Myanma Dancers

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Taken in Myannmar (also called Burma by some) in February, 2007 with a Canon Powershot S-50 compact camera. The naming of this country is fraught with difficulty. It’s also caught up in politics so I’m by no means sure what adjective to use in the title. I could use “burmese”, but I’m not sure that this captures the diversity in the country – ‘Burma’ being derived from ‘Bama’ only one of the ethic groups in the country. My research leads me to believe that the correct usage is “Myanma’ so the title is ‘Myanma Dancers’. You’d never guess that I used to work for the United Nations would you.

For more information on this topic see: Names of Myanmar.

Do most people take great pictures?

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Source: 80% of People Think They Take Excellent Photos, Study Finds

The saying goes that “you are your own worst critic,” but when it comes to photography, a Canon photo trends study finds that the old adage simply doesn’t track. In fact, the vast majority of people think their photography is ‘good to excellent.’

Incredible! I feel that the vast majority of my pictures are mediocre at best and the few that aren’t are probably more related to luck than anything else. As I browse through Facebook and see the pictures there my sense is that most of them are bad to ordinary. I guess my definition of ‘good to excellent’ is different from many others.

Fan Vaults

by Posted in Black & White, Buildings/Structures Leave a comment
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I suppose I could say that I was aiming for a diffused, high key effect here, but it wouldn’t be true. In reality I was using a recently purchased Canon f1.4 lens in Leica Thread Mount on my Sony Nex 5N. I think it’s probably the first manual focus lens (with adapter) that I’d ever tried. I’d bought the camera specifically with this in mind – that I cold use legacy lenses with it. The camera was also quite new to me and I didn’t, at the time, understand precisely how focus zoom and focus peaking worked. So my focus was all over the place – particularly wide open. So I missed the focus. However, I still like the shot – out of focus or not. The curves of the fan vaults are just spectacular.

Taken in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City in February, 2012