Photography

My Photos

Photos from Hong Kong, Mongolia and Beijing are online. My notes on photography in Mongolia may be of interest.

There are photos in most of my newer travelogues; you might want to start with my New Zealand photos from 2003, taken with my digicam.

twizel clouds from middle of highway

dawn clouds at Twizel, New Zealand

I've also posted some images to MyFourThirds: my gallery.

Some wildlife photos: an Eastern Water Dragon and a Darter.

Gear

In November 2004 I bought myself a DSLR. You can read my explanations of why I bought a DSLR and why I bought an Olympus E1. I also have a comparative table of DSLR viewfinder sizes and a list of accessories bought so far.

I've worked out that I shouldn't be using a skylight filter and tested the EX-25 extension tube + Sigma 55-200mm lens combination.

You can also read about my experiences with a Canon Powershot S330.

Book Reviews

Dave Yorath - Photography: A Crash Course

Arthur Morris - The Art of Bird Photography

My photography reviews also cover some books of photographs.

tour guide and leader negotiating with local shepherd boy

arranging a family stay in Mongolia

news and links

how cameras can get such strange results from rolling shutters - PetaPixel

some amazing fungi photos - TreeHugger

do I want to buy a new camera? - Oxford Blog

an illustrated history of men being intimate - ArtOfManliness

some fantastic insect photography - AlexWild

I've acquired a new camera, a little Canon Ixus 220 HS - Oxford Blog

where children sleep, worldwide - MyModernMet

amazing close-ups of sand grains - DailyMail

photographer - Caroline M. Skilbred

I only knew her briefly, on the My Four Thirds web site, but she gave friendly and helpful advice

some great Iceland photos - CreativeOverflow

brings back memories of my 2003 Iceland trip

Archive of old links.

Other Sites

Useful sites for Four Thirds and Olympus SLRs are MyFourThirds (image criticism) and FourThirdsPhoto (discussion forums and galleries) and the Olympus SLR forum at DP Review.

For post-processing, I use ImageMagick+convert (command line tools) and the GIMP (like Photoshop, but free) with the dcraw plugin for RAW conversion. See tips on B&W conversions and removing haze. For panorama stitching I use the free hugin (available for Linux/MacOS/Windows). I plan to check out GREYCstoration for noise removal.