Sunday, June 01, 2008

Rainy weather thankfully

Rain enhances colors because all the dispersing micro-reflections get cancelled in lieu of bigger ones.



Update: it turns out that regular commenter Alex is not a bad photographer.

9 comments:

Monsieur Beep! said...

So do you like rain? The smell's good and refreshing.
But after it's been raining for a few hours, everybody's yearning for the sun.
You know what? Wait for a real cats & dogs downwash on a mild day, retreat to a private place somewhere, throw away all your clothes, and enjoy!
Moving around will prevent you from shivering.

Alex said...

In Manchester it rains everyday.

Being in CA now has me longing for warm summer rains, something we just don't get. Here in the summer it spends two days cooling before we get some drizzle, by which time it isn't freshening, just annoying.

I just got a few disappointing rolls of film back from drug store. everything is hazy, and the day seemed clearer that the photos showed. I've taken to not wearing shades when shooting on a bright day since I typically wear UV polarized lenses. I'm wondering how much UV filtering my normal glasses have.

The only shot that came out with the colors close to how I saw them had a gradient grey filter, since I had a bright distant subject, and a dark foreground object. Maybe the filter helped.

If film wasn't so dashed expensive I'd turn on the bracketing and see if underexposure would help.

The idea of micro reflections has me thinking I should just leave my polarizer on. I typically only use that around water or glass. Any suggestions?

8 rolls left, then I go digital.

Anonymous said...

Nice. I'm intrigued by the first pic. What caused the patch marks in the walkways? Are the utilities (gas, phone, TV cable etc.) run underground there?
-Eric

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Probably TV cable.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Alex, I was just about to ask why you still used film.

Not bad pictures.

I haven't used a pol filter for three decades, but I don't think they work on normal microreflections, since they are not polarized. Only water and glass and the sky, glossy paint and such.

Alex said...

WAF

Wife Acceptance Factor.

We have a Kodak DX7440, which is a very capable 4MP digicam. There is an extension which screws around the zoom lens, this was for Kodaks 2xtele and wide angle add ons. Turns out, it also gives a 37mm internal thread, so camcorder attachments can go on there. A 37 to 52mm ring allows me to put all my regular filters up front too.

So why am I still using my SLR? It's an SLR. It has a more comfortable viewfinder, manual focus for close up work, and a couple of lenses covering everything from 27mm to 300mm or there abouts. For locations like the West Oakland station, the zoom on the Kodak wouldn't quite work.

Having the Kodak turns the monthly discussion to

Me "I'm ready for a digital camera"
DW "You already have a digital camera"
Me "I mean a SLR, one I can stick filters and such on"
DW "But yours already does that"

Since I'm down to a film a month typically, as opposed to 5/6 films a month, then the development cost is cheap compared with Moore's Law replacements and buyers remorse.

The Pentax ZX-L that I use was paid for by all my parents and in-laws for a Birthday Present. I got it about a year before the Pentax Ist-D came out. I have trouble retiring such a nice gift after so little use. I did switch to slide, and got a Nikon 5000D scanner, that works well, but is time consuming.

The last couple of field trips I grabbed some film before heading out, so I have a couple of 4 packs to use up. Once they are gone it will be almost time for my birthday, and I'll see what I can conjure up. Probably the then current Nikon, though the internal interface of the D40 or D70 was so messy. I'll have to replace all my lenses, so it'll be quite a shopping trip.

I think I'll blame the bleached look on UV. I have a skylight filter, and will up to a bit more of one.

Alex said...

The long cut looks typical of a cable infrastructure addition. Long, seamless trench, probably cut with a Ditch Witch rather than a back hoe (JCB) or jack-hammer (road drill)

Monsieur Beep! said...

I also still use good old film, but also digital. It might be the lovely experience of fumbling with the cartridges, the steel SLR (NIKON)and the OLYMPUS mju 1, and the digitalized results from the lab are excellent, as you can see on my flickr photostream.
So I'll be in both worlds for the time being, and I accept that film is more expensive, in all.

Alex said...

How do we see your photos at Flickr?