Shopping Expressions

Worried looks accompany the average male during the Christmas shopping season. While this was taken at the end of October I bet that young man is still walking around with the same harried look.

My quest for a graphics tablet is complete. The Wacom Graphire4 arrived yesterday from Pixmania. As I promised to myself, I haven’t opened it yet and won’t do so until Christmas Day, or after because the 25th is going to be so busy!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/640s

Oh those lines!

Pedestrians gather at the traffic lights on Grand Parade and wait to cross a busy city-center street. Yes I got a few funny looks as I crouched down with my camera but I’m used to it by now!

This was a construction site a few months ago but work is progressing well and most of the work is done.

This was an entry in the MCC Patterns around us competition a few weeks back.

The city shoot last night with the club was a great success. I didn’t have a tripod with me and in the dark that posed a challenge sometimes but at other times it was a blessing. There’s enough street furniture to rest a camera on if needed.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s

The anxious look

A young woman looks around anxiously in the crowd filled St. Patrick’s Street before she crosses at the traffic lights.

I was standing on one of the new marble blocks shooting a scene across the road when I saw the gathering crowd below me at the traffic lights. I saw the glance and quick as a flash I got the shot. It was originally slightly blurry but a little bit of b/w conversion and a duplicate layer with a touch of blur set to screen mode created a nice effect.

  • I like this: Looking up.
  • David J. Nightingale of Chromasia fame announced that another baby is on the way for him and his wife. Congratulations on that, and on going into the photography full time!
  • I never knew there was so much trouble over Photo.net.
  • 10 Dollar camera?
  • Legoize any image. That’s definitely something I’ll try out! (via)

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/160s

Bike Lane

Riding a bike anywhere on today’s streets is almost a suicidal pursuit but bike lanes help. Here a bus drove past as I took this shot in an urban tunnel in downtown San Francisco.

Aperture ƒ/22
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/1.3s

Ready to go!

You better be good at hill starts if you live in San Francisco! I presume it’s slightly easier with an automatic transmission rather than manual?

Highly processed image via multiple tools in the GIMP until I came up with an effect I liked – multiple layers, b/w, gaussian blur, layer modes and more.
I had to rotate the image at first and reconstruct parts of the image, but I think it came out reasonably well!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/250s

White and Red

Tourists in the town of Dingle walk along a street in late September.

I love the contrast between white and red and yet the two houses mirror each other in other ways. This was another entry in the Mallow Camera Club’s Patterns Around Us competition.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 72mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1600s

Yellow Boxes

Yellow boxes on the junction of Bridge Street and Patrick’s Bridge in Cork. It’s illegal to enter a yellow box if you can’t exit as has happened with a few cars here.

This image was entered in the Patterns Around Us competition along with my Autumn Leaf but this was my favourite one because of the strong colours and unusual contrasting effect.

How I did this: take an ordinary photo and clean it up, fixing levels and all the usual things. Duplicate layer, then play around with the top layer and the curves tool, creating a curve with two waves. You’ll see unusual rainbow hues and the colours will be distorted in other ways too. Now, change the mode of the layer. Each mode will make the image look different, but I settled on “Grain Merge” for the final effect here.

PS. the Blogger’s Dinner last night was most excellent. Luigi’s staff did an outstanding job at creating a tasty meal!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

Little Communion Girl

A girl dressed in a communion dress and veil walks with her mother through the crowds on St. Patrick’s Street Cork on Saturday. Dressed as she is, she looks almost lost but the crowd parted way for her and her parents.

I don’t know why she was dressed like that. First Communion ceremonies aren’t until next year. Is it a communion dress? Could she be a bridesmaid or flower girl at a wedding?

Two of my photos may be entered into the Irish Photographic Federation’s National Shield as part of the Mallow Camera Club entry. They need fairly large prints which is a bit of a problem but of they’re suitable I’ll link to them in a few days. The competition will be held in Portlaoise on the 12th of November so I’ll be eagerly waiting for the results! I’m not the only blogger entering. Jonathan Hill is entering too!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/400s

Go faster! Go faster!

A young girl in a buggy leans forward as her mother pushes her along St. Patrick’s Street, Cork. Looks like her mother was busy shopping in Penney’s and elsewhere so I’m sure she’ll look forward to getting home!

I like this: This Flight Tonight, and make sure you download the linked video tutorial. The statement that an “adjustment layer is a normal layer with a layer map on top” struck a chord with me. The GIMP doesn’t support adjustment layers and the technique he used, by rubbing out some of the map of an upper layer is one I’ve used in the GIMP previously.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Playing with the sea lions on Pier 39

A girl clambers over the statue of two sea lions on Pier 39, San Francisco. This pier is where people embark on the journey to Alcatraz Island and it was packed with tourists. Luckily Toni booked our tickets a few days previously and we were able to walk straight onto the boat!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/320s

Looking down from on high

Looking down on a street in San Francisco. You wouldn’t want to be afraid of heights walking around on top of a building!

We all want to see what the neighbours are up to and living in a high building is the perfect opportunity of peeping-toms everywhere. You can see all sorts of things – a parasol with lounger across the street, garden furniture, a tree; all invisible from street level.

The postman has been and delivered 100 minicards from moo.com! I ordered 100 duplicates in the order as well so I hope they’re on the way too. I got in touch with their customer service people just in case and am waiting on a reply from them now. Later – I got my reply. The duplicate cards are a separate order and were shipped separately. Should be here in a day or two!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s

Lady at the lights

If looks could kill! I don’t know who she was looking at but she doesn’t look happy!

Pictured on the corner of Washington Street and Grand Parade a few days ago while we waited for the traffic lights to change. Finn’s Corner, a sports clothes shop, has been on that corner for years and St. Augustine’s Catholic Church is visible just down the road. I’ve never been in that church despite it’s central location. It’s so well integrated into the street scape that it’s easy to forget it’s there.

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s