Project 365 – January

I keep reading about people who do 365 projects, and I have certainly been impressed with the standard and dedication.  I had a go a couple of years a go and managed about two weeks.  In case your wondering a 365 project is where you take a photograph a day for an entire year.  Many people take self portraits for a whole year, but I feel that would be too unkind for my poor readers.

Last year I tried a small week long project and just managed to pull it off.

This time I thought I would really go for it.  I doubt i’ll pull of the year but I have managed the first month, so here it is, one picture a day for a whole month.  Most of them are not pretty but at least I have managed to put something up.

You can check them all out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbphotographic/sets/72157629125590377/

Below are the better ones.

 

Rain & Shine

It has been a good day for photography. The weather has been a mix bright sunshine, blue sky’s, dark black clouds and rain and rainbows!

Days where the weather is changeable can bring excellent opportunities, with dark foreboding sky’s but with light brilliantly illuminating your main subject.

Unfortunately today, I was never quite in the right position, but as you can see in the shot above taken a few years ago, sometimes you find yourself in the perfect spot.

This sunlight lasted barely a couple of minutes, but I managed to get a shot while it lasted.

Waiting for the Shot

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Studio Photography & Landscape Photography are my two major Photographic Joys.

With Studio Photography I can create anything I wish, the possibilities are endless.

With Landscape, even if you have found the scene you want to photograph then, sea, tide, weather and light all need to be right.

I know Photographers who have travelled thousands of miles, many times each year for over a decade, trying to get a scene in their head recorded.

Today I found a couple of great locations, but the shots will have to wait to later in the year, when the light is in the right position.

I took a few shots, but with the light conditions I am not too hopeful.

Even so, an enjoyable day out, and lots of reasons to return again in the future.

Location Scouting

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Today we have been out on location scouting for possible landscapes locations.

I took I few snapshots for reference but nothing serious. I did find a couple of areas that fit in with some long term projects, but that’s for the future.

Weather permitting I have a three pictures in mind to shoot tomorrow, two may not be possible. I don’t feel the sun will be in quite the position I need when the tide is right (always an issue when shooting at the coast).

For the third shot I have a good feeling that it will work.

Hopefully I’ll have all three shots either done or ruled out by about an hour after dawn, then it’s more location scouting, to prepare for the next day.

I love being out on location, it can be stressful when it’s a paid shoot and you have to come back with the goods but when your just shooting for personal projects it’s a real joy.

Stuck in a Rut / a theme you enjoy

Do you find a lot of your photographs very similar? Do you have a style or are you stuck in a rut?

Sometimes it’s good to try something different.

If your after suggestions try these:

    Shoot Black & White
    Try digital blending in Photoshop instead of HDR
    Try a lens you don’t use very often
    Shoot a Portrait with a Wide Angle Lens
    Shoot a Landscape with a Telephoto

Nikon V1 Firmware Updates V1.02

More firmware updates for the Nikon 1 Series of cameras have been released and I finally got round to updating the body.

The V1 body is now 1.1 while the lens; 10-30mm and the 30-110mm are on 1.02.  I do not own the power zoom but I believe the current version is 1.01 for the 30-100mm.

As is usually for Nikon the updates are very easy, just copy the bin file to the root of your memory card, insert the card in the camera and select firmware update from the tools menu.  Easy!

Its a shame that all manufactures cannot make it this easy.

Camera Updates.

Digital Camera Resolution

Phaseone 80MP back, one of the highest resolution digital backs available

We all want more resolution, and towards this end megapixel counts get higher and higher.

When it comes to resolution though, there are often surprises in store.

The current champion for Small Format (ie 35mm sensors), is the Leica M9 (18MP) with the Nikon D3X (24MP) a close second.

This surprises a lot of people. The general rule is the more megapixels the more resolution, but the Lecia M9, and now the recently announced Fuji X Pro 1 show there is another way.

What many people do not realise is that there is a filter designed to stop Moiré in front of the sensor.  An unfortunate consequence of this; is that it reduces resolution.  Back in the days when cameras were under 4MP, Moiré was common so a strong anti-aliasing filter was necessary, as megapixel counts increase it becomes less common, and when it does happen it can be corrected in post production.

Example of Moiré from: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/pix/casselpool/FenceMoire.html

As most camera users do not do much post production then it is in the camera makers best interest to put in a strong anti-aliasing.

Medium Format Camera Manufacturers  expect there cameras to be used by professionals and that post production on the images will be done as a matter of course.  So they do not use anti-aliasing filters, thus have very high resolutions, far exceeding what you might expect from there megapixel count.

Now though Small Format Camera Manufacturers are also starting to do this.  The Leica M8 was one of the first, followed by the Leica M9.  These cameras are targeted at the professional and enthusiast market.

Many people surmise that the new Sony NEX-7 has a weaker then normal filter and Fuji have admitted that this is the case with the new Fuji X-Pro 1.

Lets hope more Camera Manufacturers take note.

As a side note it should be remembered that the more Megapixels then potentially the slower the camera, the slower your workflow, the more storage you need, the bigger and faster your computer needs to be (don’t forget more memory) and in low light the more noise and poorer image quality you may have.  There is a reason why many photographers prefer the Nikon D3s (12MP) verses the Nikon D3x (24MP).

A Day at the Park

I made one of my regular visits the other day to Hartsholme Park.

One of the locations at the park is the subject to one of my projects for the year.

This particular Project involves me shooting on my trusty Hasselblad using a film back, but while wandering round the park I took a number of quick snaps with my new Nikon V1.

These shots above have all been processed in the new Adobe Lightroom V4 Beta.

When shooting with a big heavy Large Format or a Medium Format Camera it is handy to have a good all-purpose small light camera.  A big SLR is too heavy to carry along side a Medium or Large Format Camera, but my Nikon V1 I am finding is the perfect small camera to accompanying me, when I have my big high quality cameras with me.

My large cameras (with the exception of my SLR’s) are slow to use but produce extremely high quality images.  A good companion camera camera must be small fast and responsive.  In this way the Nikon V1 is a better camera then most other small cameras currently available.

Other small cameras may produce better quality images but few are faster and as responsive as the V1.

If I could  only carry one camera and it had to be small then I would go for image quality above all, and the Nikon V1 would not be my first choice, something along the lines of the Leica M9, Fuji X1 Pro, or the Sony Nex7 would be a better choice.

How do they handle on the performance front, well with the exception of the Leica, I don’t know, I have not spent enough time with them, at the moment my Nikon V1 is my carry everywhere camera that I am more then happy with.

As a side note, it was the best visit I have made to the park for a long time.  Lots of wildlife, I saw the usual Pigeons, Black Headed Gulls, Canada Geese and Greylag Geese.  But much earlier then I expected there was also a Heron getting the nest ready, Coots, Tufted Ducks and Great Crested Grebes.

Also while framing a landscape shot a Grey Squirrel crept up behind me, I was very surprised to see him get so close.

Lightroom V4 Beta

As is traditional with Adobe Lightroom, a Beta version of the about to be released Version 4 has been released.

The big news is a new books module and a map module, to join the existing Library, Develop, Web and Print.

Major updates to the Develop module have been made as well as the Print Module.  The printing in Lightroom has always been better then just about any other product and now its few deficiencies has been addressed.

I have not had enough time to really test it yet or to get to grips with the new features and options but the updated RAW processing engine does seem to produce good results.

 

Here is a quick test shot of Dani that I took during a recent lighting test, taken with my Nikon D200, and processed with the latest Beta.  No work in Photoshop just the options available in the Develop module in Lightroom V4, a little spotting, some softening and a little extra sharpening on the eyes, then a vignette.  For a quick one minute edit it looks pretty good.