Geschriebene Worte - English category

Staged vs. Candid

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:30:32 GMT

I have been asked to make photographs during a wedding in the family that commenced yesterday. It was difficult because I am nothing less than a portrait photographer or one for staged wedding photographs. And I never did a wedding so far except for my own. No own photographs from that occasion for obvious reasons ;-)

Looking at work from top notch portrait and people photographers such as Louise Burton or Bill Wadman I clearly see my limitations in this field. I feel so much more comfortable in candid and spontaneous situations.

Staged: Wedding of Christine and Till, July 10, 2009
(click for larger view)

However, I accepted the couples wish and did the shooting having mutually agreed to do no staged shots except for some in the park with the couple, their families, groomsman and maid of honour (are these the correct english words for witnesses to the marriage?...).

Worse comes to worse the light yesterday was horrible, I think it must have been the coldest, gustiest and cloudiest day in July I ever remember.

Unstaged: Christine is about to throw her bridal bouquet, July 10, 2009
(click for larger view)

Finally I got some decent photographs from the two on their happy day but, gee, it was hard. My world is the true moment, spontaneous, unpredicted. I think with staged shots such as portrait or wedding sessions too such unpredicted, spontaneous moments happen but to generate and capture such moments from a staged situation is what makes an exceptional portrait photographer such as the mentioned in my eyes.

Stick to your guns. I know I won't succeed in staged shots evah.

Chinese Democracy

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:30:31 GMT

I enjoy a lot of different music, Jazz, Blues, Soul, Funk, Rhythm And Blues, Rock And Roll, Rock, Hard Rock, Indy, Electro, etc. you name it. For quite a while I have not had new Hard Rock music, I listened to the stuff I had and liked it as the mood required.

It was only when I saw the DVD of Body Of Lies that I heard something interesting that was new to me. I looked a little closer in the end titles and it turned out that it was If The World by no less than Guns N' Roses.

The album was already published in November 2008 but I did not notice at all. I am not a big fan of Guns N' Roses as I am not of most music artists. I know when I like something I hear and this one I liked instantly without knowing what it was.

Strange how something you like comes to you by total coincidence. Anyone not knowing their album Chinese Democracy give it a try. You got to listen to it more than once to appreciate it completely. I like the review of it at Allmusic too, it fits quite well.

Recapture Focus

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:12:48 GMT

Ever since I got a DSLR I missed the focusing screen I know from non digital cameras. I am a manual guy, I always set exposure and aperture manually. And typically I focus manually too.

But with auto focus systems on DSLRs there is no split screen for manual focusing anymore. I got by with using AF meanwhile. But now I finally got me the split screen focusing screen I am used to and it is such a relief.

No pressing of silly buttons, no positioning of auto focus points anymore. A quick twist of the focusing ring and I am done.

Haoda 5D-L focusing screen

I obtained the focusing screen from Haoda in the U.S. and I can recommend it to anyone with similar needs. Two simple steps and the focusing screen is changed, it is very easy and well explained in the documentation.

There is virtually no change in claritiy of the viewfinder. To achieve maximum accuracy, the 5D can be set to adapt metering to the new focusing screen using custom function 00 (set to 2 for Ee-S) and all is finished.

Vom Fach?

Sat, 09 May 2009 18:27:57 GMT

Heute bin ich in ein Fotofachgeschäft spaziert, weil ich Abzüge von einigen Fotografien anfertigen lassen wollte. Normalerweise lasse ich das im Internet machen, bei einer Firma, die Laserbelichtungen mit Durst Lambda o.ä. macht. Aber da ich gerade beim Einkaufen war, dachte ich, ich probiere einmal das Fotofachgeschäft in der Nähe.

Der Verkäufer hat ziemlich verständnislos geschaut, als er meine Frage verneinte, ob die im Geschäft angebotenen Abzüge in 20x15 auch auf DIN A4 zentriert im Querformat ausbelichtet werden können. Abzüge im Querformat auf DIN A4 zentriert mit 23mm an der längsten Kante konnte er schon garnicht nicht anbieten.

Ein Blick auf das im Hintergrund herumstehende Fotolabor ließ mich zwar schon die Frage formulieren, warum das nicht geht, wo doch das Fotolabor diese Dinge durchaus erlaubt, aber ich ließ die Frage ungestellt. Eigentlich eine Gelegenheit, einen Aufpreis zu verlangen, aber von dieser Erkenntnis war beim "Verkäufer" keine Spur.

Stattdessen fragte ich, wie lange die Abzüge haltbar sind, aber das konnte der Verkäufer auch nicht sagen. "Weiß ich nicht, ein paar Jahre, glaube ich" war seine Antwort und er schob mir ein etwa 10 x 10 cm großes Stück Fotopapier als Beispiel herüber.

Ich sagte, das Papierbeispiel läßt nicht auf Haltbarkeit und nur bedingt auf Qualität schließen. Wieder nur verständnislose Blicke. Ich bin beileibe kein Experte, was die Ausbelichtung von digitalen Fotografien angeht. Aber was dieser Zeitgenosse alles nicht wußte, ließ mich schon sehr staunen.

Es ist klar, daß viele Kunden sich mit dem zufrieden geben, was im Geschäft angeboten wird und nicht groß fragen. Aber meine Fragen sollten einer Fachkraft nicht fremd sein. Wenn "Fotofachgeschäfte" billige ungelernte Mitarbeiter beschäftigen, sind es keine Fachgeschäfte.

Schade, aber ich lasse demnächst wieder über das Internet anfertigen. Und zum Glück gibt es zudem noch Sander in Frankfurt. Ich frage mich bloß, warum das so sein muß.

Ich habe woanders dann noch zwei Packungen 280g Hochglanzpapier von HP gekauft und zwei Fotografien auf meinem alten Tintenstrahldrucker zuhause ausgedruckt. DIN A4 quer, 23mm an der längsten Kante, zentriert. Nur so als Trostpflaster.

:-D

Keep It Simple

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:05:14 GMT

Today I read an article about how to send an HTTP request and parse the XML response using JavaFX [1]. Being used to plain old Java syntax the code examples from the article looked unfamiliar and not very clear.

I thought why not write a similar article about how to do the same with plain old Java? So here it is: How to send a HTTP request and read an XML response with plain old Java.

How to send a HTTP request

To send a HTTP request we create a class HttpRequest as follows

public class HttpRequest {
   public HttpRequest() {
       super();
   }
   public static InputStream get(String urlStr) throws Exception {
       return readFrom(urlStr, null);
   }
   public static InputStream post(String urlStr, String post)
       throws Exception
   {
       return readFrom(urlStr, post);
   }
   private static InputStream readFrom(String urlStr, String post)
       throws MalformedURLException, IOException
   {
       URLConnection conn = new URL(urlStr).openConnection();
       conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);
       conn.setReadTimeout(15000);
       conn.setDoInput(true);
       if (post != null && post.length() > 0) {
           conn.setDoOutput(true);
           DataOutputStream output =
                   new DataOutputStream(conn.getOutputStream());
           output.writeBytes(post);
           output.flush();
           output.close();
       }
       return conn.getInputStream();
   }
}

Certainly you now might say, hey, that's pretty much code, why not just use the JavaFX version? Well, that's the amazing thing with Java classes, they're reusable. With above class now existing [2] all you actually need is one line of code whenever you like to send a HTTP request:

InputStream is = HttpRequest.get("http://www.java.net");

How to read an XML response

The same applies for reading the response from a HTTP request that is returned in XML format. We simply create an XML reader class that is reusable for any XML response.

public class XmlReader implements XmlParserCallback {
public XmlReader() {
    super();
}
public void read(InputStream is) throws IOException, IllegalCharacterException {
    XmlParser parser = new XmlParser(this);
    BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
    String line = r.readLine();
    while (line != null) {
      parser.parse(line);
      line = r.readLine();
    }
    r.close();
}
public void handleStartTag(String tagName, AttributeSet a) {
    System.out.println("start tag " + tagName);
}
public void handleEndTag(String tagName) {
    System.out.println("end tag " + tagName);
}
public void handleText(String text) {
    if(text != null && text.trim().length() > 0) {
      System.out.println("text " + text);
    }
}
}

As in the JavaFX example [1] I use my own Java XML parser instead of the one sometimes packaged with the JRE. It is my own parser but it works comparable to the SAXParser. My parser is included in the example sources [2].

With class XmlReader again only a single line of code is needed wherever an XML response should be processed:

new XmlReader().read(is);

Conclusion

With two simple classes HttpRequest and XmlReader all you actually need to do is

InputStream is = HttpRequest.get("http://www.java.net");

new XmlReader().read(is);

to send an HTTP request and process its XML response. No FX, no fancy schmancy frameworks or class libraries required. Just two plain old simple Java classes.

References

[1] JavaFX HTTP Networking and XML Parsing

[2] Example Source Codes

Holidays Refined

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:13:32 GMT

Last June I blogged about the re-engineered version of my World Holiday Calendar Service. I have now adapted the client API to further simplify access to the service for third party applications and published the new version of the class library here. I thought I give an overview of the finished service in below diagram

The Light Development World Holiday Calendar Service

On the back end, no static date tables need to be maintained. The holiday class library dynamically computes dates of occurrence for arbitrary days and provides them to the various services offered.

What started as a wacky habit became a system independent and universal tool for worldwide holiday determination.