For as long as cameras have been common household gadgets, they've been an essential item on the packing list when planning a trip. Most of us get by with a simple, lightweight point-and-shoot; a few photography buffs take an SLR, three lenses, an external flash, and other accessories, almost as if they're on assignment for
No matter what kind of photographer you are, though, you probably want to capture the best possible vacation photos. Last week, I gave you a few suggestions on how to take interesting, somewhat out-of-the-ordinary travel photos. Let's wrap up the discussion this week with a few more tips on travel photos you might not otherwise think to take.
Last week's suggestions were about looking for ways to capture interesting scenes of landmarks, famous locales, and people. But in all the photographic excitement, don't forget to include yourself in a few pictures. It's easy to go the entire trip and realize only later that there's no evidence you were there. (My wife estimates that there are perhaps only six pictures of me in existence, including the small one that sits at the top of this newsletter each week.)
Certainly, you can ask people to take your picture or, occasionally, do something unusual like capture your reflection in a mirror. For example, I found a reflective sphere on a trip a few years ago and decided it was a great way to capture the giddiness of our mood.
When my wife and I went on a trip with a friend a few years ago, our friend told us about an expression that her family had traditionally associated with vacations. Whenever they went on a trip, they'd announce to their feet where they had just arrived. So it was not unusual for her mom to shout "Feet, you're in Florida!" after getting off the plane. I stole the idea on that very trip and starting taking pictures like this.
It's silly, but it's now a traditional photo my family looks forward to taking whenever we go on a vacation. Think of your own photo tradition--the feet idea is mine.
While everyone else has their camera lens set on wide angle, trying to shoehorn an entire landmark into each frame, think outside the box and look for the details. I love snooping around famous places and zooming in on things that most other photographers might miss. It may be a snippet of graffiti at Abbey Road, or unusual angles in the ceiling of a museum.
Read "Shooting Inside Museums and Cathedrals" for tips on getting the best shots.
Finally, remember to carry your camera at night. Most cities have a very different character at night than they do during the day, and you can record a sense of that if you try your hand at some night photography.
Your subjects can be classic landmarks, like London's Big Ben or something as mundane as a telephone booth.
Your night photos can be some of the highlights of your vacation album, as long as you remember to "think night" when you shoot. Be sure to use a tripod or brace the camera against a stationary object. Shoot with a high ISO to minimize the shutter speed and reduce the risk of blurry pictures; but don't be afraid to use longer, multisecond exposures if you can secure the camera with a tripod.
Read "Better Night Photos," one of my older newsletters, for tips on night photography.
In the world of computer graphics, there are two broad classes of pictures: raster images and vector images.
Vector images are built from resolution-independent geometric structures like lines and curves; if you enlarge the image, the lines and curves get recalculated on the fly so you never see jagged edges.
Raster images, however, are the stuff of bitmaps and pixels. Enlarge the image, and the pixels just get bigger. That's usually a disadvantage, but some people find highly exaggerated raster images artistic. In fact, many digital image editors even include a raster filter that accentuates your picture's pixels and makes it look like a highly magnified newspaper photo.
Using The Rasterbator, you can easily process your photos with a rasterizing filter that gives it a newsprint look while also tiling it across almost any number of sheets of paper. Assemble the photo into a poster, tack it to your wall, and you have an instant piece of modern art.
Not only is The Rasterbator free, but you don't even have to install it. The program runs on a Web server: Just upload your photo to the site, select a few simple options, and the picture is downloaded to your PC as an Adobe PDF file that you can print on your own home printer.
One caveat: There are a lot of sample pictures on the site, uploaded by fans of the program, and some of them are a little on the racey side. You might want to exercise some discretion with this site.
Q&A: Recovering Corrupt Image FilesDo you have any advice for fixing corrupt JPEG files? Recently, a flakey media card reader improperly transferred photos to my hard drive. They got corrupted in the process, and now they won't open properly. Many of the pictures have strange bands of color running through their midsections. Is there any way to fix this?
I think you may be out of luck, Linda.
I am not aware of any tools that can fix a digital photo file that has been damaged. Your best bet is to take the original memory card and try to transfer the pictures to another computer, or to put the card in the camera and use its USB cable to transfer images the old-fashioned way. There's a good chance the original images are still recoverable. If you've erased the card, though, it may be too late.
As a last resort, you might want to try a program called PixRecovery. I haven't tried it myself, since I don't have any corrupt photos to experiment with. If you have good luck with the program, drop me a line so I can report on your success in another issue.
Hot PicsGet published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.
Joy says: "Recently, my husband was assigned to work on a project in Dublin, Ireland, for 4 months, and I got to tag along. We arrived on St. Patrick's Day and came across a street carnival on the historic Merion Square, very near our apartment. It was early evening and I took the picture with my HP PhotoSmart digital camera."
Congratulations to Doug and to everyone else who won a Hot Pic of the Week last month. Keep those entries coming!
Dave Johnson
