bioneural.net » iotw

IOTW: Reclining nude

Bruce — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 08:50:26 +0000

This shot was taken at Dune 45 in the Namib desert, where the heat can play tricks with your mind. Click thumbnail to enlarge image Reclining nude, Namib desert Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Frosty morning

Bruce — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:53:30 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

While we anticipate warmer weather here in New Zealand, England is preparing for winter's bite. This picture was taken in late November last year during an early morning walk through the Chatsworth Estate in the Peak District of Derbyshire. The Peak District is a great place to bear witness to the change of seasons. But this year the run-up to Christmas will be decidedly different. Will our eyes miss driving to and from work with headlamps on? Will our ears miss waking to the sound of ice being scraped from windshields? Will our toes miss the feel of having no feeling? Somehow I don't think so. Click thumbnail to enlarge image Late autumn frost, Chatsworth Estate Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Tui

Bruce — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 19:17:26 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

The tui is a New Zealand native bird with a distinctive white throat tuft and song (it's also a local beer). It can be readily seen and heard in Wellington's Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, where the population has increased owing to the exclusion of predators. It can be difficult to get a decent photograph of these birds as they feed on fruit, nectar, and insects up in the trees. They ordinarily seem skittish, dashing away at altitude with a whirring noise resulting from a notch in the wing feathers. I shot around 75 images of tui before I had the sheer luck to be near a low stand of flax as a pair landed to feed. Look at the load of pollen he has on his beak! Click thumbnail to enlarge image Tui Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Leaders wear silk jackets

Bruce — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:36:48 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

What do Vladimir Putin, George Bush, and Helen Clark all have in common? Answer: they have all been subject to Photoshop treatment and hang on the wall at Silk Factory No. 1 in China's industrial city of Suzhou. But why is New Zealand's Prime Minister hung between the presumably more influential leaders of Russia and the USA? How many people passing through the factory shop even know who she is? Apparently Clark is an "old friend" of the Chinese President, having been a strong supporter of China's entry into the WTO. Click thumbnail to enlarge image World leaders in doctored jackets, Suzhou, China Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: The World visits Wellington

Bruce — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 19:13:11 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

It's not often that you can view The World from the quayside. The World is a floating apartment block for the mobile super-rich, and made port in Wellington on October 18. The 165 "ocean residences" (apartments, studio apartments, and studios) can be purchased or rented for serious money, accommodating 150 to 200 individuals within the 12 decks and almost 200m length. A closed community, resident-owners buy into luxury, lifestyle, security, the company of like-funded people, and the attention of 250 servants crew members during a continuous worldwide itinerary. Click thumbnail to enlarge image The World docked at Wellington Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Imitation v inspiration

Bruce — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:12:55 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Sometimes it surely happens by chance that two logos are as alike as peas in a pod. At other times (and I've seen several examples on the 'net) it is equally clear that there is something more than chance at work. During our recent trip to China we noted a few shop logos that looked remarkably familiar, despite a zero probability that we had encountered the shop displaying it before. An imitation is intended to copy or at least closely simulate a design. It is the antithesis of design by inspiration, which implies a certain measure of creativity, innovation and imagination—without stretching all the way to originality and inventiveness. Inspiration is a valuable artistic tool for those suffering from a depletion of vision, but can readily be taken too far. Here is a shop logo that may have been conceived due to lack of inventiveness, sheer laziness, or maybe the constraints of time or budget. But I suspect it may have been re-engineered from a famous logo for reasons of brand association. It makes good marketing sense: a vaguely familiar or trustworthy logo may draw in customers otherwise confused by the visual cacophony of a busy street. You decide: imitation or inspiration? Would the real logo please stand up? Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Bad light, good photo

Bruce — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 06:00:31 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

One situation universal to all photographers (except maybe the mobile phone snappers) is a questioning glance at the sky asking "Is there enough light?" Even in bad or failing light it may worth pushing the trigger. I recall being fairly sure this lake shot on a cloudy and damp evening wasn't going to come out (Lake MacKenzie on the Routeburn). Since I shoot raw there was enough detail there to do some highlight recovery by processing the raw image twice (at different exposure settings, then blending the images). This resulted in an image that I feel captures the stillness yet moodiness of the scene. If in doubt, click. You never know—you might be pleasantly surprised! Click thumbnail to enlarge image Lake MacKenzie in failing light, NZ Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Scratches in the sky

Bruce — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 06:00:56 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Contrails. Do they ruin photos or enhance them? White Edge in the Peak District is close to the flight path for Manchester, so it's usual to see these scratches in the Blue (it's not usual to see the Blue, but don't get me started on English weather). I'm not sure that they're pretty, and there are environmental implications, but they do set me wondering. Wondering about where the people on board have been. Wondering where they are going. Wondering how many weeks until my next holiday... In this image I think the contrails add interest and declare "open skies" in response to the open landscape below. Click thumbnail to enlarge image White Edge, Derbyshire Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Angkor Wat condensed

Bruce — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:00:40 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Cambodia wasn't the first humid climate where I'd forgotten about the prospect of condensation on the lens. Although condensation itself can be very beautiful, it's not something you ordinarily wish for when capturing that once-in-a-lifetime photo. It can happen when your camera is initially cooler (e.g inside a case that has been kept in an air-conditioned room/ bus) than the warm and humid outside air, such that water condenses out of the air to "fog" your lens. It typically dissipates quickly once the camera has had some time in the outside air, and the only way to counter it is to acclimatize the lens before you intend to use it. That said, condensation need not be a complete disaster. In this shot it gives the temple a surreal look, replicating the "soft focus" appearance you might tease out of a Photoshop filter (or with Vaseline on the lens if you're old-school). Click thumbnail to enlarge image Angkor Wat at dawn, Cambodia Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

IOTW: Wadi Rum panorama

Bruce — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:00:09 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Sometimes a landscape is just so vast that even a wide-angle lens can't do it justice: you need to make a panorama. This one is stitched together in Photoshop from three separate 6 MP images. The shots were taken handheld from the roof of a Landcruiser, using the "overlap by a third" rule I picked up somewhere (I'd have preferred a tripod to make this easier). Knowing that differing exposures can make blending the images tricky, I returned to the same target area on the left and locked focus and exposure before re-composing for the middle and right-hand images. Click thumbnail to enlarge image Wadi Rum panorama, Jordan Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.