Nick and Sarah's building pics for the month, Part II

The following were shot in black and white. No gimping.

textile souq ceiling

1/50s; F5.6; ISO-100; 48mm FL

Deira

or

Tourista

or

Why the hell did the font just go blue?

1/500s; F8; ISO-100; 70mm FL

Dero Building Roof

1/200s; F5; ISO-100; 70mm FL

For the record, I tried reshooting the woodpile off-centred and it didn't really work. Not only was the pile in a bit of a state of disrepair, there wasn't enough wall for it to really work. But I tried, Stephen.

Sarah and Nick's Building PIcs for the Month Part 1

Ladies first, and since I am the lady, I am pleased to post the following pictures. Nick and I went for a last walk through Bur Dubai before moving and shot some pics for old time's sake. I love the variety of buildings you get around the textile souk. The old building I shot was still in use as the old AC unit was whirring away with a visitor inside who had parked his bike out the front.

I shot the first picture in colour and lost my Gimp virginity by taking the colour away and touching up the contrast of the shadows.

The second photo is the front door. Again, I used Gimp to crop the sides of the picture. Nick thought I should chop more of the top off, but I quite like the patterned shadow the roof is casting.

Now that my home work is submitted and I used Gimp (like Photoshop) to alter my photos I must admit I do feel like I have cheated and consequently feel dirty. So moving on to a debate Nick and I are having at the moment. Who took the photos below, since we were both using the same camera on the same trip seeing the same stuff? But when the topic of buildings came up we both wanted to share the following pictures. Buildings in Amman, Jordan.

And

Inside Buildings - ishoot on my iphone

As prooved time and again by Chase Jarvis*, the best camera is the one you have with you.  Just because you only have a camera phone available to you doesn't mean you can't take presentable shots.  Here is a shot I took while sat bored in Ibn Battuta while Imogen awas looking and shoes....or hats.....or handbags or something:

Yes it has been 'tweaked' and 'tinkered with' but all such tweaking as been done IN PHONE!!  No photoshop etc.

* I have heard it said that when the likes of Chase Jarvis do things they are always going to be successful.  Such luminaries could photograh dog turds and you'd want them on your wall.  But we mortals can but try

A little Aside - Water Bottle

Although not in any way related to the current homework topic i really wanted to share a shot I took at the weekend which I have to admit (and at the risk of sounded conceited) came out every bit as fantastic as I hoped it would when I took the shot:

No not strictly (or even loosely) related to my normal subject matter of building, cranes and construction plant I still loved the shot because of the almost unreal quality the surface of the bottle took on when view in the early dawn light and the nice even coating of dew.  Contrasted against the granular texture of the sand behind I am pretty chuffed with it.

And also thanks to the trickery of HDR when you zoom in there is still a wealth of texture and colour.  Yum!

Ps.  I'll admit straight up, yes this has been tinkered with just a little. and yes it is yet another HDR shot but what can I say - it looks nice so ends justify the means.

Sharjah: a model town

Here is a little piece of extracurricular activity. While I was up on the roof looking for 'Buildings', this image ended up in the camera. The original idea was to show the white law court buildings over in the distance, but what I've produced here is more fun.

Photoshop Elephants 2 proved nowhere near as co-operative as CS3 in the online tutorial, but I did what I could by selecting areas and increasing the Gaussian blur as I moved further away from the sharp area. It's not quite right: there are some issues with lighting columns and trees that should not have varying blur along their lengths, but this is a first attempt.



Incidentally, Sharjah doesn't have a cathedral, so in the strictest sense of the word it isn't a city.

Buildings - Sharjah's Saudi Mosque

Against the rules of proper maners etc I know to photograph a mosque but here is my homework offering.  I sit and look at this mosque out of my office window every day so while working late one evening got the camera out to take a shot:

Sharjah Mosque

D700 f2.8 ISO 200 l=20mm

They say the best view of Sharjah is from teh rear view mirror as you are driving away, but there are one or two views where Sharjah actually looks quite nice.

Paul's 'Buildings'

Although there are plans for a couple of specific shots, I've not been in the right place with a camera yet, so I reserve the right to present additional photos before the end of the month.

Another problem that I'm currently experiencing is Blogger's complete inability to upload photos. The page churns and churns for aeons and then decides that 'the document has no data'. I'm fed up with wasting most of my evening doing this, so please feel free to imagine the images below.

Updated early the following morning. I've uploaded the photos now that I'm not competing with the entire UAE and USA for bandwidth.

All the following were shot from more or less the same viewpoint: the top of a 10-storey office block in Sharjah.

Crystal

Nikon D70s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 75mm
F5.6
1/1500

This shows the very posh end of Sharjah's real estate. All mirrored glass, shine and gleam, and with expensively irrigated grass in the foreground. Very much for society's upper echelons.

Worship

Nikon D70s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 35mm
F8
1/1000

Framed between the two minarets, the skyline shows many, many high-rise buildings. From a photography point of view, I was, just for once, able to catch a reasonable blue sky without resorting to Photoshop.

Rooftops

Nikon D70s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 26mm
F27
1/90

Here we see what we're not supposed to see. The top of a flat roof is a great place to hide stuff from everyone except the occupants of adjacent, higher buildings. Shot straight into the sun, the sky is an unfortunate flat white - sorry about that - and I couldn't include the left corner of the building because of my position on the roof.

This one has been Photoshopped. I used the Transform tool to reduce converging verticals, at a fraction of the cost of a tilt-shift lens (which I don't have anyway).

Buildings - Come On

I take it the title 'Buildings' hasn't evoked much inspiration among you shutter buggers (if you'll pardon the phrase) as we are over halfway through the month and not a sigle posting yet.

Come on fellas (and fellaesses) Mr Bailey is on holiday down under and will do doubt come back with a HUGE stock of shots to wow us all with therefore there is a need to get your homework in sooner rather than later to avoid Richard swamping all your efforts.

I have mine ready and will have it posted tonight.......watch this space.

Next Assignement - Buildings

Hi All,

It's that time of month again, it's assignment time.

Paul has picked NINE and the random topic generator has given BUILDINGS as the topic, DUE 1/11/2009.

Have fun and get snapping.

Cheers,

Richard B.