Photophys.com: The Science of Photography

My wife and I visited Bosque del Apache in late January and were there for the full moon. Reports online had indicated that the bird count in 2009/2010 was low and that some of the magic was gone. This was my first trip so I couldn't compare directly with other years; however, we had a great time with many photo opportunities. I show the bird count here.[Read More]

SCP now appears on the AKPeters site at:

http://www.akpeters.com/product.asp?ProdCode=5817

I have not seen the final page layout taking into account my recommendations, but I expect the book to be a very nice product.  I understand it will be available in quantity sometime in May.  Also, I do not know what the final "street" price through distributors like Amazon will be.

The book "Science for the Curious Photographer" is being prepared for publication by A K Peter, Ltd.  It will not be sold through this site until it is available in book form.  A K Peters also has rights for electronic distribution.  There are no immediate plans for another ebook version.

The type edited book has changes in the arrangement of notes and references and some minor changes in wording, but there has been no significant change in content.

I am happy to report that the eBook, Science for the Curious Photographer, is for sale again. Figure numbering errors have been corrected, and there are a few other minor changes. This is a temporary offering because A K Peters, Ltd. now has exclusive publication rights. Sales on this site will end when the book is published.

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Please report any suspected errors in the eBook or the published excerpts.

I just posted a sample of my photographs from Mount Desert Island/Acadia and Grand Manan Island here.  I believe the Bay of Fundy is one of the best places to see a variety of whales.  Also, from my experience Cadillac Mountain in Acadia N.P. is unequaled for sunrise photography.  It may also be the first place the rising sun is visible in the United States each day.  My sunrise and sunset photos are usually taken in the HDR mode and processed in Photomatix (Lightroom plugin).  However, the subtle shades of the dawn and predawn sky are often not captured well in the tone mapped image.  I sometimes resort to a single well exposed image.

The e-book "Science for the Curious Photographer" is temporarily off-line.  I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Science for the Curious Photographer is being published in book form by A K Peters, Ltd.  This publisher is well-known for books on mathematics, computer science, and general science; so I think it will be ideal for my kind of book.  We expect the book to be available in the spring, maybe March.  The publisher also has electronic rights; but for the time being, the pdf version of SCP will continue to be available on this site.  I appreciate the advice, support, and encouragement offered by my readers.

We returned on August 25^th from a great vacation/photo shoot in Maine</st1:state> and Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>.  I came back with about 1500 images from my Canon 40D and XTi cameras.  The numbers were inflated by the fact that I used HDR methods for most landscape shots and 6.5 frames per second when appropriate for photographing birds and whales.  Unfortunately, I have been so busy preparing SCP for publication that I have had little time to work up the images. (Yes, there is good news;[Read More]

In reviewing the text and converting the figures for publication, a number of errors and inconsistencies in the numbering of figures were found.  Also, three previously unnumbered illustrations have been given numbers.  Before the corrections,[Read More]

Well exposed images from a DSLR usually do not look very good right out of the camera.  Accordingly, most of us have learned that post processing is necessary to get the most out of our images.  I have used Photoshop for many years to process my RAW images, but I did not have a good way to handle my growing collection of images.  Adode Lightroom seemed to provide an answer for database management and, in addition, offered developing and printing capabilities.  However, my initial attempts to use Lightroom were not very successful because I did not know how to use its many features.  I tried to read books about Lightroom, but my attention span is not very long when I don't know what I am looking for.[Read More]

The discount code is scheduled to end on August 15.  Please refer to the July 17 posting for the code, information, and links to excerpts from the book.

A friend recently found that his new Canon 50D seldom gave sharp images when compared with his 40D, and he sold the 50D.  This week I tested a new Canon T1i for AF focus accuracy. [Read More]

Please report any typos or other suspected errors in the e-Book SCP.  I will make a list and post them from time to time.  You can just use the comment space here.  I just noticed that Fig. 17.1 is misnumbered.

I am a serious amateur photographer, and I do several photo-shoots far from home each year. That means air travel with all its hassles. I start with the requirement that all valuable and sensitive equipment, e.g. cameras and lenses, go with me as carry-ons. So what do I really need and how can I pack it so that it will be allowed as carry-on luggage?

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Recently, at Luminous-landscape.com (LL), Ray Maxwell expounded on his view that Moore</st1:place></st1:city>'s law is no longer relevant to digital photography. This was based on his observation that we have all the pixels in our digital sensors that most of us need. I thought that was a very narrow view, indeed, and was planning a rebuttal when Nathan Myhrvold's rebuttal was published on LL. Myhrvold explained that we can still use more pixels in many situations, and that he expects to buy sensors in the future with many more pixels than are now available. I agree with everything he says, but I think he misses the point.

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