After reading this article at TOP, it just occurred to me that a lot of Ansel Adam's devotee took his advice blindingly. I mean, Ansel was a landscape photographer. And quite a lot of people are using the same method for street photography. Shadow details? Zoning? Oh please!

Lightroom Preset

Ok.. I have some image comparison for the x-equal film presets. The shadow area is deeper and give more contrast for overall image. Some people want to see all the details, but somehow I'm more attracted to the darker, more contrasty scene.

Normal

Kodakchrome 200

Normal

Velvia or Kodachrome.. can't remember

Well.. in other news, Blurb will launch an iPad application to view their photobooks.

River Ouse, York

This is one of the popular pictures from my UK travel. Maybe because it pictures the image of typical European old cities with a river in the middle of it :)

Technology updates

Few things I have discovered while I'm away from blogging.
I just logged into the dashboard, and Blogger.com has announced that they have released iOS Blogger app!!
This means I can write my travel diary from my iPad. Yay!
And the other exciting stuff I have found is film Lightroom preset from X-Equals. I bought both bundle for a special $5. The list price is $9.99. Before I found these presets, my pictures were just dull. Its the best $$ you can spend on LR preset.
Pictures will be coming soon... hopefully. *cross fingers*

The prints are here!

Ok so few days ago the package from DigitalSilverImaging (DSI) arrived at my office. Its a huge package, and I think its a little bit overkill.

I got the 11"x17" fiber based print (bottom right) free of charge, courtesy of Eric Luden, founder of DSI. I was a little bit disappointed. Not that the print is bad or something. Its just that I was expecting something different.
I was expecting something like my cotton paper platinum print from Carl Weese. This print has glossy appearance, which makes them looks closer to RC prints. In fact, I prefer the RC print looks.
Maybe its just my ignorance, but I'm heading to England next week to see the street photography festival (=

 

 

One thing I like about DSI is that the back of their prints are clean. No filename a la Mpix. Even if you are not a professional printer or art collector, the text print is a big no. It makes the print look cheap.

Queen's Cat
Properly framed

My thoughts :

• The adhesive tapes for the packaging are bad.. it can accidentally stick to the prints
• The prints are arguably looks better than Mpix ones, but it might be becauce I post process them differently

Digital Silver Prints

As you already know I'm crazed about BW photography. And the prints of course, as the final result. Some said photography is not complete until you print the result.

I always admire the works of old masters like Cartier-Bresson, Ara Guler and the like, they are timeless.

In the past, if we shoot digital, its rather difficult to make true black and white print. By 'true' I mean the classic silver halides paper which has been used for over a hundred years. And it can last a hundred more. I've tried shooting film, and not too fancy about it. For me, digital offer much more convenience with only little trade off.

Now.. Mpix and DigitalSilverImaging (DSI) are two companies I know that can produce silver prints from digital files. I've tried Mpix before and quite satisfied with the result. However Mpix don't have fiber based paper, unlike DSI. So a few days ago I contacted them through Facebook and it turns out they have 50% discount promotion this month for Resin Coated (RC) paper. Eric is a friendly guy who own DSI, he is very helpful too. So I'm going to order some prints and see how it goes :)

Fairy Chimneys

FYI, if any of you are looking for BW conversion software, DSI is also NikSoftware's resellers. They have the cheapest SilverEfex pricing you can find on the online! If only I found out about their offer earlier!

Addendum : they are TOP's printer for the current print offering, you might want to get one ;)

Of Art.. and Politics and everything in between..

I managed to move my ass for a stroll this morning. I wanted to go to a place where my old office used to be, but then I missed one train station and ended up in marina area.

It was bustling with tourists. One particular shop bring back my memories, I remember back in 2003 when I first came to this country, and just visiting as a tourist, my tour guide brought me to this shop.

 But I don't remember them having a $6.888 wooden statue.