Gallery Pick of the Week
Instead of just showing pretty pictures only, here we have space for contributors to discuss their images every week.
This is a great opportunity to get some insight from the original photographer and the content is entirely open. It could be anything from the personal feeling of the photographer about the image to any photographic techniques or location knowledge he/she would like to share with our visitors.
Gallery Pick of the Week > October 2008
 |
The New Vision of Interactive Virtual Tours, 23/10/08, Pele Leung Does a media exist between still image and video? If so, what is it? Is it useful for illustrating a scene? Should we all jump on it immediately? Where does it stand in the current fast moving technological world? This short introduction is our answer. |
|---|---|
 |
How to Justify Our Existence? 13/10/08, Pele Leung If we only measure the advancement of technologies, apparently human civilisation has taken a quantum leap in the last hundred years or so. Although we can fly a space probe to Mars and outer space, there are still a lot of things... |
 |
Photography at Uluru, 1/10/08, Rob Gray The way I renew my love affair with Australian scenery is to take a walk in the bush. I feel fortunate in this beautiful country to be able to get away from the city in a few minutes to where I can breathe fresh air or hear the sound of surf... |
Pele Leung - The New Vision of Interactive Virtual Tours, 23/10/08
Does a media exist between still image and video? If so, what is it? Is it useful for illustrating a scene? Should we all jump on it immediately? Where does it stand in the current fast moving technological world? This short introduction is our answer.
While many videographers are celebating their triumph of what video can provide over still image, an emerging media has finally arrived. It is interactive virtual tour. In fact, virtual tour has many different definitions in various business sectors. Some people claim video footage is basically a virtual tour while others believe that slideshow is also another kind. I personally also like to include interactive 360º still image based flash/Quicktime movies as well. In this article, I focus on the latter one.
360x47º Virtual Tour - South Bank, Melbourne
To produce such a 360º still image based virtual tour, we need an image that can cover the whole sphere of vision with the photographer shooting from the centre of the virtual sphere. There are two ways to achieve it - one-shot or multi-image stitching. The former one can be done by a one-shot shooting kit which mainly comes with a mirror ball that can reflect the partial vision of surrounding. A 360-image can be captured by pointing your camera to the mirror ball. Then the image has to be unwarped with a special software which is usually bundled with the shooting kit. This is a simple and low cost solution by compromising the image quality. However, it has a simpler workflow. On the other hand, the latter approach involves shooting and stitching multiple images. When the light intensity level is rapidly changing or there are many moving parts in a scene, the challenge is obvious.
While a 360º scene can provide much more information than a single still image, I have to admit that it is not for every scene. It is obvious that locating such a 360-feature rich shooting spot is much harder than finding one for traditional photography with limited field of view. Moreover, shooting 360º usually involves extreme exposure handling and this adds additional difficulty to photographers. Needless to say, a tripod/monopod is almost a compulsory requirement. Ideally a panoramic head would be useful for resolving parallax errors especially when your photographic subjects are nearby (within a few dozen metres).
360x180º Virtual Tour, Hopetoun Falls, Otway National Park, Victoria
With all sorts of diffculties ahead, getting a good 360-photo is an awesome experience. It does not only provide a high resolution photo but also a composition that cannot be captured in the traditional way. The sky is your limit.
While having a huge 360-print is an attractive reward, many VR (Virtual Reality) photographers like to present their images as virtual tours on Internet. With the availability of fast and economical broadband Internet in the recent years, deploying interactive 360-virtual tours on the net now is probably the right time. If you want to make something different, this is an opportunity.
Pele Leung - How to Justify Our Existence? 13/10/08
If we only measure the advancement of technologies, apparently human civilisation has taken a quantum leap in the last hundred years or so. Although we can fly a space probe to Mars and outer space, there are still a lot of things including ourselves we don't understand. Do we, the mankind, really have a mission for our existence? If so, what is it and how we justifies our existence?
First of all, I don't know why we and also all kinds of life are here. Our existence could be just an experiment of another advanced life form or simply a natural form of evolution that beyond Darwin's imagination. Regardless of the purposes of our existence, the important point is that we don't need to know, at least in the meantime or perhaps in another million years. My own theory is that while we are here anyway, we should do something to justify our existence. If there is really a creator somewhere, it / he / she will be impressed if we really can do better than what we are expected. Here is my philosophies of justifying our existence.
- Aim for big and be noble. You could be a doctor who works days and nights to save life. This is a noble job and we, as photographers, use our photos to make life better in our own ways. The purpose is actually the same - we want to create a better world. If a photo can make some people, or even just one person, happy, we are already doing quite well.
- Be proud of ourselves. Regardless of what we do, as long as we are proud of what we are doing, we should be proud of ourselves for our existence.
- Enjoy ourselves. A win-win deal can truly exists only if all parties involved are happy with it.
I hope you can share the same passion as I do.
Fogg Dam, Darwin, NT
Rob Gray - Photography at Uluru, 1/10/08
Uluru-Kata Tjuta (aka Ayres Rock-The Olgas), the very heart of Australia geographically and emotionally. Who wouldn’t want to photograph this iconic landscape? The Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park houses one of the world’s most photogenic landscapes; unfortunately there are serious restrictions in place for photographers (and other artists as well) in the park.
So what can’t you do?
First let me say what you can do. As a private individual with a camera you can pretty much photograph what you like, there are a few signs around the base of the rock asking that you respect the wishes of the Aboriginal owners, but there’s not many, and luckily they are not in photogenic places.
But if you intend to use the images for “commercial” purposes the rules are a lot different. “But I’m not a pro, I don’t use my photos commercially” you say. Maybe, maybe not. If you display the photos for public viewing anywhere then that is considered a commercial use. That includes obvious venues like an advertising billboard and publication in a magazine, but also hanging prints on the local café’s wall, or posting holiday snaps to your blog site.
What are the rules?
There are too many rules and conditions for a short article like this, but the following list covers the main items.
- No photography where there are signs to that effect.
- No photography anywhere except as indicated on the map issued by the media centre.
- No photographs that show people climbing Uluru, or that imply that people do climb the rock. Therefore you can climb the world’s largest monolith, but leave your camera behind as any shots taken while there, say of Kata Tjuta, or even the car park, cannot be used because they imply that you did the climb.
- No photos at all in the Valley of the Winds. Having said that, detail shots, say of a flower, can often be used.
- All photos that show the Kata Tjuta domes must show at least three of the domes.
- No photos from the road between the Kata Tjuta viewing area and the car park.
How do I get a permit?
Permits can be obtained from the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park media centre. The permit will come with all the information you need, including maps detailing the areas that can, and cannot, be photographed.
With your permit in hand, and a park entry pass, you can now head off to take photos. Most people spend three days or less because that’s how long the park pass is valid for.
Once you have your photos you must submit them to the media centre for approval.
Submitting you photos
As most people are shooting with digital cameras these days the media centre is used to reviewing photos on CD. Burn all your images onto a disc, print a caption sheet, fill out the required forms, and send it all with a covering letter to the media centre, then wait a couple of weeks for an email detailing which photos have been approved.
The personnel at the centre are very helpful and will advise you how to go about things. Sometimes however they cannot tell you why a photo was rejected, as they are submitted to the tribal elders who have the final word and do not explain their reasons.
Conclusion
Now I know this all sounds a bit negative, but this really is a fantastic part of the world, and despite the restrictions it’s still possible to get very good images at Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
So, on the assumption that I haven’t put you off, here are some tips.
- You can camp at Yulara, just a few kilometres outside the park; it’s close but quite expensive. Many people camp at Curtin Springs, which is free, but a 70k drive to the rock.
- Go to the sunrise viewing area at sunset, and vice versa. This way you avoid the crowds, but also, anything you can photograph from the sunrise viewing area cannot be used anyway. By photographing there at sunset you can concentrate on silhouetting the rock, and because a silhouette shows no detail, such photos should be usable.
- It’s generally considered to be a 2-3 hour walk around the base of Uluru, but that’s for non-photographers. Allow all day, as there is a lot to photograph. This means taking some food and water on the walk. The same applies for the Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta.
- Try to get to the Kata Tjuta viewing platform before dawn, the first light on the domes looks fantastic.
- While at the Kata Tjuta viewing platform look behind you, Uluru is about 40k away as the crow flies, but still looks good.
- Don’t just go for the obvious photos of a huge rock, try looking for abstract images and wildlife as well.
- This is desert country and therefore quite cold when the sun goes down, so rug up when heading out to catch the sunrise.
Here are some photos to show that I practice what I preach.
The walk around Uluru can easily take all day but don't just photograph a huge rock, there's plenty of detail that's interesting as well, like the interior of this overhang.
When photographing Kata-Tjuta you must show at least three of the domes.
This is some detail of what they were looking at. Note the three domes, an almost identical shot that was a bit tighter and only showed two domes was rejected.
Uluru at sunrise but from the sunset viewing area. This side of the rock is normally out of bounds for photos but as a silhouette you cannot see any detail so that's OK.