Just like an image stabilised lens, chickens heads remain incredibly stable while the body moves.
Image Stabilised… Chicken?
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Category Archives: Photography
Barnsley Landscape Panorama
Only just got round to posting these two panoramas taken from the very top of the Gateway Plaza off Summer Lane. The panoramas were created using as many as seven photos each, painstakingly invisibly stitched together, and as a result are a massive 9957×2996 and 8896×3230 pixels respectively.
Licensing and prints are available at fair prices – contact eddie@teamtownend.com for details. Why aren’t I CC licensing these panoramas like I always do my photography? I thought these, being of a specific time and place, may be of real value to the right person. And I can’t just give stuff away all the time.
Photos are also on flickr.com: North and South
Barnsley North
Barnsley South
eBay time!
Selling my faulty Macbook Pro now I’ve replaced it with a Sony VAIO Z. Here’s the lowdown in case you fancy getting it repaired for yourself:
At the time of writing the laptop will not boot, but instead the fans spin with no display output. I understand the issue to be the solder on the graphics processor that has failed, a company named Retronix in Scotland offered to repair it for around £80, but I don’t have time to wait for it, I need a laptop for work! The RAM has been upgraded from the standard 2GB to 4GB of 800MHZ Kingston memory.
Good points:
- Casing is in excellent condition for the two years of use, no dints, other than some very minor scuffs it’s perfect!
- Upgraded to 4GB RAM, it flies at Photoshop or pretty much anything!
- Battery was replaced just under 9 months ago, still offers the expected 5 hours of battery life
- This was the multi-touch model of the MacBook Pro, the last one made before the switch to the new unibody style
- I chose the LED backlit matte screen option, so it’s perfect for photo editing
- Just the one owner, me, who’s been very careful with the laptop, and it’s very rarely left the (non-smoking) house
- Comes in original box with power supply, install CDs and the original DVI-VGA adapter in unused condition
Known problems:
- You need to have a folded post-it note just under the battery, otherwise the keyboard can stop working occasionally. It’s not a big problem, just something to remember to replace should you remove the battery (this is a very common issue)
- There’s a tiny slightly lighter spot in the bottom corner of the screen, not really noticeable, but worth pointing out
- For a while now the fans have seemed to run a little faster than usual, this is probably because of the dodgy GPU solder
- Of course, the fact that it doesn’t always turn on! Though of course Retronix are offering to fix this, I can put the winning bidder in touch with them.
Please see here for the list of specs:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2.4-15-early-2008-penryn-specs.html
UPDATE: The MacBook has sold for £410.
Also selling a Sigma 18 – 200 mm lens, Canon fit:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260600018137
Panorama!
Thought I’d have a play with Autodesk Stitcher, so I grabbed some photos from a recent trip to Leeds of the Corn Exchange and gave it a go. Considering I shot the panorama by hand without a tripod the images have stitched up remarkably well – though I didn’t keep very level so there’s a weird gap in the middle. I tried to disguise or rather play on the odd shape by stencilling the edges in Photoshop. The image is on Flickr – but I uploaded it here full res (8568×5976) for you to have a closer look!
My Portfolio!
Edward Townend's Portfolio
Couldn’t help thinking my portfolio is a bit hard to find on this new blog, so I decided I needed a post to highlight it. You can see a selection work I did in my Graphic Design course at College and in my Freelance career so far at www.teamtownend.com/portfolio
My 10,000th Photo
Note the file number!
So it’s the 10,000th photo taken with my Canon 400D, I thought it deserved some sort of commemoration. I know that’s not such a crazy huge number considering I’ve had the camera three years, but hey I was half expecting something really exciting to happen since 9,999 is all the counter goes up to, but all it did was create a new folder and prefix (101) and start again from zero.
The photo? Taken in Sainsbury’s car park, Chester. The automatic white balance doesn’t work with streetlamps it seems from the histogram. I liked how the trolleys started off in regimented rowns then gave way to disruption. I’ll upload it or one of the others soon if they’re any good.
Incidentally this is the first post written, photo added and published using the WordPress Android app on my T-Mobile G1. It seems okay, bit of a clunky interface and not sure if it’ll scale the image but usable none the less.
Photo in Detail: Ladybird 1
Ladybird 1 (IMG_9728)
I thought it might be a fun idea every once in a while to take a photo from my flickr photostream, and describe in a bit more detail how I got the photo. Today we’ll look at ‘Ladybird 1′.
This ladybird popped out of a lettuce, and I just had to shoot it. The lens was actually a Canon EF 18-55 mounted backwards to make a macro lens; a clever trick I found on the internet. It works very well, although of course with no autofocus you’re left swinging your head back and forth like a pigeon. The backdrop you see is actually our kitchen worktop, with natural lighting from the left supplimented with a plain paper reflector on the right and another sheet bouncing the camera’s flash from above. I love how the head on angle makes something normally thought of as cute and adorable frankly terrifying. Somehow this photo got quite a bit darker in the transition from Lightroom to Flickr, which is why it looks a little underexposed here.
Edward Townend’s Photography goes Creative Commons!
Actually, it’s been Creative Commons licensed for quite a while now but I thought I deserved some hyperbole.
Pigeon on roof (IMG_9025)
Under this license you may copy, distribute and display my photographs, and also edit or change them to make derivative versions, providing you give me credit for my part. I love the concept that I can trip over my photos in all sorts of places. That’s why I ask whenever someone used my photos that they email me.
You can find my photos for download at my Flickr photostream, or I offer higher resolutions upon request