Avatar

[djr33]

I was having trouble reading the tiny print on your avatar-- thanks for sharing the larger version
I like it.

[jscheuer1]

I like it but it loses something in 'translation' to an avatar sized image.

[djr33]

Hm, comparing our avatars now, John, I notice that we both have images of ourselves with a shadow covering about half of our face. Is this the official coder-self-portrait?

[jscheuer1]

I don't know about you, but I haven't seen my sister for some time. She's left coast I'm over her on the other one. We talk on the phone almost every week. Anyways, we exchange gifts for birthdays and holidays. She gave me that shirt and I really liked it and wanted her to see me in it. The avatar is just the head off of what turned out to be the best picture of about 5 or so. I waited until the light was right, near sunset, "God's light" as it's known by some. That's what I came up with.

What's your 'excuse'?

[djr33]

Actually, there is an interesting story behind that photo (though nothing to do with the light). It was taken during my very short trip to Easter Island, a total of three days but two for traveling, so just one to see the whole island and take pictures-- not too hard, but certainly a full day (with a little bit on the other two days as well, after/before flights). I was happily taking pictures including this one, and my camera started acting up-- some of the photos didn't save, or were corrupted; ok, no big deal, just slowed me down a little bit taking the pictures. Then after 5 pictures after this one was taken the camera just completely corrupted the memory card. I'm still not sure what happened. But essentially everything appeared to have been wiped from the card and it was all lost. I couldn't figure it out and eventually gave up on the pictures-- I bought a (very overpriced) replacement and got a few more pictures on the way out the next day, but it was early morning and they weren't nearly as nice-- and this particularly part of the park wasn't open. I thought I'd lost all of the good pictures. And later that week I was mugged in Buenos Aires and the camera was taken; luckily most of my pictures were backed up on my computer (at the hotel), so I had those, although I lost the ones from that day in Colonia, Uruguay. Anyway, about a week passed until I got back to Ecuador where my better laptop was waiting and I eventually played with the card some more, actually taking it apart, cleaning it, putting it back together, trying a couple memory card readers, and eventually getting lucky-- I managed to copy the pictures off it. So now I saved all of these at least
I'm still not sure what happened with the card. Several of the pictures, more so toward the end, are completely corrupted, just essentially random JPG artifacts; sometimes half of the picture, sometimes the whole thing. And I liked that camera-- nice zoom lens-- I think I'll buy another one next time I get the impulse to go on a trip, perhaps to somewhere a little less likely to get mugged... oh... travels...
Overall, Easter Island was a really nice place-- I'd definitely recommend it if you ever get the chance (but of course it's right in the middle of the ocean, a 5 hour flight from anywhere, so... you may need to make a chance).


And yes, that is definitely the right light for your picture-- it's nice. (We were lucky enough to be at the cool part of the island with the near-sunset light-- also known as "Golden Hour", at least in the film industry, not sure about photography, even though it's often less than an hour.)

[bernie1227]

Mine doesn't have a story

[keyboard]

Actually, there is an interesting story behind that photo (though nothing to do with the light). It was taken during my very short trip to Easter Island, a total of three days but two for traveling, so just one to see the whole island and take pictures-- not too hard, but certainly a full day (with a little bit on the other two days as well, after/before flights). I was happily taking pictures including this one, and my camera started acting up-- some of the photos didn't save, or were corrupted; ok, no big deal, just slowed me down a little bit taking the pictures. Then after 5 pictures after this one was taken the camera just completely corrupted the memory card. I'm still not sure what happened. But essentially everything appeared to have been wiped from the card and it was all lost. I couldn't figure it out and eventually gave up on the pictures-- I bought a (very overpriced) replacement and got a few more pictures on the way out the next day, but it was early morning and they weren't nearly as nice-- and this particularly part of the park wasn't open. I thought I'd lost all of the good pictures. And later that week I was mugged in Buenos Aires and the camera was taken; luckily most of my pictures were backed up on my computer (at the hotel), so I had those, although I lost the ones from that day in Colonia, Uruguay. Anyway, about a week passed until I got back to Ecuador where my better laptop was waiting and I eventually played with the card some more, actually taking it apart, cleaning it, putting it back together, trying a couple memory card readers, and eventually getting lucky-- I managed to copy the pictures off it. So now I saved all of these at least
I'm still not sure what happened with the card. Several of the pictures, more so toward the end, are completely corrupted, just essentially random JPG artifacts; sometimes half of the picture, sometimes the whole thing. And I liked that camera-- nice zoom lens-- I think I'll buy another one next time I get the impulse to go on a trip, perhaps to somewhere a little less likely to get mugged... oh... travels...
Overall, Easter Island was a really nice place-- I'd definitely recommend it if you ever get the chance (but of course it's right in the middle of the ocean, a 5 hour flight from anywhere, so... you may need to make a chance).


And yes, that is definitely the right light for your picture-- it's nice. (We were lucky enough to be at the cool part of the island with the near-sunset light-- also known as "Golden Hour", at least in the film industry, not sure about photography, even though it's often less than an hour.)

Apart from the mugging, that's a really nice story

[djr33]

Thanks. My travels are never boring, sometimes complicated like that, haha.

[bernie1227]

Just as a quick question, what kind of cameras do you use?

[djr33]

For these pictures in particular?

I'm more interested in video production than still photos-- for video work I use a Canon HV30, which is a great cheap HD camera (about $800 when I bought it around 6 years ago). I've generally liked Canon video cameras, although Sony can be ok too.

For photos while traveling I usually use a cheap camera. For a while, I used Kodak EasyShare cameras, which I thought were really good, considering they were pretty cheap-- about $150. I went through 2 (3?) of those a while ago. It's been about 2 years now.

After that, for the trip during which my avatar was taken, I decided to upgrade just a bit. Not a top of the line camera but something with better zoom and improved image quality-- now I just can't remember what it was. It was either Canon or Sony for $300, with 10x-16x zoom, a big improvement over the cheaper ones, and it took great pictures. Then it got stolen. (I should look up which one it was-- I've been thinking about buying another.)

After that, I just replaced it with a cheap on at a duty-free mall on the boarder of Argentina and Brazil... Nikon I think, nothing fancy.

I'd buy a nice bigger camera with a nice big lens if I liked to take pictures while not traveling, but for convenience and not having a fancy camera to be stolen I haven't done that yet.


As a random note, I really love these underwater cases for taking pictures while snorkeling, etc.:
http://www.amazon.com/DicaPac-WP410-.../ref=pd_cp_p_0
Cheap and they work. But don't put an expensive camera in it of course. There's always a chance you'll get it wet with your hands or something.