The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jun
11
OS X 10.5.3 Playing Havoc with iTunes
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Since upgrading to OS X 10.5.3 iTunes has developed a very annoying bug. When I’m in work I cannot download podcasts. Every time I do iTunes quits unexpectedly. Happens 100% of the time, without fail. At home, it works perfectly. The only difference I can see is that at work I use both a Proxy server and a VPN to get to the internet. It would seem that iTunes can’t deal with that setup anymore on 10.5.3. No solution found as of yet, if I find one I’ll post again.
[tags]Apple, OS X, Leopard, 10.5.3, iTunes, crash[/tags]
Jun
9
The Machine That Changed the World – Free Documentary Series
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
While I’m waiting on Apple to post the video from today’s WWDC keynote I’m watching a documentary series about the history of computers that someone linked to on one of the many RSS feeds I follow (probably John Gruber). It’s old, has a very over-dramatic voice-over but it’s actually very well done. I just finished the first part and am starting the second now. Here’s the links:
[tags]computers, documentary, history[/tags]
Jun
8
Photo of the Week 16 – St. Patrick’s College by Night
Filed Under Photography on June 8, 2008 | 2 Comments
Just after sunset there is a window of an hour or so where the sky turns a deep blue on long exposure photographs. Unsurprisingly you’ll hear it referred to as the blue hour by some photographers. This shot was taken during the blue hour and shows the most famous building on the St. Patrick’s College campus in Maynooth. This is St. Patrick’s House as seen from St. Joseph’s Square. The twin towers over the front door are used as the logo for St. Patrick’s College.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1.6 sec (using tripod)
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: F3.5
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Maynooth, Ireland, Kilare, St. Patrick’s College, night[/tags]
Jun
7
My Predictions for WWDC 2008
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 7, 2008 | 6 Comments
It’s become a little tradition on this blog that I post my predictions for all Steve Jobs’ big keynote events. In some ways this isn’t quite as much fun as it used to be because big Apple news tends to leak out these days. In the past making WWDC predictions was much more about imagining what Apple might do, rather than analysing rumours which is really what it’s about now. That’s still fun, but it’s more about logic than it is about imagination.
[tags]Apple, WWDC, WWDC 2008, Developers, Steve Jobs, Keynote, iPhone, predictions[/tags]
Jun
5
Updated My Photo Gallery for May 2008
Filed Under Photography on June 5, 2008 | 3 Comments
It’s taken a while but I’m now fully up to date with all my pics for May. With all the great weather we’ve been having I ended up with an abnormal amount of shots. I got out to shoot for 15 out of 31 days in May! That’s a real rarity for Ireland. Got some nice shots of the ducklings on the Royal Canal at the moment and a lot of nice nature shots, in particular or Horse Chestnut and Hawthorn blossoms. I also got a lot of nice landscape shots of the Royal Canal.
You can have a look for yourself in this gallery.
[tags]photography, Royal Canal, wild flowers, ducks[/tags]
Jun
2
Photo of the Week 15 – Wild Cherry Blossom
Filed Under Photography on June 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
something I’ve come to realise over the last few months is that a little cropping can make a huge difference. In particular I find that I love working with square crops. This is an example of a square crop I really love. It’s a shot of a little cluster of Cherry Blossoms on a wild Cherry tree near my parent’s house.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/1600 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F5.6
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Cavan, Ireland, Cherry, Wild Cherry, blossom, flower[/tags]
Jun
1
The Nikon D40 One Year On
Filed Under Photography on June 1, 2008 | 6 Comments
It’s been a little over a year now since I got my Nikon D40 so now seems like a good time to reflect on what the D40 is like to live with. I was very positive about it in my initial review a year ago and I’m still very happy with it now. It’s a great body for the price and I’d highly recommend it to anyone as a first DSLR. However, you have to bear in mind that the D40 is an entry level model both in terms of price and functionality. As I’ve advanced as a photographer I’ve begun to run into some of the D40’s limitations and am now ready to move on to a higher level Nikon body like the D60 or the D80.
In this article I’m going to focus on the limitations of the D40 that I’m now starting to run into, but I have to stress that I’m not in any way un-happy with the quality of the D40. I consider it to have been money exceptionally well spent and I’d like to think that the photographs I’ve taken this year testify to to the amount of enjoyment it’s given me.
[tags]Nikon, D40[/tags]
Jun
1
“You Must Have a Great Camera”
Filed Under Photography on | 5 Comments
“You must have a great camera”. Anyone who’s even remotely into photography has probably heard that a lot. At first glance it sounds like a very innocent thing to say, and indeed it usually is said very innocently, but think about it a little more carefully and you’ll see it’s actually very insulting. It really is equivalent to telling an engineer that he must have a very good calculator or a painter than he must have a very nice brush! It actually boils down to: “your shots are nice because you have expensive kit”.
I’ve never heard this said with any malice at all. It’s completely down to the fact that most people have no idea what goes into shooting a great photograph. They consider all photography to be a point-and-click affair and that great photographers get great pictures because they have a great camera to point-and-click with. That could hardly be further from the truth. A great shot is the result of a lot of skill before the shutter is even pressed. Obviously a good photographer has to have an eye for detail, for composition and for the mood they want to capture. But there’s often also hours of waiting for just the right light, or in the case of transient events, months of planning and waiting. Once the shutter has been pressed then the pain-steaking post processing begins. The tweaks are often immensely subtle but they make all the difference in the world. Tweaking the white balance so everything looks just right, pushing those curves ever so slightly so you get good contrast across the dynamic range of the image, dodging and burning ever so slightly so the subject really stands out and so on and so forth.
After all that it’s no wonder you get a shot that looks fantastic! The thing is, the big factor was not the camera! A good photograph has almost nothing to do with the camera, and almost everything to do with the photographer. Bear that in mind before complimenting a photographer’s camera rather than their craftsmanship!