This is a picture I took of my daughter in May this year.
She is wearing a fairy dress so I could practice my portraits.
I dropped the clarity of the picture to add softness and enhance the fairy theme.
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Fairy Princess
Wednesday 19 October 2011
B6 + Calcium
Had a little fun in the kitchen today which included garlic,milk and off camera flash.
The background was some white paper which was lit by my Nikon sb600 at full power and a red gel.
I lit the garlic with 2x jessops 360 afd flashguns set 1/16 power placed level with the garlic and either side of my camera.
I set my camera on manual mode and at the fastest flash sync speed of 1/250 sec to try and freeze the action..
I experimented with the aperture for different results but stopped down to f/14 to help darken the red of the background.
My camera was on my manfrotto tripod and fired via cable release.
All three flashguns where fired off camera via my Yongnuo RF-602 trigger + recievers.
I was using a funnel to direct the milk onto the garlic but it wasn't working out how I imagined so I got rid of the funnel and kept tipping milk straight from the carton and firing the camera randomly.
Got loads of usable pictures some with more splashes and some with less but I liked the simplicity of this one with the milk in a vertical line.
Cleaned up the picture with spot removal then added a slight 's' curve for contrast.
Also the whites of the milk where a little dark and muddy so I selected just milk and garlic with the magic wand and brigthened it up with levels.
I finished off with some unsharp mask for detail.
The title is a combination of the vitamins contained in these photographic ingredients.
In garlic you get B6 and obviously calcium in milk.
The red lines on the underneath of the garlic is the red reflecting off the milk from the background.
Monday 17 October 2011
A Walk On The Wild Side
I keep trying new things and thought I would give candid street shots a go so I'm always on the look out for people opportunities.
Got quite a few now in the archives so thought I would share one to see what you think.
This is a picture of a couple in St James park in London.
I loved the colour of the womans outfit especially with the greens and golds of the autumn leaves.
Sunday 9 October 2011
Ghosts Of Buckingham Palace
Went for a walk around London for a couple of hours.
Goddam it was busy, the pavements where chock solid with people and so was the shops.
Finished off the walk at Buckingham Palace and decided to try some LE without a tripod :)
Attached my cable release then set up the camera by pre focusing and using manual mode.
I placed my camera on the floor of the steps in front of the palace then using bulb mode and my ND110 ten stop filter I made an exposure of 67 seconds.
I love all the ghostly figures especially the person sitting right in front of me as he sat down mid exposure I thought it might spoil my shot but you can see right through him :)
Thursday 6 October 2011
Dehydration
One from the archives.
Sovereign harbour in eastbourne.
A long exposure of 67 seconds to blur the clouds.
Sunday 2 October 2011
Rough Terrain
Fancied a change so whacked on my Nikkor 70-300 VRII for a change.
Zooming in with wide apertures makes for nice shallow dof.
Saw this chained up bike on the beach just past hove with some people in the background.
Converted to mono and added a little unsharp mask.
This is one of those pictures I really like but not sure why ?
Anyway I really enjoyed using my zoom and looking at things in a slightly different way.
Thursday 29 September 2011
The Emerald City
This is a little Jetty along Hoves seafront which is just past Brighton.
Took this today just before the sun got too high for a long exposure shot.
I used ISO 100 and an aperture of f/32 with my B+W ND110 ten stop filter to get an exposure of 81 seconds.
I normally convert my LE to mono but Ieft this one as it works better in colour, especially with the plain sky.
Due to the sun burning out the left hand side of the picture slightly I had to darken it to balance everything out.
Tuesday 27 September 2011
A Little Structure In Life
Had a little drive to Brighton this evening for a little fresh air and to take the odd picture.
Luckily enough I had my tripod and camera bag with me as the colours where fantastic behind Brightons West Pier.
Got there as the sun set so had to walk very briskly to the pier to catch the last couple of minutes of these wonderful colours and rattled off a few shots.
I know this shot has been done 10 gazillion times but you've got to have it at least once in your collection.
Taken with my Nikkor 16-85, manfrotto tripod and cable release.
Monday 26 September 2011
The Kiosk
This is a well photographed kiosk in Eastbourne and I can't help taking pictures every time I'm near it lol.
This is a long exposure of 81 seconds thanks to my B+W ND110 filter and a small aperture of f/22.
Due to the small aperture the picture was covered with dust spots which took ages to clear up so will have to clean the sensor soon, maybe a bit of sand paper will help clean it :)
Converted to mono then dodged and burned to my taste and finished off with an 's' curve and some unsharp mask.
All achievable with my manfrotto tripod and my new hanhel cable release, all praise the cable release :)
The Three Mushketeers
Yes another shot from West Park Nature reserve, are you bored yet lol.
Just wanted to show some of the different varieties I found there and in such a small area.
There was also fly agaric but I couldn't get a good angle on those ones as they where surrounded by prickly weeds and in awkward positions.
Liked the look of these three sitting together.
Once again tripod, cable release and macro lens plus a silver reflector to throw light back towards the stems.
Sunday 25 September 2011
In The Deep Dark Woods
Another mushroom from my walk at West Park Nature Reserve.
My manfrotto tripod was almost at ground level for this shot but I think a beanbag would have come in handy and got a little lower.
At f/16 the background is still nice and blurry, any wider and I would have lost more detail on the mushroom.
Once again I used a silver reflector to bounce light back underneath and lift the shadows on the stem.
Fired via cable release and captured with my sigma 105 macro lens.
I cropped to a square format to compose nice and tight on the mushroom and get rid of unwanted space and distractions.
In An Upside Down World
Went to West Park Nature Reserve in Uckfield today to get a little fresh air and with camera in hand.
Found about 5-6 varieties of mushrooms which was exciting for pictures.
Don't know what mushroom this is but it made a lovely picture especially with mr slug visiting underneath.
Could have been a little better with a little more dof but we live and learn.
Took this with my camera on my tripod and cable release attached and mirror lock up.
This was pretty low to the floor so used live view to compose and focus which I don't use much but it came in pretty handy.
I used a silver reflector to throw some light back into the shadows.
My bag fell over on this walk and instictively I went to grab it but pulled over my camera and tripod as I was still holding my cable release, caught the camera but pulled the wire out of the cable release button, now I have to buy a new one.
I can't live without my cable release ;)
Post processing:
I dropped the highlights to bring out the detail then added an 's' curve for contrast, boosted saturation for the greens and finished off with some unsharp mask.
Saturday 24 September 2011
Hungry Caterpillar
Found this little fella in the garden today sitting very still for me to give focus stacking a try, and wow focus stacking has bought out amazing detail that I couldn't get with a straight macro shot.
I set up my camera on my tripod with cable release and sigma 105mm macro lens attached.
I focused manually on the closest point of the caterpillar then took a shot then refocused further in slightly and took another picture then kept repeating this process untill I reached the furthest focus point on the caterpillar.
This was about 7 shots in total.
I uploaded the pictures then quickly googled focus stacking and the first item was a youtube video of around 4 mins explaining the process.
After watching the video the stacking process took me a round 2 mins as it is really easy to do, especially with my new upgraded computer.
I then done my usual 's' curve and unsharp mask and added a little saturation which really made the caterpillar pop especially with the sharpness.
I was trying single shots going up to f/29 which where still not very good or sharp but with the focus stacking I dropped the aperture down to f/13 which gave a nice fast shutter speed to eliminate any vibrations or movement.
I highly recommend trying this technique as the results are superb, just make sure its a static object.
Thursday 8 September 2011
HouseWork
I always wondered how women get so much stuff done in a short space of time and still watch daytime tv and read the paper, but this our little secret so don't tell anyone ;)
Monday 29 August 2011
Bodiam Castle
Went to Bodiam castle tonight to try and so some startrails, something I've been wanting to do for ages.
The weather said some clouds but I thought I would make the effort and risk the trip.
My daughter came with me to keep me company on this long exposure shot.
The local pub said it was ok for me to use their carpark whilst I was taking my shots which was great.
I set up my camera on my tripod at the end of the walkway which leads to the entrance to the castle then attached my cable release.
I took a few shots to test my settings and composition and ended up with ISO 400 @ f/5 using 30 second exposures.
I locked the cable release and took 138 shots at 30 seconds each which when combined makes an exposure of 1hr 15mins or 75mins.
On the last few exposures I lit the castle with my 2,000,000 watt spotlight by lighting a section of the castle for 30 seconds then moving onto the next section.
The sky was soooo clear I saw 6 shooting stars which is a record for me.
It was very quiet apart from the ducks splashig about which made me a little jumpy now and again.
I combined the 138 exposures using startrails.de a very good and free programme for this kind of stacking then finished off with the usual adjustments, contrast,saturation,unsharp mask and so on.
Friday 19 August 2011
Monday 15 August 2011
Explosive Situation
The Airbourne 2011 finalie consisting of fireworks off the end of Eastbourne pier.
Saturday 13 August 2011
Red Arrows
The red arrows doing a flyby over Eastbourne pier this evening with the infamous colour smoke trails stretching along the pier itself.
Monday 8 August 2011
Saturday 6 August 2011
Friday 22 July 2011
Monday 18 July 2011
Sunday 17 July 2011
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Tuesday 28 June 2011
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