Urban – Page 139 – In Photos dot Org

The broom at 187

Walking through the urban environment the seemingly normal assortment of rubbish or objects can make an image that bit more interesting. This was taken in August, but guess who forgot to bring in the Christmas lights?

Oh yes, a small tip if you’re adding noise to an image. You’ll need to do it twice. Once for your full size image, and a second time when you resize. After resizing noise, it gets blurred and is nowhere near as effective.

PS. I really like An Incidental Shot – the photographer who’s quick off the mark will get the shot!

PPS. Micki has finished blogging on Shutterbug Underexposed and she’ll be missed. Many blogs have fallen by the wayside over the past 2 years, but it takes time and it’s not always easy to find that time.

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/100s

The red and white man

The red and white man

A street entertainer on stilts entertained the crowd at the Midleton Food and Drink Festival last September. I took photos of him in Cork too and I think he recognised me and my wife as he made a beeline for us and stopped to chat.

This was shot from below as he was towering over us, but I cropped a much larger shot. I used flash to illuminate his face against the bright sky.

Aperture	ƒ/9
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	18mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/250s

San Francisco DPT on the job

San Francisco DPT on the job

The San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) have painted the kerb of the sidewalk in the city to designate different parking areas in the city.

Wandering around the city I was struck by the startling paint job on the ground, especially the “warning” colours used. It didn’t stop people double parking though, but I didn’t spot any traffic cops around either!

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

The lonely swan

The lonely swan

A solitary swan swims on the calm waters of The Lough as the sun disappears at the end of the day.

Believe it or not, this is a 10 second exposure that turned out much better than I could have hoped! I balanced my camera on the edge of the Lough, set it to Aperture priority mode at f/11, dialed the exposure down two stops, flipped up the camera flash and took the shot.

How does this work?

By setting the aperture to a fairly high value little light is let into the camera sensor.
By setting the exposure down two stops the whole scene will be underexposed but bright areas will be exposed mostly correctly.
Given the above settings, any dark moving objects will be completely invisible so when the flash fired it picked out the swan swimming past and even created a nice reflection in the water.

Hope that helps!

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

Where’s the water?

Where’s the water?

The water is just underneath the pavement in this image made in Blarney last month.

What do the initials SV stand for? I don’t know, it’s too early on a Monday morning to figure that one out.

Aperture	ƒ/5
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/50s

Water Drops in Cobh

Water Drops in Cobh

Water drops from a railing in Cobh after a particularly heavy rain early in the day. That day’s shooting in Cobh was quite successful and by the evening there was a beautiful glow from the setting sun.

I took these firework photos from a spot on the right of this image.

PS. Happy Australia Day!

Aperture	ƒ/7.1
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	20mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/50s

Tourists on the tram

Tourists on the tram

Tourists on a tram in Chinatown, San Francisco. I got lots of smiles and waves from the passengers when they saw my camera pointed at them!

Aperture	ƒ/9
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/160s

The couch on the street

The couch on the street

A couch rests against a pole on a street junction in San Francisco. That’s a novel way of getting rid of unwanted furniture but I wonder who’ll pick it up? For all I know, it could still be there with a family of squirrels living in it.

The same happens everywhere. Here in Ireland bed frames, mattresses and other other furniture can sometimes be seen dumped by the side of the road, usually in the country away from the watchful eyes of the authorities.

John Harrington posts about cuts among staff photographers at major US publications. Not a good time to be working in the “old world media” in some places.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/200s

Bay Bridge Reflections

Bay Bridge Reflections

Light from the Bay Bridge in San Francsico shimmers in the waters of the harbour. To the left one of the fire fighting boats of the SF Fire Department can be seen.

Posting this landmark of San Francisco today as most of the rest of Automattic make their way to Mexico. Here’s another shot from another night near the bridge.

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	2s

The BMW Mini – NCT 5

The BMW Mini – NCT 5

A white mini parked on the sidewalk in suburban San Francisco.

Aperture	ƒ/7.1
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/100s

SF Weekly

SF Weekly

San Francisco Weekly is only one of a number of free publications available in that city. Not sure what day it’s out though. Doh!

My photos went down reasonably well at Photography Ireland yesterday. There’s a good street photography forum there. It’s worth a visit if you’re looking for inspiration or critiques or simply want to talk to like-minded people!

4 Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop! has a few techniques I’ve used myself in the past. I meant to blog about those techniques, but hey, they’ve done the hard work now, including screenshots and everything. Good post!

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

Looking out from Homely House

Looking out from Homely House

Last September we stayed in Dingle for a weekend and had lunch in Homely House, a restaurant in the town. Check out the previous link for a picture of Brian Lapen and EagleSpirit who ran the cafe.

Unfortunately for Dingle they’re now in Hawaii, and the building was destined for demolition last I heard so it’s quite likely this view is gone now!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/500s