Category Archives: Commentary

Commentary, Site News

Mouse Over Images to See EXIF

3 Comments

The discussion on my earlier post asking whether people wanted to see EXIF data or not was interesting, but no clear conclusion emerged. Many felt – and I tend to agree – that the posts are generally more about the photographs as images than about the photographs as technical exercises. However, quite a few – even some who don’t want the viewing experience interrupted by technical stuff – did say that there are at least times when they are interested in knowing about some of these matters.

With this in mind, I have added a small plugin to the site that will display very basic EXIF data if you mouse over images in posts. Move your mouse over one of them and you should see the basics: camera model, aperture, ISO, focal length and so forth.

This plugin seems like a reasonable compromise until I (or someone else?) can find something even better. Let me know if it works for you. And, as always, if you want to know more about a photograph just leave a comment and I’ll try to reply – and I’m happy to try to respond to the wide range of possible questions, not just the technical issues.

Commentary, Site News, Technique

A Question: Data or Not?

19 Comments

Until recently I included some basic exposure data with each of my daily photographs, listing the camera and lens used, the focal length, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. When I switched to a new blog format a week or so ago, I made a few other changes at the same time. One of these was to eliminate the technical shot data from the posts.

To explain my thinking a bit, there were two reasons behind the decision. First, the shot information included links to a vendor with whom I had an affiliate relationship. The equipment listing allowed me to help readers who were looking for the very equipment that I used to make the shots to locate it online and make a purchase through this vendor. When the vendor abruptly cancelled its affiliate relationships with all California-based blogs at the end of June, it obviously no longer made sense to include those links. Second, I like to think that there are more important things about the photographs than the aperture, shutter speed, and camera/lens used to make them. In some ways, I have always thought it was just a bit odd that photographers have historically often included this technical information – while musicians rarely list the instrument they play and I’ve never seen a painting include data about the brand of brush used to make it! :-)

However, I get email. And several readers have very politely asked what happened to the exposure information, and some have asked that I again include it.

What do you think? Would you like to see it included again? Let me know by leaving a comment on this post. Thanks!

Commentary, Locations

Photographing Death Valley – Part 2

6 Comments

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A FINISHED POST – IT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS…

(This article is an experiment in web publishing. Rather that keeping this article hidden until it is finished, I’m going to make a link to this draft version available and let folks watch it evolve and even comment if they are so inclined. With that in mind, a few assumptions going into this:

  1. Since this is a draft version of a work in progress, there are no guarantees of accuracy!
  2. Material that appears in the draft may or may not appear in the final version – heck, it may change while you are viewing it!
  3. Helpful comments are welcome and even encouraged. For various reasons – including a desire to control the length of the final piece – I can’t guarantee that I’ll respond to or include all contributions.
  4. Since my approach to writing is often to spew lots of words and go back later to trim (some of) the excess verbiage, excuse the inevitable “wordiness” of the draft.
  5. If this works, I may try it with future posts. If it doesn’t, I might change my mind about this one!
  6. When the (what passes for) final version of the post is created, the material at this URL may disappear and it will become available at a new URL.

Thanks,

Dan)

This material is current unavailable while revisions are underway. Thanks for your understanding…

Also, more (but not all!) of my Death Valley photography is found here:https://gdanmitchell.com/gallery/v/NaturalWorld/TheLandscape/Desert/DeathValley/