Stephen’s Untold Stories

What’s up, doc?

Click the image for a larger version

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Saw a bunch of them on Springer Mountain. Please leave a comment if you know.

Click each image for a larger version.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I took a trip up to Springer Mountain, which is the southern terminus for the Appalachian Trail. The weather was perfect!

Click each image for a larger version.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I am at a complete loss for words.

Link to complete gallery

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Yes, it’s a somewhat unfortunate name, but it does some cool stuff.

Here is a Rubik’s Cube effect of a photo I took of the Tybee Island Lighthouse.

http://www.dumpr.net

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Here is an amazing photo collection taken by on the most recent Space Shuttle flight.

Click each image for a larger version.

Link to complete gallery.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander has been taking some amazing pictures lately. Here is a nice gallery.

Link to gallery.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Almost all of the images were taken with Canon Cameras.

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

At around six o’clock today it started to sound like someone was throwing rocks at the house. I looked outside and saw hailstones crushing everything in sight. I decided to take a prisoner.

Note: Actual golf balls were not falling from the sky. Just hail.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

We got to spend a little time at Tybee yesterday. It’s grown up a lot since I moved from that area.

Click each image for a larger version.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I got lucky with the lighting here.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I got to take a few shots around Monterey Square.

Click each photo for a larger version.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I’m in Savannah for a few days, and I managed to get out to the entrance of Wormsloe Plantation. It was closed, but I still got a couple of decent shots through the gate.

Larger version

Larger version

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Now that’s some good camouflage.

Larger version here

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Fellow northwest Georgia blogger Professor Marvel also had some suggestions.

1. A story behind some of your favorite pictures
2. Tips on taking good photos
3. Using photos in the classroom - Going beyond VoiceThread use.

I’ll tackle the 2nd question here and try get to the others in future posts.

I’ve never had any formal training in photography. I do spend a good bit of time looking at other people’s stuff for ideas. I’ve mentioned Thomas Hawk in a couple of previous posts, and he’s probably my favorite.

I do try to look at things from different angles. For example, look down a one-way street in the opposite direction from oncoming traffic. That’s a view most people never notice. You can see buildings and other landmarks from a different perspective.

This photo is taken from a corner where few people ever stand.

This is the view that most people shoot from.

Since storage cards are so inexpensive now, I take lot of shots without much concern of running out of space. I’ll sometimes take multiple shots of the exact same thing in the same spot just in case I get lucky on the lighting.

I’m not afraid to kneel down, climb up on something, or stand at an awkward angle for a shot. I was practically hanging over the water when I took this snake photo.

When possible, I try to frame an object against a great background. I saw this boat, but I waited until it had the right background for both shots.

Okay…that’s all I can come up with for now. Feel free to share any tips you have!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Not bad considering I took this while sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car.

Larger version here.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I’m in Las Vegas for the week, and we took a drive to the dam yesterday.

Larger version

Larger version

Larger version

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I just set up a free account. It looks pretty intriguing so far. Here is a great review from Download Squad.

We look at a lot of web software and services, but have to say that Photoshop Express one of the slickest web-based applications for photos that we have ever used. Although services in the past like Picasa or Picnik have offered some basic photo editing capabilities, what Photoshop Express is doing is in a completely different league. Like many other photo services, Photoshop Express will let you share and display your online photos; each user account is given 2 GB of space to store and share photos (this is free, additional space and extra features will be available in the future, pricing TBD) and you can embed links to the Photoshop Express hosted galleries or direct-embed individual images.

What makes Photoshop Express so different is the Photoshop aspect of it all. To be clear, Adobe is aiming this service squarely at consumers — people who spend most of their time connected to the net and want a fast, effective way to edit photos — not prosumers or digital professionals. JPEG is the only supported photo format (though editing RAW in a web based app makes little sense to use anyway) Still, the editing capabilities and the smoothness of the interface are leaps and bounds ahead of any competing service. For instance, the service is non-destructive — meaning that any edits you make to your photographs can be removed at any time — and in any order. Don’t like a change you made last week? Remove it, or revert back to the original. Nothing is permanently changed or destroyed. Tools like red-eye removal, white balance, exposure, digital and color effects are all easy to use and very, very effective. There’s even a version of Adobe’s Healing Brush if you need to remove part of a photograph and remap it with something else.

Full Review Here

If you aren’t using Flickr, you should be. Even if you don’t want to upload your own photos, you can search for photos of almost anything you could imagine. Flickr’s own search engine isn’t so great, but there are a couple of alternatives.

• http://www.compfight.com - This is a new one to me, but seems to do a great job.
• http://flickrleech.net - This is my favorite. It gives you some great options and has a wicked sense of humor.

I took a drive over to Rome today and got some nice shots of this hawk.

Click each photo for a larger version.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite