Photography Notes


(My wife wanted me to include this little guy, so here he is. I'm not sure what it means....)


Well, if you have made it this far, you must have some interest in my pictures. First off, 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 (sort-of) technical details. First of all, I am not a real photographer. That is to say, I use a camera which combines a basic point-and-shoot design with a certain amount of manual override capability. The device is an Olympus Infinity SuperZoom 300 (I bought mine in 1988), which takes 35-mm film and has a 38-105 mm zoom lens. 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. I have found that my trusty camera often does a better job at that than I would, in all likelihood. 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 to manipulate some of these images, though most of them are largely or entirely unaltered. Most of the manipulation I have done is simply to resize the images, though in some cases I have indulged in a few special effects. In my comments on individual shots, I have noted whether I altered to picture in any way.


Very well, on to the individual shots:
(The links below lead to the pages that contain the images. If you follow them, you can return to this page by using the "back" key on your browser.)


When you first arrived, you saw 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.


Tropical and Subtropical Destinations:

The image of Hong Kong is a basic "auto-everything" slide. The caption states that it was taken during a taiphoon, which is basically true. In fact, Hong Kong was flying taiphoon signal one at the time, which amounted to gale-force winds and a bit of rain. It also made for a rough landing at Kai Tak airport. This slide has not been altered.

On the Macau page, the image of the Portuguese Church has been made smaller, and I cropped it a little, but it is otherwise unaltered. For information on the other images, follow the links provided:

Fortaleza do Monte
Taoist Temple


On the Nepal page, there is an image of the mountain known as Machhapuchhare. The shot was taken in the early morning, and it has not been altered. For information on the other Nepal shots, please follow these links:

Annapurna Massif
Bakhtapur Durbar Square
Bakhtapur Street Scene
Bodhnath Tibetan Stupa
Hindu Temple in Kathmandu
Kathmandu Durbar Square
Kathmandu Valley Flora
Rhesus Macaque
Swayambanath Tibetan Stupa
Temple Roof Strut, Patan
Tibetan Stupa in Kathmandu

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. For information on the other images, please follow the links provided:

Bodie Island Lighthouse
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Currituck Beach Lighthouse


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.


Extratropical Destinations

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. For information on the other images, please follow the links provided:

Edinburgh
Norman Church
Ruin on the Isle of Skye
St. David's Cathedral
Stonehenge
Uffington Castle
Weyland's Smithy


On the France page, the image of Mont St. Michel was a straightforward, "infinity" focus, autoexposure photograph. The same goes for the other image of Mont St. Michel. For information on the picture of the sunset in Paris or the Cathedral at Chartres, just follow the links.

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:

Dun Duchair
Inis Mor

The picture of the Great Wall, in the North China section, has been cropped and resized.

On the page devoted to the Oregon High Desert, there is an image of the Painted Hills. This shot has not been enhanced in any way. The same is true of the other Painted Hills image and of the Obsidian formation image.

In the Pacific Northwest section, the image of the Hoh River is an "auto-everything" slide, taken on a rainy day in Washington. For information on the other images, please follow the links provided:

Coquille River Lighthouse
Crater Lake
Mt. Scott
Yaquina Head Lighthouse


On the Tibet page, the image of Sera Monastery is unenhanced. It was taken at mid-day at an elevation of about 12,000 feet. For information on the other Tibet images, please follow these links:

Drepung Monastery
Drovers crossing the Tsuo La
Gyangtse Dzong
Kumbum at Gyangtse
Lama at Drepung Monastery
Lake Yamdrok
Monastery Door
Nosin Kang Sa Mountain
Potala Palace
Prayer flags atop the Tsuo La
Mt. Everest
Sakya Monastery
Tashilhunpo Monastery
Tingri Plain Fortress
Xixipangma Mountain


Other Topics

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. For information on the other miscellaneous pictures, please follow the links provided:

Sunset in Virginia
October Moon

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.

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Copyright © 1996 Scott Carr

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