Nutties Online

Tom Ulrich is back in town!

2012-01-27T23:08:00.000-08:00

Tom is in the area once a year to exhibit his incredible photography from his world travels (hence "An Evening of Images"), and to host a workshop. The first is on Thursday, February 9th from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm at the Caylor Auditorium at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at 703 East Beach Drive in Ocean Springs. The cost for this slideshow is free.

The latter is Friday, February 10th from 9:00 am to 1 pm at the Caylor building, room 104. The cost for the workshop is $40, and includes a GCRL T-shirt. Topics covered will be white balance, quality, digital workflow, use of histograms, storage, Adobe Photoshop, manual and automatic settings, rules of composition, and things to consider when purchasing or upgrading a digital camera. Call ahead to make reservations at (228) 818-8847.

Christmas at the Magic Kingdom 2011

2012-01-12T05:25:00.000-08:00

This is a picture looking down main street toward Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. You can also go to the link below and it will take you straight to my Disney gallery on my website to see other photos, Jeff

You need to cut and paste the link below in your address bar.

http://www.jeffimpeyphotography.com/Other/Walt-Disney-World-Christmas/20742357_6vwz7L#!i=1647739327&k=Cc8NSLt

Jared Polin spills the beans on the new Nikon D4

2012-01-10T02:22:00.000-08:00

A few more shots from Disney World

2012-01-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

These are a few more shots from our visit this Christmas. Click on the pictures to see them larger. I'm just learning how to post these so they are not all the same size when you make them larger, Jeff

A photo from the Magic Kingdom at Disney World

2012-01-02T17:51:00.001-08:00

We took our boys and their families to Disney World this Christmas and here is a shot from our trip, Jeff

How to Clean Your Sensor

2011-12-27T23:08:00.001-08:00

Yet Another Coolest Video You'll Ever See

2011-12-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hdr skies from Tanguy Louvigny on Vimeo.

2011-12-23T01:18:00.000-08:00

2011-12-21T00:53:00.000-08:00

New possible coolest video you'll ever see

2011-12-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is not a computer generated simulation of Saturn and its moons. This really IS Saturn and its moons. This video was made from still photos taken by the USA's Cassini spacecraft. It's absolutely stunning, especially when viewed in full screen mode.

My little cuz on Thanksgiving day

2011-11-25T00:03:00.000-08:00

Yet another reason to upgrade to a DSLR

2011-11-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

Possibly the coolest video you'll ever see

2011-11-14T21:57:00.001-08:00

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

2011-11-13T02:54:00.000-08:00

Egrets

2011-11-13T01:25:00.001-08:00

Eagle

2011-11-13T01:23:00.001-08:00

Five Basic Lighting Techniques

2011-11-13T01:13:00.000-08:00

Some Evening and Night Pictures

2011-11-13T00:35:00.000-08:00

2011-11-13T00:33:00.000-08:00

2011-11-13T00:30:00.001-08:00

2011-11-13T00:27:00.000-08:00

2011-11-13T00:21:00.001-08:00

2011-11-13T00:11:00.000-08:00

Experience Human Flight, by Philip Bloom

2011-05-03T16:56:00.001-07:00

Experience Human Flight from Betty Wants In on Vimeo.

Sky, by Philip Bloom

2011-05-03T16:55:00.001-07:00

Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

The Space Needle

2011-05-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

The Space Needle from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Incredible time lapse movie

2011-04-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Eyjafjallajökull, by Sean Stiegemeier

2010-05-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

"The Swap" by Joe McNally

2010-05-27T23:25:00.001-07:00

Creating a very painstaking time lapse scene

2010-04-25T01:00:00.001-07:00

Hey old dog! Here's a new trick!

2010-04-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

The Great Camera Shootout 2010 (video)

2010-03-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

A high quality test of film vs several digital cameras was done by top experts. Very well done, have a look. Best viewed in full screen mode.

Photoshop CS5 is coming, watch this!

2010-03-24T20:52:00.000-07:00

Adobe Photoshop CS5 bill be launched April 12th. Look what it can do!

This blows my mind

2010-03-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Set to 720p and watch The Known Universe in full screen mode. It's amazing!

Amazing new technology called compressed sensing

2010-03-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

I came across a fascinating article on a new field in mathematics called compressed sensing. What it does, in a nutshell, is fill in missing data, and it does so astonishingly well.

It can take a noisy picture and filter away that noise in successive iterations, leaving you with a clear, sharp image. Far beyond what you might think is possible, even using fractal technology.

CS can also take a low resolution image and add resolution. While that statement may be technically inaccurate, to our eyes, that's what it does.

Video of Inklet, which lets you use your mousepad as a tablet

2010-02-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry PC laptop users, this application only works for MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Seals at Play, by George Perina

2010-02-04T23:42:00.002-08:00

Click here to watch this gorgeous slideshow. Set it to 720p, then set it in full screen mode. Great work, George!

Neptune's Garden, by George Perina

2010-02-04T23:36:00.000-08:00

When flying, protect your photography gear with a starter pistol

2010-01-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

A cheap starter pistol qualifies under TSA regulations as a weapon. If you check your bags with one of these included in your baggage, TSA is obliged to take extra care in tracking your baggage. It's explained in more detail here.

Nutties find a new home!

2010-01-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

Finest Grind has welcomed us to their coffee shop, and it looks like it's going to prove to be a popular meeting place. Our first meeting there was a good one, and we welcomed Tim and Suzanne to our group. She's an avid bird photographer, and he's a Photoshop expert. Good things loom ahead.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-12-25T18:34:00.000-08:00

Carol of the Bells - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

How to hold your camera, or "Da Grip", by Joe McNally

2009-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Who's using your photos? Tineye will find out!

2009-10-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

Tineye is to photos as Google is to word searches. Just input an image and Tineye will look across the web for other sites which use that picture. It doesn't even have to be an exact copy.

Open source camera could revolutionize photography

2009-09-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

"Stanford photo scientists are out to reinvent digital photography with the introduction of an open-source digital camera, which will give programmers around the world the chance to create software that will teach cameras new tricks.

If the technology catches on, camera performance will be no longer be limited by the software that comes pre-installed by the manufacturer. Virtually all the features of the Stanford camera – focus, exposure, shutter speed, flash, etc. – are at the command of software that can be created by inspired programmers anywhere. “The premise of the project is to build a camera that is open source,” said computer science professor Marc Levoy."

And now for a little fun - let's put a DSLR into a blender!

2009-09-08T20:33:00.001-07:00

Sony puts out a new cheaper full frame camera

2009-08-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

If you've been yearning for a 24+ megapixel full frame camera, and you can find $2000 in your sofa cushions, then Sony's got the camera for you. It's the new little brother to the Sony A900. The only things you take a ding on are slower burst and a 98% viewfinder.

Canon 5D mirror and shutter in slow motion

2009-07-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Look at that mirror bounce around! This video shows why shooting in Mirror Up mode is a good idea.

Also, once the mirror is up, you can see the gap in the shutter as it moves downward. The leading side of the gap is the first (front) curtain, the trailing side is the second (rear) curtain. The sensor gathers its light as the gap passes over it. This is the exposure. The faster the shot (at a given ISO), the narrower this gap is. For best results, have a lens attached.

Review on Inkjet papers

2009-05-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Imaging Resource reviews Mediastreet's inkjet papers. Worth a look.

1 Hour Video: The Art, Science and Reality of HDR Imaging

2009-04-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

Canon has a new "entry level" camera

2009-03-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

15 megapixels. It can shoot 1080 HD movies. It can go up to ISO 12800. It's the Canon HD Rebel T1i / EOS 500D.

Another way to share pics and other files (Mac only)

2009-02-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

Free RAW Editor For You Lucky Mac Owners

2009-01-12T03:39:00.000-08:00

I came across a thread in dpreview which pointed out that there is a free and very capable RAW editor for Mac users, called RPP (RAW Photo Processor).

Now this is just ridiculous

2009-01-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Coming soon? A 2 terabyte SDXC card? Are they serious?!?

A Beautiful High Def Video Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II

2008-12-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

According to ProPhoto Magazine, this slick looking video short was conceived and shot in 14 straight hours, and edited in 3. Reverie, by Vincent LaForet.

PhotoAnswers, a good new link added

2008-12-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a worthy addition to our already great selection of links, PhotoAnswers. Be sure to check out the video section, there are reviews and tutorials there.

Extract embedded jpeg images from RAW files

2008-12-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

You've probably opened a RAW file and then saved it as a jpeg, or even done this as a batch process. Did you know that jpeg images are already embedded in every RAW file? Yep, it's true. And did you know that there is a free piece of software that you can download to extract those jpegs? Well, you do now. You can read about it here, and you can download it here. I tried it, and it works.

Hitler Rants about the cost of the new Nikon D3x

2008-12-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Interesting shots I came across

2008-12-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6
Pic 7
Pic 8
Pic 9
Pic 10

10 Last Photos

2008-11-15T11:44:00.001-08:00

Interesting.

RED's Camera System is Now Official

2008-11-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

In an earlier post, I posted a link to information on a new high end camera system by RED. Well, the system is now official!

Esoteric article on Noise, Dynamic Range and Bit Depth

2008-11-09T13:41:00.000-08:00

Here is a good article for the freakishly intelligent. In it, you'll find everything you'd ever want to know about noise, dynamic range, and bit depth, complete with bewildering charts and inscrutable diagrams. Here's hoping one of us will be able to absorb and digest this, and be willing to regurgitate it in an understandable form for us at a future meeting.

BBC Series "The Genius of Photography"

2008-10-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

Warning: some of these contain pictorial nudity.

Program 1
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 2
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Program 3
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 4
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 5
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 6
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

GIMP's Big Improvement

2008-10-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

I tried out GIMP many years ago, but the one thing that kept me from sticking with it was its 8 bit limitation. Well, that limitation is no more. GIMP's latest version (2.6) has a major improvement in that department. It now has something called GEGL, which processes the images in 32 bits.

Excerpt link

"Important progress towards high bit-depth and non-destructive editing in GIMP has been made. Most color operations in GIMP are now ported to the powerful graph based image processing framework GEGL, meaning that the internal processing is being done in 32bit floating point linear light RGBA. By default the legacy 8 bit code paths are still used, but a curious user can turn on the use of GEGL for the color operations with Colors / Use GEGL."

The good news: it's a free download.
The bad news: as of 9-5-08, there is no ver. 2.6 for Windows or Mac. At this point, it's Linux only.

No Sherpa Included

2008-09-21T20:51:00.001-07:00

In keeping with my (thus far) tendency to have very practical links and very impractical posts, here's a nice video of a lens you may never see, much less buy - Sigma's 200-500mm f/2.8 telephoto, also known as "Sigzilla".

New technique uses flash to create 3D shots

2008-08-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Now you can use your flash to create 3d modeled images. This new technique is as effective as an older more tedious method using laser scanners. The basic idea is to take two shots - one with flash, the other without. Read about it here.

New super video camera called "The Red One"

2008-08-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

Below is a link to an incredibly high resolution video clip shot by a new 120 frames-per-second (at least) super video camera called "The Red One", developed by billionaire Jim Jannard. According to the article, the camera's resolution matches film! Its sensor is 4096 x 2304 pixels, which I calculated to be 9.2 megapixels.

Click here to see this incredible video. Keep in mind that his videos are 5 to 6 times the resolution that your monitor is capable of displaying. The small window you're seeing it in is not doing it justice.

It's currently available for the low, low price of $17,000. I'm getting a couple - one to keep and the other as a door prize for the next meeting.

Real photographers do this

2008-07-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

If you're truly dedicated to the art of photography, sooner or later you'll find yourself doing this.

You gotta read this!

2008-06-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today I learned two bits of news about Firefox, both having to do with viewing pictures.

First, I learned from Judy Howle that there is a Firefox plugin called Piclens. It lets you view images and video fullscreen, you can scroll and choose among them in "3D" (not really). The video shows what it can do.

(Thanks also to Judy for pointing out the Katrin Eismann chapter on printing, now in the links.)

The other thing is that Firefox 3 (not previous versions) can now let you view images with richer color. This is done by installing a plugin (and a tweak) that gives Firefox control over color profiles. This article explains how it's done.

Together, these two things add up to nothing less than the dawn of a new age. Your life will be changed forever. You'll always be in a good mood. Food will taste better. And you might even create an online gallery.

Convert a Canon point & shoot into a super camera

2008-05-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

"If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware."

Read the full article here.

Using Adobe Camera RAW (ACR)

2008-05-03T05:33:00.001-07:00

Photoscape

2008-05-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

I just added this to the list of links. Here is a description from PC World.

"Photoscape includes everything from a file viewer to a photo editor, slide show creator, batch editor, screen capture program, and more.

Here's yet one more remarkable free piece of software that any self-respecting digital photographer needs on his or her hard disk. There's no possible way to begin to describe the wide range of tools and features this one has--there's everything from a file viewer to a photo editor, slide show creator, batch editor, screen capture program, and more. There are some quite original and innovative tools here, such as combining multiple photos in a single frame. There's also a small, but extremely useful tool--it will take photos that are in the RAW format used by many digital cameras, and convert them to JPG, so that they're more useful.

Even though this program is free, by the way, the creator will take donations if you find Photoscape useful. Pay via Paypal. Given the quality of this software, if you keep using it, consider making a donation."

Strobist Preliminaries

2008-04-17T03:47:00.000-07:00

Free software to stitch photos into panoramas

2008-04-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here is some free panorama software, for those of you who are into that.

The first is called Hugin. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

And here's another, called Autostitch, which is a demo version that expires, but there are 3 commercial versions available.

A Free e-book: Lightroom tips

2008-03-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Joe Barrett at dpreview pointed out that there is a free Lightroom tips book, available here.

Photoshop Express (Web based editing)

2008-03-28T09:19:00.001-07:00

Last night at the meeting I mentioned that Adobe has a new online photo editing application, called Photoshop Express. I said I was concerned about item 8 in their terms and conditions, and it looks like a lot of other people were up in arms about it too. The situation is still developing.

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/03/a_note_about_ps.html

Thanks George Perina, and South Mississippi Living Magazine!

2008-01-10T14:08:00.001-08:00

Thank you George Perina, and South Mississippi Living magazine, for the article featuring the Nutties in the January 2008 issue of South Mississippi magazine. We are indebted to you. Seven of us had photos published: Rhonda Clark, William Lee, Randy Bynon, Tony Anselmo, Gary Cook, Terri Wescovich, and John Rhodes. Congratulations to you all!

Here is the link to the issue, the article about our group starts on page 94.

I'll add a link to South Mississippi Living to the list of links.

Rick Sammon Discusses RAW

2007-12-02T14:41:00.001-08:00

Basics: Depth of Field Tutorial

2007-12-02T14:27:00.001-08:00

The Japanese learn early (thanks Terri)

2007-11-29T14:12:00.000-08:00

See better colors with the Safari browser

2007-11-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

I am replacing a long winded essay about how well different browsers render colors. To get right to the point: the Safari browser can render images using the Adobe aRGB color space, there are no other browsers that currently do - the others are limited to sRBG, which is a more limited color space. This is as of November 2007. It is hoped that the next versions of Firefox and Opera will, but for now, Safari is it.

Download it for free here.

2007-09-23T17:44:00.001-07:00

2007-09-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

2007-09-14T00:30:00.001-07:00

A new kind of photo format

2007-08-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, but I thought this was newsworthy. They've engineered a new photography format called HD Photo / JPEG XR, and it looks like it's getting some serious consideration to be approved as the successor to the good old jpg / jpeg format. Technically, it looks great. Microsoft has spent a lot of time and money developing this, so it only makes sense that they have a plan to make their money back somehow. Fine by me if they're doing something like creating additional software which will work with this new format, but I want the format itself to be open and have no restrictions or conditions whatsoever. If so, then I'd be all for it. I'd be happy to see this new format embedded in all cameras in the future.

But if there is a catch, such as you must have the Windows operating system to view & edit these, or Microsoft software (for a price) has to be embedded into cameras to take these type of photos, then I'm certainly against it. I don't want photography going the way of betamax & VHS, or Blu-ray & HD. The article does say that Microsoft "will offer a royalty free grant for its patents", but what exactly does that mean? Is there some wiggle room for some wouldn't-you-know-it conditions? I don't know. But I'll be interested to see how this works out.

Nutties Go Online

2007-07-29T21:46:00.000-07:00

July 29, 2007: Now we Nutties have our own blog, for posting pictures, learning, and whatever else we feel like.

This blog is currently set to be viewable by the general public. At a future meeting, we can discuss how this blog could be changed for the better.

Hereby ends my first post.