Spring!

After months of taking pictures of the forest in dull shades of brown - lifeless empty trees (this year with most of them actually having fallen over and really dead) it feels like summer is just around the corner. The bluebells have gone mad and the trees are jumping into the spaces left from the storms.

Bang!

So playing with my new camera (a lovely 5Dmk3) lots, and while it's full frame, great at low light and has some great functionality when used with the eye-fi card it's frame rate/buffer is terrible compared to the 7D.

This made me even more chuffed about this shot of a civil war re-enactment at Arundel Castle (05/04/2014):

150mm, F2.8, 1/320s

Thankfully at re-enactment things then tend to shout "SHOOT" just before firing, which is handy.

	7D	5D	Difference
Megapixels	18	22.1	+23%
Frame Rate	8	6	-25%
Buffer	25	7*	-72%

Basically when it comes to sports photography the 7D trumps the 5D, plus the cropped sensor will give you a greater zoom on lenses.

The 5D is still clearly the better camera, but for lots of my day to day photography I'm preferring the7D. If the lights still good it's almost better in every aspect.

*UPDATE: After helpful links being sent my way I've tested out the 5D set to only record to a single card, and that gets the 7 buffer up to 12! For the convenience of using the Eye-Fi Card I won't be doing that though, for anything speedy I'll still reach for my trusty old 7D.

BlackRapid

So I've just splashed out on some new camera straps - I'd had enough trying to swing two cameras around at once using a belt clip (which works really well) and a normal shoulder strap. It's tricky trying to keep a camera from swinging off shoulder when using another... and when you're hands are full it's near impossible to catch.

Anyway, enough with the excuses.

Not me.

So yes, you might notice thats not me in the photo. Theres good reason: The thing you noticed before noticing it wasn't me was that he looks like a twat. So I haven't taken a photo of myself to upload. I'm not planning to wear it to social events and I think you're allowed to look like a massive nerd when the photographer at a wedding.

And you will look like a massive nerd regardless how much manly stubble and styled hair you have.

I'll be back with a review at some point.

Just one note to BR - given the straps cost so much (don't tell the wife), can you not afford better camera for the promo shots? The guy on the box is holding an old EOS1 film camera (weirdly coupled with a 50mm F1.2).

How hard can it be?

Right, some people need to get some professionals involved with their wedding photography.

Or if these photos were taken by somebody charging money and claiming to know what they were doing they should be shot.

I've been asked to take some pretty daft photos before but thankfully I've never worked with anyone as mad as the (happy/confused) couples above, yet.

All that being said clearly, they haven't got pictures they can put on the wall (not without guests bursting into laughter on arrival) but they were helping keep the internet a jolly funny place to be.

Visit www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com for lots more hysterical gold.

Do you miss blue skies?

So the weather has been pretty bad recently, for yonks infact. The constant drizzle was starting to get me down, but then I realised there's a place you can go for your blue sky fix!

Estate agents! Adding (badly in most cases) in blue skies in seems to be contagious! Buy any of these houses and it's sure not to rain.

Now what I really like is that in several picture you can still see puddles, presumably they cloned out each rain drop from the still.

If you've found any terrible Photoshop work that upsets you please share! 

For a slightly more realistic view, here's a picture from a dog walk a few weeks back.

New Lens.

So I haven't posted anything in ages. The wife quite keenly posts daily, I'm more of a once a year sort of person.

Anyway, so now we have the dog and possibly more relevant for this blog a very nice 70-200mm. I've hired it in the past for weddings and was so impressed. It does have the downside of being so massive, heavy and generally precious that It's not going to social events.

Which leaves it for weddings and dography.

Chekhov is his name, chasing squirrels and drinking dirty water is this game.

After literally thousands of shots of him running at me I can count the number of unfocused shots on one hand, truly amazing. When those missed I was annoyed, then realised I bought this lens for weddings - and generally brides don't run at 30mph towards you through woodland; so still fit for purpose.

The cracking F2.8 means you can be a bit casual about composing the background of images, which is good if you're in a hurry, forgetful or working with a dog (or bride) who doesn't take instructions well.

Another Mosaic...

Well I've just backed all my photos up on a new USB3 hard drive... and what better way to test it than by using a mosaic program to process every image?

Full size Image here.

 I'm sure I've mentioned AndreaMosaic before - it's a cracking bit of free software I would suggest to anyone who has a lot of photos saved away. Go to www.AndreaPlanet.com for the free download.

You just give it the source photo in this case (if you're going to use a picture as white as this you need to have a lot of white pictures)

You give it a folder to process for the images, this works well if you're using Picasa and face scanner - I've made cards for people several times using mosaics using just pictures of their face... great way to scare somebody.