Strangers web

Strangers web, a photo by tobias s. mann on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The other day I felt the need to go out and shoot some street shots. I shot this with camera hanging around my neck as I pretended to cradle it as I cross the street. The two rather interesting subjects were wither oblivious or completely apathetic to the situation.

Olympus PEN E-P2 F/11 1/1000s ISO 400 17mm F/2.8 M.Zuiko Prime.

Train

Train, a photo by tobias s. mann on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This shot taken out my car window of a train going by our grain dispensors, thankfully it wasn't in the progress of filling any of the cars, but this train did manage to back up traffic for about 6 blocks. So it seemed like a good time to grab my camera out of my bag and snap a few shots.

Olympus PEN E-P2 F/7 1/320s ISO 200 17mm F/2.8 M.zuiko Prime

Country Road

Country Road, a photo by tobias s. mann on Flickr.

HDR image, would like to have your input on the shot and what you think should be changed and where I can find tips for Photomatix Pro 3.2 I can't upgrade to 4 because my Linux system won't run it.

Wind Brushed Prairie

Wind Brushed Prairie, a photo by tobias s. mann on Flickr.

This shot was taken on my last photo trek to the Fertile Sand Hills where I shot these wind blow tuffs of prairie grasses. The shot was taken at 1/200 sec at F/8 ISO 200 on an Olympus PEN E-P2

Traffica

Traffica, a photo by tobias s. mann on Flickr.

This photo was shot accross from our city hall here in Thief River Falls. The exposure time was set to 40seconds at an F/Stop of F/22. The effect of the vehicals moving past over the long exposure allowed for thier headlights to be blured into a stream.

Long Exposure Bridge

Long Exposure Bridge, a photo by tobias s. mann on Flickr.

This shot was taken at F/22 for 10 seconds. The idea was to capture an image with massive DOF in low light. The shot was taken on a tripod at ISO 100.

Nature

Nature, a set on Flickr.

Photo #154 ~ Forklift

Fork lift from my last photo walk.

Photo #153 ~ Pasque Flowers

My last good shot of the pasque flowers as we left the Fertile Sand Hills. This group was the only one to have any color at all. Which bothered me quite a bit. As memory serves I have always found them to be very blue, and yet these are a light purple. Well considering the last time I saw them was in my youth I consider myself lucky.

Photo #152 ~ Pasque Flower #2

Another pasque flower from the Fertile Sand Hills which I captured in detail here. Strangely enough the flowers lacked any color at all. Which is quite abnormal from my understanding the flower.

Photo #151 ~ Pasque Flower #1

The one nice thing to come of our trip to the Fertile Sand Hills was finding the Pasque Flowers were blooming. A very rare sight this far north and this late into this years spring.

Photo #150 ~ Canopy To Be

This shot from the Fertile Sand Hills struck me as odd. The trees had grown so closely together to form what I could only describe as a tight canopy which would not form for at least another month.

Photo #149 ~ Stand Out

Last Thursday we went hiking at the Fertile Sand Hills where we trekked each packing a camera in hand and a bag of treats at our sides we set off down the trail. Once we hit the Oak Savannas, an aptly named portion of the trail, the environment changed abruptly. Going from dense forest yet to come to life into a vast plain of sloping hills, brushed prairie and oak after oak standing dormant. This one struck me as being particularly brilliant and in post I accentuated that fact.

Photo #148 ~ Dispenser Truck

The last shot from my Wednesday photo walk turned out to be the back of some kind of dispenser truck which distributes some agricultural agent. But what I have no idea.

Photo #147 ~ Crows Nest?

On the adjacent building, a large tower stretched upward into the sky supported only by the the wires just visible in this image. Its hard to imagine what it would be like at the top. Harder to imagine was the reason such a tower would be necessary.

Photo #146 ~ Conveyor

After shooting the train I found myself walking towards what I can only assume to be a farm supply outlet. Outside the building I found this conveyor with two clamps resting inside. I felt this created a rather interesting effect and carefully composed the shot to reflect the character of the hap hazard placement of the clamps.

Photo #145 ~ Train

This is the train I wrote about in my last post. I found myself shooting this shot at a rather high ISO for my tastes but I feel that over all it works out fine. When I finally made my way over to it the sun had already dropped just below the horizon so that very little light was made available. Worse because I wanted to maximize detail and depth of feild I had set my camera to F9. Without a tripod to steady the shot I resorted to setting my camera to ISO 640, and hopping there wouldn't be too much noise. In the end only the darkest portions of the image turned out to have to much noise.

 My technique for handling noise is a little unorthodox. I feel that removing the noise is more destructive so instead I add a layer of film grain. This evens out the noise and gives the allusion that it was an intended effect.

Photo #144 ~ Tracks

Last Wednesday I found myself with Shanice driving around near the fair grounds, when we stopped to photograph a train that had stopped on the tracks. I saw the train several days prior and had made the mental note to stop and photograph it during the evening. Once I began walking over to the train I stopped at the tracks realizing that there was more here than I had thought. Crouching down to get the angle right I composed the shot so that the track began in the far corner of my shot and moved outward. In post I edited the shot desaturating it and applying a a curves adjustement to the image in Gimp.

Photo #143 ~ Little White Flowers

The little white flowers that come with roses.

Photo #142 ~ Fan

This shot of an ornate fan decorating my Girlfriends living room. The ornate qualities and the bright colors caught my eye almost immediately. The bright blue being my favorite color, and the most striking color. Carefully angling the shot to place the vertical line of focus such that the vast majority of the fan would land in the plain of focus. So tell me what do you think.

Photo #141 ~ Monster

Finding myself with time to kill while my wonderful girlfriend was indisposed I found myself wandering about camera in hand snapping at anything, just to keep the boredom from catching up to me. I have never been good at being bored and I have always had to find something to do to keep it at bay. Perhaps this is why photography is such an interest to me. Anyway I digress, I was wondering about when I spied Monster sitting atop a large game chest staring out with longing at the big world outside. The world his paws would never touch, for he is a house cat. Looking up at me from his perch, he bent his big head upwards in a plea for freedom. Freedom which I could never give him.

Photo #140 ~ Cockleburs

This shot was taken at the end of our photo trek and I nearly passed it by as I walked. I had been discouraged by the very bright day, which had taken the contrast out of all my shots, and left me with close to nill, but I stopped anyway and composed this hot, which still came out a little strong for my tastes.

Let me know what you think.

Photo #139 ~ Dead Fall

This leaf laying precariously on the forest floor seemed perfectly lit by the light trickling through the branches of the forest canopy. Using a very wide open aperture I attempted to capture the finest details of the leaf.

Photo #138 ~ Rebirth

This shot taken on a photo trek this weekend while hiking with my brother caught my eye as I was looking down to make an adjustment to my camera. The forest floor obscured by the deadfall of years past struck me as being an acceptional subject especially with the moss being so prevalent. Angling the camera carefully I captured this shot, hoping to capture the detail in the dead foliage with the life which lives to destroy the dead.

Photo #137 ~ Moss

Yesterday ended well as I yet again found myself outside and yet again snapping pictures. I have yet to get the hang of my new 17mm pancake (35mm equiv. on Olmypus digital system cameras) as it still strikes me as a purely street photography lens. This shot was taken using that lens at an aperture of F2.8 (widest opening) at close level at a shutter speed of 1/1000 of second and an ISO of 500 using my Olympus PEN E-P2. The shot was then altered for contrast using levels adjustment in gimp and them color was adjusted using the FX-foundry's (a component of gimp) cross processing effect.

I would love to hear your questions and opinions.

Photo #136 ~ Walking

Another shot from the trip to Grand Forks where I slipped behind Shanice as we walked back to our car, and snapped this shot as if it were really a candid. I feel though that I should have perhaps cropped it closer around her figure to accentuate a personal feel. Alas when doing so I found the image less striking. The subtle vignette adds something of a tunneling effect to the image, making it only more interesting.

 

Photo #135 ~ Window Washer

I took this shot on my trip to Grand Forks , ND where I watched as a man cleaned the windows of this building with whom I can only image is his son helping him dry off the cleaning end of the instrument.