Thoughts on the World » photography

Caldera Sunset #1

Andrew — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:52:57 +0000

I’m finally getting round to processing the shots from my Santorini trip – only about a year late! The sunsets over the Caldera really are quite amazing. Here’s one, and I’ll post a couple more over the next few weeks.

Also, if you’re interested, I’ve recently added more shots from Europe last year to my online album. Have a look and let me know what you think.

I Don’t Want to Sound Complainin’

Andrew — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:37:16 +0000

After writing “What I Want From My Next DSLR” I finally bit the bullet and upgraded my two DSLRs. While they are basically superb cameras, one, my new Canon 7D, is badly let down by some very poor ergonomics. This article describes my findings so far, what the cameras do well, and the things about the 7D I really don’t like!

Memo to Car Museum Curators – Give Them Space

Andrew — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:22:02 +0000

There are lots of great car museums in the world, and I’ve visited more than a few. However, the majority are difficult or impossible to photograph, unless you’re a “down in the details” sort of photographer, which I’m definitely not.

The honourable exception is the Museo Dell’Automobile “Carlo Biscaretti Di Ruffia” in Turin, Italy. Here the curators have given the cars something they almost never have in other museums: space. The result is a beautifully lit environment for the equally beautiful exhibits, and when I visited last year I managed to make several images I’m very happy with. Visit my portfolio, and see whether you agree.

(PS – according to their website, the Museo Dell’Automobile is currently closed for restoration works, so please check the website before you visit.)

Integrating External Content with WordPress

Andrew — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:25:12 +0000

I’ve been developing andrewj.com for about 15 years, and although I’m not that prolific I’ve built up quite a lot of content.

I recently converted my blog from an old bespoke (= “custom”, for my American friends) solution to one based on WordPress. However, this created a problem, in that the WordPress model is to hold all content in the database, and that wasn’t the right model for me.

Firstly, I have a number of articles which are very long for a blog post, and I had no interest in restructuring them. I also didn’t want to break external links to the existing articles.

Next, I decided that I wanted the freedom to continue to write in that style. Some of my writing takes several weeks, and it works for me to draft it as separate HTML pages. I also sometimes want to include active content or multiple images, and I don’t want to create a large and unwieldy WordPress database full of such stuff.

Finally, my online photo galleries are managed and generated using Jalbum, and I wanted to find a way of neatly integrating single images into my blog, complete with the watermarks and metadata extraction which Jalbum manages so well, without duplicating that functionality in WordPress.

This is probably typical of many older web sites, but WordPress doesn’t really embrace the integration of external content. This article describes how I solved this problem, and a WordPress plugin I have developed to make my solution reusable.

Hereinafter

Andrew — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:34:20 +0000

We used to take the mickey out of Japanese user manuals for not being written very well. My favourite example was “engine not turning very round”, although sadly I suspect that may have been apocryphal.

Now, I think there’s a danger they are swinging the opposite way. Yesterday, in the manual for my new Canon 7D, I found a word I never expected to find in a camera user manual: “hereinafter”. Correctly used as well, but is this quite the language we expect of a user manual for the masses?

Nice Palette

Andrew — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:53:34 +0000

Here’s a picture from my Swiss trip last year. I was a little disappointed with my shots from Montreux – it’s such a compact town it’s very difficult to isolate the buildings and features from one another. However, I’m reasonably pleased with this one. The palette’s great: everything the same yellow and red, with the rest almost monochrome (I haven’t made any adjustments apart from a slight overall saturation boost). Of course, if I’d been taking a commercial shot with the hotel’s permission I’d have tried to get all the blinds deployed to the same length, but I didn’t have that control. Still, I think it’s balanced enough to work.

Let me know what you think.

First Photo Blog Post

Andrew — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:42:06 +0000

Hi, welcome to my new photo blog. Here’s a shot taken on my trip to Santorini last year, a “grab shot” of a rather nice yacht scudding along in one of the island’s trademark sunsets. The triangular shapes at the … Continue reading →

The Big Blog Split

Andrew — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:57:34 +0000

Well, maybe not exactly a split as such, but a new structure. “Thoughts on the World” is a pretty eclectic mix of professional, personal, humour and photography-related content. However, one reader who follows mainly my “professional” content expressed a wish to see this separate from the more personal stuff. Given that I’m about to add more photography and review content to the blog, it seemed reasonable to try and meet that request.

I have therefore now created a number of new “views” of my blog, and a number of specialist feeds, as follows:

Thoughts on the World. This is the original and complete blog and feed, and will give you access to all my content, in chronological order. Expect a mix of articles including my observations of the world of software development and architecture, humorous observations, photography and personal announcements.

The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog
The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThoughtsFromAndrewJohnston

The Professional Blog. This will focus on professional articles based around my observations of the world of software development and architecture. Articles for AgileArchitect.org will appear here, as will updates on my products and publications, and I may cross-post relevant reviews. You’ll also see any practical announcements relating to my websites and feeds.

The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog/pro
The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/StructureOfTheWorld

The Photo Blog. This will focus on my photos, and photography-related articles and reviews. You’ll also see any practical announcements relating to my websites and feeds. There’s also a separate feed for updates to my gallery.

The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog/photo
The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ImagesOfTheWorld
The feed for my gallery is http://feeds.feedburner.com/GalleryOfTheWorld

The Review Pages. This presents my reviews of books, films and music. You’ll also see any practical announcements relating to my websites and feeds.

The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog/reviews
The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReviewsOfTheWorld

For more details, visit my Blog Views and Feeds page.

IS Sometimes Doesn’t

Andrew — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:57:30 +0000

Gordon Lewis at Shutterfinger recently posted bemoaning how Image Stabilisation technology doesn’t work in some circumstances, especially when the camera’s on a tripod. This has caused me a number of jagged fireworks pictures, and others, over the years. Regular readers will recall my suggestion in What I Want In My Next DSLR that it would be easy for camera design to include automatic detection of “tripod mode”, and simply turn IS off, or at least visually warn the user.

Camera manufacturers have made enormous strides in very difficult technology areas, but current DSLRs fall down in so many simple usability areas. Why?

New Blog Now Live – Please Update Your Feed

Andrew — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:38:23 +0000

Hi,

My new blog is now live. This allows a lot more flexibility, including commenting etc.

Please can you make sure you are taking your RSS feed from one of the following:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThoughtsFromAndrewJohnston (preferred)

http://www.andrewj.com/blog/index.php/feed/ (straight from my site)

I still need to update some of the links to longer old articles, so please bear with me if these are a bit odd over the next few days. Also you may see some duplicate items in the Feedburner feed – if so, please ignore these, and they should clear shortly.

Thanks, and enjoy the new blog.

Andrew

Lots of News

Andrew — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:31:36 +0000

Quite a lot of news…

Migration of our web sites and email to the new hosting server is almost
complete. See previous article/rant for some of my findings. After some initial
frustration with my hosting provider (WebFusion) when I discovered the
limitations of their new Linux shared hosting services compared with the old
one, I have to say a big “Thank You” for their efficiency in finding a better
solution for me, and providing me with effective technical support to get it up
and running.

If you do have any problems with our sites or email, let me know…

I’m currently developing a new blog, based on WordPress. This will make it
easier to post “on the fly” than with the current solution, hand-carved from XML
and ASP (now PHP).

When the new blog is running, I’m going to have a regular post for fans of my
photography, so you can see what I’ve been working on. In the meantime, I’ve
updated my gallery pages so they are a bit easier to navigate, bookmark and
search.

And talking about my photography, I’ve recently been accepted by the Alamy
stock agency. So please all rush at once and spend lots of money licensing my
pictures for all those uses you’ve dreamed of but were too polite to mention

See you soon,

Andrew

What I Want In My Next DSLR

Andrew — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

What’s missing from the typical DSLR, anno 2010? What could be improved, using simple established technologies, to make the DSLR a better picture-taking device? And why don’t the major DSLR manufacturers do some of these things, which might help sales?

The modern DSLR is a great image making machine, and I don’t want to change it’s core paradigm. But as I use my cameras in different ways, I recognise a number of lost opportunities and frustrations which have yet to be addressed. Now is the time to divert a small fraction of that enormous engineering effort from the hunt for ever more megapixels to the development of software and mechanical features which will make the DSLR a more flexible and better-integrated photographer’s tool.

In this article, I suggest a round dozen ways in which DSLR manufacturers could easily improve the product, mostly through simple software or mechanical refinements, to ease the process of taking and processing photos.

A Parable

Andrew — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:16:39 +0000

In 2008, Bibble 4, supported by its community of plug-ins, was probably the best RAW convertor available – it was certainly my favourite. Then in late 2008 Bibble abandoned support for it, although Bibble 5 was not yet available (for another year, as it turned out). I wrote a short parable to express my frustration at this inexplicable decision.

Although mainly about photography, I think there are lessons for anyone contemplating a disruptive, rewrite from scratch change to a software product – beware!

My “Tenset”

Andrew — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:57:34 +0000

A recent post by Mike Johnston on The Online Photographer decried the frequent difficulty of quickly reviewing an online photo collection to understand the photographer’s interests and style, in order to decide whether to invest more time in studying the content in greater detail.

Mike’s solution to this is to suggest that each photographer’s website should start with “A photographer’s ten best, or ten favourite, or ten most characteristic pictures, up front.” He gives this concept the excellent name of the tenset.

Suitably chastened and inspired, I’ve taken this suggestion to heart, and my website now contains my very own “Tenset”, as the first grouping on my gallery page. If you’re not sure what makes me tick as a photographer, the subjects which interest me or the style I am trying to develop, look here. If you like what you see, continue browsing. If you don’t, then go no further.

I’ve also written a short article providing a bit more background on the tenset concept, and how I managed to choose my own selecton.

Venice Photos Coming Online

Andrew — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:44:08 +0000

I’ve just published some of my photos from my trip to the Venice Carnevale 2009. There are some more scenery and miscellaneous shots to follow, but if you like pictures of pretty ladies in striking costumes, look here. Continue reading →

Legislative Stupidity

Andrew — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:08:16 +0000

I feel compelled to write this post to highlight a stupid law which rather than constraining terrorists hands them victory.

In July 2008 my wife and I attended the Northampton Balloon Festival. An enjoyable time was had by all, notwithstanding a complete absence of balloons, occasioned by the British weather.

One of the highlights was a successful attempt on the world record for the greatest number of performers singing “Y.M.C.A”! This shot captures the scene:

OK, it’s not “Afghan Girl” or “Migrant Mother”, but I liked it, capturing a British Bobby policing his community exactly as required.

This photograph is legal. Had I taken it after February 16th 2009 I would have committed a crime. The stupidity of that law hands victory to the terrorists.

Andrew

Website Returns, and New Photos

Andrew — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:44:46 +0000

Apologies for the state of the website over the last week – a problem with the hosting server. I seem to have worked around it for now, so thanks for your patience and those who alerted me to the problem.

My photography zone has been updated with images from my trip to Maine, Vermont and New York last autumn, and from the dramatic Winter weather in the UK. Photos from my trip to the Venice carnivale should start to follow shortly.

Underwater White Balance

Andrew — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:41:35 +0000

If you’re lucky enough to own either a waterproof camera, or a waterproof housing for your digital camera, you’ll have experienced the problem of trying to correct for the extreme blue cast of shots taken underwater.

The problem is that there’s little reliable advice on how to correct this. There are a few articles on the web, but I haven’t found any to provide a reliable and repeatable process which can be applied to “casual” underwater photography.

After a fair amount of research and experimentation, here’s my analysis of the options available, and a suggested technique which I have developed and which I haven’t seen documented anywhere else.

Photography Blog

Andrew — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:40:20 +0000

I’ve now created a separate category for photography-related blog posts, so if you’re interested you can track these separately Continue reading →

My Grand Circle Tour

Andrew — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:51:01 +0000

I’ve just added a new section to my photo gallery, and an article describing my recent “Grand Circle” tour of the Southwestern USA: what worked, what didn’t, and how to avoid sleep deprivation and scurvy! Continue reading →

My Photo Gallery is Now Live

Andrew — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 06:19:21 +0000

I’ve always had a strong interest in photography, both as a practical tool to record our experiences in life, and as an art form. Fans of the Coppertrees Calendar will know how I’ve had great fun capturing friends, family and travel over the years.

I’ve also always had great admiration for those photographers whose work can really move the emotions, particularly the great landscape photographers like Ansel Adams. Taking good representational photographs is hard enough, but establishing a composition which can both emotionally inspire the viewer and satisfy the critics is even harder.

Over the last year or so I’ve been rediscovering photography with a Digital SLR, and on my new photography pages you’ll find some of my efforts, plus (in coming weeks) some hints, tips and tools for the D-SLR photographer.