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.