More photos from Tulsa - updated

Finally got around to taking some time off from my day job and spent a few hours in and around Tulsa to see what caught my eye in the way of interesting things to photograph. If you find yourself driving along 21st Street the Golden Driller is hard to miss and I've been meaning to photograph him for some time. The sky had some broken cloud which added some texture and interest to my photos.

(sourced from Wikipedia)

• The Golden Driller is a 76-foot-tall (23 m), 43,500-pound (19,700 kg) statue of an oil worker, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is the largest free-standing statue in the world, and the third tallest statue in the United States.
• It was originally built in 1953 for the International Petroleum Exposition by the Mid-Continent Supply Company. It was erected in it's current location (in front of the Tulsa Expo Center) in 1966.

(here is the Golden Driller in relation to the Expo Center for scale)

(here is the Golden Driller more in isolation)

Re-visiting image experimenting

For a while now I've been interested in the look of IR (infra red) photography but I am also aware of its limitations - need to use a tripod and having to frame/focus before putting the IR filter on the lens. Add to that the issue that a lot of modern lenses don't even have an IR focus indicator. Probably would be easier to get a D-SLR modified to take just IR photos but I'm not in a position to do that.

To combat some of this I started experimenting with using a flash so I could do hand-held IR photos. Framing is still a slight issue as there is no way to view through the lens with a Wratten 72 filter on the lens, so framing is an approximation until I devise a viewfinder to attach to the camera. The focus is taken care of by hyperfocal focusing on my 20mm wide angle that has both a DoF scale and an IR focus indicator. On the flash I place a pair of "Red-AWB" gels to keep it into the red scale and not skew things too much colour-wise.



Here is an example taken from my garden to show the effect. The photo direct from the camera is all red (due to the solid red IR filter) and I converted it to black&white in Lightroom. Other than the conversion and re-size for the web there have been no other modification to the image.

Here are a few more photos to show the effect of "hand-held flash IR".






I will be refining this technique some more and want to use it on some architectural subjects.

Meadow Gold along Route 66 in Tulsa

After meaning to photograph it on numerous occasions I finally paid a visit to the Meadow Gold sign in Tulsa to photograph it. It looks good in the daytime but I will definitely be paying another visit when it's lit up.

The sign is over 70 years old and was originally located at 11th and S. Lewis but when the building was demolished in 2004 the sign was saved and relocated to it's current location at 11th and Peoria. It is the largest neon sign in Tulsa and possibly in existence at 30ft by 30ft in size. There are several plaques in the pavilion on which the sign was erected that gives all the history of both the company and the sign.



I will be reposting this photo on my website in a portfolio I am putting together of buildings and views around Tulsa.

May's "supermoon"

Just like numerous other people the world over I was outside armed with my camera to photograph the supermoon last night. Took me a few test shots to dial in the exposure, helped by taking a spot meter reading off the moon with my handheld optical spotmeter and then compensating to shift the exposure zone for the moon towards white (zone system).

Anyway, enough talk about the photo, here it is for you to enjoy.

Image file changes

I recently made a discovery in the settings of the editing program I use
(Lightroom 3) that allows me to export my photos at a resolution of 1 dpi.
This has multiple benefits for both me and also to visitors of my blog and
website - more so when I've finished updating images on my sites.

Having the photos at 1 dpi makes the file size so much smaller so they load
much faster in the browser window. Also it makes uploading them so much
easier. But from my perspective there is also the added bonus of lessening
any concerns that my photos will be misused; which is a whole post in of
itself.

Image use and copyright is something all photographers have to keep in mind
when posting photos online. It's commonplace for images to be shared and
reposted, which as long as my metadata and watermark are still there and/or
I get image credit is something I'm okay with. My concern was more that
having high resolution images online could result in someone taking a photo
and printing it (possibly multiple times). Also with a high resolution image
my watermark could be cropped/edited out with minimal impact; unless I went
with the full image watermark that obscures the image.

Now, computer screens behave much differently to a printed image. Most
printed images are at least 240 dpi and sometimes much higher depending on
the printer. A computer screen however displays by a different process and
dpi has no bearing on how an image looks. Most images on the internet are
set at 72 dpi as this is generally used as the default. You will not see any
differences between a photo at 300 dpi and one at 72 dpi when viewed on a
computer screen (other than poor image processing and compression, which is
a different subject again). Taking this even further, you can convert to 1
dpi and it will appear onscreen to look as good as a photo at 300 dpi.
However, try printing either and you will most definitely see a big
difference.

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Mixed bag of things follow up

I recently posted about my technical problems...and after some further
investigation I want to update a couple of things.

To begin with, my scanner hasn't died. I tested it on my PC and laptop under
Windows 7 and it appeared dead. I then borrowed a Macbook Air and it worked
perfectly! So my issue is that Windows 7 will not work with my Epson
Perfection V500 Photo scanner - driver and software errors on install and
the scanner will not function.

I also found that my laser printer would not install under Windows 7 - a
Dell 1700n. And once again I was able to simply install it on the Macbook
Air.

After these final issues (have had a string if other issues too) I have come
to the conclusion that Windows 7 is not for me and my hardware. Instead I am
seriously looking to ways to switch to a Mac as it seems to "just work". And
luckily all the software and hardware that matters to me for photo work has
Mac install options on the install discs.

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Mixed bag of things

I've recently been experiencing a mix of ups and downs; mainly a lot of technical headaches related to my digital workflow.

• my main workstation had to be rebuilt as things were just not running properly
  

• my laptop has an annoying habit of crashing at random times with random errors
  

• my flatbed/film scanner has "died" and my backup film scanner doesn't want to work on my rebuilt computer
  

• my recently cleaned/lubed 20mm prime lens has once again (before I even used it on camera) leaked lubricant onto the aperture diaphragm blades and stopped working
  

At least I do have some good things to relay. I seem to be experiencing a larger merging of my photography and my day job. Part of which is the recording of an on-going construction project relating to my day job. Then today I was invited to take the official photographs at an employee awards event.

So despite all my recent issues, things are still moving forward and I'm still taking photos. And each photograph moves me forward as a learning process and allows me to keep growing.

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!
(but edited to correct formatting)