Corrupt CF Card In Nikon Coolpix 5400

Corrupt CF Card

This is an image made recently, shot with my Nikon Coolpix 5400 digital camera. No end of photoshop can fix this

I was not very happy when I saw this as the camera is a mere 2 years old. Several shots later it was obvious that it was a problem that was not going away, by turning the camera on and off or changing, program settings!

I got home and put the camera aside and left it, for a while. Laying in bed on Sunday morning, the only thing I could attribute this issue to was, my having taken the card out on Friday night. So I tried a different card, same thing?

I also put in a fresh battery, still no luck.

So after downloading the images, to my hard drive to preserve them for prosperity, I decide I would re-format the CF card in the camera.

Well whaddya know, all was working again?

If I had encountered issues like this with a camera like my Hasselblad, I could have most likely looked at the camera itself and perhaps, trouble shot the issue and if worst came to worst send it off to somewhere like the camera clinic to have it repaired.

But what of today's digital cameras?

I know several people who just sell on their older cameras as second hand cameras and plough on ahead with the new camera, adding a sense of disposability to the whole issue at hand that isn't applied to analogue hardware. Even so if they did break down, would people pay for the work done? I know I was beginning to think about buying a new camera, such is our throwaway society that we live in?

Technorati tags:- Nikon, corrupt, CF_card, Photoshop

More Minimalism...

Normal transmission has now resumed

Again from the set ‘more or less…’

Hippy Mumbo Jumbo

Something compleltey unrelated to photography today.

Hippy Mumbo Jumbo.

So it's the number 5 eh?

Your Life Path Number is 5

Your purpose in life is to life freely and collect experiences. You love life - new adventures, new people, new ideas. You are very curious, and you crave novelty in all forms. You tend to make friends easily, and you enjoy the company of all types of people. In love, you are fun and even a bit intoxicating. But you won't stick around for long. You are impulsive and spontaneous - which sometimes leads you to do things you regret. Sometimes you can be overindulgent with food, sex, or drugs. You have many talents, so many that you are often scattered and unfocused.

What Is Your Life Path Number?

More....

More from the new set

This set has come about after some time has been spent, looking at surfaces and thinking about surfaces, this set may have only come about because of digital photography, as only digital allows me experiment in ways that film could not. Combined with tools like iViewMedia Pro and Photoshop, and a workflow that encourages less speed and more contemplation, I think the results speak for themselves.

Minimalism

It's been a while but a new set has crept into my overall sets.

Flickr Tools & Toys

Nice little tool, from flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/, can't believe I have 590 contacts!

Apparently, it refreshes on the hour?

Cameras Are Weapons Of Mass Destruction!

So the irony of it all is laughable... I mean really?

Let me start at the beginning.

It was a glorious winter Friday, barb, thomask, and myself had hooked up for a day of wandering about in the industrial wastelands of Melbourne, we started in the rail yards around Nth. Melbourne rail station. Got a grab or two of some interesting stuff, then got a bit spooked by some weird coincidence whereby several trains all stopped at once in odd places either side of us, we were up high on a bridge looking down over the yards, and moved on to other quieter areas. We made our way to the river under the Bolte bridge eventually, and turned around and headed back to the station, my car was parked there because earlier I had nipped into Vanbar's for some film for the day.

By this point I had shot a lot of film and a few digital photos[more photoshop work]. We next headed to Williamstown for lunch, oh and did I tell you the weather was awesome!

After Lunch we headed to an area that had originally housed a glass factory owned and run by ICI. The factory was in the process of being dismantled and we found an open gate, we had hit pay dirt! So we tentatively wandered in and started snapping away, Tom being the bravest was poking around in all sorts of nooks and crannies and no doubt got the most and probably the best shots. Finally it all came to an end, as we could hear workers elsewhere in the building working and given the current paranoia about cameras, we decided quit while we were ahead.

We meandered off into the back streets around the factory and found some refineries storage areas that were also interesting, with lots of dichotomies between old and new and shiny and dull, a real feat for the lens indeed. After wandering along for a few hundred metres or so and seeing and no doubt being seen by numerous Caltex employees going about their business, we turned a corner and kept walking. Shortly after turning the corner a vehicle approached and slowed, the driver stopped and wound down his window.
"What are you doing?" Was the question in barely concealed tones of contempt. I replied;
"We're just doing an assignment for school"
In my cheeriest non-threatening voice, as he rolled away.

Sadly this was not enough, he came back and told us that security was on it's way to "check us out", in an even sterner tone. We smiled and kept wandering along the public road we were on, engrossed in the plethora of machines, pipes and tanks that surrounded us on this glorious winter's day with a blue blue sky, and not a cloud in sight.

The security never materialised, but we all were able to get some great urban landscapes and some very interesting compositions from our wander along, Ramsay St and Burleigh Sts Spotswood, amongst the Petro-Chemical refineries, but shush don't tell anyone, coz there is a heightened sense of security you realise and cameras are weapons of mass destruction!

Technorati tags:-photography, terrorism, caltex, photoshop

The furore over the photography ban issue at Southbank even made boing boing.

100k

So Saturday evening, I reached 100k views.

FWIW

Protestor's Southbank Photos

The Age have published some photographs from Southbank following this weekend's successful rally regarding the no photography policy

And they have published an article about the issues of photography in public places

Southgate Photographers gathering

South-Gate are busily trying to defuse the situation now, where earlier in the week they banned photography in the building, pffft. Also there are planned meet-ups of large groups of photographers happening today [Saturday the 29th] in the city at various start times, I'm sure flickr will be flooded with imagery over the coming days from the whole event! Even the ACMP has gotten involved

It seems like whoever made the initial statement may regret ever having made it, mwahahahaha!

Learning Photography Online?

The teacher in me often wonders about online learning here's an example that comes close, it's an introduction to the Canon 300/350d and a general introduction to digital photography, on the surface a little simplistic, but probably more engaging than actually reading a manual.

The image on page 8 section 10 which is the section that looks at factors affecting sharpness has some flare in in the top right corner, probably because the photographer didn't buy the most important and cheapest of accessories, a lens hood. I also disagree with the low contrast versus high contrast lighting situations argument. A good lens produces a sharp image regardless of lighting [assuming you expose correctly and have the camera on a high enough shutter speed to avoid camera shake].

To quote on of my mentors and friends,

The photographic process looks after itself when its natural inheritance is honoured. It can not understand any other way of working. But when what is passed on represents a loss, the process collapses.^†

^†Les Walkling

In essence every part of the process has the capability to multiply errors made to the point where the image loses all meaning and coherence. So buy a lens hood, use a tripod if you expect to work in light conditions and small apertures that require a shutter speed lower than the focal length of your lens. For example, my Hasselblad has an 80mm lens, I never handhold under 1/125, [the next shutter speed is 1/60 lower then 80] of a second, when using a 35mm camera if I had a zoom on it, that went from 80-200, the lowest handheld shutter speed I could use would be 1/250th.

Ultimately though it comes down to your own expectations and appreciation of what constitutes a sharp photo and what is more important to you. Look at the masters, look long hard and often, however, never forget to let go in a Zen kind of way, and free you mind up while working.

Technorati tags:- online, photography, course

Corporate Terrorism II

The furore over photographing in Southbank continues!

And so it should!

Technorati tags:- terrorism, photography, freedom

Urban Landscape II

Today's image a pair with yesterdays is getting as much attention as the one I uploaded yesterday? Maybe it has to do with the geo-tagging that I'm now applying to my images?

Urban Landscape

Normally I would expect an image on flickr to get 100 views after at least 3 or 4 weeks, this image purely based on its title [I am surmising] has received over 100 in less than 12 hours. Sigh, it's kinda sad really.

Geotagging

I have discovered a great tool that allows you to precisely pinpoint the location of any shot taken and add the geographical co-ordinates to it. This shot is of the up-ramp to the rooftop car-park of Footscray shopping centre, a 2005 image that resurfaced thanks to iView Media Pro3. I've also used iView Media Pro3 to confirm the date I made an image as recently as two weeks ago. It's funny how our memories are never that as sharp as we'd like to think they are.

Meanwhile over at the Melbourne Flickr group, outrage at Southbank's recent decision to ban photography inside the complex has prompted some action by some of the group.

While I wholeheartedly agree amateurs and artists alike you should have free reign to photograph whatever and whenever they like, however, it still boils down to the place being private property and the owners have the right to ask that no photography occurs there. I mean really, there are some interesting architectural details there and there is always lots of life and colour, but is it really going to dampen Melbourne's cultural life or creative energy, I think not. Personally, Southbank is rarely a place I would go out of my way to visit, just to photograph, I'm more inclined usually to pull out my camera because I'm there and "happen" to see something I like, and these days that's pretty rare.

This issue even made the mainstream news, and little Johnny even had two words to say about it. From where I sit it's really all about shopkeepers thinking that their displays are somehow worthy of protection, or if you photograph them you are stealing ideas or using the photographs to somehow undermine their sales, meh whatevah!

Update

Now the Age has weighed into the argument

Corporate Terrorism?

More tom foolery from corporations over photography in public places! Taken from the Herald Sun. Reproduced here for educational purposes.

TERRORISM fears have seen happy snaps banned at a site popular with tourists. Southgate management has posted "no camera" signs.

The signs are around the Yarra River retail and dining centre.

The edict follows an incident in which tourists were seen photographing "obscure" parts of buildings and were asked to delete the photos from their cameras.

They refused, and security called police to insist.

"We've had a couple of incidents of tourists taking photos of obscure things, and they were approached by security and asked to stop taking photos," Southgate property manager Kathy Barrance said.

"It was just the facades of buildings, things that would be of no interest to put in a photo album."

The new signs banning cameras state that "Southgate thanks you for not taking photos within the complex unless approved by management".

Ms Barrance said anyone found taking unauthorised photographs would be told to stop by roaming security guards.

"It's policy around Southgate for security to ask people not to photograph," she said.

Exceptions will be made for photos of such things as the Ophelia sculpture at the main entrance. "On the (Yarra) promenade, it's fine, or if it's of Ophelia," Ms Barrance said.

Asked if the restrictions were designed to deter terrorists from conducting reconnaissance, Ms Barrance said, "Yes, that type of thing."

Victoria Police told the Herald Sun it was unlikely any police officers would order the removal of images from a camera under such circumstances.

"I've checked with our privacy people and they said there's no law against taking photos," a spokeswoman said.

Southgate workers were stunned at the restrictions.

"I think it's stupid," Oras Charcoal Souvlaki Bar employee John Tsarpalas said.

"There's got to be better ways than that."

One shop owner who did not wish to be named, questioned whether there were any vital targets in the complex.

''It's a bit much. I know they are trying to protect us, but it's just a food court," she said

The shot above I took down there, so does this make me a terrorist?

Update

Tourist photo ban over the top: PM
From: AAP
July 25, 2006

PRIME Minister John Howard has described a move to ban cameras from a popular Melbourne tourist precinct amid terrorism fears as "over the top".

Southgate management has erected "no camera" signs around the Yarra River retail and dining centre after security guards tried to force tourists to delete photos taken of "obscure" parts of buildings. The police were called when they refused.

Mr Howard said he did not think the terrorist threat in Australia warranted such a move.

"I think that is over the top," Mr Howard told ABC Radio.

"Everybody's got a camera now. Does that mean a mobile phone camera?

"I don't think the terrorist threat in this country warrants that. I really don't. "I don't know who did this and I don't wish to offend them, and I'm sure they mean well, but I do think that is going too far."

Southgate management said exceptions would only be made for photographs of things such as the Ophelia sculpture on the Yarra promenade.

"We've had a couple of incidents of tourists taking photos of obscure things and they were approached by security and asked to stop taking photos," the Herald Sun quoted Southgate property manager Kathy Barrance as saying.

"It was just the facades of buildings, things that would be of no interest to put in a photo album

.

Digital Assest Management

So I recently lashed out and bought this software to get on top of my burgeoning collection of digital camera files.

There several on the market some of which are free, I chose this one because of it's speed and agility, as Lightroom is far too slow on my humble machine and the 'word' out there in cyberspace is that Aperture is a hefty beast also.

Another reason I bought iView Media Pro 3 is because unlike it's free counterpart it reads Raw files as well. Which was perfect because I found a 'missing file' after wondering about it and looking on what seemed very disk it turned up as a raw file on a disk from early 2005

Here is the shot re-edited and re-loaded into my flickr stream.

When I first signed up way back in late 2004, I was using the then free account, which had limitations in terms of bandwidth usage. In an effort to maximise my throughput I kept images to a fairly small size. Nearly two years later I wanted to find it and re-load it at a higher size, as well as consider it for an exhibition piece, one day, and it took a cataloguing session spanning several days and god knows how many CD roms to find it.

So far iView Media Pro is looking real sharp for me!

All thanks to flickr

Technorati tags:-iViewMediaPro3, DAM, archiving, digitalfiles

Digital Fine Art Portfolio Workshop

I am very fortunate to work with a talented artist and musician, by the name of Andrew. He also works at the VCA, Victorian College of the Arts, in St.Kilda Rd. VCA have just begun running short courses in digital and photography. Given his knowledge and passion these short course/s will be value for money.

The course that Andrew will be running is called, 'Digital Fine Art Portfolio Workshop', costs $550.00 and runs for 2 days, Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd of September 2006 from 10:00 to 4:00 both days.

This two-day workshop is devoted to the production of a fine art portfolio that expresses your personal photographic and/or artistic vision. With the advice of experts you will learn how aesthetic concept, image selection and even choice of paper, can define the narrative of the portfolio. Film scanning and image editing in Photoshop will revolve around implementation of a sound color-managed workflow. Printmaking options, including the use of monochromatic or color ink sets, RIPs, printer linearization and profiling tools will be explored. Documentation of editions, preparation of an artist statement and effective use of promotional materials to reinforce the portfolio will be discussed.

Contact the VCA for more info

You Call That A Knife?

Excuse me while I get all philosophical.

Poetic logic is the sensuous apprehension of what we
do not yet understand in the presence of reality.

Poetic logic had to invent art to understand nature
as the positional growth of structure
within the matrix that is life.

We are the ones who put life into stones and pebbles.
When feeling is lucid, structure is art.^*

^* Frederick Sommer
THE POETIC LOGIC OF ART AND AESTHETICS in collaboration with Stephen Aldrich 1972

Ok absorbed that, now watch this slide show