Some random recent photos

[HorsePunchKid]

I was about to make a sarcastic and negative comment in another thread, and decided I might as well just post some photos instead. I've been lazy about updating my galleries lately, but here are some of the more recent additions.

Happy to answer any questions about any of them, if anyone's curious. The grainy, weird ones are from a game design project, the cars from a recent autocross, and the sciency ones from a lab in the building I work at.

 

[mpcamer1220]

cool fire

 

[StickY]

sorry for the newbieness but

to photograph a car moving like that with the background out of focus/blurry and the car or object clean and clear you have to follow the object with the camera and take the pic?

great shots by the way

 

[HorsePunchKid]

to photograph a car moving like that with the background out of focus/blurry and the car or object clean and clear you have to follow the object with the camera and take the pic?

Yeah, basically. It depends on how pronounced you want the blur to be and how steady you are as you sweep across and all that, but basically a 1/60" shot will do a decent job, assuming it's not so bright out that your photo will be overexposed. I've taken plenty of garbage shots like this due to poor exposure, poor tracking, and whatnot. For what it's worth, it seems to work best for me to track the subject well in advance of when I plan to take the shot, and follow through a bit after the exposure.

It will probably take some practice, but the key is to use that longer exposure.

 

[arkamw]

6th one down is pretty sweet. I don't know what it is, but I like the contrast of the lines of color to the mostly red background.

Cheers.

 

[HorsePunchKid]

6th one down is pretty sweet. I don't know what it is, but I like the contrast of the lines of color to the mostly red background.

Cheers.

The lines are a grid made of EL wire, backlit by some stage lighting that we'd set up to give the room a more moody look. The room was one of the big computer labs in the new CS building at UIUC. That room was where we had our tracking hardware set up for the game we built to showcase some technology for the building's opening ceremony .

 

[JHefile]

I don't like some of those pics. The special effect ones. They are too ho hum and look like anyone picking up a camera could take them. The other ones are nice.

 

[HorsePunchKid]

I don't like some of those pics. The special effect ones. They are too ho hum and look like anyone picking up a camera could take them. The other ones are nice.

Heh heh... I assume you're referring to the BFG ones (5, 6, and 7 above). Only one involved any photographic special effect (the red motion-blurry one with the flash) and one that involved any significant post-processing (the guy coding). If you think those are boring, you should check out the rest! The simple fact is they were taken for largely documentary purposes. It's also hard to be creative when you've been hacking for 40 out of the last 48 hours and have pulled three all-nighters in one week .

Thanks for the feedback, in any case. People shots are definitely not my forte, in fact they are a serious weakness. I do think anyone picking up a camera could have taken pretty much any of those BFG photos, and 90% of the rest of the photos I take, for that matter.