Sketches and Studies by Craig Houghton

First Holga pic

Craig Houghton May 8th, 2008

The rest of the roll still needs to be scanned, but here’s my first Holga pic… (Velvia 100)

photography , Holga
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Some recent backyard bee photos

Craig Houghton May 8th, 2008

Film pics (Fuji Reala 100 with an old Minolta SR-T MC-II)

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some bee butt

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these little yellow buggers looked like plastic

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more backyard plastic

Digital (DSC-H1)

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which one of these things is not like the others

photography , animals , flowers
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Some photos from Edgerton Park in New Haven

Craig Houghton April 24th, 2008

I am only a couple of rolls into this film thing, but I am loving my minty new minolta.

All taken with Fuji Reala 100.

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Thanks for looking!

photography , plants
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I received a camera and some lenses yesterday from EBay (great deal and Saturday delivery too). I am now the proud owner of a rather minty Minolta SR-T MC-II vintage 1973-75 SLR. I am fairly sure I had a Minolta metal body back in high school photo class, but it died after a 1994 mud wallow at Saugerties.

Also appearing: Kalmimar 1:3.5 35-70mm MC auto zoom, MC Rokkor-PG 1:1.4 50mm, Kiron 1:4 MC 80-200mm, and a Soligitor 2x teleconverter

So, it’s been a while since I fumbled around with manual focus or film. Here are some initial test shots. I wasn’t going for much, just a feel for what works. I’m just thankful anything came out. I have some half-decent film en route (Velvia slide), but these were taken with Walgreen’s very-own 400 speed 35mm color negative film.

Also, I still have to get my transparency adapter to work on my scanner so I can get a decent scan — these have been pulled off of the poorly compressed one-hour photo CD. Like I said, I am just (pleasantly) surprised anything developed.

most of these were taken with the Kiron 80-200mm lens and the teleconverter

a couple of grainy crops — some of it is probably from the high-speed film, but some of it is also from the low-res Walgreens compressed/sharpened scan

and Walgreens color negative 35mm film versus

my DSC-H1 digital

I am used to full manual control on my digital, but it was a blast to have no auto-focus. Although I need to get better scans, I am not unhappy with the results of the trial — I didn’t expect them to look like my usual digital photos, and I am glad they didn’t. Either way, it was great fun to look at the world through a viewfinder instead of squinting at a glared-over LCD.

Thanks for looking!

New Haven fire, Brass Monkey

Craig Houghton December 12th, 2007

These were taken around 7:30-45.

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——

from wtnh.com

New Haven (WTNH) _ New Haven firefighters are still trying to knock out a now three-alarm fire at a bar in the downtown area.

Video taken by News Channel 8 shows firefighters attacking heavy flames inside the Brass Monkey Restaurant at 29 Center Street, near Orange Street.

News Channel 8’s Crystal Haynes reports pretty much all that’s left is the facade of the building.

A section of Chapel Street between State and Church has been closed so firefighters can put out the flames. Chapel between Elm and Orange Streets is also closed

Firefighters are concerned the fire might spread to a neighboring building.

We don’t know how the fire started. Right now there are no reports of injuries.

Old man ear

Craig Houghton November 6th, 2007

In case anyone has been wondering where the hell all the art is lately, here’s the anti-climatic story: I spent half a month working on the Creature of the Week month-long challenge. I realized that I was not going to make the deadline, so I bailed. That left me with a semi-wasted half-month and 100 creature sketches that I may never scan. I have two smaller watercolors going, but I haven’t finished either. And, since November 1st I’ve been writing a novel for the NaNoWriMo challenge. So far, I’m on track. Aside from all that I have a number of sketches I will eventually scan.

So, for now, here are a couple of photos..

literally the ear of a stranger

squirrel today from Lake Wintergreen in Hamden

photography , men , animals
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Carousel horse at Lake Quassy

Craig Houghton September 23rd, 2007

Had a great time at Lake Quassy with Sonia. Took this carousel horse using my Sony DSC-H1 (F/3.2 1/25sec ISO-64 9mm) and adjusted the levels using photoshop.

objects , photography , animals
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The view from West Rock in New Haven

Craig Houghton September 13th, 2007

I went to West Rock for lunch today. So, I took these pics of downtown New Haven and East Rock using a Sony DSC-H1 and an Opteka near IR filter. It seemed fitting — yesterday, I took some photos over by one of today’s subjects, East Rock. If you’re curious why everything looks all snowy, click here to learn more about near-infrared photography.

Click here for larger size.

Infrared landscapes near East Rock in New Haven

Craig Houghton September 12th, 2007

These views of East Rock and the Mill River were taken in Hamden from the Eli Whitney Museum trails using a Sony DSC-H1 and an Opteka near IR filter. Click here to learn more about near-infrared photography using a digital camera and a filter.

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Click here for larger size, or here for an even BIGGER version.

Infrared photos with my Sony DSC-H1 and an Opteka IR filter

Craig Houghton September 7th, 2007

I’ve been meaning to post about this, but I’ve been ill. I find the nearly visible endlessly fascinating, so I’m sure I’ll return to this topic soon.

Near-infrared light is just beyond visible red light. With wavelengths of 780nm and up, it’s a spectrum we’re just not built to see. Well, there is a bit of an overlap, but the visible light around us overpowers the narrow band we can see without technological assistance. Near-infrared is the channel-changing bright light your remote control shines at your tv box. Take a look. If you can’t see the light when button-mashing (and, you shouldn’t be able to), look at it through your digital camera viewfinder. Note that this isn’t heat-based thermal vision and it isn’t infrared boosting night-vision, but it’s very cool.

See the links below for more on this, but the short story is that most digital cameras have a filter to block infrared light. They’re not out to spoil your fun — it helps to improve your pictures. However, it’s often a weak filter that still lets through some infrared light. However, whatever filter is there still acts like a pair of infrared-blocking sun-glasses, so you’ll have to use a looong manual shutter speed or set your camera to nightshot.

Learn more:

Infrared goggles ($10)- milk that narrow band of near-infrared that we can actually see (yes. they work.)

same idea with less talk, more pictures

use old film/exposed negatives to make an IR filter - that works, but the $30 dollar filter I bought for my digital camera worked far better. try the home-made filter method if you can’t buy a real IR filter for your camera. there are some tutorials out there (and there are many) that use floppy disks instead of exposed negatives. the floppies I used just wasted my time and made everything rather dark and smoky

remove the internal IR filter to increase sensitivity - most digital cameras (and probably webcams too) will do just fine with their internal filter intact, so I wouldn’t reach for that screwdriver yet

As for me, I’m very happy with my purchase of an Opteka 58mm 720nm Infrared Filterfor my Sony DSC-H1 digital camera. I’m sure there are other more IR sensitive cameras out there, because I have to keep the camera shutter open quite a while to let in enough IR light for a decent picture. This usually means about 2 seconds of exposure (auto white balance with manual shutter of 2 seconds). Of course, I have to use a tripod at that setting. And, (assuming you’ve been doing some reading elsewhere) no I haven’t seen clothing turn to Saran wrap. Then again, I haven’t really tried, wouldn’t recommend it, and doubt that someone, sun-bathers aside, could hold perfectly still for the required 2-4 seconds. Here’s what I have seen of the ‘invisible’ and beautiful world of near-infrared.

(all photos here taken with my sony dsc-h1 and opteka ir filter)

the photos often look best when tweaked to grayscale. before adjusting, you can get some funky colors

chlorophyll, like in these normally dark leaves, shows up as a strong white in near-infrared

it’s hard to read this photo, but the tree in the center here is a purple plum. the leaves are very, very dark, but they’re white when using a near-infrared filter. the sky also turns dark unless it’s overcast. barely visible clouds and rainbows are easier to see as well.

in near-infrared, a clear sky can be dark like this without after-tweaking

infrared in grayscale (at top) versus visible light in grayscale (below)

the dark plum looks almost like a negative, but it’s not. here’s the visible (bottom) full color along with what an actual negative would look like (at top) just as a reminder. notice that it’s quite different from the infrared atop the first pair.

Also, I really do recommend the $10 goggles (cost a bit more with mail-order parts). When the light is strong (noon till 3 or so on a bright day), it’s a world of pink and white leaves, dark networks of branches, and black skies. We only see a narrow band, but I know it’s the real thing as the plum tree turns a white I could never get with normally-visible light interfering.

techniques , photography , digital , plants , media
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Some Photos from Riverbound Farm

Craig Houghton July 22nd, 2007

Over at the Cheshire Town Post I uploaded some photos of flowers and bees and such from the Riverbound Farm bird sanctuary in Cheshire.

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Here’s one from home that didn’t fit in that post.

Photos by Craig Houghton.

photography , plants , animals , insects , flowers
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Recent Bird and Backyard Photos

Craig Houghton May 28th, 2007

I went through my last couple of memory cards from my camera and saved this batch from the bin (all wild, common, and taken local to Cheshire CT). Thus far all of the niftier spring warblers I’ve seen have done a damned good job of staying out of the light and avoiding clear shots (I didn’t include any of em.. they’re just plain blurry) — try here for older bird pics. What… I like birds.

Click Pics for Full-Sized

Black-Capped Chickadee