Be Excellent To Each Other

I thought we might use a non-challenge-related Photos thread.

Yus. First off, I've finally got around to uploading the photos I took last winter, on my hols in the US. I took at least twice as many more, but we spent much of the trip travelling quite fast. This explains why most of the photos are in the same areas, usually because were taking a respite at some scenic spot, before setting off again. Alas, we travelled through most of Portland when it was too dark to take any decent photos. And then when we finally 'got there', we were snowed in for most of the next week.

Oh, and I've had to set the locations for photos from memory, using Wikipedia as a guide. So, er, don't put too much faith in any of that. I'd appreciate comments You can download "full-size" versions and whatnot on the right-hand side, by the way.

Anyway, here they are, if you want a look. If for some reason anyone wanted more, I have a stack of others. If you just fancy a gawp at me holiday photos, and are less bothered about 'quality' of image, that is. I haven't applied Photoshop to any of these, though I sort of want to for some. The dazzling brilliance of the colours in many of the outdoor, woodland photos, is sadly lacking despite my best attempts. America is too bright!

Looks nice.

Top stuff that man.

The clouds and sky in that top one look incredible.

Oh, and I've got some video I've recorded, I've just remembered! I'll see if I can Youtube that. You don't need to sign up to look at any of the others on the site, and it's all work-safe.

edit: cheers MaliA and Squirt

Sky. Ooh I love me some sky.

Those sunsets are gorgeous.

Did you go into Magic Mountain, or just drive past it? Good place, though it was so hot when I was there, they had sprinklers on in the queues. I don't know if that is standard practice.

Looks like you had a great time.

That is a cracking sunset, wow. Or is it a sunrise? This reminds me of a question I once read in New Scientist that wasn't answered -- is it possible to tell from a picture alone if it's a sunset or a sunrise?

Anyway, yes, great pic.

The top photo is lovely, as are the ones of the deer.

I think if you had the time you should try and up the contrast in photoshop or some other program, just to get the photos as vivid and vibrant as you can rememember. i think a lot of cameras reproduce things a bit too bright, and if you can afford the time and effort to actually adjust them, they will be a better record of your trip.

I also always think you should print your pictures out. I use Photobox which you can either just order a few prints from or buy a load of credits in bulk for about 6p a print. The prints are great quality, they have a huge selection of sizes available, matte and gloss finish and with or without a white border (print credits only apply to 6x4 and 6x4.5 prints though, in any finish and with or without border). Print credits last a year, but if you take a lot of photos, they are fantastic and I have used them about 30-40 times and photos have never failed to be delivered next day. They often have some great offers on, too.

Are you on Flickr or anything, CUS?

Just drove past it - we had a 1,300 mile drive at each end of the holiday. I was allowed to put my hand up when I needed the loo, or to eat, but no detours :/

Yeah, it was excellent, I've missed being there ever since I left. Oh well. By the way, I've attempted to list the photos in some vague order to suggest the drive we took north, if anyone is as bored as I am


I am wondering about that, yep. Some are as vivid as I recall, but in particular I'm disappointed by the photos of the red clay and purple trees. It was far more of an LSD-cliche when I were there, heh. I have a photo printer that I really need to try out Mimi, I bought it then never even installed it!

Oh, and that photo is of a sunrise, as is the other! 1600x1200 res versions on the site.


Not currently. I only take photos twice a year anyway...

I'm not going to post them because they're 3MB each but I stuck a selection of photos of Shunt online for Curio, so here they are.

http://files.enterspace.co.uk/unposted/shunt/

Best. Bar. Ever.

That's a shame. It's a cool place, and their stand-up coaster is ace.

A 1,300-mile trip doesn't sound fun, especially if you're gagged and bound like the picture you're painting.



CUS, last year.

You're quite hot, CUS.

You need a photography/mapping tool mashup that will let you place each photo on a map. Flickr has one, as does Picasa I think (Google's photo service). I haven't used either though so can't comment. Anyway, that sort of presentation is very natural for a road trip holiday album, as it lets the user browse the photos by location, and naturally maps the trip out as well.

Well I know *someone* who didn't click on my link! edit: #map">http://picasaweb.google.com/its.orson.w ... /photo#map

Hah, rumbled, I did have it down as "look at later". I see now, nifty.

I want a camera with a GPS chip that geotags all photos automatically. Then this feature leaks down into a reasonably priced prosumer model I will upgrade.

If we're sharing US photos, here is my wedding and honeymoon time -

http://www.inverty.com/owenpan/index.html

I've seen these before, just after it happened in fact, but I'm not sure I ever told you before -- it looked like you had an awesome time!

It really was. Weird to think it was nearly two years ago.

Mental note... get arse in gear.

FTFY.

My favorite pictures out of the ker-billions I've taken are:









You can click on those to see them bigger (and the last one doesn't really work unless you do).

Also my "one picture a day" thing that lasted for a few months has some interesting stuff (and, I've just noticed, the first picture obviously isn't taken by me).

Shouldn't be too bad. I have a little GPS device with a small battery, and it lasts ages.

Oh, I like this one too.



Go team blue!

This is one of my favourites:



because I like it's silliness.

There's also one with the same kind of effect that Grim... has used in his 'go team blue' picture from the same time:

What are you on about? I just got the rest of my quadruplet family together.

Rich-FTFY.

Those are rather excellent, particularly the second and fourth.

I followed a few links from Grim...'s photo of the rock and twig (which I thought was a dead deer buried in snow...) and I came across this photo from a group that Grim... had joined:

link

I'd sincerely love to know how that was made.

Mimi, I'm sure Dan of dansdata.com has written up about those circular pics before but I cannot locate it just now. I shall google more.

The quad-Grim... picture is ace!

How did you do that? Me wanna do.

I think: four photos with the camera on a tripod or convenient flat surface, self timer on the camera to allow Grim... to get into position, slow shutter of about 1/2 second or so to create the motion blur. Then digitally composite the four shots together. I claim digital composition because the bit where left-Grim...'s arm crosses left-of-centre-Grim...'s arm looks a little off.

Hmm. Then can someone free-digital-composition-program-that-can-be-used-by-dimwits-like-me-me-do?

Tough RMD. Although even the mighty complicated Photoshop (or free and complicated The Gimp) can easily do this sort of composite though.

Ah - I have The Gimp (and the art program).

I have been put off by how complicated it looks, though. Glad to hear that's not just me, though. Still, how hard can it be, right? ...

The Gimp is okay for just adjusting colour balance, contrast, that sort of thing. For any more 'specific' job that you might do in Photoshop, anything complicated... oh god, its interface is horrible. It's one of the main things holding Linux back, I'd say.

Hmmm. Is it so horrible that it'd be worth spending #30 on a copy of Photoshop to avoid?

I'm an open source hippy freak and I find The Gimp hard work. It is tolerable, though, if you persevere with it -- it's not so much badly designed as very oddly designed if that makes any sense. And it's very powerful, a pretty genuine rival for Photoshop in a number of areas (but a long way behind in others, like CMYK support).

Mind you, if all you've ever used it Paint then Photoshop is a big stretch too, though. There are a lot more online tutorials to fall back onto though. The intro consumer Photoshop cut down thing -- uhh, Express maybe? -- might be a good choice. I'm sure it has a free or "free" trial.

£30 will get you Photoshop Elements, which while excellent is not actually the £400 beast that is proper Photoshop.

Oh.

Is Gimp that bad? I can't imagine an interface that is 400 sponds worth of so bad you'd pay to get it away from you.

Hmmm.

I believe you will notice no difference at all between Elements and Photoshop.

Awesome - given that I only want it for a bit of, ahem, "manipulation", such as that which Grim... has so publically displayed. Rather than for, say, designing crappy DVD covers.

Paint.

No seriously, paint will do that job, if you keep the grim...s (or whatever you're duplicating far enough away) you literally just cut roughly round and copy and paste them onto a base picture of the empty scene. Since you took them from the same position in the same settings they WILL match.

That said, http://www.getpaint.net Paint.net is a free thing of beauty.

Excellent - cheers Dudley, much appreciated. I shall give Paint and Paint.net a go.

Now, sorry all for derailing the thread. As you were.

Go straght for .net, paint is a horrific program, I only mention it because you already have it.

My camera (Nikon D80) can composite photos together like that, in-camera. It's surprising how well it works, too.

Er yes, that's how I did it - just take four photos, and copy / paste them onto each other.