Photography

[Ray]

I have had an, on again, off again, love affair with photography since I bought my first Pentax S1a in Hong Kong in 1966. Unfortunately, me not having an artistic bone in my body, my love affair has been a somewhat one sided.

The S1a was the finest affordable SLR in existence when I bought it having won the First Prize at the PhotoKina in Munich the year previously. I loved that camera but was always frustrated by the cost of photography and the difficulty in getting films developed and returned to me. I lost several over the years. Every photo was carefully considered, as it was not a cheap exercise to just go snapping off shots willy nilly, and generally you were limited to 24 or 36 shots per film.  I have lived to regret this as over the years I was lucky enough to see much of the world, but have very few photos to show for it.

My next big step was to purchase a Digital camera, I remember seeing them many years earlier bulky lumps that used a single 3.5" Floppy disk to save the images. The whole concept fascinated me, but at the time I could not justify buying one. It was not until  the late 1990s that I finally made the break, buying a Kodak DC290 with 3x zoom lens.  This model was at the end of it's time, and cameras had been marked down from $1599 to $1399, a terrific saving.

This camera was with me everywhere and as a result it became damaged when I knocked it off a drum in the Engine Room of a vessel I was working on. Nothing, it just ceased working,... sooo, having invested a considerable amount of money I took it back to the dealers where i was informed tht I could leave it with them and they would fix it, but first I must pay $590....   I was not a happy camper, but with no real alternative. I did it, and a month or more later it was posted back to me, working and seemingly as good as new. The package also contained the faulty display panel and a short explanation of what had been done.  

Next time I down loaded my photos, I noticed that they all had a distinct lean to the left, they were rotated about 1 degree anti clockwise, I was thoroughly disgusted,... but not wanting to be without a camera for another month plus having all the associated hassles of negotiating with the dealers. How could I convince them that their factory service had overlooked this error? So,  just decided that I would have to compensate for it and move on. Other than this, it was a great little camera taking nice clear shots with excellent light gathering lens.
Below is a photo taken deep in the bowels of an onboard Abalone farm, situated in the hold of a ship. There is no artificial light and the little that there was , was coming through the partly open hatch cover 6 metres above and 20 metres away. The camera flash illuminated the foreground but the remainder was purely natural light.


To be continued....

[utegirl70]

You sure you weren't just "leaning" to the left?!   

[Ray]

You sure you weren't just "leaning" to the left?!   

You are very cheeky today young lady,.... but upon reflection, you might just have something there.   I thought that it was to compensate for the roll of the ship,.....

[utegirl70]

  

Welcome back!

[Ray]

 

Welcome back!

Arrr, Thankee me hearty, it's enough to warm the cockles of an old seafarer's heart

Back to photography.

After having dropped my Kodak, and had it repaired at considerable expense, I was never really happy with it again and I was always on the look out for a new camera, eventually settling on the newly released Canon S5 IS which is an intermediate camera, neither a pocket camera nor a true DSLR. I have been very pleased with the results I have achieved with mine and although I can't say my shots are technically good, they are just what I want and i guess that's all that counts in the end. I think that nearly all of the photos of mine on this site have been taken with this camera.

An example of 12X magnification below. No fumbling around changing lenses, just point and shoot.



I have found this camera to be very handy especially for those people interested in outdoor activities being both compact and versatile with an inbuilt 12X tele lens and also video capability.

To be continued.....

[utegirl70]

Look at what someone got for their birthday!! A Cannon EOS 1000D!   

Gonna be having fun with that!!!!!

[utegirl70]

Oh good.... the attachment worked.  

[Ray]

My!, my,... what a good little girl you must have been.

I was in Adelaide yesterday picking up TLW  after a couple of weeks over in WA, which is why your card hasn't arrived as yet.

But,...

Many Happy Returns for Yesterday!

That is a beautiful camera, we are all looking forward to seeing some of your shots.

[Ray]

I'm still learning to use my Christmas prezzie.

I bought it on a whim a couple of days after Christmas. we were going down to Adelaide to have a belated Christmas with the daughter and son in law, when we stopped at Munno Para to get  a present for them. I had seen the Hardlly Normal ad in the previous Saturday's paper and even TLW thought that it was a good deal.

When i saw the bundled price alongside the list RRP, I just thought, "I'm gunna kick myself if I don't take advantage of this".  The whole deal nearly came to an early end when a bloke ahead of me bought the last one in stock. I asked the salesman what could be done and he rang the new Shopping Town store at Gepps Cross and got them to put one aside for me. After a mad rush to Gepps Cross, and waiting for 40 minutes I finally got served, it was a mad house. I came bundled with 18 - 55mm and 70 -300mm lenses.

I am still learning, and still being lazy, using the Auto setting for nearly all my shots, but I am very happy with it. I just love the 18mm wide angle, now I didn't know how I ever did without it, it's fantastic for inside piccies. Your camera has almost the identical lens.

[utegirl70]

Awwww, shucks Ray.. *blushing*  Thank you!!

OH! 'TLW' was over in WA?! Hope she enjoyed the weather...did she witness that freak storm?

WOW.. that's an impressive camera.

 I've been reading my destructions for nigh on three days now! (Got the camera on Saturday..'MOTH' organised a surprise 40th party)
I too have only been using the auto setting for now..though did some shots yesterday experimenting with macro. I love macro.
My brother will be giving me some help after Easter on all the techiques, and he's got different filters that I can use.

I hope to get out over the LWE and practice some...

[Ray]

Yes, it was decided that it was time for a four generation family photo shoot.  TLW went over a few days early, and stayed on for a few days after so that they didn't all depart at once. From all accounts it was a great success.

Like all blokes, I don't read instructions,...  but I  do a good job of destroying the evidence of my failures, which luckily have been few and far between. Although there have been a great percentage of spectacularly unremarkable photos though, with no depth of field, blurry and out of focus.  I tell people that it's "Art".

[utegirl70]

Like all blokes, I don't read instructions,...    I tell people that it's "Art".

Lol! Yeah, the other half is exactly the same. He got a new watch for Chrissy, and it keeps on beeping at like, midnight... "Read the destructions!" I say... he wont.

[Ray]

Lol! Yeah, the other half is exactly the same. He got a new watch fro Chrissy, and it keeps on beeping at like, midnight... "Read the destructions!" I say... he wont.

Now there's a wise man, if he had read the instructions it would still beep at midmnight, and he'd also know that the instructions were originally written by a mentally deficient monkey in some long forgotten Mongolian dialect and then translated into "Engrish" via a web translator.

[Ray]

Oooh,....  aaah,...... I thunk I took another nice pichergraph,  I like it anyway.

Yesterday i was returning home from having taken some photos of the new waste water treatment plant and storage dams and I decided to call in and see Ned O'Brien our local horse breaker and farrier (horse shoer bloke), Shoer?? is there any such word? Well, if there wasn't, there is now.

As I turned into his driveway I met him coming out with two of the students of "Ned's Academy".  Now because at least one of the horses was liable to be newly broken, I pulled to one side at a distance to let them approach, and at the same time thought that it might be a good opportunity to get a photo while they were still at a distance lest the flash go off on the camera. It was a rushed photo, but when i saw it I liked it straight away.  I haven't got an artistic bone in my body, nor have I any idea of "technically good" photography,... but it struck me as being one of my better shots.

Because it was taken from a greater distance than the photo would indicate, I have cropped it and also just lightened it up a little, it was quite overcast and dark at the time.

I haven't seen any of Utegirl's photos yet,... what happened to that nice camera you got?

[utegirl70]

Oh, nice work Ray!

And, OMG! Ned O'Brien!! Heh, Geez, I seem to recall good ol' "Snooky" was NOT a big fan of Ned, or visa versa. 

Great photo... very good capture indeed.

Yeah... I've not taken too many photos to be honest. But if you'd like a look at some of my attempts, you can do so here... http://utesphotography.blogspot.com/