Several years ago I discovered the CHDK website.  This very loosely organized group of programmers hacked there way into Canon’s digital camera OS.  You can download a main firmware add-on as well as a variety of programs to extend you Canon camera’s functionality.  In this case an Intervalometer program is used to trigger operation of the camera.  At the end of a run you have a memory card with a very large number of stills.  I haven’t found the perfect program yet for the next step.  Basically its a stop-motion animation.  The program I use takes all these stills and outputs a DV file, which can be converted to internet compatible file formats.

This video is hosted by Vimeo, which is a kind of a cool community website for sharing and discussing videos and video production.  The video quality has suffered a bit as it was transcoded by their server.  Can’t really argue as at this level its free and the advertising level is low.

Signs of Deteriorating Weather from David O’Rourke on Vimeo.

Inside joke, we have a weather forecasting book that 90% of the captions indicate deteriorating weather. Traditionally our thunderstorms move from West to East, here they can be seen moving from North to South on the horizon. Taken with a Canon A620 Power Shot, running CHDK shell OS, Looking West on Georgian Bay Canada, Time, approaching sunset. 2009 07 27

The Macbeth, or GretagMacbeth colour checker, now a product owned by Xrite, has for years been used as a standard for reproduction.  Simply, a large card with colour swatches painted on that are chosen to represent real world colours.  The actual values are precisely controlled, so that everyone has the same reference.  Below are four versions of the card, a computer rendering, a scan of an Ektachrome slide, and two digital shots of the card.  The same one in this case.  Why use a standard?  Very simple, if I send a picture of a painting via email and the image contains the Macbeth chart, then who ever receives it will know how the reproduction of the painting has been affected.  At its simplest a visual check, but readings of the colours can also be used to correct the image for more faithful reproduction.

As you can see these images each while similar also have their differences.  In this case film has a double whammy.  There is the film’s reproduction faults and then its been scan by a digital film scanner, which is really just another digital camera.  While the digital scanner will be more tightly controlled, its still another colour process.  Another issue to consider is that we are viewing these images on monitors, CRT or LCD, which also have their own problems with colour reproduction, but that’s another topic.

The IMAtest.  This is a very nice piece of software that compares the know values of the Macbeth chart, and the information in a digital image file containing the same chart.  The comparison is presented as a colourful graph showing pictorially the deviation from ideal reproduction, percentage errors are also included.  Many online camera review websites provide these results and other highly technical information for the camera being reviewed.  Doing a Google for IMAtest and your own model of camera should produce one or more reviews with this comparison graph.  Many sites will also include sample images and results from their own criteria.  I find that looking at their own tests less useful as I don’t know what their sample actually looks like.

I’ve included several samples of cameras of interest below.  The Canon A650 IS, and the Canon A620 are the two digital cameras I use.  Also the Pentax K20D, which I contemplated purchasing, but didn’t for other reasons.  The Canon 5D, which is a, wouldn’t it be nice to have, and a Canon 1000D or Canon Rebel XS.  The Canon 1000D is their entry level DLSR.  As a balance I’ve include one of the recent Nikon D5000  digital camera.  These images are from www.imaging-resource.com, www.digitalcamerainfo.com, www.photoreview.com.au.  I find these sites useful and informative, but don’t endorse them.

So what do all these pretty graphs mean?  Well firstly the background colour of each graph is only an indication of the tonal range and not the actual colour. The gray line tracing a rough box represents the colour reproduction of a typical monitor or sRGB colour space.  The little coloured squares represent where the colour swatches of the Macbeth chart should be reproduced inside the colour space.  The larger coloured circles represent the actual colour produced by the camera being tested.  Ideally the circles should be on top of the squares, but as you can see the majority aren’t.  To get a sense of what is going on, consider that the centre of the graph is no colour or, no saturation or, gray scale.  As you move out from the centre the colour intensity or saturation of a particular colour increases.  Eventually becoming a pure or monocromatic colour.  Most of these graphs share a common colour issue the red squares are reproduced as to pure or saturated a colour.  If the colour being reproduced isn’t straight out in direction from the centre another problem is present.  This is colour shifting.  The circle is now representing a different colour than the original square.  On some graphs the Reds are grossly more saturated, while only slightly a different shade of Red.  As you look at each graph look at the shifting and saturation changes of each colour.  Some cameras are better than others, and price isn’t necessarily an indication of quality.  Compare Nikon D5000 with the Canon 5D, which is almost twice the price.

All of these tests can of course be skewed if they not tested under the same camera operating conditions and settings.  Course some camera won’t have comparable settings.  I include the last two images to demonstrate this.  These are both from a Pentax K20D, but different websites.  Obviously something is amiss.

B&W shooting of film or digital requires a perceptual jump when visualizing how a shot will come out.  Digital has the advantage of the LCD on the back of the camera, but if you intend to go beyond factory presets it isn’t much help either.  You’ll still have to wait until your digital image is reprocessed in Photoshop before you can see the finished image.  In either case you have to learn how to look at the scene, and mentally digest its content.  Will that tree limb be lighter or darker than the sky when neither has any colour?  Very tricky.  I became fairly haphazard in my shooting with the less that I shot in B&W.  Particularly when I was shooting a lot of colour film.  I could previsualize  images in terms of contrasting colours, and of course light and dark.  I’d have a pretty good idea of what the final image would look like after tone range compression, shadows blocking up, and high lights burning out.  So unlike in colour, the important thing is, is that red object, and that blue object going to be the same shade of gray on B&W film.  Many of my B&W Landscape shots while interesting weren’t very good because everything ended up being a similar shade of gray.

This image works well because the tree limb is contrasted against the white in the sky.   The limb and the sky complement each other in many ways.

In this image lots of high-lights and shadows give the eye something to work with.  All we need is to be holding a pitch-fork at the lowly old homestead.  

Spring has arrived and the first visit, provided many answers, but no answer for what the Truck was loaded with.  Big and heavy certainly is suggested.  The idea that its easier to float the truck loaded to the location, rather than off-load the truck onto the barge is mind boggling.

The following pictures will give a hint of what some of the residences are up to in our little corner of Georgian Bay.  It should be pointed out, that this is a renovation, and yes that is a full sized commercial waste bin.  Some of you may noticed that this is Country Estate, with Guest Houses.  The Guest Houses are each receiving renovations as well.  The result will be a uniform architectural wonder.

Final comment, there is a zoning bylaw in our township that specifies the maximum square footage that can be developed as living space relative to the property size.  I wouldn’t know this, but some years back another neighbor had to get a zoning variance to cover his renovations that were over the limit.  We received notice inviting our comments and concerns.  It seems very likely that these renovations have added to the square footage, but no notice was received from the township.  Hmm….

Digital cameras have opened up a lot possibilities.  The immediacy of being able to check the shot just taken is probably the greatest advancement.

I shoot a mix of digital and film images, my creative mood often dictates which to use.  I’ll have a feeling of what subject I’d like to work with and then decide whether to shoot Colour or Black & White.  Shooting focal length is another important factor for me.  I have a nice ultra wide angle and several wide angle  lenses that I like to compose with, and these can only be used with my film cameras.  I also have some larger format equipment that I like to experiment with as well, but I digress.

Shooting in very low light conditions with film was always a bit of a gamble.  Almost always the available light was less than the minimum that a light meter could work with, even to get a starting point.  The result was guess work for the exposure, 4, 8, 16 seconds.  Having a limited budget, the number of bracketed exposures was always restricted.  The results were usually disappointing.

Shooting in colour on a film camera while still possible is no longer a convenient or economical process any more.  The available film types are greatly reduced now, which may not be as big an issue as many suggest.  I was down to one or two film types myself.   A bigger issue, professional labs are almost non-existent.  The few remaining have priced them selves out of the amateur or semi-professional market.  Sadly quality control has become a problem as well.  Partly do to the nature of bulk processing chemistry and partly do to cost cutting measures.

With Digital Photography, bracketing became a none issue, it was just a matter of patience.  Course if its cold and windy, kneeling on wet rocks on a shoreline, that next frame may not be so easy to wait for.

Several years ago I discovered the Canon Hack Development Kit or CHDK as its more commonly known.  These people are out there on the edge camera software development, and have extended the capabilities of the two digital cameras I use.  In this particular case, available exposure time was increased to 64 seconds.  Unfortunately the manufacture didn’t allow for these times, so internal sources of light (LEDs on the body) actually fog the images from one of the cameras.  The first frame is shooting the moon, the second, sky glow from a near by town.  The fogging is visible as a pale glow in the top left and top middle-right of the frames.

This rather odd scene played out several times while we enjoyed our traditional off-season vacation on The Bay.  We prefer the quiet of late April to about the middle of June and begining of September to late October.  The number of lights that can be counted can drop to no fingers on one hand.

This vehicle arrangement would go from its safe night-time habour to its exposed work site, and then back again at the end of the day or if a storm was approaching (note the colour of the sky).  This went on for several days, and probably continued for many more days.  A closer examination of the image shows how heavy the barge is running in the water.  Not visible except for its outboard motor is the auxillary boat.  A means of getting to and from work is required no matter where you are.

The particular work site is known for its year round construction projects, making the local economy very happy.  This project is no exception, I’m told that an ice road was observed this past February headed in the general direction of their property.

The father was always big on buildings, new buildings, more buildings.  Now the son controls the property.  The son’s halmark has been stone patios and stone walk ways.  Its very likely that the observed truck contains skids of some exotic stone to replace the aging wooden walkways, or other flat surface.

This is an interesting shot, several things are wrong with it, but a couple of things worked, as well.  The frame is from a roll shot as an experiment.  This is a newly available film, Arista Premium available from Henrys in Canada.  Its budget priced, targetted at students I’m told, a short roll (24 frames), rated at 400 ISO.  Processing was a guess, as no data was available at the time.  I processed it in Xtol at 1:3 for 8 1/2 minutes, temp was a little high at 23 C.  The “Massive Dev Chart” at digitaltruth.com on the Web now includes this film.  Shot with an old AIS Nikon 28mm f2.8 lens and Nikomat FTN (home market version of the Nikkormat).  That’s the technical stuff.

The outstanding feature in this shot is the UFO in the upper left corner.  These things happen when your rushed.  It can be a challange to compose a scene, make the manual camera adjustments, steady the camera, take the picture, all while in a Kayak and not drift right past that perfect composition, or end up on the rocks.  Not an easy thing when the wind is up.

A little less obvious is the Inuksuk in lower right of the image.  I did spot this while setting up for the shot.  The original idea behind the shot was to work with the white clouds, the sloping rocks, and the blackness of the water line.  When I spotted it, it became a go with the flow situation.  I have a personal issue with these rock sculptures.  I feel that they have become a form of graffiti, rather than being the cultural icon that they were.  These little rock piles show up everywhere now, saying “I was here”.  A human has left a little pile here, for all to see, possibly for decades.

The luck of this shot wasn’t apparent until after I’d taken several frames.  While not uncommon in our little corner of Georgian Bay, they are usually not seen in the open, in the middle of the day.  Naturally reserved, they prefer to remain invisible except for their droppings and upturned rocks.  Image my surprise when I lowered the camera, to see a Bear studying me.  “Is this creature on the water a threat to me, should I go for the water now, or wait? and what does he think he’s doing anyway.”

The exaggerated perspective of a wide-angle lens suggests this animal was a long distance away.  In fact the bow of my Kayak was only several feet from the shoreline rocks, and the Bear was perhaps forty feet away.  A quick change of cameras (I try to always have a backup), we’re more closely focused on a nature moment.

First up, me and the app do battle, the misshappen picture.
Next find a theme, and customize it. Done, well a little bit anyway.

David O’Rourke