Random Photos

[Andy Resnick]

Yes and yes. But you don't need a special near-IR filter to see that effect. Just point your camera as-is (even if it's a cell phone or webcam; most any digital camera will do) at the remote control and look at your camera's "live view" screen, where you can "see" what the camera sees, then press buttons on the remote. You should see the remote's IR LEDs light up by looking through the digital camera (so to speak).

The near-IR filter merely blocks out any distracting visible light, making the effect more pronounced, assuming the camera has the ability to adjust its ISO and/or exposure time accordingly.

Thanks again! Another significant advantage of using 'live view' is ease of focusing- once upon a time I shot a roll of Ilford SFX Infrared and had to adjust focus to account for chromatic aberration. Because (at the time) there is nothing to see and focus on through the viewfinder, the lens barrel has a red dot that I had to remember to adjust focus accordingly. And since metering didn't work, I had to guess that also.

Needless to say, in the end I had a roll of unfocused and underexposed garbage. Ah... the bad ol' days :)

 

[symbolipoint]

Needless to say, in the end I had a roll of unfocused and underexposed garbage. Ah... the bad ol' days :)

That and previous unquoted part of the post means, at least you learned skills for old-style photography.

 

[Point Conception]

Interesting, I asked the girl in this electronic shop for a blue light. She gives me UV. The white tile deck is glowing purple .

 

[Point Conception]

 

[berkeman]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/06/travel/comedy-wildlife-awards-2026-finalists-intl-scli

 

[collinsmark]

New batch of Thursday photos (curated, of course).

Figure 1. This one turned out somewhat Lovecraftian. The photo was shot through the window of a moving trolley.

I love taking long (or longish) photos of a moving subject while also moving and panning in a bumpy environment (e.g., Fig. 1). It gives rise to a cartel of covariant and contravariant vectors conspiring together in confederation to create confounding patterns.

In case there was any doubt, all the strange patterns in this photo (Fig. 1) and many others like it that I've been posting over the last few months, are done in-camera. There's comparatively little post-processing done on these. (There is some post-processing, such as dehaze; exposure adjustments; cropping; dusting; maybe a bit of dodging and burning with masks and whatnot; but nothing too particularly fancy.)

Figure 2. The ladder isn't moving in this pic. Well, maybe it is from my frame of reference.

Figure 3. I feel like I'm documenting change. This construction site along the trolley line won't be a construction site forever. What am I going to photograph when it's finished?

Figure 4. Outside Santa Fe Depot again.

Figure 5. This is the location of San Diego's federal building. I take most of my Thursday photos near here: the ones that I don't post on PF.

Figure 6.

Figure 7. Rather than lifting up the can, somebody put in quite a bit of effort into making sure the can stays on its side. Huh.

Figure 8.

To be continued. ...

 

[collinsmark]

... Continued from a previous post.

Figure 9. This is my favorite picture of the day. Sometimes things just fall into place. Sometimes it requires patience.

Figure 10. So I went to the "Headquarters at the Seaport," that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. This is an exhibit in the old police station. Btw., the old police station isn't much of a museum, but there are some nice photos and this jail area. Otherwise it's more of just a hallway that leads to the public restrooms.

Figure 11.

Figure 12. I like how the architecture plays with the shadows. I was just walking by this house, I don't know who lives there.

Figure 13.

Figure 14. I like this photo; maybe it's my second favorite of the day. It's not a conventional photo, but it has some soul to it.

Figure 15.

Figure 16.

 

[BillTre]

Tumble weeds a tumbling:

 

[collinsmark]

Pics from last Friday. After a trip to the hospital for some routine lab work, I took the trolley to (newish) downtown library. From there I walked through East Village back to the Gaslamp Quarter.

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Figure 4. While I'm leaving this picture "untitled," it does remind me of Looney Tunes' Tasmanian Devil.

Figure 5.

Figure 6. "Man assisting woman in wheelchair."

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

To be continued. ...

 

[collinsmark]

... Continued from previous post.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11. This chessboard is rather large. I'm guessing it's roughly 12 times the size of a normal chessboard. You have to get up and walk to move your pieces, which are about 2 - 3 feet tall, roughly.

There was some sort of chess thing happening at the library that day. So I don't know if this big chess board is a permanent thing or not.

Figure 12.

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Figure 16.

 

[DaveC426913]

Apparently a real installation.

Tesla would be proud.

 

[Janus]

Mt. Hood yesterday, taken from Hwy 35, East of Hood RIver, OR.

 

[AlexB23]

Utah trip October 4 to 13, 2026. More photos releasing soon. Taken on Samsung Galaxy A54. I may be planning on getting a used Canon or Nikon in the future for later travels to other national parks. The skies are darker blue due to 2000 meter elevation.

Arches National Park: Skyline Arch

Capitol Reef: Grand Wash

 

[collinsmark]

Last Saturday (Oct. 17) there were events all across the United States to encourage early voting and voting in general (midterm elections are looming here). I went to one such event at Balboa Park. Here's a curated group of photos I took that day.

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Figure 9.

Figure 10.

To be continued. ...

 

[collinsmark]

... Continued from previous post.

Figure 11. You've seen this guy before.

Figure 12. He was happy to see me again (I think).

Figure 13.

Figure 14.

Figure 15.

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Figure 17.

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Figure 20.

It was a busy week. The previous Wednesday and Thursday were both days I was out and about with my camera too (photos yet to come). I'll try to post those soon, probably in reverse chronological order (by the day anyway).

 

[collinsmark]

Here's pics from last Thursday (curated for PF, of course).

Figure 1. Fashion Valley Transit Station has been hosting a lot of pigeons lately. I suspect somebody might be feeding them.

Figure 2. "Manifestation of the Sacred, Divine Pigeon of Manual Focus Luck." I can't believe I nailed focus on that. It was ~80% divine luck.

Figure 3. I really like this one.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6. Back at Santa Fe Depot. I've taken similar pictures like this before. I'll keep practicing until I get it right.

Figure 7.

Figure 8. An artist made this quilt. It says, "I voted" in numerous languages. (As an aside note, the U.S. does not have an official language.)

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

To be continued. ...

 

[collinsmark]

... Continued from previous post.

Figure 11.

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Figure 15. Self portrait.

Figure 16. I don't know who these boots belong to. But I saw them sitting there (just as they are in the pic), and decided they need their photo taken.

Figure 17.

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Figure 20.

 

[Andy Resnick]

... Continued from previous post.



View attachment 374867
Figure 15.

It was a busy week. The previous Wednesday and Thursday were both days I was out and about with my camera too (photos yet to come). I'll try to post those soon, probably in reverse chronological order (by the day anyway).

I really like Fig. 15- very dynamic image and the sky looks amazing! Did you have a polarizer on the lens?

 

[Janus]

Last week, a cloud wreathed mountain, today, an ocean sunset. (Depoe bay, Oregon)

 

[collinsmark]

I really like Fig. 15- very dynamic image and the sky looks amazing! Did you have a polarizer on the lens?

No polarizer on those particular pictures.

I shoot in raw format (dng in my case), so I have to adjust the settings such as contrast, exposure details, transfer funcntion, etc., myself in (Adobe) Lightroom. I also will often do dodging & burning with masks and such while I'm at it. So sometimes when you see a picture of mine with a dark sky, it could be because I darkened it in Lightroom. (Sometimes, but not always.)

I do that because bright objects draw the viewers' attention (exceptions are high-key photos). Thus very bright skies are often just big distractions. Darkening the skies can remove such distractions while still keeping the sky.

 

[jrmichler]

I saw a deer last night while driving home. Photo is a screenshot from the Garmin dashcam video played back using SMPlayer and cropped. The truck started to dip at 8 frames (267 msec) after this photo when the brakes started to take hold. I still have decent reaction time at 74 years old.

The next image is 400 msec (12 frames) later. That deer was moving at a little less than full speed. The white light under the deer is the reflection of the deer on the hood.

A better dashcam with 4K resolution is on my "get one someday" list. This one is 1920X1080 pixels. The GPS position and speed is updated once per second, which explains why the GPS position has not changed and the GPS speed is still showing 41 MPH.

 

[Point Conception]

There is an influx of Chinese renovation of buildings that fell to the wayside during covid period. Last photo is Indian 4 dimensional building

 

[collinsmark]

A week ago Wednesday was a potato-disconnect day (I call the take-home chemo-pump "the potato"). And as usual since I was already out-and-about, I took my camera to some random-ish part of town. This time was revisiting The Embarcadero near Broadway Pier.

Figure 1. Not sure how this photo got to be the way it is. Like many of my other photos lately, it was taken through the window of a moving bus.

When I do my slow shutter speed pics (typically 1/8 sec) there are a lot of vectors that cause blur:

1. The camera is on the bus/trolley which is moving, causing translational vector blur.​

2. I'm panning the camera, i.e., rotating the camera, causing rotational vector blur (around the camera's yaw axis).​

3. The individual elements within the photo can have their own proper motion, e.g., a subject walking, a moving car driving by, an airplane in the sky, etc. They can each cause their own proper motion vector blur.​

4. The bus or trolley is often bumpy which causes low-frequency camera shake blur.​

5. I'm not a brain-surgeon when holding the camera steady while panning, and there exists natural camera shake and my own panning error vector blur.​

Ignoring vectors 4 & 5 for the moment, my goal is pan the camera such that vectors 1, 2, & 3 all add to zero for specific subject point I'm panning at. The idea is the central point of panning should have very little blur, and other parts of the photo should have blur due to their non-zero blur vector sum.

But the way these vectors sum together, especially when you include vectors 4 & 5, things often blur in surprising and unexpected ways. Sometimes the photos even take on the characteristics of impressionist paintings.

The above photo (see Fig. 1) surprises me. The guy on the left is wearing an unremarkable baseball cap yet it appears in the photo to be some sort of tall, multicolored top-hat. The guy on the right looks like his arm or something is extended, but I don't think that's really what's happening.

A clue might be given in the red fire-lane paint on the curb that seems to bleeding upwards. But I don't know. I seriously don't know what's causing the blur pattern in that photo.

Figure 2. A couple wearing blue hardhats.

Figure 3. the bus came to a stop for a moment and I quickly changed my camera settings to a more normal exposure to capture the mural. That mural amuses me and brings me joy.

Figure 4. So I got off the bus about a mile (roughly) from my Broadway Pier destination, and decided to walk the rest of the way, hoping to get some street photos while walking. It was disappointing photo-wise, but I did get some exercise at least. This is the best photo I came up with on the walk.

Figure 5. I made it to my destination. Found a spot with a bicycle chained up that made an interesting shadow on the walkway.

Figure 6.

To be continued. ...

 

[collinsmark]

... Continued from previous post.

Figure 7.

Figure 8. Moved to a new bench.

Figure 9. This is the best photo of the day. I'm thinking it's the only real "keeper" in my opinion.

Figure 10. This photo reminds me of my childhood.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

 

[BillTre]

 

[BillTre]

 

[berkeman]

Kids and motocross -- great mix. Reminds me of berkeboy...

 

[collinsmark]

Pics from last Thursday (about a week ago). Curated for PF, of course.

I did a lot of the slow slow shutter thing (1/8 second, f/16, Auto ISO) this time.

Figure 1. "Workmen on break next to a makeshift shack."

Figure 2. "Pre-cyberpunk."

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Figure 10.

To be continued. ...

 

[collinsmark]

... Continued from previous post.

Figure 11.

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Figure 18. I like the composition on this one for some reason. That includes the color composition.

Figure 19.

Ok, I love the image in Fig. 19. Recall that I mentioned sometimes this method of photography produces a result that sort of looks like an impressionist painting. This is one of those. I only wish I could reproduce it more consistently. At the moment, I can't attribute the effect to much more than luck. It's a hit or miss.

Figure 20.

 

[DennisN]

I strongly suspect that there is a cat behind this curtain :