Impressions from day two at @btconf 2024 in Düsseldorf, featuring speakers @laura, Ferdinand Ulrich, Sophie Tahran, Natalya Shelburne, Michael Trautmann and David Thomas. The full gallery will be available in the coming days, so stay tuned!
Thanks @marcthiele for having me! It is always such a pleasure!
I just got a complaint about my #photography posts, which I concluded came from a troll, but perhaps I’m actually coming off in a way that rubs people the wrong way here.
The complaint was that by posting high resolution images and describing in detail the processes used to create them, I’m merely “showing off” in a way that isn’t useful to most people.
I indeed do rather niche photography, using relatively esoteric gear. I think some people are interested in process and enjoy the results.
@mattblaze I know everybody likes to go on about unfollowing, muting, and blocking, but I think a lot of people are also overlooking one of the most basic features of social media: the ability to scroll past any post you aren’t interested in without engaging with it.
High resolution photography is kind of a poor fit for the web, since no current display can render a 100MP+ image without (significant) downscaling.
These are really best viewed as large-format prints, which allow you to seamlessly engage with both the whole and with small details, as your eyes take you.
All my online photos can be downloaded as full resolution jpgs from flickr, from which you can have prints made locally. I may eventually do signed limited edition prints of selected images.
It dates from 1410. It has four main moving components: the zodiacal ring, an outer rotating ring, an icon representing the Sun, and an icon representing the Moon.
Irritated that Capture One (basically a raw image processor bundled with a better version of Lightroom) has moved to an Adobe-style subscription model. At least they still let you buy a permanent copy (and basically give you the current version for free after 5 years as a subscriber).
Having to buy an annual subscription to manage and edit my own work reminds me how vulnerable we are to the business-model-du-jour of proprietary platforms we rely on.
@oblomov For raw processing the gap is very wide. Basically, building a good raw converter requires working very closely with each camera (and lens) vendor.
The lesson for photographers here is simple: get a good tripod, and use it. It won’t help at all with the proprietary image processing software problem, but you’ll make better photos.
The problem with the people who weaponize Mastodon's culture of care this way is not just that they're annoying, but that they dilute (and mock) the legitimacy of those who really do need to filter content that's genuinely harmful to them. It's rather like a selfish pet owner who takes advantage of service animal exceptions so they can take their pet skunk with them on vacation.
For new Mastodon users, you likely aren't seeing art and photos fully. Most instances crop images by default, and if you don't want to have to click on images to see them fully, you need to turn off the setting.
Turning off the setting makes the Mastodon experience better.
Go to your settings. Find Post Layout. Uncheck the box next to "Crop images in non-expanded posts to 16x9." Enjoy art and photos fully.
@mattblaze I only have a cursory background in your work but that has a surprisingly shallow depth of focus in the foreground. It does make 1 WTC stand out though.
More commonly, tilting the lens is used to allow more objects to be in focus. For example, a landscape photographer photographing a deep field of flowers might tilt the lens downward, keeping flowers on the ground in focus from close to the camera into the distance. But it can also be use to force parts of the frame that would otherwise be in focus to become soft and dream-like.
... Using tilt for selective focus (or artificially defocusing large parts of the frame with a photo editing program) can, for some subjects, create an illusion that a full size subject is actually a miniature model. The effect isn't fully understood, but it generally requires a high perspective and using selective focus to mimic the very thin depth of field characteristically found in macro photography.
Okay, on to my dad's masterpiece(s) #photography. You've asked to see some.
I snapped 8 of them, a very insignificant random sampling that don't translate well because the light reflected off of them no matter where I tried to take the pics. So they're even better than this.
These 1st 2 are from an album he labeled "L.A." That's all I know. I don't know the year or the locations other than Los Angeles.
2/ Mastodon is not letting me load doubles. So here's a single shot of a double page from an album labeled "Ethnic," but no idea where they're from or when.. I'll have to post each photo separately now I guess.
5/ Also from the "Ethnic" album, my dad's (a)typical take on portraits. He caught moods, personality, moments, often stories with his work, just from the face of a total stranger, at a single blink in time.
No idea where or when... but you can see the binding of the album, and why it's hard to copy these over.
AT&T Long Lines Oak Hill Tower, San Jose, CA 2021.
This unusual Brutalist tower was part of the former AT&T terrestrial microwave network that once carried the bulk of US long distance telephone traffic. The (long since disconnected) horn antennas are too big and heavy to remove.
@mattblaze That's a very cool piece of archeological, technological, and just general history!
I strongly recommend that anyone following along here follow the supplied Flickr link—both for the better image quality and for the impressively thorough writeup about this artifact.
Clarification: we’re taking specifically about RAIL cardfloats here, which are barges that carry entire railcars (on tracks), to be picked up by a train at the other end. Barges and ferries are still obviously in use to move goods over water all over the place. But rail carfloat services have all but disappeared in the US.
@AbandonedAmerica Also, the High Line itself is a fascinating example of redevelopment of ruins. After it was abandoned as a rail line, there were railroad tracks being overgrown by plants. To turn it into an aerial park, they ripped everything out and replaced it with new tracks and ties intermixed with and obscured by deliberately landscaped plants that look wild. The effect is a "safe-but-wild-looking" environment inspired by what it replaced. Almost like a Disney jungle ride.
Former Philadelphia Inquirer Building, Philadelphia.
Image made during the liminal period between the Inquirer slipping out and the Philly police colonizing it as their headquarters. Purpose-built office buildings are like the shells of hermit crabs, but for organizations.
I captured this with a DSLR and the then-new Nikon 19mm shift lens, rather than my usual view camera setup for this sort of thing. It's a bit soft at the top, but I think it works overall.
Mostly it was a race against borrowed time. It was only shortly after that they removed the signage above the entry. So when the sky was just right one night, I took the opportunity to run out and make the photo.
Mostly, I remember it being very, very cold. Brrr.
This iconic Kalorama hotel, opened in 1965, was designed by William Tabler, chief architect for the Hilton chain. It famously hosts a number of prominent events, including the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner, the National Prayer Breakfast, the Shmoocon hacker conference, and the assassination attempt on President Reagan, the latter giving rise to its local nickname, the Hinckley Hilton.
@mattblaze And it hosted the Transportation Research Board for many, many years, before it moved to the Convention Center. ASCE had reception in its dungeon...
@mattblaze Here’s a much more plausible account suggesting exactly that: https://theclio.com/tour/353/20/reverse. It doesn’t mention the Pan American Sanitary Bureau—the, or at least a, tenant from 1947 to 1951. See below.
For most of the 20th century, many passenger trains between Washington and NYC carried special mail cars, some of which served as "railroad post offices" with workers onboard sorting the mail during the trip. Special "fast mail" trains ran overnight, carrying passengers almost as an afterthought.
Completed in 1904, this control panel feeds power through an array of AC-DC rotary converters to provide 600V DC to the subway third rail. Electrical substations were built at various locations near the subway to feed different parts of the system.
I was assured by the staff that this system was NEVER used to reanimate bodies as part of any kind of mad scientist experiments.
The electromechanical rotary converters were retired from routine service in 1999 (though many still work and can be activated in emergencies). That's 94 years of near-continuous operation.
The current (so to speak) system uses solid state rectifiers, and occupies a tiny fraction of the original substation floorspace.
I appreciate (and have spent much time learning and practicing) analog film photography, but I've been all digital for about ten years now. I miss some of the capabilities and tactile aspects of film, but it's just no longer practical for what I want to achieve. Polaroid 55 (and then New55) broke my heart, and that was the last straw.
Arguments about whether digital is sufficiently "pure" are uninteresting to me. It's a different medium, emphasizing different techniques.
At this point, the biggest difference between film and digital is economic. A 50 year old analog film camera in working condition is perfectly good today and compatible with the latest film and, depending on the mount, lenses. But a digital camera (requiring a higher initial investment) is an instant relic permanently wedded to the sensor technology of its day.
It's sometimes hard to remember how recently it was - in living memory for many of us - that trans-oceanic communication (and travel) was still somewhat exotic, unreliable, expensive, and, just a bit, romantic.
"Opportunistic" photos like this aren't really my speciality. It's certainly possible to make good photos with small cameras and no planning (and many great photographers do just that), but I always feel like I'd do so much better with the right equipment and a slower pace.
I don't know why I need to say this, but apparently I do: I'm not "attacking" or "devaluing" anyone's style or approach to photography. In fact, I think I did quite the opposite, acknowledging up front that many great photographers employ different approaches. I'm merely describing how I use the medium. I didn't say it was superior. It's just what works for me. You do you. We're not in competition, and this isn't a debate.
