Coney Island Mermaid Parade Pictures Now On Web
Don Wiss
Parade. This parade celebrates the opening of the summer season. I like
this parade, as most of the participants dress up in costume. However, this
year it was more crowded, and I don't think I was able to get as good
pictures as last year. Many pictures have other photographers smack in
front of the marchers. It was crawling with photographers that were not
behind the barricades. In total I put up 185 pictures. You can find them
here:
http://donwiss.com/pictures/Mermaid-2005/
Also put up are pictures from the Manhattan Gay Pride Parade. I wasn't
planning on attending, but a photographer I befriended at the Mermaid
Parade convinced me to attend this parade the next day. Only some of the
people are in costume. I ended up taking 340 pictures, which basically
documents the entire parade. See them at:
http://donwiss.com/pictures/GayPride-2005/
People are welcome to share these links in other appropriate forums,
mailing lists, and blogs.
Cropping
--------
All cropping was done losslessly with jpegcrop. Almost all pictures were
cropped some. Some were cut into two pictures. I made two passes through
all of them. The second time usually trimming off a little more.
Picture Reduction Scheme
------------------------
I posted an article in rec.photo.digital asking for suggestions on how I
should reduce these pictures while maintaining quality. (They were taken in
1600x1200 resolution with normal compression.) No one responded. So I spent
a lot of time thinking about it. I noticed that when using jpegcrop that it
only offered reductions in 1/8s. Or 12.5%, 25%, 37.5%, 50%, 62.5%, etc.
Knowing that lossless cropping meant the dimensions were still divisible by
eight, I knew that if I kept to reductions in eights I would not have
fractions of pixels. Previously my pictures were taken in VGA resolution,
or 640x480. So pictures in my albums were that size or smaller (if
cropped). I decided to use an algorithm based solely on height. With wide
ones scrolling sideways, as if they were a stitched panorama. So I first
determined whether the picture was in portrait or landscape orientation by
comparing its height and width. Then I used this algorithm:
Portrait Landscape
<= 640 100% <= 480 100%
<= 728 87.5% <= 544 87.5%
<= 848 75% <= 640 75%
<= 1008 62.5% <= 768 62.5%
<= 1280 50% <= 960 50%
<= 1600 37.5% <= 1200 37.5%
For the reduction I used Easy Thumbnails, calling it using the command line
prompt option under my album building program's control. I ended up with
pictures the same height as my existing albums.
If there was no reduction a reduced size image was not created (to save on
host server space). If both a reduced size image exists and the original
size, when you hover your cursor over the picture the tip will include
[Click for larger picture].
Camera
------
All pictures where taken with my Nikon 8400. Being a wide angle camera
there are no pictures zoomed into parade participants. Plus with the lack
of image stabilization, even in the sunlight, many pictures are blurred due
to camera shake. Or maybe slow focusing. By next year I will have purchased
a different camera.
In the Mermaid Parade the sunlight was coming from behind the marchers. I
did not bring an external flash to fill shadows. Maybe I should have. Part
way through the parade there was a long gap. Many people thought it was
over. I wandered towards the parade's origin and took the rest of the
pictures as the marchers where making the turn onto Surf Ave. At least
there I wasn't taking the pictures directly into the sun.
Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at album bottoms).
Ted
"Don Wiss" <donwiss@no_spam.com> wrote in message
news:rg19c11o66cchicf3...@4ax.com...
now 89...........that's some mermaid, though rather unconventional to say
the least. Plus, where would you put your cigarettes.
and as for 102..............well
Kevin McMurtrie
Don Wiss <donwiss@no_spam.com> wrote:
> This is my second year taking pictures at Coney Island's annual Mermaid
> Parade. This parade celebrates the opening of the summer season. I like
> this parade, as most of the participants dress up in costume. However, this
> year it was more crowded, and I don't think I was able to get as good
> pictures as last year. Many pictures have other photographers smack in
> front of the marchers. It was crawling with photographers that were not
> behind the barricades. In total I put up 185 pictures. You can find them
> here:
>
> http://donwiss.com/pictures/Mermaid-2005/
Some of those are too small to see. You'll have to zoom in to a single
person if you want to make small image sizes usable. Tiny wide-angle
shots of a crowd look like a jumble.
Bob Williams
Whenever I hear comments about Coney Island being crowded, I think of
one of the Immortal Quotes of Yogi Berra.
He said:
"Nobody goes to Coney Island anymore. It's just too crowded." :-)
Bob Wiliams
Don Wiss
> Don Wiss wrote:
>> http://donwiss.com/pictures/Mermaid-2005/
>
>Some of those are too small to see. You'll have to zoom in to a single
>person if you want to make small image sizes usable. Tiny wide-angle
>shots of a crowd look like a jumble.
In your reply you quoted my entire post to write three lines! But it
appears you didn't read all that I wrote and you quoted. Further on I
wrote:
>> If both a reduced size image exists and the original
>> size, when you hover your cursor over the picture the tip will include
>> [Click for larger picture].
>> All pictures where taken with my Nikon 8400. Being a wide angle camera
>> there are no pictures zoomed into parade participants.
>> By next year I will have purchased
>> a different camera.
Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at album bottoms).
MW
> > pictures as last year. Many pictures have other photographers smack in
> front of the marchers. It was crawling with photographers that were not
> behind the barricades.
I had the same problem at the Pride Parade: I would frame a shot, press
the shutter, and then between the moment I pressed the shutter and the
moment the camera actually took the picture (shutter lag, you know!), a
press photographer would step in front of the camera and I would wind up
with a photo of the back of his head.
Every time that happened I cursed the fact that I can't yet afford a DSLR!
Nice pix, though!