A Bit of New York Photoshop

Having fun with the photos you took can be slightly daunting. The idea of irreparably damaging a photo you though was good trying to make it better can be tough.

Luckily, google has given us Picasa that allows us to tweak to our hearts extent without damaging the original. If you like the "improvements" you've made. Well you can go ahead and save them as new files
Isn't technology fun?

Match Day

One of the quirkier Med School traditions is Match Day. To come clean they are all quirky / odd to some extent. From going on stage to have some throw a white coat over you to the tear jerked faces of your loved ones all the way to the televised showmanship of Match Day. 4 years of hard work has prepared you to open your heart out.. in front of an audience of hundreds... to the soundtrack of Kayne West...

...its just all a bit odd.

Either way it is a day full of emotion.

Before

During







After

Tilt-shift photos

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

This is an amazing and awesome video my friend Pete showed me today



My friend Sam showed me this website:

http://tiltshiftmaker.com/

The above photo took about 20 seconds to make after one practice. Have a go. It may make a boring photo look really cool.

You can purchase an actual tilt shift lens if you want to. Unfortunately they come in around $1500 each.

I would suggest start saving now!

New York, New York

This last weekend, I went to New York.... The Big Apple....New Amsterdam?

We spent most of the weekend in Manhattan and really that is enough for me.


Whenever anyone goes to New York for the first time, there are always a few obligatory visits that a tourist must make. The Statue of Liberty is no exception. Standing tall in the harbour she is a beautiful sculpture as well as engineering masterpiece.


Of course, having spent enough years at OSU, you start seeing OHIO everywhere. Lucky Lady Liberty helped us out with this one.


Once you visit the statue the next port of call is Ellis Island. A port of mass immigration, it is testament both to the early 20th century immigrants that flooded the US as well as the country they entered. It really brings home the multicultural aspects of the USA that are commonly forgotten by foreign nationals. There are certainly ignorant sections of any society, but the Americans get universally stereotyped by theirs. When a country such as America forgets and stops telling the story of its immigrants, it will be a truly sad day.


One of the things I noticed the most about Manhattan is the amount of skyscrapers and glass in the city. Buildings almost blend together and you loose your self in the sea of glass. You may be even forgiven if you loose track where one building starts and the other ends

New York (faces)

So here is a bunch more photos i took in New York. They are all more facial based photos and I thought I would bunch them all together in one group. I will try and put it all in some sort of order with a little info on each.


Believe it or not we start with this gentleman. Getting up in the (what feels like) sub zero temperatures we made our way to see Lady Liberty. This was the first character to greet us. A good mannered busker with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of American towns. Manly from decades of experience I think over a miss-spent childhood.

We are then brought to Lady Liberty herself, staring out looking for the freedom from those English tyrants. The tour guide joked with the French tourists thanking them for her. I joked back that he can thank me for his freedom from our tyranny.

My Jokes never go down too well all the time.


We now actually get to the Met. (Metropolitan museum of art). There Egypt exhibit was fascinating. More or less their entire exhibit is a gift from Egypt for helping preserve many archaeological sites.


That is a much more commendable act than how we populated the British Natural History Museum. I guess when you are an Empire, its not technically looting. Still, not the best thing the British had ever done. Definitely not the worst!


Having left the Egyptian section we randomly chanced upon the most random of parts of the museum. A hotch-potch collection of sculptures, paintings and artifacts. It also included this lady who reminded me of the girl from Goldfinger. She seems more at peace though.


My favourite part of the exhibits as the modern art section. Here we have a self portrait within an untitled piece by Anish Kapoor from 2007. It certainly made you feel happy that you were not a fly.


Of course my fiancee had to look meaner than Chairman Mao. I guess Warhol was a bit too kind or I'm in for a tough marriage!


Oh yes. After leaving the Met we saw this creepy mime / ballet dancer. She looks happy but crazy. At least she is happy though.....

Spring is here!

OK, so this is a bit of a bold statement. However there are several clues that may bring a logically minded person to this conclusion.

1. It has been over 60 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend

2. Buttercups are out for all to see.

So it seems that my declaration of spring is a tad preemptive. With 12 inches of snow at the beginning of April last year it seems I may be counting my chicks before they are hatched. Before I had come to the US I had never heard the term "Indian Summer". Apparently it refers to a time in November / December when after a cold spell, the temperature climbs almost to T-shirt/shorts weather. I guess it refers to some Native American (First Nation) thing. I will have to ask a Yank! I hope this is no Indian Spring!

Either way point 2 was easily to be seen today. In Overbrook ravine the buttercups are all out for everyone to see. Full knowing that more cold weather is on the way I thought I would snap a few pics.

It was only last week that I discovered Overbrook and it is fast becoming one of my favourite ravines.

By the way, this was the moon tonight. As you can see it is almost full. I think I like it the most when it is half or a crescent. You can the craters a lot more!

270mm (effective 405mm), f6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 200

ISO Speed / Shutter Speed

Tonight I thought i would compare ISO speed with shutter speed. I took 9 pictures of the moon. There were 3 different ISO speeds: 200, 400, 800 and 3 different shutter speeds: 1/80, 1/100, 1/125 seconds. From the picture it seems thats the best result came with the lowest ISO and a corresponding shutter that neither over or under exposed the moon.

All pictures were taken with a 270mm lens at f6.3

New Lens

On friday of last week, I got myself a new lens. Its a 18 to 270mm Tamron DiII lens. Its awesome for 2 reasons.

1. The vibration reduction. I love this stuff. It really allows me more freedom with hand held shots. Its a big weighty lens but it is so versatile.

2. That extra 70mm on top of my 55 to 200mm lens now gives an effective zoom up to 405mm.
Apparently its the worlds first x15 zoom. It does a good job with close up pictures as well.

Either way I had a wonderful mouth surgery on Monday so unfortunately I was put out of commission. I took my lens to Tang Soo Do. Now usually I am not a big fan of the photos I take at martial arts events, however I really like this photo. Derek is, at times, the epitome of stillness. It was line drill and everyone was doing Ee Dan Ahp Cha Ki . I.E. Jumping front kick, Derek waited for the person in front of him so to give himself space. The resulting picture gives him a motionless quality.

20mm // f3.5 // 1/20sec // Exp -0.7

I have always wanted to get a really good photo of a Red Cardinal. They are the state bird of Ohio and this the best one so far!

270mm // f6.3 // 1/500sec

The moon is a very cool....moon! Its fun to watch it go through its cycle from day to day. These are my first attempts with the new lens to photograph it. Unfortunately even a 270mm lens is just not enough to get the moon in any good resolution.

270mm // f6.3 // 1/100sec