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.

As promised!

Shot at F1.8 on the F1.4 50mm lens.

Finally, we have our own dog!

This is Chekhov, he's a rescue pup we've just re-homed...



There's bound to be lots of photos to follow!

Snow!

Well despite being really busy and not really photographing much recently, the snow did get me out in my boots. Out into our garden to try and track down where the foxes are getting in from, even a city dweller like me can track foxes when they leave foot prints in snow.

ANYWAY - obligatory snow picture:

That's right, it's a picture of coffee in snow - new house, same old life.

Way to busy to blog... So here is a funny link.

So we've recently moved into our new hours - so photography has sadly taken a bit of a back seat while I do the DIY/Garden.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/never-ask-the-internet-for-photoshop-help

But came across this link on Facebook today - very funny. Photoshop used for evil does make me giggle uncontrollably, it also reminds me of a poster campaign I ran at uni of my fellow housemate.

Blooming wildlife.

People are easy(ish) they can generally do as their told, if they're trying to run away out of the photo you should probably stop chasing them with a camera.

Pets are generally confined to a certain area, so just shoot a few thousand pictures and sooner or later you'll get lucky.

Wildlife on the other hand is an absolute pain, it does what it likes and typically it likes to go away and hide.

What you'll need/want:

• A very fast camera (focus + fps [shots per second])
• Animals don't stick around for long, so that's why you want a speedy camera.
• Bait
• It's best if you can set up the picture by expecting where the animal is going. I don't mean bear baiting, but placing some bird feed is pretty handy.
• Patience
•  If you're hiding in plain site you may need to stay still for a while before the bears come back.
• Luck
• A massive zoom
•  If you can't make out the detail of the animal it's a crap shot, either fill the frame or make sure it's an interesting picture with the surroundings.

Saying that, I haven't had a good week of trying...

About an inch too far right, it's also got a building in the background making it cluttered. But the timing and focus was spot on, hurrah.

 I do like the motion blur on the wings even at 1/1600

Spot the Difference

OK, this shouldn't be too hard for you.

So you really don't want to be the guy who takes a crap picture and fixes it afterwards, it's always better to try and frame your picture without clutter in the background. Sometimes it just happens, or it's unavoidable... then you can see about removing things.

It's honestly not that hard, as long as you have a small patch of the area you want you can clone it all better. Just try to keep in mind don't copy whole sections, do little bits and try to mix up the pattern.

For bits like the red tractor, cut that shape out and place it on top of the layer you're cloning.

If you do it well your eye shouldn't be drawn to it, so sometimes the less work the better... sometimes it feels like a scene from Father Ted. If that happens start with a new car, re-open the file or jump back in the history.

Cheap Photography

Well it's cheap because I used what was to hand, it's more cheap in terms of amount of effort.

You'll need a Macro lens, remote flash, SLR and item to photograph.

I picked a crocheted rabbit which B made for me, the fluff on the edges hi-lights the flash.

Peak District Climbing

So in my last post about waterfalls I mentioned the reason for being up north was climbing, well here are some pictures from that too.

Gear: 7D with 15-85mm and 90-300mm. The 90-300 is a little slow at 4.5-5.6, but this isn't going to be a problem outside on sunny days. For any sports photography you're going to want a high FPS, like the 7D while the 100% view finder makes framing easy.

Everything was shot in RAW to help with editing.

We had some great clouds to make the skies look a little more exciting (always good to add to your stock library too). It's very easy to get bum shots while photographing climbing, they don't make great pictures... so I tried to stay at least at or above eye level.

The exception to the rule, shot from below.

The 90-300mm on a cropped body allows for easy candid shots.

That's me on the wall, I didn't quite make it as a 10second challenge this was taken with the help of a tripod and release timer.

Another candid shot.

15mm action.

On really windy days you may consider tying down camera on remote shutters, this poor 600D was well secured before being left on timer (It helps being on a climbing trip when working out how to tie down cameras).

The ropes make it look a little girly, I had considered removing it - but it would be a lot of work to remove the shadow along the arm.

Ahhh framing.

Little bit of HDR

Stitch job

Yorkshire Waterfalls!

So on Friday some of us were heading to the Peak District for climbing, but I decided to leave earlier and nip past the Yorkshire Dales to hunt down some waterfalls... Having set off at 9am I wasn't at Richmond till 1530, but that wasn't a huge problem as the light was still too bright for slow shutter speeds.

I built a Google map list of waterfalls I wanted to track down and I did my best to manage as many as possible in a short time.

Richmond Falls was a bit of a wash out, very impressive to look at but darn near impossible to photograph at 1530/1600 on a summer's day. Only when zoomed in could I reduce the shutter speed enough.Ooooh this would be a good time for an expensive dark filter!

F36 1/3s 63mm

But while I like this picture, it doesn't help show the mighty nature of the waterfall! Which is impressively wide, although short.

F22 1/3 15mm

It goes out to that wall too, but the only rocks to stand on in front were too far away for a good photo. I also made it out to that wall on the right of the picture, but it's impossible to see the main fall there.

Anyway, so mindful of time i raced back up the hill and jumped back in the car and headed on to Orgate Force (that's not my picture). But honestly, I couldn't find it - well more to the point I couldn't find anywhere of parking the car within a few miles so after a while of trying to walk up stream... So I cut my losses and went on to a place with no name. Where I found these:

 After this I went for a walk down stream in search of the next, and while I could hear one I couldn't find a way down to it... which bummed me out a little. But I found myself in a field full of rabbits, which was good too.

I'll most definitely be going back, I only managed a fraction of my list as they take a surprisingly long time to track down, frame up and then photograph. It clearly needs to be at least a week, but I'm not sure Bex could be dragged around Yorkshire for a whole week of my hobby.

Waterfalls coming soon!

Currently pitched up in the peak district for a climbing weekend... but stopped off in the Yorkshire Dales for some waterfall hunting! Pictures coming soon.