(My wife wanted me to include this little guy, so here he is.
I'm not sure what it means....)
(My wife wanted me to include this little guy, so here he is.
I'm not sure what it means....)
This page is mainly for those who are interested in the background details concerning these pictures. To begin, I would like to say that I posted these images in the hope that people would see and enjoy them, and I invite anyone who wishes to make personal use of these images to do so. All I ask is that you mention the photographer and create a link back to my site should you decide to use any of my pictures on a web page. I also ask that no one make any sort of commercial use of my photography.
Very well, on to the semi-technical details. Nearly all of the photographs on this site were taken with an Olympus Infinity SuperZoom 300, which my father gave me back in 1988. Needless to say, it's getting a bit long in the tooth these days, but it actually still works fairly well and I still take pictures with it. I usually use 100 or 200 speed Kodak film (ektar or ektachrome), and to be honest, I often let the good folks at Olympus determine the exposure, though once in a while I've employed the camera's manual override capability. I also never use filters of any sort when I take pictures, even in the mountains at high altitudes. This is not a matter of principal or anything. I just don't use them. I used MGI Photosuite 8.0 and Micrografx Picture Publisher (v. 7.0 and now 9.0) to manipulate some of the images on this site, though most of them are largely or entirely unaltered. Most of the manipulation I have done is simply to resize or crop the images, though in some cases I have indulged in a few special effects. In my comments on most of the individual shots, I have noted whether I altered to picture in any way.
One other thing: on the index page of this site, there is a picture of a lovely tropical scene. This is the one photograph on these pages that I did not take. (The filename is tropical2.) I just took the picture off the CD that Photosuite came on and stuck it in here for atmosphere. The rest of these photos, however, are my work.
Now, just a few comments about a few of the individual pictures:
The slide in the Outer Banks section is my all-time best sunset picture, and it has not been altered in any way. This particular slide is absolute proof of the old saw "it's better to be lucky than good." I took it on Hatteras Island in March of 1993. My wife and I had been driving all day, and I must admit I was not in the best of moods. My wife asked me to stop and photograph the sunset. At first I objected, but finally she "persuaded" me and I stopped the car, stormed over to the edge of Pamlico Sound, knelt, pointed, and clicked. Therefore, I cannot take much credit for the slide that resulted, and I tip my hat to the people who designed my camera.
The image at the top of the South China page, the mountains around Zhang Jia Jie in Hunan Province, has undergone a bit of cosmetic surgery. It began its life as a 35-mm color print. When I had it scanned, the colors of the image ended up all wrong, and I found myself unable to restore the origninal look of the shot. I decided to go the other direction with it, and again using Photosuite I created this faux antique black-and-white photograph.
The slide of the Pentre Ifan Cromlech at the top of the Britain page was done with an artificially low exposure. I simply cranked the exposure down 1.5 stops and then spot-metered on the brightest part of the sky. That resulted in a near-perfect silhouette. I then used Photosuite to crop the image and lower the brightness level a little further. The mountain in the background of the picture is Carn Ingli, which rises to the less-than-impressive elevation of 1200 feet.
The slide I took of the Irish cottage, shown on the Ireland page, has been altered in that I added a picture frame to it. Otherwise, it is as it was taken. For information on the other Ireland shots, please follow the links provided:
The photograph of the fierce-looking Arhat on the Martial Arts page was taken in a shrine at the New Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) in Beijing. As it turned out, photography was forbidden there, and I received a bit of a tongue-lashing as the price of the shot. The shot was also complicated by the fact that the room in which it was taken was almost completely dark, which, incidentally, did not make the "photography forbidden" sign any more readily seen. The camera shop that scanned this image messed up the colors, but I was able to basically fix things using photosuite. I also made the picture a bit smaller.
On the Miscellaneous Images page, there is a picture I took near Annapolis, Maryland, where I grew up. When I scanned this image, it lost some of its brightness, and I haven't been able to wholly rectify that as yet. Actually, I've stopped trying.
The first image on my personal page, that of yours truly, was taken in front of a 10th-century high cross at Kilfenora, County Clare, Ireland. The original slide was in color, but I altered it to look like an "album cover" black-and-white. I call it my "U2 Shot," as it was inspired by the cover art of that very talented but almost insufferably pretentious rock group. The other picture, of Gale, was taken by a professional studio (and then altered a bit by me, of course), which will remain nameless. Suffice to say that if anyone dares to print a copy of it, they will undoubtedly sue that person for a bazillion dollars. You have been warned!
At the top of my links page is a slightly modified version of the sunset shot called "Gateway." I used the special effects provided by Photosuite to create this effect.
Copyright © 1996-2001 Scott Carr
Get your own Free Home Page