365.127 Apocalyptic, perhaps

Another Macro shot of the Collier Kaleidoscope, and another day where I have very little to say about this particular shot.

One thing that did cause some photographic consternation today (and the bulk of the day was rather consternating… I’m not sure why, but it’s drawing to a close, so gogo): Photoshop CS5.5’s inability to photomerge abstract images like this.

I took a set of 20 shots, fed them into Photomerge, and got the ‘some images could not be merged’ message. Some were pretty much solid grey, so I omitted those and tried again with 10 images: Fail. Ommited the ones that were mostly a gradient, and tried again with 6 images: Fail. Tried with 4 shots: Fail. Tried with 2: Fail. Maybe CS6 will get a bit smarter…

This shot wasn’t a part of the panorama, but it’s representative of the most complex images in the lot, but Ps5.1 couldn’t do anything with them. I tried to arrange them by hand, but Ps wouldn’t show me where I was moving the individual frames (this may be due to the relative age of my aging mbp, I guess).

Frustrating.

But I got this one, so go me, I guess.

D7000. EL-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8, stacked on 104mm extension. ISO100, 1/4, f/2.8, minor levels adjustments in Aperture.

365.126 Otherworldly

I went to Wikipedia and looked up the various planets referenced in the _Dune_ series, didn’t find any that made reference to multiple suns, realized that, having never read any of the novels, and not seen the film since 1995 or 1996, that I’m not anywhere near Geek enough to reference an obscure Dune planet in the title of today’s 365 image. I thought of calling it Tatooine, but that would just be too hackneyed.

Anyway.

We have a new entry in the macro family today, and other than the inability to change the aperture at will, it’s a brilliant performer, much like in ordinary usage. And I’m thankful that the newer versions of the Fotodiox extension tubes have a little prong in them to hold open the aperture on those new lenses with no aperture ring, otherwise the nifty fifty would’ve sat on the shelf for yet another day…

D7000. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. ISO800, 1/40th, f/1.8. Very slight adjustments in Aperture, not even enough to mention, really.

365.125 Chrysalis

Uninspired, again. I really just didn’t feel like shooting today. Work has been a bit more wearying than usual of late, so that might have something to do with it, I guess. At least I’m over the brisket craving, though. I guess there was something in those nasty vegan sausages that filled the hole for awhile. I need to figure out what that something is, so I can avoid a repeat: yesterday was rough.

So I started to go walking, but thought better of it. Hooked up the Zomb-E series and started shooting some paint splatters, but I wanted to get closer and less artsy, so out came the 104mm extension tubes and reversing ring, and on went the 24mm, but that was too close for the paint splatters, so I went back to the kaleidoscope, and fetched this beauty in two or three shots.

GoGo.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, reversed and stacked on 104mm extension. ISO800, 1/8th (AP Mode), f/2.8 (ignore the EXIF: it’s lying to you because I forgot to change the settings when I changed the lens…). Processed rather heavily, all in Aperture.

365.124 they’re here…

And not much to say about this one. I’m having significant cravings for brisket—especially the crunchy bits on the edges—that are as bad as the withdrawal on the second day without cigarettes: shaking, sweating, bargaining, etc. I tried to fool myself with some vegan sausages, but I stopped eating meat because I stopped liking meat, and so the supposed-to-taste-like-but-really-aren’t are not in the least bit appealing, and the sausages were actually rather nasty, though they did take the edge off. But I still want brisket, specifically brisket tacos made with only the crunchy/chewy edge bits of the brisket.

FYI: I’ve been vegetarian for 10 months, and this is the first time I’ve felt anything like this. It’s very strange and very disconcerting. If you have any ideas, please to pass them on.

So this was a shot made largely in desperation. And it was frame number 5 of a 5 shot session. I chimped and knew this was it.

To be honest, I’m a bit ashamed that I’m back to making abstract macro pictures instead of pushing myself to get out and learn some new things. But given the ridiculous cravings I’m very seriously struggling through, I’m actually surprised I even thought to make a picture today.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 (@f/11), reversed and stacked on the Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 (at 210mm and f/3.5). ISO800, 4 seconds (AP mode). Rather heavily processed in Aperture.

365.123 emerges from the grey of night…

Not much to say about this one. I planned to go for a walk down to pay the rent, but then realized I needed (soy) milk and so took out recycling and goodwill donations along with the rent instead of walking. GoGo me for recycling and donating, and maybe I’ll still make it out to walk the streets of Old East Dallas, but I might just watch movies instead, even though I should really try to get some exercise of some sort today (and every day, for sure).

If I do go out walking, and if I do some shooting, and if I get anything worth sharing, I will… but in the mean time, maybe you’ll enjoy this one…

In other news, I’ve been craving meat today, specifically some crunchy barbacoa… I have no idea what that means, but I tend to only crave things that my body needs, so maybe I should pay attention and roll down to the tacqueria, though if I eat a bunch of greasy beef, I know it’ll be several days before I get a good night’s sleep… Should I pay attention to what the body is telling me, or try to find something to eat that agrees with my diet and hope the craving passes? I’ll likely do the latter, and if the craving persists, I’ll hit up the tacqueria in a day or two.

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron), in Macro Mode, and deliberately defocused. ISO800, 1/25th (AP Mode), f/3.5, converted to b/w with Aperture.

Actually, it just dawned on me: I tried this shot with the iPhone, the 24mm, the 50mm, the Tokina 35-200 (straight and in macro mode), and the Vivitar (also straight and in macro) before finding that this defocused one worked the best. All in all, it took a couple of hours, lots of varied attempts to adjust the pixels into submission, and about 30 shots before I got to this, and the whole time I kept thinking “I should just grab the iPhone and go for a walk… I bet there are (comparatively) loads of people on the streets today, and it would really behove me to get some exercise and try to shoot some candid street stuff.”

Oh well.

365.122 645 PRO tiff test

645 PRO is an iPhone camera app that can be set up to save a tiff file with no compression instead of—or addition to—the jpegs it makes with various film styles and whatnot. I made this picture this morning, while waiting to help a friend help a buddy move (that’s right… I helped a friend help a buddy move. that’s just the sort of person I am…) and the tiff did indeed have quite a bit more information to play with than the jpg, and I was able to pull some detail and color out that should’ve been lost forever.

The app features a great ‘night’ mode, that slows the shutter speed (thereby forcing the ISO down). I use this mode almost exclusively, and plan on trying to make some interesting, iPhone-based impressionist photography with it.

The app has quite a few fancy tricks up its sleeve, including a live histogram and the aforementioned film effects, but the tiff-file save is brilliant (though you have to download it through iTunes, as these files aren’t saved to the camera roll).

Here’s the jpeg that the app produced in addition to the tiff that became today’s 365 image. I used the H5 b/w film stock setting.365.122 645 PRO tiff test
In case you’re interested, 645 PRO is available on the App Store for $2.99, and it’s worth it: believe. Visit the developer’s website if you’d like to learn more, and no, I’m not in any way affiliated with jag.gr, I just really like this app: best camera-replacement app EVAR, pretty much.

In other news, I went to the (rather distant) local camera shop to play around with the X10 and X100 and G1x and P7000, as I have designs on getting a smaller ‘carry everywhere’ sort of camera, something more robust than the iPhone, but more discrete, smaller and quieter than the D7000. I was more impressed with two of them than I expected to be, found one to be about what I expected, and was rather less impressed than I expected to be with one of them. Can you guess which ones and why (hint: cost is not a determining factor). I didn’t return with a new camera today—and probably wouldn’t buy from them anyway, as the guy gave off a vibe that made me think he’d rather a daft amateur like me not buy anything from him or his employer: surely I mistook this, right?—and may or may not buy one any time soon, as the iPhone really is a decent camera, and I wasn’t impressed enough with any of the cameras I played with to part with the cash just now.

iPhone 4. 645 PRO app. ISO80, 1/129th, f2.8 (all determined by the app); tiff file processed with a rather heavy hand in Aperture.

365.121 Abstraktes Bild (In the Belly of the…)

Not much to say about this. I intended to go to a photowalk tonight, but the only way to get there involves tollroads and Friday night traffic, so I backed out at the last minute. This was a safety shot I made in case I didn’t get on the walk, but since I’m not going on the walk, I guess it’s a good thing I made it, huh.

I might yet get out and walk some, down to the landlord’s and pay the rent early, or I might just have some dinner and stare blankly at the tele… we’ll see.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 (@2.8), reversed, and stacked on the Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1, in its 4:1 macro mode and at 3.5. ISO100, 4 seconds, lighting provided by a mini mag lite.