TOUGH ???

This is TOUGH !!!!

Notice the damage to the bag ;-/

Notice the dial face is gone and the wide/zoom buttons are damaged.
Further the dents on the body ;-)

OLYMPUS 8000
mju TOUGH !!!!!









This Olympus 8000 mju TOUGH survived a motorcycle accident.  It was in my outer pocket closest to the tarmac !!!!

Creativity

Creativity is a subject often heard when photographers talk, but do we (and many times they) know what it really is?

An example of what it is not is the repetitive reproduction of stairs curving around itself.  Just look at a past DPreview challenge and you`ll se that the winner was NOT CREATIVE in any way!!!  Actually about 90% of the entries were in no way creative.  They were just REPETITIVE!!! Repeating the same old shots with more Photoshopping to try and make it look creative.  Sure some of those are STUNNING but definitely NOT CREATIVE!!!

REAL CREATIVITY is when looking at subjects in an unusual way.  OK I concede what the Bible says that nothing is new and it has all been done before.  It is just that some of these have been done so many times it is really getting BORING!!!

By now you may say that this photographer has nothing to say, thus the ramblings.

A great number of "tourist photographers" and even more serious "tourist photographers" visit the ghost town of Kolmanskop near Luderitz in the White Dunes area of the Namib Desert.  And...  they take the same old photo`s all the time. 

Just look at the following photo`s.

The 1st & 2nd photo`s are the "STANDARD EVERYBODY TAKES IT" to show that I`ve actually been there ;-) 

The photo to the right is slightly less conventional but still just a "I was there"  photo









But look at the opportunities for creativity !!!

Forget about straight and non-converging lines !!!

Lie on your side and take the unusual photo!!!!  If not why not?  Here the photo does not only convey desolation or abandonment but the white sand that want to make it over-exposed also emphasize the harshness of the environment.

THIS is much more INTERESTING and shows creativity!!!  The onlooker has to "interact" or "react" to this photo.  It does not only convey "ah nice" photo.  When someone looks at this photo they have to "look-and-look-again" because it is unconventional, thus CREATIVE !!

And here we have a combination of the creative shadows combined with the harsh blinding whitish sand outside.

The sand inside on the floor actually "force" the viewer to look out to see where it came from !!!








A good example of creativity is combining the rusting Coffee Shop sign with the lonely wooden boat in the background.

Sure these photo`s might not be the sharpest competition winning photo`s around but so what?

Each of these photo`s had the "viewers" make some or other positive comment.  Something like "Really a nice combination !! I was there but did not SEE THAT!!! "

An herein lies the SATISFACTION of CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY !!!!

Maybe a last controversial word.  "Photography Competitions actually KILL creative photography because the entrants take photo`s to WIN not to enjoy the Art of Photography !!" 

Till Next time. Cheers !!!!

The GOLDEN Hours

You may or may not have heard photographers talking about the Golden Hour or the Magic Hour or the Perfect Hour and wondered what this mystical entity is and when to find it.  In actual fact there are TWO Golden Hours per day !!!!  One at the start of day and one at the end of day.

Simplistically photographers generally define the Golden Hour(s) as the 1st hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset.  The reason for this is mainly because generally the light during these two hours are either not yet "harsh" or has lost most of it`s "harshness".  The light has a "softer" quality and colours tend to be more "pastel-like" which is pleasing to the human eye.

This definition is in actual fact not really correct because one can see the sunlight before the Sun comes over the horizon and also after it has descended below the horizon. In strict astronomical terms the time from seeing the light to actually seeing the Sun is called the twilight period and happens both at the beginning and end of each day.

While this is generally true the locality at which the photography is taking place will also have a major influence on the quality of the light.  In dry desert environments like the Namib Desert the golden hours really could be more appropriately be called the "Golden Half-hours".  This is also true for areas where the surrounding rock and sand have a very high pure silica content.

Weather, specifically clouds, also play a major part.  In the aforementioned desert area the presence of cloud cover may actually extend the golden hours.  As clouds are a rare phenomenon in deserts a photographer will be very lucky is clouds are actually present.  Look at the photograph from Dead Vlei in the Namib Desert of Namibia.  The photo in the previous post was taken about TWO hours after sunrise and still exhibit a pleasing soft light quality.

Further sunlight  may only be visible at a certain locality when the Sun is near or at the apex of it`s path.  Good examples will be in case of the Slot Canyons in the American States of Utah and Arizona.  Here the actual "Golden Hour" may be a shorter or longer period depending on the width and depth of a particular canyon.

Although it seems that quite a number of photographers primarily do landscape, read sunset/sunrise, photography during the golden hour, the light may well be suited for "other" photography as well.

Dead Vlei, Namib Desert, Namibia

A very rare time when clouds are found at Dead Vlei in the Namib Desert which is the oldest desert on earth.

Photo taken at 07:06am on 28th November 2009.

Olympus E-3 with ZUIKO 7-14mm f4.0, 1/50 s, f13, 6000K.

Post-processing: Changing WB from 6000K to 5300K