Chatham has had one of its worst floods in recent memory with waters of the Thames River reaching a peak of 16.3 feet above normal. Many homes and businesses along the river suffered a lot of damaged. I though I would share some of the photos I took of the flood.
More images of the flood can be found at my PBase site.
I had a great time at the Chatham Camera Club workshop on Feb 10, 2009. It has been a while since I was able to attend a meeting (due to personal reasons) and it was great see some familiar faces as well as a tonne of new faces in the crowd.
The workshop had a number of different areas where members could learn some tips on photography. Personally I really enjoyed the lighting setup from Les. Interesting to see how such a simple setup can produce fantastic results. No need to spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy lighting system to capture great photos. Here are a few of the shots I took during the evening.
Wow, it has been a while since I have updated this site. Got a bit sidetracked. Hopefully things will be settling down a bit and I can get back to posting some interesting tidbits on photography. Until then, take care and Happy New Year.
There has been some interest from some members of the club in learning how to use their flash when taking photos. I have been reluctent in the past to really touch on this subject simply because I am not a good flash photographer and I would hate to steer someone down the wrong path. That being said I have come across a wonderful blog that deals with flash photography (primarily dealing with off-camera flash). There is a ton of information on this blog and I think it would be a great place to start a journey on flash photography (just do not blame me if you spend too much money on buying multiple flash guns).
You can check it out here: Strobist
This website is about one thing: Learning how to use off-camera flash with your dSLR to take your photos to the next level.
Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about how to more effectively use your small speedlights. There are more than 1,000 articles about lighting. Over a million photographers from around the world have learned small-flash lighting techniques from this site. We’re thinking you can, too.
Have fun……..
Edit: For those of you using Canon EOS speedlights here is a great resource for getting help in understanding how the Canon speedlight system works. This is required reading if you are having trouble with your Canon flash system.
I have noticed recently when chatting with other photographers that the tool of choice when processing photos is Adobe Photoshop. It is a great tool and I personally use it for most of my photo processing along with a few other tools.
However I have asked myself many times how much of the program do I actually use? After some honest reflection I have come to realize that I am just scratching the surface of what one can actually get out of the program. Then I ask myself if the high cost is really justified, especially if there are a number of excellent photo adjustment tools out there that are basically free.
I thought I would share with you some of the free photo adjustment tools you can check out and perhaps save you a lot of money.
1. The GIMP - This is a very popular photo tool that has been around for a long time and is in fact FREE for use. Originally getting its start in Linux, recent versions also support Windows. The program is actually very powerful and with a bit of work can pretty much match what you can do in Photoshop. One of the biggest issues though is getting used to the user interface. But once you get the hang of it, it proves to be a very very capable image processor.
2. Picasa - This small little program from Google is actually a very capable photo tool. With its excellent photo archiving / viewing features you can also perform some basic photo touch ups. I personally use this program a lot for viewing photos on my computer as well as preparing photos to email to family. It is very easy to use and I strongly recommend it, perhaps not as your primary photo tool but as a tool for easily seeing your photos on your PC.
3. Paint.Net - This is another free and powerful tool that I have putting on computers at work. Here is a little blurb about the program:
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
I will end it there, with a small little plug for FastStone added as it is a tool recommended by a lot of people at out Photo Club. I personally do not use it but from what I have seen it does have a lot of features for viewing and basic editing of photos. If anyone else has any other suggestions for photo editing tools please feel free to share them here.
PS: The tools I use, but are not free.
-Photoshop CS3 (I get the educational price as I work at a College so it is a fraction of the street cost).
-Adobe LightRoom (I have not been sold yet on this program but I have not tried version 2 yet).
-FotoFusion (excellent tool for placing photos on a canvas or book templates. I am using the Extreme version.)
-PhotoCleaner (a very small and simple, but I think a very powerful photo editing tool. I use it with every photo I have processed for years and is the primary tool I use for resizing photos).
- Noise Ninja 2 (for removing high ISO noise from tools. The paint brush tool for masking areas of the photo you do not wish to have noise removed from is extremely useful).
I have created a generic Gmail account that can be used by members of these lessons. Along with this Gmail account I have also set up a Google Photos site that gives us 1 gig of free space to upload our photos. Although 1 gig sounds like a lot of space, you may be surprised to see how fast it can be use up so I will be setting some “suggestions” on how to upload photos to the site.
Information on how to access the site as well as user credentials will be emailed out shortly. I want to first test the features with a specific few members before I release to everyone. I want to make sure it works as planned.
Thanks.
Does anyone know of a good online place that we can use to post pictures we will be taking over the summer? I would like to have a spot that allows everyone to post pictures within the same account. The website must also support “link to” which will allow people to post their pics back to this site.
Thanks
Richard
It is a start and I hope a place where fellow Chatham Camera Club members can come to learn about photography and also come to ask questions. I was very pleased to see the overall positive response to the talk I gave at the last meeting. There appears to be a lot of people who really want to learn the in’s and out’s of photography and take control of the camera rather then letting the camera have control of the exposure settings. Lets use this blog to once again relegate the camera to “tool” status and make it nothing more than an instrument use in taking the photos we envision in our minds.
Just off the top of my head here are a few of the lessons I want to start off with.
1. Basic Understanding of how a digital camera (compacts, dSLRs) work. With respect to the dSLR’s this will include some discussion on the lens as well.
2. Metering modes. Discussion on the various types of metering modes as well as some guidelines on when you may want to use a specific type of metering mode.
This is just to begin with and although the list is short at the moment it will expand as we move along. I also encourage everyone to post comments and/or ask questions. The stronger the group interaction the more everyone will benefit. Also please send in your own lesson ideas if you have any.
Thanks and looking forward to starting this journey with you all.
Richard
Chatham Camera Club Main Page