Photography – Page 24 – Random Connections

Of BOOBs and Curves

June 10, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Photography

Nope, not what you’re thinking. If you came here looking for something else, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. This will be a dull-by-comparison tutorial on Photoshop. In this case BOOB stands for Bridge Out Of Bounds, and Bezier curves are the cool masking technique I’ve finally mastered to make intricate OOB (Out Of Bounds) images possible.

In an OOB, the image appears to break through a frame in the image. Imagine you have a framed photo hanging and part of that photo escaped onto the wall – that’s the effect that OOBs try to achieve. I’ve written about them before here, and there is a great Flickr discussion group dedicated to OOBs. Here is the first one that I ever attempted, where my kayak appears to leap out of the photo.

Oconee Photo Safari

May 31, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Travel

When I knew that Laura was going to be out of town this weekend, I contacted a couple of my Chorale/Furman friends to see if they would be interested in a photo safari. Ken Cothran took me up on the challenge, so early Saturday morning I picked him up at his place in Clemson and we headed out.

Our first stop was the town of Pendleton. Once the major city in the Upstate, the whole area is now on the Register of Historic Places. We walked around the little town square and took a few shots.

Peak Experience

May 30, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Travel

Conditions were ideal for a photo trek. I had a day of vacation I needed to use before the madness of summer system installations started up. Laura had left town for a conference, so I was on my own. And I had gotten new information about an interesting place to visit. My main target for the day would be the old railroad trestle that crosses the Broad River near Peak, SC.

Jay Hope had e-mailed me earlier in the week with a link to a story in The State newspaper about completion of the aforementioned bridge and opening of a new section of the Palmetto Trail. Jay’s family has been working to restore the nearby Hope School, which is one of the historic Rosenwald schools. The trail passes through Jay’s family land and close to the school, and he knew that I had an in the area, so he tries to keep me informed. I followed up on his suggestion, and after getting Laura off to the airport, headed south.

Photo Walk with Karen B

May 24, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Local, Photography

Been a busy week, so this is the first of three quick posts… Wednesday night Karen Buchmueller’s husband, Herman, and Laura had a meeting with the American Chemical Society, so the two of us decide to do a photo walk downtown, starting at Falls Park. We spent some time right at the entrance to the … Read More “Photo Walk with Karen B” »

Photo Class Critique

May 4, 2009 Tom No Comments

Photography

Session two of our Town and Country photo class was this evening. Most of our class gathered at Diane Hopkins-Hughs studio to critique the photos we took on the “town” portion of our walk in downtown Greenville. We were to select our five best shots and print them. I gamely jumped in and printed my … Read More “Photo Class Critique” »

Town and Country Photo Class

April 19, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

Local, Photography

This weekend I took part in a “Town and Country Photo Hike” class taught through Furman University’s Continuing Education program. The course was taught be photographer Diane Hopkins-Hughs, and I was looking forward to getting some new tips on photo composition, and learning about new places to shoot in Greenville. Ann Martin also helped lead the class. This session was the “town” portion, and we would be exploring the downtown Greenville area. Next session will be the “country” portion, where we head out into the Upstate somewhere.

In most of the classes I’ve taken there is a wide range of abilities and skills. You have some folks that really are just starting out, and you’ve got some that seem like they are taking the class just to show off how much they already know. Even if the class turns out to be a very beginner class, as this one did, I try my best to stay out of that latter category. I just don’t want to be that guy. Even when a class doesn’t turn out to be quite what I expect, I always try to find something to take back from it.

Western SC Tower Tour

April 5, 2009 Tom 7 Comments

Entertainment, Geocaching and Maps, Local, Photography, Rants, Travel

It seems like spring break got away from me without my being about to get out and visit the lookout towers like I wanted. This Friday was one of the best days, as far as weather was concerned, so I was able to visit some of the locations. My target would be those towers located in Northwestern South Carolina, along with any other interested tidbits I might discover along the way. It was a push, but I managed to visit eight tower locations in one day.

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Columbia Riverfront Park

March 22, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Photography, Travel

Once, many years ago, I made the statement that while other cities like Austin and New Orleans had cool Riverwalk areas, Columbia had built a penitentiary on it’s riverfront. Fortunately, in the past couple of decades since that statement attitudes have changed, and both Greenville and Columbia have recognized the importance of their waterways and the potential for tourism. While in Columbia this past week I was able to spend an afternoon at the Columbia Riverfront Park, and it was quite a pleasant outing.

The park is located at the site of the Columbia Waterworks, and incorporates historical elements of the waterworks, the Columbia Canal, and the Congaree River. One enters the main portion of the part at the Waterworks entrance, with a path that leads past the portions of the water treatment plant that are still in operation.

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Super Simple Time Lapse

February 27, 2009 Tom 3 Comments

EdTech, General Technology, Photography

When we were in the Bahamas I tried my hand at some time-lapse video using my little Nikon S50 camera in movie mode. The results were pretty good, but I found myself battling the twin hurdles of battery life and patience (as well as lack of a tripod.) The result was a shorter-than-desired video clip that went by far too quickly.

Then a couple of weeks ago I read a good blog post on the Digital Urban blog with simple instructions on doing time-lapse photography with a webcam. While Digital Urban’s instructions look great, and I want to try those out, it occurred to me that there might be an even easier way to accomplish this – use someone else’s webcam! Here’s one that I created very quickly using some simple software and the webcam for Table Rock State Park…

All you need for this project is a computer (duh) that no one will need to use for a few hours, a good steady Internet connection, a website with an embedded webcam image, and the BSR Screen Recorder. Other screen recorder programs will probably work, but I like the BSR program because it’s very easy to set the record rate, and that is the lynch pin in this method.

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Traffic Trails Around Town

February 26, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Local, Photography

Driving around town the past week or so I had been scouting for locations where I could get good shots of traffic trails. I wanted to avoid the Overbrook Overpass, where it seems everyone takes a photo, so something different was needed. Since I’d had dinner at The Clock, I decided to look for some … Read More “Traffic Trails Around Town” »

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