a course, collecting rings which are attached to points along the way. The horseman with the most rings and the fastest time wins.
Modica has the honour of having served me the worst food I’ve ever eaten in Sicily – some sort of foglia with mushrooms which looked and tasted like a sheaf of Kleenex that’s been dipped in mushroom soup. I threw mine away but Sonia was hungry and ate all of her’s, which she regretted later when she started feeling ill! However on the good side, Modica boasts a unique type of chocolate, all crumbly and full of cocoa crystals. Not the sort of chocolate you’d eat like a Mars Bar, but the sort that you’d nibble on one piece after dinner as a desert. Fanstastic.
The failing light caused problems for me (dusk is fast in Sicily) and I’m still struggling with the new camera, so I don’t have a lot of good shots of the initial parade (a bunch of young people dressed up as medieval nobility and others carrying flags or playing music), and then a parade of the horsemen (about 20 in all) with attendent groomsmen, also all dressed up medieval style. I do have a few good shots of that, we’ll see what I load up to Flickr.
And after that, the tournament began – one by one, the horsemen entered the course, picked up their lance, and were off, racing full tilt down the course. Luckily I was quite near one of the rings, and near enough to a second, so I was able to snap some images with lots of movement. I didn’t notice at first that the rings got smaller as the competitor went along, with the first ring being the biggest and the last (15 in all) being the smallest. All good fun but after 15 riders, I got a bit bored and Sonia and I took off for the end of the course where there was a turning circle, in the hope of snapping some action shots there, but the crowd was 10 deep so we gave up and went off to get some chocolate and get back to Marzamemi before it got too late.
A new purchase – purchased!
Allora, Sonia and I took a trip down to the Randazzo in Palermo city centre to have a look at cameras. Due to the usual terrible service (the display camera didn’t have a battery and the sales girl didn’t feel like getting one) we took ourselves to another Randazzo where a very helpful guy let me play with the D80. Unfortunately it was another Eur100 more expensive there than in the city centre, so to the city centre we returned and made our purchase.
The new sales girl tried to fob off an 18-70mm lens for a Eur70 discount, but thanks to Ken Rockwell’s excellent site I had already compared that lens with the 18-135mm and firmly turned her down. If she’d been offering a deal with an 18-55mm lens, then I’d be happy to save a few hundred euros, or if they offered the 18-200m VR lens, I would snapped it up for a few hundred more.
And so Sonia and I have spent a few pleasant days snapping shots of Palermo and each other. I think that having a dSLR will make me a lot sloppier and trigger happy. I’ll probably start taking less and less care about light, composition, etc. and just let the camera worry about exposure and f-stop – that’s the diff between paying Eur14 to have 24 shots developed, and being able to knock off 250 shots in an afternoon and pick the ones you like the best!
That said I’ve quickly figured out how to work the Manual, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority and Program Auto modes. It’s been fun (sometimes) showing Sonia how to judge f-stops and shutter speeds, and being able to immediately contrast shot-A with shot-B on the LCD. Let’s hope we get a lot more fun out of it before the joy pales.
A new purchase
Since meeting the a Flickr Palermo group at the Punta di Vista exhibition, it’s come to my mind that my ancient Cosina CT1, fantastic camera and all, is just not up to the standards of todays’ amateur photographer.
So the next step is to find out which dSLR I want to get. Easily solved, in my price range, the Nikon D80. Easy peasy.
Next, the lens. Ah, now there’s the rub!
I have 3 lenses for my Cosina, two 50mm fixed lenses (one of considerably better quality than the other) and a Toshina 80-200mm telephoto lens. The better 50mm lens goes out to f1.4 – this is obviously quite big and takes great landscape and portrait shots. It’s also pretty fantastic indoors, that huge aperture lets in a lot of light.
When I want a better framed shot I’ll turn to the Toshina, which supports f2.8. Not so good for indoors, and the times I’ve forgotten to lug the 50mm to cathedrals or shows, I’ve really regretted it, ‘cos the Toshina takes crap pictures indoors. I have to fiddle a lot with the exposure and speed, and use a tripod, to get usable images.
So here’s the dilemna, the Nikon comes with a Nikkor DX 18-135mm, which is a good camera and all, but at max it’s only f3.5. It’ll still take good pictures, but camera-shake is gonnna be a problem. Is it worth the money to upgrade to, say, the Nikkor DX 18-200mm with Vibration Reduction – by all accounts this is some pretty neat technical trickery to steady the sensor. At almost Eur700 (as opposed to under Eur300 for the 18-135mm) it’s a lot of money to pay for being able to take better low-light shots.
