Neon Neon by Chad & Cindy

If you have driven through Burnaby on Hastings Street, you will have seen the swinging Helen's sign. Sadly, this sign may not live to see its 60th birthday as the lady who owns Helen's is retiring and the new owners may not want to renew the lease (approx $400/month not including maintainance). Why not just replace it with a new more efficient one that doesn't require a lease? Unfortunately, a swinging sign this size would not be permissable under the building safety code in Burnaby anymore, and so it is constantly maintained by the sign company that originally put it up all those years ago. It is also one of the oldest neon signs in the lower mainland - Back in the day, many stores had neon signs (apparently Granville street was alive with neon lights), but they eventually became synonymous with brothels etc. that many owners took them down - except for this one =)


On a more technical note, I tried to get a long exposure on this as the little girl was swinging back and forth, but it was just allowing too much light in and getting over exposed from the sign and from the street lights (even with the smallest apperture). Dagnabit!

Magaliesburg

Ok not such a great pic, but since I haven't participated for awhile, here's one. It's a picture we took in Magaliesburg earlier this year. They have really great mountain views and rivers there.

Pauline

And another reflection in Seville, Spain

Sorry, couldn't resist, had to post another reflections pic... I just love taking these type of shots!

Anyway, this is in the baths of the Alcazar, in Seville, Spain.

Adios,
Sharon

Reflections in Granada, Spain

I took this one at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

Cheers,
Sharon

reflections

Another pic taken in Vietnam on the way to the perfume pagoda. Hope you like it

CLint

Long exposure

Heres my contribution, taken in Vietnam at 1/8s, very low light, was panning with slow shutter speed. Thought it came out quite nicely.

Clint

Reflections without mirrors

Thought I'd take a shot at this.
When Rod and I went to Hawaii we came across this secluded beach.
Couldn't resist taking this pic....can't see the reflection clearly, but it's there, the clouds in the sky....

Anths :o)

Next Challenge: Nov 1 to 10th

Taken from this week's DP Challenge (www.dpchallenge.com):

Long Exposure
Long exposures can often create very dramatic effects in photography. Use a longer than normal exposure to create the impact of your image.

Reflections without Mirrors
Creatively photograph a reflecting surface that is not a mirror while keeping your camera out of the shot

Neon Signs
Some consider Neon signage to be a significant art form in its own right. Your challenge this week is to make a photograph where the subject is a neon sign or signs.

Good Luck! You have till next Friday (the 10th) to submit.

Catching the sun

I took this pic with my first 2.4 megapixel Sony Cybershot back in the day while walking through the West End.

I agree - not easy to get sunrays in a shot! I find that you don't necessarily need to get the sun in the shot to get the rays, but you could try by getting the camera just off angle from the sun. Then if you take it into Photoshop, adjust the levels (adjustments/levels) so that the pointers are closer to the edges of the histogram and more of the darker colours become saturated - you are usually able to pull out a little more solar/lens flare in the picture that make the rays more dramatic.

Unfortunately on the small camera LCDs, it's not always easy to see if you potentially caught enough rays in your shot that could be brought out in Photoshop - so take lots! =)

Cindy
(Note: no worries, Sha - I promise I am still going to take a shot this week to post, may be a little late though *cough cough*)

Spring in SA (oh, Im back!!)

Hey Guys, Sorry ive been scarce, but im back from my trip to Vietnam and malaysia, so hopefully i'll be contributing a bit more. This pic was taken this w.end in the garden. Guess its the season for flowers

Later
Clint

Fall in Yaletown

Anyone have any tricks to dealing with taking photos directly of the sun? I was trying to get rays of light in my photo, but ended up with a big white glow. I've had this problem before.

Sandra

Fall in Vancouver

Taken on the seawall on the way to the park this morning. We've been having some pretty decent autumn weather. The leaves are still yellow on the trees, some others along the walk had red leaves too.

Cheers,
Sharon 

Next Challenge - Due Oct 31st

Okay, we've let this last challenge go on too long! So, this next challenge is a short one, you have until Tuesday to post it, and there really is only one challenge.

Go out on Saturday or Sunday this weekend, and take a pic of your neighbourhood depicting the season. So for those in Canada, you'd capture your 'Fall' moment (unless you're in Toronto and if it's snowing, take your 'Winter' moment); and those south of the equator, let's see your 'Spring' moment.

And, hopefully this next round, it won't just be Cindy, Sandra and Sharon's posts... come on guys, let's see what your neighbourhood looks like!

Free Study by Sandra

A Dried up sea urchin

Cindy's lazy beer ad contribution

Free Study...

I was really trying to come up with something that fulfilled the "unrelatedness" challenge, but didn't come up with anything good. But I also really LOVE this picture, so I'm going to post it as my entry for the 'free study' challenge. This is quite the opposite from the unrelatedness challenge, in fact, these tomatoes and basil relate VERY well and are an excellent combination together!

Anyway, just love the colours and their combination - yum yum, makes me think of cooking!

Enjoy - Sharon 

Photo apps

We found this cool app called Lightroom produced by Adobe - it is still in the beta phase, which you can d/l for free and try out (like we've been doing) at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/. It's a little chuggy while they are working out bugs, but is still really awesome in terms of colour adjustment and cropping your photos in any format (including RAW, jpeg etc.).

But you can still use a similar engine in Photoshop CS - when you open up a RAW image, it will open up an editing window that have similar but limited functions. Usability has a little less options though, and unfortunately, it is only limited to RAW formats.

Looks like Apple have come out with something on their side too (I guess Adobe and Apple aren't very good friends these days) - http://www.apple.com/ca/aperture/

Don't know much about that one though =)

Challenges for Week October 4, 2006

Challenge: Free Study
Details: Anything &/or everything

Challenge: Unrelatedness
Details: Gather exctly two objects that are completely unrelated (e.g. a carrot and a yo-yo) and make some sort of sense out of their combination, photographically speaking.

Challenge: Beer or Soft Drink Advertisement
Details: Use your creativity and your photographic skills to sell a beer or soft drink.

Leading lines from Dubrovnik

Dobra Dan from Dubrovnik! I thought I would try my 'leading lines' while walking along the walls of the Old city, it's a beautiful walk and great views, but for this blog entry, here are my lines!

Do Videnje (Good bye!) -- Sharon

Electricity and Leading Lines by Sandra

Here are 2 of the challenges...I happened to take both of these photos on previous trips, hence the earliness =). Both were taken with my point and shoot powershot with no special settings - this was before I got the SLR.

Electricity - this shot was taken at night in May 2005. It's the lights of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin Germany reflecting off the glass building (I think it's the Daimler Chrysler building). It's one of the coolest plazas I've seen in Europe.

Leading Lines - I'm not sure if these lines are leading, but they were striking. This is the reading room at the British Museum in London. It was new at the time (2002). It was taken on Mike and my honeymoon.