The Author – Bart Busschots
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Sep
27
Photo of the Week 84 – Evening Amsterdammer
Filed Under Photography on September 27, 2009 | 1 Comment
This week I’ve chosen quite and old photo, from Christmas Eve 2007 in fact. I guess it shows where my priorities lie, of all the things I could be doing on Christmas eve, I’m out with my camera shooting trains during the golden hour!
This shot shows Belgian NMBS/SNCB Class 11 electric locomotive number 1185 charging through the village of Duffel in Belgium with an international express train from Amsterdam to Brussels. Locally these trains are known as ‘Amsterdammers’. The entire train used to have the lovely yellow and burgundy livery you see on this locomotive, but a few years ago the Dutch railway company (NS) started to use a new red, white and pink livery on their international carriages. The NMBS Class 11s are now also becoming a thing of the past, as more and more Amsterdammers are now being worked by red and white NS locomotives from Trax. Call me nostalgic, but I’ll be sad to see the days when Class 11s don’t come racing through Duffel on their way to and from Amsterdam.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/400 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: f/5.6
- ISO: 800
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
Sep
20
Photo of the Week 83 – Grey Willow in Spring
Filed Under Photography on September 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This is one of my favourite photos of the whole year so far. To me it says Spring better than anything else I’ve ever shot. It’s the first leaves starting to sprout on a Grey Willow (Salix cinerea) tree growing along the banks of the Royal Canal at Deey Bridge between Maynooth and Leixlip.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/250 sec
- Focal Length: 80mm
- Focal Ratio: f/5
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
Sep
14
Photo of the Week 82 – Lunar Cross (Colour)
Filed Under Photography on September 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This week’s Photo of the Week is a re-visiting of the same original image that formed the starting point for the mono-chrome conversion that was Photo of the Week 48. Although I really like the black & white version, the only reason it exists is that I was never happy with the original colour shot. It was lacking that ever so hard to define something that makes photos ‘pop’. The initial photo was taken on St. Patrick’s Day 2008 – so about a year and a half ago. Since then I’ve become a hell of a lot more practised at post-processing, so, this evening I had another go at processing this shot, this time keeping it in colour.
After some tweaking of the blue channel and some selective contrast adjustments with Aperture’s Dodge & Burn plugin I’m now happy enough with the shot to use it as a Photo of the week. I guess the lesson here is never to be afraid to go back and re-edit your old images.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/250 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: f/22
- ISO: 800
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
Sep
12
A War Hero Recognised at Last
Filed Under Polemics & Politics, Computers & Tech on September 12, 2009 | 6 Comments
I imagine there are very few people reading this blog who don’t know that the Allies won the second world war. I also imagine that many, if not most, of you have heard of Enigma machines, and that a significant number of you know that the British managed to crack the Enigma codes as well as other German and Axis codes. This was a massive advantage for the Allies, and in no small way, helped to turn the tide of war against the Axis powers.
However, I imagine that there are not too many of you who have heard of Alan Turing. Academically he laid the very foundations upon which computer science, and hence our entire digital world, are built. His 1936 paper entitled “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” doesn’t sound very relevant to Twitter or FaceBook, but it’s one of the foundation stones on which all these things rest. You’ll note that Turing’s work on the theory of computation pre-dates the existence of any actual computers!
Sep
11
It Was Only an Apple Event
Filed Under Computers & Tech on September 11, 2009 | 4 Comments
I know it’s been a while since Wednesday’s event, but I wanted some time to reflect before committing my thoughts to bits. I’m certain that I was disappointed, what I’m not so sure of is why. Was it because my expectations were unrealistically high? Or was it because it truly was a below average performance from Apple? After two days of careful consideration I’m more inclined to believe it’s the latter than the former. Maybe it wasn’t below average, but it definitely wasn’t anything above average.
There was not a single earth-shattering revelation, and worse still, we didn’t even get what the most conservative pundits were expecting in many regards. The biggest let-down was the iPod Touch. Apple spent ages praising it, but did nothing of any note with it. It was almost like they were trying desperately to prove to us that we were silly to expect a new version. That, or they had something big planned that fell through, and they did their best to make lemonade from a lemon. Either way, we didn’t get the one thing I was most certain about, a real update to the iPod Touch. I was proven right about the retention of the classic though, which was nice (see my full predictions here).
Sep
9
It’s Only an Apple Event but I like it – My Predictions
Filed Under Computers & Tech on September 9, 2009 | 2 Comments
So, we’re just hours away from Apple’s “It’s only music but we like it” special event. I’m not really that excited about it – but I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised. In some ways these Apple events are a little boring because we know what we’ll be getting, new iPods. I think it’s pretty much a given that we’ll get a new iPod Touch with power to rival the iPhone 3GS, and I’m assuming the camera rumours will be true. I’m highly sceptical that we’ll get a camera on the iPod Nano though, and even more sceptical that the nano will go Touch-screen. Many people are expecting an end to the classic line, but I’m not. It’s too soon. Flash prices have not yet come down enough to sell a reasonably priced 128MB iPod Touch, so I think the classic will stay, it just won’t get any serious revamping. I’m not in the market for a new iPod – I have my iPhone, so what I’m more interested in is the other stuff we may or may not get.
Sep
6
Photo of the Week 81 – Autumn Shadows
Filed Under Photography on September 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I’ve taken a lot of shots all around the wonderful grounds of St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth. However, out of those hundreds of shots, this is one of my absolute favourites. Maynooth is always beautiful in autumn, but the light was extra nice when I got this shot, so it really sings.
This is also a very important shot in my development as a photographer. The very first lesson I learned when I started shooting with a DSLR was that the dynamic range is SMALL. This meant that I was constantly being surprised by how much darker shadows are in photographs than they seem while you’re there. After having loads of shots ruined by deep shadows I started to fear and avoid them. It was while I was trying to line up this shot that I had a brain-wave – maybe the key wasn’t to avoid shadows, but to be aware of them. Sure they can destroy a shot, but, if used carefully, they can add to a shot too! In this case, the shadows add interest to what would otherwise be a very bland foreground, as well as providing leading-lines to pull the viewers eye into the shot. This image will always have a place in my heart because it represents a real Eureka moment for me.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/500 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/11
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority