<<< o >>>gutter charm 46 comments + add yours
chromasia.com

Libby: hmmm. One out of ten. It's another crappy photo of a picture in the gutter.

Me: I like photographs of bits of rubbish in the gutter.

Libby: it's crap.

Now, if previous discussions are anything to go by my wife's opinion is normally nearer to yours than mine, so I'm not expecting great things for this one ;-)

Oh, and yesterday I mentioned that this one was also an HDR, when what I should have said was that this is a partial HDR; i.e. this was processed as an HDR but I ended up masking the magazine and using a normally processed version for that area of the image.

So, feel free to berate me for posting crap, but do come back tomorrow as I have a portrait of Harmony to put up, processed in an altogether 'gentler' way.

Following on from yesterday's discussion of flash (and various ways of implementing it) I've decided to try using SlideShowPro to generate a few simple flash galleries. I'll let you know how I get on.

Update: ok, I've created a very basic gallery of three images that works fine on my machine (running OS 10.3.9). However, on my wife's laptop (OS 10.4.something) and on the girl's PC (XP home) all I get is a black square and some nav' buttons; i.e. no images. If you have a spare minute could you take a look at it and tell me if you can see the images:

http://www.chromasia.com/temp/slideshow/slideshow.html

Thanks.

Update #2: Thanks everyone, it seems that it's working ok for most of you so it must be a problem at our end.

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
cropped?
1.45pm on 8/7/06
Canon 20D
EF 17-40 f/4L USM
36mm (58mm equiv.)
f/6.3
1/640
aperture priority
+0.0
evaluative
100
no
RAW
C1 Pro
16x9
 
16x9 + HDR + urban
comment by Matt at 06:49 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Hmmm. I might be with Libby on this. Not your best I'm afraid

comment by Jennifer at 06:53 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

I like the unique way you've composed this image.

comment by Jamey at 06:55 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

The colours all tie-in pretty well but I wanted to ask, were the blown spots on the magazine photo already there (as a result of the way that photographer/retoucher processed the photo) or are they a result of your processing? Either way, they don't sit too well with me.

comment by djn1 at 07:14 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Matt: no, not my best, and I'm not sure quite why I'm drawn to photographing discarded images such as this one. Oh well, I'll probably get over it ;-)

Jamey: yep, it's the original that's at fault, not me ;-)

comment by Bill Hooker at 07:20 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

I share your fascination with junk; I think I'm looking for some kind of comment on impermanence. There's something ineffably sad about discarded things.

That said, this one doesn't do it for me, probably because the picture in the magazine is crap.

comment by Jamey at 07:24 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

hehe... I suspected as much tbh.

comment by blake at 08:13 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

the slideshow is working fine on Firefox with a PC. Thanks for the photos.

comment by Dave at 08:20 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Slideshow works fine on my pc with XP pro. Re. shot: ' That scary broad seems right at home down there!', to quote Jim Thompson :~)

comment by Arthur at 08:23 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Not into today’s shot... but the slideshow works in Safari and Firefox on 10.4.7

comment by Christopher at 08:37 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

The slideshow works great for me on My MacBook Pro 10.4.7 and flash 8.

comment by Benjamin Chait at 08:38 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Slideshow images appear, albeit I'm not sure if you have thumbnails enabled or not... (nothing's appearing, and there's an error in Safari, you can view it under Window>Activity)

PS - While I love and use SlideShowPro, I'm more of a fan of your current MT setup.

comment by Trish at 08:52 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Well, today's shot does nothing for me, but the slideshow works, as far as I can tell (3 pictures?). I'm on an eMachine with no special programs. ;)

comment by [ PIXEL VIKING ] at 08:58 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

I love this one for its bright colours. The slideshow works fine on my PC with XP Home. However, I'm dissapointed that you chose that flash slideshow over my proposal ;-) As Libby would sat: "It's crap" :D

comment by lee at 09:03 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

I can see the images on my MacBook running OS 10.4.7 I tested it in NetNewsWire and in Firefox. It worked in both.

comment by Karl Baumann at 09:04 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

It´s not that bad. I like it but I know your "problem", I´m asking my girlfriend every day what she´s thinking about my todays picture. And sometimes, especially if I had spent a lot of work on a photography she´s says: well... :-)
By the way the slideshow works fine.

comment by thlayli at 09:53 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

slideshow works for me, too - firefox, windows.

comment by Brett Admire at 09:55 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

I like this...of course I'm with you I think pictures of trash

I can see images on your slideshow

comment by Mark at 10:31 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Well...I like this one tbh, the complete explosion of colour does it for me.

comment by JD at 10:48 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

No images in the slideshow. XP Home/IE/Flash Player 9

comment by Doug at 10:56 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Flash vsn 8,0,24,0
and Firefox vsn 1.5.0.4
and the gallery works fine

Is that the American rock sweetheart Pink in the picture?
For some reason when i look at it, i imagine you took this picture from 2 floors up and the photo is on the top of a passing bus (untill i look at the right side of the picture)
I like it

comment by Doug at 10:59 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

XP pro SP2 btw

comment by Peter at 12:11 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I think what I agree with most in this one is the placement of the "rubbish" on the left side, and it's angle in relation to the yellow stripe.

As for the slideshow, it works on Firefox 1.5.0.4 and IE 6.0.2900 and Opera 9.0 for me. I use Windows XP Media Center Edition.

comment by Mark DM at 12:20 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

And I didn't even know Billy Idol *had* any kids.

Can't see the slideshow, but that's not surprising, as I'm using IE on a PC with an old version of Flash (it's my computer at work, and they're not great about updating things).

comment by Chris Buehler, Switzerland at 12:27 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Your slide show works fine on my pc (Windows 2000 Pro, Mozilla Firefox). Beautiful pictures!

comment by Violet Lavendar at 12:36 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Regarding your request that we navigate to your 3-photo slide show and report whether we're able to see the images:

(Running Windows XP; time on USA's west coast is 4:30pm Pacific Time Sunday evening and 12:30am Monday, your time) At this time, it seems to be working. The slide show was black at first, with the navigation bar at the bottom. Then the first, second, and third images appeared in series with a graceful transition between each. I hope that's what you intended to produce and that you would have been happy with the result. I'm sorry you weren't able to see them yourself and hope that all the wrinkles are smoothed out shortly.

Looking forward to seeing more of your fascinating individual shots and to seeing the slide shows you have in mind....

comment by Geoff at 12:40 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I like it. She has a suitable expression for the gutter :)

Your slide show works fine here, XP Pro SP2, Firefox 1.5.4, Flash 8. Works fine on IE7 as well...

comment by John at 02:37 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Gee...I've had that same conversation with my own wife. Or others. I just sigh and tell them that questioning why a photographer makes a certain picture is like questioning his (her) very being, and that instead they should just accept it. If they don't like the picture, tough nuggies.

comment by Uri at 03:29 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

slide show looks fine on IE with XP Pro...

Wonderful image (as always).

comment by miklos at 04:11 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I don't see how the slideshow error could be browser related unless the user's browser doesn't have macromedia flash installed ;) (so really making this big of a deal out of it is silly) ... it could just be simply a weird caching issue, for example when it wasn't working, you checked it on that computer, the browser cached it, and displayed the cached version even after it has been fixed. If that's the case, or even if not, best way to avoid something like that in internet explorer is going to Tools > Internet Options and under the "Temporary Internet Files" area, after clicking the Settings button, set the "check for newer versions of stored pages" option button to "Every visit to the page" instead of "Automatically" ...

And yeah, that 'scary' chick is Pink ... I like her.

comment by navin harish at 06:13 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Well, I guess I will agree with you on this shot. I like it because of the composition, the magazine and the part of the road and the way the colours have come out.

I have Win XP and the image gallery works fine on my machine and while I am telling you this, there is some problem with your comment feature. On my machine, no matter how many times I check the "remember info" button, it still asks for details everytime I post a comment.

comment by Ash at 07:08 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

yeah that's PInk in the picture....so it definitely gets 0 out of 10 from me....keep up the gutter work though....

comment by mihai at 08:26 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

about the slide..works just fine for me Mozilla 1.5.0.4 and Win 2k but seems a lil slow foe me the slide...(i have same argues about crappy images with my gilrfriend) very cool colors!

comment by Tony Hall at 09:13 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

the slideshow works fine in safari with 10.4.7 - have you tried iPhoto Slideshow?
btw I like the thinking/experimenting behind this picture

comment by JD at 09:36 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

At work now, XP Pro. Works fine.

comment by David at 01:55 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I'm not able to see the slideshow on Microsoft IE (if it makes any difference, I can view the ones on the SlideshowPro website)

comment by nogger at 02:34 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Slideshow works here on XP Home with FeedDemon, IE and Firefox.

comment by Punkass at 02:38 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

but i love ur junk pics ;)

the slideshowpro works for me and lovely portraits.

comment by MikesRightBrain at 02:42 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I like this shot! Wonderful colors, and the textures really jump out. I can never get a yellow to be as intense as you are able to get from those street stripes.

comment by Anupam Kamal at 03:36 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Slide show works fine on my win 2K.

Here's another easy to use flash program you can try(I've used it and my friends liked it); porta with simpleviwer:

porta
http://www.stegmann.dk/mikkel/porta/

also requires simpleviwer for the flash part:
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/

I was suprised how easy it was to make flash slide shows with these.

comment by mooch at 03:36 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Yes, I can see those images, using firefox. Those are the sorts of images I like and you know it. This isn't my teacup (sic) unfortunately.

comment by Andre at 04:00 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I like the slideshow, however I cane see the use in 2 areas, either to simply show all images as a slideshow or portfolio, did you find any API that enables you simply to re-build slideshows based on some assets, so it is not manual to update the slideshow assets being displayed?

I like the gutter shot, but I feel it belongs in a series of shots that talks about the throw away attitude of the "new" and how rarely "new" lasts in our society today

comment by Carole at 04:11 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Slideshow works fine in New Mexico on a Dell PC using XP Pro.

comment by Mary at 05:03 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I like the colors and the texture of the road. I'm not real crazy about the content. But all in all, I enjoy your work and am looking forward to tomorrow's post!

comment by john at 05:17 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

I really like the way the HDR shows the detail and texture in the road. The expression in the magazine certainly matches with all the grime. It's interesting. The slideshow worked for me, too, btw, Windows XP.

comment by djn1 at 08:22 PM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Thanks for all the feedback on the slideshow and the suggestions for alternative ways of producing it.

comment by Sil at 07:34 PM (GMT) on 11 July, 2006

I like pictures of rubbish in the gutter too.