Whoo Hoo....Ichiro in full glory

Hi again................well not to be beaten by the technology I down loaded the trial version of Lightroom 2, the upgrade to my digital asset management (DAM) software, so I could at least try out the new Nikon D700 pictures and again WOW these are great pictures, yeah yeah I know I would say that about my photos, but the quality is what I'm harping on about and the quality is great, so well done Nikon!

I'm not going to estol the virtues of this new masterpiece from Nikon as I'm not a tester and reviewer of camera hardware so will leave that to others more qualified than me, but for one of the best independent reviews on Nikon cameras see Thom Hogan's reviews and for the Nikon D700 see the link below

http://www.bythom.com/nikond700review.htm)

Anyway we now have our hero of the baseball ...Ichiro in glorious full frame mega pixel up on the blog...........with many more to follow soon...........mmmmmmmm lost yesterday at the LA Angles 8 - 0 ouch but claimed the series 3 -1 some consolation I suppose.

Travelling again later in the week ..........yeah it's a hard life but should bring many more great pictures back to upload from the new acquisition.

Trevor

Go Mariners 1-0 against TB Rays..Shame about the pictures!

Well having returned from the ancestral home in the UK a couple of days ago now I thought I would get back into the American way of life and went to the Baseball yesterday in Seattle and saw the Mariners play against the Tampa Bay Rays. WOW, a great game unfolded with the Mariners scoring the opening and only run of the day with the second ball of the first innings ..... great hit from Ichiro Suzuki........... go Mariners, well for awhile at least as we lead the AL 10-6.


Well, you ask what has all this got to do with Photography and FotoEngineering. Well actually quite a lot in fact as as always I take my trusty camera with me in an attempt to get the photo of the home run hit over the fence, or the slide into home plate confirming the win and I'm still waiting for that great shot to materialise, OH well one day perhaps. I digress, so back to the blog in hand as the camera I took to the game was in fact a nice new shiny Nikon D700, yes finally gone FX, full frame and what a difference a bigger sensor makes to the quality of the picture it takes.


Only one set back with this amazing new camera is that my Digital Asset Management (DAM) software cant read the new Nikon RAW format (NEF)..................Bummer eh. Well it begs the question as to why the camera manufacturers keep changing the formats with each new camera they produce!!..............its obvious I suppose as technology is moving on and the new FX (full frame) format is so different to it predecessor the DX format and requires different processing capabilities to make it "develop" the picture from digital dots to a picture.

What annoys me is that the software and DAM developers don't produce the Camera Raw files to retrospectively add to older versions of their software, yeah yeah you say that's how they make their money, but its still a pain and another expense after paying for your nice new shiny camera.

So the picture of our hero of the baseball (Ichiro Suzuki) cant be shown today in this blog because I cant download it, process it or crop it to the format I want to show it on the blog or web site.......................what a bummer!!

More later after I get the upgrade..................OK OK I'll stop wining!!

Trevor

Off Travelling Again.......

I'm off travelling again tomorrow, actually back to the ancestral home in England. I'm only away for a week including all the flying from Seattle via Amsterdam to Bristol, but still not actually looking forward to all the jet lag and aggravations that the airlines, TSA, Customs and immigration etc can cause the travelling public let alone the travelling photographer.

I'm actually travelling light this trip and not going to take a lot of pictures however, I will as always be carrying my trusty Nikon P6000 in case anything does catch my eye and with the great GPS facility I will always know where the shot was taken so I can return at a later date with an arm full of cameras and lenses and get the shot in all its megapixel glory. Well actually the P6000 has a mega load of pixels so perhaps a blow up is in order to see how good it really is.

Anyway no blogs for a week but hopefull loads of material to blog about upon return

Trevor

360 Views...Whoo Hoo

Well at long last I have sorted out the Spherical 360 x 180 view problem and you can now visit our site and view immersive interactive panoramas in full 360 degree glory http://www.trevorcurtis.com/Panoramas.html

The first of hopefully many vistas is of the world famous Space Needle in Seattle. It was taken on a Nikon D300 with Sigma 12-24mm f2.8 zoom lens at focal length 12mm at f11 on a Manfrotto 303 SPH panoramic head.

The 45 pictures required to make this were stitched together in PTGui and minor post production tweaks were done in Photoshop CS2.

The Erictuangualr view above is the 360 deg immersive view "unwrapped" and laid out flat to produce this strange but intriguing picture.

Anyway more of this fascinating picture type to follow very soon and let us know your thoughts on where you would like to see more of this type of picture and if we show it on this blog or on the index page of the web site we will send you a print of your chosen view.

Trevor

How True!

Saw this today and thought how true

"A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me." - David Bailey

Does this work for you too?

Trevor

NB...David Bailey, iconic British photographer................think I will blog more about him later..........what do you think?

Perhaps we sprung into Summer

Well after yesterdays blog it seems that maybe we missed spring and summer is here instead.

Not exactly a summer scene, but certainly a sunny view of a usually grey Seattle. This vista of the Space Needle taken from the Seattle Arts Museum Park through one of the exhibits shows a sunny day ........hopefully one of many to come this year.

Where else in Seattle can we find some sun?

Trevor

Spring is in the Air!!

Hey is spring finally here?

Todays view is of the cascade mountains, snow and spring greenery, must be Seattle!!............Lets hope it continues eh!!

What Spring time shots do you like?

Trevor

Choices..Choices and more Choices

Think I've gone blog mad over the last few days but here's another one today.

I caught up with an old friend after some 5/6 years recently and it was great to catch up after such a long time. During our online conversations he commented that "hey your a photographer ... I'm looking for a new camera, what do you suggest I buy?" Well as you can imagine that launched into quite a lengthy diatribe on the merits and demerits of DSLRs vs Point and Shoot compact cameras, accessories and what type of photography are you looking to get into etc etc etc.

Well this began me thinking, yes, I know it's a rare occurrence but occasionally I do come up with an idea or two!!. What I was thinking about was the conversations I had many years ago when I was starting to take my photography seriously with a professional photographer who helped me understand some of the more philosophical aspects to taking pictures and good photography.

What he tried to get me to understand and perhaps its only now some years on that I really do, is that all the great modern, state of the art equipment and mega expensive cameras will not make you a photographer. He said and I will always remember this, is "that the camera is but an extension of your hand and eye" and what I think he meant by that was that the camera (and it doesn't matter what the camera is) is but the tool to capture the image that you see with your photographers eye and that it is your vision that you see and record that is important.

If you look at the great photographers of the past and of our time, yes they have had the leading edge equipment, but it is really their vision of the picture or vista they saw at the time of pressing the camera shutter we see in the print hanging on our wall at home on in the conference room of our offices.

So, after some time to think my advice to an old friend or any new serious photographer, search out the equipment that suits the photography you want to shoot, then find what suits you in terms of feel and ease of use, and then is it affordable to you as if you really get serious about taking pictures you're going to trade up to more expensive cameras, lenses and accessories soon enough..............

As another great photographer said "You don't take a photograph, you make it." - Ansel Adams

Above all enjoy taking the opportunity to take images of our friends, colleagues and the world we live in, capturing that moment in time for all time to come.

Trevor

Money Matters Pt 2 - Update

Well after yesterdays announcement and a lot of hard work to set up the "add to cart" buttons the web site now has limited retail capability ....Whoo Hoo!

To test out the retail cart facilities the panorama gallery (http://www.trevorcurtis.com/Panoramas.html ) has been updated to include purchasing capability via the secure web site of PayPal .........so look up the panoramas gallery, click on a picture and checkout the new facility............... see the great panoramas and buy a picture if you like one.....................please!

Anyway enjoy the panoramas and other pictures............lots more to be posted soon

Trevor

Money Matters!!

Well a quick quote today!!

"The quickest way to make money at photography is to sell your camera."- Anonymous

Could be the truth eh!!

Anyway, I have been working for sometime now on how to monetize the web site and as a self builder of the site my technical skills are limited and I am learning as I go. After many late nights and what seems endless searching for information and knowledge on retail sites, merchant accounting, carts and pay now buttons I think I have found a solution to developing the site with retail capability.................. keep visiting as the site (http://www.fotoengineering.com/) will soon go retail live...................... I hope!!

So hopefully today's quote wont be too poignant

Trevor