Photography
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Fun Photography Trick: Star Trails
Here’s a fun trick to try at night if you own a camera that can take 30 second exposures, a decent, fully-charged camera battery, and a tripod. This is not the best example, but it’s what you should be able to get on your first attempt, with about 25 minutes’ worth of shooting. To get…
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Digitally enhancing analog photos – is it cheating?
The whole “back to basics” photography movement, with its return to analog film and (in some cases) cheap plastic lenses has a kind of purity about it that doesn’t mesh well with all of the computer-aided post-processing of photos we have come to take for granted. We have computer programs that know how to automatically…
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Tone Mapping in the Namibian Desert
I’ve read a number of explanations of tone mapping, but I confess I still don’t understand what’s going on. I know it’s a way to manipulate a digital image so that what you see in the image better approximates what you remember having seen in real life – rather than the disappointing result you usually…
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Getting that “Wild West” feel – “down under” in Namibia
Just outside the vast “dune sea” of the Namib Naukluft Park is the last place you can get gas, before you venture into the coppery-red dunes of Sossusvlei, a dry but harsh landscape where only the most well-adapted creatures can survive. The place consists of the Solitaire Lodge, a small coffee shop and gas station,…
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Make an HDR Photo from a Single Exposure
Yesterday I talked about HDR photography, and how you can combine multiple exposure photos of the same scene with software to ensure all the different parts of the scene are exposed the right amount. What I didn’t mention is that you can also use the Photomatix software to create an HDR photo using “tonemapping” from…
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HDR Photography: First Attempts
I’m sure everyone else has heard of “high dynamic range” or HDR photography, but for me, it’s “The Latest Thing” I’ve discovered. You know how you sometimes come across this amazing scene with lights and darks and bright colors, and you snap a photo to preserve it exactly as you saw it, and then you…
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2013 “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” Competition Kicks off Today
In its 49th year, the venerated “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition is accepting entries from today (January 7) until February 25th. Competition will be stiff, with the number of entries expected to be near 50,000, but who knows? You can enter in one of 18 categories, including three for photographers under age 17. Even…
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Flickr Makes its Move
Over the last month, there’s been some interesting maneuvering going on in the photo-sharing community. Specifically, once-dominant Flickr, which had been stagnating in comparison to its made-for-smartphone rival, Instagram, has made a couple of moves likely to put it back into a dominant position in its genre. First was the release of Flickr’s new app,…
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Sunsets: the impact of cropping and zooming
I never tire of these Windhoek sunsets during the “rainy season”. But I’m always amazed by how much of a difference cropping and zooming make on sunset photography. These are three photos taken in succession of the same sunset, with the same camera settings (OK, roughly), but zoomed. The point is, when you’re photographing a…
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In Namibia, the best light for photos is within 10 minutes of sunrise
Driving through the Namibian desert just outside the coastal town of Swakopmund at about 0545 can give you a real visual treat. It would have been more spectacular with a bit more of the fog/mist the area is known for, but within 10 or 15 minutes of sunrise (before or after) you can get some…
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The Magic Hour
Strange things happen to the light in the last minutes before sunset. And in Windhoek, during the “rainy season” (usually December and January) it’s even more extreme. Every night, there are a few minutes where everything turns a brilliant yellow as the sun dips near the horizon. Usually there is a gap in the clouds…
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Water & Sky Photography: Fixing the Horizon in “Post”
This is a pretty basic point, really – but I see the same mistakes made over and over by hobbyist photographers. In my experience, virtually every photo you take that has a prominent horizon in it will require some correction in “post.” At a minimum, you will need to straighten the horizon, because it’s hard…
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Easy Panoramic Photos – Southern Namibia Horizons
I’ve posted before about how you can take panoramic photos these days without one of those fancy panoramic cameras. Given the resolution of cameras these days, you can just take a slice from an ordinary photo of the horizon or something equally appropriate for panoramic photos, make sure it’s lined up straight, and crop. One…
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Accidental Photos
Sometimes you can get a cool photo when your camera fails. Standing under a streetlight in Katutura, a small child was begging to have his photo taken, yet for unknown reasons the flash wouldn’t fire. The result is below. I wish I could claim it was on purpose!
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Making Ordinary Photos Panoramic
Sometimes I wish I had one of those fancy panoramic photos where you can capture the full breadth of something – usually the horizon – don’t you? Well, it turns out that with today’s high-resolution digital cameras, you can easily turn an ordinary photo into a panoramic. With a little planning beforehand. See something that…
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Photographing Victoria Falls
So you go to one of the most spectacular views in the world and you figure the photography is going to be child’s play – just hold the camera up in the right general direction and shoot. Not so in Victoria Falls. This is not for the lack of spots and sights. It’s just impossible…
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Under the Namibian Sky (Time Lapse)
Namibia is truly one of the most amazing places for stargazing – sparse population, cloudless sky… Here is a timelapse by a group of folks who spent 10 days (and nights) on a Namibian farm doing just that. Add a bunch of time on a computer making this video. I didn’t see a figure, but…
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Our Coast, Your Photo Contest Entries
The entire TAZM Pictures crew entered a local photo contest sponsored by the Windhoek newspaper, The Namibian, and Studio 77, a photography studio. The contest was set up to raise awareness about the fragility of the Namibian coast, most of which is one or another national park (37% of Namibia consists of national parks). You…
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Macro [micro] Photography – Spider
Since the unhappy theft of my camera and laptop, I’ve been relatively silent on the blog as there’s not a whole lot of photo/video action to write about. But I’m still enjoying the digital microscope I got recently from the Sharper Image – essentially a kids’ science toy, but I’m not ashamed to admit in…
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Macro Photography: Weird Big Bug
There are so many insect species out there that it’s almost impossible to identify the ones you come across. This one flies and lives in Namibia, and has odd hind legs, almost like a bee laden with honey. It’s fun to take pictures of, though.
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Macro Photography: Grasshopper After Rainstorm
Check out these macro photos of a grasshopper (or, as my daughter felt was more appropriate, “locust” – it was a good 3 inches long!) that was perched outside out front door. If you look close, you can see little droplets of water on his face.
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Spider: 3 Views
I happened to catch this interesting spider on a glass door, and snapped a couple of different photos. I believe it’s Selenopidae, or the wall crab spider. Because it’s so flat, depth of field/focus issues are not as much a problem as with ordinary macro photography. Because the spider is about an inch across, not…
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Photos: Reflections at Etosha NP
It’s fun to play around with reflections off a body of water – though in my experience, it’s rare to come across a body of water (a) that’s calm enough to reflect without too much distortion (b) at the right time of day and (c) where there’s something worth reflecting. At a recent visit to…
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Wildlife through a Loupe – Micro goes Macro
For my latest video, I noticed I had gradually been collecting random footage of “micro-wildlife” I have come across while working in my new garden here in Windhoek. One of the creatures I had been continually running across is the millipede. These guys are everywhere, coiled up under the soil, perhaps waiting for cool weather…
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Maintaining Ownership of Your Images
Scott Bourne made some interesting points on the blog Photofocus. He pointed out something many of us overlook in today’s world of social media marketing and sharing – that posting a photo via Twitter (which will apparently soon be possible) or Twitpic, or even on sites like Facebook means you have basically given up control…