Acadia

I recently returned from a trip to the East Coast.  Sleepy Hollow  (New York's Catskill Mountains) and Maine.  The time spent in New York at a family wedding was altogether too short.  Maine was unseasonably cold.  It seemed to be snowing or raining just about always.  My brother in law who knows how much I love Acadia National park told me on Tuesday that Thursday morning would be a great day for the coast.  Turns out he was absolutely correct.  The morning was very cold but there were only a handful of clouds in the sky,  a photographer could have designed it.

I did my homework and had a 5 page itinerary in a spiral notebook.  Arrived at Acadia at O-Dark-Thirty to find it closed.  HUH???  Since when is a National Park closed?  I had noticed a few photographers at a bay I passed so they probably were as disappointed as I was.  By the time we got into the park the sun was well up.  Oh well.  I later overheard some folks talking about black ice so perhaps there were some safety issues.

I did have a great time photographing the pink granite.  I was particularly impressed with the eroding forces on the granite, ice, plant life and in particular the lichens.  The lichens were various shades of green or else a grayish blue color.

The day grew steadily more cloudy and by noonish it was socked in.  I missed the sunset I was hoping for but as I was driving back I could REALLY feel the cold in  my bones.  Funny how I didn't notice it at all walking though the park.  Probably a good thing for me the day turned cloudy.

On this trip I brought a couple dozen large prints.  A few on photographic paper, some on canvas and several on some very nice Arches watercolor paper.  Anyone who asked for or admired a print was given it.  Now this is a junk-science sample but all of the prints from the DP1 were given away as were all of my xPan (film) prints.  The bayer sensor digital images (Nikon DSLR) came home with me.


Click on images for larger version

This DP1 continues to be a pain in the ass to use,  but those colors....

new Blogs

I have started 2 new blogs.  The first iPhone meanderings is of course for iPhone images and observations about Apps.

The second is for my pre ordered Canon S90, yup...S90 meanderings.  What else?

QuadCamera

QuadCamera is an iPhone App ($1.99) which takes either 4 or 8 images and displays them together in a grid or in a photo-booth like strip. I had it in mind to make some sort of a kaleidoscope type image. These are the first attempts. I touched the volume rocker half way through one of the images and interestingly the screen icon displays on the image. I don't know if that will be of any use to me or not.

iPhone

OK so I succumbed to the siren call and bought a new 3Gs Apple iPhone. For the past handful of years cell companies tried different internet access schemes. I've tried a few and found them to be lacking. I had imagined that this would be the "Killer App" for cell phones, portable internet access.

The iPhone does a very fine job of accessing the internet but it turns out it means a whole lot less than I had imagined. It's the Apps. Little single function programs that start instantly, run quickly and cost nothing ... or close to nothing. The 3 most popular prices are Free, $.99 and $1.99. Accessing the internet, although faster than I remember on previous phones, just isn't important in most cases.

Camera. Here's the fun part for me. The camera isn't great, but not too bad either. 3 MP f2.8 fixed aperture, variable shutter speeds and variable ISO. The images are small but more than adequate for the screen and seem to hold up well for 5x7 or 8x10 prints (most do). The screen displays the image prior to taking the picture, like any LCD viewfinder. Touching the screen forces the focus, exposure and White Balance (yes white balance) to adjust for the spot touched.

There are several photo Apps, I have close to 20 loaded on my phone, and I'm finding that for the most part I use a half dozen regularly. One very good App allows me to perform many standard Photoshop functions on the image. Most of the other Apps let me play, different effects, filters, text. One of my favorites simulates images from Holga or Lomo cameras.

There are several sites dedicated to reviewing the latest Apps, and countless personal photographer's blogs displaying nothing but their iPhone images. I learned on one of these blogs that the photo site Flickr lists the iPhone as the one responsible for the most uploads.

I'll probably write more about photography with the iPhone here but for now here are a few images.

DP1 and Nikon compare

As the DP1 was a new concept in cameras I started this blog in hopes that my experiences might be of some use to others. I am flattered to have received several e-mails from folks finding my experiences of use. Now that the DP1 is over a year old and the DP2 is available there is less use for this blog.

Lately I've noticed discussions image comparisons between Foveon and Bayer sensored cameras. The problem I see with comparisons is that they are tests which must be run...who wants to do that?? Not me.

I offer these 3 examples from a trip to Utah / Arizona last fall. I brought 3 cameras with me, the DP1, my xPan and my Nikon with wide angle lenses (12mm and 10.5mm fisheye), I'm a big time wide lens fan. I primarily used the Nikon when the DP1's lens wasn't wide enough, like at Horseshoe bend. I tried to get images with the same settings. What I found is that in every case I preferred the Foveon image. They are better all around, color, detail, "Snap"...whatever.

There are 3 sets of 2 images each, in each case the Nikon images are the wider lens.

DP1 and Nikon 2

DP1 and Nikon