Onno's Blog

Yesterday evening was about the first chance this winter to take some snowy pictures. And, it being evening and all, an opportunity to continue my quest to take after dark pictures. I was meeting with Cindy later on in Charlotte to discuss the new features to the Day Rides, now called Impromptu Rides, web site, and so went over a little earlier armed with camera and tripod.

I’ve taken pictures there a few times before. It has a certain scenic appeal. I first hiked around the lighthouse and the (defunct?) train station and then up to the pier. There I saw that the snow and the dark clouds inspired photographic inspiration upon another couple of photographers as well. There is something about the snow, the fading natural light and the emerging streetlight.

You’ll find the photos on Flickr. As part of its move to iCloud, Apple is phasing out the MobileME photo gallery I had been using. Which reminds me that I have till June to through the blog posts and fix what will become dead links to photo albums…

On my morning commute to work I drive down Empire Boulevard in Webster toward the 590 highway. It goes past Irondequoit Bay. If the light is right, that is often a beautiful sight making me think to bring tripod plus camera and stop to record this for posterity.

Not having done much photographic activity since the Boston trip except for the occasional iPhone picture the need to take the camera out has been slowly rising the last few weeks. The recent weekends became decision moments between bike rides and photo trips. As the weather has been pretty amazing for November the bicycle won until this Sunday. And even then it was a close call, the lure of a bike ride strongly calling because recently there has been someone making the bike rides even more fun.

As this blog post demonstrates the camera won for this morning. I set the alarm for 6 and managed to get out of the door a little after seven, in time for the 7:25 am sunrise. I wanted to try two locations: the south or bottom-end of the bay, and the northern part. The south location would give me the sun in the back stroking over the bay; the other providing the opportunity for back light. I decided to shoot in that order.

Another motivation to go shoot pictures has been my lens baby. I got it many weeks ago but – except for some quick indoor shots – hadn’t played with it yet. A lens baby has a twistable front section so that you can move the focal point around and at an angle to the camera. Wonderful distortions are the result.

The lens baby photos are taken in Tryon Park in Rochester. Many trails cross through the park; mountain bike routes labeled like ski slopes are. Even the green trails still looked tricky to me. The blue and red trails are certainly above my MTB skill level.

In the gallery you’ll find the outcome of my getting up before the sun.

This post explores two things I’ve become more and more interested in: editing photos on the iPad and posting blog entries from the iPad containing those photos. In other words, do I still need a computer in between?

Blog.Onno.com is based on wordpress. They have a nice iPad app in which I am typing this text. There is an ever-growing list of photo editing apps. I use Filterstorm, Pixelmagic and recently also Nik Software’s Snapseed. For getting the photos from the camera on the iPad I use Apple’s iPad camera kit.

So far so good. Except that the wordpress app is not scrolling up the text as I am typing so this paragraph is disappearing under the keyboard. It seems I have to dismiss the keyboard, tap in the window to bring it back and then the app scrolls up the text.

On to the photography. I played with one image in Snapseed using its auto-correct, drama and organic frames filters. The result you see below. The original image is somewhere in my gallery and the difference is indeed dramatic.

Previously I would edit the photos in Aperture on my Mac then upload them to my MobileMe gallery. This is the one step that while possible is awkward to do on iPad: can only upload one photo at a time, and it must be to an existing album: can’t create an album from the device?

What about archiving? By uploading photos to my Mac they’ll automatically get backed up. I used to sync my iPhone and iPad with my Mac/iTunes regularly but I hardly do that anymore. Thus to keep an archive of the original photos and the edited results it seems I’ll still need the real computer.

But still, this quick exercise has shown me that for trips like the upcoming one back to Amsterdam I could travel lightly, leave the laptop at home and perhaps keep the images on the SD card and do the archiving when I get back.

This week I continued my hobby of taking pictures during airplane travel.

This requires a bit of luck:
- a window seat
- but not above the wing
- window glass that is not scratched
- no cloud cover or nice storm clouds

And of course a continental flight is a little more entertaining than flying over an ocean.

Wander over to the gallery.

Last year on a sunny November day I drove to Sodus Bay for a photo excursion. A year and a month later I decided to see how things would look now. At least that became the plan. I started driving out from Webster along Lake Road to take pictures of what I would see there. But nothing really struck me other than the too obvious snowy christmas postcards. In part this is caused by traveling by car: you’re just going too fast and don’t really see anything. I prefer to walk (or bike) around then you see things that otherwise stay hidden. Thus I arrived in Sodus Bay village without having taken a picture yet and so made the theme of the trip the contrast with last year’s effort.

I am still on the black & white streak although I’m throwing in one color photo at the end of the album in the gallery. I just like very much what the Nikon camera does in the B&W setting.

Last Sunday the sun was low in the sky, there were some clouds and a bit of wind. In other words time to grab the camera, put on the walking shoes and hike about the neighborhood. I moved here in June when the house was finally sold and so a Webster photo trip was more than overdue!

This album builds on the previous black&white excursion. I am falling newly in love with grey tones and I really like the camera’s performance in the b&w setting.

This trip I took off on foot from the front door of the apartment. At first the plan was to focus on autumn pictures. I did take some of those but as you can see from the album those didn’t make it in the final selection. Instead I let myself drive by what I encountered along the way.

Go to the gallery.

One thing I miss since the onslaught of digital photography is playing in the darkroom and doing black&white photography. Occasionally when editing a project I think “oh, that should look good in black and white.” In the photo editing application, I convert the image to black&white but seldom does it really come out as great black&white photos can as with the beautiful Ilford films of old.

My D90 can take be set to take black & white photos. I tried that once before but left the image format setting at RAW only then to be confused at first when the images were all in full color after loading them onto the computer…

This Sunday, remembering that lesson, I ventured out to Irondequoit Bay. I set the camera to black&white and to JPEG. The fun thing about the D90 is that it can also simulate yellow, green and red filters. And so I played with those too even while my photo club days at the SGN High School are quite a bit behind me, having to do a bit of memory surging to recall the effect of each filter.

There is something about black & white so be prepared to see more.

Have a look in the gallery to see how I did.

Last night was ROC Twestival, part of a worldwide series of charity events to promote the cause of education. These are entirely volunteer organized and hosted events. Our local hero you see pictured here, Matthew Raw, who again pulled of a great event and doing it while appearing as relaxed and laid back as ever!

This time it was at Lovin’ Cup which is behind Barnes&Nobles store at RIT. Now I had been to that bookstore many times, always walked in through the front door and left through the front door. This time I walked around store en route to Lovin’ Cup. Turns out there’s a whole village of cafes, restaurants and shops behind it! Made me think of Once Upon A Time In The West, the scene with Claudia Cardinale arriving at the train station. As she walks through the station house the camera pans over the building revealing the town behind it.

In the afternoon I realized that I hadn’t fed the beast that is Flickr in quite a while and decided to bring my camera which led to some frantic battery charging….

Some pretty good local bands played. I saw Moho Collective, Sinzibukwud Band, Eight Bar Measure, Teagan and the Tweeds, and missed some others.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures at the event; it was a bit like photographing Rochester’s famous people. See if you can spot all of them!

Mosey on over to the gallery!

Oi, this is not easy.

Last Sunday I went to Charlotte Beach and the pier with tripod and camera in tow to take night images. One puts one’s camera on the tripod, points the contraption in the general direction desired and pushes the button causing the selected scene to be recorded for eternity’s sake. Award-winning photography awaits in one’s future surely.

I came back with 40 or so images and edited them down to the seven you’ll find in the gallery. Last winter I spent an evening on RIT’s campus with more or less the same success rate. Well, success. I think the images I posted are not necessarily bad but there’s not the wow factor I saw on the camera’s display after clicking the shutter. Some more practice and maybe some reading up and polishing the technique are required.

Take a look at this example and this one from Flickr’s Night Images group: if nothing else the sky is black…

For a few days I was thinking that I hadn’t fed the beast that is Flickr but what to take pictures of?

Yesterday it was beautiful warm autumn weather – perfect for cycling but I wasn’t in the mood. Instead I decided to drive to Sodus Point and see if inspiration would strike. I arrived there mid-afternoon, parked the car in the village ready to wander around. A group of motorbikers had just gotten here as well breaking for lunch it seemed. All of middle age or a little more they did their best to look fierce and severe. Seeing a female rider in a pink Harley Davidson leather jacket, I suspected that in reality they’re very likely just cuddly teddybears. Nice bikes though especially the one in bright green, a color that worked really well in the low stroking sunlight.

I walked to the end of the village where the road loops back surprised to see that there’s a free lot there. Great view over Sodus Bay towards Charles Point. Amazing that nobody built here yet – the rest of the shoreline is filled up.

From here I strolled on to the beach park and to the lighthouse at the end of the pier. There were a few fishermen and women giving it a try but both the fish and the anglers appeared just content with a lazy autumn afternoon. Back along the pier to the beach there was a group of young people sitting and chatting in the sand.

One of them called out to me: “Did you take a picture of that dead bird?”
I shook my head: “No.”
“That would be really cool though?”
I smiled back and wandered on.

A hundred yards further up I turned around strolling back. The group were now tossing a football around. The guy who called out earlier was picking up a bottle from their circle of bags and towels, looked up and I asked what I was taking photos of. I had just taken a picture of a footprint in the sand:
“Look down,” I pointed, “see how the light strokes over it. That’s beautiful.”
“Can I see?”
“Sure.” I showed him the photo on the camera’s display.
“I didn’t mean to intrude. My name is Brad. I am just curious.”
“No problem. My name is Onno. Nice to meet you.”
“You do this often?” Brad asked gesturing with his hand holding that bottle.
“Yeah, it’s fun to do.”
“I wish I had a good camera. My dad has one. My brother paints. Do you paint?”
“No, I have no skills in that department.”
I ask if he lives here. He does. “Must get busy here in summer?” I asked.
“Yeah, it does, but then at night when it is all quiet and you can walk out on the beach and see all the stars then it is pretty good.”
“Want a sip?” Brad offered, holding out the Captain Morgan rum bottle. He had worked his way through a quarter of it.
“No, thanks, that’s a little too strong for me,” I smiled, “I hope you’re not finishing that bottle all by yourself. Share some with your friends.”
“Yeah, I will. If they deserve it,” Brad grinned.
“Do you smoke? We have some weed?” was his next proposal.
“No, don’t smoke either.”
“So, you don’t drink and smoke, just wander around taking pictures?”
“Yep, that’s it.”
“Well, that’s cool. I like that!”

We shook hands and I walked on. A few seconds later Brad called me back, running over with his cell phone in hand:
“Wait, I have to show you this picture I took during a storm!”
He fiddled with the phone bringing up the image on the display. It was actually a very nice photo, certainly considering it’s taken with a cell phone, showing the dark clouds, waves crushing against the pier, the lighthouse in the distance with its beam on. And I told him so. We said our goodbyes once again.

I walked back to the boulevard to get back to the village. The sun was just hovering over the village turning all yellow and red. At the side of the parking lot there was a small sheriff’s office. The sheriff in bulletproof vest and gun on hip came out of the office just as I walked by, holding a camera like me, stepping onto the rocks at the shore of the bay like me, taking sunset photos just like me. If the strong arm of the law has the time and motivation to notice beautiful sunsets and take pictures of it then not all is bad in the world.

Getting back to the car I exchanged the camera bag for my Kindle. It’s time for some serious food. When I walked through the village earlier I noticed a bar/restaurant called Captain Jack. It seemed deserving of further inspection. I sat myself down at the bar, bartender Patrick poring me a cold one and handed me the menu which features a broad selection of burgers and the likes. Being surrounded by all this water I felt fish was more in order. I was hoping to find items on the menu that would resemble the crab shack scene from “A Few Good Men” – the interior was close enough – but had to settle for Fish Fry instead. An elderly couple arrived at the bar to my left. There was only one stool there but another empty one to my right so I offered to scoot over. The gentleman declined, said he preferred to stand. After my dinner arrived I looked around the bar noticing that there were a few couples with the woman sitting in the bar stool and the man standing (hovering?) diagonally behind her. Perhaps that’s the proper custom here?

The couple to my right left and just as I was finishing my fish Brad sat down next to me. We shook hands once more. He was in the company of a woman in her forties whom he introduced to me and Patrick the Bartender as his mom. Brad ordered beer and shots, toasting each other these went down. Brad appeared impressively sober after working on that rum bottle earlier. They started chatting, his mom gently chiding him for letting opportunities slip away.

I called for the check, gathered up Kindle and coat and departed to drive back to Rochester pleased with the harvest to feed Flickr with.

The pictures are in the gallery.