photography
Two Photographs Accepted into the 2008 Orange County Fair
07:20 PM / 22 Jun 2008
I got two photographs accepted into the Orange County Fair
this year. If you happen to be at the fair
this year (July 11 through August 3) head over
to the Visual Arts building. Thumbails of my
two submissions are below. If you want to see
a larger image, head over to this
page where you can see each of this
photographs a bit larger.
“Chopper Monster”
This was shot at Cooks Corner in Trabuco Canyon.
The original photograph was of the engine and the
fuel tank. I then rotated it, mirrored it, then
duplicated the whole thing and mirror that one more
time to create this kaleidescope-like affect.
“Half Dome Meadow”
This is one of those right place at the right time
shots. This is definitely one of my favorite
pictures I’ve taken. I’ve setup a page where
these can be purchased. Come and get it
|
Viewfinder: Aligning Photographs into the 3D World of Google Earth
05:53 AM / 04 Jun 2008
The folks at USC’s Interactive Media
Division have got a cool project underway.
Viewfinder.
Their stated objective is "to provide a
straightforward procedure for geo-locating
photos of any kind" and specify that "a
10-year-old should be able to find the pose of
a photo in less than a minute". If that still
sounds like a bit like technical gobbley-goop,
here is the idea: You take a picture of
someone in front of a landmark. Now you want
to superimpose that photo into a 3D world so
that the image is perfectly aligned to the
model.
Did that help? No??? OK, then watch their video (below) and you will get the idea immediately.
Did that help? No??? OK, then watch their video (below) and you will get the idea immediately.
New Image Compositing, Panoramic Photography Features Coming From Adobe
06:32 AM / 20 May 2008
Earlier last month, Adobe had a
financial analyst meeting where they demo'd
some new technology they are currently working on.
Two of the demos were done by Photoshop PM
John Nack and both them related to merging
images into a composite scene.
Below, is a screen shot from a cool demonstration. Here, John took a series of macro photographed images with selective focus (meaning, there was an extremely shallow depth of field for each image). When all of the images were merged, a composited "in focus" image was produced. But seeing is believing (and easier to understand). So, go to about 19 minutes into the webinar to see this in action.
Read More...
Below, is a screen shot from a cool demonstration. Here, John took a series of macro photographed images with selective focus (meaning, there was an extremely shallow depth of field for each image). When all of the images were merged, a composited "in focus" image was produced. But seeing is believing (and easier to understand). So, go to about 19 minutes into the webinar to see this in action.
Read More...
Digital Cameras: What to Buy - Point-and-Shoot or a DSLR
06:21 AM / 26 Mar 2008
About once a month or so, I get someone asking me
about cameras. Specifically, what kind I prefer and
what recommendations I would have for them when
considering a purchase. Yesterday, I zapped off a
long-winded email to someone explaining my thoughts
on whether a point-and-shoot or a digital SLR is
the right purchase for them.
While both types of cameras are great, if you're looking for something with a bit more flexibility, I recommend a DSLR. Read on to see why... Read More...
While both types of cameras are great, if you're looking for something with a bit more flexibility, I recommend a DSLR. Read on to see why... Read More...
Morper Photographs Now Available for Purchase
05:38 PM / 11 Feb 2008
While I certainly don't plan to retire off of the
proceeds, I am now selling some of my photography
through this website. This first photograph to be
made available for sale is
Half Dome
Meadow.
I shot this one in late November while visiting
Yosemite with my family.
Size and order
information available by clicking on "Read More."
Seam Carvning Coming to Photoshop Plugin: Courtesy of OnOne Software
06:12 AM / 25 Jan 2008
Earlier this week, OnOne Software announced it
has purchased Liquid Resize. This product uses
a technique known as “seam carving” to reduce
the distortion that typically occurs when
manipulating the aspect ratio of an image. If
you have not heard of or seen
"seam carving" in action, I previously blogged
about it several months ago.
To get an idea of what seam carving is all about, read the blog post link above and/or check out this YouTube video below:
Read More...
To get an idea of what seam carving is all about, read the blog post link above and/or check out this YouTube video below:
Read More...
Flickr and the Library of Congress: Tagging Public Pictures
05:45 AM / 21 Jan 2008
Flickr and the Library of Congress have teamed up to try and describe, tag, attribute as many photographs as possible currently held by the Library of Congress for which no known copyright holder exists. Read More...
World Wide Panorama Events: Best of 2007, Wrinkle in Time Contributions
07:04 AM / 01 Jan 2008
The World Wide Panorama began in March 2004 and has
become an ongoing series of events. Photography
takes place on the solstices (longest and shortest
days of the year) and equinoxes (day and night of
equal length). Photographers all over the world are
welcome to participate. I have participated five
times in the last four years. And this year, I
managed to get two contributions included.
I really encourage you to check out the work of all the photographers that have contributed to these projects. Not only did nearly 300 panoramic photographs contribute to these two projects, but most of the images can be seen full screen and all are geo-located on a map of the world so you can see where each image was photographed. A special thanks goes out to the organizers of the world wide panorama effort, as without them these last 17 events would not have taken place.
Wrinkle in Time
19 December 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of this initial event. The original Wrinkle in Time project is considered the first major, collaborative immersive, panoramic photography event. To enter the original event, your panoramic photograph was to be taken at the exact same time as the solstice in one's local area. 10 years later, the original event was commemorated by 165 photographers from every corner of the world taking an immersive, 360 degree panoramic photograph within a 12 hour window before and after the Solstice in the photographer's locale.
Since the Solstice passed at 10:08pm local time on 19 December, I elected to take a picture of Christmas lights in the neighborhood. My contribution for the Wrinkle in Time 2007 event can be viewed on the World Wide Panorama website.
[ View: Mike Morper's Wrinkle in Time 2007 panoramic photograph contribution ]
And for your Google Earth users, all of the photographed for this event can be viewed in Google Earth. Read More...
I really encourage you to check out the work of all the photographers that have contributed to these projects. Not only did nearly 300 panoramic photographs contribute to these two projects, but most of the images can be seen full screen and all are geo-located on a map of the world so you can see where each image was photographed. A special thanks goes out to the organizers of the world wide panorama effort, as without them these last 17 events would not have taken place.
Wrinkle in Time
19 December 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of this initial event. The original Wrinkle in Time project is considered the first major, collaborative immersive, panoramic photography event. To enter the original event, your panoramic photograph was to be taken at the exact same time as the solstice in one's local area. 10 years later, the original event was commemorated by 165 photographers from every corner of the world taking an immersive, 360 degree panoramic photograph within a 12 hour window before and after the Solstice in the photographer's locale.
Since the Solstice passed at 10:08pm local time on 19 December, I elected to take a picture of Christmas lights in the neighborhood. My contribution for the Wrinkle in Time 2007 event can be viewed on the World Wide Panorama website.
[ View: Mike Morper's Wrinkle in Time 2007 panoramic photograph contribution ]
And for your Google Earth users, all of the photographed for this event can be viewed in Google Earth. Read More...
Fred Miranda's Photoshop Automation Scripts Updated for CS3, Intel Macs, Vista
05:56 AM / 20 Dec 2007
For the last several years, my digital photography
workflow has relied heavily upon a few Photoshop
automation scripts from Fred Miranda. From
unmatched
sharpening to
image scaling, these Photoshop automations are
a must have. Both of these can be purchased
from Fred's site and each cost less than
US$25.00. To see samples of both, keep
reading.
Read More...
Photograph Enlarged on Canvas: Success!
04:56 PM / 08 Dec 2007
Have you ever wanted to enlarge a picture really, really big and output it onto canvas. OK, maybe not. But I have always wanted to give it a go. Of course, you need to have the right place for a big print on canvas. So subject matter is everything. Read More...
SlideShowPro: Create Flash-based Slide Shows with Lightroom
06:51 AM / 05 Dec 2007
Adobe's Lightroom is my "comfort place" when it
comes to managing, editing and publishing my
photography. I've used many, many apps in my photo
management life (some
not so great) and hand's-down, Lightroom is
the one for me. Of course, the first time I saw
SlideShowPro
from Dominey Design, well.... I really wished
Lightroom would have support for it. It does
now...
New Landscape Photograph: Half Dome Meadow
07:48 PM / 02 Dec 2007
As I mentioned in my last post, I managed to get a few good shots while in Yosemite during the Thanksgiving week. Here is the second shot I have finished up. Please click the "Read More..." link below for a bit more information.
Read More...New Landscape Photograph: Moonrise Over Yosemite
06:19 AM / 26 Nov 2007
Last week, we packed our car up and headed off to Yosemite for a long overdue vacation. I managed to get a couple of photographs taken while I was there that I am pretty happy with.
Read More...Chopper Monster
08:29 PM / 12 Nov 2007
There's nothing like playing with shapes. And over
saturating the image, mirroring it a couple of
times and you get something pretty cool. Ladies and
gentlemen... I present to you, Chopper Monster.
Read More...
Read More...
Car Extrication Demonstration at OCFA Open House
06:39 PM / 13 Oct 2007
Today, the Orange County Fire
Authority (OCFA) held their annual Open House. With two boys
that eat, drink and think all things fire
fighting, today was all about visiting
stations and of course the main training
facility of the OCFA. While there, we saw a
couple of demonstrations -- a car extrication
and a fast attack. The photograph below was
shot during the car extrication demonstration
conducted by the crew from Truck 9.
To see a version of this panorama you can pan around within, head over to my full screen panorama page.
Read More...
To see a version of this panorama you can pan around within, head over to my full screen panorama page.
Read More...
Sustenance: World Wide Panorama is Live
06:25 AM / 09 Oct 2007
For the 15th time, the folks at the Geography Computing Facility at
the University of California Berkeley
(with the help of a few
others) hosted this VR photography event.
What began in March 2004 has become an ongoing
series of events. Photography takes place on
the solstices (longest and shortest days of
the year) and equinoxes (day and night of
equal length). Photographers from all over the
world participate.
This time, over 200 photographers from all over the world contributed images (all shot between 19-23 September 2007) related to the theme of Sustenance.
One of the contributor's to the "Sustenance" VR photography event
Read More...
This time, over 200 photographers from all over the world contributed images (all shot between 19-23 September 2007) related to the theme of Sustenance.
One of the contributor's to the "Sustenance" VR photography event
Read More...
The Great Lightbox Debate
07:08 AM / 11 Sep 2007
Wow, who knew a little Javascript would garner so
much attention. Yesterday, Ryan
over at 37signals.com shared his lack of
interest for Lightbox. For those of you
not familiar with Lightbox, it is effectively
a method to view a larger rendition of an
image on a webpage where the background of the
page becomes near black, while the image
itself appears to be in a pop-up window.
Ryan's post indicated that he believes that
context is lost when this new image supersedes
the page -- effectively all style, and context
of the site is lost. Well, I disagree when it
comes to presenting photography.
The screen shot above illustrates the Lightbox affect -- a near black background with the image enlarged and brought front and center.
Read More...
The screen shot above illustrates the Lightbox affect -- a near black background with the image enlarged and brought front and center.
Read More...
Here Come Google Street View Maps of the OC
06:19 AM / 06 Sep 2007
In case you didn't read about it, a couple of
months ago Google introduced a new capability to
their Google Maps called Street View. In addition
to viewing either satellite images, street map
detail or street maps composited on top of the
satellite images, now they have a view as though
you are on street level. In the graphic below, you
can see the corner of Park Avenue and PCH in Laguna
Beach.
These Street View maps allow you to navigate down the street by clicking on the arrows in the photograph. What's more, you can pan around (left and right) within the image itself to gain a bit more immersive perspective on that particular location.
Read More...
These Street View maps allow you to navigate down the street by clicking on the arrows in the photograph. What's more, you can pan around (left and right) within the image itself to gain a bit more immersive perspective on that particular location.
Read More...
You Press the Button - We Do the Rest. September 4, 1888 the Birth of Snapshot Photography
05:27 AM / 04 Sep 2007
119 years ago today, George Eastman introduced
point and shoot photography with the launch of his
first camera -- the Original KODAK. His patent for
his point and shoot camera was issued on this day
as well.
While I don't have an original KODAK camera,
I do
have several Kodak cameras that date as early as
1899. Pictured above is the line drawing
from the original patent issued. To see the
complete patent, continue reading this posting
below.
According to kodak.com,
the word "Kodak" was also first registered as a
trademark in 1888. There has been some fanciful
speculation, from time to time, on how the name
was originated. But the plain truth is that
Eastman invented it out of thin air.
He explained: "I devised the name myself. The
letter "K" had been a favorite with me -- it seems
a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a
question of trying out a great number of
combinations of letters that made words starting
and ending with 'K.' The word 'Kodak' is the
result." Kodak's distinctive yellow trade dress,
which Eastman selected, is widely known throughout
the world and is one of the company's more valued
assets.
Orange County, California Picture Map
05:55 AM / 29 Aug 2007
And now for your viewing pleasure, I give you
Orange
County, California. OK, not the whole
place, but at least a few notable locations
such as: San Clemente Pier, Seal Beach Pier,
Balboa Fun Zone in Newport Beach, Greeter's
Corner in Laguna Beach, Cook's Corner biker
bar in Trabuco Canyon and last but not least,
the hills around my neighborhood after a
pretty good sized fire came through the area.
Click the picture above to view the Orange County, California picture map.
Read More...
Click the picture above to view the Orange County, California picture map.
Read More...
Panoramic Photos of Kennedy Space Center, Seal Beach Pier, Fire Station Playhouse and Some Sanctuary
06:37 AM / 28 Aug 2007
I got a few more panoramic photos posted
this morning. These three include two cubic
images -- meaning, these images have a full
360 x 180 degree display. Not only can you pan
left and right, but also up and down. And they
really look good full screen too.
Here is the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This image was created using six photographs shot with a fisheye lens. Four horizontal shots (each at 90 degree increments) one pointing straight up and one straight down. Each of the images was handheld (as opposed to using a tripod and a pano head).
View "Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden" in fullscreen
Read More...
Here is the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This image was created using six photographs shot with a fisheye lens. Four horizontal shots (each at 90 degree increments) one pointing straight up and one straight down. Each of the images was handheld (as opposed to using a tripod and a pano head).
View "Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden" in fullscreen
Read More...
Picture Maps
07:51 AM / 25 Aug 2007
With mashups continuing to be so popular, I have
taken advantage of Google's recently announced
capability for
embedding Google My Maps into web
pages.
I've mashed-up some of my photography with
Google Maps. Translation: Now you can see
exactly where each of my photographs was
taken. As of today, I have posted two Picture
Maps of my photography:
Paris / Loire Valley and Rome.
Read More...
Read More...
Seam Carving Technology Eliminates Distortion in Stretched Images
06:25 AM / 21 Aug 2007
Wow. This one is really cool. Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir
demonstrate in this video their technique
of "Seam Carving for Content-Aware Image
Resizing." Basically, these guys have
figured out how to keep items in a photograph
from distorting when scaling an image
horizontally or vertically. The technology
looks for paths of pixels that can be removed
while causing the least visual
disruption.
Patrick Swieskowski has created a great Flash-based demo so you can see how this all works. Go check out Patrick's Seam Carving Flash demonstration.
Read More...
Patrick Swieskowski has created a great Flash-based demo so you can see how this all works. Go check out Patrick's Seam Carving Flash demonstration.
Read More...
Water Bridge, Jamaican Flower, Crush Added to Photograhy
07:58 AM / 20 Aug 2007
I added a couple of my (recent) favorite
photographs to the site today: Water Bridge,
Jamaican Flower, "Crush"
Read More...
Read More...
Photographs Submitted for the OC Fair
07:18 AM / 26 Jun 2007
I decided to put a few pictures in the photography
exhibition at the Orange County Fair this year. If
you happen to be in the OC, drop on by the Fair and
see if you find these photographs there. Click on
the "Read More..." link below to see the
photographs.
Read More...
Read More...
New Google Maps Include 360 Panoramic Street View
07:10 AM / 30 May 2007
Pretty darn cool. Now in select cities (San Francisco Bay area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver) you can get a “street view” within Google Maps. So I did a search for Moscone Center, clicked on the “street view” button in the window and a new map marker that looks like a person landed on the page. Move the marker to where you want it, and voila a 360 panoramic image of that location pops up.
As you see above, the photograph is pretty darn good. And just like the 360 degree panoramic photos I take, you can click down in the photo and pan left and right to look around in these Google Maps images. Finally, you can also click on the arrows to move up or down the street.
Panoramic Photo of Cook’s Corner Biker Bar, Trabuco Canyon, California
07:54 AM / 25 Apr 2007
Cook’s Corner - Trabuco Canyon, California:
April 2007
Cook’s Corner is a “biker bar” tucked away in a small corner of Orange County California (yeah, the OC) where folks come out to show off their bikes. At any point in time, you’ll find over 50 immaculately painted, shining bikes that would make the guys at OC Choppers impressed. But something tells me, the day jobs these road hog riders require them to wear suits and ties.
Read More...
Cook’s Corner is a “biker bar” tucked away in a small corner of Orange County California (yeah, the OC) where folks come out to show off their bikes. At any point in time, you’ll find over 50 immaculately painted, shining bikes that would make the guys at OC Choppers impressed. But something tells me, the day jobs these road hog riders require them to wear suits and ties.
Read More...
Panoramic Photos of Chateau Cheneceau, Balboa Fun Zone in Newport Beach, CA
07:46 AM / 30 Mar 2007
Chateau Cheneceau - Loire Valley, France:
April 2002
Five days after our neighborhood nearly burned down, we found ourselves in the Loire Valley. This is one of the first panoramic photographs I took using a digital SLR. And it is still one of my favorites too.
[ View: See this image of the Chateau Cheneceau in fullscreen ] Read More...
Five days after our neighborhood nearly burned down, we found ourselves in the Loire Valley. This is one of the first panoramic photographs I took using a digital SLR. And it is still one of my favorites too.
[ View: See this image of the Chateau Cheneceau in fullscreen ] Read More...
Panoramic Photos of Covered Bridge, Log Bridge, Fire on a Hill
07:39 AM / 26 Mar 2007
Frontier Street Fire - Trabuco Canyon,
California: April 2002
There is nothing quite like getting a call from a friend while you are 5,000 miles from home to find out there is a big fire in your neighborhood. Great work by the Orange County Fire Authority saved our whole neighborhood.
[ View: See this image of the Frontier Street Fire in fullscreen ]
Read More...
There is nothing quite like getting a call from a friend while you are 5,000 miles from home to find out there is a big fire in your neighborhood. Great work by the Orange County Fire Authority saved our whole neighborhood.
[ View: See this image of the Frontier Street Fire in fullscreen ]
Read More...
Immersive 360 Degree Panoramas Coming Back to www.morper.net
07:34 AM / 18 Mar 2007
I am finally getting back around to posting some of
my panoramic photography. I’m going to start
posting back up some of my first photographs.
Today’s photographs were taken in 1999 and 2000. I
think these are two of the first three I ever
photographed. Both of these images were taking with
print film, then I scanned the prints. These are
known as cylinder panoramas -- meaning, when you
view these fullscreen [ US Capitol, Greeter’s
Corner ] you can only look left or right. Later, I
will post some of my cubic images (these allow you
to look straight up and straight down too).
Read More...
Read More...
That’s Marketing: Super Bowl Style
07:18 AM / 04 Feb 2007
Doing my rounds this morning reviewing some of my
favorite Marketing blogs and came
across this great marketing effort for the
Bears in support of today’s game. Click on the
picture to see a very large image. And if you
think this was computer generated or
Photoshopped, nope it wasn’t. Here is how they make the
Chicago skyline root on the Bears.
Read More...
Read More...
Panoramic Camera Head on the Cheap
06:10 AM / 10 Aug 2006
Pretty funny. Some guy posted over at MAKE Blog how to make a 360
pano head outta wood for ten bucks. I’m
thinking Manfrotto doesn’t have anything to
worry about here. But “A” for effort.
Submission in Panoramas of Europe Contest
05:40 AM / 23 Jun 2006
I am participating in a photography contest at the
moment. I just got an email this week that my image
is in the gallery of images for the contest. No
idea if I won or not. I’m not holding my breath
I guess I find out in the next
couple of weeks.
Here is a link to my panorama of Catherine de Médici's Gardens outside the Chateau de Chenonceau on the contest website. And if you want to see the photograph as a fullscreen, immersive panoramic (aka QuickTime VR), here is another link to the panorama of Chenonceau.
I guess I find out in the next
couple of weeks.
Here is a link to my panorama of Catherine de Médici's Gardens outside the Chateau de Chenonceau on the contest website. And if you want to see the photograph as a fullscreen, immersive panoramic (aka QuickTime VR), here is another link to the panorama of Chenonceau.
Black and White Workflow Plug-in for Photoshop
06:58 PM / 15 Jun 2006
I have played around for several years in Photoshop
trying to produce good quality black and white
images. But hands down, the best way I have found
to produce images that look like they were
originally shot on Tri-X (or similar) film is to
use a great Photoshop automation tool from Fred
Miranda. Check out his Black and White Workflow Pro
Plug-in. The amount of control you have over your
image with this automation plugin is amazing.
Read More...
Read More...
Camera Collection Back up on Morper.net
06:41 PM / 31 May 2006
Today, I reposted my camera collection. All of my
Kodak cameras -- and a few others -- dating as far
back as the late 1800s are now back up on my site.
Link: Mike's classic
camera collection.