Author: Robert Young

Unintentional Flashing

As I have previously mentioned, we have just moved into a new house. When we did the initial condition inspection, we noticed a few things that weren’t on the condition report. I thought I would be clever and photograph the defects so I could email them to the renting agent.

As the folks who have been trying to keep up with my ramblings know, I have been trying to learn the skills of using a speedlight (flash) as an off-camera light source. In some circles, this is called ‘Strobism‘. There are some people who have mastered this arcane art and who produce stunning work as a result. David Tejada, and Mr Strobist, David Hobby are two of my heroes.

As a result of all this Strobism, I hadn’t used the Canon 580 EX II on the camera for a little while.  I got it out, dusted it off and put in on the trusty 5D and started photographing.

All went well for a few minutes, until I moved to take the second shot. The flash started firing constantly when I put pressure on the shutter button. I quickly turned everything off, took the flash off the camera and began to check settings and connections. All seemed OK so I continued.

After a couple of shots, it happened again. More inspection, more testing and back to shooting. And it happened again.

Then I realised it was only happening when I shifted the camera from horizontal to vertical.

And a little while later I realised I was pressing the ‘Test’ button with my nose.

The Moon via iPhone

Chase Jarvis has just posted a fabulous photo of the moon and brief description over at his blog.

For those of you who haven’t wandered off to take a look; it is a neat photo, taken through a telescope using an iPhone (whatever that is).

The photo is sharpish and clear with quite a good amount of detail. All in all, a nice piece of work. But how much is down to the iPhone and how much is a result of a good telescope isn’t mentioned.

And it wasn’t enhanced in Photoshop, a good thing apparently.

Hang on Mr Jarvis. I just noticed something. You pointed out that there was no photoshopping involved, but there is a sneaky little mention there of some work done in Aperture. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t Aperture a photo-enhancement program too. But just not from Adobe, right?

So tweaking in Aperture is OK but for some reason tweaking in Photoshop is wrong? Can someone please explain this to me? How come using Photoshop is now a bad thing?

I often see this statement in posts and hear it from smug individuals: “Oh I don’t use Photoshop (sneer), I do all my work in Lightroom”.

Well, you people, I use Photoshop, and for your information, Adobe Camera Raw, supplied with Photoshop, is pretty much Lightroom. And that is what I use to do my “adjustments”, OK? Are we straight on that now?

Family Fotos #3

Another scan from one of my grandfather’s negatives. Two Australian soldiers of 2nd Field Company in Egypt, 1915.

My grandfather, Gordon Cone, is on the right. My grandfather and his three mates from Traralgon (see Family Fotos #2), enlisted as drivers in 2nd Field Company AIF. This involved managing the horse teams used for carrying munitions and supplies.

Prior to signing up in 1914, my grandfather was a member of the Victorian Light Horse and was an experienced horseman. I have no proof, but family history has it that the men took their own horses with them when they travelled to Egypt. I have a photo of horses being loaded onto the troop ship by crane, but nothing to suggest that they took their own horses.

In this photo and several others, the horses are shown with a leather or cloth fringe protecting their eyes from flies and sand.

Well, Kiss my Pressure Cooker

“…go kiss my pressure cooker in the evening!”

What is this? I was extremely puzzled to read this early today. My friend and colleague the Labcoatman, suggested that it might be a koan. And there is some merit in that, it certainly has aspects that defy conventional understanding.

I was concerned that maybe this was a French euphemism for some strange practice, and I was hesitant to ask.

But no, it was a Google translation of a comment in French at my favourite photography site, Ipernity.

Another friend, colleague, Ipernity member and more importantly Frenchman, Benoit, tells me that a more correct translation into English would be:

“Well, kisses of the evening my love”

But I prefer “go kiss my pressure cooker in the evening!”. So much more romantic.

And don’t believe every translation you get from the interwebs.

Family Fotos #2

In 1914 thousands of young Australians signed up to join the newly-formed Australian Imperial Force to fight for King and country. My grandfather, Charles Cone, was one of them.

Up until 1901 Australia was collection of British colonies. In 1901 the colonies became Australia. Although Australians fought in the Boer War, they went as Colonial Militia, not as Australians. World War One was the first conflict in which Australia participated as a nation.

My grandfather was 24 years old when he signed up on September 1st, 1914. He and three of his mates shipped out to Egypt where they went through training prior to the Gallipoli landings on April 25th, 1915.

Three soldiers from 2nd Field Company, AIF, Egypt, 1915

The photo shows three Australian soldiers from 2nd Field Company trying to re-create a popular cartoon of the time (it showed three soldiers trying to ride a camel).

My grandfather is at the left, the other two are Wally Milligan and Walter McCubbin, though I don’t know which one is which. Milligan and McCubbin were from Traralgon, a small town 160 kilometres east of Melbourne, Victoria. My grandfather was from Glengarry, an even smaller town near Traralgon. The fourth member of the gang was George Pentland, also from Traralgon.

This is a scan from one of approximately 150 negatives. The negatives are fading. They have been kept in a leather case in the dark for most of the past 90 years but are now showing the effects of time. I am trying to scan them all so that there is a digital record for the family.

Cameras in the Cupboard #6

Agfa Optima 1

This little Agfa range finder was my second camera. But it also had several firsts to its credit. It was my first 35mm camera. It was the first camera I bought with my own money and it was the first time I used colour film.

Agfa Optima 1 - my second camera

As my interested in photography grew, I wanted to move up from the Instamatic 25 to something a little more sophisticated. By this time I had started at my first job and a colleague recommended that I find a nice range finder camera. Not being able to afford a Leica, I looked around for something used but in good condition and found this Agfa.
Agfa introduced the Optima 1 in 1961. I would have purchased mine in 1969 or early 1970. It has four distance settings for focus and an f.stop range from 2.8 to 22. The Optima 1 only took films up to ISO 200, but had a clever little device for indicating a correct exposure and it didn’t require a battery.

When you took up the pressure on the shutter, a dot at the top of the range finder either displayed green or red, indicating the light level for the shot.

I still have a number of boxes of slides I took with this camera. They are all either Fujicolor, Perutz or Agfa. I don’t think I ever put any of the nearly-departed Kodachrome through it.

The Agfa Optima 1 didn’t stay in use for very long. My interest in black and white photography and developing and printing my own film was growing. By 1970, I had moved on to my first Single Lens Reflex (SLR). But that is another post.

A Campaign Against Phishing

I am starting a campaign against phishing emails, enough is enough. I don’t mind most of the ones I get, I just click ‘Delete’ or the Junk’ button and get rid of them, but some phishing emails are so lame that they are an insult.

Today I got an email from the “Common Wealth bank” asking me to log in and confirm my details. Guys, it’s the “Commonwealth Bank”. And I am fairly certain they don’t send their emails from a private AOL account.

Please, if you want to scam me, at least make some sort of an attempt to make it believable. Spelling the name of the company incorrectly is just an embarrassment.

Update: 25th June

Nice try guys, but changing the email address to a Yahoo one didn’t fool me.