In Photos dot Org

Bibble Labs 4.9.5 out in the wild

The new Bibble Labs 4.9.5 is out with support for new cameras and six plugins! I purchased Bibble 4.9 a few months ago so i must download the upgrade shortly and give it a spin.

Among the free plugins included in this update are Andy, a Black & White Film Simulation tool that instantly creates stunning black and white conversions by simulating the look of many traditional film and paper combinations, Gina for Skin Tone Correction that can quickly and beautifully reveal more natural skin tones, and Roy for Color Adjustment to deepen the blue in skies or to make other color-based adjustments. Other plugins included can be be used for selective saturation enhancement, multi-zone exposure adjustment and novel image toning.

Panoramic Traffic Lights

Panoramic Traffic Lights

Traffic along the Mallow Road hurries past on a cold and foggy December night. This was taken from the bridge near Rathpeacon and Killeens.

The bridge itself as you can see from the map above is much wider than the one in this picture but I wasn’t going to stand in the middle of a dark road at risk of being knocked over for my art. At least not this time anyway!

Traffic from the right is coming from Cork, while traffic from the left is coming from the direction of Mallow or Blarney.

PS. Nominations for the Irish Blog Awards are now open. There are several categories and you can nominate your favourite Irish blog in whichever one fits. In Photos won Best Photoblog last year but this is the only time I’ll mention the awards here unlike last year when I did the dog on it a bit! (Not that I wouldn’t mind winning again of course!)

I like these: Snow Squalls! and Palm House – I wish more photoblog software understood trackbacks and pings. It’s hard to start a conversation with them.

Footprints in the sand

Footprints on a sandy beach on the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry.

The blue sky, fluffy clouds, golden sand and warm breeze are just the tonic for a relaxing break away from it all.

Aperture	ƒ/14
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	11mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/400s

Alone in the park

Alone in the park

A dog, a tree and a park bench in the Lee Fields, Cork.

I took Oscar, our shitzu, for a short walk at the Lee Fields a while back and made this image during what was a fairly uneventful walk. Neither of us was in the mood for a walk but we had time to kill.

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

Leading lines and bright lights

Leading lines and bright lights

Studs on the ground lead down to the traffic lights on the South Mall, Cork.

In this long exposure shot a couple of cars passed by providing a nice light trail in the background. The twinkling of the street lighting is from the narrow aperture. Setting the aperture as small as possible is definitely the best thing you can do when making long exposure shots at night.

This was taken while out with Mallow Camera Club last December. More to come from that night too!

Aperture	ƒ/16
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	10s

The witch and the balloons

The witch and the balloons

A witch hands out balloons to young kids outside Brown Thomas on a late October Saturday.

Just out of frame of this shot is a woman who has asked for a balloon. The witch explains that the balloons are just for the kids.. I wonder why? More on this later.

Aperture	ƒ/5
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	48mm
ISO	400
Shutter speed	1/250s

Of photographers and photojournalists

Mark Hancock asks of his editor, “Do we run pretty pictures?” It’s not something your average photographer has to deal with but when you work for a newspaper as a photojournalist it is a consideration.

Where would I be if I couldn’t shoot pretty pictures? What would you do? Do you really hanker after that photography job now? Do you really want to give up that desk job and go shoot portraits and news items?

What is your raison d’etre for being a photographer? Mine is that it is a very enjoyable hobby. Why ruin it by pressure and deadlines?

King of my world

King of my world

A child is carried atop his parent’s shoulders on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork a few weeks ago.

I really like this shot, for what reason, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the brightness and flowery design of the clothing worn by parent and child compared to the passers by. I’m sure both parent and child are in a happy place wandering around town.

“Here’s Health” and a sign advertising the Mutton Lane Inn can be seen in the background.

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

Friends together

Friends together

Friends talk and laugh on the street while busy shoppers pass on either side.

Pictured on St. Patrick Street, Cork last October in front of Penneys. I love my wide angle lens!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/1000s

POP Writing and World Changing Photos

I just subscribed to the Popular Photo feed and came across the following great reads:

DSLR Basic Training
Guilty Pleasures – fun with panoramas.
Edible Complex – tips for food photography
The Photoshop heretic has some great black and white shots.
5 reasons to shoot film – don’t believe everything he says. There are full frame digital SLRs too.

13 photographs that changed the world has some quite amazing photos from down the ages that have had a big impact on the world. (via Exposure and Scratch That Itch)

Photographing arrested suspects

Mark Hancock was present at a police sting in Beaumont, Texas to arrest people involved in the sex trade in that city. He posted photos and commentary on the incident as well as explaining that it’s legal to show the faces of people under arrest.

Before anyone asks, yes, it’s perfectly legal to show the faces of people under arrest. However, our paper prefers to not to “convict before trial” by showing faces of people caught in orchestrated stings of Class B misdemeanor crimes. Capital crime arrestees are an entirely different situation.

However, everyone got a good laugh when the first female arrived at the command post and told the assembled media that she didn’t give us permission to photograph her (standing on a public street in handcuffs).

Judging by what I’ve seen on news reports on television I don’t think anyone under arrest could have any illusions of privacy with cameras poked in their faces at every turn.

Stepping out of the crowd

Stepping out of the crowd

A girl steps away from the maddening crowd on a busy street.

This was a bit of an experiment for me. I blurred the background by making a duplicate layer, blurring, adding a layer mask and then revealing the girl through the layer mask. It’s not perfect, and in fact, the closer I look the more imperfections I see. Unfortunately I never saved a .xcf file preserving the layers so this is the final product.

I like it. The blur successfully separates the girl from the backgrond and even the zone of sharpness takes in some of the ground around her which exaggerates the effect!

Taken on St. Patrick Street, Cork last October.

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