Locomotion » Photography

Combining a travelogue with a camera review

Stuart Bowness — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:52:05 +0000

I’ve often thought that it is unfortunate that camera reviews are done in sterile and unrealistic environments. Take for example most of the reviews here at dpreview, which typically look something like this. Recently, I came across one of the best camera reviews I think I have ever read simply because the photographer took the camera on vacation with him, and wrote a review as part of his travelogue.

I took a trip to the Himalayas about 2 months ago and brought a new camera with me.I had such a blast using the camera I thought it would be fun to review it. But I wondered why are camera reviews always so clinical? We don’t use cameras in clinical settings. As an experiment I decided to combine a camera review with a travelogue. After all, we use cameras on the road, not in a laboratory. I thought you might be interested in the final result. In hindsight it was an obvious idea but I’ve yet to see anyone else do something like this before.

Source: Craig Mod

Christmas Wishes

Stuart Bowness — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:13:38 +0000

I just found this image from an incredible series of HDR photographs. For those readers who may not be familiar with HDR photography, here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia on the technique.

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows. High dynamic range imaging was originally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff’s detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid 1940s. The process of tone mapping together with bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range, was first reported in 1993, and resulted in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995 by Steve Mann and Rosalind Picard.[2] In 1997 this technique of combining several differently exposed images to produce a single HDR image was presented to the computer graphics community by Paul Debevec. This method was developed to produce a high dynamic range image from a set of photographs taken with a range of exposures.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Signed, Stuart, Nathan, Anthony and Melanie

Tough Icelandic Living

Stuart Bowness — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:31:26 +0000

I came across these stark and brooding advertisements while I was recently in Reykjavik, Iceland. What struck me was the bold nature of the imagery, and that they paint a picture of Iceland as an incredibly harsh place to live. I wonder how many tourists see these ads and then are compelled to move to Iceland. I know I was!

Technical Note: I took these photos on my iPhone 3GS and posted them via the WordPress iPhone app.

On Being

Stuart Bowness — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:27:18 +0000

Via: A Continuous Lean

Oxford, UK

Stuart Bowness — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:50:06 +0000

A collection of photographic work I did in the UK last week.

Photographs of Mass Consumption

Stuart Bowness — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:33:17 +0000

Beautiful, industrial, unsustainable, dramatic. Photographer Chris Jordan describes the photos in his series “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption” as his “first foray into being an engaged artist.”

“The idea [behind this series] was to capture the scale of [our] mass consumption. It was the first time I stood in front of piles of the detritus of our mass consumption.”
~ Cell phones #2, Atlanta, 2005

“Initially, I thought I was seeing the scale [but] in the end, I realized this was the tiny tip of the iceberg.”
~ Cell phone chargers, Atlanta, 2004

Art on Wall Street

Stuart Bowness — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:06:13 +0000

Inspired by the thought behind the video “Art” I posted earlier today, I decided to take a little time with a good friend and work together on a abstract art piece. It reminded me that it is often easy as web designers to get lost in our digital medium and forget the ties that bind us to real things. Things where we have to be prepared to get our hands dirty, covered in paint, mixing mediums, playing with type, using charcoal. The result: a plethora of visual creativity, laughter, collaboration and something Photoshop can only dream of emulating.

Sunrise over Machu Picchu

Stuart Bowness — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:47:57 +0000

Sunrise over Machu Picchu, Peru. Taken with a Nikon D200. South America Collection 2007.

I was feeling a little nostalgic this morning and thought I’d post a quick highlight from one of my trips 2 years ago through Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. This particular photo was taken at Machu Picchu as a golden sunrise began to caress the sleeping ancient city. Two hours later the place was swarming with tourists snapping photos so this is certainly a rare glance at the world heritage site completely vacant.

Spring in Victoria

Stuart Bowness — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:53:43 +0000

Sunset over Gonzales Beach, Victoria BC

Snapped this delicate photo of one of my favorite relaxing points in Victoria overlooking Gonzales beach. Taken right before sundown with a Canon 20D. What I love about this particular vantage point is that it takes mere minutes to get to from the office and provides cascading 360 degree views of the entire city and waterfront. Ah home sweet home.

Surfing in Oregon Was Terrific

Stuart Bowness — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:23:59 +0000

Check out the crazy bubbles on the beach we surfed at. They look like rocks but they are in fact just giant foam bubbles.