Vietnamese Coffee
Jun 20 at 1:01am by ObverseView
Vietnamese coffee may not be much of a treat if you’re feeling depressed or suffering from ‘the blues’ but I swear a little quality Vietnamese coffee will really cheer you: it’s either the sugar in the condensed milk, or the hazlenut flavored coffee that wafts out of the unique coffee plunger. I’m not sure which, but well worth it!
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Photos of North East Coast: Giant Beehives and Sunsets
Jun 13 at 12:12am by ObverseView
Interesting naturalistic type ‘beehive’ houses. These have just been finished, but since it’s private property, we daren’t go and take a look. Photo by Christine.
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Sunday Photos: Taiwan’s Large Leaves
May 30 at 11:11pm by ObverseView
Wish I were a botanist… I’d know what this plant is for sure! Christine told me that they used to use it as an umbrella in the summer showers! It’s certainly big enough! Anyone?
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May Snow: Taiwan Nature Photo
May 4 at 12:12am by ObverseView
Lovely photo: Look at the Snow in May.
It’s common around some areas of Taiwan.
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Product Photo: Success #1
Apr 16 at 10:10pm by ObverseView
This is my first successful picture on my new light tent. I thought you’d like to see the ‘fruits’ (or is that beans?) of my success. I had to crop a lot of the original picture out but I think in taking these pictures I discovered that I have too much shadow in the foreground. Something I need to work on.
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Photoshoot #2: Sample Picture
Apr 13 at 12:12am by ObverseView
Ok. This one of the hundred or so photographs I tried today. I didn’t use any editing on the image (yet) but I thought you would like to see what I’ve been doing.
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Making a Light Tent: Trial by Error
Mar 26 at 10:10pm by ObverseView
I’ve been busy these past few days, one of the reasons I don’t post much on this blog. What have I been doing?
Needing Photographs
In the effort of building my own product site (click to see the post about that), I realized that I needed very specific photographs for my site, far more so than I had anticipated.
I had originally thought that I would be able to get by using photos purchased from Istockphoto.com but I didn’t realize that the photos were merely depictions of generic items.
For many of my upcoming review and profile pages, I needed specific products that had been photographed: eg, Columbian Coffee Beans or Instant Coffee Powder or whatever.
It’s okay to use some of the generic pictures available, but if you want to be specific, you just can’t use generic photographs of products: there’s no way you can be sure what is being photographed.
I’m not sure of the legality of using pictures taken from places like Amazon either. Even though I’d be using the pictures to promote Amazon products, I wouldn’t be using them in EXACTLY the way they intended.
While I could use product manufacturer’s pictures without too much of a problem, I guess that part of the problem is that I can’t photograph or portray exactly what I wanted.
So enter the Light Tent
I know it’s not exactly impressive, but I thought I needed to take a first step rather than just sit twisting in the wind! So I did.
The exact instructions are here. I followed them as best I could. But I had to make up the part about the lamps I need. I ended up using 2 x 15W white light CF bulbs in each of the smaller lamps, and a 23W white CF bulb in the top light. There’s also a lot of ambient light from the room lights.
The other part where I had to improvise was the camera: I just used what I had, my Lumix LMC-DX30 which could do small and reasonably close up shots of products. I’m not exactly sure how I will be able to take photos of beans yet. That may require some artistry on my part, esp. if I can’t get a decent close-up.
First sample photographs
When you start taking photographs, it is merely testing the waters: take a look. Any feedback would be appreciated!
This picture isn’t well cropped, but that’s because I cropped it too closely. I know that. What do you think about the sharpness? The color? The background?
I’m making it up as I go along. I do believe the next few shots will be better but the background seems troublingly gray. I’m not sure why yet. The background is why, so perhaps there’s an overcast of shadow on the back.
Having fun!
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Over the Tamsui Estuary and Far Away
Feb 15 at 12:12am by ObverseView
This picture was taken overlooking the Tamsui Estuary on a rather pleasant day in February! Enjoy!
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Sanhsia Old Street: Winter 2010
Feb 9 at 11:11pm by ObverseView
This image is a little blurry, because it was taken in fading light on a mobile phone camera!
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Flower Photo: Flower Season 2010 in Taipei
Feb 4 at 10:10pm by ObverseView
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