Photography
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Kitsnaps: Two-Toed Sloth
I actually brought my camera out to the zoo the other day. It’d been almost a year since I’d used it. *wince* Anyway, among other things, I kind of randomly decided to set it to RAW format, because, well, because.
I will never go back to shooting just JPG, OMG.
I mean, I knew RAW was supposed to be swell, but I did kind of assume it would be difficult to learn to manipulate the format. It’s not; there’s a Photoshop thing that opens up to deal with it automatically, and there’s almost certainly more that I can do if I put some effort into learning. But OMG, the differences in the SHADOWS, the depths of black! Those alone are worth it! So exciting!
Anyway, on top of that, the sloths were out eating corn and I got the best picture of one I’ve ever gotten. :)
I need to get my eyes checked, though. Or get different contacts, because I was not having an easy time focusing the big lens, which is the one lens I have that isn’t autofocus and which I have a hard time with anyway because it’s just a little too heavy for me to manage well and at least half my pictures with it are out of focus. But this was worse than usual, and anything in focus was more luck and the assumption that it really had to be in focus rather than my ability to see that it was.
But at least the sloth turned out. :)
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Kitsnaps: Oxford
I had a brief visit to Oxford last month and although I didn’t have a decent camera with me, got a handful of pictures that I was very happy with, with my phone. I haven’t “matted” them, but I’ve concluded if I wait to do that I’ll never post another Photo Friday again, because I’ve just got too many other things going on right now. (I need a Beautiful Assistant to do that kind of work for me. Plus a lot of other stuff. If only I was rich. :))
The University Church (apparently properly called St Mary’s, I am belatedly informed by a local), taken from the top of a bus. I love riding in the front upper seats of buses. :)
I believe this is
theTom Tower, as a friend of mine who knows the town identified it as something Tom-ish when I posted it on Twitter, and Google tells me that’s probably what it is. I am *exceedingly* pleased with this picture, which I feel has Artistic Merit despite being a crappy phone photo. :) (ETA: It’s just “Tom Tower,” I’m told; it’s the bell tower at the main entrance to Christ Church, on St Aldate’s. It is, to quote the above-mentioned local, Very Important and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. :))
Just a random attractive street scene. Oxford is really extremely pretty. As it should be, since it’s had a thousand years to practice!
Another pretty street shot.
Radcliffe Square, Oxford. Again, REALLY happy with this phone panorama shot. Someday I’d love to go back to Oxford with a real camera!
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late night dublin wander
I went to my sister’s musical last night, and having foolishly failed to check the train times, discovered at 10 o’clock, on my way to the train station, that there was not a half ten train, only a 10pm one and a half eleven one. So I ended up wandering around city centre, getting some extra steps in and taking crappy late night phone camera pictures, which I will now share with you. :)
The General Post Office, commonly referred to as the GPO, on O’Connell Street. This was the headquarters for the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916. The building was, as it turned out, completely destroyed, leaving nothing but this facade. There are still bullet holes in it.
Pretty fricking posh for a bank, mate. This is the Bank of Ireland building, which used to be the Irish Parliamet buildings back when Ireland was allowed one by the British. Eventually the Bank of Ireland bought it, although I guess it’s not actually used as a bank anymore, either. I’ve not been inside.
Immediately across the street from the Bank of Ireland is Trinity College.
Looking down Fleet Street into Temple Bar.
Rainbows on the River Liffey, with the International Financial Services Centre in the background.
The front and back of what turn out to be the Custom House, although Twitter had to tell me that.
I was going to go down to the Seamus Heaney Bridge and the CDC, but it started spitting rain, so that’s the sum of my late night photogrphy tour of Dublin. :)
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Kitsnaps: Reflections
Yes, yes, I know that the way to actually have my Photo Friday/Kitsnaps post regularly is to prepare them weeks in advance and get them set to auto-post. It’s the weeks in advance part where I’m falling down, especially because I’d *like* to post the pictures false-framed the way I’ve done the last ten or so.
Possibly this is a terrible choice and I should reconsider it forever, especially as I’m reasonably certain the only one who actually cares about it is me. I just feel like the images look more *finished* with the frames, and it gives me a sense of satisfaction. OTOH, so would posting images more regularly. @.@ *Either* way I really need to find the time and enthusiasm for going through thousands of digital images and deciding what’s worth keeping and what isn’t. @.@
Anyway, for today we have the penultimate image from our brief sojourn in Athy, taken while I was wandering down side roads to see what was to be seen.
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Kitsnaps: Canal Reflection
I’m going to have to do something about the fact that my Computer That Goes Clunk can no longer run any image manipulation programs (the failed update that caused it to start Going Clunk had something to do with the graphics card, and even *booting* photoshop elements is now impossible), because I’m running low on the handful of Photo Friday images I’d prepped. Fortunately (?) I’ve been doing such a bad job remembering to post them they’ve lasted a while… :}
Reflection on the Grand Canal in Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland, circa Jan 2006. I could do a whole series of Reflection photos, now that I think of it. I like them. :)
