Social evening for YOU

Hello yo' all
Good news the Photo club is having a social evening all and friends welcome...It's a Barbque----saturday August 9th 7.30pm- ish at Dorothy and Davids home......
It's a selfcatering job so bring your own booze..bbq stuff and sweets. Sarah has guaranteed sunshine but come anyway if its damp as Davids scouting experiences will come in handy.Jim

Fw: Photography - Raasay House

 

Jim

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Eilidh Grant <admin@raasay-house.co.uk.co.uk>
To: Eilidh Grant <admin@raasay-house.co.uk.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 July, 2008 12:34:38 PM
Subject: Photography - Raasay House

I would like to introduce Raasay House and the Isle of Raasay to you as a unique destination for your photography club.

 

Raasay is a long, thin island, 14 miles long and 4 miles wide and it offers a diversity of landscapes and an almost unequalled, unspoilt beauty. The island of Raasay is a photographer's paradise.

 

Raasay House is surrounded by woodland, set in its own private grounds overlooking the sea, with view across to the Cuillin Mountains on Skye.

 

With in a short walk of the House there are sandy beaches, rocky shore lands, heather covered hills and forests dotted with ruins showing evidence of earlier habitation and an ancient culture. Whether on land, sea or in the air the wildlife is superb. Sea and Golden Eagles nest on and close to the island and the sea bird population is as varied as anywhere on the west coast. Otters, seals, dolphins, porpoises, basking sharks and whales frequent the waters, and red deer roam the higher slopes.

 

The Isle of Raasay has something for every photography enthusiast.

 

Set on the shores of Churchton Bay Raasay House overlooks the Sound of Raasay, and the mountains of Skye. Over 250 years old the Georgian mansion provides a welcoming, warm and comfortable base for any visitor to the Island . Serving delicious home cooked and locally sourced food, the resident's dining room and adjacent restaurant, café & bar cater for all tastes. Comfortable lounges with open fires, a library and spacious accommodation on the upper floors, a unique and wonderful base for your island explorations.

 

For more details on the service Raasay House can provide you and your group, information on the island, availability of dates and prices please don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

 

By boat, bike, car or foot exploring Raasay is a rare and unforgettable treat.

 

e: info@raasay-house.co.uk  p: 01478 660 266 w: www.raasay-house.co.uk

 

External Competition : Inspired by World Heritage Photography Competition 2008

I would like to invite the members of Ripon City Photographic Society to enter the Inspired by World Heritage Photography Competition 2008. As you are perhaps aware the Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey World Heritage Site is on your doorstep, but don’t let this limit your creativity. Your photographs should be based on one or more of the Sites inscribed on the World Heritage List. Ancient, modern, natural and man-made: the World Heritage List is an amazingly diverse register of our planet’s most important places.

You can find out more about our outstanding cultural and natural heritage at www.unesco.org/whc

A selection of images will be displayed at this year’s Saltaire Festival. The competition is sponsored by Jessops, the biggest high street retailer of everything photographic. There are £250 of Jessops vouchers to be won including a £150 first prize!

The closing date for entries is Monday 8^th September. Visit www.visitbradford.com/saltaire-airedale for more details and to download an entry form.

Saltaire became a World Heritage Site in 2001 and is one of only 27 in the UK and our overseas territories. Built between 1853 and 1876 it is one of the best preserved examples of a Victorian mill town. In recent times it has undergone an extensive regeneration as an arts, retail and tourism destination.

Saltaire Festival is fast becoming one of the most important regional arts festivals attracting over 30,000 visitors in the finale weekend. For more information about the festival visit www.saltairefestival.co.uk

The Bradford District offers a wealth of fantastic locations for the enthusiastic photographer if you wish to visit the exhibition and stay with us in Yorkshire . As well as some of the nation’s finest industrial architecture; there are the dramatic surroundings of Ilkley Moor and the picturesque village of Haworth- the home of the Bronte sisters to explore. The North York Moors National Park and Yorkshire Dales are also within easy reach. Find out more at www.visitbradford.com

For further details about the competition contact Craig McHugh , Saltaire World Heritage Site Officer, by calling 01274 435319 or by emailing craig.mchugh@bradford.gov.uk

I look forward to receiving your entries.

Kind Regards

Craig McHugh BA (Hons), MA

Saltaire World Heritage Site Officer

Ripon City Photographic Society Main Page Google Groups

Harassment of photographers in public places?

UK Home Secretary green-lights harassment of photographers in public places

Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary has sent a letter reported on by the British Journal of Photographers stating that the practice of harassing photographers who take pictures in public places is legitimate, though there is no law against it.

'First of all, may I take this opportunity to state that the Government greatly values the importance of the freedom of the press, and as such there is no legal restriction on photography in public places,' Smith writes. 'Also, as you will be aware, there is no presumption of privacy for individuals in a public place.'

However, the Home Secretary adds that local restrictions might be enforced. 'Decisions may be made locally to restrict or monitor photography in reasonable circumstances. That is an operational decision for the officers involved based on the individual circumstances of each situation.

'It is for the local Chief Constable, in the case of your letter the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force, to decide how his or her Officers and employees should best balance the rights to freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the need for public protection.'

Link

Ripon City Photographic Society Main Page Google Groups

Leeds AV Group Website

Leed Audio Visual Group

A-V or Audio-Visual is the name given to presentations where projected pictures and music or words are combined together to tell a story, evoke a mood or explain something. It is an art form that lies between still photography and movie making. For many years it was known as "slide-tape" because people linked projected slides with soundtracks on tape. That tradition continues but in recent years a growing number of people use digital photographs and computers to create their shows, or sequences, as they are known. There is a large community of enthusiasts in Britain with strong links to similar groups in Europe where it is often referred to "Diaporama". Leeds has a long tradition of excellence in this art and we try to keep that alive in our annual Colour & Music Spectacular.. We are a friendly group who meet regularly in Cookridge, why not come and join us.

http://www.leedsavgroup.co.uk/

Ripon City Photographic Society Main Page Google Groups

Bloglines - UK man hassled by cop for not having a "camera license"

Sad state of affairs.......

Misc Pipe Pipes Output

UK man hassled by cop for not having a "camera license" A quick-thinking police officer spotted a 49-year-old man taking photos of Christmas lights and busted him on the spot for not having a camera license. When the photographer failed to produce a license (which would have been a neat trick, since there's no such thing as a camera license in England or any other free nation) the officer kept the world safe from terror by making the man delete all the photos in the camera. "People were still taking photos with mobile phones and pocket cameras, so maybe it was because mine looked like a professional camera with a flash on top," he says. "I wasn't very pleased because I was taken through the crowd and through the barriers at the front and people were probably thinking 'I wonder what he was doing.' "To be pulled out of a crowd is very daunting and I wasn't aware of my rights. "It's a sad state of affairs today if an amateur photographer can't stand in the street taking photographs." Here are Flickr photos of the Christmas lights of Ipswich, every one taken by terrorists no doubt. Link...

Bloglines - Stitch Photos Into Panoramas with Free Software [Feature]

Life GH Com Pipes Output

Stitch Photos Into Panoramas with Free Software [Feature] You can get decent photos out of a standard, consumer-grade digital camera, but a little post-processing can turn them into fantastic wide-angle landscapes. You don't need to be one of those people who can explain the concept of lateral chromatic aberration to get truly eye-catching digital pictures. With a few shutter clicks and some free, cross-platform software, you can easily mesh standard digi-cam shots into true landscapes, fix one photo's deficiencies with another, and create layered photo collages. Let's take a look at how to use the free, open source application Hugin to make two basic kinds of panoramas. What you'll need A digital camera that embeds EXIF data in its pictures (that's basically all of them) A copy of Hugin (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux). If you're on Windows or Linux, you should also grab a copy of the AutoPano tools; Mac OS X users should have AutoPano tools built in. Follow the instructions at the Hugin site to install your copy. What you'll get Here's an example of the kind of photo you'll get from this process. Even though I shot this three-frame scene at Niagara Falls (from the U.S. side) in automatic mode, it still came out pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself. (Click for a larger version.) Now let's get started making your panorama. Shooting for panoramas With Hugin's software, you can blend two side-by-side photos together, or you can cram 138 multi-angle Grand Canyon shots into one mega-vista. Whatever your project, here are some guides and tips on how to shoot to best take advantage of Hugin—and most any panorama-stitching software. Use consistent settings—If possible, change your "white balance" to a manual mode and set it to a plainly white or gray spot; if not, at least change from "auto white-balancing" to an another setting that works. Better still, if you can set exposure to manual, meter it for the brightest or most average spot in the scene. Neither is a requirement, but they'll help your finished product blend more evenly. Choose a center point—Find the feature or area you think would look good in the center and take steady aim, at the same zoom level you'll shoot the rest. It'll help you align your pictures later and ensure you've got space to build on. Shoot overlapping shots in ordered rows—If you're going for a horizontal-only panorama, go left to right, in a steady row, with 20-30 percent of the picture overlapping the last one, then do the same for higher or lower rows. Not only does it help you keep your shots organized, it counters the sometimes fuzzy or unfocused data many consumer cameras get at their exposure edges. First steps: Merge a few pictures We'll start simple, with two, three, or four pictures, shot in horizontal order. Load up Hugin, and you'll notice a series of tabs. Hit the "Load Images" button on the first "Assistant" tab, select your pics, and hit "Open." First-timers might get a prompt asking them to locate an AutoPano program—go ahead and point inside the folder you downloaded, but don't worry if you don't have it. Ignore the "Panorama Preview" that pops up and head for the second tab, "Images." Remember that center image we took? Find it in the list, then hit the "Anchor this image for position" button, and, assuming it's a well-lit shot, "Anchor this image for exposure." Next up is an optional step, for those who know a fair deal about their camera—head to the "Camera & Lens" tab, click on the center image, and fill in what you know about your gear's degrees of view, focal length, color offsets, and other photo-pro stuff. You can save your information here for future panoramas. Once you're done (or lost), let's head to the meaty stuff at the "Control Points" tab. You'll see two panels here, each set (at first) to display the same picture. Click the "1" tab on the right-hand panel, and you'll see your overlapping pictures. If AutoPano launched when you loaded your pics, you'll also see a good number of colored dots on the photo. Those are our "Control Points," spots that appear in both frames that Hugin uses to align and combine them. AutoPano does a decent job sometimes, but it often picks out clouds, cars, blown branches and other moveable objects, which doesn't help anything. For a seamless meld, I wipe out the automatic points (select the first in the list at bottom and jam on the "delete" button on the right) and start fresh. Zoom in on the photos (select "100%" or the like from the "View" menu in the lower-right) and move the sliders so you're looking at mostly overlapping areas. Find stable points that have a lot of contrast, such as building and window corners, road markings and signs—anything you're reasonably sure didn't move from one frame to the next. Repeat this process for each set of side-by-side frames. You only need a minimum of two pairs for each photo, but adding a few more ups Hugin's accuracy. Here's how I pinned the Niagara Falls (Ontario) skyline: Click the "Optimizer" tab and, unless you want to get tweak-y, hitting the "Optimize now!" button, which starts lining up those Control Points and shifting photos around. To see how Hugin did, hit the "Preview Panorama" menubar button, and you'll get a rough look at your creation. (It won't turn out exactly the same, but basically close). If it looks warped and off-base, you can head back and re-pin or add Control Points, move the crosshairs or use the "Center" and "Straighten" buttons in the preview mode to finesse it. Whenever you make any changes, however, head next to the Optimize tab and re-optimize—you can also change optimization settings to see if that nets any benefits. We're almost there, seriously! If the preview looks decent, head finally to the "Stitcher" tab. The "Projection" setting is the heart of Hugin, telling the program how to bend and shape the output. For a few overlapping photos, "Equirectangular" usually provides the fullest view and best blend, but "Rectilnear" seems best when photos are tightly lined up. Hit "Calculate View of Field" next, keep the Quick Stitcher setting to "with custom settings below," and then hit "Calculate Optimal Size." The numbers will be ludicrously big, so knock one of them down to a standard size. Keep the stitching engine on "Nona," and make sure "Image output file" is "TIFF" and that "soft blending" is checked so the Enblend engine can work its stuff. Tell it where to save, and Hugin gets to work. If you're prompted to point to "Enblend," it's located in its own folder right inside Hugin's directory. Hugin will create temporary TIFF files and work your system pretty hard while it runs, which can take anywhere from seconds to a few minutes, depending on your system. If the resulting image file is discolored in spots, it's likely due to camera settings or stark lighting differences, which, with only a few photos, can be fixed only in post-processing. Shooting full panoramas If you followed the basic steps above, shooting and stitching a wider-angle panorama scene is much the same, with a few exceptions: Shooting—If you're covering a wide area and shooting many more snaps, it's important to stay and pivot in one place and focus on keeping a 20-30% overlap. You'll also want to watch for inconsistencies like cars, pedestrians and other scenes that change, unless you're going for a more artistic paste-collage look AutoPano—You'll have to rely on this to create your Control Points, changing them only where you see problems in Preview or want finer control. Of course, you can line up matches for dozens of remarkably-similar pics by hand, but that's up to you. Frame pruning—If you've shot a lot of overlapping pictures and want to get rid of a phantom arm, half-car, or anything else, you can easily remove entire frames and likely not damage the scene. Head to the Preview window, click the numbered buttons to toggle frames on and off, hold the mouse on the button to get the file name, then head back to the "Images" tab and remove the file with the right-hand button. Stitching—Set the "Projection" setting to "Panorama" if you've covered a wide area, horizontal and vertical, or try other settings, like "Fish eye" for that "Paul's Boutique" look. After just a little frame-pulling, and having shot with manually-controlled light, I got a panoramic streetscape (my third attempt) to come out pretty decent (click for larger view): Once you've got the basics down, Hugin has much, much more for you to explore, including tutorials at the home page that show you how to use the app with scanned documents, to create true 360-degree panoramas, and how to get real geeky with the settings. This is the method that worked most consistently for me with different sets of photos. I chose Hugin over previously-posted AutoStitch for its cross-platform nature. But I want to hear how your own tips on how you work Hugin (or similar panorama-making apps) to make big, breathtaking scenes—with image links, naturally. Share your tips, questions and photo pride in the comments. Kevin Purdy, associate editor at Lifehacker, is going to be even more annoyingly shutter-buggy around his friends now. His weekly feature, Open Sourcery, appears every Friday on Lifehacker.