It wasn't until after I'd set up the tripod & filters that I noticed this face - concentrating too much on fitting the scene in to a 2:1 crop, and having the shoreline enter from the bottom left corner.Composition is important but you can miss the little things.
Look in to my crystal ball !
Recently it's not been great for any long exposure work, a bit too bright with featureless sky's, so I've been popping a 4" crystal ball I picked up on Ebay in my bag and experimenting with it, using my 50mm f1.4 to loose the background and getting in close to capture the main body of image within the crystal (which it turns out is surprisingly sharp).
The photo's below are a single image, however I've taken the area in the image seen through the crystal and flipped it on it's head which seems to work better and the overall effect was more like what I wanted to achieve, rather than leaving you looking at a blurred background and upside down focal point.
Click on the images to enlarge.
De La Warr & Crystal
Messing around with a crystal ball, I can see this becoming a bit of a theme and its a great chance to use my 50mm 1.4 wide open.
I've reversed the image in the ball it seems to make more sense and is less confusing to the viewer, other than that this is pretty much straight out of the camera.
Dungeness
Dungeness situated on Kent’s south coast in the south of England is well worth a visit, dominated by its two nuclear power plants the area is home to a wealth of photo subjects. I’ve been there several times and this is a selection of what I came away with from Saturdays little treck.
The set up!
The sound mirrors where built around 1930 these were the predecessors before radar designed to pick up the sound of enemy aircraft from over the English Channel and were purposely placed in remote areas to cut down on external noise.
Incoming Storm
I popped along to Newhaven on the UK's south coast this afternoon and for once timed it right as a storm was coming over from France, the light was great.
Below are both piers shot from the harbour wall.
5mins, f11, ISO 100, 70mm.BW110 ND
Leica MK2 1935 vs IPhone 5 2013
A friend lent me his fathers 1935 Leica mk2, this piece of history had formally been owned by a reporter for the Daily Express so had done the rounds.
You forget just how much is done for you "in camera" so with each shot it's, set the asa (once), pull out the lens, use a light meter, estimate the distance, set the shutter speed, set the aperture, wind on the film, and shoot.
Anyway I decided to run a little test to see just what was achievable and unachievable with two cameras 78 years apart.
For the Leica I used Ilford FP4 125iso b&w film, and for the post process on both it was Lightroom 3.
After b&w conversion in LR3, I gave the leica images a little noise filtration and cropped the IPhone images to roughly the same, then some minor vignette, contrast and levels on both.
Although by no means a scientific experiment the results were quite interesting and the smoother less detailed shots from the Leica I preferred.
Has photography really advanced that much, we still the same light source, that big bright one in the sky and although gear is far better technically , is that always so important?
Leica
IPhone
Leica
IPhone
Leica
IPhone
Leica
IPhone
Leica
Iphone
West Pier
Taken the other day during a shoot in Brighton on the UK's south coast, the remains of the old pier lends itself so well to long exposure's...... Well it would be rude not to photograph her.
Band shoot with indie/rock band "Igloo"
So I spent last Saturday with a new indie/rock band from Brighton, Igloo, to shoot some promo shots for their website, flyers, demo's etc.
The ideas for the shots were left open, they wanted to include some long exposure work, so that was fun, and Brighton is such a great location for just walking and shooting, they're a nice bunch of guys and I wish them good luck in the future.
Here's a gallery of what we made, if you want to find out more about Igloo you can link them at the bottom of this page.
The new FUGIFILM X100S →
Well I’ve been promising myself the X100 as my “take anywhere camera" for some time, so you can imagine my delight that dear old Fugi have decided to bring out the X100S.
Not only is it the coolest looking retro point & shoot I’ve seen in a long time, it is also a serious bit of kit.
Twice the shooting speed 10fps as opposed to 5fps, and shutter lag down to 0.01secs.
Higher resolution 16MP instead of 11MP.
ISO upt to 25,600 from 12,800.
Longer battery life.
Video quality 1080 (60fps) against 720p (24fps).
The X100S has the CMOS11 sensor, the same as in the XPRO1 and improved auto focus (that was always a contentious point), making it the “worlds fastest” at 0.08secs!
With 70 improvements over the X100 I’m not going to list them all, I’ll just leave you the link here: FUGI X100S
It looks like the X100S is going to be available in the UK in March, so I’m going to have to wait until then, lets hope it delivers what it promises when some of us get our paws on one.
Marker
Not a spectacular image, but one I enjoyed making. I've spent most of my
free time during December & January doing long over due building
and decorating works to the house, so after knocking out the fireplace
this morning I afforded myself a couple of hours on the beach.
(Who's
the prat in the hat balancing on rocks with a tripod, camera & bag ,
while the surf crashes around him, when it's 0ºC by the English
channel), it's me dodging decorating!
Flickr Gift ! →
Morning Guys,
If you have a Flickr account don't forget to log in to it today and take advantage of their 3 months free gift. You don't often get something for nothing so grab it with both hands!
"Silent Shores" available as a calendar →
Dark Passenger
"Dark Passenger".......well we all have one of those, don't we?
Swallow Cruises
Took a trip to Bewl Reservoir in Kent this week, not ideal conditions but I did find this little jetty.
18000+ Tides & Still Standing
Not a lot to shoot down on the coast yesterday, the sky's were cool but I couldn't find a lot of subject matter, however these old groynes caught my eye.18000+ tides and still standing, they change them every 25 years, these are well overdue!
Plus One Mag
Delighted to be included in the first issue of Plus One Magazine available to purchase here http://plusonecollection.com/purchase-magazine/. There’s a real wealth of images that Ivan Makarov https://plus.google.com/+IvanMakarov/posts & Andy Lee https://plus.google.com/115492479555704154908/posts have collated for the “Architecture Issue”, and for a great cause , The Kilgoris Project http://www.kilgoris.org/.
Website Re-Vamped →
Over the last few weeks I’ve completely revamped my website, apologies for the selfy on the “about me page”, it should now work on all platforms, pc, mac, ipad etc. I would be delighted if you could spare a moment to take a look at my efforts and let me know any glaring errors you find.
Any suggestions or constructive criticism would be most welcome.
International Photography Awards
I've just received an email from the IPA that the two images I submited, "Outcrop" & "Heart" shown below, have both received an honorable mention - nearly 18,000 entries & 104 countries - chuffed!
"Outcrop"
"Heart"
Wheatfields
Asteraceae
The great British weather appears to have reverted to what us limey’s have become accustom to as our summer.
So rather than jumping in the car and driving miles in the hope of capturing something fulfilling with the camera I decided to venture into the garden, grab a handful of flowers (which according to Google are Asteraceae), set up a single strobe and a dark backdrop, and shoot some still life.
I must say I’m pleased with what I got and can see this becoming the start of a series of flower studies, (too girlie?)