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sitting room

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

This post is not really about the photo…of course, I think all of my photos on flickr are great (or at least pretty good, since I only upload those that I like and think are worth showing to others), but something weird happened.

I got my first flickr comment spam on this photo. It has since been deleted, and the flickr account is now gone, too.

It was a fairly well-worded one. My photos show up on facebook eventually, as part of my news feed. Someone apparently got to this photo somehow, and wrote something along the lines of:

“nice photo, very calming. I wish that everyone used their FB name on flickr, too – so much easier to find people! Comment on one of my photos in return or I’ll come and get you!”

kaiyen, which I use on flickr, is kind of an internet alter ego that I have. And of course on FB I am listed as Allan Chen. So that was rather specific. Also, it’s common to expect that if one comments on another’s photo, there should be at least some perusal of the former’s photostream and make comments, if possible. Not a requirement, and failing to do so doesn’t justify retaliation, but it’s not abnormal.

However…the one photo the person had would generally be considered not safe for work (NSFW) unless one worked in a pretty private location. And if you read the caption for the photo there is a reference to some singles site and how to find her on it.

And now the account is gone. I did a quick FB search of something along the lines of her flickr name to see if I found some crazy, in appropriate profile but no dice.

I think…I think I got comment spam on flickr. Weird.

airport roof, Bangkok

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I took this photo quite a while ago – back in March of this year, 2009. It is of the airport in Bangkok, which we were in and out of a few times as we traveled through the country for a week. The architecture, as you can see, is pretty interesting, with these big sweeping shapes of what looks like fabric around an overall metal framework.

I am putting this up on my blog because I like the photo, certainly. i was very pleasantly surprised and pleased with it when it came up on the monitor after scanning.

However, I’m also blogging on this because I was invited to a group named something like “Fine Art of Flickr.” The idea that spawned the group is that only the finest of flickr photos would be invited in.

The fact is, there are so many of these “best of” and “the art of” kind of groups that there really is no such thing anymore. If there are 1000 members of the “finest of flickr” group, and there are 5000 photos (and that’s a pretty darn low ratio), for instance, are they really the finest? Would this photo win a juried contest?

Hoop Fountain

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

The Hoop Fountain is located between Meyer and Green Libraries at Stanford. During the day, it can be little more than an interesting shape, painted with a nice red color. It gleams, but it doesn’t overwhelm, like the Claw in White Plaza.

However, at night, they light up the streams of water, and the glow around the fountain can be really impressive.

I took this photo during my first photography class. My wife had a night photography assignment and I took her materials and went out for a stroll around campus. I eventually settled myself down low on the steps that drop down towards the actual water level, managed to step on quite a few slugs (yuck), and got a few pictures that I really liked. This is my favorite of the black and white ones.

Hospital Sink, Alcatraz

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I’m surprised I haven’t blogged about this before. Or, if I did and just can’t seem to find it while searching on my blog…well, it deserves a second post :-).

While walking around in the usually-off-limits Hospital section of Alcatraz, I came upon a number of worn out, beat up rooms that used to be for medical treatments, examinations, etc. This particular one had this sink, all rusted over, along with a now-mirror-less medicine cabinet.

When it comes to photos I have taken of abandoned, run-down locations, this is by far my favorite. This photo conveys exactly the feeling I wanted – worn out, the peeling paint, the slightly ajar medicine cabinet door, even the old plug in the corner (so the right side of the frame isn’t entirely empty). It feels abandoned, a place left behind a long time ago. Not just in disuse but in disrepair. No one cares about that sink anymore.

Technically, it also has a nice range of tones, I think, and is a very sharp negative.

El Capitan & Reflection, Yosemite, CA

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

Just kind of a random thing – a web page called “the circumference” that seems to cover a number of topics is using a couple of my photos of Yosemite, including this one as the primary one, for their El Capitan page. My photos are on flickr via a Creative Commons license that requires that users give me credit and cannot alter the image, but can otherwise use them without explicit permission.

It’s just kind of nice to have a photo used for something. And actually it made me take a 2nd look at this one, which I rather like to boot 🙂

Yaquina Head Light and the coast

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

As I’m sitting in my windowless office today, very tired mentally and physically from what seems like an overwhelming flood of information that has come my way, this photo of Yaquina lighthouse helps calm my tense nerves.

We had driven by this picturesque lighthouse the previous day, on the way to Depoe Bay, with the intention to go back when the sun was setting. However, the view from our own deck at the Whales Rendezvous B&B was so amazing that we just stayed there.

So, being the crazy person that I am, I got up early the next morning and drove the 10 minutes back to Yaquina head for some almost-sunrise photography (sunrise was about 5AM, so 6:30 felt close enough…).

The wind was incredible. Quite literally – if someone else recounted the tale of how windy it was on that bluff, I would not find the store credible. I truly felt that I was going to be blown right off into the ocean.

At the same time, here was this beautiful lighthouse, on a remarkably lush bit of rock (the mystique of lighthouses tends to make people forget that they are built to keep boats away from rocky, dangerous, hard-to-reach and often quite ugly areas – this one was in a much nicer location). The sun was beautiful (though did nothing against the cold of the wind) and as I approached the stairs leading down to the beach for some different angles, I looked over my shoulder and found this.

Even with the memories of that ridiculous wind, this photo warms my spirits as I think of the clear skies, the early sun, and the picturesque lighthouse.

crosswalk

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I bring a camera along with me on my “commute.” I use quotes because I walk to work and, while I try to vary things up a bit, I pretty much walk across one major street, then among residential streets the rest of the way. So I try hard looking for interesting lighting, lines, shadows, patterns, and textures. I find myself aiming my lens at the ground a lot, to be honest (not that I don’t get some photos from that).

I apparently am enthralled by crosswalks, as I have an inordinate number of photos of the three that I run into during my walk. This particular image is actually on color slide film, scanned, then converted to black and white. I think that helps bring out the lines even more in the images. Who knows…

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

The Nikon D50, one of the best digital SLR’s Nikon has produced, in my opinion, was our first DSLR. We got it right before a wonderful Hawaii vacation in January 2005.

When I was ready to upgrade, the D50 was selling for maybe $250 or so. Not really worth it, to be honest. And it wasn’t worth it to keep around as is since I was making a pretty big jump. So I decided to pay $150 to have it converted over to an infrared-only camera. It is only sensitive to the near IR spectrum of light and allows me to shoot handheld. Usually, one gets really long exposure times when doing digital IR.

The conversion has produced some really useful applications. One is with skies. The clouds become even more dramatic against an IR darkened sky. Conversion to black and white makes it all the more dramatic, I think. Also, because we have a more sensitive camera in the first place, I can take shots where birds and other moving objects are frozen and still.

It’s actually kind of a funny process, shooting digital IR. IR sensors are inherently overly sensitive to near IR spectrum of light. So manufacturers put a “hot filter” over the sensor, which blocks that part of the spectrum. Those that want to do digital IR then put an IR filter, which blocks most of the visible spectrum, in front of the lens so that only the near IR comes through. This means that a tiny sliver of the spectrum actually hits the sensor. Which means incredibly long exposure times.

In a converted camera, the hot filter is taken away and, in my case, replaced directly with an IR filter. So now it’s just a straight, near-IR-only camera with great sensitivity.

stamen

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I recently acquired a new macro lens, the Sigma 150mm 2.8. A macro lens is one that is able to reproduce the subject at a “life size” ratio. This means that the object in real life is the same size as it is on the film or digital sensor. This means REALLY BIG. It also tends to mean up close, though that is a side-effect, not a requirement.

There are many zoom lenses out there that claim to have “macro” capability but that really means it can focus closer than perhaps others, but can only produce something that is 1/4 or 1/5 of life size. Not true macro.

The thing about this new lens is that I get more “working distance.” Shorter macro lenses put one almost right on top of the subject – literally inches away. I can be almost a foot away (maybe 8-10″) and still be at or near life size. This gives me a lot more freedom, to say the least, and gives me more natural lighting (I am less likely to block the light myself, etc).

This also means that standing at any normal distance from a subject is getting really close to life size, which means focusing is really tough. This is one of maybe 25 photos of this flower that came out with reasonable sharpness. And as you can see, while that petal on the right side is probably not more than 5mm in front of the stamen, it’s blurry and out of focus.

I am extremely happy with this lens, though it will take some getting used to. It is extremely sharp, easy to handle, and produces very rich colors with nice saturation and contrast. It opens up new options as far as macro photography, which is a wonderful thing to have.

fallen roof, Sweeney Ridge Nike Radar Station

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

Sweeney Ridge, recently added to the Golden Gate Recreation Area, is an interesting park. First, the on major trail is paved for a big portion of the way. Only after you have climbed up steadily for about an hour (really kills the legs) does the trail split. One way heads towards the point where the bay was first seen by explorers…a long time ago. The other continues along the paved path towards a Nike Missile Radar Station, long since abandoned. What’s amazing about these empty buildings, falling apart with graffiti and caved-in ceilings is that they are completely accessible. One can walk right in and wander around the carnage.