7 Black and White Images.

BLACK AND WHITE

... ... by MeLa de Gypsie

looking through the mirror glass by Amsterdamned!

an old lady with an umbrella in Ravangla market! by Sukanto Debnath

Mosquito hawk by mngl

Monty's Korner by BigFrank

Cebra Voyerista by Cati Kaoe

Sitting Lady Falls by quas

There is nothing like a black and white image to focus your attention. It is hard to do today in some ways since you are not shooting black and white film, but a color cmos chip. Then you have to convert it to get the effect you want. Not always the easiest thing. But the software is better and better. As can be seen in our examples of the most interesting black and white images on Flickr right now, there are those who have got it.

7 Images Tagged IR, Infrared

INFRARED


opposite sides by camil tulcan

backwater, by Licht

searching for a star by Licht

Crane Creek HDR IR by Josh Sommers

Burnside Bridge in IR by eyeof wally

Field O by zachstern

One, Two, Three... by ekillian

One millionth of a millimeter. That is what a nanometer is. It is not a measurement for baking or carpentry. Not even really for machinists or mechanics. Rather, it is most commonly used to describe the wavelength of light. When we measure the wave length of what we can see, with our naked eye, the light is in the 400 to 700 nm range. But what about the rest. I have heard it said that we only use a small percentage of our actual brain power. Did you know that an incandescent light bulb only gives off about 10% of their energy as visible light? The rest is mostly infrared, a good explanation of why the fluorescent bulbs are so much more efficient. Since the most common source for light is thermal, it is interesting to note that we probably have not seen most of the world. Only the part that falls in the visible spectrum. What if you shift the spectrum?

If you can remember ROY G BIV you can get that bonus question on your high school physics test. Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo and Violet. That is the visible spectrum. But what comes before Red or after Violet? Infrared means below red. We can detect those wave lengths and try to represent them. In photography we really mean, near infrared. the far infrared part is thermal imaging. For example, our bodies put off infrared in the 10nm range. So to work with the near infrared, we have to filter out the visible. That means we need to filter in the 700 to 900nm range. You also need film or a digital sensor that can record that wave length. Most digital cameras today come with an infrared filter built in since the infrared spectrum usually represents in the images as noise. Some of the older digital cameras did not filter well, they get used for infrared photographry with a visible light filter applied over them. There is a downside to that, it means that you cannot compose the image with the filter on it. To beat that problem there are companies out there now that will take your current camera and remove the infrared filter install a visible light filter right over the imaging element. With a digital SLR, that means you can compose the image as you normally would, but instead you would record the near infrared spectrum.

Talk about other worlds. It is right here, now. You can record this other world. So of course, Flicker is full of infrared images. And some are outstanding. Remember, when you take a picture, you are recording the reflected light, so these images are recordings of the reflected near infrared light. Not what the objects in them are producing, that is the far infrared spectrum. If you see a person, it is the reflection of the infrared light off of them. Same for trees, and clouds and water. Some things do better for this then other. As you can see, some things get moreinteresting then you could have imagined. It also means longer image exposure times, and still objects work best. But sometimes the movement can really make an image interesting.

7 Lightning Images

LIGHTNING

I like smoke and lightning

Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under
Yeah im gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

Born to be wild
Born to be wild

From Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf

Lightning; My First Try by Kuzeytac

Lightning in Campinas by Chaval Brasil

Lightning by WVS

Rainy Season in Thailand by Ben

and there was light by mudpig

¡Rayos! by eapoemex

Standing at the End by Southern Heart

The Star Wars 7

Star Wars

It is scarry how far some things become a part of our cultural conscience. Star Wars. Say it loud and say it proud! "May The Force Be With You." “Do or do not... there is no try.” 

I have to say, I love Red and Jonny's flickr posts. Storm Troopers in Love! Very funny. How do you bring emotion to a mask? Check out their pics.

Then there is Comic-Con, where they come out in force. Actually, Comic-Con deserves its own post. Maybe multiple posts since it is amazing what folks make for that. The biggies are in San Diego and New York (Dragon Con) with multiple others that are getting just as big.

Then, of course, there are the Renaissance Faire people. They probably deserve a post too. But the biggest and best will always be the Star Wars fans. Well, maybe the Trekkies might disaggree, but we will save that for another post.

His pics are all rights reserved, but they are cool, check out Icedsoul's photo stream. It is cool what he does with the Lego Star Wars figures.


Redandjonny by RedandJonny

Aaooow!!! by Pearlandz

Death of a Clone Commander by El Fotopakismo

Empire of the Sunbathers by Digger Digger Dogstar

Star Wars Episode IV: Opening Scene by DarthNick

DCon200890 by FireflyFan

Hoth by Mr. Tooley

7 Images of a Guitar

Guitar

I love guitars. I have three of them. They are all black. One is an Ovation acoustic with the on board tuner. Then there is the De Armond Les Paul copy electric. It has a great bluesy tone. In fact, Fender bought out De Armond just for their pickups. They ground down all the bodies and then put the pickups in Fender bodies. Lastly there is the Speedster by Traveler. It is a travel electric that has the tuning pegs built into the body. Kind of wierd looking, but it has a great tone. And the TSA morons don't say a thing when I get on the plane. Now if I could just learn to play at least one song....

Cat and Guitar HDR by danielraphaelcooper
Guitar Town by Thomas Hawk (One of my favorite flickr Photographers!) Check out his blog.

I'm not ready by Jordan Kiley

Kendal by Puja

Guitars by Gabisa Motonia

Music and Learning by Wylie Maercklein

Long time no see, my friend by 九九丸 / Yixiong Zhang

7 Lost Images

LOST

Here are seven images that have the tag lost. One of the coolest photographers on Flickr is Lost America. His book is out standing. I think that I will do a post on just 7 of his images later on. So enjoy the images and get lost on Flickr. Click on the titles to view the image posted on Flickr and let the photographer know that you what you think.


Lost In Train Station by lapoutre2tek

like a sandstorm, san francisco, golden gate bridge in fog!!!!!!!!!a world wonder unlike any other... by Louie Imaging

The Ghost of Innocence by Osvaldo_Zoom

Stung by the Splendor of Suddon Black by Mark McCowen

Lost in Tiorati by Bikeracer

Emergency Shelter by Ovaratii

Lost Child by GroupFounder

7 Custom Bikes

Custom Bikes

I wish that I had a bit of the artist in me. The workshop where I could create cool custom bike frames and then lay on a cool beat nick or punk rock paint job. Maybe a suicide girls theme or an increadable classic radio flier inspired paint job. I would love to push the curves and maybe even go with a sleek clean version that is minimalist. Check out these 7 shots from flickr. It seems that there are some cool steel benders out there. If you like the pic, please click on the title and then let the photographer know. I will do a post on Electras (I know I love mine) and Road Bikes soon. Probably on some of the bikes that the pros are riding. And as every bike enthusiast knows, you have to do something on the Campy guys. They are worst then the Apple Fan Boys and the Star Wars Freaks!

Almost Done by CHAUSS513

The Green Bean by Rick Unger

The Black Chopper by Rick Unger

BIG Wheel by hatebreedctxx

My Rat Bike "The Goose" 2 by xddorox

Woodenstein by Joseph Robertson

'Speed Queen' Cruiser by jugojcardoso

Also, check out the custom bike page RatRodBikes