Day 20: July 2010 Photo-a-Day Thread

[Colin Southern]

Not long to go now!

[rick55]

Canon 500D, EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, full EXIF, PAD slideshow.

On the back deck: he's missing almost half his legs (Daddy Long-Legs are always male, just as Black Widows are always female), but he was getting around pretty fast anyway. I only got two quick shots, then he was gone.

Cheers,
Rick

[Colin Southern]

I'll get today's PAD shot in early

This is the fishing boat I've been working on for the last couple of days ... thought I'd grab a shot of her going out to sea today ...

[Klickit]

On the back deck: he's missing almost half his legs (Daddy Long-Legs are always male, just as Black Widows are always female), but he was getting around pretty fast anyway. I only got two quick shots, then he was gone.

Cheers,
Rick

Rick, so the Daddy is the one who carries the egg sac around in his mouth? Who would have thought it.

[Klickit]

Looks Like the Back End of a Bus



Incognito

[Antonio Correia]

Countryside near Setubal.
Cork trees under a bright light sunny day

[carregwen]

My MIL's piano. My Panasonic G1.

EXIF

PAD gallery

[Dave Humphries]

A grabbed shot with the Blackberry under extreme conditions which I knew would cause major IQ problems - I was not disappointed



Blackberry Bold: 2MP, shot sideways from car moving at 20mph (32kph) through an open window.

Noticeable speed smear with this kind of progressive scan camera sensor (see uncorrected 'leaning' car), corrected as 'movement blur' with Focus Magic for the pub sign (at 10 pixels). Unfortuinately the TV aerial really only needed 7 and the windows needed 15, but neither got what they wanted

After that, I just tried whatever worked best; Neat Image Noise reduced, levels and grey point, crop, a bit of a transform/distort to straighten the building up, lots of LCE in place of sharpening, some locally applied for best effect. Final downsize from 1200 square to 700 square and gentle sharpen, anything more made the diagonal beams look even more horrid.

Well, it was a PP experience I now know not to rush to repeat.

Cheers,

[carregwen]

Dave

A few points about this shot...

1. It's good because you don't have to bother pixellating the car plate!

2. Why do middle-aged blokes wear cargo-pant shorts with sandals?

3. The horizon is wonky.

Apart from that, a great shot!

[carregwen]

A present for you Kit.

[Dave Humphries]

A few points about this shot...

1. It's good because you don't have to bother pixellating the car plate!

2. Why do middle-aged blokes wear cargo-pant shorts with sandals?

3. The horizon is wonky.

Apart from that, a great shot!

1. True

2. Dunno, but I wasn't

3. Which one? I got the bottom edge of the roof level, anything else could be sloping ground, non-parallel kerbs, movement and/or perspective distortion, etc.
More seriously, you could be right, but who cares!

4. Thanks

Cheers,

[rick55]

Rick, so the Daddy is the one who carries the egg sac around in his mouth? Who would have thought it.

I don't think so: that black thing on top is something else, I think. I think you can see the mouth parts just below the front of the beast. They're slightly lighter brown, and have a joint in front. The black think could be an egg sack, but not in its mouth.

Cheers,
Rick

[rick55]

You've been working on a fishing boat, Colin? Like taking a series of photos, or repairing, or...?

Fun shots of the bus, Kit, though I know you're not enjoying the time in the garage. Good images, too: not easy to capture, with a lot of constraints setting up the shot.

I like the landscape, António. The hay bales (if that's what they are) in the field help: it would be an empty space there otherwise.

Cheers,
Rick

[Colin Southern]

You've been working on a fishing boat, Colin? Like taking a series of photos, or repairing, or...?

Hi Rick,

Just looking after her computers

[rick55]

Hi Rick,

Just looking after her computers

Interesting!! Obviously big ships have tons of computers these days: I take it that serious smaller boats are following along. Is it mostly fairly isolated systems, or is there a lot of intercommunication, like aircraft systems are getting better at?

Cheers,
Rick

[PopsPhotos]

I was out on the screened porch when I noticed a Monarch butterfly visiting the cats' happy plants. I popped in for the camera and went out to capture it.

I'll let you judge how successful I was.







I could see the Monarch, but could never zero in on him.

Pops

[rick55]

I like the pee-anna, Rob. The reflection of (I assume) the window is sort of like an inverted grand piano, like a mirror of the logo on the piano: very cool. The front edges of the white keys look a bit blown, but I imagine that was unavoidable with the window over the pianist's shoulder. The only other minor comment is is the reddish reflection on the front edges of the A#, C#, and (less pronounced) D# keys. Maybe go to B&W to make that less distracting? It removes some subtle tones from the reflection, but that could be a plus or a minus.

Cheers,
Rick

[rick55]

That's very impressive, Dave. You should post the original, too: I'll bet it was pretty gruesome-looking, maybe worse than the guy in the shorts.

You know, someone should tell the owners to put a better image on their web page. It's not a whole lot better than your shot on the fly with a 2MP BBy: looks like something someone did with a P&S, and didn't know how to process for the web.

Cheers,
Rick

[Colin Southern]

Interesting!! Obviously big ships have tons of computers these days: I take it that serious smaller boats are following along. Is it mostly fairly isolated systems, or is there a lot of intercommunication, like aircraft systems are getting better at?

Cheers,
Rick

Hi Rick,

Most of the bigger fishing boats have about 12 or so -- all ued for specific roles (some I look after, some I don't). The more "general purpose" ones handle the likes of email & general word / excel type functions, whereas as the other end of the spectrum there are specialist computers and programs that marry up GPS & depth sounder info to produce 3D underwater bathymetry maps.

I think a lot of people think "cold rust bucket" and "baked beans on toast" when they think of fishing boats, but the reality is warm and comfortable - eMail - satelite TV - fulltime cook & galley assistant (wonderful meals) -- on the flip side though, they work bl**dy hard (min 6 hours on, 6 hours off for 6 weeks - 3 day break - repeat (for most crew) - then 6 weeks off.

[rick55]

Good stuff, Colin: it makes sense that if you have that much investment in a trip, between crew, consumables, and the ship itself, you spend the money to maximize the return. Warm and comfortable except when you're up on deck during that six hours on: and as you say, hard work.

CHeers,
Rick