Saturday was a bit of a dull wet morning, no studio photography planned so I decided to chance my macro lens. Pick a pretty local Lincolnshire Village, and have wonder round with my Nikor 105mm f/2.8 macro lens.
I was looking for red berries and dew/frost encrusted spiders webs. A pleasant walk and while no stunning shots, it was a fun exercise, and a reminder how hard it is to get good macro shots.
Nikon D200 10 MP DSLR
Next time when I am being a bit more serious, i’ll pack my tripod and macro flash gear, oh and don’t forget that reflector, or try a piece of white card, you will be amazed the difference it will make, hope to show you soon.
How many times have your heard that you must backup, and how many of you actually do so.
For that matter, of those that do backup, where do you keep that backup, in the same bag as your laptop so both can be stolen. Up stairs at home, only the one backup? When did you last test it?
Don’t worry I am not about to tell you a heart rending story of lost data, even though I know of people who have.
Just a reminder, disks fail, and we all live digital lives these days with cherished memory’s sat on our hard disks.
Please backup to at least two independent disks, test them regularly and why not leave one at a friends house, or at you office. Just think, if you house was robbed or burnt down and everything was lost, how would you feel if your favourite digital memories were lost forever.
Oh and please remember it’s the BBC UK Children in Need Day today, join in, or help out at an event near you.
Yesterday morning was the first cold commute of the year. A steady 0°C (32°F) occasionally hitting -0.5° C. With the wind chill factured in thats about -11°C (12°F), I will definitely be getting out the thermals soon, but until then a pair of silk under-gloves and the heated grips were enough to keep me warm, together with my BMW Rallye 2 Suite. This will be my second winter in this suite and while expensive I feel its been well worthwhile
While cold it was a beatiful morning, a clear blue sky, golden sunlight and the farmers fields covered in a white frost. All very beautiful.
This gave me a few ideas for some photo’s. Mornings like these are always good for inspiration, even a trip to the local park or just go into your garden, can have images worth capturing, a dew and frost encrusted spidersweb, those bright red berries on a bush. You don’t need an expensive macro lens for this stuff. Just dig out that old 50mm prime you never use and give it go.
While uploading photographs to my new blog, I have been having a lot of difficulties. The files upload but then I get a http error during the crunching stage. Once uploaded the images cannot be sized, only put up at there original size.
I spent sometime looking at the WordPress help pages but eventually I found the answer here: Just adding the line
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
to the top of my .htaccess file, fixed my load problems. This file is located in the folder you installed your WordPress to on you host server.
Well as I reported from my iPhone the trip went ahead, more of a scouting trip then an actual picture taking trip, but I got the feeling that my picture will work.
View Larger Map
The low sun and dramatic contrast made metering the scene some what challenging but I got some good snaps and hopefully I can go back when the sun is in the right place and the weather provides a little more dramatic interest!
Secret Squirrel
Lakeland View
The Boat House
Autumn Woodland
Note the squirrel, I was all setup slow shutter speed to shoot the landscape when behind me on the bridge a squirrel ran across, I just managed to grab a shot.
Photo’s here taken with my D200 and a Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.
My studio work is very planned. A studio is like a painters blank canvas. When I plan a studio shoot, there is so much to think about.
Selecting the model, her shape, size, experience, colour of hair and eyes
Clothes
The poses
The studio set, whether a plain back ground or coloured, or a more complex set
Props
and of course the lighting, some times just a single light and reflector, other times I have used up to seven flash heads to light a scene.
A studio shoot for me its the ultimate in photography. Everything can be pre-visualised and planned to the nth degree.
Single LightComplex Lighting Setup
I would like to be able to say my landscape and architectural shoots are planned to the same degree but I am afraid not. Generally these type of shoots are taken on holidays, and I just happen upon these views and try to make the best of them.
This is something I would like to change, and the photography course I am booked on in December I hope will bring more planning and pre-visualisation to this part of my photography.
Isle of Syle
To this end tomorrow, subject of course to the British weather, i’ll be heading out to try and capture an Autumn scene. I have the image in my head, and with good planing, and of course local knowledge and the internet I hope to get the image I want.
So Saturday morning will see the chief photographer of RBPhotograpic heading out with his medium format camera gear and hoping to get the image in his head commited.
Equipment List
Hasselblad 503CW Body
Hasselblad 80mm f/2.8 Planar CFi
Manfrotto 055 Tripod
Sekonic L-758D Digital Master Light Meter
Sekonic L 758 Light Meter
I may also take a digital compact, or my iPhone to snap a few reference shots to post tomorrow, to show you what I had in mind.
In case your wondering it involves, a lake, low winter sun, and lots of trees. Heres hoping for good weather.
I have always used small format camera’s; eg 35mm film or APC-C sensor equipped SLR’s.
This year I made the move to Medium format to complement my SLR kit, it certainly slows you down and makes you think about your photography.
I decided to book myself on a large format course, now thats slow photography.
Its being held in December so i’ll update you all then.
Tuesday as usual we visited the father in law, Alan.
Normally its a motorcycle ride straight from work to the village where he lives, but tonight we headed home first to get the car. It was a cold day and neither of us were packing our thermal undies; it was likely to be late night so rather then face a cold trip home on the Bike, the car sounded a better bet. It would also give me a chance to grab my laptop, I wanted to have a play with the default blog options my hosting company provides.
The reason for our visit, just the usual Tuesday night visit, to inflict my cooking on him. Today, cauliflower and home made cheese sauce. At least thats what I made for Caroline and Alan, for myself a burger. I cannot stand cauliflower.
There was another reason for making the visit. Alan had purchased a new Sony A55, a fun little camera which I can well recommend for a beginner or someone wanting a small body SLR. Rather a unique camera with its fixed mirror, kind of a hybrid between a EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens Camera) and a normal SLR.
