N. Thailand through a REBEL (dSLR)

[phuketbound]

Awesome pics, Bustak! I just saw this thread, and I adore the cat and dog photos that you've taken.

I'm in the market for a new camera, and this thread is helpful. Thanks. What sort of price does your camera sell for?

[bustak]

^ I'm not 100% sure now.

I think you can get my camera & kit lens in Thailand for around 25,000 b, if you're in S. Korea it should be cheaper. In the States it's going for 22,000 b.

[bustak]

I picked up a 2nd hand Lens Baby last night for my dSLR:
Lensbaby - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

here's a few pictures I took today:












these were tweaked in photoshop, mainly the colors/b&w conversion, & sharpening the focal points.

[Bobcock]

How did you find it?

Tough to get sharp sometimes aren't they?

I had the greatest opportunity in my Angkor thread to get a great shot, but the amount of twist just wouldn't allow me to get the mask sharp enough to be a quality shot.

[bustak]

^ it was a bit of a pain at 1st, but it's getting easier.

This is a good lens for goofing around, or going for a certain affect. I wouldn't use it in a crunch situation, ie. I wanted to snap a picture of a UFO landing in my backyard.

over all it's a fun lens. I have The Original Lens Baby, which one do you have?

[bustak]

[Bobcock]

2.0

Not the one you can fix in position

[bustak]

I really like this shot:






front


back

[hillbilly]

Great shots!

So many people are afraid of taking chances with various lenses. With the digital cameras, I say why not.

[DrAndy]

I guess years ago it was popular. Now its just a run down dive. You'd be lucky if there was more than 1 over the hill girl working there. The place is virtually empty as is the whole "Burmese Section" back there.

If you want to get ripped off, beat up or find underage girls, that's the part of town you'd find it in.

Ok, let's organise a meet there soon

[bustak]

moving into our new house tomorrow, I should be packing but I'd rather take pictures w/ the Lens Baby!



my gf:












took these from the back of a motorbike

[Bobcock]

Nice eye-dea.

I really wish you would talk us through your sharpening process, or at least email me the action to try it out.

I did a self portrait in a nice big crome motor cycle headlight yesterday, but it came out so well I realised I don't want you buggers knowing what I look like without the bulldog clips on.

[bustak]

^ I tried to do a tutorial a few weeks ago, but the screen captures on the vital screens didn't work.

Basically what I do is I use the quick mask tool* in PS:


then I put the item I want to sharpen/pop on a separate layer.

I then use the sharpen tool, not unsharp masking.

I'll adjust the levels on that item, usually opening up the highlights & that's it.

I usually can make a crappy picture look OK, & a OK picture look GREAT.

Hope that helps.

* this is a helpful page on using the quick mask tool: Quick Mask tool - a Photoshop guide

[Bobcock]

Thanks, do me a favour and take a pic of mine and perform your sharpening and post it, I'd love to see what would happen.

I us unsharp mask on only a single layer when the pic is broken down to Lab Colour.

[bustak]

^ OK.

Here's one from your Angkor Wat series:


this is after the process I described above:


The original shot is a good one, but a little flat.

It's really easy to do, took my 5 minutes to perform.

[Nawty]

I think the second one to bright now.

The first one is a little dark.

Do we have one that is just right ??

[Bobcock]

Plick

[bustak]

in CM there was a flower festival. I went to it, but didn't take any flower pictures. I took some pictures of the workers, vendors, & garbage trucks.

Here are a few:














some non-flower show pictures:








a friend of mine went to Mai Sai & picked up a bottle of SHIRAZ for me:


had a couple of glasses tonight, with some cheesy poofs.

[bustak]

oh yeah, there was a lot of cops on the streets of CM tonight.

The King's oldest daughter was in town:

[bustak]

I think I'm going to finish the bottle tonight


this goes good w/ Kanye West's latest.

[Propagator]

I think I'm going to finish the bottle tonight

bladdy alkie

[smeden]

as always god pics keep them coming

[bustak]

spent the afternoon walking around Tha Phae Gate










I was sitting down w/ my back against the wall reading & this woman (Joy) said "Hey Mister"


I said "What?" She pointed at a cat sitting in a wall & said "picture." So I took this picture:

[Nawty]

Can you put up one crappy photo to make Knobsy feel better.

[bustak]

the gf & I decided to go & visit a friend at the hospital, then head up to Doi Suthep, to see the temple and palace.

On the way out I snapped a picture of a worker doing some work on our house:


the 12th floor view from Chiang Mai Ram hospital is nice:




I drove us to the red taxi to take to Doi Suthep:


there were a lot of beautiful flowers around the Phuping Palace:


took a few more pictures of some flowers, but close-ups of flowers are over done. I just like the simple beauty of a bunch of daisies.

grab a nice shot of a bird in flight:


then we were off to the temple:












I call this photo "SAME SAME : But Different"


Once we got back down from the mountain we ate an excellent Japanese restaurant on Hauw Kaew Road call Tsunami:


tomorrow we're going to go to Lampuhn (25 minutes outside of dt Chiang Mai) to visit an old temple. If I get any good pictures, I'll post them.