Lilahpops

Well, it’s all over now. I had loads of fun participating in the April Challenge and learned quite a lot about macro photography in the process. I’m still in entropy mode and finding many things to photograph - I’ll have to do a series of ‘the ones that didn’t make it to the challenge.’

Here are my 30 entries: I created this image using Mosaic Maker. The links underneath the image take you to the individual images on Flickr or you can view them here at my Photo Gallery.

I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did photographing them.

1. A brick taking a bath in a field, 2. Old leather, 3. Boarded window, 4. Worn through, 5. Armless beauty, 6. Rusted latch, 7. Blue rust, 8. A cracking driveway, 9. Unwired, 10. Undelivered, 11. End of the life cycle, 12. Just a bit crooked, 13. Peeling paint, 14. Rusty paperclip, 15. Rusted latch, 16. Clips of old, 17. Old books, 18. More rust, 19. Mixed entropy, 20. Entropy in the cemetery, 21. Entropic barbed wire, 22. Old maps, 23. Old wood, 24. End of the road, 25. Rusted fence, 26. Dappled, 27. You’ve got mail, 28. A flawed floor, 29. Colourful copper, 30. Last of the old leather

Stay up-to-date with your favourite websites by subscribing to them

Back in March I wrote a post on how to add your Flickr photos to your blog feed. During April, I participated in the April Challenge - Entropy at photochallenge.org. The challenge was to take a photo a day for the entire month of April and upload each one to Flickr. I don’t write daily posts here at Lilahpops but for that month my blog feed had new content every single day.

The addition of my Flickr photos has become incredibly useful in providing fresh content more frequently to my RSS subscribers.

But you don’t have a blog?

So, you don’t have your own blog but you read tons of blogs and news sites and other stuff, right? Do you bookmark each site and visit them individually? There’s an easier, faster way and it’s called RSS!

RSS allows you to keep track of your favourite websites at once. You don’t need to visit each site for the latest news, the updates come to you.

How you can subscribe

Check out the video below and see how you can simplify and optimise your web surfing time. And if you are interested in learning about photography make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.

The video suggests three places where you can subscribe to your faves:

• Google Reader
• Bloglines
• Newsgator

I actually use iGoogle. I love it. Read below (after the video) to see how I use RSS.

How I subscribe to my faves

If you have an Google account and haven’t yet tried it you’ll see the iGoogle option next to your login name. I have six tabs arranged by subject. This is the break down:

• one for various news websites I read (local and international)
• one for web design/development
• one for photography
• one for my Gmail and Google calender
• one for blog writing tips; and
• one for miscellaneous sites I visit.

The benefit is that if you see a headline that catches your eye you can read it right then and there or visit the site for more. If you have regular websites that you visit this is a simple, smart way to surf the web.

For more information about RSS check out:

• RSS Day

Just some of the excellent posts I’ve read lately.

Feeling romantic?

Check out Shawn Duffy’s Paris series over at sduffyphotography.com - he’s been regularly posting photos during his trip. The black and white images are especially romantic. The link below goes to the posts he has tagged “Paris”:

• Photographing Paris

Black and White

As a nice segue to the above link, Beyond Megapixels has a great article on:

• How to create high contrast black and white images

Photo projects and why you need to participate

This is a rather timely link considering I have just opened a project for photographers of the vintage camera Voigtlander Vito BL. Neil Creek has written a guest post at Digital Photography School on:

• Photo projects and why you should participate

A fading post process technique

This tutorial at Shadow Logic creates an amazing fade effect to your image by actually resizing the image over and over again:

• Resizing fade effect

And one for your inner GIMP

Photo Excursions has a tutorial which produces a wonderful result in 5 easy steps. Can’t wait to try it out.

• Portrait tutorial for the GIMP

Enjoy.

Related posts

• See other posts from the What I learned about photography this week series

Contribute to this project and help out other Vito BL photographers

I’m running a mini photography project here at Lilahpops for photographers using the vintage camera Voigtlander Vito BL. I’ve been using this camera on and off for the last 9 months or so and find that not only is it a refreshing change from using digital, it’s also a wonderful and challenging way to learn photography. The Vito BL is totally manual, no batteries necessary, an odd feeling after digital.

I’ve had several requests for a copy of the camera’s manual and it got me thinking as to other ways users of the Vito BL might find help in using this camera. Who better to help than others in a similar situation?

You don’t need to be a professional user of the Vito BL to contribute to this project.

Would you like to participate?

I’m inviting people who use the Voigtlander Vito BL. I find it fascinating that vintage cameras are still alive and kicking and that there are so many photographers out there who love film photography - and more specifically vintage camera photography. The Vito BL is my introduction to vintage photography so this is the focus of the project. I know there are far more experienced Vito BL users than me - I’m still learning. I get back developed film rolls with good photos, bad photos, blurry, sharp, you name it.

There are just two things you need to do to participate (well, three if you include using the contact form to let me know you are interested):

1. Upload some photos taken with the Voigtlander Vito BL

After using the contact form, I’ll be in touch. You can email photos to be included in the project results, your best and worse ones, if you like. Or, better yet, if you have posted any of your Voigtlander shots to your Flickr/Zoomr etc account I’ll link to them instead. I’ll just to let you know here that I’ll probably use a thumbnail image of your photos as the link and I’ll attribute each of your photos with your name or Flickr/Zoomr etc id with something along the lines of “Photograph courtesy of …”

2. Answer our simple questions

For a general overview of what it’s like to use the Voigtlander, I ask you to consider these questions (and any other thoughts/advice you may have). You don’t need to write anything at length, unless you wish to.

a. What attracted you to the Voigtlander?

For instance, is it because you have a general interest in vintage cameras, was it a cheap buy on eBay, did someone give you the camera, or did you have to learn how to use a vintage camera for an assignment or course?

For me: the Voigtlander was my father’s first camera and he passed it on to me to experiment with as my interest in photography grew.

b. Do you like using the Voigtlander?

For instance, is it easy/difficult to use, fun or complicated, a learning experience?

For me: I find it a great introduction to the basics of photography as everything has to be set manually on the camera to take a photo. Sometimes I am way off with estimating the distance!

c. How does it compare to other vintage cameras you have used?

For me: I haven’t used other cameras this old but I am getting a taste for vintage.

d. Do you prefer modern day digital cameras to older film and vintage models?

For me: I do love digital - love digital - but I’m glad to have an older film camera at hand.

What’s the deadline?

Just over three weeks from now - submissions end Friday 23 May 2008

There are no winners, no prizes. That being said, you will feel a general, fuzzy sense of well-being after having helped out a fellow Voigtlander Vito BL photographer or two.

This is my entry in the Share the Love Project

OK, it might be lame but I love my cat! In fact, I love both my cats but only one would deign to sit for a photo today.

If you follow Neil Creek’s blog you’ll know the reason for this project. If you haven’t been reading then head over and check it out.

When illness strikes at your loved ones the rest of the world (and its problems) shrinks to the size of a pea in comparison. You realise the insignificance of those petty annoyances: tele-marketers; that b@stard driver who cut in front of you; that neighbour playing loud music. Nothing matters more than those close to you.

Stress like this, however, needs a little relief and light-heartedness. I imagine Neil has picked this theme - Share the Love - for this very reason. I can only hope he and Naomi like cats!

My partner is a little camera-shy, so you’ll have to make do with Cordelia (above). She takes light-heartedness to the extreme … I mean how cool can a cat be? She is quite aloof but knows when lap-sitting is required after a long day at work.

The light was quite poor when I took this. Post-processing was only an auto levels adjustments … she really does have those golden-coloured eyes. Mesmerizing.