Friday 31st October 2008

Halloween  Edition

Plus looking at Metadata

Halloween for many of us is one the high points of the year, and this year particularly we could all do with something to create a little more fun. We have an article looking at some depth at how Halloween came about, when and where, and the meaning of each aspect as well as a look at games, costume parties and photography at Halloween.

Most years we have a Halloween party, and up to this one it has been along the common line of witches and spooks of all kinds, with a generous amount of fake cobwebs, large spiders and more. Food representing eyeballs, or all sorts of such items. We have the drinking goblets and other items that go with this theme. We photograph the food,

Watch out at Halloween

Image taken with Nikon D2X, with 24-85mm lens
 at 50mm, ISO 320, 1/60th, F11. balanced fill flash
people as they arrive, plus some group shots, and generally have a fun time. A day or so after I get around to a new challenge with the pumpkin remains.

This year we are having a different themed party, based on the court of King Arthur. We have attending King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, a court jester, several knights and ladies. Being different to what others have chosen we have managed to get many of the costumes from a theatre costume hire place, so it will be quite an event. We have a number of articles on King Arthur , locations associated with him and Merlin as well.

Touching more on the season, and the Wheel of the year, we have an article that covers all the fire festivals and others in the Wiccan calendar as well. We recently had some articles looking at fire festivals, and how to photograph outside at night. Look at the recent editions, (button on left) and select the 17th October 2008 edition.

The fire festivals, but particularly Samhain or Halloween as we now know it has always been a good time to look at where you stand. Historically it was a case of looking at how you would survive through the winter, what animals to keep alive and what you should slaughter. I find that these are also good times to stop and look at where we are going, review what we have achieved and look ahead. This year particularly I would expect very many will be doing this. This is the next thing on our list after getting this weeks newsletter completed, so its time to polish the crystal balls, and see what happens next.


Location Guides

We haven't produced any location guides this week, as we have been working on a list that will appear next week, and this has turned out to be a larger task than initially expected.


Metadata and Keywording

Metadata is the information that is contained within many types of documents, including photographs. In the article we have on metadata we look at some of what is contained within the metadata of a photograph, how we go about adding to it and how and why we use it.

As well as adding Metadata information, we can also add keywords and captions.

Keywording is apart of the metadata held with the image. Putting keywords into our images before putting them on the internet or into picture libraries will allow them to be found by search engines, image users and others. In the article we look at how we go about it, identify some dos and don'ts to get the results we require and what to watch out for. In the same article we also take a look at why and how we might go about adding captions. Along with the keywords these also help in the identifying process when images are being searched for. Click here to read the Keyword and Caption article.


Photographers Diary/Calendar

The month rolls over, and so will our photographers calendar, but its going to be a couple of days late, but hopefully tomorrow, Saturday or at the latest Monday we should have this complete and November moved to current and the December calendar up in the next month slot.

As always if you know of interesting events or things for the photographer that we don't have listed then please tell us.


Updates

Autumn colours are, as we predicted, extremely good this year, take a look at the 26th September edition under recent editions to see all the articles, lists and other information relating to autumn colours. They are about at their best now, so try and find time to get out and catch them.

Autumn watch is now running and as interesting as ever, with a lot of deer and other wildlife being featured. We covered deer most recently in the 3rd October edition. It is an ideal time at the moment to get out and get some deer photos, and probably you could in some places combine this with getting the autumn colours. Take a look at the location guides and lists for autumn colours and deer as these are many parks and woodland areas.

Photo Skills Digital photography course - the second segment was expected to be out today, but its currently still around a week from going live, so check again here next week for an update.

Adobe has just announced that they are now shipping Photoshop CS4.

Summary of Articles Included this week

Wheel of the year

Halloween

Metadata

Keywords and Captions

 

 

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