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Forum: General Talk 22 Hours Ago  
Forum Member Michael Piziak has passed away
Posted By normhead
Replies: 23
Views: 1,752
So sad to hear that, I had quite a few private exchanges with him. All in good spirit.
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-12-2024, 10:40 AM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
Ya I had choice to make. If I didn't go heavy on the noise, using a severe noise setting, some of the noise got sharpened and looked like weird cobwebs hanging in space. . I kept it as little noise reduction as I could, without leaving sharpened noise in the final image. But you're right, if it was big deal, I could have done a lot better. There are also spot sharpening tools that I could have used to flatten the background noise and leave the bee untouched, or to use different levels of noise reduction and sharpening on different parts of the image. But for preliminary work, I generally just do standard settings, then look to see if I want to do more. With Denoise and Sharpening, it usually never helps every part of the image. Some areas may suffer to get what you want in other areas. And even then, others may not agree with your choices. There is absolutely no point in arguing subjective elements.
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-12-2024, 08:44 AM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
No problem, I can't tell you what will make you happy, but I can at least show you what's possible. Many times people have complained about noise in my own images, and most of the time I just slough it off. And my current preferences have changed since I got an Apple desktop with the M1 chip, which has 10 Neural Net processors for AI, cutting processing time on this type of image from a couple minutes to around 10-15 seconds. It's always risky commenting one someone else's processing. In my case, I understand that some people might like some images better, but I have to decide whether it's worth it for me personally. Often what other people like doesn't mean a lot to me. But if you want to buy a print I'll do whatever you want.:lol:
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-11-2024, 06:52 PM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
Bee-DeNoiseAI-severe-noise-Softness by Norm Head, on Flickr

This is a two stage process using Topaz Denoise AI and then Topaz Sharpening AI.
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-11-2024, 11:52 AM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
I was hesitant to do this, as I rarely post print finished images on the forum, and I'm happy posting images with noise, but I used Topaz to clean up the noise on the Bee. I'll post it if you're interested.
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-07-2024, 05:43 AM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
It's still play time with the newest pup. He's a fireball of energy in dog terms.

2023-12-19-Forest-walk_Dogs-4 by Norm Head, on Flickr

2023-11-15-Forest-walk-Chase-2 by Norm Head, on Flickr

2023-03-26-Forest-dog-walk-Jesse by Norm Head, on Flickr

And of course the "who wants a cookie?" picture
2023-01-19-Who-wants-a-cookie by Norm Head, on Flickr
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-06-2024, 08:14 PM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
Thanks, if you take your camera everywhere you go, you can find pictures everywhere you go.
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 01-06-2024, 10:59 AM  
Thematic It's That Time of Year Again (Favorite Images of 2023)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 128
Views: 5,986
Forum: General Talk 12-05-2023, 07:31 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
He forgot to mention, 50 is the new 35. :lol:

It's all relative.

On a more positive note, I'll be playing volleyball tonight. I can still hit. I'll suffer for a few days afterwards, but it's still worth it.
Forum: General Talk 12-05-2023, 07:15 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
You're making me blush here. But if I ever need a promoter I'll offer you the job first. Thanks for the comment.
Forum: General Talk 12-05-2023, 06:59 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
My Flickr page gets updated whenever I take images. Thanks for the comment.



Ya, right back at you, I've always enjoyed your posts and your images. A lot of the time I drag Tess over to look at one of your images. But as I get older, it's harder and harder to get up in the morning. I always think, if I could get up I'd be just like you, lol. Well except for the 645 stuff. I never managed to get a digital 645 (I owned two film ones and still have one in the cupboard), and these days, I kind of treat my k-1 as a 645. It's heavier to carry and only comes out when I expect to need the Dynamic Range. Most of my images these days are taken with my iPhone or K-3.
Forum: General Talk 11-28-2023, 10:54 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
Thanks for the nice comment.
Forum: General Talk 11-23-2023, 06:55 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
And to you too.
Forum: General Talk 11-23-2023, 12:53 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
From the number of times my physician has said "you're getting older" I'm guessing it happens to all of us.



I've compared my phone to my K-1 here on the forum. For many images, it's the same or better, in some it's clearly better, in some it's clearly worse. And it's always with me... that's a clear advantage.



Having all the same friends etc. is the only reason getting older is bearable. We all go though it together and can sympathize.



MY Dad got one from Mulroney when he turned 75, and burned it on the barbecue. Maybe they didn't send me one because they knew 'like father like son." If my only recognition ever was for turning 75, I wouldn't have lived much of a life. Many of my childhood friends are no longer with us....I guess turning 75 is something. The jury is still out on whether or not it's good thing. My female playmate from when I was 6 years old died at 57 years old, of a heart attack. She was in good shape, working as a prison guard, and working out regularly. Living her life, still very active before the onset of disintegration, then boom, gone. Which way is better is open to debate.
Forum: General Talk 11-21-2023, 01:37 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
I'll get back you when I have it mastered.
Forum: General Talk 11-21-2023, 07:20 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
There's a club? Is there going to be beer, funny hats and a secret handshake?



Thanks for the well wishes.



I'm not sure looking good counts for much these days.... but hey, you can only work with the hand you're dealt.
Forum: General Talk 11-20-2023, 06:01 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
Thanks Paul....



Thanks for commenting. Blessings are always accepted.
Forum: General Talk 11-20-2023, 03:22 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
But you'll never catch up.... :)



"Don't want to get banned?" When did that ever stop us before? :)
Forum: General Talk 11-20-2023, 11:44 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
Thanks for stopping by Jim. It's so good to hear from y'all (and all y'all)
Forum: General Talk 11-20-2023, 11:10 AM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
I'm beginning to remember how this site eats time. :)



Style? hmmmm...



Ya, I always think I look better than I feel.



I was always a legend in my own mind, it's good to get some agreement.



My bedside manner was never up to scratch.



These days mostly conservatives are hearing my opinions, but , I'm cutting that off as well. The news is so depressing these days.



I only feel old when I remember what I used to do.



As well as can be hoped.



Ya, we are still doing everything , just not as much. We are both doing another season of winter volleyball, and we did 3 weeks of canoe trips last year, so, slowing down but still kicking.



Thanks, after 15 years teaching photography, and another 14 on the forum, I think I was ready to retire from that role.



My birthday is actually later in October. My old canoeing buddies still get together 3 times year , snow shoeing in winter, in feb, a canoe trip in the summer hikes, during fall colours, so we celebrated my friend John's 80th birthday in the Feb. gathering and mine in the fall, neither on our real birthdays. We used to be good for 20-30 kms of tripping away. Now we keep it under 10, But we still go.

Thanks to everyone who responded. As I get older, I realize how lucky I am to have so many good friends that regularly get together, that I've known for so long. The newbies for 20 years, Arny and Dave, played on the same baseball teams since 1975. Lisa and John I've kown since 1990. A still working rocket scientist, 3 social workers, a former University of Toronto IT administrator, two teachers, one environmentalist a public health nurse, with an average age north of 75 years.

Ready to come home from our summer trip.
2023-07-01_Proulx-Lake-last-day by Norm Head, on Flickr

Paddling in October on my birthday weekend.
2023-10-04-South-River-4 by Norm Head, on Flickr

Any way, now that things are relatively to date time to get out and get some things done. We are planning to move soon, leaving South Algonquin and moving closer to North Bay. So, lots of things waiting to be done. The maintenance on this place is getting to be beyond my capabilities, and I really need to be closer to a hospital. So, severing a lot from my step-son's land and building a brand new place to our specs is on the horizon. Lots to keep me busy.

Oops I forgot Tim. Hey Tim, my 18-135 is still better than yours (or mine) 16-85 (for my own use of course). My iPhone has completely taken over the much of my landscape work. 16 mm equivalent at 48 MP, and awesome easy panos when I need more coverage. All three of my standard lenses, 16-85, 18-135 and 28-105 only get used on rare occasion these days.

The panos are so easy with this phone.
2023-10-28-Old-Hwy-127_tamaracks-3 by Norm Head, on Flickr
Forum: General Talk 11-18-2023, 05:14 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
Thanks for all the comments. Always nice to hear from people. Maybe I'll try and get back for the "your best 10 pictures from the last year" in Jan.
Forum: General Talk 11-18-2023, 01:31 PM  
Norm Head turned 75
Posted By normhead
Replies: 60
Views: 2,288
Ya, I'm feeling really old. As I need more time to do less, dropping regular posting on the forum, which used to take me to past 11am many mornings seemed like the logical thing to stop doing, just in terms of the amount of time and effort.

My party was on the 3rd of October with my old canoe/baseball buddies.
2023-10-03-NH-75th-Birthday by Norm Head, on Flickr

Some of these people I've known for 50 years.
Below T and I.

2023-10-03_NH-and-TJ-S by Norm Head, on Flickr

Not much has changes in my shooting, well apart from most of it being done with a phone these days.

A few examples.
Duchesnay Falls in North Bay , Ontario.
2023-10-04-Duchesny-Falls by Norm Head, on Flickr

I still trip to Algonquin Park regularly.
2023-110-24-AP-Tamaracks-pano by Norm Head, on Flickr

2023-11-05-AP-Heron-Beaver-Pond by Norm Head, on Flickr

We still get wildlife in the yard.
2023-10-26-Wild-turkey-S by Norm Head, on Flickr

2023-11-04-Back-yard-Fox by Norm Head, on Flickr

2023-08-14-Backyard-deer by Norm Head, on Flickr

We attended the North Bay Blues Fest a while ago.
2023-09-02-Bluesfest by Norm Head, on Flickr

We had a nice family visit... my grandson, great grandson and great grand daughter are pictured here.
We did some camping this summer.
2023-07-11-Theo-family by Norm Head, on Flickr

Puppy Chase has grown and matured. He's 2 years old now.
2023-11-15-Forest-walk-Chase-2 by Norm Head, on Flickr

Tia , Misty and Jesse are all doing well, but starting to get on.
2023-10-26-Forest-walk-dogs by Norm Head, on Flickr


Just thought I'd check in case anyone wondered what I'm up to. Same old same old.Take care all.
Forum: General Photography 03-06-2023, 06:10 AM  
Favorite aperture?
Posted By normhead
Replies: 80
Views: 3,188
Basicly, if you use sharpening, you may create artifacts.... stronger sharpening produces stronger artifacts. Most of us who sharpen regularly have images we'd redo for printing. It's a matter of how much time you want to spend getting things perfect, on an image that will be popular for 15 minutes. For a few artifacts on an image, when I've processed 40 that day, spending 40 minutes an image is physically impossible. My only concern is that they look good enough to post. Blanket sharpening of an image with transitions and out of focus areas, can leave you with a few artifacts, but I still like them better than not denoising and sharpening. But of course that's personal preference. If someone wants to pay me for the work, I'll do what it takes to produce a clean image. The one I'm waiting to see that came back from the printer (at my step sons because not every company ships to the boonies) I didn't spend a lot of time on it. But I'd taken a lot of time on taking the image. Careful control of the focal plane with Live View, a tripod and two second timer, and Pixel Shift. When you do a good job placing the focal plane and getting a good exposure, a lot of the time you don't need a lot of sharpening. Time spent before saves time after. But when you're going for a walk and just snapping as you go, it can take a lot of PP to bring the images up to what you want. Anything I want to print is going to take at least an hour of PP, and it's going to be proofed by my wife before it goes out, unless it's perfect right off the camera. There's not enough time in the day to do that for everything I take.

For me aperture is part of a formula. To small an aperture means diffraction (Although the closer you're to your subject the less you have to worry about diffraction.) As the aperture gets larger and the DoF get narrower, and out of focus areas increase in size there becomes a lot more room for artifacts if you sharpen. Even with AI software, the software doesn't always distinguish well evaluating if part of an image can be sharpened without artifacts or even if it should be at all.

Getting to know your software, you'll undergo some, over do some, you'll see a lot of images before you get it right. Every time you start with new PP software, you're going to see some weird stuff. Better to just plough on through an keep posting, not everything is perfect overnight. You may end up with a few posts which eventually embarrass you, but if you slow down, you never learn.
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 03-06-2023, 05:50 AM  
why I won't buy a k3 (Warning: Satire Thread)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 102,909
Views: 4,785,750
I was wondering about that Bertwert.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 03-05-2023, 06:19 PM  
Hiking for photography versus hiking photography (and why Pentax system is for me)
Posted By normhead
Replies: 38
Views: 2,024
Try the calendar on your phone with it set to give you reminders.

The joy of canoe camping is.... you paddle in poor light (daylight sun) , but you have time in the mornings and evenings when the sun is optimal to take images. That gets you away from the downside of being trying to get shots while travelling and the inability to control the sun. We always look for campsites that are on a point facing south or west, so we get a chance at a sunset or sunrise each day. I always tell clients if I see great picture I'm going to stop and take it, but it rarely happens.

Here we are, end of the day with my daughter and three grand kids. It's a west facing campsite with a bay behind it.. mom pulled a huge catfish out of the lake, it was quite a struggle. Then she called her chicks over and everyone pigged out. . We'd already set up camp. We just sat and watched life being life.. We're pretty sure everyone was well fed, and I got good pictures. But if this hadn't happened we were still having good time socializing on the beach, kms away from any kind of civilization.
2019-07-26-Seagull-Dinner by Norm Head, on Flickr

Here we have Cameron road in Algonquin... Photographs of Chickadees, Blue Jays, Canada Jays, wood peckers , an Nuthatches and even the odd Pine Marten can be had here on any given day. Most of these people have driven up from the Toronto area, for the day, the weekend or even the week. They don't even have to hike. Just don't park where people are feeding the birds.
2022-02-19-Photographers-1 by Norm Head, on Flickr

A Cameron Rd. Canada Jay
2022-12-12-Canada-Jay by Norm Head, on Flickr

So what does my travel kit look like? K-1 for landscape with the DFA 28-105.
2022-07-29-AP-21-Rosebary-Lk_Landscape by Norm Head, on Flickr


K-3 for wildlife. with the DA 55-300 PLM. (Spruce Bog Hiking Trail)
2021-01-30-AP-SBT_parking-lot-Chickadee- 1 by Norm Head, on Flickr

Waterproof camera for images on the portage trail or from the boat.(If all you want is a few snapshots to help remember the trips and maybe a few sunsets etc, I don't know why you'd want more than this.
2014-best-of-41 by Norm Head, on Flickr

Typically, The K-1 with 28-105 with the 100 macro in one case, and most often the Sigma 24 macro, which takes almost no space.
The K-3 with the DA 55-300 PLM in another case, with the TC.
The waterproof camera (currently my iPhone) convenient in a pack near or under my seat for easy access while travelling.

But bottom line, we like paddling, and we like photography. We don't have to break it down and say we like one and it's more important than the other. If I just want pictures, I'll join the other road warriors and drive up and down Hwy. 60 looking for images where all I have to do is get out of my car.

Go to this page and 6 images were driving , usually to go shopping, and spotted something along the way. 3 are at a set location you can drive to where the wildlife in question was likely to be found.(Cameron Road, Arrowhon Lodge. Costello Creek,) only two were on camping trips or hikes. (Two were in my back yard.)

This might be the only one I've ever taken after spotting an animal on a hike, where no animals had been previously seen.
2020-11-12Pine-Martin-DS- by Norm Head, on Flickr

So in 15 years and probably 60 trips and more than 100 hikes, I've seen one mink, one Pine Marten, and some birds, and a few moose in places I didn't expect them to be. Expecting wildlife on hikes is not a zero sum endeavour, but pretty close, unless walking through habitat known to be places they habituate.

The truth is people don't hike far with big lenses. It's not an activity conducive to wildlife photography. For DSLRs, and long hikes... a K-3 and DA 55-300 PLM is the most I'll carry. That combo is great when conditions favour it. But it may not be efficient to carry more than that, on long hikes. That and the DA 16-85 and possibly the 100 macro, is probably what I'd want to carry, at the most. And often, just the DA 18-135.

The problem with on the the fly hiking is, if you're moving, wild animals know you are there from a good distance. If you don't have open country and a long lens, you probably aren't getting a shot. And in fact, GPSed cougars and Grizzlies have been passed by hikers who were 60-100 feet away from them, and the hikers never knew they were there. They don't just sit out in the open and pose.

The best photographers, find animal hunting grounds (like an owl working a meadow), stay in a location long enough for the animals to get accustomed to them, or where they can sit long enough without moving than an animal can wander by without getting spooked. So from my perspective it comes down to there are those who don't really plan for pictures (and for the most part get nothing special) , but will take one if one presents itself, and those who go places and plan time for taking pictures.Those who plan to are a lot more successful as photographers. I actually don't even call the others photographers. Any human with phone can do that.

Don't believe for a second you'll be successful as a photographer while walking around doing something else. You can carry any camera you want, it won't matter. Good photography needs good light. And good light usually depends on being there morning or evening.
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