Random Photos

[Hamiltonian]

her signals

 

[morrobay]

Midtown NYC

 

[Isopod]

Parking in the UK be like

 

[gmax137]

Font size choice?

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

NYPD

 

[DennisN]

Springtime is here.

Daffodils:

Grape Hyacinths:

Crown Imperial:

 

[morrobay]

Central Park

 

[morrobay]

 

[DennisN]

I wish you all a Happy Easter, with some more flower power (photos taken yesterday):

A blue lily:

Blue grape hyacinths by a lamp post:

An apennine anemone:

A blue lily with a bug (not a feature ):

And last, a daffodil:

(I hope I got the flower names correct. I'm terrible at plant names , so I used Google Picture Search and Wikipedia to identify the flower types, except the daffodil, which I knew.)

(All photos taken with a Sony A6000 camera and a Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 lens)

 

[morrobay]

A smoggy sunrise

 

[gmax137]

One more street sign

 

[Oldman too]

Route 66, Albuquerque, N.M.

 

[morrobay]

Catherine st. Downtown. Note the WTC towers. I used to work at WTC 6 while a customs inspector at New York seaport.

 

[morrobay]

Route 66, Albuquerque, N.M.
View attachment 299918

 

[Oldman too]

Always reminds me of The grapes of wrath or some pixar animation about cars... The shot I posted was my grandfathers business prior to moving north but that was before my time.

 

[DennisN]

Catherine st. Downtown. Note the WTC towers. I used to work at WTC 6 while a customs inspector at New York seaport.

That's in Chinatown, I assume? I visited New York just two years before 9/11, and I stood at the base of one of the WTC towers and looked up along the wall. They were incredibly tall.

 

[morrobay]

That's in Chinatown, I assume? I visited New York just two years before 9/11, and I stood at the base of one of the WTC towers and looked up along the wall. They were incredibly tall.

Yes ,the East Broadway Chinatown district as opposed to the main Canal st + side streets ( Mott st, Mulberry st.) Chinatown district.

 

[morrobay]

Overview from subway map

 

[morrobay]

Just by the fact of being in New York City you are traveling: Can be in Chinatown and walk over one block and in little Italy (shown) then across a few more and in an Eastern European district. Also Washington Square summer in the city. Customs House and Red Hook , Brooklyn. (Container searches)

 

[morrobay]

 

[jtbell]

Dogs in Columbia SC must be very happy.

 

[DennisN]

After sunset at a rocky beach, taken yesterday.
The Øresund Bridge can be spotted at the horizon to the left.

Lens used: Samyang 12mm f/2.0 (stitched panorama from multiple photos).
Larger version of photo here.

 

[Oldman too]

After sunset at a rocky beach, taken yesterday.

Awesome light value, that's art!

 

[Oldman too]

Just thought I'd drop this one on the pile also, A.E. hanging out with the Hopis near the Grand canyon.

 

[DennisN]

Awesome light value, that's art!

Thanks! I had actually planned to go down to the start of the Öresund Bridge (at the Swedish side) to take some pictures there, but I saw this scene on the way there and decided to get off the bus earlier instead.

 

[Oldman too]

but I saw this scene on the way there and decided to get off the bus earlier instead.

That was a good call.

 

[berkeman]

Just thought I'd drop this one on the pile also, A.E. hanging out with the Hopis near the Grand canyon.

Is he holding a Peace Pipe? Is that why he has that big grin on his face?

 

[Oldman too]

Is he holding a Peace Pipe? Is that why he has that big grin on his face?

Why yes, that is a peace pipe, as opposed to a war pipe (or bong).
I can't comment on his smile although I believe the the pic was taken at a ceremony where he was adopted into the tribe.

If he was asked about what was being smoked, his expression may have looked something like this.

 

[DennisN]

If he was asked about what was being smoked, his expression may have looked something like this.

Einstein: "I went on a trip to the US and visited an ancient tribe. We smoked some strange stuff. And that was the first moment I got the idea of the theory of relativity."

 

[Oldman too]

Einstein: "I went on a trip to the US and visited an ancient tribe. We smoked some strange stuff. And that was the moment I got the first idea of the theory of relativity."

There is an interesting story behind the Einstein pics I've posted. They aren't very much mainstream A.E. shots and I had to search them using specific criteria. I recently finished reading "Einstein, his life and universe", an amazing biography, if you have read it I don't need to say more, if you haven't had the chance, check it out, you won't be disappointed.

 

[morrobay]

Gulf of Thailand 1830

 

[morrobay]

Gulf of Thailand 2030 .She for sure has the XX chromosome.

 

[morrobay]

Northerly view from gulf side mall 80 km South of Bangkok

 

[DennisN]

Five random photos taken lately:

Red tulips by the canal (lens: Meike 35mm)

Tombstone in the city cemetery (lens: Meike 35mm)

Copenhagen at night from a distance (lens: Tokina 200mm)

The pylons of Øresund Bridge (lens: Tokina 200mm)

Nothing but Thieves live in Copenhagen, 17 april 2022
(one of my favorite bands, and they were fantastic live, lens: Sony 16-50mm)

 

[epenguin]

Ah tulips, yes I'll give you some tulips too.
(I thought of starting a photo competition, open to everybody, with theme 'White and orange tulips')

 

[epenguin]

And I'll give you some Copenhagen too.

The visitor is supposed to start here

Can go on to Tivoli Gardens

where magic things

can appear

out of the mind of famous author.

Here instead a real soldier.

Oh, and this is surely not Mr. Wheeler's bicycle.

 

[DennisN]

Something experimental this time...

I was out taking some photos a couple of days ago and discovered something really fun when I was editing later.

The lens I used was the Russian Helios 44M7¹ which gives a bit vintage, "oily" colors.
I discovered by accident that if I also shoot certain scenes in backlight and then do some editing in Photoshop (autolevels + some saturation) I can get a really vintage look on photos.

Here is one photo taken in the city, 2022 a couple of days ago:
(I also removed some things like some signs and reflectors on bikes, and there are some weird looking edits in the photo if it is examined closely)

Sun Street (vintage style, Helios 44M7)

Tower on house (vintage style, Helios 44M7)

And two more flower photos taken yesterday...

Daffodils in evening sun (back, Helios 44M7)

Daffodils in evening sun (front, Helios 44M7)

¹ I was already quite impressed with the charming quirks of the Helios 44 lens (i.e. the vintage colors and the swirly bokeh it can sometimes produce). But after I also discovered the possibility of doing quite old-looking photos, I am really, really loving this lens. It is a gem, well worth the money (it's also quite cheap).

I discovered the lens by watching good youtube channels about photography and the people who recommended the lens certainly knew what they were talking about!

 

[DennisN]

And I'll give you some Copenhagen too.

The visitor is supposed to start here

I'm actually thinking of going back to Copenhagen soon, and bring a bike with me on the train and then bike around in the city to places I haven't been to.

I'm thinking of maybe going to the Little Mermaid (which truly is small , I've been there) and try to take some kind of unusual photo of her if possible (probably in the late evening and with some lighting, or something, I haven't decided yet ).

 

[morrobay]

@DennisN Could you post the original , un edited photo of Sun Street in post #588 for comparison so as to see the after effects.

 

[DennisN]

@DennisN Could you post the original , un edited photo of Sun Street in post #588 for comparison so as to see the after effects.

I looked for the original but regretfully I had already deleted it. I should have kept it.

But I took another photo of (almost) the same scene (from a slightly different angle), and I post a comparison photo below where you can (sort of) see the change.

But please note that:

(1) the two photos in the comparison ARE different:
the left has no "backlight washout" like the right one has, and

(2) I have only managed to get the old vintage style on some of the photos I tried it on.
It seems to me the "backlight washout" is an important key to getting it right.)

 

[Andy Resnick]

I had some time to disassemble an ancient flip phone and successfully recovered some weird chips- previously I have only scavenged pieces, this time I was able to maintain the structural integrity. These circuits are thin gold foil printed on (I think) a Germanium substrate- Silicon withstands nitric acid but these substrates don't.

Images taken with an Ultraphot III microscope, 63mm Zeiss Luminar lens, off-axis illumination via light pipes. Nikon D810 camera, 1/25s ISO 100.

 

[BillTre]

Finally done annoying me for this year, these big leaf maple flowers have stopped producing their pollen and are now making seeds:

 

[morrobay]

Low tide cloudy Sunday afternoon with local visitors.

 

[morrobay]

The mainland Thai coast is unremarkable. Unlike the islands. Similans.

 

[BillTre]

Here's a great shot of a Bridal Veil Stinkhorn.

It's from a article in Science about how mushrooms/fungi keep ecosystems good for plants.

This reminds me of something I read a while ago: the great coal deposits of the carboniferous (ancient carbon sequestration event) were a result of not having the fungi to breakdown the plants when they died.

 

[DennisN]

Something really experimental this time...

I've been thinking about testing the pinhole camera technique for quite some time, and I finally got around to do it. I made a "pinhole lens" (well, it's not actually a lens) from a camera body cap by drilling a hole in the cap, covering the hole with black tape and then punching a small hole in the tape with a needle:

My first test object was my cat.

Cat (with pinhole cap, exposure: 2 seconds):

Cat (with pinhole cap, exposure: 4 seconds):

Cat (with pinhole cap, exposure: 5 seconds):

As you can see the photos get very, very soft and "dreamy".

It's pretty fun that photos can be taken with just a small hole in front of the camera sensor.
I'm going to try experimenting with it outside in nature, to see if I can get "dreamy" atmospheres.

 

[collinsmark]

Something really experimental this time...

I've been thinking about testing the pinhole camera technique for quite some time, and I finally got around to do it. I made a "pinhole lens" (well, it's not actually a lens) from a camera body cap by drilling a hole in the cap, covering the hole with black tape and then punching a small hole in the tape with a needle:

View attachment 301427

My first test object was my cat.

Cat (with pinhole cap, exposure: 2 seconds):
View attachment 301428

Cat (with pinhole cap, exposure: 4 seconds):
View attachment 301429

Cat (with pinhole cap, exposure: 5 seconds):
View attachment 301430

As you can see the photos get very, very soft and "dreamy".

It's pretty fun that photos can be taken with just a small hole in front of the camera sensor.
I'm going to try experimenting with it outside in nature, to see if I can get "dreamy" atmospheres.

Yes, this is a neat thing to do, you haven't done it before.

Years ago, I did the same experimentation with a film camera. But a digital camera sounds a lot easier.

Aside from experimenting with just the aperture of the hole, you also might try using a tube or somesuch to experiment with focal length. For example, if you want to emulate a standard 50 mm lens, ensure the pinhole is 50 mm from the sensor plane. For a 100 mm "lens," ensure the pinhole is 100 mm away.

And of course, bring a tripod.

 

[morrobay]

Sure some "connected " people go into this no name place. Naklua, Thailand

 

[morrobay]

My day/night Thai massage friend.