Family, Photography and other misc news
There are a number of interesting characters around Lincoln, one of them is the Music Man who can often be seen playing on the approach to Steep Hill or Castle Square.
It was sad to hear he was attacked and robbed by two people on New Year’s Eve. Hopefully its not going to put him off. If you take any photographs of buskers remember to drop some money in the hat, they are doing their art for your art.
So we are now in 2014 and I thought it was time to review some of the photographs that I took last year.
The first part of the year definitely had wildlife as its focus. We visited the Shetland Islands and took a lot of great wildlife photographs. I am still trying to get the definitive Puffin photograph but these are pretty good I think.
During the year I made a number of visits to a couple of local parks and Whisby Nature Reserve, one of the goals was to practice shots of birds in flight. This is a tricky area and an area in which the traditional SLR shines, in fact it would be hard to get images with any other camera system, modern mirror less are getting closer but are not there yet.
Its been a good year for wildlife photography helped by visiting great locations such as the Shetland Islands, if your wildlife shots are lacking then try visiting a local zoo or park, book a training course you may be surprised what you can learn and come back with.
Well its Thursday and everything is back to normal, we are at work but that does not mean I am not thinking about what to plan for the coming year.
One of the photographers I admire is Joe McNally, I love his location portraiture, this year he is giving a seminar in the UK and I already have my place booked and paid for.
I also want to try more outdoor portraiture and art nude work, I have not done much to date but the few times I have tried it I have always come back with fantastic images.
My focus each month is still going to be street photography. I have a number of images in my head it just needs the right people in the right place, so I’ll keep trying.
Once Spring starts to arrive i’ll also be heading out to local parks and Whisby Nature Reserve with my SLR and long lens to capture more birds in flight.
Last year was a bit light on studio work so i’ll be wanted to get back into the studio and try a few ideas I have come up with.
At home we have major plans with the new house. Within the house a priority is a wood burning stove to make winter nights more cosy, as well as new doors and windows. Not a priority for this year but next i’ll be wanted to setup my home studio and home darkroom so I can develop medium and large format film and scan it myself.
Outside we are planning a veg plot, bees and chickens. So lots to do and exciting times ahead.
Nikon D200
Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8
105mm, 1/125 Sec at f/5.6, ISO100
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom V5.3
On a Mac MacBook Pro, OS-X 10.9.1
One can sometimes find a number of potential shots close together.
The day after boxing day we both went for a walk round some local churches each armed with our favourite cameras, Caroline her Nikon D200 with a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom and me with a Leica M8 and 35mm Summicron.
It was interesting how two people could come away with a dozen or more shots each all within a few meters of each other but have very different photographs.
If your shooting digital it sometimes is work taking a number of slightly different shots of the same object, developing an idea until you get the final image.
I feel that the location deserves more and I will be going back again to develop my ideas as I don’t yet feel I have captured the subject sufficiently well.
Well thats another Christmas over. We had a great Christmas here in the new home. Being in the countryside with lots of space meant we could hold dinner parties for close friends, and have a very quiet Christmas day with just ourselves and the parents; then on boxing day we had the wider family round, so we were surrounded by family, brothers and sisters, children and dogs.
A lovely Christmas and surprisingly no photography, well none until today. I did a quick studio test experimenting on what different apertures and depth of field from the Leica Summicron 35mm had on the skin of a model. I intend on getting hold of a Summilux 50mm and repeating the test. I have an image in my mind that I intend on creating next year which requires a certain amount of natural blur to soften the image, and I would like to get it in camera and not have to fake it in Photoshop.
I like the way Leica Summicron can render out of focus areas as in the example above of the stone door frame of Lincoln Cathedral, and the Summilux should be even better.
The hardest part of all of this is finding a mint condition Summilux 50mm, as new they are outside my budget.
So we are counting down again. How many days till Christmas?
Merry Christmas to you all and I hope Santa leaves you a good present under the tree.
On the Biking Blog “Ride it like you stole it!” which is sadly no more by Dave Dragon, there was a poem “The Biker’s Night Before Christmas”.
I have posted this before but as it is Christmas Eve I thought I was worth posting again.
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the pad,
There was nada happenin’, now that’s pretty bad.
The woodstove was hung up in that stocking routine,
In hopes that the Fat Boy would soon make the scene.
With our stomachs packed with tacos and beer,
My girl and I crashed on the couch for some cheer.
When out in the yard there arose such a racket,
I ran for the door and pulled on my jacket.
I saw a large bro’ on a ’56 Pan
Wearin’ black leathers, a cap, and boots (cool biker, man).
He hauled up the bars on that bikeful of sacks,
And that Pan hit the roof like it was running on tracks.
I couldn’t help gawking, the old guy had class.
But I had to go in — I was freezing my ass.
Down through the stovepipe he fell with a crash,
And out of the stove he came dragging his stash.
With a smile and some glee he passed out the loot,
A new jacket for her and some parts for my scoot.
He patted her fanny and shook my right hand,
Spun on his heel and up the stovepipe he ran.
From up on the roof came a great deal of thunder,
As that massive V-twin ripped the silence asunder.
With beard in the wind, he roared off in the night,
Shouting, “Have a cool Yule, and to all a good ride!”
One of the reasons for moving into the country side was to enable us to have Bees, Chickens, and to grow our own vegetables.
Today we made our first step as we purchased the parts necessary to build our bee hives.