The Alberta Landscape

Reply to Geotagging and theft issues

nobody@flickr.com (Pat Kavanagh) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 15:12:38 -0800

Hi neutralhills:

I agree 100% with you. As a matter of fact my photography buddy and I were out in Southern Alberta in the Foremost area today photographing old farms. As we were walking up to an old place that we had been to years before an RCMP officer sounded his siren behind us. We turned around and met one of the nicest officers who explained to us that he has found a few people going through old farm houses taking stuff to sell. No wonder farmers are annoyed, I am too.

He continued to let us go on to photograph the house and even gave us pointers to another location further up the road.

If I somewhat know a Flickr member who is looking to only photograph something that I have taken then I will provide them with some directions but quite frankly I do not make note of where I was much less GPS locations. Hitting the open road with a choice of 4 directions (north, south, east, west) is all I am after. Its much more "funner" being able to adjust to all kinds of photographic situations.

Reply to Geotagging and theft issues

nobody@flickr.com (studio6420) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 08:03:05 -0800

studio6420 posted a reply:

An interesting read; Alberta Petty Trespass Act - www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/P11.pdf

2.1(1) Entry on land may be prohibited by notice to that effect,
and entry is prohibited without any notice on land
(a) that is a lawn, garden or land that is under cultivation,
(b) that is surrounded by a fence, a natural boundary or a
combination of a fence and a natural boundary, or
(c) that is enclosed in a manner that indicates the owner’s or
occupier’s intention to keep persons off the land or to
keep animals on the land.

Reply to HDR prejudice? Or ignorance?

nobody@flickr.com (McCormick Photography) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:07:23 -0700

McCormick Photography posted a reply:

I like 'good' HDR work where there's no obvious fringing and tone reversals. The 'over-baked' stuff tends to look like the photographic equivalent of Velvet Elvis paintings to me. This crap HDR is responsible for a lot of unnecessary prejudice.

Cold Lake

nobody@flickr.com (Bill Franz) — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:47:44 -0700

Bill Franz posted a new topic:

I will be visiting Cold Lake the first two weeks of June with my camera. Any tips on which way I should wander would be greatly appreciated.

Reply to Let's start a pool...

nobody@flickr.com (Devon OpdenDries) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:18:25 -0700

Devon OpdenDries posted a reply:

I love Dorothy! But yeah.. that place sure gets it's share of annoying photographers... like me.

Vincent, that "jalopy" on top of the garage is an old wind generator. And yeah.. it's pretty sweet looking!

Reply to HDR prejudice? Or ignorance?

nobody@flickr.com (Uncommon Depth) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:31:21 -0800

Uncommon Depth posted a reply:

That's a potentially hot topic. Kind of like an artist who works with oils saying a watercolor isn't a real painting. A lot of good HDR renderings are very natural looking - like yours Dan.

Devon, I resemble your comments, but don't kid yourself for a minute. Just about everything I do with digital can be done with film, although the process of doing it is more complex and specialized. I know my way around a film camera quite handily - filters, lighting and all. I've got hand painted (film) photographs that I did in my portfolio that are over 20 years old.

But hey.......I tend to call myself an artist more so than a photographer. What do I care - it's just semantics! As long as the shows keep getting booked and the orders keep coming in I could care a less what people call it.

Reply to Geotagging and theft issues

nobody@flickr.com (Devon OpdenDries) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:57:38 -0800

Devon OpdenDries posted a reply:

I NEVER share my locations unless I know the person very well and I know that they would never harm the location.

There are people out there that smash and burn old farm houses as a hobby. I showed a person a few locations, because I thought he was only interested in exploring and photographing, but a month later, all three places I showed him, including one that was my favorite, were all vandalized and the majority of their furniture was burned in bonfires.

There are idiots out there... keep your locations secret.

Reply to HDR prejudice? Or ignorance?

nobody@flickr.com (Devon OpdenDries) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:51:59 -0800

Devon OpdenDries posted a reply:

You can probably call me one of those prejuduce people. haha,

I certainly appreciate a well done HDR photo, but so many out there are so freaking terrible that they overshadow the really good ones.

I just get fed up with people that are 'professional' photographers because they know their way around photoshop, and who's portfolios only contain pictures that were made interesting through heavy processing.

I guess you could compare me to a grumpy 'old' man who doesn't like fancy technological things like HDR. I just have more appreciation for photos that actually look natural and gathered from the real world instead of created on the computer and then still given title 'photograph' as if they want to hide that it is now more of a digital rendering than anything.

Don't get me wrong, I love a well done HDR.. but I just get fed up with people that would rather layer and tone map than learn how filters and lighting work.

HDR prejudice? Or ignorance?

nobody@flickr.com (DanJurak) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:24:18 -0800

DanJurak posted a new topic:

Just a rant. I stumbled upon another Alberta group this evening and thought I would check it out. I always look forward to finding new views of Alberta and the photographers that capture them. They can be inspirational and motivational.

Thinking about joining, I saw the group rules and near the top was "No HDRS". Duh?

I think all of us know how ugly a poorly done HDR can look. Garish, posterized and all the tones exaggerated beyond belief. In her naivete the administrator simply will not allow these combined exposures.

Too bad for her. If only she understood how beautiful a well blended and controlled multi-exposure image can look. That the tones can be much more rich and incredibly detailed than a single exposure could possibly capture under some circumstances.

It's a pity that people are still so closed minded or to use a stronger word, ignorant of the possibilities of this remarkable tool.

To my way of seeing, an HDR is indistinguishable from any well exposed and manipulated image. But to each his or her own. :)

All kinds of photos are welcome here regardless of technique as long as they are interesting, out of the ordinary and have some modicum of artistic expression.

The only images I reject from the pool are similars, over and underexposed images or photos that are for lack of a better word "snapshots". Nothing wrong with snapshots but I think this group is not the place for those pics. ;)

Reply to Let's start a pool...

nobody@flickr.com (Joshua Schroeder) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:19:15 -0700

Joshua Schroeder posted a reply:

@neutralhills regarding "I have an aversion to photographing things that have already been worked to death"

Drat, does this mean the Burmis Tree is off-limits, too? :-)

I'm looking forward to adding some more Southern/Southwestern Alberta flavour to the group pool.