Alan, those are so great, I'd be afraid to chop on them. I've had a Boos, and after awhile, they seem to dry out and absorb mineral oil like crazy. Any suggestions?
Quirky Eye! We are part way through watching the most amazing documentary about filming lions, captured video and then stills, you would just love it! It’s called Lion Gangland and was on Nat Geo Wild recently. We were glued to it while having our coffee, but have too much work to do, as soon as we” ve finished, we’ll be watching the remainder. Hope you can find it to stream!
Well done, Doug. I like what you did with the color gradation and light in this image and the enhancement of purple definitely draws your eyes to the snakes. Traveling to India has been on my "bucket list" for some time. I feel this would be a photographer's paradise. I felt this way when I participated in a People to People exchange with emphasis on Photography trip to Cuba a few years ago . There was a picture on every corner. It was very exciting. Your comment on the oranges on the Tauck site are over-emphasized compared to your screen make me chuckle. We have this same conversation over and over again with my Camera Club when members submit their images for critique which are projected on a screen for viewing. We always hear comments on how well it looked on our home computers versus the computer used at the club to project the images. We have to adjust our exposure accordingly to compensate for the difference.
Thanks. I think I grew the most as a photographer on the India trip. The people were my primary interest, love to do portraits, and they are so varied. Our guide could tell the religion and locality of folks from their dress, sort of like in My Fair Lady! If you haven't seen my India photos, head over to my gallery. I keep up dating them.
There were three amateurs, one guide, one guru and his wife, and when we were in Delhi, they hired a cop to go with us! I was always dragging behind taking photos, so the cop accompanied me, bring up the rear. LOL. They were always saying, "Doug, don't step in that hole! Doug, don't step iin that (sacred) cow sh--!
Images_Quirky_Eye
6:50AM edited 8:16AM
Alan, how many hours do you estimate that it takes to produce a board?
I've never timed it but right now for me, it takes me too long. I'm just starting and getting the process down. I'm sure it takes much less time for someone who has been doing this for awhile with precision machines. Also, making a segmented geometric cutting board is a multi-step process with multiple glue-ups, and it takes time for each glue-up to dry.
Thanks for sharing your hobby. It interested me, so I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the process. What was new to me was finding end-grain patterns and how they might turn out. I was also surprised at how technologically sophisticated wood-working equipment, e.g. the planers, have become -- I've only used a simple Sears 10 inch table saw for decades -- but I didn't need much making RC airplanes.
I also liked the exploration of different exotic hardwoods and their characteristics, especially for food prep. Guess when you get deeply into anything, it can get pretty interesting and complex.
British, I'm always impressed that "Real Photographers" really sacrifice and work hard. One see's these Nat Geo folks get eaten by bugs, all kinds of disease, and temperatures, waiting days to get the perfect shot. Some almost die.
Hey, Travel Maven, there's a group of Nat Geo photographers that will critique one's photos for a fee, using Zoom or similar technology. They cover about 15 of one's images in an hour, runs about $200 an hour. I don't know if it's better than your camera club judging your photos, but it's great if there's a particular photographer whose work you admire. And, chances are, they'll be generous, run over an hour, gratis.
Doug - I have a printed color photo from the very early days of digital photography. It is extremely faded now and I don't have the digital file. Is there any way to resurrect it via PS if scanned?
If this is too far off-topic, feel free to PM me. Thanks.
Scan it, send it to me, I'll see what I can do with it, but I can't promise anything, there's no specific technique and it depend on how faded and how good the scanner: Send to: imagesfromthequirkyeye@gmail.com
I just worked on an old photo of my wife last week:
Doug: Thank you so much for the link to Yvonne Holman's Gallery. I have saved it to "my favorites". I looked over the tab entitled Photoartistry and her images are amazing. I totally understand why you wish to delve into and practice the artistic use of Photoshop. Thank you so much for these links and additional Photography info. The $200/hour critique with National Geographic is a bit steep for me at this time, but I will keep it in mind for the future. Thanks so much.
British: I also watched the Lion Gang-Part 2 on You Tube. So amazing and you are correct, the still photos were outstanding. Alot of effort and time goes into these amazing images. Thanks so much for letting us know about this video.
Don't know if I'm boring folks with these practice images. Some look a little too artificial, but they remind us of our travels, and oftentimes, the attempt of the photographer is to produce an image that evokes the experience for the viewer, and not the reality that lands on the camera sensor.
For those of you that might not know, most folks take JPGs, or images that are processed by the software in their cameras to make them look as good as a computer chip can. What comes off the sensor might be discarded, depending on your camera and settings. This is invariably true of smart phones, although they now have editing algorithms.
So most amateur photographers take the RAW data off the camera sensor and process it themselves, because the RAW file images look lousey. So, images are alway processed, either by you or by the camera. You never view "reality".
So, here's some women in their finery. You might think they're tehnologically behind, but look at the number of keys dangling from one lady's keychain -- lots of stuff with locks. LOL.
LOL. Yeah, the Masai gave a demo of starting a fire with sticks, but I was looking around their huts for a Zippo -- I doubt they would start their ovens by rubbing sticks. Wonder how they iron those clothes? They look well pressed.
Powerful looking boss guy, great photo, great posture. Lighten the shadows in the face, darken the background. The tonality in the skin is beautiful.
I have a relative that thought these folks were intellectually inferior. I told him I met tribal leaders with Masters degrees and who spoke several languages. Oh, well, that's one reason we travel.
Travel Maven: It occurred to me that those who think of themselves as photographers are going to tend more toward changing luminosity values, while the more artistic are going to shift hues and use radical PS filters. Here's some simple color grading of the background and an application of the Orton effect.
Instead of the Chief, a young Masai spoke to our group when we visited their village. He was going to college (somewhere). As he moved you could see his khaki cargo shorts under his garb and it was hard not to notice the Timex Ironman watch on his wrist. I bet he had a cell phone in his pocket, too!
Thanks for the feedback. I’m sure I used this one when I did my Shutterfly photo book. I can tell this was one of mine because I’m so much more careful in getting the image in the center which if course with cropping which is not that important with digital. It’s a family joke htst my father in law always managed to get our photo with our feet missing back in the day.
When I use Shutterfly, I mainly just crop. Sometimes I do look at the other color options. But usually prefer the original. My photo above, I can see now how it could be improved if I had all the resources. A different background would be cool.
I have certainly learned some great photo ideas on the forum and a couple of lectures on Tauck tours aBout taking photos. One of the best is not thinking I should be taking the whole person or animal, rather home in and get the face, or knowing what proportion of the person I should getso it doesn’t look odd like my in-law photos. So I guess my above photo was taken with something like that in mind.
I’m very mindful of asking permission before I take a photo of a person who is near me, that’s especially true when we were in India. Most people wanted payment, which is fine. Some, like the holy men just don’t want their photo taken. I saw terrible incidences in India of a few members of our group going right up to people, with a big iPad in one incidence, literally into their face and the person putting their hand up and saying no, but they still took the photo.
I used to follow a great woman on a rival travel forum, a solo who travels all over the world, her occasional blogs and person photos were amazing, she always asked and also had her photo taken with them, I’ve found people appreciate that very much.
I think my hubby could get into photo playing like you if he had time. Me, I’d get obsessed and have too many other things that take up my time. Tauck forum is my only online thing, I don’t do Facebook. I’ve done ancestry for a winter project a few years ago and have met several close relatives Here in the US, which is so amazing and also one guy, I’ve know for over twenty years, he is a close relation because he was adopted from young Irish parents
Smiling Sam, if you are reading this, I’m full 33% Irish.My maternal grandfather was born in Eire.
Alan, back in the 80s and 90's I was attending Zen meditation retreats, and I always wondered what the Buddhist monks and Masters were like off-hours. I recall stepping outside after an evening Dharma talk, and seeing a monk sitting on the stairs, lighting up. So it sort of broke the Zen sense at the time. And I always wonder what goes on in the minds of the folks we visit -- the tribal leaders, etc.
British, hope I don't sound too bookish, but here's some tips on composing images in one's camera:
With kids, camera angle makes all the difference. That usually means eye-to-eye, or even lower -- it works because we are mostly looking down on them.
Get in up-close to people, either for real, or zoom in. Otherwise people just look like stick people in the image, and it becomes a snapshot -- a picture only of interest to those who are in it (this is the usual definition among photobugs).
Rule of Thirds: think of the picture frame as having tic-tac-toe guidelines. Try and get the subject into one of those four cross-hairs. For most eyes, centering subjects is boring. So here's an example:
Think about how you can lead the viewer's eye toward the subject. A line of trees, roads, railraod tracks can do this:
Notice the subject, even though tiny, is again in the lower tic-tac-toe crosshairs.
Or lead the eye like this:
Photographers also love S-Curves as leading lines. They're relaxing, takes tension out of the image.
Try to create a sense of three-dimensionality in the photo, leading the viewer's eye from front to back:
Or lead the eye this way:
It's actually easy to improve one's photos, it doesn't take a lot of work.
Oh, I sometimes forget to ask people if I can take their photo. I don't want to intrude, or "steal" a shot. But, the issue is developing a relationship with the subject, in some manner -- but there are so many ways to do that. One can be direct, involve yourself in a conversation with the person, tell them the purpose -- e.g., practicing portraits of interesting faces, documenting something, intrigued by some attribute of the person -- the beard. Or, especially if you don't speak the language, do it by non-verbal means -- motion at the camera and look askance; smile and give a "may I take your picture" look.
But sometimes, especially when we do street photography, the point is to get an unposed, candid shot. Then, you just have to think it through -- and get a feel for whether or not one is intruding. Most the time, when people see a professional looking camera hanging around my neck, they're intrigued, I take their picture, and show them the screen. And they're free to have me delete it -- but it's never happened yet. I'll give them a card and send them the picture if they wish -- and some folks really love that. So it can be a two-way street.
I don't think you have to work at it. Keep a few compositional tips in mind, watch yourself improve. We have so much opportunity on these tours.
Oh, notice I cut off the first horse, on purpose. It's more interesting that way. But the trick is HOW you cut off stuff, where do you do it. Cutting of feet is jarring, but cutting off at the thigh might not be. It's the composition, it's whether it fits and works. We don't always see whole people at a glance anyway.
British: BTW, if you'd be interested in me trying my hand with your Boss Man photo, send me a copy of the full file and I'll give it a shot. No promises as to how it will turn out. LOL.
Comments
Alan
These boards are beautiful, you should be proud of your work.
Are you taking orders??
Alan, those are so great, I'd be afraid to chop on them. I've had a Boos, and after awhile, they seem to dry out and absorb mineral oil like crazy. Any suggestions?
Quirky Eye! We are part way through watching the most amazing documentary about filming lions, captured video and then stills, you would just love it! It’s called Lion Gangland and was on Nat Geo Wild recently. We were glued to it while having our coffee, but have too much work to do, as soon as we” ve finished, we’ll be watching the remainder. Hope you can find it to stream!
Well done, Doug. I like what you did with the color gradation and light in this image and the enhancement of purple definitely draws your eyes to the snakes. Traveling to India has been on my "bucket list" for some time. I feel this would be a photographer's paradise. I felt this way when I participated in a People to People exchange with emphasis on Photography trip to Cuba a few years ago . There was a picture on every corner. It was very exciting. Your comment on the oranges on the Tauck site are over-emphasized compared to your screen make me chuckle. We have this same conversation over and over again with my Camera Club when members submit their images for critique which are projected on a screen for viewing. We always hear comments on how well it looked on our home computers versus the computer used at the club to project the images. We have to adjust our exposure accordingly to compensate for the difference.
Thanks. I think I grew the most as a photographer on the India trip. The people were my primary interest, love to do portraits, and they are so varied. Our guide could tell the religion and locality of folks from their dress, sort of like in My Fair Lady! If you haven't seen my India photos, head over to my gallery. I keep up dating them.
There were three amateurs, one guide, one guru and his wife, and when we were in Delhi, they hired a cop to go with us! I was always dragging behind taking photos, so the cop accompanied me, bring up the rear. LOL. They were always saying, "Doug, don't step in that hole! Doug, don't step iin that (sacred) cow sh--!
Thanks British. I see Part 2 is on YouTube, Full HD, so I'll catch it tonight instead of watching the depressing news channels.
I've never timed it but right now for me, it takes me too long. I'm just starting and getting the process down. I'm sure it takes much less time for someone who has been doing this for awhile with precision machines. Also, making a segmented geometric cutting board is a multi-step process with multiple glue-ups, and it takes time for each glue-up to dry.
Sounds like a lot of patience. Can't even imagine how the segmentation with decreasing elements works. But, more power to you.
Doug
Thanks for sharing your hobby. It interested me, so I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the process. What was new to me was finding end-grain patterns and how they might turn out. I was also surprised at how technologically sophisticated wood-working equipment, e.g. the planers, have become -- I've only used a simple Sears 10 inch table saw for decades -- but I didn't need much making RC airplanes.
I also liked the exploration of different exotic hardwoods and their characteristics, especially for food prep. Guess when you get deeply into anything, it can get pretty interesting and complex.
Doug
A little goofy, but a lot of fun. Here's "Hippo in Iceland":
Icelandic steam vents at sunrise.
Quirky
Hey, Travel Maven,
I just received permission from Yvonne Holman to post a link to her gallery. This is an example of the artistic use of Photoshop.
https://imagic-art.com/
Doug
Thanks, British. Lion Gang was great.
Yes, one of the best Lion documentaries we have ever seen. The stills from the videos were stunning,
British, I'm always impressed that "Real Photographers" really sacrifice and work hard. One see's these Nat Geo folks get eaten by bugs, all kinds of disease, and temperatures, waiting days to get the perfect shot. Some almost die.
Hey, Travel Maven, there's a group of Nat Geo photographers that will critique one's photos for a fee, using Zoom or similar technology. They cover about 15 of one's images in an hour, runs about $200 an hour. I don't know if it's better than your camera club judging your photos, but it's great if there's a particular photographer whose work you admire. And, chances are, they'll be generous, run over an hour, gratis.
Doug - I have a printed color photo from the very early days of digital photography. It is extremely faded now and I don't have the digital file. Is there any way to resurrect it via PS if scanned?
If this is too far off-topic, feel free to PM me. Thanks.
Scan it, send it to me, I'll see what I can do with it, but I can't promise anything, there's no specific technique and it depend on how faded and how good the scanner: Send to: imagesfromthequirkyeye@gmail.com
I just worked on an old photo of my wife last week:
Doug: Thank you so much for the link to Yvonne Holman's Gallery. I have saved it to "my favorites". I looked over the tab entitled Photoartistry and her images are amazing. I totally understand why you wish to delve into and practice the artistic use of Photoshop. Thank you so much for these links and additional Photography info. The $200/hour critique with National Geographic is a bit steep for me at this time, but I will keep it in mind for the future. Thanks so much.
British: I also watched the Lion Gang-Part 2 on You Tube. So amazing and you are correct, the still photos were outstanding. Alot of effort and time goes into these amazing images. Thanks so much for letting us know about this video.
Yep, it's steep. I just put the idea out there to note there are guns for hire. LOL.
Don't know if I'm boring folks with these practice images. Some look a little too artificial, but they remind us of our travels, and oftentimes, the attempt of the photographer is to produce an image that evokes the experience for the viewer, and not the reality that lands on the camera sensor.
For those of you that might not know, most folks take JPGs, or images that are processed by the software in their cameras to make them look as good as a computer chip can. What comes off the sensor might be discarded, depending on your camera and settings. This is invariably true of smart phones, although they now have editing algorithms.
So most amateur photographers take the RAW data off the camera sensor and process it themselves, because the RAW file images look lousey. So, images are alway processed, either by you or by the camera. You never view "reality".
So, here's some women in their finery. You might think they're tehnologically behind, but look at the number of keys dangling from one lady's keychain -- lots of stuff with locks. LOL.
This was the boss guy at the village we visit in December
I quickly looked thru my photos and didn’t spot any keys!
LOL. Yeah, the Masai gave a demo of starting a fire with sticks, but I was looking around their huts for a Zippo -- I doubt they would start their ovens by rubbing sticks. Wonder how they iron those clothes? They look well pressed.
Powerful looking boss guy, great photo, great posture. Lighten the shadows in the face, darken the background. The tonality in the skin is beautiful.
I have a relative that thought these folks were intellectually inferior. I told him I met tribal leaders with Masters degrees and who spoke several languages. Oh, well, that's one reason we travel.
Travel Maven: It occurred to me that those who think of themselves as photographers are going to tend more toward changing luminosity values, while the more artistic are going to shift hues and use radical PS filters. Here's some simple color grading of the background and an application of the Orton effect.
Instead of the Chief, a young Masai spoke to our group when we visited their village. He was going to college (somewhere). As he moved you could see his khaki cargo shorts under his garb and it was hard not to notice the Timex Ironman watch on his wrist. I bet he had a cell phone in his pocket, too!
Thanks for the feedback. I’m sure I used this one when I did my Shutterfly photo book. I can tell this was one of mine because I’m so much more careful in getting the image in the center which if course with cropping which is not that important with digital. It’s a family joke htst my father in law always managed to get our photo with our feet missing back in the day.
When I use Shutterfly, I mainly just crop. Sometimes I do look at the other color options. But usually prefer the original. My photo above, I can see now how it could be improved if I had all the resources. A different background would be cool.
I have certainly learned some great photo ideas on the forum and a couple of lectures on Tauck tours aBout taking photos. One of the best is not thinking I should be taking the whole person or animal, rather home in and get the face, or knowing what proportion of the person I should getso it doesn’t look odd like my in-law photos. So I guess my above photo was taken with something like that in mind.
I’m very mindful of asking permission before I take a photo of a person who is near me, that’s especially true when we were in India. Most people wanted payment, which is fine. Some, like the holy men just don’t want their photo taken. I saw terrible incidences in India of a few members of our group going right up to people, with a big iPad in one incidence, literally into their face and the person putting their hand up and saying no, but they still took the photo.
I used to follow a great woman on a rival travel forum, a solo who travels all over the world, her occasional blogs and person photos were amazing, she always asked and also had her photo taken with them, I’ve found people appreciate that very much.
I think my hubby could get into photo playing like you if he had time. Me, I’d get obsessed and have too many other things that take up my time. Tauck forum is my only online thing, I don’t do Facebook. I’ve done ancestry for a winter project a few years ago and have met several close relatives Here in the US, which is so amazing and also one guy, I’ve know for over twenty years, he is a close relation because he was adopted from young Irish parents
Smiling Sam, if you are reading this, I’m full 33% Irish.My maternal grandfather was born in Eire.
Alan, back in the 80s and 90's I was attending Zen meditation retreats, and I always wondered what the Buddhist monks and Masters were like off-hours. I recall stepping outside after an evening Dharma talk, and seeing a monk sitting on the stairs, lighting up. So it sort of broke the Zen sense at the time. And I always wonder what goes on in the minds of the folks we visit -- the tribal leaders, etc.
British, hope I don't sound too bookish, but here's some tips on composing images in one's camera:
Notice the subject, even though tiny, is again in the lower tic-tac-toe crosshairs.
Or lead the eye like this:
Photographers also love S-Curves as leading lines. They're relaxing, takes tension out of the image.
Or lead the eye this way:
It's actually easy to improve one's photos, it doesn't take a lot of work.
Hope this is useful.
Doug
Oh, I sometimes forget to ask people if I can take their photo. I don't want to intrude, or "steal" a shot. But, the issue is developing a relationship with the subject, in some manner -- but there are so many ways to do that. One can be direct, involve yourself in a conversation with the person, tell them the purpose -- e.g., practicing portraits of interesting faces, documenting something, intrigued by some attribute of the person -- the beard. Or, especially if you don't speak the language, do it by non-verbal means -- motion at the camera and look askance; smile and give a "may I take your picture" look.
But sometimes, especially when we do street photography, the point is to get an unposed, candid shot. Then, you just have to think it through -- and get a feel for whether or not one is intruding. Most the time, when people see a professional looking camera hanging around my neck, they're intrigued, I take their picture, and show them the screen. And they're free to have me delete it -- but it's never happened yet. I'll give them a card and send them the picture if they wish -- and some folks really love that. So it can be a two-way street.
I don't think you have to work at it. Keep a few compositional tips in mind, watch yourself improve. We have so much opportunity on these tours.
Doug
Oh, notice I cut off the first horse, on purpose. It's more interesting that way. But the trick is HOW you cut off stuff, where do you do it. Cutting of feet is jarring, but cutting off at the thigh might not be. It's the composition, it's whether it fits and works. We don't always see whole people at a glance anyway.
British: BTW, if you'd be interested in me trying my hand with your Boss Man photo, send me a copy of the full file and I'll give it a shot. No promises as to how it will turn out. LOL.