outlookexpresso

Abstract work

2011-12-25T06:32:00.000-08:00

I have to admit to never having been very interested in abstract work in the past but over the last couple of months I have done a bit of a U turn on this. It all came about when I had to come up with some different looks for my course work. I tried some zoom blurs and was surprised by the results. Since then I have been out on a few occasions with the sole intention of capturing something different. What is appealing is the randomness of the results. I have now started to be able to control the outcome a little by a combination of the shutter speed and when to move the camera but I am trying to still leave the majority of the outcome to chance.

Here are my latest efforts.

Gulls on Bognor Beach with a slow shutter speed.

Chichester canal with slow shutter speed and intentional camera movement.

Moving on...

2011-07-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted and a lot has happened. The mushroom props were used in a shoot, all be it subtly. The results can be seen in my Flickr stream (just click on Flickr images the right).

I have also been upgrading my Strobist gear and now own two Yongnuo YN560's. Experimenting with those at the moment using shoot through umbrellas.

Also heavily into Youtube and online lighting video's and I have decided to add a page to this Blog with handy links and other info.

That's all for now folks!

Of giant toadstools and things...

2011-04-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

Well here they are. The fruits of a couple of weeks spare time, some coat hangers and some paper mache. These toadstools are for my next photo project. I don't want to go into too much more detail at the moment but watch this space!

Big plan - update

2011-04-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

Things have changed a bit for my planned big shoot. The objects in the previous post have been abandoned for a much better design - post to follow shortly with images.

I have also been busy on the Strobist front. In the last week of March I attended a Strobist meet in Salisbury. A good day was had and much was learned. More to follow on this in another post.

Finally, after the Strobist meet, I have invested in some more Strobist equipment. I will be looking at this in more detail and might even have a go at a couple of videos to show it all in action.

Bye for now!

Big plans!

2011-03-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

I have some big plans for a shoot in a couple of months time. By far the biggest thing I have ever attempted. Here are some images that relate to this project but I am not going into any detail yet!

Do you know what it is yet?

Inexpensive sturdy tripod

2011-02-09T05:57:00.000-08:00

Disaster! A while back my SLIK PRO 400 DX Tripod decided to shed a leg! This was very disappointing as it was only two to three years old and frankly I was expecting more from it. The problem was that one of the screws that goes through the leg has worn part of the leg tubes. This has made it very wobbly when not fastened and allows the leg to drop right off.

I spent a lot of time looking for a replacement among the usual brands but having just bought a new camera I wasn't in the position to splash out once again. Then I stumbled on this Amazon offering. It has dozens of good reviews - I read every single one of them. After giving it some thought I decided to go with it, after all if it only lasts a year it would have worked out at the same cost as my SLIK.

Within a couple of days the tripod arrived. Wow, not bad! It is actually made by Konig. It came with a bag which although made of fairly cheap materials, seems sturdy enough. The tripod is nice and solid with metal fittings all round. The ball head is fairly sturdy but I have replaced it with my more substantial offering from SLIK which I had purchased to go with my SLIK tripod. One note about the ball head supplied - it is perfectly fine but do watch out as it is lubricated with a thin smear of grease. Be careful to keep this away from any camera equipment. In fairness this shouldn't be a problem but just be aware of it.

Back to the tripod. Being all metal this is fairly weighty. I wouldn't say it was excessively heavy though and the weight goes some way to making it more stable.The feet have rubber cups that can be screwed up to reveal metal spikes. Two of the legs have foam grips to keep your little hands warm when moving the tripod around whilst photographing outside in the cold.

All in all this is a sturdy piece of kit that I think will last a lot longer than the one year I initially thought. The cost for such good build quality is exceptional and I would be happy to recommend this to a friend!

Street Photography Now - Sophie Howarth & Stephen McLaren

2011-02-06T03:20:00.000-08:00

I have just bought this book from Waterstones with some gift vouchers I was given (where the price was £29.95 incidentally!).

With work from 46 current photographers the images come from cities across the world. Both black and white and colour photographs are present and a range of different styles is notable when you can compare the different photographers in one book.

If you like street photography but sometimes feel that you just can't get the shots in your local town or village, this book goes a long way to inspire you! The text also highlights the often forgotten fact that even the pro's can go out and come back with nothing.

All in all a very good book with plenty of inspirational images.

How to take stunning pictures

2010-10-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Nice to see Martin Parr on last Tuesdays 'How to take stunning pictures' (Channel 5). The programme is generally a light-hearted romp through the world of photography giving just the bare minimum of information. However, this episode was much better. A first hand look at Martin Parr at work in Brighton and some useful tips. I particularly liked the 'Imagine you are a fly' exercise.

You can still check it out on Demand Five if you're quick enough!

A shoot in Portsmouth

2010-10-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

No excuses for the massive gap in these posts but I have been rather busy! The photography has carried on though and last weekend took me to old Portsmouth for a photo session with Zoe.

The weather was unbelievable for October. Hot sunny and there were actually people on the beach.

For this session I had taken along a large bottle top reflector but in the end it stayed in the car as there was a slight breeze and no spare pair of hands to hold it. Using the canon EOS 40D and either the EF 50mm F1.4 or F4 24-105mm, most shots were taken in the shade, such as the first shot on the left.. There were a few exceptions though as I really wanted to get a burnt out background. The lower shot on the left was taken in an alley way with the sun behind the model.

Most of the metering for this session was done using a small Sekonic Twinmate. Although this did work very well I am now on the lookout for something a bit bigger, or at least with a bigger invercone to enable a little more metering scope. It was very difficult (if not impossible) to catch any glancing light measurements.

All in all a good days experience. I have made a list of many do's and don'ts for the next time but on the whole I was happy with the lessons I learnt and most of the pictures from the session.

Hot air balloon flight over West Sussex

2010-08-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

Early morning balloon flight - Canon EOS 40D & 17-40 F4L

This week we had our eagerly awaited balloon flight with the British School of Ballooning. After a 6am arrival nr Petworth, West Sussex, we helped inflate the balloon for a takeoff shortly thereafter.

The view was spectacular as we drifted gently across the countryside. No noise to be heard except the odd dog barking below and the occasional blast of the burner.

The flight lasted about an hour and ended with a slow drift across a corn field, barely inches above the corn, to our landing place. As the weather conditions were near perfect we had a very gentle touchdown.

As can be seen in the photos, the sun was still on its way up. I used the Canon 40D fitted with the Canon 17-40 F4l lens to capture the images in the gallery. ISO was set to about 400 for most of the pictures to get the shutter speed fast enough. Even then there were a couple of slightly blurred shots as we were traveling a lot faster than it seemed. Something I wish I had taken is a graduated neutral density filter, just to help with the skyline as the sun got brighter. Maybe I should go again!

In the style of the Old Masters

2010-08-03T00:54:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to win joint first for ‘Best Digital’ image at the Bognor Regis Camera Club this year. The winning image is the one pictured here and I was more than happy as this picture was a bit of an experiment.

The guy featured in the photo paints in the style of the Old Masters. For this reason he has his studio set up to mimic the North light they favoured. We thought it would be cool to try and capture the same atmosphere in a digital shot so set about experimenting.

For the winning set-up I blocked off all but one of the skylights. The artist sat on a stool just inside the light and we set his self portrait up on an easel just behind him and just outside the light. The camera, an EOS 40D, was mounted on a tripod. No other lighting was used so the shutter speed was fairly slow (I stuck to 100 ISO to reduce noise).

The only tweaking in Photoshop was a little sharpening and a touch of curves.

London through a Canon 35mm Prime lens

2010-07-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

BMX rider, South Bank, London. EOS 40d with EF35mm 1/30th F7.

A little while back a couple of us took a photography trip up to London. Just as an exercise I travelled light and took the Canon EOS 40D with one prime lens attached, the Canon 35mm F2. It took some getting used to the manual (legs) zoom again and really made you concentrate on your shot.

What I usually do when I have a sizeable collection of shots is take a quick look and then forget about them for a month. I find this allows me to be much more objective when I do get round to editing and selecting my ‘keepers’

Anyway this is my pick of the day. The BMX rider was taken on the South Bank in a purpose built area. After experimenting with several shutter speeds, I found 1/30th to give the amount of blur I was after.

Little People in the City

2010-07-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in photography there is no shortage of photography books to stuff your book case with. When you have had enough of reading about technique, it can be nice to take a look at what others are producing.

With the aid of tiny hand painted figures, artist Slinkachu has re-created city life in miniature. However, these photos are more than just little figures posed in London. Each little scene tells a story, be it humorous like the flasher or actually quite touching, like the little chap who has had his proposal for marriage turned down.

Each scene is depicted in detail and also in a wider shot that shows the location. Sometimes you really have to search for the figures in the wide shot which just makes it all the more amazing. There is no text other than the foreword and index.

This is a fantastic little book to add to your collection!

On the buses!

2010-07-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

I sell some of my images on stock web sites and every now and again you might get a notification of where they are being used. For example, I know a picture of a blade of wheat is being used for an American college campus web site and I have a copy of a business book which includes another.

My deck chairs just visible in circle

It came as a shock though when one of my friends said he had seen one of my images on the number 700 Coastliner buses! For a couple of weeks I checked every bus I saw not really believing what I had been told. Then, one day in Worthing, I saw it! It was my picture of deck chairs on Worthing beach.

Did it make me rich? Hell no. Am I proud of it? Hell yes! Another friend of mine managed to snap it on his phone so here it is

Abandoned Lime Works

2010-07-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Stalactites in Lime Kiln

For a few years now I have been visiting an abandoned lime works in the local area. Every visit reveals new things to photograph as time and vandals take their toll on the crumbling structures.

The old lime kilns have white lime stalactites from years of seepage. In the middle of the complex stands an old lorry that has an ever-changing colourful display of rust. Usually I take a tripod and a series of lenses and just really take it slowly, investigating every nook and cranny for a good shot.

It is always interesting to see what the fly tippers have left behind as in the case of the kids make-up doll and the old school workbook which can be seen in the gallery.

You can see the Lime Works Gallery here

Halnaker WIndmill

2010-07-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Blisteringly hot weekend in July and a bit of free time so a trip up to Halnaker windmill. Been here many times before but it was nice to get out and a good bit of exercise to carry all the kit up the hill. Took a load of detail shots to make a photo collage but as I left, I took a couple of bog standards. I ended up quite liking this one.

Kit used was the Canon EOS 40D fitted with a polarising filter. Lens was the Canon EF17-40mm f/4L USM and Slik Pro 400DX Tripod fitted with the Slik Ball Head 800. Shot details: 100 ISO, F11, 1/60